The roles of ingroup identification and outgroup entitativity in intergroup retribution.

Science.gov (United States)

Stenstrom, Douglas M; Lickel, Brian; Denson, Thomas F; Miller, Norman

2008-11-01

A new aspect of intergroup conflict was investigated- vicarious retribution-in which neither the agent of retribution nor the target of retribution are directly involved in the initial intergroup provocation. The underlying processes involved in vicarious intergroup retribution were tested correlationally (Study 1) and experimentally (Study 2). Both ingroup identification and outgroup entitativity predict the degree of vicarious retribution. In both studies, there was evidence of motivated cognition, specifically that highly identified individuals perceived the outgroup as higher in entitativity than individuals low in identification. Structural equation modeling demonstrated that part of the effect of identification on retribution against the outgroup was mediated through perceptions of entitativity.

Parochial cooperation in nested intergroup dilemmas is reduced when it harms out-groups.

Science.gov (United States)

Aaldering, Hillie; Ten Velden, Femke S; van Kleef, Gerben A; De Dreu, Carsten K W

2018-06-01

In intergroup settings, humans often contribute to their in-group at a personal cost. Such parochial cooperation benefits the in-group and creates and fuels intergroup conflict when it simultaneously hurts out-groups. Here, we introduce a new game paradigm in which individuals can display universal cooperation (which benefits both in- and out-group) as well as parochial cooperation that does, versus does not hurt the out-group. Using this set-up, we test hypotheses derived from group selection theory, social identity, and bounded generalized reciprocity theory. Across three experiments we find, first, that individuals choose parochial over universal cooperation. Second, there was no evidence for a motive to maximize differences between in- and out-group, which is central to both group selection and social identity theory. However, fitting bounded generalized reciprocity theory, we find that individuals with a prosocial value orientation display parochial cooperation, provided that this does not harm the out-group; individualists, in contrast, display parochialism whether or not nut it hurts the out-group. Our findings were insensitive to cognitive taxation (Experiments 2-3), and emerged even when universal cooperation served social welfare more than parochialism (Experiment 3). (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

The impact of incidental fear and anger on in- and outgroup attitudes

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Bukowski Marcin

2014-09-01

Full Text Available The aim of this research was to examine the impact of two specific negative emotions of anger and fear on intergroup attitudes. In Study 1 we measured emotions of anger and fear and in Study 2 we evoked these emotions incidentally, that is independently of any intergroup context. In both studies we measured attitudes towards the ingroup (Polish and the outgroup (Gypsies.We expected that fear would lead to more positive ingroup attitudes and anger to more negative outgroup attitudes. The results of the correlational study (Study 1 confirmed the predictions regarding anger and decreased outgroup evaluations, and the experimental study (Study 2 revealed that fear enhanced positivity towards the ingroup, but anger increased negativity towards the outgroup. The impact of fear and anger on social attitudes in the specific context of a negatively self-stereotyped ingroup is discussed.

How intergroup friendship works: a longitudinal study of friendship effects on outgroup attitudes

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Turner, R.N.; Feddes, A.R.

2011-01-01

Cross-sectional research has shown that frequency of self-disclosure to outgroup members mediates the positive relationship between intergroup friendship and outgroup attitudes. The current research investigated the relationship between self-disclosure and attitudes in more depth. New undergraduate

Negative and positive externalities in intergroup conflict: exposure to the opportunity to help the outgroup reduces the inclination to harm it.

Science.gov (United States)

Weisel, Ori

2015-01-01

Outgroup hate, in the context of intergroup conflict, can be expressed by harming the outgroup, but also by denying it help. Previous work established that this distinction-whether the externality on the outgroup is negative or positive-has an important effect on the likelihood of outgroup hate emerging as a motivation for individual participation in intergroup conflict. The current work uses a within-subject design to examine the behavior of the same individuals in intergroup conflict with negative and positive externalities on the outgroup. Each participant made two choices, one for each type of externality, and the order was counter balanced. The main results are that (1) behavior is fairly consistent across negative and positive externalities, i.e., the tendency to display outgroup hate by harming the outgroup is correlated with the tendency to display outgroup hate by avoiding to help the outgroup; (2) People are reluctant to harm the outgroup after being exposed to the opportunity to help it; (3) Groupness-the degree to which people care about their group and its well-being-is related to outgroup hate only when participants encounter the opportunity to harm the outgroup first (before they encounter the opportunity to help it). In this setting the relationship between groupness and outgroup hate spilled over to the subsequent interaction, where it was possible to help the outgroup. When the opportunity to help the outgroup was encountered first, groupness was not related to outgroup hate.

Negative and positive externalities in intergroup conflict: Exposure to the opportunity to help the outgroup reduces the inclination to harm it

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ori eWeisel

2015-10-01

Full Text Available Outgroup hate, in the context of intergroup conflict, can be expressed by harming the outgroup, but also by denying it help.Previous work established that this distinction---whether the externality on the outgroup is negative or positive---has an important effect on the likelihood of outgroup hate emerging as a motivation for individual participation in intergroup conflict.The current work uses a within-subject design to examine the behaviour of the same individuals in intergroup conflict with negative and positive externalities on the outgroup.Each participant made two choices, one for each type of externality, and the order was counter balanced.The main results are that(1 behaviour is fairly consistent across negative and positive externalities, i.e., the tendency to display outgroup hate by harming the outgroup is correlated with the tendency to display outgroup hate by avoiding to help the outgroup; (2 People are reluctant to harm the outgroup after being exposed to the opportunity to help it; (3 emph{Groupness}---the degree to which people care about their group and its well-being---is related to outgroup hate only when participants encounter the opportunity to harm the outgroup first (before they encounter the opportunity to help it. In this setting the relationship between groupness and outgroup hate spilled over to the subsequent interaction, where it was possible to help the outgroup. When the opportunity to help the outgroup was encountered first, groupness was not related to outgroup hate.

Ambivalence, prejudice and negative behavioural tendencies towards out-groups: The moderating role of attitude basis.

Science.gov (United States)

Costarelli, Sandro; Gerłowska, Justyna

2015-01-01

Two experiments explored the relations between prejudice (suppression), (cognitive) ambivalence and negative behavioural tendencies towards out-groups. The current work argues that expressing out-group ambivalence based on cognitive, but not affective, information is a strategy to justify one's otherwise suppressed prejudice, which may ultimately "cover" the discriminatory nature of out-group-directed negative behavioural tendencies. Two experiments show that (1) participants evaluating the out-group in a normative context inducing prejudice suppression are more likely to self-report ambivalent beliefs rather than ambivalent emotions concerning the out-group as compared with participants whose prejudice expression is induced and (2) high-prejudice participants compared with low-prejudice participants are more prone to out-group-directed negative behavioural tendencies when these latter are self-reported after the expression of ambivalent beliefs but not ambivalent emotions concerning the out-group, and when the expression of their prejudicial evaluations is salient but not when it is not. In light of the extent to which ambivalent attitudes towards out-groups are often seamlessly integrated into public discourse, the implications of the findings are discussed not only for intergroup research but also at the societal level.

Cooperation during cultural group formation promotes trust towards members of out-groups.

Science.gov (United States)

Pan, Xiaofei Sophia; Houser, Daniel

2013-07-07

People often cooperate with members of their own group, and discriminate against members of other groups. Previous research establishes that cultural groups can form endogenously, and that these groups demonstrate in-group favouritism. Given the presence of cultural groups, the previous literature argues that cultural evolution selects for groups that exhibit parochial altruism. The source of initial variation in these traits, however, remains uninformed. We show here that a group's economic production environment may substantially influence parochial tendencies, with groups formed around more cooperative production (CP) displaying less parochialism than groups formed around more independent production (IP) processes. Participants randomized into CP and IP production tasks formed cultural groups, and subsequently played hidden-action trust games with in-group and out-group trustees. We found CP to be associated with significantly greater sharing and exchanging behaviours than IP. In trust games, significant parochial altruism (in-group favouritism combined with out-group discrimination) was displayed by members of IP groups. By contrast, members of CP groups did not engage in either in-group favouritism or out-group discrimination. Further, we found the absence of out-group discrimination in CP to persist even following 'betrayal'. Finally, belief data suggest that members of CP are not more intrinsically generous than IP members, but rather more likely to believe that out-group trustees will positively reciprocate. Our results have important implications for anyone interested in building cooperative teams, and shed new light on connections between culture and cooperation.

Cultural difference in tolerance responses toward ingroup and outgroup violators : The ingroup backlash effect

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Albada, Katja; van Zomeren, Martijn; Sul, Sunhae

2017-01-01

Usually ingroup members are favored over outgroup members. However, when an ingroup member commits a social violation, the ingroup bias backlashes and they are faced with harsher consequences compared to outgroup members. The ingroup backlash effect had so far only been investigated in

Contextual effect of positive intergroup contact on outgroup prejudice

Science.gov (United States)

Christ, Oliver; Schmid, Katharina; Lolliot, Simon; Swart, Hermann; Stolle, Dietlind; Tausch, Nicole; Al Ramiah, Ananthi; Wagner, Ulrich; Vertovec, Steven; Hewstone, Miles

2014-01-01

We assessed evidence for a contextual effect of positive intergroup contact, whereby the effect of intergroup contact between social contexts (the between-level effect) on outgroup prejudice is greater than the effect of individual-level contact within contexts (the within-level effect). Across seven large-scale surveys (five cross-sectional and two longitudinal), using multilevel analyses, we found a reliable contextual effect. This effect was found in multiple countries, operationalizing context at multiple levels (regions, districts, and neighborhoods), and with and without controlling for a range of demographic and context variables. In four studies (three cross-sectional and one longitudinal) we showed that the association between context-level contact and prejudice was largely mediated by more tolerant norms. In social contexts where positive contact with outgroups was more commonplace, norms supported such positive interactions between members of different groups. Thus, positive contact reduces prejudice on a macrolevel, whereby people are influenced by the behavior of others in their social context, not merely on a microscale, via individuals’ direct experience of positive contact with outgroup members. These findings reinforce the view that contact has a significant role to play in prejudice reduction, and has great policy potential as a means to improve intergroup relations, because it can simultaneously impact large numbers of people. PMID:24591627

Contextual effect of positive intergroup contact on outgroup prejudice.

Science.gov (United States)

Christ, Oliver; Schmid, Katharina; Lolliot, Simon; Swart, Hermann; Stolle, Dietlind; Tausch, Nicole; Al Ramiah, Ananthi; Wagner, Ulrich; Vertovec, Steven; Hewstone, Miles

2014-03-18

We assessed evidence for a contextual effect of positive intergroup contact, whereby the effect of intergroup contact between social contexts (the between-level effect) on outgroup prejudice is greater than the effect of individual-level contact within contexts (the within-level effect). Across seven large-scale surveys (five cross-sectional and two longitudinal), using multilevel analyses, we found a reliable contextual effect. This effect was found in multiple countries, operationalizing context at multiple levels (regions, districts, and neighborhoods), and with and without controlling for a range of demographic and context variables. In four studies (three cross-sectional and one longitudinal) we showed that the association between context-level contact and prejudice was largely mediated by more tolerant norms. In social contexts where positive contact with outgroups was more commonplace, norms supported such positive interactions between members of different groups. Thus, positive contact reduces prejudice on a macrolevel, whereby people are influenced by the behavior of others in their social context, not merely on a microscale, via individuals' direct experience of positive contact with outgroup members. These findings reinforce the view that contact has a significant role to play in prejudice reduction, and has great policy potential as a means to improve intergroup relations, because it can simultaneously impact large numbers of people.

Out-group trust and conflict understandings: The perspective of Turks and Kurds in Turkey

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Çelebi, Elif; Verkuijten, Maykel|info:eu-repo/dai/nl/073378542; Köse, Talha; Maliepaard, Mieke|info:eu-repo/dai/nl/313869278

2014-01-01

Conflict reconciliation is difficult in the absence of out-group trust. The current study is concerned with the prolonged Turkish-Kurdish conflict in Turkey and examines out-group trust among both ethnic Kurds and ethnic Turks, in relation to perceptions and interpretations of the conflict (i.e.

Ingroup/Outgroup Attitudes and Group Evaluations: The Role of Competition in British Classroom Settings

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Virginia L. Lam

2016-01-01

Full Text Available Children’s intergroup bias is one of the consequences of their readiness to categorise people into ingroups and outgroups, even when groups are assigned arbitrarily. The present study examined the influence of intergroup competition on children’s ingroup and outgroup attitudes developed within the minimal-group setting in British classrooms. One hundred and twelve children in two age groups (6-7- and 9-10-year-olds were assessed on classification skills and self-esteem before being allocated to one of two colour “teams.” In the experimental condition, children were told that the teams would have a competition after two weeks and teachers made regular use of these teams to organise activities. In the control condition, where no competition ensued, teachers did not refer to “teams.” Then children completed trait attributions to their own-team (ingroup and other-team (outgroup members and group evaluations. It was found that children developed positive ingroup bias across conditions, but outgroup negative bias was shown only by 6-7-year-olds in the experimental condition, particularly if they lost the competition, where they evaluated their team more critically. Better classification skills were associated with less negativity towards the outgroup in the experimental condition. Findings are discussed in relation to relevant theoretical premises and particulars of the intergroup context.

Outgroup Prejudice among Secondary Pupils in Northern England: Are the Predictors at the Individual, School or Neighbourhood Level?

Science.gov (United States)

Brockett, Adrian; Wicker, Kate

2012-01-01

This study examines the Outgroup Prejudice Index (see "Research in Education," 83, 2010) to see what factors best predict levels of outgroup prejudice among adolescents living in northern England. A sample of 2,502 eleven- to sixteen-year-old secondary school pupils completed a questionnaire that included measures of outgroup prejudice,…

Emotion and Prejudice: Specific Emotions Toward Outgroups

OpenAIRE

2007-01-01

Abstract This research draws on ideas about emotion-related appraisal tendencies to generate and test novel propositions about intergroup emotions. First, emotion elicited by outgroup category activation can be transferred to an unrelated stimulus (incidental emotion effects). Second, people predisposed toward an emotion are more prejudiced toward groups that are likely to be associated with that emotion. D...

When outgroups fail; phylogenomics of rooting the emerging pathogen, Coxiella burnetii.

Science.gov (United States)

Pearson, Talima; Hornstra, Heidie M; Sahl, Jason W; Schaack, Sarah; Schupp, James M; Beckstrom-Sternberg, Stephen M; O'Neill, Matthew W; Priestley, Rachael A; Champion, Mia D; Beckstrom-Sternberg, James S; Kersh, Gilbert J; Samuel, James E; Massung, Robert F; Keim, Paul

2013-09-01

Rooting phylogenies is critical for understanding evolution, yet the importance, intricacies and difficulties of rooting are often overlooked. For rooting, polymorphic characters among the group of interest (ingroup) must be compared to those of a relative (outgroup) that diverged before the last common ancestor (LCA) of the ingroup. Problems arise if an outgroup does not exist, is unknown, or is so distant that few characters are shared, in which case duplicated genes originating before the LCA can be used as proxy outgroups to root diverse phylogenies. Here, we describe a genome-wide expansion of this technique that can be used to solve problems at the other end of the evolutionary scale: where ingroup individuals are all very closely related to each other, but the next closest relative is very distant. We used shared orthologous single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) from 10 whole genome sequences of Coxiella burnetii, the causative agent of Q fever in humans, to create a robust, but unrooted phylogeny. To maximize the number of characters informative about the rooting, we searched entire genomes for polymorphic duplicated regions where orthologs of each paralog could be identified so that the paralogs could be used to root the tree. Recent radiations, such as those of emerging pathogens, often pose rooting challenges due to a lack of ingroup variation and large genomic differences with known outgroups. Using a phylogenomic approach, we created a robust, rooted phylogeny for C. burnetii. [Coxiella burnetii; paralog SNPs; pathogen evolution; phylogeny; recent radiation; root; rooting using duplicated genes.].

Is self-esteem predictor of in-group bias and out-group discrimination?

OpenAIRE

Jelić, Margareta

2009-01-01

Previous research has found that, in cases of intergroup conflict, people are likely to evaluate their groups more positively than the groups they do not belong to, but are also more ready to derogate the out-group. Two important factors need to be taken into consideration to explain these processes: self-esteem and group status. We explored the role of personal and social self-esteem in predicting in-group bias and out-group discrimination on two conflicted ethnic groups living in Vukovar. C...

Effect of hierarchy legitimacy on low status group members' attributions for ingroup and outgroup failures.

Science.gov (United States)

Beatson, Ruth M; Halloran, Michael J

2015-04-01

Previous research has shown that people have a tendency to explain successes and failures in ways that favor their ingroups relative to outgroups. However, there has been a dearth of research examining whether social-contextual factors such as group status and hierarchy legitimacy moderate such intergroup attributions. Participants in this study were assigned to a low status group, and perceived hierarchy legitimacy was then experimentally manipulated; the extent to which ingroup versus outgroup failures were attributed to several causes was measured. When low status was considered illegitimate, ingroup failure was attributed to external causes (task difficulty, bad luck) more so than outgroup failure. Implications and directions for future research examining consequences and mediating processes are discussed.

Neural network integration during the perception of in-group and out-group members.

Science.gov (United States)

Greven, Inez M; Ramsey, Richard

2017-11-01

Group biases guide social interactions by promoting in-group favouritism, but the neural mechanisms underpinning group biases remain unclear. While neuroscience research has shown that distributed brain circuits are associated with seeing in-group and out-group members as "us" and "them", it is less clear how these networks exchange signals. This fMRI study uses functional connectivity analyses to investigate the contribution of functional integration to group bias modulation of person perception. Participants were assigned to an arbitrary group and during scanning they observed bodies of in-group or out-group members that cued the recall of positive or negative social knowledge. The results showed that functional coupling between perceptual and cognitive neural networks is tuned to particular combinations of group membership and social knowledge valence. Specifically, coupling between body perception and theory-of-mind networks is biased towards seeing a person that had previously been paired with information consistent with group bias (positive for in-group and negative for out-group). This demonstrates how brain regions associated with visual analysis of others and belief reasoning exchange and integrate signals when evaluating in-group and out-group members. The results update models of person perception by showing how and when interplay occurs between perceptual and extended systems when developing a representation of another person. Copyright © 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

Geographic distribution and taxonomic circumscription of populations within Coryphantha section Robustispina (Cactaceae).

Science.gov (United States)

Baker, Marc A; Butterworth, Charles A

2013-05-01

Taxonomic circumscription of subspecific taxa within Coryphantha robustispina was evaluated with morphological data and microsatellites. This study was the first to compare adequately sampled morphological and DNA analyses at the population level in the Cactaceae. This comparison was important to test reliability of both methods and to gain a better understanding of phytogeography, evolution, and systematics of the species, knowledge that could prove useful for other taxa as well. Populations of C. robustispina subsp. robustispina are listed as endangered by the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Our primary goal was to explore correlations among geographical distribution, morphology, and genetics of selected populations throughout the range of the species and the outgroup, C. poselgeriana. • Stem characters were measured for 638 individuals among 16 populations. Flower characters were measured for 180 individuals among 12 populations. Ten microsatellite DNA loci were isolated and characterized for 204 individuals among 13 populations. Data were analyzed using various multivariate analyses. • Our results indicated that, within Coryphantha robustispina, there were three morphologically, genetically, and geographically coherent groups represented by the names C. robustispina subsp. robustispina, C. robustispina subsp. uncinata, and C. robustispina subsp. scheeri. For most analyses, distinctions among the three groups were primarily not as great as those between any one of them and the outgroup. • Results suggested that the three subspecific taxa within Coryphantha robustispina are good subspecies but should not be elevated to species rank. The closely aligned results between morphology and microsatellite data support the design and utility of both methods.

Collective Nostalgia Is Associated With Stronger Outgroup-Directed Anger and Participation in Ingroup-Favoring Collective Action

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Wing-Yee Cheung

2017-08-01

Full Text Available Collective nostalgia refers to longing for the way society used to be. We tested whether collective nostalgia is associated with ingroup-favoring collective action and whether this association is mediated by outgroup-directed anger and outgroup-directed contempt. We conducted an online study of Hong Kong residents (N = 111 during a large-scale democratic social movement, the Umbrella Movement, that took place in Hong Kong in 2014 in response to proposed electoral reforms by the Chinese government in Mainland China. Reported collective nostalgia for Hong Kong’s past was high in our sample and collective nostalgia predicted stronger involvement in ingroup-favoring collective action, and it did so indirectly via higher intensity of outgroup-directed anger (but not through outgroup-directed contempt. We argue that collective nostalgia has implications for strengthening ingroup-serving collective action, and we highlight the importance of arousal of group-based emotions in this process.

Student-teacher relationships and ethnic outgroup attitudes among majority students

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Geerlings, J.; Thijs, J.T.; Verkuyten, Maykel

Children's ethnic outgroup attitudes are influenced by their teachers' beliefs and multicultural education. However, research has ignored the possible impact of interpersonal relationships with teachers on students' ethnic attitudes. Three studies, using comparable datasets gathered among native

Taxonomic minimalism.

Science.gov (United States)

Beattle, A J; Oliver, I

1994-12-01

Biological surveys are in increasing demand while taxonomic resources continue to decline. How much formal taxonomy is required to get the job done? The answer depends on the kind of job but it is possible that taxonomic minimalism, especially (1) the use of higher taxonomic ranks, (2) the use of morphospecies rather than species (as identified by Latin binomials), and (3) the involvement of taxonomic specialists only for training and verification, may offer advantages for biodiversity assessment, environmental monitoring and ecological research. As such, formal taxonomy remains central to the process of biological inventory and survey but resources may be allocated more efficiently. For example, if formal Identification is not required, resources may be concentrated on replication and increasing sample sizes. Taxonomic minimalism may also facilitate the inclusion in these activities of important but neglected groups, especially among the invertebrates, and perhaps even microorganisms. Copyright © 1994. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Donation Behavior toward In-Groups and Out-Groups: The Role of Gender and Moral Identity

OpenAIRE

Karen Page Winterich; Vikas Mittal; William T. Ross Jr.

2009-01-01

We investigate how two important social identities--gender identity and moral identity--result in differential donations to in-groups and out-groups. Results from three studies indicate that moral identity importance tends to increase donations to out-groups (Iraq, Indonesia) and not to in-groups (London, New Orleans). However, this occurs only for consumers with a feminine gender identity. For consumers with a masculine gender identity, moral identity importance increases donations to the in...

The influence of aging on outgroup stereotypes: the mediating role of cognitive and motivational facets of deficient flexibility.

Science.gov (United States)

Czarnek, Gabriela; Kossowska, Malgorzata; Sedek, Grzegorz

2015-01-01

BACKGROUND/STUDY CONTEXT: The current study was designed to examine previously reported findings about age-related changes in drawing stereotypic inferences; specifically, that older adults are more likely than younger adults to stereotype outgroup members. The study replicates previous research and extends it by exploring the cognitive and motivational facets of deficient flexibility underlying this effect and comparing stereotypes towards ingroup and outgroup members. In the experiment, younger and older adults read stories that allowed for stereotypic inferences. They also completed the Trail Making Test (TMT) and Need for Closure Scale (NFC) as cognitive and motivational measures of deficient flexibility. The results of the experiment revealed that, compared to younger participants, older adults were more likely to rely upon stereotypic inferences when they read a story about outgroup members; however, there were no age-group differences in using stereotypes when they read a story about ingroup members. In addition, the findings showed that making more stereotypical inferences by older versus younger adults in relation to outgroup members was mediated by cognitive (TMT) and motivational (NFC) facets of deficient flexibility. A major implication of these findings is that both cognitive and motivational facets of deficient flexibility contribute to the reliance of older adults on stereotypes compared with younger adults. However, this is only true when older adults process information about outgroup members, but not about ingroup members. Thus, the current research goes beyond previous results by providing direct evidence that ingroup-outgroup perception contributes to stereotyping among older participants.

Shared reality in intergroup communication: Increasing the epistemic authority of an out-group audience.

Science.gov (United States)

Echterhoff, Gerald; Kopietz, René; Higgins, E Tory

2017-06-01

Communicators typically tune messages to their audience's attitude. Such audience tuning biases communicators' memory for the topic toward the audience's attitude to the extent that they create a shared reality with the audience. To investigate shared reality in intergroup communication, we first established that a reduced memory bias after tuning messages to an out-group (vs. in-group) audience is a subtle index of communicators' denial of shared reality to that out-group audience (Experiments 1a and 1b). We then examined whether the audience-tuning memory bias might emerge when the out-group audience's epistemic authority is enhanced, either by increasing epistemic expertise concerning the communication topic or by creating epistemic consensus among members of a multiperson out-group audience. In Experiment 2, when Germans communicated to a Turkish audience with an attitude about a Turkish (vs. German) target, the audience-tuning memory bias appeared. In Experiment 3, when the audience of German communicators consisted of 3 Turks who all held the same attitude toward the target, the memory bias again appeared. The association between message valence and memory valence was consistently higher when the audience's epistemic authority was high (vs. low). An integrative analysis across all studies also suggested that the memory bias increases with increasing strength of epistemic inputs (epistemic expertise, epistemic consensus, and audience-tuned message production). The findings suggest novel ways of overcoming intergroup biases in intergroup relations. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

Taxonomic reappraisal of Antithamnion sparsum Tokida (Ceramiaceae, Rhodophyta).

Science.gov (United States)

Kim, Gwang Hoon; Han, He Kyong; Lim, Kook Jin

2008-07-01

The taxonomic criterion of Antithamnion sparsum was reappraised in comparison with A. densum and A. defectum based on crossing experiments, morphological observation, chromosome study and Random Amplified Polymorphic DNA (RAPD) analysis. These species had a very similar morphology but were sexually isolated. The chromosome number was n = ca. 24 for A. densum, n = ca. 21 for A. defectum, and n = ca. 44 for A. sparsum. All isolates of A. sparsum and A. densum showed polysiphonia-type life history Asexual reproduction was induced by favorable environmental conditions. In A. sparsum, 1-2% of male plants developed mitotic tetrasporangia together with spermatangia. In A. densum, 5-10% of tetraspores developed into asexual tetrasporophytes. Phylogenetic relationships between these species were examined using RAPD analysis, and A. glanduliferum was used as an outgroup. A total of 167 polymorphic RAPD markers amplified from 15 different primers were analyzed. Results suggested that these species were closely related, with A. defectum placed in the middle of A. sparsum and A. densum. Chromosome study and RAPD analysis implied that A. sparsum first separated from A. defectum through polyploidization and later A. densum evolved. These species may present another example of the narrow species concept in the genus Antithamnion.

Different effects of religion and God on prosociality with the ingroup and outgroup.

Science.gov (United States)

Preston, Jesse Lee; Ritter, Ryan S

2013-11-01

Recent studies have found that activating religious cognition by priming techniques can enhance prosocial behavior, arguably because religious concepts carry prosocial associations. But many of these studies have primed multiple concepts simultaneously related to the sacred. We argue here that religion and God are distinct concepts that activate distinct associations. In particular, we examine the effect of God and religion on prosociality toward the ingroup and outgroup. In three studies, we found that religion primes enhanced prosociality toward ingroup members, consistent with ingroup affiliation, whereas, God primes enhanced prosociality toward outgroup member, consistent with concerns of moral impression management. Implications for theory and methodology in religious cognition are discussed.

A Taxonomic Search Engine: federating taxonomic databases using web services.

Science.gov (United States)

Page, Roderic D M

2005-03-09

The taxonomic name of an organism is a key link between different databases that store information on that organism. However, in the absence of a single, comprehensive database of organism names, individual databases lack an easy means of checking the correctness of a name. Furthermore, the same organism may have more than one name, and the same name may apply to more than one organism. The Taxonomic Search Engine (TSE) is a web application written in PHP that queries multiple taxonomic databases (ITIS, Index Fungorum, IPNI, NCBI, and uBIO) and summarises the results in a consistent format. It supports "drill-down" queries to retrieve a specific record. The TSE can optionally suggest alternative spellings the user can try. It also acts as a Life Science Identifier (LSID) authority for the source taxonomic databases, providing globally unique identifiers (and associated metadata) for each name. The Taxonomic Search Engine is available at http://darwin.zoology.gla.ac.uk/~rpage/portal/ and provides a simple demonstration of the potential of the federated approach to providing access to taxonomic names.

A Taxonomic Search Engine: Federating taxonomic databases using web services

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Page Roderic DM

2005-03-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background The taxonomic name of an organism is a key link between different databases that store information on that organism. However, in the absence of a single, comprehensive database of organism names, individual databases lack an easy means of checking the correctness of a name. Furthermore, the same organism may have more than one name, and the same name may apply to more than one organism. Results The Taxonomic Search Engine (TSE is a web application written in PHP that queries multiple taxonomic databases (ITIS, Index Fungorum, IPNI, NCBI, and uBIO and summarises the results in a consistent format. It supports "drill-down" queries to retrieve a specific record. The TSE can optionally suggest alternative spellings the user can try. It also acts as a Life Science Identifier (LSID authority for the source taxonomic databases, providing globally unique identifiers (and associated metadata for each name. Conclusion The Taxonomic Search Engine is available at http://darwin.zoology.gla.ac.uk/~rpage/portal/ and provides a simple demonstration of the potential of the federated approach to providing access to taxonomic names.

Engaging in extreme activism in support of others’ political struggles: The role of politically motivated fusion with out-groups

Science.gov (United States)

Boos, Beverly; Kimel, Sasha Y.; Obaidi, Milan; Shani, Maor; Thomsen, Lotte

2018-01-01

Humans are a coalitional, parochial species. Yet, extreme actions of solidarity are sometimes taken for distant or unrelated groups. What motivates people to become solidary with groups to which they do not belong originally? Here, we demonstrate that such distant solidarity can occur when the perceived treatment of an out-group clashes with one’s political beliefs (e.g., for Leftists, oppressive occupation of the out-group) and that it is driven by fusion (or a feeling of oneness) with distant others with whom one does not share any common social category such as nationality, ethnicity or religion. In Study 1, being politically Leftist predicted European-Americans’ willingness to engage in extreme protest on behalf of Palestinians, which was mediated by fusion with the out-group. Next, in Study 2, we examined whether this pattern was moderated by out-group type. Here, Norwegian Leftists fused more with Palestinians (i.e., a group that, in the Norwegian context, is perceived to be occupied in an asymmetrical conflict) rather than Kurds (i.e., a group for which this perception is less salient). In Study 3, we experimentally tested the underlying mechanism by framing the Kurdish conflict in terms of an asymmetrical occupation (vs. symmetrical war or control conditions) and found that this increased Leftist European-Americans’ fusion with Kurds. Finally, in Study 4, we used a unique sample of non-Kurdish aspiring foreign fighters who were in the process of joining the Kurdish militia YPG. Here, fusion with the out-group predicted a greater likelihood to join and support the Kurdish forces in their fight against ISIS, insofar as respondents experienced that their political orientation morally compelled them to do so (Study 4). Together, our findings suggest that politically motivated fusion with out-groups underpins the extreme solidary action people may take on behalf of distant out-groups. Implications for future theory and research are discussed. PMID:29304156

The moral ties that bind . . . Even to out-groups: the interactive effect of moral identity and the binding moral foundations.

Science.gov (United States)

Smith, Isaac H; Aquino, Karl; Koleva, Spassena; Graham, Jesse

2014-08-01

Throughout history, principles such as obedience, loyalty, and purity have been instrumental in binding people together and helping them thrive as groups, tribes, and nations. However, these same principles have also led to in-group favoritism, war, and even genocide. Does adhering to the binding moral foundations that underlie such principles unavoidably lead to the derogation of out-group members? We demonstrated that for people with a strong moral identity, the answer is "no," because they are more likely than those with a weak moral identity to extend moral concern to people belonging to a perceived out-group. Across three studies, strongly endorsing the binding moral foundations indeed predicted support for the torture of out-group members (Studies 1a and 1b) and withholding of necessary help from out-group members (Study 2), but this relationship was attenuated among participants who also had a strong moral identity. © The Author(s) 2014.

He said what? Physiological and cognitive responses to imagining and witnessing outgroup racism.

Science.gov (United States)

Karmali, Francine; Kawakami, Kerry; Page-Gould, Elizabeth

2017-08-01

Responses to outgroup racism can have serious implications for the perpetuation of bias, yet research examining this process is rare. The present research investigated self-reported, physiological, and cognitive responses among "experiencers" who witnessed and "forecasters" who imagined a racist comment targeting an outgroup member. Although previous research indicates that experiencers self-reported less distress and chose a racist partner more often than forecasters, the present results explored the possibility that experiencers may actually be distressed in such situation but regulate their initial affective reactions. The results from Experiment 1 demonstrated that participants in both roles showed (a) no activation of the hypothalamic pituitary adrenal stress axis (decreased cortisol) and (b) activation of the sympathetic autonomic nervous system (increased skin conductance). However, experiencers but not forecasters displayed a physiological profile indicative of an orienting response (decreased heart rate and increased skin conductance) rather than a defensive response (increased heart rate and increased skin conductance). Furthermore, the results from Experiment 2 provided additional evidence that experiencers are not distressed or regulating their emotional responses. In particular, experiencers showed less cognitive impairment on a Stroop task than forecasters. Together these findings indicate that when people actually encounter outgroup bias, they respond with apathy and do not censure the racist. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

Pals in power armor: attribution of human-like emotions to video game characters in an ingroup/outgroup situation.

Science.gov (United States)

Besmann, Anna; Rios, Kimberly

2012-08-01

Previous research has demonstrated the tendency for humans to anthropomorphize computers-that is, to react to computers as social actors, despite knowing that the computers are mere machines. In the present research, we examined the attribution of both primary (non-uniquely human) and secondary (human-like) emotions to ingroup (teammate) and outgroup (opponent) computer-controlled characters in a video game. We found that participants perceived the teammate character as experiencing more secondary emotions than the opponent character, but that they perceived the teammate and opponent character as experiencing equal levels of primary emotions. Thus, participants anthropomorphized the ingroup character to a greater extent than the outgroup character. These results imply that computers' "emotions" are treated with a similar ingroup/outgroup social regard as the emotions of actual humans.

How terrorism news reports increase prejudice against outgroups: A terror management account

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Das, E.; Bushman, B.J.; Bezemer, M.D.; Kerkhof, P.; Vermeulen, I.E.

2009-01-01

Three studies tested predictions derived from terror management theory (TMT) about the effects of terrorism news on prejudice. Exposure to terrorism news should confront receivers with thoughts about their own death, which, in turn, should increase prejudice toward outgroup members. Non-Muslim

Detecting lineage-specific adaptive evolution of brain-expressed genes in human using rhesus macaque as outgroup

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Yu, Xiao-Jing; Zheng, Hong-Kun; Wang, Jun

2006-01-01

related species as outgroup, it is difficult to identify human-lineage-specific changes, which is critical in delineating the biological uniqueness of humans. In this study, we conducted phylogeny-based analyses of 2633 human brain-expressed genes using rhesus macaque as the outgroup. We identified 47...... candidate genes showing strong evidence of positive selection in the human lineage. Genes with maximal expression in the brain showed a higher evolutionary rate in human than in chimpanzee. We observed that many immune-defense-related genes were under strong positive selection, and this trend was more...

Polyphasic characterization of Trichocoleus desertorum sp. nov. (Pseudanabaenales, Cyanobacteria) from desert soils and phylogenetic placement of the genus Trichocoleus

Science.gov (United States)

Radka Muhlsteinova; Jeffrey R. Johansen; Nicole Pietrasiak; Michael P. Martin; Karina Osorio-Santos; Steven D. Warren

2014-01-01

Little is known about the taxonomic diversity of cyanobacteria in deserts, despite their important ecological roles in these ecosystems. In this study, cyanobacterial strains from the Atacama, Colorado, and Mojave Deserts were isolated and characterized using molecular, morphological, and ecological information. Phylogenetic placement of these strains was revealed...

Asteroid taxonomic classifications

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tholen, D.J.

1989-01-01

This paper reports on three taxonomic classification schemes developed and applied to the body of available color and albedo data. Asteroid taxonomic classifications according to two of these schemes are reproduced

Feeling like a group after a natural disaster: Common ingroup identity and relations with outgroup victims among majority and minority young children.

Science.gov (United States)

Vezzali, Loris; Cadamuro, Alessia; Versari, Annalisa; Giovannini, Dino; Trifiletti, Elena

2015-09-01

We conducted a field study to test whether the common ingroup identity model (Gaertner & Dovidio, 2000, reducing intergroup bias: The common ingroup identity model. Philadelphia, PA: Psychology Press) could be a useful tool to improve intergroup relations in the aftermath of a natural disaster. Participants were majority (Italian) and minority (immigrant) elementary school children (N = 517) living in the area struck by powerful earthquakes in May 2012. Results revealed that, among majority children, the perceived external threat represented by the earthquake was associated with greater perceptions of belonging to a common ingroup including both ingroup and outgroup. In turn, heightened one-group perceptions were associated with greater willingness to meet and help outgroup victims, both directly and indirectly via more positive outgroup attitudes. Among immigrant children, perceived disaster threat was not associated with any of the dependent variables; one-group perceptions were positively associated with outgroup attitudes, helping and contact intentions towards outgroup victims. Thus, one-group perceptions after a natural disaster may promote more positive and supporting relations between the majority and the minority group. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications of the findings. © 2014 The British Psychological Society.

Of saints and sinners: How collective pride and guilt affect outgroup helping.

NARCIS (Netherlands)

van Leeuwen, E.; van Dijk, W.W.; Kaynak, Ü

2013-01-01

We examined how appeals to collective guilt and pride can motivate people to help members of a disadvantaged outgroup. Results from two experiments supported the prediction that appeals to collective pride are more effective than appeals to collective guilt in prompting high identifying group

Assessing Outgroup Prejudice among 13-15-Year-Old Students Attending Catholic and Protestant Secondary Schools in Northern Ireland: An Empirical Enquiry

Science.gov (United States)

Francis, Leslie J.; Village, Andrew

2015-01-01

Northern Ireland has been and remains a religiously divided community. This study sets out to examine outgroup prejudice among a sample of 1799 13-15-year-old students attending Catholic or Protestant schools and employs both bivariate analyses and hierarchical modelling to chart the associations between outgroup prejudice and personal factors…

The Impact Of In-Groups And Out-Groups On Knowledge Sharing In Russia And China

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Michailova, Snejina; Hutchings, Kate

2003-01-01

been suggested that people intransition economies such as Russia and China have a propensity not to shareknowledge. We proffer that Russians' and Chinese' willingness to share knowledge ishighly influenced by group membership. By examining the extent to which groupmembership influences the processes......Management researchers have suggested that knowledge sharing has an importantrole to play in developing competitive advantage for organisations. It could be arguedthat the need to build advantage is even greater in the transition economies that areincreasingly internationally oriented. Yet, it has...... of knowledge sharing in the Chinese andRussian cultural and institutional environments, we theoretically explore how in-groupsand out-groups facilitate and impede knowledge sharing.Key Words: China, In-groups, Knowledge Sharing, Out-groups, Russia...

Fear among the extremes: how political ideology predicts negative emotions and outgroup derogation.

Science.gov (United States)

van Prooijen, Jan-Willem; Krouwel, André P M; Boiten, Max; Eendebak, Lennart

2015-04-01

The "rigidity of the right" hypothesis predicts that particularly the political right experiences fear and derogates outgroups. We propose that above and beyond that, the political extremes (at both sides of the spectrum) are more likely to display these responses than political moderates. Results of a large-scale sample reveal the predicted quadratic term on socio-economic fear. Moreover, although the political right is more likely to derogate the specific category of immigrants, we find a quadratic effect on derogation of a broad range of societal categories. Both extremes also experience stronger negative emotions about politics than politically moderate respondents. Finally, the quadratic effects on derogation of societal groups and negative political emotions were mediated by socio-economic fear, particularly among left- and right-wing extremists. It is concluded that negative emotions and outgroup derogation flourish among the extremes. © 2015 by the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, Inc.

PESI - a taxonomic backbone for Europe

Science.gov (United States)

Kouwenberg, Juliana; Boumans, Louis; Hussey, Charles; Hyam, Roger; Nicolson, Nicola; Kirk, Paul; Paton, Alan; Michel, Ellinor; Guiry, Michael D.; Boegh, Phillip S.; Pedersen, Henrik Ærenlund; Enghoff, Henrik; von Raab-Straube, Eckhard; Güntsch, Anton; Geoffroy, Marc; Müller, Andreas; Kohlbecker, Andreas; Berendsohn, Walter; Appeltans, Ward; Arvanitidis, Christos; Vanhoorne, Bart; Declerck, Joram; Vandepitte, Leen; Hernandez, Francisco; Nash, Róisín; Costello, Mark John; Ouvrard, David; Bezard-Falgas, Pascale; Bourgoin, Thierry; Wetzel, Florian Tobias; Glöckler, Falko; Korb, Günther; Ring, Caroline; Hagedorn, Gregor; Häuser, Christoph; Aktaç, Nihat; Asan, Ahmet; Ardelean, Adorian; Borges, Paulo Alexandre Vieira; Dhora, Dhimiter; Khachatryan, Hasmik; Malicky, Michael; Ibrahimov, Shaig; Tuzikov, Alexander; De Wever, Aaike; Moncheva, Snejana; Spassov, Nikolai; Chobot, Karel; Popov, Alexi; Boršić, Igor; Sfenthourakis, Spyros; Kõljalg, Urmas; Uotila, Pertti; Olivier, Gargominy; Dauvin, Jean-Claude; Tarkhnishvili, David; Chaladze, Giorgi; Tuerkay, Michael; Legakis, Anastasios; Peregovits, László; Gudmundsson, Gudmundur; Ólafsson, Erling; Lysaght, Liam; Galil, Bella Sarah; Raimondo, Francesco M.; Domina, Gianniantonio; Stoch, Fabio; Minelli, Alessandro; Spungis, Voldermars; Budrys, Eduardas; Olenin, Sergej; Turpel, Armand; Walisch, Tania; Krpach, Vladimir; Gambin, Marie Therese; Ungureanu, Laurentia; Karaman, Gordan; Kleukers, Roy M.J.C.; Stur, Elisabeth; Aagaard, Kaare; Valland, Nils; Moen, Toril Loennechen; Bogdanowicz, Wieslaw; Tykarski, Piotr; Węsławski, Jan Marcin; Kędra, Monika; M. de Frias Martins, Antonio; Abreu, António Domingos; Silva, Ricardo; Medvedev, Sergei; Ryss, Alexander; Šimić, Smiljka; Marhold, Karol; Stloukal, Eduard; Tome, Davorin; Ramos, Marian A.; Valdés, Benito; Pina, Francisco; Kullander, Sven; Telenius, Anders; Gonseth, Yves; Tschudin, Pascal; Sergeyeva, Oleksandra; Vladymyrov, Volodymyr; Rizun, Volodymyr Bohdanovych; Raper, Chris; Lear, Dan; Stoev, Pavel; Penev, Lyubomir; Rubio, Ana Casino; Backeljau, Thierry; Saarenmaa, Hannu; Ulenberg, Sandrine

2015-01-01

Abstract Background Reliable taxonomy underpins communication in all of biology, not least nature conservation and sustainable use of ecosystem resources. The flexibility of taxonomic interpretations, however, presents a serious challenge for end-users of taxonomic concepts. Users need standardised and continuously harmonised taxonomic reference systems, as well as high-quality and complete taxonomic data sets, but these are generally lacking for non-specialists. The solution is in dynamic, expertly curated web-based taxonomic tools. The Pan-European Species-directories Infrastructure (PESI) worked to solve this key issue by providing a taxonomic e-infrastructure for Europe. It strengthened the relevant social (expertise) and information (standards, data and technical) capacities of five major community networks on taxonomic indexing in Europe, which is essential for proper biodiversity assessment and monitoring activities. The key objectives of PESI were: 1) standardisation in taxonomic reference systems, 2) enhancement of the quality and completeness of taxonomic data sets and 3) creation of integrated access to taxonomic information. New information This paper describes the results of PESI and its future prospects, including the involvement in major European biodiversity informatics initiatives and programs. PMID:26491393

The combined effects of meta-stereotypes and audience on outgroup and ingroup helping

NARCIS (Netherlands)

van Leeuwen, E.; Oostenbrink, J.J.; Twilt, A.

2014-01-01

Salient meta-stereotypes can promote outgroup helping in a way that allows an ingroup to make a good impression. Although the presence of an audience can similarly activate impression-management concerns, their combined effects on intergroup helping have never been investigated, which was the goal

Clarification of Taxonomic Status within the Pseudomonas syringae Species Group Based on a Phylogenomic Analysis

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Margarita Gomila

2017-12-01

Full Text Available The Pseudomonas syringae phylogenetic group comprises 15 recognized bacterial species and more than 60 pathovars. The classification and identification of strains is relevant for practical reasons but also for understanding the epidemiology and ecology of this group of plant pathogenic bacteria. Genome-based taxonomic analyses have been introduced recently to clarify the taxonomy of the whole genus. A set of 139 draft and complete genome sequences of strains belonging to all species of the P. syringae group available in public databases were analyzed, together with the genomes of closely related species used as outgroups. Comparative genomics based on the genome sequences of the species type strains in the group allowed the delineation of phylogenomic species and demonstrated that a high proportion of strains included in the study are misclassified. Furthermore, representatives of at least 7 putative novel species were detected. It was also confirmed that P. ficuserectae, P. meliae, and P. savastanoi are later synonyms of P. amygdali and that “P. coronafaciens” should be revived as a nomenspecies.

Effects of Religious Priming Concepts on Prosocial Behavior Towards Ingroup and Outgroup.

Science.gov (United States)

Batara, Jame Bryan L; Franco, Pamela S; Quiachon, Mequia Angelo M; Sembrero, Dianelle Rose M

2016-11-01

Several studies show that there is a connection between religion and prosociality (e.g., Saroglou, 2013). To investigate whether there is a causal relationship between these two variables, a growing number of scholars employed priming religious concepts and measure its influence on prosocial behavior (e.g., Pichon, Boccato, & Saroglou, 2007). In the recent development of religious priming, Ritter and Preston (2013) argued that different primes (agent prime, spiritual/abstract prime, and institutional prime) may also have varying influence on prosocial behavior specifically helping an ingroup or an outgroup target. With this in mind, a 2 (social categorization of the target of help) by 3 (agent prime, institutional prime, spiritual prime) experiment was conducted to directly investigate this hypothesis. Results suggest that priming religious concepts especially the spiritual prime can increase prosocial behaviors. However, no significant effect was found on the social categorization which implies that Filipino participants elicit prosocial behavior regardless of the social categorization (be it ingroup or outgroup) of the target of help. The present study's findings contribute to further the literature on religious priming and its influence on prosocial behavior.

Telling Friend from Foe: Listeners Are Unable to Identify In-Group and Out-Group Members from Heard Laughter

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Marie Ritter

2017-11-01

Full Text Available Group membership is important for how we perceive others, but although perceivers can accurately infer group membership from facial expressions and spoken language, it is not clear whether listeners can identify in- and out-group members from non-verbal vocalizations. In the current study, we examined perceivers' ability to identify group membership from non-verbal vocalizations of laughter, testing the following predictions: (1 listeners can distinguish between laughter from different nationalities and (2 between laughter from their in-group, a close out-group, and a distant out-group, and (3 greater exposure to laughter from members of other cultural groups is associated with better performance. Listeners (n = 814 took part in an online forced-choice classification task in which they were asked to judge the origin of 24 laughter segments. The responses were analyzed using frequentist and Bayesian statistical analyses. Both kinds of analyses showed that listeners were unable to accurately identify group identity from laughter. Furthermore, exposure did not affect performance. These results provide a strong and clear demonstration that group identity cannot be inferred from laughter.

Telling Friend from Foe: Listeners Are Unable to Identify In-Group and Out-Group Members from Heard Laughter.

Science.gov (United States)

Ritter, Marie; Sauter, Disa A

2017-01-01

Group membership is important for how we perceive others, but although perceivers can accurately infer group membership from facial expressions and spoken language, it is not clear whether listeners can identify in- and out-group members from non-verbal vocalizations. In the current study, we examined perceivers' ability to identify group membership from non-verbal vocalizations of laughter, testing the following predictions: (1) listeners can distinguish between laughter from different nationalities and (2) between laughter from their in-group, a close out-group, and a distant out-group, and (3) greater exposure to laughter from members of other cultural groups is associated with better performance. Listeners ( n = 814) took part in an online forced-choice classification task in which they were asked to judge the origin of 24 laughter segments. The responses were analyzed using frequentist and Bayesian statistical analyses. Both kinds of analyses showed that listeners were unable to accurately identify group identity from laughter. Furthermore, exposure did not affect performance. These results provide a strong and clear demonstration that group identity cannot be inferred from laughter.

Group-Based Guilt and Shame and Outgroup Attitudes in Russian Context

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Grigoryan L.K.,

2017-08-01

Full Text Available This research explores group-based emotions of guilt and shame in the Russian context. The aim was to reveal the relations between these emotions and outgroup attitudes in individuals with different degrees of collective identity strength. The survey was carried out on the sample of Russian people (N = 89; 53,9% females; average age 35 years. The respondents were asked to answer questions concerning their experiences of group-based emotions of guilt, moral shame and image shame in relation to the deportation of Chechen and Ingush populations of the Northern Caucasus during the World War II. We measured outgroup attitudes towards groups both related (Caucasus populations and unrelated (migrants to emotion-provoking events; general attitude towards multiculturalism; and strength of collective identity. The results show that the experiences of guilt and moral shame are positively correlated both with the attitudes towards Caucasus populations (0,396*** and 0,304*** respectively and with the attitudes towards migrants (0,330*** and 0,322*** respectively. Image shame is positively correlated only with the attitudes to migrants (0,326**. It was also found that collective identity moderates these relations: there were no correlations found between emotions and attitudes in the group of subjects with stronger collective identity.

Accuracy of Black and White College Students' In-Group and Out-Group Stereotypes.

Science.gov (United States)

Ryan, Carey S.

1996-01-01

Examined accuracy of black and of white students' in-group and out-group stereotypes by comparing judgments of stereotypicality and dispersion of black and of white first-year college students (N=100) with stereotypicality and dispersion of self-ratings provided by random samples of group members. Consistent with social identity theory,…

Outgroup, alignment and modelling improvements indicate that two TNFSF13-like genes existed in the vertebrate ancestor.

Science.gov (United States)

Redmond, Anthony K; Pettinello, Rita; Dooley, Helen

2017-03-01

The molecular machinery required for lymphocyte development and differentiation appears to have emerged concomitantly with distinct B- and T-like lymphocyte subsets in the ancestor of all vertebrates. The TNFSF superfamily (TNFSF) members BAFF (TNFSF13/Blys) and APRIL (TNFSF13) are key regulators of B cell development survival, and activation in mammals, but the temporal emergence of these molecules, and their precise relationship to the newly identified TNFSF gene BALM (BAFF and APRIL-like molecule), have not yet been elucidated. Here, to resolve the early evolutionary history of this family, we improved outgroup sampling and alignment quality, and applied better fitting substitution models compared to past studies. Our analyses reveal that BALM is a definitive TNFSF13 family member, which split from BAFF in the gnathostome (jawed vertebrate) ancestor. Most importantly, however, we show that both the APRIL and BAFF lineages existed in the ancestors of all extant vertebrates. This implies that APRIL has been lost, or is yet to be found, in cyclostomes (jawless vertebrates). Our results suggest that lineage-specific gene duplication and loss events have caused lymphocyte regulation, despite shared origins, to become secondarily distinct between gnathostomes and cyclostomes. Finally, the structure of lamprey BAFF-like, and its phylogenetic placement as sister to BAFF and BALM, but not the more slowly evolving APRIL, indicates that the primordial lymphocyte regulator was more APRIL-like than BAFF-like.

Effects of Religious Priming Concepts on Prosocial Behavior Towards Ingroup and Outgroup

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jame Bryan L. Batara

2016-11-01

Full Text Available Several studies show that there is a connection between religion and prosociality (e.g., Saroglou, 2013. To investigate whether there is a causal relationship between these two variables, a growing number of scholars employed priming religious concepts and measure its influence on prosocial behavior (e.g., Pichon, Boccato, & Saroglou, 2007. In the recent development of religious priming, Ritter and Preston (2013 argued that different primes (agent prime, spiritual/abstract prime, and institutional prime may also have varying influence on prosocial behavior specifically helping an ingroup or an outgroup target. With this in mind, a 2 (social categorization of the target of help by 3 (agent prime, institutional prime, spiritual prime experiment was conducted to directly investigate this hypothesis. Results suggest that priming religious concepts especially the spiritual prime can increase prosocial behaviors. However, no significant effect was found on the social categorization which implies that Filipino participants elicit prosocial behavior regardless of the social categorization (be it ingroup or outgroup of the target of help. The present study’s findings contribute to further the literature on religious priming and its influence on prosocial behavior.

Building a Taxonomic Data Editor: ITIS Taxonomic Workbench 6.0

OpenAIRE

Mitchell,David; Bowman,Lisa; Brockmeier,Christopher

2017-01-01

The Integrated Taxonomic Information System (ITIS - www.itis.gov) provides a regularly updated global database that currently contains over 840,000 scientific names and their hierarchy. A new rich Internet application for adding and editing ITIS data, Taxonomic Workbench 6.0, is being developed using the AngularJS framework. AngularJS is designed to take advantage of many features that are fairly recent to the web platform, facilitates a well-structured product that is easier to maintain, and...

Shaping the Development of Prejudice: Latent Growth Modeling of the Influence of Social Dominance Orientation on Outgroup Affect in Youth.

Science.gov (United States)

Bratt, Christopher; Sidanius, Jim; Sheehy-Skeffington, Jennifer

2016-12-01

Social dominance orientation (SDO) has been theorized as a stable, early-emerging trait influencing outgroup evaluations, a view supported by evidence from cross-sectional and two-wave longitudinal research. Yet, the limitations of identifying causal paths with cross-sectional and two-wave designs are increasingly being acknowledged. This article presents the first use of multi-wave data to test the over-time relationship between SDO and outgroup affect among young people. We use cross-lagged and latent growth modeling (LGM) of a three-wave data set employing Norwegian adolescents (over 2 years, N = 453) and a five-wave data set with American university students (over 4 years, N = 748). Overall, SDO exhibits high temporal rank-order stability and predicts changes in outgroup affect. This research represents the strongest test to date of SDO's role as a stable trait that influences the development of prejudice, while highlighting LGM as a valuable tool for social and political psychology. © 2016 by the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, Inc.

Multicultural attitudes mediate the relation between personality and perceived ethnic outgroup distance in the Netherlands

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Stupar, S.; van de Vijver, F.J.R.; Te Lindert, A.; Fontaine, J. R. J.

2014-01-01

We focus in the current study on associations between personality, multicultural attitudes, and perceived ethnic outgroup distance in the Netherlands. Data were collected among four different ethnic groups (from low to high in terms of ethnic hierarchy): Turkish/Moroccan-Dutch,

Exploring historical trends using taxonomic name metadata

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Schenk Ryan

2008-05-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Authority and year information have been attached to taxonomic names since Linnaean times. The systematic structure of taxonomic nomenclature facilitates the ability to develop tools that can be used to explore historical trends that may be associated with taxonomy. Results From the over 10.7 million taxonomic names that are part of the uBio system 4, approximately 3 million names were identified to have taxonomic authority information from the years 1750 to 2004. A pipe-delimited file was then generated, organized according to a Linnaean hierarchy and by years from 1750 to 2004, and imported into an Excel workbook. A series of macros were developed to create an Excel-based tool and a complementary Web site to explore the taxonomic data. A cursory and speculative analysis of the data reveals observable trends that may be attributable to significant events that are of both taxonomic (e.g., publishing of key monographs and societal importance (e.g., world wars. The findings also help quantify the number of taxonomic descriptions that may be made available through digitization initiatives. Conclusion Temporal organization of taxonomic data can be used to identify interesting biological epochs relative to historically significant events and ongoing efforts. We have developed an Excel workbook and complementary Web site that enables one to explore taxonomic trends for Linnaean taxonomic groupings, from Kingdoms to Families.

Emotional display rules in Palestine: Ingroup/outgroup membership, status of interaction partner and gender.

Science.gov (United States)

Flicker, Sharon M; Ayoub, Haneen J S; Guynn, Melissa J

2017-05-05

This study investigates emotional display rules within the Palestinian context, focusing on the seven basic emotions in a sample of 150 college students from the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. Overall, participants felt that it was more appropriate to express positive emotions (happiness and surprise) than negative powerful (anger, contempt and disgust) or negative powerless (fear and sadness) emotions. They also perceived it to be more appropriate to express positive and negative powerless emotions to ingroup than outgroup members and to express negative powerful emotions to lower status compared to higher status individuals. Gender differences were also found: men endorsed greater expression of both powerful and, surprisingly, powerless emotions than women, but only when interacting with outgroup members. Results are interpreted in terms of the cultural values of individualism-collectivism and power distance as well as cultural differences in emotional expressiveness between collectivistic societies. This study is one of the first to examine emotional display rules in an Arab population, thus expanding our current knowledge base. © 2017 International Union of Psychological Science.

Negative Stereotypes of Ethnic Out-groups: A Longitudinal Examination Among Palestinian, Israeli Jewish, and Israeli Arab Youth

Science.gov (United States)

Niwa, Erika Y.; Boxer, Paul; Dubow, Eric F.; Huesmann, L. Rowell; Landau, Simha; Shikaki, Khalil; Gvirsman, Shira Dvir

2014-01-01

Ethno-political conflict impacts thousands of youth globally and has been associated with a number of negative psychological outcomes. Extant literature has mostly addressed the adverse emotional and behavioral outcomes of exposure while failing to examine change over time in social-cognitive factors in contexts of ethno-political conflict. Using cohort-sequential longitudinal data, the present study examines ethnic variation in the development of negative stereotypes about ethnic out-groups among Palestinian (n=600), Israeli Jewish (n=451), and Israeli Arab (n=450) youth over three years. Age and exposure to ethno-political violence were included as covariates for these trajectories. Findings indicate important ethnic differences in trajectories of negative stereotypes about ethnic out-groups, as well as variation in how such trajectories are shaped by prolonged ethno-political conflict. PMID:27019573

[Taxonomic theory for non-classical systematics].

Science.gov (United States)

Pavlinov, I Ia

2012-01-01

Outlined briefly are basic principles of construing general taxonomic theory for biological systematics considered in the context of non-classical scientific paradigm. The necessity of such kind of theory is substantiated, and some key points of its elaboration are exposed: its interpretation as a framework concept for the partial taxonomic theories in various schools of systematics; elaboration of idea of cognitive situation including three interrelated components, namely subject, object, and epistemic ones; its construing as a content-wisely interpreted quasi-axiomatics, with strong structuring of its conceptual space including demarcation between axioms and inferring rules; its construing as a "conceptual pyramid" of concepts of various levels of generality; inclusion of a basic model into definition of the taxonomic system (classification) regulating its content. Two problems are indicated as fundamental: definition of taxonomic diversity as a subject domain for the systematics as a whole; definition of onto-epistemological status of taxonomic system (classification) in general and of taxa in particular.

Mammoth and Elephant Phylogenetic Relationships: Mammut Americanum, the Missing Outgroup

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ludovic Orlando

2007-01-01

Full Text Available At the morphological level, the woolly mammoth has most often been considered as the sister-species of Asian elephants, but at the DNA level, different studies have found support for proximity with African elephants. Recent reports have increased the available sequence data and apparently solved the discrepancy, finding mammoths to be most closely related to Asian elephants. However, we demonstrate here that the three competing topologies have similar likelihood, bayesian and parsimony supports. The analysis further suggests the inadequacy of using Sirenia or Hyracoidea as outgroups. We therefore argue that orthologous sequences from the extinct American mastodon will be required to defi nitively solve this long-standing question.

Charting taxonomic knowledge through ontologies and ranking algorithms

Science.gov (United States)

Huber, Robert; Klump, Jens

2009-04-01

Since the inception of geology as a modern science, paleontologists have described a large number of fossil species. This makes fossilized organisms an important tool in the study of stratigraphy and past environments. Since taxonomic classifications of organisms, and thereby their names, change frequently, the correct application of this tool requires taxonomic expertise in finding correct synonyms for a given species name. Much of this taxonomic information has already been published in journals and books where it is compiled in carefully prepared synonymy lists. Because this information is scattered throughout the paleontological literature, it is difficult to find and sometimes not accessible. Also, taxonomic information in the literature is often difficult to interpret for non-taxonomists looking for taxonomic synonymies as part of their research. The highly formalized structure makes Open Nomenclature synonymy lists ideally suited for computer aided identification of taxonomic synonyms. Because a synonymy list is a list of citations related to a taxon name, its bibliographic nature allows the application of bibliometric techniques to calculate the impact of synonymies and taxonomic concepts. TaxonRank is a ranking algorithm based on bibliometric analysis and Internet page ranking algorithms. TaxonRank uses published synonymy list data stored in TaxonConcept, a taxonomic information system. The basic ranking algorithm has been modified to include a measure of confidence on species identification based on the Open Nomenclature notation used in synonymy list, as well as other synonymy specific criteria. The results of our experiments show that the output of the proposed ranking algorithm gives a good estimate of the impact a published taxonomic concept has on the taxonomic opinions in the geological community. Also, our results show that treating taxonomic synonymies as part of on an ontology is a way to record and manage taxonomic knowledge, and thus contribute

When we enjoy bad news about other groups : A social identity approach to out-group schadenfreude

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Ouwerkerk, Jaap W.; van Dijk, Wilco W.; Vonkeman, Charlotte C.; Spears, Russell

Two studies investigate schadenfreude (pleasure at the misfortune of others) as an emotional response to news about out-group misfortunes in a political and consumer context by analyzing reactions of voters for opposition parties to the downfall of a Dutch coalition government (Study 1), and of

When we enjoy bad news about other groups: A social identity approach to out-group schadenfreude

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Ouwerkerk, J.W.; van Dijk, W.W.; Vonkeman, C.C.; Spears, R.

2018-01-01

Two studies investigate schadenfreude (pleasure at the misfortune of others) as an emotional response to news about out-group misfortunes in a political and consumer context by analyzing reactions of voters for opposition parties to the downfall of a Dutch coalition government (Study 1), and of

Extremist Construction of Identity: How Escalating Demands for Legitimacy Shape and Define In-Group and Out-Group Dynamics

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

J.M. Berger

2017-04-01

Full Text Available This Research Paper examines how the white supremacist movement Christian Identity emerged from a non-extremist forerunner known as British Israelism. By examining ideological shifts over the course of nearly a century, the paper seeks to identify key pivot points in the movement’s shift toward extremism and explain the process through which extremist ideologues construct and define in-group and out-group identities. Based on these findings, the paper proposes a new framework for analysing and understanding the behaviour and emergence of extremist groups. The proposed framework can be leveraged to design strategic counter-terrorism communications programmes using a linkage-based approach that deconstructs the process of extremist in-group and out-group definition. Future publications will continue this study, seeking to refine the framework and operationalise messaging recommendations.

Keyword: Placement

Science.gov (United States)

Cassuto, Leonard

2012-01-01

The practical goal of graduate education is placement of graduates. But what does "placement" mean? Academics use the word without thinking much about it. "Placement" is a great keyword for the graduate-school enterprise. For one thing, its meaning certainly gives a purpose to graduate education. Furthermore, the word is a portal into the way of…

Imitation of in-group versus out-group members' facial expressions of anger: a test with a time perception task.

Science.gov (United States)

Mondillon, Laurie; Niedenthal, Paula M; Gil, Sandrine; Droit-Volet, Sylvie

2007-01-01

This research investigated the automatic imitation of facial expressions of anger by in-group and out-group members, using a temporal estimation task. Individuals typically overestimate duration represented by angry faces, probably due to increases in arousal (Droit-Volet, Brunot, & Niedenthal, 2004). Overestimation is not observed when imitation of the facial expressions is inhibited, suggesting that embodied simulation mediates the changes in arousal (Effron, Niedenthal, Gil, & Droit-Volet, 2006). This method thus provides an implicit measure of imitation and was used to test the hypothesis that individuals imitate in-group, but not out-group members' facial expressions of emotion. In separate studies Chinese and French Caucasian participants were presented with short (400 ms) and long (1600 ms) standard durations in a temporal bisection task. They then categorized standard and intermediate durations, represented by angry and neutral faces, in terms of similarity to the short and long standard durations. Half of the face stimuli were Chinese, and half Caucasian. Results revealed a bias in the temporal perception of emotion for the Caucasian participants when they were presented with Caucasian facial expressions and not Chinese ones. In contrast, this bias in time perception was observed when Chinese individuals imitated faces of both in- and out-group members. The results of the Chinese participants are interpreted in terms of familiarity with and motivations to understand the emotional expressions of members of a host culture.

An intermediary enhances out-group trust and in-group profit expectation of Chinese but not Australians.

Science.gov (United States)

Ye, Jiawen; Ng, Sik Hung

2017-06-01

In this research, we made a theoretical distinction between direct and intermediary-mediated trust situations, and conducted a cross-cultural (Chinese vs. Australians) investment trust game to test the overlooked effects of an intermediary on investors' trust decisions, with respect to how much to invest in and expect from trustees. Compared to situations of direct trust, a nominal intermediary increased the number of Chinese investors expecting in-group trustees to repay a profit on their investments (Hypothesis 1) and raised their level of investment in out-group trustees (Hypothesis 2). These results applied to Chinese, but not Australians in support of the proposal that a nominal intermediary would serve as a cue to activate different cultural stereotypes of the functions and meanings of an intermediary with respect to trust and expectation of reciprocity. Coexisting with these culture-specific effects of an intermediary, the minimal categorisation of people into in-group and out-group on trivial grounds leads to a highly significant in-group favouritism in investment levels of both Chinese and Australians (Hypothesis 3). © 2015 International Union of Psychological Science.

Taxonomic names, metadata, and the Semantic Web

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Roderic D. M. Page

2006-01-01

Full Text Available Life Science Identifiers (LSIDs offer an attractive solution to the problem of globally unique identifiers for digital objects in biology. However, I suggest that in the context of taxonomic names, the most compelling benefit of adopting these identifiers comes from the metadata associated with each LSID. By using existing vocabularies wherever possible, and using a simple vocabulary for taxonomy-specific concepts we can quickly capture the essential information about a taxonomic name in the Resource Description Framework (RDF format. This opens up the prospect of using technologies developed for the Semantic Web to add ``taxonomic intelligence" to biodiversity databases. This essay explores some of these ideas in the context of providing a taxonomic framework for the phylogenetic database TreeBASE.

Taxonomic chauvinism revisited: insight from parental care research.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Zachary R Stahlschmidt

Full Text Available Parental care (any non-genetic contribution by a parent that appears likely to increase the fitness of its offspring is a widespread trait exhibited by a broad range of animal taxa. In addition to influencing the fitness of parent(s and offspring, parental care may be inextricably involved in other evolutionary processes, such as sexual selection and the evolution of endothermy. Yet, recent work has demonstrated that bias related to taxonomy is prevalent across many biological disciplines, and research in parental care may be similarly burdened. Thus, I used parental care articles published in six leading journals of fundamental behavioral sciences (Animal Behaviour, Behavioral Ecology, Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology, Ethology, Hormones and Behavior, and Physiology & Behavior from 2001-2010 (n = 712 to examine the year-to-year dynamics of two types of bias related to taxonomy across animals: (1 taxonomic bias, which exists when research output is not proportional to the frequency of organisms in nature, and (2 taxonomic citation bias, which is a proxy for the breadth of a given article-specifically, the proportion of articles cited that refer solely to the studied taxon. I demonstrate that research on birds likely represents a disproportionate amount of parental care research and, thus, exhibits taxonomic bias. Parental care research on birds and mammals also refers to a relatively narrow range of taxonomic groups when discussing its context and, thus, exhibits taxonomic citation bias. Further, the levels of taxonomic bias and taxonomic citation bias have not declined over the past decade despite cautionary messages about similar bias in related disciplines--in fact, taxonomic bias may have increased. As in Bonnet et al. (2002, my results should not be interpreted as evidence of an 'ornithological Mafia' conspiring to suppress other taxonomic groups. Rather, I generate several rational hypotheses to determine why bias persists and to

Taxonomic chauvinism revisited: insight from parental care research.

Science.gov (United States)

Stahlschmidt, Zachary R

2011-01-01

Parental care (any non-genetic contribution by a parent that appears likely to increase the fitness of its offspring) is a widespread trait exhibited by a broad range of animal taxa. In addition to influencing the fitness of parent(s) and offspring, parental care may be inextricably involved in other evolutionary processes, such as sexual selection and the evolution of endothermy. Yet, recent work has demonstrated that bias related to taxonomy is prevalent across many biological disciplines, and research in parental care may be similarly burdened. Thus, I used parental care articles published in six leading journals of fundamental behavioral sciences (Animal Behaviour, Behavioral Ecology, Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology, Ethology, Hormones and Behavior, and Physiology & Behavior) from 2001-2010 (n = 712) to examine the year-to-year dynamics of two types of bias related to taxonomy across animals: (1) taxonomic bias, which exists when research output is not proportional to the frequency of organisms in nature, and (2) taxonomic citation bias, which is a proxy for the breadth of a given article-specifically, the proportion of articles cited that refer solely to the studied taxon. I demonstrate that research on birds likely represents a disproportionate amount of parental care research and, thus, exhibits taxonomic bias. Parental care research on birds and mammals also refers to a relatively narrow range of taxonomic groups when discussing its context and, thus, exhibits taxonomic citation bias. Further, the levels of taxonomic bias and taxonomic citation bias have not declined over the past decade despite cautionary messages about similar bias in related disciplines--in fact, taxonomic bias may have increased. As in Bonnet et al. (2002), my results should not be interpreted as evidence of an 'ornithological Mafia' conspiring to suppress other taxonomic groups. Rather, I generate several rational hypotheses to determine why bias persists and to guide future

A Falsification of the Citation Impediment in the Taxonomic Literature.

Science.gov (United States)

Steiner, Florian M; Pautasso, Marco; Zettel, Herbert; Moder, Karl; Arthofer, Wolfgang; Schlick-Steiner, Birgit C

2015-09-01

Current science evaluation still relies on citation performance, despite criticisms of purely bibliometric research assessments. Biological taxonomy suffers from a drain of knowledge and manpower, with poor citation performance commonly held as one reason for this impediment. But is there really such a citation impediment in taxonomy? We compared the citation numbers of 306 taxonomic and 2291 non-taxonomic research articles (2009-2012) on mosses, orchids, ciliates, ants, and snakes, using Web of Science (WoS) and correcting for journal visibility. For three of the five taxa, significant differences were absent in citation numbers between taxonomic and non-taxonomic papers. This was also true for all taxa combined, although taxonomic papers received more citations than non-taxonomic ones. Our results show that, contrary to common belief, taxonomic contributions do not generally reduce a journal's citation performance and might even increase it. The scope of many journals rarely featuring taxonomy would allow editors to encourage a larger number of taxonomic submissions. Moreover, between 1993 and 2012, taxonomic publications accumulated faster than those from all biological fields. However, less than half of the taxonomic studies were published in journals in WoS. Thus, editors of highly visible journals inviting taxonomic contributions could benefit from taxonomy's strong momentum. The taxonomic output could increase even more than at its current growth rate if: (i) taxonomists currently publishing on other topics returned to taxonomy and (ii) non-taxonomists identifying the need for taxonomic acts started publishing these, possibly in collaboration with taxonomists. Finally, considering the high number of taxonomic papers attracted by the journal Zootaxa, we expect that the taxonomic community would indeed use increased chances of publishing in WoS indexed journals. We conclude that taxonomy's standing in the present citation-focused scientific landscape could

Stereotype-based faultlines and out-group derogation in diverse teams: The moderating roles of task stereotypicality and need for cognition.

Science.gov (United States)

Stanciu, Adrian

2017-01-01

Alignment of individuals on more than one diversity attribute (i.e., faultlines) may lead to intergroup biases in teams, disrupting the efficiency expectancies. Research has yet to examine if this can be a consequence of a stereotypical consistency between social and information attributes of diversity. The present study tests the hypothesis that, in a team with a stereotype-based faultline (a stereotypical consistency between gender and skills), there is increased out-group derogation compared to a team with a stereotype-inconsistent faultline. Furthermore, the study proposes that tasks can activate stereotypes, and the need for cognition dictates whether stereotypes are applied. The findings confirm the hypothesis and additionally provide evidence that tasks that activate gender stereotypes emphasize out-group derogation, especially for team members with low need for cognition.

Inequality as ingroup privilege or outgroup disadvantage: the impact of group focus on collective guilt and interracial attitudes.

Science.gov (United States)

Powell, Adam A; Branscombe, Nyla R; Schmitt, Michael T

2005-04-01

Among members of privileged groups, social inequality is often thought of in terms of the disadvantages associated with outgroup membership. Yet inequality also can be validly framed in terms of ingroup privilege. These different framings have important psychological and social implications. In Experiment 1 (N = 110), White American participants assessed 24 statements about racial inequality framed as either White privileges or Black disadvantages. In Experiment 2 (N = 122), White participants generated examples of White privileges or Black disadvantages. In both experiments, a White privilege framing resulted in greater collective guilt and lower racism compared to a Black disadvantage framing. Collective guilt mediated the manipulation's effect on racism. In addition, in Experiment 2, a White privilege framing decreased White racial identification compared to a Black disadvantage framing. These findings suggest that representing inequality in terms of outgroup disadvantage allows privileged group members to avoid the negative psychological implications of inequality and supports prejudicial attitudes.

Evaluations of and reasoning about normative and deviant ingroup and outgroup members: development of the black sheep effect.

Science.gov (United States)

Abrams, Dominic; Palmer, Sally B; Rutland, Adam; Cameron, Lindsey; Van de Vyver, Julie

2014-01-01

Research with adults has demonstrated a "black sheep effect" (BSE) whereby, relative to evaluations of normative group members, ingroup deviants are derogated more than outgroup deviants. The developmental subjective group dynamics (DSGD) model holds that the BSE should develop during middle childhood when children apply wider social norms. Three hundred and thirty-eight children who were between 5 and 12 years old judged a normative (socially desirable) and a deviant (socially undesirable) member from an ingroup or an outgroup school. Results confirmed a developmental increase in the BSE, the first time this has been demonstrated. Children's own evaluations of group members were mediated by their expectations about ingroup peers' evaluations. In line with DSGD and social domain theories, with age, children's explanations of peer evaluations for ingroup deviance focused relatively more on loyalty. Practical and theoretical implications for peer inclusion and exclusion are discussed. PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2014 APA, all rights reserved.

Controlling the taxonomic variable: Taxonomic concept resolution for a southeastern United States herbarium portal

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Nico Franz

2016-09-01

Full Text Available Overview. Taxonomic names are imperfect identifiers of specific and sometimes conflicting taxonomic perspectives in aggregated biodiversity data environments. The inherent ambiguities of names can be mitigated using syntactic and semantic conventions developed under the taxonomic concept approach. These include: (1 representation of taxonomic concept labels (TCLs: name sec. source to precisely identify name usages and meanings, (2 use of parent/child relationships to assemble separate taxonomic perspectives, and (3 expert provision of Region Connection Calculus articulations (RCC–5: congruence, [inverse] inclusion, overlap, exclusion that specify how data identified to different-sourced TCLs can be integrated. Application of these conventions greatly increases trust in biodiversity data networks, most of which promote unitary taxonomic 'syntheses' that obscure the actual diversity of expert-held views. Better design solutions allow users to control the taxonomic variable and thereby assess the robustness of their biological inferences under different perspectives. A unique constellation of prior efforts – including the powerful Symbiota collections software platform, the Euler/X multi-taxonomy alignment toolkit, and the "Weakley Flora" which entails 7,000 concepts and more than 75,000 RCC–5 articulations – provides the opportunity to build a first full-scale concept resolution service for SERNEC, the SouthEast Regional Network of Expertise and Collections, currently with 60 member herbaria and 2 million occurrence records. Intellectual merit. We have developed a multi-dimensional, step-wise plan to transition SERNEC's data culture from name- to concept-based practices. (1 We will engage SERNEC experts through annual, regional workshops and follow-up interactions that will foster buy-in and ultimately the completion of 12 community-identified use cases. (2. We will leverage RCC–5 data from the Weakley Flora and further development of

Understanding the Selection Bias : Social Network Processes and the Effect of Prejudice on the Avoidance of Outgroup Friends

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Stark, Tobias H.|info:eu-repo/dai/nl/335996701

2015-01-01

Research has found that prejudiced people avoid friendships with members of ethnic outgroups. Results of this study suggest that this effect is mediated by a social network process. Longitudinal network analysis of a three-wave panel study of 12- to 13-year-olds (N = 453) found that more prejudiced

Relationships among individualism--collectivism, gender, and ingroup/outgroup status, and responses to conflict: a study in China and the United States.

Science.gov (United States)

Forbes, Gordon B; Collinsworth, Linda L; Zhao, Peiling; Kohlman, Stephanie; LeClaire, Jessica

2011-01-01

Responses to conflict were studied in samples of college students from a highly collectivistic society (China, n = 207) and a highly individualistic society (United States n = 209). As predicted, the collectivistic society reported more conflict-reducing behaviors and less verbal or physical aggression. However, the effect of individualism/collectivism was moderated by both the ingroup/outgroup status of the target and gender of the participant. Chinese and US women did not differ on any measure. However, of the four groups, Chinese men reported the most conflict-reducing behaviors and the least physical aggression, whereas US men reported the fewest conflict-reducing behaviors and the greatest physical aggression. As predicted, conflict-reducing behaviors were more common in the ingroup condition and both verbal and physical aggression was more common in the outgroup condition. However, the latter were moderated by gender of the participant. US men reported greater physical aggression than any other group. Neither gender nor society had any effect on the level of indirect aggression. There were no gender or individualism/collectivism effects on indirect aggression. Observed gender effects were attributed to differences in how collectivistic and individualistic societies conceptualize masculinity. The effect sizes associated with the ingroup/outgroup condition were consistently and substantially larger than effect sizes associated with individualism/collectivism or gender. © 2011 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

The effects of ingroup and outgroup friendships on ethnic attitudes in college: A longitudinal study

OpenAIRE

Levin, Shana; van Laar, Colette; Sidanius, Jim

2003-01-01

Data for this longitudinal study were collected from over 2000 White, Asian, Latino, and African American college students. Results indicated that students who exhibited more ingroup bias and intergroup anxiety at the end of their first year of college had fewer outgroup friends and more ingroup friends during their second and third years of college, controlling for pre-college friendships and other background variables. In addition, beyond these effects of prior ethnic attitudes and orientat...

Any of them will do: In-group identification, out-group entitativity, and gang membership as predictors of group-based retribution.

Science.gov (United States)

Vasquez, Eduardo A; Wenborne, Lisa; Peers, Madeline; Alleyne, Emma; Ellis, Kirsty

2015-05-01

In non-gang populations, the degree of identification with an in-group and perceptions of out-group entitativity, the perception of an out-group as bonded or unified, are important contributors to group-based aggression or vicarious retribution. The link between these factors and group-based aggression, however, has not been examined in the context of street gangs. The current study assessed the relationship among in-group identification, perceptions of out-group entitativity, and the willingness to retaliate against members of rival groups who did not themselves attack the in-group among juvenile gang and non-gang members in London. Our results showed the predicted membership (gang/non-gang) × in-group identification × entitativity interaction. Decomposition of the three-way interaction by membership revealed a significant identification × entitativity interaction for gang, but not for non-gang members. More specifically, gang members who identify more strongly with their gang and perceived a rival group as high on entitativity were more willing to retaliate against any of them. In addition, entitativity was a significant predictor of group-based aggression after controlling for gender, in-group identification, and gang membership. Our results are consistent with socio-psychological theories of group-based aggression and support the proposal that such theories are applicable for understanding gang-related violence. Aggr. Behav. 41:242-252, 2015. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Converting Taxonomic Descriptions to New Digital Formats

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hong Cui

2008-01-01

Full Text Available Abstract.--The majority of taxonomic descriptions is currently in print format. The majority of digital descriptions are in formats such as DOC, HTML, or PDF and for human readers. These formats do not convey rich semantics in taxonomic descriptions for computer-aided process. Newer digital formats such as XML and RDF accommodate semantic annotations that allow computers to process the rich semantics on human's behalf, thus open up opportunities for a wide range of innovative usages of taxonomic descriptions, such as searching in more precise and flexible ways, integrating with gnomic and geographic information, generating taxonomic keys automatically, and text data mining and information visualization etc. This paper discusses the challenges in automated conversion of multiple collections of descriptions to XML format and reports an automated system, MARTT. MARTT is a machine-learning system that makes use of training examples to tag new descriptions into XML format. A number of utilities are implemented as solutions to the challenges. The utilities are used to reduce the effort for training example preparation, to facilitate the creation of a comprehensive schema, and to predict system performance on a new collection of descriptions. The system has been tested with several plant and alga taxonomic publications including Flora of China and Flora of North America.

Phylogenetic placement and taxonomy of the genus Hederorkis (Orchidaceae.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Joanna Mytnik-Ejsmont

Full Text Available Three plastid regions, matK, rpl32-trnL and rpl16 intron and the ITS1-5.8S-ITS2 nuclear ribosomal DNA were used to demonstrate a phylogenetic placement of the genus Hederorkis (Orchidaceae for the first time. The taxonomic position of this genus has been unclear thus far. The phylogenetic and morphological relations of Hederorkis to the most closely related genera Sirhookera, Adrorhizon, Bromheadia and Polystachya are also discussed. A hypothesis concerning an origin and evolution of Hederorkis is proposed. Hederorkis is an epiphytic two-leaved orchid genus with lateral inflorescence, non-resupinate flowers, elongate gynostemium and rudimentary column foot. It is native to the Indian Ocean Islands. Two species of Hederorkis are recognized worldwide, H. scandens endemic to Mauritius and Réunion and H. seychellensis endemic to Seychelles. For each of the species treated a full synonymy, detailed description and illustration are included. The distribution map and dichotomous keys to the species have also been provided.

Phylogenomics of the carrot genus (Daucus, Apiaceae)

Science.gov (United States)

Molecular phylogenetics of genome-scale data sets (phylogenomics) often produces phylogenetic trees with unprecedented resolution. We here explore the utility of multiple nuclear orthologs for the taxonomic resolution of a wide variety of Daucus species and outgroups. We studied the phylogeny of 89 ...

Radiologic placement of Hickman catheters

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Robertson, L.J.; Mauro, M.A.; Jaques, P.F.

1988-01-01

Hickman catheter inserter has previously been predominantly accomplished surgically by means of venous cutdown or percutaneous placement in the operating room. The authors describe their method and results for 55 consecutive percutaneous placements of Hickman catheters in the interventional radiology suite. Complication rates were comparable to those for surgical techniques. Radiologic placement resulted in increased convenience, decreased time and cost of insertion, and super fluoroscopic control of catheter placement and any special manipulations. Modern angiographic materials provide safer access to the subclavian vein than traditional methods. The authors conclude that radiologic placement of Hickman catheters offers significant advantages over traditional surgical placement

Taxonomic colouring of phylogenetic trees of protein sequences

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Andrade-Navarro Miguel A

2006-02-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Phylogenetic analyses of protein families are used to define the evolutionary relationships between homologous proteins. The interpretation of protein-sequence phylogenetic trees requires the examination of the taxonomic properties of the species associated to those sequences. However, there is no online tool to facilitate this interpretation, for example, by automatically attaching taxonomic information to the nodes of a tree, or by interactively colouring the branches of a tree according to any combination of taxonomic divisions. This is especially problematic if the tree contains on the order of hundreds of sequences, which, given the accelerated increase in the size of the protein sequence databases, is a situation that is becoming common. Results We have developed PhyloView, a web based tool for colouring phylogenetic trees upon arbitrary taxonomic properties of the species represented in a protein sequence phylogenetic tree. Provided that the tree contains SwissProt, SpTrembl, or GenBank protein identifiers, the tool retrieves the taxonomic information from the corresponding database. A colour picker displays a summary of the findings and allows the user to associate colours to the leaves of the tree according to any number of taxonomic partitions. Then, the colours are propagated to the branches of the tree. Conclusion PhyloView can be used at http://www.ogic.ca/projects/phyloview/. A tutorial, the software with documentation, and GPL licensed source code, can be accessed at the same web address.

Current Taxonomical Situation of Streptococcus suis.

Science.gov (United States)

Okura, Masatoshi; Osaki, Makoto; Nomoto, Ryohei; Arai, Sakura; Osawa, Ro; Sekizaki, Tsutomu; Takamatsu, Daisuke

2016-06-24

Streptococcus suis, a major porcine pathogen and an important zoonotic agent, is considered to be composed of phenotypically and genetically diverse strains. However, recent studies reported several "S. suis-like strains" that were identified as S. suis by commonly used methods for the identification of this bacterium, but were regarded as distinct species from S. suis according to the standards of several taxonomic analyses. Furthermore, it has been suggested that some S. suis-like strains can be assigned to several novel species. In this review, we discuss the current taxonomical situation of S. suis with a focus on (1) the classification history of the taxon of S. suis; (2) S. suis-like strains revealed by taxonomic analyses; (3) methods for detecting and identifying this species, including a novel method that can distinguish S. suis isolates from S. suis-like strains; and (4) current topics on the reclassification of S. suis-like strains.

Taxonomic bias in biodiversity data and societal preferences.

Science.gov (United States)

Troudet, Julien; Grandcolas, Philippe; Blin, Amandine; Vignes-Lebbe, Régine; Legendre, Frédéric

2017-08-22

Studying and protecting each and every living species on Earth is a major challenge of the 21 st century. Yet, most species remain unknown or unstudied, while others attract most of the public, scientific and government attention. Although known to be detrimental, this taxonomic bias continues to be pervasive in the scientific literature, but is still poorly studied and understood. Here, we used 626 million occurrences from the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), the biggest biodiversity data portal, to characterize the taxonomic bias in biodiversity data. We also investigated how societal preferences and taxonomic research relate to biodiversity data gathering. For each species belonging to 24 taxonomic classes, we used the number of publications from Web of Science and the number of web pages from Bing searches to approximate research activity and societal preferences. Our results show that societal preferences, rather than research activity, strongly correlate with taxonomic bias, which lead us to assert that scientists should advertise less charismatic species and develop societal initiatives (e.g. citizen science) that specifically target neglected organisms. Ensuring that biodiversity is representatively sampled while this is still possible is an urgent prerequisite for achieving efficient conservation plans and a global understanding of our surrounding environment.

Placement of acid spoil materials

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Pionke, H B; Rogowski, A S

1982-06-01

Potentially there are several chemical and hydrologic problems associated with placement of acid spoil materials. The rationale for a deep placement well below the soil surface, and preferably below a water table, is to prevent or minimize oxidation of pyrite to sulfuric acid and associated salts by reducing the supply of oxygen. If, however, substantial sulfuric acid or associated salts are already contained within the spoil because of present or previous mining, handling and reclamation operations (or if large supplies of indigenous salts exist, placement below a water table) may actually increase the rate of acid and salt leaching. Specific placement of acid- and salt-containing spoil should be aimed at preventing contact with percolating water or rising water tables. We recommend placement based on chemical and physical spoil properties that may affect water percolation O/sub 2/ diffusion rates in the profile. Both the deeper placement of acid spoil and coarser particle size can substantially reduce the amount of acid drainage. Placement above the water table with emphasis on percolate control may be better for high sulfate spoils, while placement below the non-fluctuating water table may be better for pyritic spoils.

Ethnic identity and paranoid thinking: Implicit out-group preference and language dominance predict paranoia in Emirati women.

Science.gov (United States)

Thomas, Justin; Bentall, Richard P; Hadden, Lowri; O'Hara, Lily

2017-09-01

Psychotic experiences including persecutory beliefs are elevated among immigrant and minority populations, especially when living in low ethnic density neighbourhoods (the ethnic density effect). Discrimination, victimization and experiencing a sense of 'not belonging' are hypothesized to play a role in this effect. Because a secure ethnic identity protects against poor self-esteem it may also protect against paranoia. This study explores the relationship between language proficiency (Arabic/English), in-group identity (implicit and explicit) and paranoia in female Emirati university students. Female citizens of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Emirati college women (N = 208), reported English/Arabic language proficiencies, and performed a computerized affective priming task engineered to implicitly assess in-group (Emirati) versus out-group (American) positivity. Participants also completed self-report measures of in-group identity (MIIS), and paranoia (PaDs). Arabic proficiency was negatively correlated with paranoia, as was implicit in-group positivity. Furthermore, participants reporting English language dominance, and those demonstrating an implicit out-group preference, reported the highest levels of paranoia. The study is limited by its use of an all female sample. Implicit in-group attitudes and linguistic competence protect against paranoia and may help to explain the ethnic density effect. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Parental Control over Mate Choice to Prevent Marriages with Out-group Members: A Study among Mestizos, Mixtecs, and Blacks in Mexico.

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Buunk, A.P.; Pollet, T.V.; Dubbs, S.L.

2012-01-01

The present research examined how a preference for influencing the mate choice of one's offspring is associated with opposition to out-group mating among parents from three ethnic groups in the Mexican state of Oaxaca: mestizos (people of mixed descent, n = 103), indigenous Mixtecs (n = 65), and

Parental Control over Mate Choice to Prevent Marriages with Out-group Members A Study among Mestizos, Mixtecs, and Blacks in Mexico

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Buunk, Abraham P.; Pollet, Thomas V.; Dubbs, Shelli

The present research examined how a preference for influencing the mate choice of one's offspring is associated with opposition to out-group mating among parents from three ethnic groups in the Mexican state of Oaxaca: mestizos (people of mixed descent, n = 103), indigenous Mixtecs (n = 65), and

How Does Biological Belief in Race Relate to Our Feelings towards In-Group and Out-Groups?: A Cognitive Dissonance Framework

Science.gov (United States)

Tawa, John; Kim, Grace S.

2011-01-01

This study considered the effect of belief in race as a biological construct (RACEBIO) and inter-group anxiety (IGA) on in-group racial salience (IGRS) and out-group discomfort (OGD). Participants included 66 racially and ethnically diverse high school boarding students. As hypothesized, RACEBIO was positively related to both IGRS and OGD. In…

Why good placements matter: Pre-placement and placement risk factors associated with mental health disorders in pre-school children in foster care.

Science.gov (United States)

Hillen, Thomas; Gafson, Leonie

2015-07-01

Pre-school children placed in local authority care show elevated rates of mental health disorders when compared to the general population. This study investigated risk factors for mental health disorders relating to the period prior to entering care and while in care. A representative sample of 43 children in care aged 0-72 months in an inner London borough underwent comprehensive multidimensional assessments. Presence of emotional, behavioural, attachment and adaptive disorders was ascertained. Exposure to two pre-placement risk factors and six placement risk factors was compared between children with and without a disorder. A total of 26 children (60.5%) had at least one mental health disorder. The two pre-placement risk factors, multiple types of maltreatment and entry into care after the age of 6 months, were both significantly associated with mental health disorders. The three placement risk factors of sudden placement moves, multiple placement moves and child-carer alienation showed a significant association with mental health disorders. There was a strong correlation between the number of risk factors and the number of co-morbid mental health disorders per child (r = .67, p school mental health. © The Author(s) 2014.

Sediment Placement Areas 2012

Data.gov (United States)

California Natural Resource Agency — Dredge material placement sites (DMPS), including active, inactive, proposed and historical placement sites. Dataset covers US Army Corps of Engineers San Francisco...

Sediment Placement Areas 2012

Data.gov (United States)

California Department of Resources — Dredge material placement sites (DMPS), including active, inactive, proposed and historical placement sites. Dataset covers US Army Corps of Engineers San Francisco...

Comparing the temporal dynamics of thematic and taxonomic processing using event-related potentials.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Olivera Savic

Full Text Available We report the results of a study comparing the temporal dynamics of thematic and taxonomic knowledge activation in a picture-word priming paradigm using event-related potentials. Although we found no behavioral differences between thematic and taxonomic processing, ERP data revealed distinct patterns of N400 and P600 amplitude modulation for thematic and taxonomic priming. Thematically related target stimuli elicited less negativity than taxonomic targets between 280-460 ms after stimulus onset, suggesting easier semantic processing of thematic than taxonomic relationships. Moreover, P600 mean amplitude was significantly increased for taxonomic targets between 520-600 ms, consistent with a greater need for stimulus reevaluation in that condition. These results offer novel evidence in favor of a dissociation between thematic and taxonomic thinking in the early phases of conceptual evaluation.

Comparing the temporal dynamics of thematic and taxonomic processing using event-related potentials.

Science.gov (United States)

Savic, Olivera; Savic, Andrej M; Kovic, Vanja

2017-01-01

We report the results of a study comparing the temporal dynamics of thematic and taxonomic knowledge activation in a picture-word priming paradigm using event-related potentials. Although we found no behavioral differences between thematic and taxonomic processing, ERP data revealed distinct patterns of N400 and P600 amplitude modulation for thematic and taxonomic priming. Thematically related target stimuli elicited less negativity than taxonomic targets between 280-460 ms after stimulus onset, suggesting easier semantic processing of thematic than taxonomic relationships. Moreover, P600 mean amplitude was significantly increased for taxonomic targets between 520-600 ms, consistent with a greater need for stimulus reevaluation in that condition. These results offer novel evidence in favor of a dissociation between thematic and taxonomic thinking in the early phases of conceptual evaluation.

Product Placement in Cartoons

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Irena Oroz Štancl

2014-06-01

Full Text Available Product placement is a marketing approach for integrating products or services into selected media content. Studies have shown that the impact of advertising on children and youth are large, and that it can affect their preferences and attitudes. The aim of this article is to determine the existing level of product placement in cartoons that are broadcast on Croatian television stations. Content analysis of cartoons in a period of one month gave the following results: in 30% of cartoons product placement was found; most product placement were visual ads, in 89%, however, auditory product placement and plot connection was also found. Most ads were related to toys and it is significant that even 65% of cartoons are accompanied by a large amount of products available on the Croatian market. This is the result of two sales strategies: brand licensing (selling popular cartoon characters to toys, food or clothing companies and cartoon production based on existing line of toys with the sole aim of making their sales more effective.

Boat boarding ladder placement

Science.gov (United States)

1998-04-01

Presented in three volumes; 'Boat Boarding Ladder Placement,' which explores safety considerations including potential for human contact with a rotating propeller; 'Boat Handhold Placement,' which explores essential principles and methods of fall con...

Taxonomic research priorities for the conservation of the South African flora

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lize von Staden

2013-04-01

Full Text Available Taxonomic revisions, monographs and floras are the most important, and often the only source of data for assessing the extinction risk of plants, with recent revisions contributing to more accurate assessments. The recently completed Red List of South African plants involved an overview of the taxonomic literature pertaining to the South African flora, providing an opportunity to identify critical gaps in taxonomic coverage. In this study we identified taxonomic research priorities for effective conservation of South African plants. Priorities were identified at genus level, according to time since last revision, level of endemism, collecting effort, proportion of taxa included in revisions, and specimen identification confidence. Although the results indicate that 62% of the flora has been recently revised, revisionary taxonomic output has declined drastically, particularly in the past 10 years. This decline is a result of a decrease in revisionary productivity per taxonomist and not a result of a decline in the number of working taxonomists. The family Aizoaceae is the top priority for taxonomic research with 55% of taxa in need of revision, followed by Hyacinthaceae with 34% of taxa not yet revised. Ericaceae, Euphorbiaceae, Rutaceae, Malvaceae, Asteraceae and Acanthaceae are also priorities with over 30% of taxa last revised before 1970. We recommend the reinstatement of the Flora of Southern Africa project in an online format in order to centralise South Africa's existing taxonomic information and reinvigorate revisionary taxonomic study. This project will allow South Africa to fulfil its commitments to the Convention on Biodiversity by achieving Target 1 of the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation.

Taxonomic revision of Pachyptera (Bignonieae, Bignoniaceae

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jessica Nayara Carvalho Francisco

2018-01-01

Full Text Available Pachyptera DC. is a small genus of neotropical lianas included in tribe Bignonieae (Bignoniaceae. The genus has a complicated taxonomic history but currently includes species distributed from Belize to Southern Amazon. Pachyptera is characterised by four main synapomorphies, namely, a papery peeling bark, prophylls of the axillary buds organised in a series of three, patelliform glands arranged in lines in the upper portions of the calyx and corolla tube. Furthermore, members of the genus also have stems with four phloem wedges in cross-section and conspicuous extrafloral nectaries between the interpetiolar region and at the petiole apex, although these characters are also shared with other genera of tribe Bignonieae. Here, we present a taxonomic revision of Pachyptera, which includes a complete list of synonyms, detailed morphological descriptions of species and an identification key, as well as information on the habitat, distribution and phenology, nomenclatural notes, taxonomic comments and illustrations of all the species. In addition, we designate three lectotypes, propose one new combination, raise one variety to species status and describe a new species. After these adjustments, a Pachyptera with five well-defined species is recognised.

Taxonomic revision of Pachyptera (Bignonieae, Bignoniaceae).

Science.gov (United States)

Francisco, Jessica Nayara Carvalho; Lohmann, Lúcia G

2018-01-01

Pachyptera DC. is a small genus of neotropical lianas included in tribe Bignonieae (Bignoniaceae). The genus has a complicated taxonomic history but currently includes species distributed from Belize to Southern Amazon. Pachyptera is characterised by four main synapomorphies, namely, a papery peeling bark, prophylls of the axillary buds organised in a series of three, patelliform glands arranged in lines in the upper portions of the calyx and corolla tube. Furthermore, members of the genus also have stems with four phloem wedges in cross-section and conspicuous extrafloral nectaries between the interpetiolar region and at the petiole apex, although these characters are also shared with other genera of tribe Bignonieae. Here, we present a taxonomic revision of Pachyptera , which includes a complete list of synonyms, detailed morphological descriptions of species and an identification key, as well as information on the habitat, distribution and phenology, nomenclatural notes, taxonomic comments and illustrations of all the species. In addition, we designate three lectotypes, propose one new combination, raise one variety to species status and describe a new species. After these adjustments, a Pachyptera with five well-defined species is recognised.

Product placement and its aplication in foreign film

OpenAIRE

Vaněk, Tomáš

2010-01-01

Marketing and commertial communication and position of product placement within it, legislature governing product placement and its aplication, history of product placement, forms of product placement, use of product placement within marketing campaign, aplication of product placement in movie Casino Royale.

22 CFR 96.50 - Placement and post-placement monitoring until final adoption in incoming cases.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-04-01

... qualified escorts, if used, and, if possible, in the company of the prospective adoptive parent(s). (b) In... greater. (c) When a placement for adoption is in crisis in the post-placement phase, the agency or person... resolving the crisis and the placement is disrupted, the agency or person assuming custody of the child...

A format for phylogenetic placements.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Frederick A Matsen

Full Text Available We have developed a unified format for phylogenetic placements, that is, mappings of environmental sequence data (e.g., short reads into a phylogenetic tree. We are motivated to do so by the growing number of tools for computing and post-processing phylogenetic placements, and the lack of an established standard for storing them. The format is lightweight, versatile, extensible, and is based on the JSON format, which can be parsed by most modern programming languages. Our format is already implemented in several tools for computing and post-processing parsimony- and likelihood-based phylogenetic placements and has worked well in practice. We believe that establishing a standard format for analyzing read placements at this early stage will lead to a more efficient development of powerful and portable post-analysis tools for the growing applications of phylogenetic placement.

T-BAS: Tree-Based Alignment Selector toolkit for phylogenetic-based placement, alignment downloads and metadata visualization: an example with the Pezizomycotina tree of life.

Science.gov (United States)

Carbone, Ignazio; White, James B; Miadlikowska, Jolanta; Arnold, A Elizabeth; Miller, Mark A; Kauff, Frank; U'Ren, Jana M; May, Georgiana; Lutzoni, François

2017-04-15

High-quality phylogenetic placement of sequence data has the potential to greatly accelerate studies of the diversity, systematics, ecology and functional biology of diverse groups. We developed the Tree-Based Alignment Selector (T-BAS) toolkit to allow evolutionary placement and visualization of diverse DNA sequences representing unknown taxa within a robust phylogenetic context, and to permit the downloading of highly curated, single- and multi-locus alignments for specific clades. In its initial form, T-BAS v1.0 uses a core phylogeny of 979 taxa (including 23 outgroup taxa, as well as 61 orders, 175 families and 496 genera) representing all 13 classes of largest subphylum of Fungi-Pezizomycotina (Ascomycota)-based on sequence alignments for six loci (nr5.8S, nrLSU, nrSSU, mtSSU, RPB1, RPB2 ). T-BAS v1.0 has three main uses: (i) Users may download alignments and voucher tables for members of the Pezizomycotina directly from the reference tree, facilitating systematics studies of focal clades. (ii) Users may upload sequence files with reads representing unknown taxa and place these on the phylogeny using either BLAST or phylogeny-based approaches, and then use the displayed tree to select reference taxa to include when downloading alignments. The placement of unknowns can be performed for large numbers of Sanger sequences obtained from fungal cultures and for alignable, short reads of environmental amplicons. (iii) User-customizable metadata can be visualized on the tree. T-BAS Version 1.0 is available online at http://tbas.hpc.ncsu.edu . Registration is required to access the CIPRES Science Gateway and NSF XSEDE's large computational resources. icarbon@ncsu.edu. Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online. © The Author 2016. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com

ESL Placement and Schools

Science.gov (United States)

Callahan, Rebecca; Wilkinson, Lindsey; Muller, Chandra; Frisco, Michelle

2010-01-01

In this study, the authors explore English as a Second Language (ESL) placement as a measure of how schools label and process immigrant students. Using propensity score matching and data from the Adolescent Health and Academic Achievement Study and the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, the authors estimate the effect of ESL placement on immigrant achievement. In schools with more immigrant students, the authors find that ESL placement results in higher levels of academic performance; in schools with few immigrant students, the effect reverses. This is not to suggest a one-size-fits-all policy; many immigrant students, regardless of school composition, generational status, or ESL placement, struggle to achieve at levels sufficient for acceptance to a 4-year university. This study offers several factors to be taken into consideration as schools develop policies and practices to provide immigrant students opportunities to learn. PMID:20617111

Preoperative short hookwire placement for small pulmonary lesions: evaluation of technical success and risk factors for initial placement failure.

Science.gov (United States)

Iguchi, Toshihiro; Hiraki, Takao; Matsui, Yusuke; Fujiwara, Hiroyasu; Masaoka, Yoshihisa; Tanaka, Takashi; Sato, Takuya; Gobara, Hideo; Toyooka, Shinichi; Kanazawa, Susumu

2018-05-01

To retrospectively evaluate the technical success of computed tomography fluoroscopy-guided short hookwire placement before video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery and to identify the risk factors for initial placement failure. In total, 401 short hookwire placements for 401 lesions (mean diameter 9.3 mm) were reviewed. Technical success was defined as correct positioning of the hookwire. Possible risk factors for initial placement failure (i.e., requirement for placement of an additional hookwire or to abort the attempt) were evaluated using logistic regression analysis for all procedures, and for procedures performed via the conventional route separately. Of the 401 initial placements, 383 were successful and 18 failed. Short hookwires were finally placed for 399 of 401 lesions (99.5%). Univariate logistic regression analyses revealed that in all 401 procedures only the transfissural approach was a significant independent predictor of initial placement failure (odds ratio, OR, 15.326; 95% confidence interval, CI, 5.429-43.267; p < 0.001) and for the 374 procedures performed via the conventional route only lesion size was a significant independent predictor of failure (OR 0.793, 95% CI 0.631-0.996; p = 0.046). The technical success of preoperative short hookwire placement was extremely high. The transfissural approach was a predictor initial placement failure for all procedures and small lesion size was a predictor of initial placement failure for procedures performed via the conventional route. • Technical success of preoperative short hookwire placement was extremely high. • The transfissural approach was a significant independent predictor of initial placement failure for all procedures. • Small lesion size was a significant independent predictor of initial placement failure for procedures performed via the conventional route.

Rooting gene trees without outgroups: EP rooting.

Science.gov (United States)

Sinsheimer, Janet S; Little, Roderick J A; Lake, James A

2012-01-01

Gene sequences are routinely used to determine the topologies of unrooted phylogenetic trees, but many of the most important questions in evolution require knowing both the topologies and the roots of trees. However, general algorithms for calculating rooted trees from gene and genomic sequences in the absence of gene paralogs are few. Using the principles of evolutionary parsimony (EP) (Lake JA. 1987a. A rate-independent technique for analysis of nucleic acid sequences: evolutionary parsimony. Mol Biol Evol. 4:167-181) and its extensions (Cavender, J. 1989. Mechanized derivation of linear invariants. Mol Biol Evol. 6:301-316; Nguyen T, Speed TP. 1992. A derivation of all linear invariants for a nonbalanced transversion model. J Mol Evol. 35:60-76), we explicitly enumerate all linear invariants that solely contain rooting information and derive algorithms for rooting gene trees directly from gene and genomic sequences. These new EP linear rooting invariants allow one to determine rooted trees, even in the complete absence of outgroups and gene paralogs. EP rooting invariants are explicitly derived for three taxon trees, and rules for their extension to four or more taxa are provided. The method is demonstrated using 18S ribosomal DNA to illustrate how the new animal phylogeny (Aguinaldo AMA et al. 1997. Evidence for a clade of nematodes, arthropods, and other moulting animals. Nature 387:489-493; Lake JA. 1990. Origin of the metazoa. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 87:763-766) may be rooted directly from sequences, even when they are short and paralogs are unavailable. These results are consistent with the current root (Philippe H et al. 2011. Acoelomorph flatworms are deuterostomes related to Xenoturbella. Nature 470:255-260).

My date can call me sweet but my colleague can't : Meta-stereotypic behavior as a function of context and liking of the outgroup

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Koudenburg, Namkje; Gordijn, Ernestine H.

2011-01-01

In two experiments we examined the influence of meta-stereotypes (beliefs regarding stereotypes that the outgroup has about one's ingroup) in different contexts. In Study 1, we demonstrated that women have the same meta-stereotype about men in dating and work contexts, but experience the

Two mitochondrial genomes in Alcedinidae (Ceryle rudis/Halcyon pileata) and the phylogenetic placement of Coraciiformes.

Science.gov (United States)

Sun, Xiaomin; Zhao, Ruoping; Zhang, Ting; Gong, Jie; Jing, Meidong; Huang, Ling

2017-10-01

Coraciiformes comprises 209 species belonging to ten families with significant divergence on external morphologies and life styles. The phylogenetic placement of Coraciiformes was still in debate. Here, we determined the complete mitochondrial genomes (mitogenomes) of Crested Kingfisher (Ceryle rudis) and Black-capped Kingfisher (Halcyon pileata). The mitogenomes were 17,355 bp (C. rudis) and 17,612 bp (H. pileata) in length, and both of them contained 37 genes (two rRNA genes, 22 tRNA genes and 13 protein-coding genes) and one control region. The gene organizations and characters of two mitogenomes were similar with those of other mitogenomes in Coraciiformes, however the sizes and nucleotide composition of control regions in different mitogenomes were significantly different. Phylogenetic trees were constructed with both Bayesian and Maximum Likelihood methods based on mitogenome sequences from 11 families of six orders. The trees based on two different data sets supported the basal position of Psittacidae (Psittaciformes), the closest relationship between Cuculiformes (Cuculidae) and Trogoniformes (Trogonidae), and the close relationship between Coraciiformes and Piciformes. The phylogenetic placement of the clade including Cuculiformes and Trogoniformes has not been resolved in present study, which need further investigations with more molecular markers and species. The mitogenome sequences presented here provided valuable data for further taxonomic studies on Coraciiformes and other related groups.

Humanitarian engineering placements in our own communities

Science.gov (United States)

VanderSteen, J. D. J.; Hall, K. R.; Baillie, C. A.

2010-05-01

There is an increasing interest in the humanitarian engineering curriculum, and a service-learning placement could be an important component of such a curriculum. International placements offer some important pedagogical advantages, but also have some practical and ethical limitations. Local community-based placements have the potential to be transformative for both the student and the community, although this potential is not always seen. In order to investigate the role of local placements, qualitative research interviews were conducted. Thirty-two semi-structured research interviews were conducted and analysed, resulting in a distinct outcome space. It is concluded that local humanitarian engineering placements greatly complement international placements and are strongly recommended if international placements are conducted. More importantly it is seen that we are better suited to address the marginalised in our own community, although it is often easier to see the needs of an outside populace.

Integrating DNA barcode data and taxonomic practice: determination, discovery, and description.

Science.gov (United States)

Goldstein, Paul Z; DeSalle, Rob

2011-02-01

DNA barcodes, like traditional sources of taxonomic information, are potentially powerful heuristics in the identification of described species but require mindful analytical interpretation. The role of DNA barcoding in generating hypotheses of new taxa in need of formal taxonomic treatment is discussed, and it is emphasized that the recursive process of character evaluation is both necessary and best served by understanding the empirical mechanics of the discovery process. These undertakings carry enormous ramifications not only for the translation of DNA sequence data into taxonomic information but also for our comprehension of the magnitude of species diversity and its disappearance. This paper examines the potential strengths and pitfalls of integrating DNA sequence data, specifically in the form of DNA barcodes as they are currently generated and analyzed, with taxonomic practice.

Placement suitability criteria of composite tape for mould surface in automated tape placement

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Zhang Peng

2015-10-01

Full Text Available Automated tape placement is an important automated process used for fabrication of large composite structures in aeronautical industry. The carbon fiber composite parts realized with this process tend to replace the aluminum parts produced by high-speed machining. It is difficult to determine the appropriate width of the composite tape in automated tape placement. Wrinkling will appear in the tape if it does not suit for the mould surface. Thus, this paper deals with establishing placement suitability criteria of the composite tape for the mould surface. With the assumptions for ideal mapping and by applying some principles and theorems of differential geometry, the centerline trajectory of the composite tape is identified to follow the geodesic. The placement suitability of the composite tape is examined on three different types of non-developable mould surfaces and four criteria are derived. The developed criteria have been used to test the deposition process over several mould surfaces and the appropriate width for each mould surface is obtained by referring to these criteria.

SPOT-A SENSOR PLACEMENT OPTIMIZATION TOOL FOR ...

Science.gov (United States)

journal article This paper presents SPOT, a Sensor Placement Optimization Tool. SPOT provides a toolkit that facilitates research in sensor placement optimization and enables the practical application of sensor placement solvers to real-world CWS design applications. This paper provides an overview of SPOT’s key features, and then illustrates how this tool can be flexibly applied to solve a variety of different types of sensor placement problems.

FANTOM: Functional and taxonomic analysis of metagenomes

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sanli Kemal

2013-02-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Interpretation of quantitative metagenomics data is important for our understanding of ecosystem functioning and assessing differences between various environmental samples. There is a need for an easy to use tool to explore the often complex metagenomics data in taxonomic and functional context. Results Here we introduce FANTOM, a tool that allows for exploratory and comparative analysis of metagenomics abundance data integrated with metadata information and biological databases. Importantly, FANTOM can make use of any hierarchical database and it comes supplied with NCBI taxonomic hierarchies as well as KEGG Orthology, COG, PFAM and TIGRFAM databases. Conclusions The software is implemented in Python, is platform independent, and is available at http://www.sysbio.se/Fantom.

Money for microbes-Pathogen avoidance and out-group helping behaviour.

Science.gov (United States)

Laakasuo, Michael; Köbis, Nils; Palomäki, Jussi; Jokela, Markus

2017-02-23

Humans have evolved various adaptations against pathogens, including the physiological immune system. However, not all of these adaptations are physiological: the cognitive mechanisms whereby we avoid potential sources of pathogens-for example, disgust elicited by uncleanliness-can be considered as parts of a behavioural immune system (BIS). The mechanisms of BIS extend also to inter-group relations: Pathogen cues have been shown to increase xenophobia/ethnocentrism, as people prefer to keep their societal in-group norms unaltered and "clean." Nonetheless, little is known how pathogen cues influence people's willingness to provide humanitarian aid to out-group members. We examined how pathogen cues affected decisions of providing humanitarian aid in either instrumental (sending money) or non-instrumental form (sending personnel to help, or accepting refugees), and whether these effects were moderated by individual differences in BIS sensitivity. Data were collected in two online studies (Ns: 188 and 210). When the hypothetical humanitarian crisis involved a clear risk of infection, participants with high BIS sensitivity preferred to send money rather than personnel or to accept refugees. The results suggest that pathogen cues influence BIS-sensitive individuals' willingness to provide humanitarian aid when there is a risk of contamination to in-group members. © 2017 International Union of Psychological Science.

Stereotype content model explains prejudice for an envied outgroup: Scale of anti-Asian American Stereotypes.

Science.gov (United States)

Lin, Monica H; Kwan, Virginia S Y; Cheung, Anna; Fiske, Susan T

2005-01-01

The Stereotype Content Model hypothesizes anti-Asian American stereotypes differentiating two dimensions: (excessive) competence and (deficient) sociability. The Scale of Anti-Asian American Stereotypes (SAAAS) shows this envious mixed prejudice in six studies. Study 1 began with 131 racial attitude items. Studies 2 and 3 tested 684 respondents on a focused 25-item version. Studies 4 and 5 tested the final 25-item SAAAS on 222 respondents at three campuses; scores predicted outgroup friendships, cultural experiences, and (over)estimated campus presence. Study 6 showed that allegedly low sociability, rather than excessively high competence, drives rejection of Asian Americans, consistent with system justification theory. The SAAAS demonstrates mixed, envious anti-Asian American prejudice, contrasting with more-often-studied contemptuous racial prejudices (i.e., against Blacks).

Placement Stability, Cumulative Time in Care, and Permanency: Using Administrative Data from CPS to Track Placement Trajectories.

Science.gov (United States)

Hélie, Sonia; Poirier, Marie-Andrée; Esposito, Tonino; Turcotte, Daniel

2017-11-17

Objectives : The Quebec Youth Protection Act was amended in 2007. The main goal of this reform was to improve placement stability for children who are removed from their home for their protection. Among several legal provisions introduced was the establishment of maximum age-specific durations of out-of-home care, after which a plan must be established to provide stability for children placed in substitute care by finding permanent homes for them. The purpose of this study is (1) to examine trends in placement use and placement stability since the reform and (2) to document the current frequency of each type of placement setting, the cumulative time in care before the exit to permanency, and the sustainability of the permanency outcome. Methods: The study relies on 3 entry cohorts of all children investigated who received protection measures in the province of Quebec during 3 specific time frames before and after the reform ( n = 9620, 8676, 8425). Cohorts were observed for a period varying from 3 to 4 years. Administrative data from all 16 child protection agencies were used to track placement trajectory indicators and to compare cohorts. Results : There has been a decrease in the proportion of children receiving protection measures who were placed in care since the reform, and placement in kinship care has become more frequent among children placed. Placement stability improved slightly after the reform. Overall, for infants, the most frequent type of permanency attained is adoption, while reunification is the option most often indicated for older children. Some children are at a greater risk of experiencing unstable placement trajectories: young children have a high rate of reunification breakdown, some wait a long time to be adopted, and adolescents are frequently removed from the substitute care setting where they were supposed to stay until the age of 18. Conclusions : The results suggest interesting avenues for policy makers and service providers to improve

Placement Stability, Cumulative Time in Care, and Permanency: Using Administrative Data from CPS to Track Placement Trajectories

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sonia Hélie

2017-11-01

Full Text Available Objectives: The Quebec Youth Protection Act was amended in 2007. The main goal of this reform was to improve placement stability for children who are removed from their home for their protection. Among several legal provisions introduced was the establishment of maximum age-specific durations of out-of-home care, after which a plan must be established to provide stability for children placed in substitute care by finding permanent homes for them. The purpose of this study is (1 to examine trends in placement use and placement stability since the reform and (2 to document the current frequency of each type of placement setting, the cumulative time in care before the exit to permanency, and the sustainability of the permanency outcome. Methods: The study relies on 3 entry cohorts of all children investigated who received protection measures in the province of Quebec during 3 specific time frames before and after the reform (n = 9620, 8676, 8425. Cohorts were observed for a period varying from 3 to 4 years. Administrative data from all 16 child protection agencies were used to track placement trajectory indicators and to compare cohorts. Results: There has been a decrease in the proportion of children receiving protection measures who were placed in care since the reform, and placement in kinship care has become more frequent among children placed. Placement stability improved slightly after the reform. Overall, for infants, the most frequent type of permanency attained is adoption, while reunification is the option most often indicated for older children. Some children are at a greater risk of experiencing unstable placement trajectories: young children have a high rate of reunification breakdown, some wait a long time to be adopted, and adolescents are frequently removed from the substitute care setting where they were supposed to stay until the age of 18. Conclusions: The results suggest interesting avenues for policy makers and service

Placement Stability, Cumulative Time in Care, and Permanency: Using Administrative Data from CPS to Track Placement Trajectories

Science.gov (United States)

Hélie, Sonia; Poirier, Marie-Andrée; Esposito, Tonino; Turcotte, Daniel

2017-01-01

Objectives: The Quebec Youth Protection Act was amended in 2007. The main goal of this reform was to improve placement stability for children who are removed from their home for their protection. Among several legal provisions introduced was the establishment of maximum age-specific durations of out-of-home care, after which a plan must be established to provide stability for children placed in substitute care by finding permanent homes for them. The purpose of this study is (1) to examine trends in placement use and placement stability since the reform and (2) to document the current frequency of each type of placement setting, the cumulative time in care before the exit to permanency, and the sustainability of the permanency outcome. Methods: The study relies on 3 entry cohorts of all children investigated who received protection measures in the province of Quebec during 3 specific time frames before and after the reform (n = 9620, 8676, 8425). Cohorts were observed for a period varying from 3 to 4 years. Administrative data from all 16 child protection agencies were used to track placement trajectory indicators and to compare cohorts. Results: There has been a decrease in the proportion of children receiving protection measures who were placed in care since the reform, and placement in kinship care has become more frequent among children placed. Placement stability improved slightly after the reform. Overall, for infants, the most frequent type of permanency attained is adoption, while reunification is the option most often indicated for older children. Some children are at a greater risk of experiencing unstable placement trajectories: young children have a high rate of reunification breakdown, some wait a long time to be adopted, and adolescents are frequently removed from the substitute care setting where they were supposed to stay until the age of 18. Conclusions: The results suggest interesting avenues for policy makers and service providers to improve the

Are people more prejudiced toward groups that are perceived as coherent? A meta-analysis of the relationship between outgroup entitativity and prejudice

OpenAIRE

Lovakov, Andrey; Agadullina, Elena

2017-01-01

A meta-analysis was conducted to examine the relationship between outgroup entitativity and prejudice. A quantitative analysis of 85 effect sizes from 33 independent samples showed a significant positive relationship between entitativity and prejudice (Fisher’s z = .414, 95% CI [.272, .557], p < .0001). Three possible moderators of the relationship between entitativity and prejudice were tested: conceptualization of the entitativity (essence-based entitativity scale, agency-based entitativ...

Global hotspots and correlates of alien species richness across taxonomic groups

Science.gov (United States)

Dawson, Wayne; Moser, Dietmar; van Kleunen, Mark; Kreft, Holger; Pergl, Jan; Pysek, Petr; Weigelt, Patrick; Winter, Marten; Lenzner, Bernd; Blackburn, Tim M.; Dyer, Ellie; Cassey, Phillip; Scrivens, Sally-Louise; Economo, Evan P.; Guenard, Benoit; Capinha, Cesar; Seebens, Hanno; Garcia-Diaz, Pablo; Nentwig, Wolfgang; Garcia-Berthou, Emili; Casal, Christine; Mandrak, Nicholas E.; Fuller, Pam; Meyer, Carsten; Essl, Franz

2017-01-01

Human-mediated transport beyond biogeographic barriers has led to the introduction and establishment of alien species in new regions worldwide. However, we lack a global picture of established alien species richness for multiple taxonomic groups. Here, we assess global patterns and potential drivers of established alien species richness across eight taxonomic groups (amphibians, ants, birds, freshwater fishes, mammals, vascular plants, reptiles and spiders) for 186 islands and 423 mainland regions. Hotspots of established alien species richness are predominantly island and coastal mainland regions. Regions with greater gross domestic product per capita, human population density, and area have higher established alien richness, with strongest effects emerging for islands. Ants and reptiles, birds and mammals, and vascular plants and spiders form pairs of taxonomic groups with the highest spatial congruence in established alien richness, but drivers explaining richness differ between the taxa in each pair. Across all taxonomic groups, our results highlight the need to prioritize prevention of further alien species introductions to island and coastal mainland regions globally.

Two-Phase Algorithm for Optimal Camera Placement

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jun-Woo Ahn

2016-01-01

Full Text Available As markers for visual sensor networks have become larger, interest in the optimal camera placement problem has continued to increase. The most featured solution for the optimal camera placement problem is based on binary integer programming (BIP. Due to the NP-hard characteristic of the optimal camera placement problem, however, it is difficult to find a solution for a complex, real-world problem using BIP. Many approximation algorithms have been developed to solve this problem. In this paper, a two-phase algorithm is proposed as an approximation algorithm based on BIP that can solve the optimal camera placement problem for a placement space larger than in current studies. This study solves the problem in three-dimensional space for a real-world structure.

Ingroups and Outgroups in Complaints: Exploring Politic Behaviour in Nurses’ Discourse

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mariana Virginia Lazzaro-Salazar

2017-11-01

Full Text Available The relevance of social norms for understanding appropriate behaviour in context has taken central stage in (impoliteness research in recent years, and particularly in studies of workplace interaction (Holmes, 2012. As an example of this research, this paper explores the way in which a group of nurses interacting with their colleagues negotiates complaints. The data were collected in a ward of a public healthcare institution in New Zealand and consist of audio and video recordings of four roster meetings involving nurses and nurse managers. Instances of nurses’ complaints are explored from an interactional sociolinguistic point of view, allowing the researcher to investigate emergent facework (drawing on Locher and Watts, 2005. The findings suggest that multiple ingroup and outgroup memberships, achieved through the dynamic use of personal pronouns, enact preferred politic behaviour for both, transactional and relational goals. In addition, nurses’ convergence in their display of socio-pragmatic norms governing their complaining practices suggests that this group of nurses belongs to the same workplace community. Finally, strong emphasis is placed on the role that complaining plays in the positive presentation of nurses’ identities.

Mathematics Placement at the University of Illinois

Science.gov (United States)

Ahlgren Reddy, Alison; Harper, Marc

2013-01-01

Data from the ALEKS-based placement program at the University of Illinois is presented visually in several ways. The placement exam (an ALEKS assessment) contains precise item-specific information and the data show many interesting properties of the student populations of the placement courses, which include Precalculus, Calculus, and Business…

ColorPhylo: A Color Code to Accurately Display Taxonomic Classifications.

Science.gov (United States)

Lespinats, Sylvain; Fertil, Bernard

2011-01-01

Color may be very useful to visualise complex data. As far as taxonomy is concerned, color may help observing various species' characteristics in correlation with classification. However, choosing the number of subclasses to display is often a complex task: on the one hand, assigning a limited number of colors to taxa of interest hides the structure imbedded in the subtrees of the taxonomy; on the other hand, differentiating a high number of taxa by giving them specific colors, without considering the underlying taxonomy, may lead to unreadable results since relationships between displayed taxa would not be supported by the color code. In the present paper, an automatic color coding scheme is proposed to visualise the levels of taxonomic relationships displayed as overlay on any kind of data plot. To achieve this goal, a dimensionality reduction method allows displaying taxonomic "distances" onto a Euclidean two-dimensional space. The resulting map is projected onto a 2D color space (the Hue, Saturation, Brightness colorimetric space with brightness set to 1). Proximity in the taxonomic classification corresponds to proximity on the map and is therefore materialised by color proximity. As a result, each species is related to a color code showing its position in the taxonomic tree. The so called ColorPhylo displays taxonomic relationships intuitively and can be combined with any biological result. A Matlab version of ColorPhylo is available at http://sy.lespi.free.fr/ColorPhylo-homepage.html. Meanwhile, an ad-hoc distance in case of taxonomy with unknown edge lengths is proposed.

Taxonomic formula of geoecological hazard for the cadastral districts of Moscow city

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Karfidova E.A.

2018-01-01

Full Text Available the article proposes a method for calculating the taxonomic formula for the geoecological hazard of the cadastral district. The engineering-geological zoning map uses for calculating the balance of the territory by the hazard index – the basis of the taxonomic formula. The taxonomic formula as an open data set makes it possible to characterize the geoecological hazards of the territory of a district. The geoenvironmental hazard map of cadastral districts is necessary for regional model of spatial planning at the municipal level.

Product placement of computer games in cyberspace.

Science.gov (United States)

Yang, Heng-Li; Wang, Cheng-Shu

2008-08-01

Computer games are considered an emerging media and are even regarded as an advertising channel. By a three-phase experiment, this study investigated the advertising effectiveness of computer games for different product placement forms, product types, and their combinations. As the statistical results revealed, computer games are appropriate for placement advertising. Additionally, different product types and placement forms produced different advertising effectiveness. Optimum combinations of product types and placement forms existed. An advertisement design model is proposed for use in game design environments. Some suggestions are given for advertisers and game companies respectively.

K.S. Micro-Implant Placement Guide

OpenAIRE

Sharma, K; Sangwan, A

2014-01-01

A one of the greatest concerns with orthodontic mini-implants is risk of injury to dental roots during placement is, especially when they are inserted between teeth. Many techniques have been used to facilitate safe placement of interradicular miniscrews. Brass Wires or metallic markers are easy to place in the interproximal spaces, but because their relative positions may be inconsistent in different radio -graphic views, they are not always accurate. K.S. micro implant placement guide sugge...

Analyses of the stability and core taxonomic memberships of the human microbiome.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kelvin Li

Full Text Available Analyses of the taxonomic diversity associated with the human microbiome continue to be an area of great importance. The study of the nature and extent of the commonly shared taxa ("core", versus those less prevalent, establishes a baseline for comparing healthy and diseased groups by quantifying the variation among people, across body habitats and over time. The National Institutes of Health (NIH sponsored Human Microbiome Project (HMP has provided an unprecedented opportunity to examine and better define what constitutes the taxonomic core within and across body habitats and individuals through pyrosequencing-based profiling of 16S rRNA gene sequences from oral, skin, distal gut (stool, and vaginal body habitats from over 200 healthy individuals. A two-parameter model is introduced to quantitatively identify the core taxonomic members of each body habitat's microbiota across the healthy cohort. Using only cutoffs for taxonomic ubiquity and abundance, core taxonomic members were identified for each of the 18 body habitats and also for the 4 higher-level body regions. Although many microbes were shared at low abundance, they exhibited a relatively continuous spread in both their abundance and ubiquity, as opposed to a more discretized separation. The numbers of core taxa members in the body regions are comparatively small and stable, reflecting the relatively high, but conserved, interpersonal variability within the cohort. Core sizes increased across the body regions in the order of: vagina, skin, stool, and oral cavity. A number of "minor" oral taxonomic core were also identified by their majority presence across the cohort, but with relatively low and stable abundances. A method for quantifying the difference between two cohorts was introduced and applied to samples collected on a second visit, revealing that over time, the oral, skin, and stool body regions tended to be more transient in their taxonomic structure than the vaginal body region.

Fast and accurate taxonomic assignments of metagenomic sequences using MetaBin.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Vineet K Sharma

Full Text Available Taxonomic assignment of sequence reads is a challenging task in metagenomic data analysis, for which the present methods mainly use either composition- or homology-based approaches. Though the homology-based methods are more sensitive and accurate, they suffer primarily due to the time needed to generate the Blast alignments. We developed the MetaBin program and web server for better homology-based taxonomic assignments using an ORF-based approach. By implementing Blat as the faster alignment method in place of Blastx, the analysis time has been reduced by severalfold. It is benchmarked using both simulated and real metagenomic datasets, and can be used for both single and paired-end sequence reads of varying lengths (≥45 bp. To our knowledge, MetaBin is the only available program that can be used for the taxonomic binning of short reads (<100 bp with high accuracy and high sensitivity using a homology-based approach. The MetaBin web server can be used to carry out the taxonomic analysis, by either submitting reads or Blastx output. It provides several options including construction of taxonomic trees, creation of a composition chart, functional analysis using COGs, and comparative analysis of multiple metagenomic datasets. MetaBin web server and a standalone version for high-throughput analysis are available freely at http://metabin.riken.jp/.

Prejudice at the nexus of race and gender: an outgroup male target hypothesis.

Science.gov (United States)

Navarrete, Carlos David; McDonald, Melissa M; Molina, Ludwin E; Sidanius, Jim

2010-06-01

Adopting an evolutionary approach to the psychology of race bias, we posit that intergroup conflict perpetrated by male aggressors throughout human evolutionary history has shaped the psychology of modern forms of intergroup bias and that this psychology reflects the unique adaptive problems that differ between men and women in coping with male aggressors from groups other than one's own. Here we report results across 4 studies consistent with this perspective, showing that race bias is moderated by gender differences in traits relevant to threat responses that differ in their adaptive utility between the sexes-namely, aggression and dominance motives for men and fear of sexual coercion for women. These results are consistent with the notion that the psychology of intergroup bias is generated by different psychological systems for men and women, and the results underscore the importance of considering the gender of the outgroup target as well as the gender of the agent in psychological studies on prejudice and discrimination. (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved).

Avibase – a database system for managing and organizing taxonomic concepts

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Denis Lepage

2014-06-01

Full Text Available Scientific names of biological entities offer an imperfect resolution of the concepts that they are intended to represent. Often they are labels applied to entities ranging from entire populations to individual specimens representing those populations, even though such names only unambiguously identify the type specimen to which they were originally attached. Thus the real-life referents of names are constantly changing as biological circumscriptions are redefined and thereby alter the sets of individuals bearing those names. This problem is compounded by other characteristics of names that make them ambiguous identifiers of biological concepts, including emendations, homonymy and synonymy. Taxonomic concepts have been proposed as a way to address issues related to scientific names, but they have yet to receive broad recognition or implementation. Some efforts have been made towards building systems that address these issues by cataloguing and organizing taxonomic concepts, but most are still in conceptual or proof-of-concept stage. We present the on-line database Avibase as one possible approach to organizing taxonomic concepts. Avibase has been successfully used to describe and organize 844,000 species-level and 705,000 subspecies-level taxonomic concepts across every major bird taxonomic checklist of the last 125 years. The use of taxonomic concepts in place of scientific names, coupled with efficient resolution services, is a major step toward addressing some of the main deficiencies in the current practices of scientific name dissemination and use.

Partitioning taxonomic diversity of aquatic insect assemblages ...

Science.gov (United States)

Biological diversity can be divided into: alpha (α, local), beta (β, difference in assemblage composition among locals), and gamma (γ, total diversity). We assessed the partitioning of taxonomic diversity of Ephemeroptera, Plecoptera and Trichoptera (EPT) and of functional feeding groups (FFG) in Neotropical Savanna (southeastern Brazilian Cerrado) streams. To do so, we considered three diversity components: stream site (α), among stream sites (β1), and among hydrologic units (β2). We also evaluated the association of EPT genera composition with heterogeneity in land use, instream physical habitat structure, and instream water quality variables. The percent of EPT taxonomic α diversity (20.7%) was lower than the β1 and β2 diversities (53.1% and 26.2%, respectively). The EPT FFG α diversity (26.5%) was lower than the β1 diversity (55.8%) and higher than the β2 (17.7%) diversity. The collector-gatherer FFG was predominant and had the greatest β diversity among stream sites (β1, 55.8%). Our findings support the need for implementing regional scale conservation strategies in the Cerrado biome, which has been degraded by anthropogenic activities. Using adaptations of the US EPA’s National Aquatic Resource Survey (NARS) designs and methods, Ferreira and colleagues examined the distribution of taxonomic and functional diversity of aquatic insects among basins, stream sites within basins, and within stream sample reaches. They sampled 160 low-order stre

NODC Standard Product: NODC Taxonomic Code on CD-ROM (NODC Accession 0050418)

Data.gov (United States)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — The content of the NODC Taxonomic Code, Version 8 CD-ROM (CD-ROM NODC-68) distributed by NODC is archived in this accession. Version 7 of the NODC Taxonomic Code...

A taxonomic revision of Lamium (Lamiaceae)

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Mennema, J.

1989-01-01

The present study deals with the systematics and taxonomy of the genus Lamium (Lamiaceae). The taxonomic revision is mainly based on the study of herbarium collections, and to a smaller degree on field observations and abstracts from literature. The research was done at the Rijksherbarium, Leyden,

Taxonomic novelties in African Dracaena (Dracaenaceae)

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Damen, T.H.J.; Burg, van der W.J.; Wiland-Szymańska, J.; Sosef, M.S.M.

2018-01-01

In preparing the treatment of Dracaena for Flore du Gabon and Flore d’Afrique centrale, a relatively high number of taxonomic and nomenclatural novelties were discovered; these are presented here. Within Dracaena five species and one forma are described as new, D. bushii, D. haemanthoides, D.

Childhood adversity, perceived discrimination, and coping strategies in relation to depressive symptoms among First Nations adults in Canada: The moderating role of unsupportive social interactions from ingroup and outgroup members.

Science.gov (United States)

McQuaid, Robyn Jane; Bombay, Amy; McInnis, Opal Arilla; Matheson, Kimberly; Anisman, Hymie

2015-07-01

Aboriginal peoples are at greater risk of experiencing early life adversity relative to non-Aboriginal peoples in Canada, and as adults frequently experience high levels of discrimination that act as a further stressor. Although these factors appear to contribute to high rates of depressive disorders and suicidality in Aboriginal peoples, the psychosocial factors that contribute to the relationship between childhood adversity and the development of depressive symptoms have hardly been assessed in this group. The present investigation explored potential mediators to help explain the relation between childhood trauma and depressive symptoms among a sample of First Nations adults from across Canada. These mediated relationships were further examined in the context of unsupportive social interactions from ingroup and outgroup members. In Study 1, (N = 225), the relationship between childhood trauma and depression scores was mediated by perceived discrimination, and this was particularly notable in the presence of unsupportive relations with outgroup members. In Study 2, (N = 134) the relationship between childhood trauma and depressive symptoms was mediated by emotion-focused coping that was specific to coping with experiences of ethnic discrimination, and this mediated effect was moderated by both outgroup and ingroup unsupportive social interactions. Thus, it seems that experiences of discrimination and unsupport might contribute to depressive symptoms among First Nations adults who had experienced early life adverse events. (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved).

Genomic characterization reconfirms the taxonomic status of Lactobacillus parakefiri

Science.gov (United States)

TANIZAWA, Yasuhiro; KOBAYASHI, Hisami; KAMINUMA, Eli; SAKAMOTO, Mitsuo; OHKUMA, Moriya; NAKAMURA, Yasukazu; ARITA, Masanori; TOHNO, Masanori

2017-01-01

Whole-genome sequencing was performed for Lactobacillus parakefiri JCM 8573T to confirm its hitherto controversial taxonomic position. Here, we report its first reliable reference genome. Genome-wide metrics, such as average nucleotide identity and digital DNA-DNA hybridization, and phylogenomic analysis based on multiple genes supported its taxonomic status as a distinct species in the genus Lactobacillus. The availability of a reliable genome sequence will aid future investigations on the industrial applications of L. parakefiri in functional foods such as kefir grains. PMID:28748134

Angioplasty and stent placement - carotid artery

Science.gov (United States)

... medlineplus.gov/ency/article/002953.htm Angioplasty and stent placement - carotid artery To use the sharing features ... to remove plaque buildup ( endarterectomy ) Carotid angioplasty with stent placement Description Carotid angioplasty and stenting (CAS) is ...

Using geographical and taxonomic metadata to set priorities in specimen digitization

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Walter G. Berendsohn

2010-10-01

Full Text Available Digitizing the information carried by specimens in natural history collections is a key endeavor providing falsifiable information about past and present biodiversity on a global scale, for application in a variety of research fields far beyond the current application in biosystematics. Existing digitization efforts are driven by individual institutional necessities and are not coordinated on a global scale. This led to an over-all information resource that is patchy in taxonomic and geographic coverage as well as in quality. Digitizing all specimens is not an achievable aim at present, so that priorities need to be set. Most biodiversity studies are both taxonomically and geographically restricted, but access to non-digitized collection information is almost exclusively by taxon name. Creating a “Geotaxonomic Index” providing metadata on the number of specimens from a specific geographic region belonging to a specific higher taxonomic category may provide a means to attract the attention of researchers and governments towards relevant non-digitized holdings of the collections and set priorities for their digitization according to the needs of information users outside the taxonomic community.

Planned and unplanned terminations of foster care placements in the Netherlands: Relationships with characteristics of foster children and foster placements

NARCIS (Netherlands)

van Rooij, F.; Maaskant, A.; Weijers, I.; Weijers, D.; Hermanns, J.

2015-01-01

This study examined the role of placement and child characteristics in the unplanned termination of foster placements. Data were used from 169 foster children aged 0 to 20. Results showed that 35% of all foster placement terminations were unplanned. Outcomes of logistic regression analyses

A Cognitive Model of College Mathematics Placement

Science.gov (United States)

1989-08-01

study focused on the precalculus -- calculus placement decision. The Cognitive model uses novel, or analysis level, placement test items in an attempt to...relative to the requirements of a precalculus course. Placement test scores may be partitioned to give analysis and non-analysis subtest scores which can...67 5.1.1 1989 Intercorrelations ....................................................................... 67 5.1.2 1989 Precalculus -Calculus

The benefits of a 5-day dysphagia intensive placement

OpenAIRE

Cocks, N.; Harding, C.; Pritchard, M.

2014-01-01

Finding practical dysphagia opportunities for students pre-qualification is challenging. Discussions with clinicians led to the development of a new placement model. The placement was just five days and had an accompanying workbook. The current study aimed to evaluate the benefits of the placement. Data were analysed from 40 students who attended an adult dysphagia placement and 13 who attended a paediatric dysphagia placement. Measures included a pre and post self-rating questionnaire, quali...

Multi-scale functional and taxonomic β-diversity of the macroinvertebrate communities in a Mediterranean coastal lagoon

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

D. CABANA

2017-03-01

Full Text Available Benthic macroinvertebrate communities form the basis of the intricate lagoonal food web. Understanding their functional and taxonomic response, from a β-diversity perspective, is essential to disclose underlying patterns with potential applicability in conservation and management actions. Within the central lagoon of Messolonghi we studied the main environmental components structuring the macroinvertebrate community. We analyzed the β-taxonomic and β-functional diversity across the main habitats and seasons, over a year time frame. Our results outline habitat type and vegetation biomass as the major factors structuring the communities. We found environmental variability to have a positive correlation with functional β-diversity, however no correlation was found with taxonomic β-diversity. Across the seasons an asynchronous response of the functional and taxonomic β-diversity was identified. The taxonomic composition displayed significant heterogeneity during the driest period and the functional during the rainy season. Across the habitats the unvegetated presented higher taxonomic homogeneity and functionally heterogeneity, contrary the vegetated habitats present higher taxonomic variability and functional homogeneity. Across the seasons and habitats a pattern of functional redundancy and taxonomic replacement was identified. Besides high functional turnover versus low taxonomic turnover was documented in an anthropogenic organically enriched habitat We conclude that habitats display independent functional and taxonomic seasonal patterns, thus different processes may contribute to their variability. The framework presented here highlights the importance of studying both β-diversity components framed in a multiscale approach to better understand ecological processes and variability patterns. These results are important to understand macroinvertebrate community assembly processes and are valuable for conservation purposes.

Optimal DG placement in deregulated electricity market

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gautam, Durga; Mithulananthan, Nadarajah

2007-01-01

This paper presents two new methodologies for optimal placement of distributed generation (DG) in an optimal power flow (OPF) based wholesale electricity market. DG is assumed to participate in real time wholesale electricity market. The problem of optimal placement, including size, is formulated for two different objectives, namely, social welfare maximization and profit maximization. The candidate locations for DG placement are identified on the basis of locational marginal price (LMP). Obtained as lagrangian multiplier associated with active power flow equation for each node, LMP gives the short run marginal cost (SRMC) of electricity. Consumer payment, evaluated as a product of LMP and load at each load bus, is proposed as another ranking to identify candidate nodes for DG placement. The proposed rankings bridges engineering aspects of system operation and economic aspects of market operation and act as good indicators for the placement of DG, especially in a market environment. In order to provide a scenario of variety of DGs available in the market, several cost characteristics are assumed. For each DG cost characteristic, an optimal placement and size is identified for each of the objectives. The proposed methodology is tested in a modified IEEE 14 bus test system. (author)

Reactions to ingroup and outgroup deviants: an experimental group paradigm for black sheep effect.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Marika Rullo

Full Text Available In the classic black sheep effect (BSE an ingroup deviant member is usually evaluated more negatively than the corresponding outgroup deviant. This effect is usually obtained by using scenarios and asking people to imagine the situation as vividly as possible. The present study proposes a new method to investigate the BSE by considering the behavioral and physiological reactions to unfair behavior (aggressive game behavior in a realistic experimental group-setting. The study involved 52 university students in a minimal group setting who performed a modified version of the competitive reaction time (CRT task adapted to be played in groups of four people. The classic BSE was replicated for evaluation but not for the behavioral reactions (retaliate to aggression to deviants. More interestingly, a negative relationship emerged in the ingroup deviant condition between the level of behavioral derogation and the systolic blood pressure level.

Human impacts on functional and taxonomic homogenization of plateau fish assemblages in Yunnan, China

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Guohuan Su

2015-07-01

Full Text Available Human activities and the consequent extinctions of native species and invasions of non-native species have been changing the composition of species assemblages worldwide. These anthropogenic impacts alter not only the richness of assemblages but also the biological dissimilarity among them. However, much of the research effort to date has focused on changes in taxonomic dissimilarity (i.e. accounting for species composition whether assessments of functional dissimilarity (i.e. accounting for the diversity of biological traits are much more scarce, despite revealing important complimentary information by accounting for changes in the diversity of biological traits. Here, we assess the temporal (1950s against 2000s changes in both taxonomic and functional dissimilarities of freshwater fish assemblages across lakes from the Yunnan Plateau in China. The Jaccard index to quantify the changes in both taxonomic and functional dissimilarity. We then partitioned dissimilarity to extract its turnover component and measured the changes in the contribution of turnover to dissimilarity. We found that functional and taxonomic homogenization occurred simultaneously. However, patterns between these two processes differed for some lakes. Taxonomic and functional homogenizations were stronger when the historical level of taxonomic dissimilarity among assemblages was high. The impact of extinctions of native species and invasions of non-native species on homogenization was otherwise complex to disentangle with no significant effect of any of the studied environmental factors. In agreement with other studies, our study proved that change in taxonomic dissimilarity cannot be used to predict changes in functional dissimilarity and, as an indicator of ecosystem functioning, functional dissimilarity should be used together with taxonomic dissimilarity to attain a more holistic understanding of human impacts on natural ecosystems.

Product Placement and Brand Equity

OpenAIRE

Corniani, Margherita

2003-01-01

Product placement is the planned insertion of a brand within a movie, a fiction, etc. It can be used with other communication tools (i.e. advertising, sales promotions, etc.) in order to disseminate brand awareness and characterize brand image, developing brand equity. In global markets, product placement is particularly useful for improving brand equity of brands with a well established brand awareness.

Terrorist threat and perceived Islamic support for terrorist attacks as predictors of personal and institutional out-group discrimination and support for anti-immigration policies: evidence from 9 European countries

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Doosje, B.; Zimmermann, A.; Küpper, B.; Zick, A.; Meertens, R.

2009-01-01

Traditionally, research has shown that subtle and blatant prejudices are important predictors of out-group discrimination and support for anti-immigration policies. The present paper shows that, when controlling for these types of prejudices and for political conservatism, terrorist threat and

PEG Tube Placement

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Saptarshi Biswas

2014-01-01

Full Text Available Percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy (PEG has been used for providing enteral access to patients who require long-term enteral nutrition for years. Although generally considered safe, PEG tube placement can be associated with many immediate and delayed complications. Buried bumper syndrome (BBS is one of the uncommon and late complications of percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy (PEG placement. It occurs when the internal bumper of the PEG tube erodes into the gastric wall and lodges itself between the gastric wall and skin. This can lead to a variety of additional complications such as wound infection, peritonitis, and necrotizing fasciitis. We present here a case of buried bumper syndrome which caused extensive necrosis of the anterior abdominal wall.

Artificial Intelligence based technique for BTS placement

Science.gov (United States)

Alenoghena, C. O.; Emagbetere, J. O.; Aibinu, A. M.

2013-12-01

The increase of the base transceiver station (BTS) in most urban areas can be traced to the drive by network providers to meet demand for coverage and capacity. In traditional network planning, the final decision of BTS placement is taken by a team of radio planners, this decision is not fool proof against regulatory requirements. In this paper, an intelligent based algorithm for optimal BTS site placement has been proposed. The proposed technique takes into consideration neighbour and regulation considerations objectively while determining cell site. The application will lead to a quantitatively unbiased evaluated decision making process in BTS placement. An experimental data of a 2km by 3km territory was simulated for testing the new algorithm, results obtained show a 100% performance of the neighbour constrained algorithm in BTS placement optimization. Results on the application of GA with neighbourhood constraint indicate that the choices of location can be unbiased and optimization of facility placement for network design can be carried out.

Artificial Intelligence based technique for BTS placement

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Alenoghena, C O; Emagbetere, J O; 1 Minna (Nigeria))" data-affiliation=" (Department of Telecommunications Engineering, Federal University of Techn.1 Minna (Nigeria))" >Aibinu, A M

2013-01-01

The increase of the base transceiver station (BTS) in most urban areas can be traced to the drive by network providers to meet demand for coverage and capacity. In traditional network planning, the final decision of BTS placement is taken by a team of radio planners, this decision is not fool proof against regulatory requirements. In this paper, an intelligent based algorithm for optimal BTS site placement has been proposed. The proposed technique takes into consideration neighbour and regulation considerations objectively while determining cell site. The application will lead to a quantitatively unbiased evaluated decision making process in BTS placement. An experimental data of a 2km by 3km territory was simulated for testing the new algorithm, results obtained show a 100% performance of the neighbour constrained algorithm in BTS placement optimization. Results on the application of GA with neighbourhood constraint indicate that the choices of location can be unbiased and optimization of facility placement for network design can be carried out

Dental hygiene student experiences in external placements in Australia.

Science.gov (United States)

Taylor, Jane A; Hayes, Melanie J; Wallace, Linda

2012-05-01

While placements in external locations are being increasingly used in dental education globally, few studies have explored the student learning experience at such placements. The purpose of this study was to investigate student experiences while on external placement in a baccalaureate dental hygiene program. A self-reporting questionnaire was distributed to final-year dental hygiene students (n=77) at the University of Newcastle, Australia, in 2010. The questionnaire included questions regarding the type of placement, experiences offered, supervision, resources available, and lasting impressions. Responding students were generally positive about their external placement experience and indicated that the majority of facilities provided them with the opportunity to provide direct patient care and perform clinical tasks typical of a practicing hygienist. However, there was a statistically significant difference in their opinions about discipline-focused and community placements. Students indicated that their external placement experience provided opportunities to learn more about time and patient management, including hands-on experience with specific clinical tasks. Ongoing evaluations are necessary to ensure that external placements meet both student needs and intended learning outcomes within dental hygiene programs.

Developing green supply chain management strategies: A taxonomic approach

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Michael Mutingi

2013-06-01

Full Text Available Purpose: The objective of this research is to explore the empirical green supply chain activities found in literature, and to develop a taxonomic framework that can be used for formulating appropriate strategies for green supply chains, based on characteristic dimensions for the green supply chain. Design/methodology/approach: The taxonomic framework is developed through (i analysis of green supply chain activities found in existing empirical work or case studies recorded in literature, (ii identification of key dimensions that influence green supply chain management strategies, and (iii development of a taxonomic scheme for selecting or developing green strategies. Findings: The paper finds that this study yielded: a set of three characteristic dimensions that influence strategic green supply chain management, and a guided structured approach selecting appropriate green strategies, providing managerial insights. Research limitations/implications: This paper shows that future work includes development of specific performance management indices according to the taxonomy of green strategies developed in this study. Practical implications: This research provided a practical guided approach that enhances appropriate formulation of green strategies for green supply chain management, while providing sound managerial insights for the supply chain decision maker. The choice of supply chain strategy directly impacts the overall environmental, economic and operations performance of the supply chain. Originality/value: This study presents to supply chain decision makers a new taxonomic framework that simplifies and enhances the formulation of green strategies, and to researchers a comparative understanding of various strategies applicable to green supply chains.

The taxlist package: managing plant taxonomic lists in R

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Miguel Alvarez

2018-05-01

Full Text Available Taxonomic lists are crucial elements of vegetation-plot databases and provide the links between original entries, reference taxon views and different taxon concepts. We introduce the R package taxlist in the context of object-oriented modelling for taxonomic lists. This package provides a data structure based on species lists in Turboveg, which is a software broadly used for the storage of vegetation-plot databases and implements functions for importing and handling them prior to statistical analysis. We also present a schema for relational databases, compatible with taxlist objects and recommend its use for handling diversity records.

A linear programming approach for placement of applicants to academic programs.

Science.gov (United States)

Kassa, Biniyam Asmare

2013-01-01

This paper reports a linear programming approach for placement of applicants to study programs developed and implemented at the college of Business & Economics, Bahir Dar University, Bahir Dar, Ethiopia. The approach is estimated to significantly streamline the placement decision process at the college by reducing required man hour as well as the time it takes to announce placement decisions. Compared to the previous manual system where only one or two placement criteria were considered, the new approach allows the college's management to easily incorporate additional placement criteria, if needed. Comparison of our approach against manually constructed placement decisions based on actual data for the 2012/13 academic year suggested that about 93 percent of the placements from our model concur with the actual placement decisions. For the remaining 7 percent of placements, however, the actual placements made by the manual system display inconsistencies of decisions judged against the very criteria intended to guide placement decisions by the college's program management office. Overall, the new approach proves to be a significant improvement over the manual system in terms of efficiency of the placement process and the quality of placement decisions.

Taxonomic separation of hippocampal networks: principal cell populations and adult neurogenesis

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Roelof Maarten evan Dijk

2016-03-01

Full Text Available While many differences in hippocampal anatomy have been described between species, it is typically not clear if they are specific to a particular species and related to functional requirements or if they are shared by species of larger taxonomic units. Without such information, it is difficult to infer how anatomical differences may impact on hippocampal function, because multiple taxonomic levels need to be considered to associate behavioral and anatomical changes. To provide information on anatomical changes within and across taxonomic ranks, we present a quantitative assessment of hippocampal principal cell populations in 20 species or strain groups, with emphasis on rodents, the taxonomic group that provides most animals used in laboratory research. Of special interest is the importance of adult hippocampal neurogenesis in species-specific adaptations relative to other cell populations. Correspondence analysis of cell numbers shows that across taxonomic units, phylogenetically related species cluster together, sharing similar proportions of principal cell populations. CA3 and hilus are strong separators that place rodent species into a tight cluster based on their relatively large CA3 and small hilus while non-rodent species (including humans and non-human primates are placed on the opposite side of the spectrum. Hilus and CA3 are also separators within rodents, with a very large CA3 and rather small hilar cell populations separating mole-rats from other rodents that, in turn, are separated from each other by smaller changes in the proportions of CA1 and granule cells. When adult neurogenesis is included, the relatively small populations of young neurons, proliferating cells and hilar neurons become main drivers of taxonomic separation within rodents. The observations provide challenges to the computational modeling of hippocampal function, suggest differences in the organization of hippocampal information streams in rodent and non

Taxonomic considerations in listing subspecies under the U.S. Endangered Species Act.

Science.gov (United States)

Haig, Susan M; Beever, Erik A; Chambers, Steven M; Draheim, Hope M; Dugger, Bruce D; Dunham, Susie; Elliott-Smith, Elise; Fontaine, Joseph B; Kesler, Dylan C; Knaus, Brian J; Lopes, Iara F; Loschl, Pete; Mullins, Thomas D; Sheffield, Lisa M

2006-12-01

The U.S. Endangered Species Act (ESA) allows listing of subspecies and other groupings below the rank of species. This provides the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service with a means to target the most critical unit in need of conservation. Although roughly one-quarter of listed taxa are subspecies, these management agencies are hindered by uncertainties about taxonomic standards during listing or delisting activities. In a review of taxonomic publications and societies, we found few subspecies lists and none that stated standardized criteria for determining subspecific taxa. Lack of criteria is attributed to a centuries-old debate over species and subspecies concepts. Nevertheless, the critical need to resolve this debate for ESA listings led us to propose that minimal biological criteria to define disjunct subspecies (legally or taxonomically) should include the discreteness and significance criteria of distinct population segments (as defined under the ESA). Our subspecies criteria are in stark contrast to that proposed by supporters of the phylogenetic species concept and provide a clear distinction between species and subspecies. Efforts to eliminate or reduce ambiguity associated with subspecies-level classifications will assist with ESA listing decisions. Thus, we urge professional taxonomic societies to publish and periodically update peer-reviewed species and subspecies lists. This effort must be paralleled throughout the world for efficient taxonomic conservation to take place.

Immediate placement of endosseous implants into the extraction sockets.

Science.gov (United States)

Ebenezer, Vijay; Balakrishnan, K; Asir, R Vigil Dev; Sragunar, Banu

2015-04-01

Implant by definition "means any object or material, such as an alloplastic substance or other tissue, which is partial or completely inserted into the body for therapeutic, diagnostic, prosthetic, or experimental purpose." The placement of a dental implant in an extraction socket at the time of extraction or explantation is known as immediate implant placement whereas delayed placement of implant signifies the implant placement in edentulous areas where healing has completed with new bone formation after the loss of tooth/teeth. Recent idea goes by "why late when it can be done immediately." There are several advantages of immediate placement of implants, and lots of studies have been done. In this article, the advantages and disadvantages of immediate versus delayed placement of implants have been reviewed.

More than just orphans: are taxonomically-restricted genes important in evolution?

Science.gov (United States)

Khalturin, Konstantin; Hemmrich, Georg; Fraune, Sebastian; Augustin, René; Bosch, Thomas C G

2009-09-01

Comparative genome analyses indicate that every taxonomic group so far studied contains 10-20% of genes that lack recognizable homologs in other species. Do such 'orphan' or 'taxonomically-restricted' genes comprise spurious, non-functional ORFs, or does their presence reflect important evolutionary processes? Recent studies in basal metazoans such as Nematostella, Acropora and Hydra have shed light on the function of these genes, and now indicate that they are involved in important species-specific adaptive processes. Here we focus on evidence from Hydra suggesting that taxonomically-restricted genes play a role in the creation of phylum-specific novelties such as cnidocytes, in the generation of morphological diversity, and in the innate defence system. We propose that taxon-specific genes drive morphological specification, enabling organisms to adapt to changing conditions.

Proboscidean mitogenomics: chronology and mode of elephant evolution using mastodon as outgroup.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Nadin Rohland

2007-08-01

Full Text Available We have sequenced the complete mitochondrial genome of the extinct American mastodon (Mammut americanum from an Alaskan fossil that is between 50,000 and 130,000 y old, extending the age range of genomic analyses by almost a complete glacial cycle. The sequence we obtained is substantially different from previously reported partial mastodon mitochondrial DNA sequences. By comparing those partial sequences to other proboscidean sequences, we conclude that we have obtained the first sequence of mastodon DNA ever reported. Using the sequence of the mastodon, which diverged 24-28 million years ago (mya from the Elephantidae lineage, as an outgroup, we infer that the ancestors of African elephants diverged from the lineage leading to mammoths and Asian elephants approximately 7.6 mya and that mammoths and Asian elephants diverged approximately 6.7 mya. We also conclude that the nuclear genomes of the African savannah and forest elephants diverged approximately 4.0 mya, supporting the view that these two groups represent different species. Finally, we found the mitochondrial mutation rate of proboscideans to be roughly half of the rate in primates during at least the last 24 million years.

Mathematics Placement Test: Typical Results with Unexpected Outcomes

Science.gov (United States)

Ingalls, Victoria

2011-01-01

Based on the results of a prior case-study analysis of mathematics placement at one university, the mathematics department developed and piloted a mathematics placement test. This article describes the implementation process for a mathematics placement test and further analyzes the test results for the pilot group. As an unexpected result, the…

Peculiarities of product placement in Lithuanian movies

OpenAIRE

Pilelienė, Lina; Jurgilaitė, Sigita

2013-01-01

The scientific problem analysed in the article is formulates as follows: how product placement is used in Lithuanian movies. The object of the article is product placement in Lithuanian movies, and the aim is to analyse the peculiarities of product placement in Lithuanian movies. Following methods were used to reveal the problem and reach the aim. Theoretical analysis of scientific literature was provided to construct the framework for the research. The analysis of current usage of product pl...

Growing Up Amid Ethno-political Conflict: Aggression and Emotional Desensitization Promote Hostility to Ethnic Out-groups

Science.gov (United States)

Niwa, Erika Y.; Boxer, Paul; Dubow, Eric; Huesmann, L. Rowell; Shikaki, Khalil; Landau, Simha; Gvirsman, Shira Dvir

2016-01-01

Ethno-political violence impacts thousands of youth and is associated with numerous negative outcomes. Yet little research examines adaptation to ethno-political violence over time or across multiple outcomes simultaneously. The present study examines longitudinal patterns of aggressive behavior and emotional distress as they co-occur among Palestinian (n=600) youth exposed to ethno-political violence over 3 years in 3 age cohorts (starting ages: 8, 11, 14). Findings indicate distinct profiles of aggressive behavior and emotional distress, and unique joint patterns. Further, youth among key joint profiles (e.g., high aggression-emotional desensitization) are more likely to endorse normative beliefs about aggression toward ethnic out-groups. This study offers a dynamic perspective on emotional and behavioral adaptation to ethno-political violence and the implications of those processes. PMID:27684400

Immediate placement of endosseous implants into the extraction sockets

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Vijay Ebenezer

2015-01-01

Full Text Available Implant by definition "means any object or material, such as an alloplastic substance or other tissue, which is partial or completely inserted into the body for therapeutic, diagnostic, prosthetic, or experimental purpose." The placement of a dental implant in an extraction socket at the time of extraction or explantation is known as immediate implant placement whereas delayed placement of implant signifies the implant placement in edentulous areas where healing has completed with new bone formation after the loss of tooth/teeth. Recent idea goes by "why late when it can be done immediately." There are several advantages of immediate placement of implants, and lots of studies have been done. In this article, the advantages and disadvantages of immediate versus delayed placement of implants have been reviewed.

Automated Fiber Placement of Advanced Materials (Preprint)

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Benson, Vernon M; Arnold, Jonahira

2006-01-01

.... ATK has been working with the Air Force Research Laboratory to foster improvements in the BMI materials and in the fiber placement processing techniques to achieve rates comparable to Epoxy placement rates...

How do we facilitate international clinical placements for nursing students: A cross-sectional exploration of the structure, aims and objectives of placements.

Science.gov (United States)

Browne, Caroline A; Fetherston, Catherine M

2018-07-01

International clinical placements provide undergraduate students with a unique and complex clinical learning environment, to explore cultural awareness, experience different health care settings and achieve clinical competencies. Higher education institutions need to consider how to structure these placements to ensure appropriate and achievable aims and learning outcomes. In this study we described the structure, aims and learning outcomes associated with international clinical placement opportunities currently undertaken by Australian undergraduate nursing students in the Asia region. Forty eight percent (n = 18) of the institutions invited responded. Eight institutions met the inclusion criteria, one of which offered three placements in the region, resulting in 10 international placements for which data were provided. An online survey tool was used to collect data during August and September 2015 on international clinical placements conducted by the participating universities. Descriptive data on type and numbers of placements is presented, along with results from the content analysis conducted to explore data from open ended questions on learning aims and outcomes. One hundred students undertook 10 International Clinical Placements offered in the Asian region by eight universities. Variations across placements were found in the length of placement, the number of students participating, facilitator to student ratios and assessment techniques used. Five categories related to the aims of the programs were identified: 'becoming culturally aware through immersion', 'working with the community to promote health', 'understanding the role of nursing within the health care setting', 'translating theory into professional clinical practice', and 'developing relationships in international learning environments'. Four categories related to learning outcomes were identified: 'understanding healthcare and determinants of health', 'managing challenges', 'understanding the

STUDENT PLACEMENT

African Journals Online (AJOL)

User

students express lack of interest in the field they are placed, it ... be highly motivated to learn than students placed in a department ... the following research questions. Research Questions. •. Did the criteria used by Mekelle. University for placement of students into different departments affect the academic performance of ...

Taxonomic status of the roses (Rosa) described by S.G. Dimitrov from Bulgaria

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Zielinski, J.; Petrova, A; Tan, Kit

2004-01-01

The original herbarium vouchers for six species of Rosa (Rosaceae) described by S. G. Dimitrov from Bulgaria are taxonomically evaluated. Two species (R. balcanica, R. orphei) are considered hybrids, four other names (R. bulgarica, R. parilica, R. pontica and R. rhodopaea) are taxonomic synonyms...

Radiography students' perceptions of clinical placements - A Nigerian perspective

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ogbu, S.O.I.

2008-01-01

Purpose: To assess undergraduate radiography student perception of clinical placements and to evaluate their clinical learning experiences. Methods: To evaluate student perception of clinical placements, a Likert-scale questionnaire was used to assess clinical practice, the practice-learning environment. One hundred and seventy-eight undergraduate [student] radiographers participated in the study. Results: The students indicated they had adequate and enjoyed their time on the clinical placement. They also indicated the qualified staff was supportive, friendly and approachable. The students were able to achieve their learning outcomes during the placement. However placement venues, according to the students, had inadequate learning resources. No radiographic/medical imaging research findings, whether locally generated or otherwise, were used in clinical practice. Conclusions: Clinical placements had adequate student support. It provided a pleasant learning experience for the students and it enhanced their skills. Staff was willing and available to assist learning. Nevertheless, the training institutions, professional body and clinical placement providers need to make an effort to address inadequate learning resources (e.g. IT, library, study rooms) as well as the non-utilization of radiographic/medical imaging research findings

Korean deaf adolescents' recognition of written words for taxonomic categories of different levels.

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Degao; Yi, Kwangoh; Kim, Jung Yeon

2011-04-01

Deaf college students seem to have relatively stronger associations from words for taxonomic categories of basic (e.g., snake) to those of super-ordinate (e.g., reptiles) level than vice versa compared with hearing students in word association (Marschark, Convertino, McEvoy & Masteller, 2004). In deciding whether two sequentially presented words for taxonomic categories of different levels are conceptually related, deaf adolescents might therefore have a poorer performance when they see a category name before than when they see it after one of the corresponding exemplar words. Deaf Korean adolescents were found to recognize words for taxonomic categories of super-ordinate level with lower efficiencies than those of basic level. Their accuracy seemed to reflect a reversed typicality effect when they decided that first-presented words for taxonomic categories of basic level were conceptually related to second-presented words for those of super-ordinate level. It was argued that deaf Korean adolescents went through a temporary stage of having iconic representations of several exemplars of the category aroused in working memory before the abstract semantic representation was fully activated when they saw the word for a taxonomic category of super-ordinate level. © 2010 The Authors. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology © 2010 The Scandinavian Psychological Associations.

Selection of multiple umbrella species for functional and taxonomic diversity to represent urban biodiversity.

Science.gov (United States)

Sattler, T; Pezzatti, G B; Nobis, M P; Obrist, M K; Roth, T; Moretti, M

2014-04-01

Surrogates, such as umbrella species, are commonly used to reduce the complexity of quantifying biodiversity for conservation purposes. The presence of umbrella species is often indicative of high taxonomic diversity; however, functional diversity is now recognized as an important metric for biodiversity and thus should be considered when choosing umbrella species. We identified umbrella species associated with high taxonomic and functional biodiversity in urban areas in Switzerland. We analyzed 39,752 individuals of 574 animal species from 96 study plots and 1397 presences of 262 plant species from 58 plots. Thirty-one biodiversity measures of 7 taxonomic groups (plants, spiders, bees, ground beetles, lady bugs, weevils and birds) were included in within- and across-taxa analyses. Sixteen measures were taxonomical (species richness and species diversity), whereas 15 were functional (species traits including mobility, resource use, and reproduction). We used indicator value analysis to identify umbrella species associated with single or multiple biodiversity measures. Many umbrella species were indicators of high biodiversity within their own taxonomic group (from 33.3% in weevils to 93.8% in birds), to a lesser extent they were indicators across taxa. Principal component analysis revealed that umbrella species for multiple measures of biodiversity represented different aspects of biodiversity, especially with respect to measures of taxonomic and functional diversity. Thus, even umbrella species for multiple measures of biodiversity were complementary in the biodiversity aspects they represented. Thus, the choice of umbrella species based solely on taxonomic diversity is questionable and may not represent biodiversity comprehensively. Our results suggest that, depending on conservation priorities, managers should choose multiple and complementary umbrella species to assess the state of biodiversity. © 2013 Society for Conservation Biology.

Seasonality, distribution and taxonomic status of avian ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Description of a new species is based upon morphology of gametocyte development in the peripheral blood of the avian host. This does not distinguish between morphologically identical gametocytes from different avian host families, nor is species or family level a valid taxonomic character. Thus, Haemoproteus and ...

Entry-Level Placement Scores for the 1996-97 Academic Year.

Science.gov (United States)

Padron, Eduardo J.

This memorandum reviews the implementation of new, state-mandated placement criteria at Florida's Miami-Dade Community College (MDCC). The first section focuses on placement criteria for degree-seeking students, indicating that MDCC uses scores on the Florida College Entry-Level Placement Test for making placement decisions in reading, writing,…

Delayed bracket placement in orthodontic treatment

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Chandra Wigati

2008-12-01

Full Text Available Background: Beside bracket position, the timing of bracket placement is one of the most essential in orthodontic treatment with fixed appliances. Even it seems simple the timing of bracket placement can be crucial and significantly influence the result of orthodontic treatment. However it is often found brackets are placed without complete understanding of its purpose and effects, which could be useless and even detrimental for the case. Purpose: The aim of this case report is to show that the timing of bracket placement could be different depending on the cases. Case: Five different cases are presented here with different timing of bracket placement. Case management: On these cases, brackets were placed on the upper arch first, on the lower arch first, or even only on some teeth first. Good and efficient orthodontic treatment results were achieved. Conclusion: For every orthodontic case, from the very beginning of treatment, bracket should be placed with the end result in mind. If brackets are correctly placed at a correct time, better treatment result could be achieved without unnecessary round tripping tooth movement.

A Sea-of-Gates Style FPGA Placement Algorithm

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kalapi Roy

1996-01-01

Full Text Available Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs have a pre-defined chip boundary with fixed cell locations and routing resources. Placement objectives for flexible architectures (e.g., the standard cell design style such as minimization of chip area do not reflect the primary placement goals for FPGAs. For FPGAs, the layout tools must seek 100% routability within the architectural constraints. Routability and congestion estimates must be made directly based on the demand and availability of routing resources for detailed routing of the particular FPGA. We. present a hierarchical placement approach consisting of two phases: a global placement phase followed by a detailed placement phase. The global placement phase minimizes congestion estimates of the global routing regions and satisfies all constraints at a coarser level. The detailed placer seeks to maximize the routability of the FPGA by considering factors which cause congestion at the detailed routing level and to precisely satisfy all of the constraints. Despite having limited knowledge about the gate level architectural details, we have achieved a 90%reduction in the number of unrouted nets in comparison to an industrial tool (the only other tool developed specifically for this architecture.

Confirmation of Essure placement using transvaginal ultrasound.

Science.gov (United States)

Veersema, Sebastiaan; Vleugels, Michel; Koks, Caroline; Thurkow, Andreas; van der Vaart, Huub; Brölmann, Hans

2011-01-01

To evaluate the protocol for confirmation of satisfactory Essure placement using transvaginal ultrasound. Prospective multicenter cohort study (Canadian Task Force classification II-2). Outpatient departments of 4 teaching hospitals in the Netherlands. Eleven hundred forty-five women who underwent hysteroscopic sterilization using the Essure device between March 2005 and December 2007. Transvaginal ultrasound examination 12 weeks after uncomplicated successful bilateral placement or as indicated according to the transvaginal ultrasound protocol after 4 weeks, and hysterosalpingography (HSG) at 12 weeks to confirm correct placement of the device after 3 months. The rate of successful placement was 88.4% initially. In 164 women (15%), successful placement was confirmed at HSG according the protocol. In 9 patients (0.84%), incorrect position of the device was observed at HSG. The cumulative pregnancy rate after 18 months was 3.85 per thousand women. Transvaginal ultrasound should be the first diagnostic test used to confirm the adequacy of hysteroscopic Essure sterilization because it is minimally invasive, averts ionizing radiation, and does not decrease the effectiveness of the Essure procedure. Copyright © 2011 AAGL. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Brand placement prominence: good for memory! Bad for attitudes?

NARCIS (Netherlands)

van Reijmersdal, E.

2009-01-01

This paper presents two laws about the effects of brand placement on audience reactions. This article presents two laws about the effects of brand placement on audience reactions. Brand placement is the compensated inclusion of brands or brand identifiers within media programming. The first law

How media factors affect audience responses to brand placement

NARCIS (Netherlands)

van Reijmersdal, E.; Smit, E.; Neijens, P.

2010-01-01

This study investigates the influence of media factors on brand placement effects in a real-life setting. Although many studies on brand placement have been conducted, insights into context effects on brand placement reactions are scarce. The impact of objective and subjective media context factors

Impacted material placement plans

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hickey, M.J.

1997-01-01

Impacted material placement plans (IMPP) are documents identifying the essential elements in placing remediation wastes into disposal facilities. Remediation wastes or impacted material(s) are those components used in the construction of the disposal facility exclusive of the liners and caps. The components might include soils, concrete, rubble, debris, and other regulatory approved materials. The IMPP provides the details necessary for interested parties to understand the management and construction practices at the disposal facility. The IMPP should identify the regulatory requirements from applicable DOE Orders, the ROD(s) (where a part of a CERCLA remedy), closure plans, or any other relevant agreements or regulations. Also, how the impacted material will be tracked should be described. Finally, detailed descriptions of what will be placed and how it will be placed should be included. The placement of impacted material into approved on-site disposal facilities (OSDF) is an integral part of gaining regulatory approval. To obtain this approval, a detailed plan (Impacted Material Placement Plan [IMPP]) was developed for the Fernald OSDF. The IMPP provides detailed information for the DOE, site generators, the stakeholders, regulatory community, and the construction subcontractor placing various types of impacted material within the disposal facility

Taxonomically restricted genes are associated with the evolution of sociality in the honey bee

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Tsutsui Neil D

2011-03-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Studies have shown that taxonomically restricted genes are significant in number and important for the evolution of lineage specific traits. Social insects have gained many novel morphological and behavioral traits relative to their solitary ancestors. The task repertoire of an advanced social insect, for example, can be 40-50 tasks, about twice that of a solitary wasp or bee. The genetic basis of this expansion in behavioral repertoire is still poorly understood, and a role for taxonomically restricted genes has not been explored at the whole genome level. Results Here we present comparative genomics results suggesting that taxonomically restricted genes may have played an important role in generating the expansion of behavioral repertoire associated with the evolution of eusociality. First, we show that the current honey bee official gene set contains about 700 taxonomically restricted genes. These are split between orphans, genes found only in the Hymenoptera, and genes found only in insects. Few of the orphans or genes restricted to the Hymenoptera have been the focus of experimental work, but several of those that have are associated with novel eusocial traits or traits thought to have changed radically as a consequence of eusociality. Second, we predicted that if taxonomically restricted genes are important for generating novel eusocial traits, then they should be expressed with greater frequency in workers relative to the queen, as the workers exhibit most of the novel behavior of the honey bee relative to their solitary ancestors. We found support for this prediction. Twice as many taxonomically restricted genes were found amongst the genes with higher expression in workers compared to those with higher expression in queens. Finally, we compiled an extensive list of candidate taxonomically restricted genes involved in eusocial evolution by analyzing several caste specific gene expression data sets. Conclusions This

Do Work Placements Improve Final Year Academic Performance or Do High-Calibre Students Choose to Do Work Placements?

Science.gov (United States)

Jones, C. M.; Green, J. P.; Higson, H. E.

2017-01-01

This study investigates whether the completion of an optional sandwich work placement enhances student performance in final year examinations. Using Propensity Score Matching, our analysis departs from the literature by controlling for self-selection. Previous studies may have overestimated the impact of sandwich work placements on performance…

Taxonomic Challenges and Distribution of Gracilarioid Algae ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

This paper reviews the taxonomical literature of the gracilarioid algae from Tanzania, and provides information about their ecology and distribution based on an intensive regime of local collection. Its aim was to provide names, even if on a preliminary basis, for local gracilarioid taxa. Our revision shows that species ...

Environmental metabarcodes for insects: in silico PCR reveals potential for taxonomic bias.

Science.gov (United States)

Clarke, Laurence J; Soubrier, Julien; Weyrich, Laura S; Cooper, Alan

2014-11-01

Studies of insect assemblages are suited to the simultaneous DNA-based identification of multiple taxa known as metabarcoding. To obtain accurate estimates of diversity, metabarcoding markers ideally possess appropriate taxonomic coverage to avoid PCR-amplification bias, as well as sufficient sequence divergence to resolve species. We used in silico PCR to compare the taxonomic coverage and resolution of newly designed insect metabarcodes (targeting 16S) with that of existing markers [16S and cytochrome oxidase c subunit I (COI)] and then compared their efficiency in vitro. Existing metabarcoding primers amplified in silico 90% coverage. Furthermore, metabarcodes targeting COI appeared to introduce taxonomic PCR-amplification bias, typically amplifying a greater percentage of Lepidoptera and Diptera species, while failing to amplify certain orders in silico. To test whether bias predicted in silico was observed in vitro, we created an artificial DNA blend containing equal amounts of DNA from 14 species, representing 11 insect orders and one arachnid. We PCR-amplified the blend using five primer sets, targeting either COI or 16S, with high-throughput amplicon sequencing yielding more than 6 million reads. In vitro results typically corresponded to in silico PCR predictions, with newly designed 16S primers detecting 11 insect taxa present, thus providing equivalent or better taxonomic coverage than COI metabarcodes. Our results demonstrate that in silico PCR is a useful tool for predicting taxonomic bias in mixed template PCR and that researchers should be wary of potential bias when selecting metabarcoding markers. © 2014 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

K.s. Micro-implant placement guide.

Science.gov (United States)

Sharma, K; Sangwan, A

2014-09-01

A one of the greatest concerns with orthodontic mini-implants is risk of injury to dental roots during placement is, especially when they are inserted between teeth. Many techniques have been used to facilitate safe placement of interradicular miniscrews. Brass Wires or metallic markers are easy to place in the interproximal spaces, but because their relative positions may be inconsistent in different radio -graphic views, they are not always accurate. K.S. micro implant placement guide suggested in this article is simple design and easy in fabrication, required minimal equipment for fabrication and does not disturb the existing appliance system, clearly located in the radiograph and the mini-screw can be easily inserted through the guide reducing the chance of implant misplacement.

Placement education pedagogy as social participation: what are students really learning?

Science.gov (United States)

Kell, Clare

2014-03-01

This paper draws on empirical fieldwork data of naturally occurring UK physiotherapy placement education to make visible how education is actually carried out and suggest what students may be learning through their placement interactions. The data challenge everyone involved in placement education design and practice to consider the values and practices students are learning to perpetuate through placement education experiences. The researcher undertook an ethnomethodologically informed ethnographic observation of naturally occurring physiotherapy placement education in two UK NHS placement sites. This study adopted a social perspective of learning to focus on the minutiae of placement educator, student and patient interaction practices during student-present therapeutic activities. Two days of placement for each of six senior students were densely recorded in real-time focussing specifically on the verbal, kinesics and proxemics-based elements of the participants' interaction practices. Repeated cycles of data analysis suggested consistent practices irrespective of the placement, educators, students or patients. The data suggest that placement education is a powerful situated learning environment in which students see, experience and learn to reproduce the physiotherapy practices valued by the local placement. Consistently, placement educators and students co-produced patient-facing activities as spectacles of physiotherapy-as-science. In each setting, patients were used as person-absent audiovisual teaching aids from which students learnt to make a case for physiotherapy intervention. The paper challenges physiotherapists and other professions using work-placement education to look behind the rhetoric of their placement documentation and explore the reality of students' learning in the field. The UK-based physiotherapy profession may wish to consider further the possible implications of its self-definition as a 'science-based healthcare profession' on its in

Polyphasic taxonomic characterization of lactic acid bacteria ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

The results of these analyses showed that ting fermentation involved at least three different species of LAB, i.e. Lactobacillus fermentum, L. plantarum and L. rhamnosus. To our knowledge, this is the first report of polyphasic taxonomic characterization of LAB from this food. This research forms an essential first step towards ...

Internship guide : Work placements step by step

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Haag, Esther

2013-01-01

Internship Guide: Work Placements Step by Step has been written from the practical perspective of a placement coordinator. This book addresses the following questions : what problems do students encounter when they start thinking about the jobs their degree programme prepares them for? How do you

Phytoliths as Emerging Taxonomic Tools for Identification of Plants: An Overview

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sheikh Abdul Shakoor

2014-01-01

Full Text Available In the recent advancements in identification of plant species, phytoliths have found an immense role in the identification of plants at different levels of taxonomic hierarchy. Many plant groups are known to accumulate silica in solid form in and between the cells and tissues and hence create the structures commonly known as phytoliths. These phytoliths create replicas of the structures where they are deposited. The shapes of phytolith replicas, their size dimensions (morphometric parameters, surface features (ornamentation, distribution, and orientation pattern in epidermal layers of vegetative and reproductive structures as well as their frequency are highly important for characterization of species. Monocotyledonous families particularly the family Poaceae (Gramineae are known to produce diverse phytolith types that can serve as diagnostic markers for characterization of different taxa at different levels of taxonomic hierarchy. The present paper highlights the importance of phytoliths in taxonomic analysis of plants particularly in the family Poaceae.

A taxonomic study on the diversity of Indian Knema Lour. (Myristicaceae

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Dipanwita Banik

2016-06-01

Full Text Available A taxonomic study on the diversity of the genus Knema Lour. belonging to the family Myristicaceae R. Br. in India revealed the distribution of the ten taxa under four series in North East and Peninsular India and Andaman and Nicobar Islands including two endemic species. Knema ser. Obovoideae W.J. de Wilde is synonymised here under ser. Knema. Series Knema is represented by two species and ser. Glaucae W.J. de Wilde by one species in North East India, while ser. Laurinae W.J. de Wilde is represented by three species and two subspecies in North East India and Andaman and Nicobar Island, and ser. Glomeratae W.J. de Wilde by 2 species in South and NE India. This is the first taxonomic study on the genus in India. All the taxa are cited with updated nomenclature, diagnostic characters, distribution, phonological data, vernacular names, line drawings, photo plates and specimens examined in various herbaria. Taxonomic keys are provided for easy identification of these taxa.

An RTT-Aware Virtual Machine Placement Method

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Li Quan

2017-12-01

Full Text Available Virtualization is a key technology for mobile cloud computing (MCC and the virtual machine (VM is a core component of virtualization. VM provides a relatively independent running environment for different applications. Therefore, the VM placement problem focuses on how to place VMs on optimal physical machines, which ensures efficient use of resources and the quality of service, etc. Most previous work focuses on energy consumption, network traffic between VMs and so on and rarely consider the delay for end users’ requests. In contrast, the latency between requests and VMs is considered in this paper for the scenario of optimal VM placement in MCC. In order to minimize average RTT for all requests, the round-trip time (RTT is first used as the metric for the latency of requests. Based on our proposed RTT metric, an RTT-Aware VM placement algorithm is then proposed to minimize the average RTT. Furthermore, the case in which one of the core switches does not work is considered. A VM rescheduling algorithm is proposed to keep the average RTT lower and reduce the fluctuation of the average RTT. Finally, in the simulation study, our algorithm shows its advantage over existing methods, including random placement, the traffic-aware VM placement algorithm and the remaining utilization-aware algorithm.

Clinical placements in mental health: a literature review.

Science.gov (United States)

Happell, Brenda; Gaskin, Cadeyrn J; Byrne, Louise; Welch, Anthony; Gellion, Stephen

2015-01-01

Gaining experience in clinical mental health settings is central to the education of health practitioners. To facilitate the ongoing development of knowledge and practice in this area, we performed a review of the literature on clinical placements in mental health settings. Searches in Academic Search Complete, CINAHL, Medline and PsycINFO databases returned 244 records, of which 36 met the selection criteria for this review. Five additional papers were obtained through scanning the reference lists of those papers included from the initial search. The evidence suggests that clinical placements may have multiple benefits (e.g. improving students' skills, knowledge, attitudes towards people with mental health issues and confidence, as well as reducing their fears and anxieties about working in mental health). The location and structure of placements may affect outcomes, with mental health placements in non-mental health settings appearing to have minimal impact on key outcomes. The availability of clinical placements in mental health settings varies considerably among education providers, with some students completing their training without undertaking such structured clinical experiences. Students have generally reported that their placements in mental health settings have been positive and valuable experiences, but have raised concerns about the amount of support they received from education providers and healthcare staff. Several strategies have been shown to enhance clinical placement experiences (e.g. providing students with adequate preparation in the classroom, implementing learning contracts and providing clinical supervision). Educators and healthcare staff need to work together for the betterment of student learning and the healthcare professions.

Implicit out-group preference is associated with eating disorders symptoms amongst Emirati females.

Science.gov (United States)

Thomas, Justin; Quadflieg, Susanne; O'Hara, Lily

2016-04-01

Studies exploring the relationship between acculturation and eating disorders symptoms have proven equivocal. Socially desirable responding associated with the use of explicit measures may account for these mixed findings. This study explores the relationship between in-group identity, acculturation and eating disorders symptoms using both implicit and explicit assessments. Emirati female college students (N=94) completed an affective priming task (APT) designed to implicitly assess Emirati in-group evaluations. Participants also completed explicit measures, including the Westernization Survey and the Multicomponent In-group Identification Scale. Eating disorders symptoms were assessed using the Eating Attitudes Test. Only implicit in-group evaluations were correlated with eating disorders symptoms. Specifically, increases in in-group preference were associated with lower levels of eating disorders symptomatology. Furthermore, participants with an actual out-group preference had significantly higher levels of eating disorders symptomatology compared with those demonstrating an in-group preference. These findings support the acculturative stress hypothesis, and suggest that the relationship between eating disorders and acculturation may be better understood with reference to implicit rather than explicit in-group evaluations. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Brand Placement and Consumer Choice: An in-Store Experiment

Science.gov (United States)

Sigurdsson, Valdimar; Saevarsson, Hugi; Foxall, Gordon

2009-01-01

An in-store experiment was performed to investigate the effects of shelf placement (high, middle, low) on consumers' purchases of potato chips. Placement of potato chips on the middle shelf was associated with the highest percentage of purchases. The results confirm the importance of item placement as a factor in consumers' buying behavior.…

Generalizing human error rates: A taxonomic approach

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Buffardi, L.; Fleishman, E.; Allen, J.

1989-01-01

It is well established that human error plays a major role in malfunctioning of complex, technological systems and in accidents associated with their operation. Estimates of the rate of human error in the nuclear industry range from 20-65% of all system failures. In response to this, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has developed a variety of techniques for estimating human error probabilities for nuclear power plant personnel. Most of these techniques require the specification of the range of human error probabilities for various tasks. Unfortunately, very little objective performance data on error probabilities exist for nuclear environments. Thus, when human reliability estimates are required, for example in computer simulation modeling of system reliability, only subjective estimates (usually based on experts' best guesses) can be provided. The objective of the current research is to provide guidelines for the selection of human error probabilities based on actual performance data taken in other complex environments and applying them to nuclear settings. A key feature of this research is the application of a comprehensive taxonomic approach to nuclear and non-nuclear tasks to evaluate their similarities and differences, thus providing a basis for generalizing human error estimates across tasks. In recent years significant developments have occurred in classifying and describing tasks. Initial goals of the current research are to: (1) identify alternative taxonomic schemes that can be applied to tasks, and (2) describe nuclear tasks in terms of these schemes. Three standardized taxonomic schemes (Ability Requirements Approach, Generalized Information-Processing Approach, Task Characteristics Approach) are identified, modified, and evaluated for their suitability in comparing nuclear and non-nuclear power plant tasks. An agenda for future research and its relevance to nuclear power plant safety is also discussed

Partial migration in fishes: definitions, methodologies and taxonomic distribution

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Chapman, B B; Skov, C; Hulthén, K

2012-01-01

published. In addition, previous work and synthesis has been hampered by a varied lexicon associated with this phenomenon in fishes. In this review, definitions and important concepts in partial migration research are discussed, and a classification system of the different forms of partial migration......Partial migration, where populations are composed of both migratory and resident individuals, is extremely widespread across the animal kingdom. Researchers studying fish movements have long recognized that many fishes are partial migrants, however, no detailed taxonomic review has ever been...... in fishes introduced. Next, a detailed taxonomic overview of partial migration in this group is considered. Finally, methodological approaches that ichthyologists can use to study this fascinating phenomenon are reviewed. Partial migration is more widespread amongst fishes than previously thought, and given...

MARTA: a suite of Java-based tools for assigning taxonomic status to DNA sequences.

Science.gov (United States)

Horton, Matthew; Bodenhausen, Natacha; Bergelson, Joy

2010-02-15

We have created a suite of Java-based software to better provide taxonomic assignments to DNA sequences. We anticipate that the program will be useful for protistologists, virologists, mycologists and other microbial ecologists. The program relies on NCBI utilities including the BLAST software and Taxonomy database and is easily manipulated at the command-line to specify a BLAST candidate's query-coverage or percent identity requirements; other options include the ability to set minimal consensus requirements (%) for each of the eight major taxonomic ranks (Domain, Kingdom, Phylum, ...) and whether to consider lower scoring candidates when the top-hit lacks taxonomic classification.

Geometric leaf placement strategies

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Fenwick, J D; Temple, S W P; Clements, R W; Lawrence, G P; Mayles, H M O; Mayles, W P M

2004-01-01

Geometric leaf placement strategies for multileaf collimators (MLCs) typically involve the expansion of the beam's-eye-view contour of a target by a uniform MLC margin, followed by movement of the leaves until some point on each leaf end touches the expanded contour. Film-based dose-distribution measurements have been made to determine appropriate MLC margins-characterized through an index d 90 -for multileaves set using one particular strategy to straight lines lying at various angles to the direction of leaf travel. Simple trigonometric relationships exist between different geometric leaf placement strategies and are used to generalize the results of the film work into d 90 values for several different strategies. Measured d 90 values vary both with angle and leaf placement strategy. A model has been derived that explains and describes quite well the observed variations of d 90 with angle. The d 90 angular variations of the strategies studied differ substantially, and geometric and dosimetric reasoning suggests that the best strategy is the one with the least angular variation. Using this criterion, the best straightforwardly implementable strategy studied is a 'touch circle' approach for which semicircles are imagined to be inscribed within leaf ends, the leaves being moved until the semicircles just touch the expanded target outline

Predicting taxonomic and functional structure of microbial communities in acid mine drainage.

Science.gov (United States)

Kuang, Jialiang; Huang, Linan; He, Zhili; Chen, Linxing; Hua, Zhengshuang; Jia, Pu; Li, Shengjin; Liu, Jun; Li, Jintian; Zhou, Jizhong; Shu, Wensheng

2016-06-01

Predicting the dynamics of community composition and functional attributes responding to environmental changes is an essential goal in community ecology but remains a major challenge, particularly in microbial ecology. Here, by targeting a model system with low species richness, we explore the spatial distribution of taxonomic and functional structure of 40 acid mine drainage (AMD) microbial communities across Southeast China profiled by 16S ribosomal RNA pyrosequencing and a comprehensive microarray (GeoChip). Similar environmentally dependent patterns of dominant microbial lineages and key functional genes were observed regardless of the large-scale geographical isolation. Functional and phylogenetic β-diversities were significantly correlated, whereas functional metabolic potentials were strongly influenced by environmental conditions and community taxonomic structure. Using advanced modeling approaches based on artificial neural networks, we successfully predicted the taxonomic and functional dynamics with significantly higher prediction accuracies of metabolic potentials (average Bray-Curtis similarity 87.8) as compared with relative microbial abundances (similarity 66.8), implying that natural AMD microbial assemblages may be better predicted at the functional genes level rather than at taxonomic level. Furthermore, relative metabolic potentials of genes involved in many key ecological functions (for example, nitrogen and phosphate utilization, metals resistance and stress response) were extrapolated to increase under more acidic and metal-rich conditions, indicating a critical strategy of stress adaptation in these extraordinary communities. Collectively, our findings indicate that natural selection rather than geographic distance has a more crucial role in shaping the taxonomic and functional patterns of AMD microbial community that readily predicted by modeling methods and suggest that the model-based approach is essential to better understand natural

Clitoral Pain Following Retropubic Midurethral Sling Placement

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Melanie Christofferson, DO

2015-12-01

Conclusion: Clitoral pain symptoms following placement of a retropubic midurethral sling should be evaluated and promptly addressed, given the potential negative impact on the patient's sexual function. Christofferson M, Barnard J, and Montoya TI. Clitoral pain following retropubic midurethral sling placement. Sex Med 2015;3:346–348.

A physical theory on placement of fertilizers

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Wit, de C.T.

1953-01-01

A theory was developed enabling calculation of the effect of any placement method of fertilizer on yield if the effect of one method is known.

This theory was based on the following established facts. The reactions between soil and fertilizer rate are the same for broadcasting and placement

Radiography students' perceptions of clinical placements - A Nigerian perspective

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Ogbu, S.O.I. [Department of Medical Radiography and Radiological Sciences, University of Nigeria, Enugu Campus, 11 Clement Nnakwe Close, Ugbene, Abakpa-Nike, Enugu State 400001 (Nigeria)], E-mail: sylvogbu_rad@yahoo.com

2008-05-15

Purpose: To assess undergraduate radiography student perception of clinical placements and to evaluate their clinical learning experiences. Methods: To evaluate student perception of clinical placements, a Likert-scale questionnaire was used to assess clinical practice, the practice-learning environment. One hundred and seventy-eight undergraduate [student] radiographers participated in the study. Results: The students indicated they had adequate and enjoyed their time on the clinical placement. They also indicated the qualified staff was supportive, friendly and approachable. The students were able to achieve their learning outcomes during the placement. However placement venues, according to the students, had inadequate learning resources. No radiographic/medical imaging research findings, whether locally generated or otherwise, were used in clinical practice. Conclusions: Clinical placements had adequate student support. It provided a pleasant learning experience for the students and it enhanced their skills. Staff was willing and available to assist learning. Nevertheless, the training institutions, professional body and clinical placement providers need to make an effort to address inadequate learning resources (e.g. IT, library, study rooms) as well as the non-utilization of radiographic/medical imaging research findings.

Factors influencing radiation therapy student clinical placement satisfaction

Science.gov (United States)

Bridge, Pete; Carmichael, Mary-Ann

2014-01-01

Introduction: Radiation therapy students at Queensland University of Technology (QUT) attend clinical placements at five different clinical departments with varying resources and support strategies. This study aimed to determine the relative availability and perceived importance of different factors affecting student support while on clinical placement. The purpose of the research was to inform development of future support mechanisms to enhance radiation therapy students’ experience on clinical placement. Methods: This study used anonymous Likert-style surveys to gather data from years 1 and 2 radiation therapy students from QUT and clinical educators from Queensland relating to availability and importance of support mechanisms during clinical placements in a semester. Results: The study findings demonstrated student satisfaction with clinical support and suggested that level of support on placement influenced student employment choices. Staff support was perceived as more important than physical resources; particularly access to a named mentor, a clinical educator and weekly formative feedback. Both students and educators highlighted the impact of time pressures. Conclusions: The support offered to radiation therapy students by clinical staff is more highly valued than physical resources or models of placement support. Protected time and acknowledgement of the importance of clinical education roles are both invaluable. Joint investment in mentor support by both universities and clinical departments is crucial for facilitation of effective clinical learning. PMID:26229635

Factors influencing radiation therapy student clinical placement satisfaction

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Bridge, Pete; Carmichael, Mary-Ann [School of Clinical Sciences, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane (Australia)

2014-02-15

Introduction: Radiation therapy students at Queensland University of Technology (QUT) attend clinical placements at five different clinical departments with varying resources and support strategies. This study aimed to determine the relative availability and perceived importance of different factors affecting student support while on clinical placement. The purpose of the research was to inform development of future support mechanisms to enhance radiation therapy students’ experience on clinical placement. Methods: This study used anonymous Likert-style surveys to gather data from years 1 and 2 radiation therapy students from QUT and clinical educators from Queensland relating to availability and importance of support mechanisms during clinical placements in a semester. Results: The study findings demonstrated student satisfaction with clinical support and suggested that level of support on placement influenced student employment choices. Staff support was perceived as more important than physical resources; particularly access to a named mentor, a clinical educator and weekly formative feedback. Both students and educators highlighted the impact of time pressures. Conclusions: The support offered to radiation therapy students by clinical staff is more highly valued than physical resources or models of placement support. Protected time and acknowledgement of the importance of clinical education roles are both invaluable. Joint investment in mentor support by both universities and clinical departments is crucial for facilitation of effective clinical learning.

Factors influencing radiation therapy student clinical placement satisfaction

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bridge, Pete; Carmichael, Mary-Ann

2014-01-01

Introduction: Radiation therapy students at Queensland University of Technology (QUT) attend clinical placements at five different clinical departments with varying resources and support strategies. This study aimed to determine the relative availability and perceived importance of different factors affecting student support while on clinical placement. The purpose of the research was to inform development of future support mechanisms to enhance radiation therapy students’ experience on clinical placement. Methods: This study used anonymous Likert-style surveys to gather data from years 1 and 2 radiation therapy students from QUT and clinical educators from Queensland relating to availability and importance of support mechanisms during clinical placements in a semester. Results: The study findings demonstrated student satisfaction with clinical support and suggested that level of support on placement influenced student employment choices. Staff support was perceived as more important than physical resources; particularly access to a named mentor, a clinical educator and weekly formative feedback. Both students and educators highlighted the impact of time pressures. Conclusions: The support offered to radiation therapy students by clinical staff is more highly valued than physical resources or models of placement support. Protected time and acknowledgement of the importance of clinical education roles are both invaluable. Joint investment in mentor support by both universities and clinical departments is crucial for facilitation of effective clinical learning

Pragmatic Approach for Multistage Phasor Measurement Unit Placement

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Rather, Zakir Hussain; Chen, Zhe; Thoegersen, Poul

2016-01-01

Effective phasor measurement unit (PMU) placement is a key to the implementation of efficient and economically feasible wide area measurement systems in modern power systems. This paper proposes a pragmatic approach for cost-effective stage-wise deployment of PMUs while considering realistic...... constraints. Inspired from a real world experience, the proposed approach optimally allocates PMU placement in a stage-wise manner. The proposed approach also considers large-scale wind integration for effective grid state monitoring of wind generation dynamics. The proposed approach is implemented...... on the Danish power system projected for the year 2040. Furthermore, practical experience learnt from an optimal PMU placement project aimed at PMU placement in the Danish power system is presented, which is expected to provide insight of practical challenges at ground level that could be considered by PMU...

Improving probe set selection for microbial community analysis by leveraging taxonomic information of training sequences

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jiang Tao

2011-10-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Population levels of microbial phylotypes can be examined using a hybridization-based method that utilizes a small set of computationally-designed DNA probes targeted to a gene common to all. Our previous algorithm attempts to select a set of probes such that each training sequence manifests a unique theoretical hybridization pattern (a binary fingerprint to a probe set. It does so without taking into account similarity between training gene sequences or their putative taxonomic classifications, however. We present an improved algorithm for probe set selection that utilizes the available taxonomic information of training gene sequences and attempts to choose probes such that the resultant binary fingerprints cluster into real taxonomic groups. Results Gene sequences manifesting identical fingerprints with probes chosen by the new algorithm are more likely to be from the same taxonomic group than probes chosen by the previous algorithm. In cases where they are from different taxonomic groups, underlying DNA sequences of identical fingerprints are more similar to each other in probe sets made with the new versus the previous algorithm. Complete removal of large taxonomic groups from training data does not greatly decrease the ability of probe sets to distinguish those groups. Conclusions Probe sets made from the new algorithm create fingerprints that more reliably cluster into biologically meaningful groups. The method can readily distinguish microbial phylotypes that were excluded from the training sequences, suggesting novel microbes can also be detected.

Improving probe set selection for microbial community analysis by leveraging taxonomic information of training sequences.

Science.gov (United States)

Ruegger, Paul M; Della Vedova, Gianluca; Jiang, Tao; Borneman, James

2011-10-10

Population levels of microbial phylotypes can be examined using a hybridization-based method that utilizes a small set of computationally-designed DNA probes targeted to a gene common to all. Our previous algorithm attempts to select a set of probes such that each training sequence manifests a unique theoretical hybridization pattern (a binary fingerprint) to a probe set. It does so without taking into account similarity between training gene sequences or their putative taxonomic classifications, however. We present an improved algorithm for probe set selection that utilizes the available taxonomic information of training gene sequences and attempts to choose probes such that the resultant binary fingerprints cluster into real taxonomic groups. Gene sequences manifesting identical fingerprints with probes chosen by the new algorithm are more likely to be from the same taxonomic group than probes chosen by the previous algorithm. In cases where they are from different taxonomic groups, underlying DNA sequences of identical fingerprints are more similar to each other in probe sets made with the new versus the previous algorithm. Complete removal of large taxonomic groups from training data does not greatly decrease the ability of probe sets to distinguish those groups. Probe sets made from the new algorithm create fingerprints that more reliably cluster into biologically meaningful groups. The method can readily distinguish microbial phylotypes that were excluded from the training sequences, suggesting novel microbes can also be detected.

Private Placement Debt Financing for Public Entities

Science.gov (United States)

Holman, Lance S.

2010-01-01

Private placement financing is a debt or capital lease obligation arranged between a municipality or a 501(c) (3) not-for-profit organization and a single sophisticated institutional investor. The investor can be a bank, insurance company, finance company, hedge fund, or high-net worth individual. Private placement financing is similar to…

Patterns of out-of-home placement decision-making in child welfare.

Science.gov (United States)

Chor, Ka Ho Brian; McClelland, Gary M; Weiner, Dana A; Jordan, Neil; Lyons, John S

2013-10-01

Out-of-home placement decision-making in child welfare is founded on the best interest of the child in the least restrictive setting. After a child is removed from home, however, little is known about the mechanism of placement decision-making. This study aims to systematically examine the patterns of out-of-home placement decisions made in a state's child welfare system by comparing two models of placement decision-making: a multidisciplinary team decision-making model and a clinically based decision support algorithm. Based on records of 7816 placement decisions representing 6096 children over a 4-year period, hierarchical log-linear modeling characterized concordance or agreement, and discordance or disagreement when comparing the two models and accounting for age-appropriate placement options. Children aged below 16 had an overall concordance rate of 55.7%, most apparent in the least restrictive (20.4%) and the most restrictive placement (18.4%). Older youth showed greater discordant distributions (62.9%). Log-linear analysis confirmed the overall robustness of concordance (odd ratios [ORs] range: 2.9-442.0), though discordance was most evident from small deviations from the decision support algorithm, such as one-level under-placement in group home (OR=5.3) and one-level over-placement in residential treatment center (OR=4.8). Concordance should be further explored using child-level clinical and placement stability outcomes. Discordance might be explained by dynamic factors such as availability of placements, caregiver preferences, or policy changes and could be justified by positive child-level outcomes. Empirical placement decision-making is critical to a child's journey in child welfare and should be continuously improved to effect positive child welfare outcomes. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Disclosing brand placement to young children

OpenAIRE

De Pauw, Pieter; Hudders, Liselot; Cauberghe, Veroline; De Kuysscher, Charlotte

2015-01-01

Purpose – This article examines whether a television brand placement warning cue can alter young children’s susceptibility for advertising effects (i.e., brand attitude) through activating their advertising literacy. The proposed model also puts forward an important moderating role for children’s skeptical attitude toward the brand placement format. Design/methodology/approach – The data were collected among 63 children between 7 and 9 years old (Mage = 8.49; 51% girls) through a single...

Taxonomic significance of cypsela morphology for the tribe mutisieae (s.l.) (asteraceae) from Pakistan

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Abid, R.; Alam, J.

2011-01-01

Cypselas of 5 species distributed in 3 genera of the tribe Mutisieae (s.l.) were examined from Pakistan to assess their taxonomic significance. Micro morphological characters of cypsela including shape, pappus and carpopodium have been proved very rewarding to evaluate the taxonomic decisions both at the generic and specific levels. (author)

Laryngeal mask placement in a teaching institution: analysis of difficult placements [version 1; referees: 2 approved, 1 approved with reservations

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Anastasia D Katsiampoura

2015-04-01

Full Text Available Background: Laryngeal mask airway (LMA placement is now considered a common airway management practice. Although there are many studies which focus on various airway techniques, research regarding difficult LMA placement is limited, particularly for anesthesiologist trainees. In our retrospective analysis we tried to identify predictive factors of difficult LMA placement in an academic training program. Methods: This retrospective analysis was derived from a research airway database, where data were collected prospectively at the Memorial Hermann Hospital, Texas Medical Center, Houston, TX, USA, from 2008 to 2010. All non-obstetric adult patients presenting for elective surgery requiring general anesthesia, were enrolled in this study: anesthesiology residents primarily managed the airways. The level of difficulty, number of attempts, and type of the extraglottic device placement were retrieved. Results: Sixty-nine unique Laryngeal Mask Airways (uLMAs were utilized as a primary airway device. Two independent predictors for difficult LMA placement were identified: gender and neck circumference. The sensitivity for one factor is 87.5% with a specificity of 50%. However with two risk factors, the specificity increases to the level of 93% and the sensitivity is 63%. Conclusion: In a large academic training program, besides uLMA not been used routinely, two risk factors for LMA difficulty were identified, female gender and large neck circumference. Neck circumference is increasingly being recognized as a significant predictor across the spectrum of airway management difficulties while female gender has not been previously reported as a risk factor for difficult LMA placement.

33 CFR 183.566 - Fuel pumps: Placement.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-07-01

... 33 Navigation and Navigable Waters 2 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Fuel pumps: Placement. 183.566...) BOATING SAFETY BOATS AND ASSOCIATED EQUIPMENT Fuel Systems Manufacturer Requirements § 183.566 Fuel pumps: Placement. Each fuel pump must be on the engine it serves or within 12 inches of the engine, unless it is a...

The Re-Placement Test: Using TOEFL for Purposes of Placement

Science.gov (United States)

Moglen, Daniel

2015-01-01

This article will consider using TOEFL scores for purposes of placement and advising for international graduate students at a northern California research university. As the number of international students is on the rise and the funds for the graduate ESL program are diminishing, the way in which the university is handling the influx of…

The Effect of Product Placement Marketing on Effectiveness of Internet Advertising

Science.gov (United States)

Liao, Hsiu-Li; Liu, Su-Houn; Pi, Shih-Ming; Chen, Hui-Ju

Compared to the traditional way of doing advertising, such as ad Banners, internet product placement is now emerging as a promising strategy for advertisers to do their job effectively in this Web 2.0 era. Therefore, this study focuses on the effectiveness of product placement advertising on the Internet. The results show that product prominence (Subtle or Prominent) and presentation of the advertising (Video or Images) significantly impacts the effectiveness of product placement advertising on the Internet, including brand impression, advertising attitude, and intention to click. Product prominence and presentation of the advertisement have an interactive impact. Our findings indicated that presenting the product through videos will enhance higher levels of advertising attitude, brand impression, and intention to click than presenting it through still images. Subtle placements will increase the level of advertising attitude and intention to click more so than prominent placements. But prominent placements increase the brand impression more than the subtle placements.

This is Advertising! Effects of Disclosing Television Brand Placement on Adolescents.

Science.gov (United States)

van Reijmersdal, Eva A; Boerman, Sophie C; Buijzen, Moniek; Rozendaal, Esther

2017-02-01

As heavy media users, adolescents are frequently exposed to embedded advertising formats such as brand placements. Because this may lead to unwitting persuasion, regulations prescribe disclosure of brand placements. This study aimed to increase our understanding of the effects of disclosing television brand placements and disclosure duration on adolescents' persuasion knowledge (i.e., recognition of brand placement as being advertising, understanding that brand placement has a persuasive intent and critical attitude toward brand placement) and brand responses (i.e., brand memory and brand attitude). To do so, an earlier study that was conducted among adults was replicated among adolescents aged 13-17 years (N = 221, 44 % female). The present study shows that brand placement disclosure had limited effects on adolescents' persuasion knowledge as it only affected adolescents' understanding of persuasive intent, did not mitigate persuasion, but did increase brand memory. These findings suggest that brand placement disclosure has fundamentally different effects on adolescents than on adults: the disclosures had less effects on activating persuasion knowledge and mitigating persuasion among adolescents than among adults. Implications for advertising disclosure regulation and consequences for advertisers are discussed.

Low Functional β-Diversity Despite High Taxonomic β-Diversity among Tropical Estuarine Fish Communities

Science.gov (United States)

Villéger, Sébastien; Miranda, Julia Ramos; Hernandez, Domingo Flores; Mouillot, David

2012-01-01

The concept of β-diversity, defined as dissimilarity among communities, has been widely used to investigate biodiversity patterns and community assembly rules. However, in ecosystems with high taxonomic β-diversity, due to marked environmental gradients, the level of functional β-diversity among communities is largely overlooked while it may reveal processes shaping community structure. Here, decomposing biodiversity indices into α (local) and γ (regional) components, we estimated taxonomic and functional β-diversity among tropical estuarine fish communities, through space and time. We found extremely low functional β-diversity values among fish communities (diversities, α and γ functional diversities were very close to the minimal value. These patterns were caused by two dominant functional groups which maintained a similar functional structure over space and time, despite the strong dissimilarity in taxonomic structure along environmental gradients. Our findings suggest that taxonomic and functional β-diversity deserve to be quantified simultaneously since these two facets can show contrasting patterns and the differences can in turn shed light on community assembly rules. PMID:22792395

High taxonomic variability despite stable functional structure across microbial communities.

Science.gov (United States)

Louca, Stilianos; Jacques, Saulo M S; Pires, Aliny P F; Leal, Juliana S; Srivastava, Diane S; Parfrey, Laura Wegener; Farjalla, Vinicius F; Doebeli, Michael

2016-12-05

Understanding the processes that are driving variation of natural microbial communities across space or time is a major challenge for ecologists. Environmental conditions strongly shape the metabolic function of microbial communities; however, other processes such as biotic interactions, random demographic drift or dispersal limitation may also influence community dynamics. The relative importance of these processes and their effects on community function remain largely unknown. To address this uncertainty, here we examined bacterial and archaeal communities in replicate 'miniature' aquatic ecosystems contained within the foliage of wild bromeliads. We used marker gene sequencing to infer the taxonomic composition within nine metabolic functional groups, and shotgun environmental DNA sequencing to estimate the relative abundances of these groups. We found that all of the bromeliads exhibited remarkably similar functional community structures, but that the taxonomic composition within individual functional groups was highly variable. Furthermore, using statistical analyses, we found that non-neutral processes, including environmental filtering and potentially biotic interactions, at least partly shaped the composition within functional groups and were more important than spatial dispersal limitation and demographic drift. Hence both the functional structure and taxonomic composition within functional groups of natural microbial communities may be shaped by non-neutral and roughly separate processes.

Emerging: An Art Field Placement's Impact on Practice

Science.gov (United States)

Averett, Paige; Spence, Christina Hall

2018-01-01

This exploratory study examined the experiences of 9 stakeholders in an art gallery field placement during their social work education. The study sought to understand how the nontraditional field placement prepared students for practice. In addition, personality traits of students that best fit the placement was examined. Findings suggest that…

Structural challenges of holiday placement programmes for children ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Structural challenges of holiday placement programmes for children in SOS's Children Village, Zimbabwe. ... African Journal of Social Work ... Response to child protection crisis has essentially seen the placement of orphans and other vulnerable children in residential care institutions, particularly children' homes modelled ...

ESL Placement and Schools: Effects on Immigrant Achievement.

Science.gov (United States)

Callahan, Rebecca; Wilkinson, Lindsey; Muller, Chandra; Frisco, Michelle

2009-05-01

In this study, the authors explore English as a Second Language (ESL) placement as a measure of how schools label and process immigrant students. Using propensity score matching and data from the Adolescent Health and Academic Achievement Study and the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, the authors estimate the effect of ESL placement on immigrant achievement. In schools with more immigrant students, the authors find that ESL placement results in higher levels of academic performance; in schools with few immigrant students, the effect reverses. This is not to suggest a one-size-fits-all policy; many immigrant students, regardless of school composition, generational status, or ESL placement, struggle to achieve at levels sufficient for acceptance to a 4-year university. This study offers several factors to be taken into consideration as schools develop policies and practices to provide immigrant students opportunities to learn.

Rotation placements help students' understanding of intensive care.

Science.gov (United States)

Abbott, Lisa

2011-07-01

It is vital that children's nursing students are fit for practice when they qualify and are able to meet various essential skills as defined by the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC). To gain the knowledge and skills required, students need placements in areas where high dependency and potentially intensive care are delivered. Efforts to maximise the number of students experiencing intensive care as a placement have led to the development of the paediatric intensive care unit (PICU) rotation, increasing placements on the PICU from 5 to 40 per cent of the student cohort per year. The lecturer practitioner organises the rotation, providing credible links between university and practice areas, while supporting students and staff in offering a high-quality placement experience. Students say the rotation offers a positive insight into PICU nursing, helping them develop knowledge and skills in a technical area and creating an interest in this specialty.

Determining the brand awareness of product placement in video games

OpenAIRE

Král, Marek

2015-01-01

This bachelor thesis focusses on the determination of the brand awareness of product placement in video games. The theoretical part includes information about marketing, product placement and video games. The practical part consists of evaluation of the market research about product placements in video games. Conclusion suggests the most important factors influencing the level brand awareness.

The Placement Handbook. A Guide for the Competitive Employment of the Handicapped.

Science.gov (United States)

Horn, Adelaide; Drury, Stephen

This handbook stresses those components that are considered peripheral to the placement process but that must precede the actual placement. The philosophy of placement upon which this guide is based appears first. Discussions follow of the basic components of the process of training and placement of handicapped individuals, including a varied…

25 CFR 26.4 - Who administers the Job Placement and Training Program?

Science.gov (United States)

2010-04-01

... 25 Indians 1 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Who administers the Job Placement and Training Program... PLACEMENT AND TRAINING PROGRAM General Applicability § 26.4 Who administers the Job Placement and Training Program? The Job Placement and Training Program is administered by the Bureau of Indian Affairs or a...

Placement Design of Changeable Message Signs on Curved Roadways

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Zhongren Wang, Ph.D. P.E. T.E.

2015-01-01

Full Text Available This paper presented a fundamental framework for Changeable Message Sign (CMS placement design along roadways with horizontal curves. This analytical framework determines the available distance for motorists to read and react to CMS messages based on CMS character height, driver's cone of vision, CMS pixel's cone of legibility, roadway horizontal curve radius, and CMS lateral and vertical placement. Sample design charts were developed to illustrate how the analytical framework may facilitate CMS placement design.

FtsZ placement in nucleoid-free bacteria.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Manuel Pazos

Full Text Available We describe the placement of the cytoplasmic FtsZ protein, an essential component of the division septum, in nucleoid-free Escherichia coli maxicells. The absence of the nucleoid is accompanied in maxicells by degradation of the SlmA protein. This protein, together with the nucleoid, prevents the placement of the septum in the regions occupied by the chromosome by a mechanism called nucleoid occlusion (NO. A second septum placement mechanism, the MinCDE system (Min involving a pole-to-pole oscillation of three proteins, nonetheless remains active in maxicells. Both Min and NO act on the polymerization of FtsZ, preventing its assembly into an FtsZ-ring except at midcell. Our results show that even in the total absence of NO, Min oscillations can direct placement of FtsZ in maxicells. Deletion of the FtsZ carboxyl terminal domain (FtsZ*, a central hub that receives signals from a variety of proteins including MinC, FtsA and ZipA, produces a Min-insensitive form of FtsZ unable to interact with the membrane-anchoring FtsA and ZipA proteins. This protein produces a totally disorganized pattern of FtsZ localization inside the maxicell cytoplasm. In contrast, FtsZ*-VM, an artificially cytoplasmic membrane-anchored variant of FtsZ*, forms helical or repetitive ring structures distributed along the entire length of maxicells even in the absence of NO. These results show that membrane anchoring is needed to organize FtsZ into rings and underscore the role of the C-terminal hub of FtsZ for their correct placement.

FtsZ placement in nucleoid-free bacteria.

Science.gov (United States)

Pazos, Manuel; Casanova, Mercedes; Palacios, Pilar; Margolin, William; Natale, Paolo; Vicente, Miguel

2014-01-01

We describe the placement of the cytoplasmic FtsZ protein, an essential component of the division septum, in nucleoid-free Escherichia coli maxicells. The absence of the nucleoid is accompanied in maxicells by degradation of the SlmA protein. This protein, together with the nucleoid, prevents the placement of the septum in the regions occupied by the chromosome by a mechanism called nucleoid occlusion (NO). A second septum placement mechanism, the MinCDE system (Min) involving a pole-to-pole oscillation of three proteins, nonetheless remains active in maxicells. Both Min and NO act on the polymerization of FtsZ, preventing its assembly into an FtsZ-ring except at midcell. Our results show that even in the total absence of NO, Min oscillations can direct placement of FtsZ in maxicells. Deletion of the FtsZ carboxyl terminal domain (FtsZ*), a central hub that receives signals from a variety of proteins including MinC, FtsA and ZipA, produces a Min-insensitive form of FtsZ unable to interact with the membrane-anchoring FtsA and ZipA proteins. This protein produces a totally disorganized pattern of FtsZ localization inside the maxicell cytoplasm. In contrast, FtsZ*-VM, an artificially cytoplasmic membrane-anchored variant of FtsZ*, forms helical or repetitive ring structures distributed along the entire length of maxicells even in the absence of NO. These results show that membrane anchoring is needed to organize FtsZ into rings and underscore the role of the C-terminal hub of FtsZ for their correct placement.

A linear programming approach for placement of applicants to academic programs

OpenAIRE

Kassa, Biniyam Asmare

2013-01-01

This paper reports a linear programming approach for placement of applicants to study programs developed and implemented at the college of Business & Economics, Bahir Dar University, Bahir Dar, Ethiopia. The approach is estimated to significantly streamline the placement decision process at the college by reducing required man hour as well as the time it takes to announce placement decisions. Compared to the previous manual system where only one or two placement criteria were considered, the ...

Functional and Taxonomic Differentiation of Macrophyte Assemblages Across the Yangtze River Floodplain Under Human Impacts.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Min; García Molinos, Jorge; Zhang, Xiaolin; Xu, Jun

2018-01-01

Human activities and the consequent extirpations of species have been changing the composition of species assemblages worldwide. These anthropogenic impacts alter not only the richness of assemblages but also the biological dissimilarity among them. One of the main gaps in the assessment of biodiversity change in freshwater ecosystems is our limited understanding regarding how taxonomic and functional facets of macrophyte assemblages respond to human impacts on regional scales. Here, we assess the temporal (before 1970s against after 2000s) changes in taxonomic and functional richness and compositional dissimilarities, partitioned into its turnover and nestedness components, of freshwater macrophyte assemblages across the floodplain lakes of the Yangtze River in China. We found that functional and taxonomic assemblage differentiation occurred simultaneously under increasing human impact, concomitant to a general decrease in functional and taxonomic richness. However, this effect weakened when the historical level of taxonomic dissimilarity among assemblages was high. Macrophyte species with large dispersal range and submersed life form were significantly more susceptible to extirpation. The impact of human activities on differentiation was complex but habitat loss and fishery intensity were consistently the main drivers of assemblage change in these lakes, whereas water quality (i.e., light pollution and nutrient enrichment) had weaker effects. Further, macrophyte taxonomic and functional differentiation was mainly driven by the nestedness component of dissimilarity, accounting for changes in assemblage composition related to changes in species richness independent of species replacement. This result, markedly different from previous studies on freshwater fish assemblages conducted in these lakes, represents a novel contribution toward achieving a more holistic understanding of how human impacts contribute to shape community assemblages in natural ecosystems.

Taxonomic and phylogenetic utility of variation in advertising calls of ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Taxonomic and phylogenetic utility of variation in advertising calls of francolins and spurfowls (Galliformes: Phasianidae). Tshifhiwa G. Mandiwana-Neudani, Rauri C.K. Bowie, Martine Hausberger, Laurence Henry, Timothy M. Crowe ...

20 CFR 638.409 - Placement and job development.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-04-01

... Section 638.409 Employees' Benefits EMPLOYMENT AND TRAINING ADMINISTRATION, DEPARTMENT OF LABOR JOB CORPS... Placements in the Job Corps § 638.409 Placement and job development. The overall objective of all Job Corps... issued by the Job Corps Director. (a) The Regional Director, as contracting officer, shall contract with...

Taxonomic status and conservation importance of the avifauna of ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Democratic Republic of Congo) focussed on the status of 56 taxa, to reveal a high endemism (14 species of a total of at least 642). In addition, 33 taxa were also revealed as possible south-central African endemics but need thorough taxonomic ...

Comparison of complications between pediatric peripherally inserted central catheter placement techniques

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Dasgupta, Niloy; Lungren, Matthew P.; Patel, Manish N.; Racadio, John M.; Johnson, Neil D.

2016-01-01

Peripherally inserted central catheter (PICC) is among the most common procedures performed in children in the hospital setting. PICC insertion can be simplified with the use of a sheathed needle as an alternative to the modified Seldinger technique. To retrospectively evaluate PICC placement for the technique used and the incidence of complications at a large pediatric tertiary care center. We retrospectively reviewed all PICC placements at a single institution over a 4-year period. We reviewed patient records for demographic data, PICC placement technique, catheter size and number of lumens, and the incidence of complications (i.e. multiple attempted puncture sites, phlebitis and vessel thrombosis). We analyzed complication rates between two placement techniques using a chi-square test. We identified 8,816 successful PICC placements, 4,749 (53.9%) in males and 4,067 (46.1%) in females. The average age of the patients for which a line was placed was 5.6 years (range 1 day to 45 years). A direct sheathed needle puncture technique was used in 8,362 (94.9%) placements and a modified Seldinger technique was used in 454 (5.1%). Complications occurred in 312 (3.7%) of direct sheathed needle puncture placements versus 17 (3.7%) of modified Seldinger placements (P = 0.99). Multiple puncture sites were required in 175 (2.1%) attempted direct sheathed needle puncture placements compared with 8 (1.7%) attempted modified Seldinger placements (P = 0.63). Phlebitis occurred in 94 (1.1%) direct sheathed needle puncture lines versus 5 (1.1%) modified Seldinger placed lines (P = 0.96). Vessel thrombosis occurred in 43 (0.5%) direct sheathed needle puncture lines versus 4 (0.9%) modified Seldinger placed lines (P = 0.30). The direct peel-away sheathed needle vessel puncture technique and the modified Seldinger technique used to place PICC lines in children have similar complication rates. (orig.)

Comparison of complications between pediatric peripherally inserted central catheter placement techniques

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Dasgupta, Niloy; Lungren, Matthew P. [Lucile Packard Children' s Hospital Stanford, Department of Radiology, Palo Alto, CA (United States); Patel, Manish N.; Racadio, John M.; Johnson, Neil D. [Cincinnati Children' s Hospital Medical Center, Department of Radiology, Cincinnati, OH (United States)

2016-09-15

Peripherally inserted central catheter (PICC) is among the most common procedures performed in children in the hospital setting. PICC insertion can be simplified with the use of a sheathed needle as an alternative to the modified Seldinger technique. To retrospectively evaluate PICC placement for the technique used and the incidence of complications at a large pediatric tertiary care center. We retrospectively reviewed all PICC placements at a single institution over a 4-year period. We reviewed patient records for demographic data, PICC placement technique, catheter size and number of lumens, and the incidence of complications (i.e. multiple attempted puncture sites, phlebitis and vessel thrombosis). We analyzed complication rates between two placement techniques using a chi-square test. We identified 8,816 successful PICC placements, 4,749 (53.9%) in males and 4,067 (46.1%) in females. The average age of the patients for which a line was placed was 5.6 years (range 1 day to 45 years). A direct sheathed needle puncture technique was used in 8,362 (94.9%) placements and a modified Seldinger technique was used in 454 (5.1%). Complications occurred in 312 (3.7%) of direct sheathed needle puncture placements versus 17 (3.7%) of modified Seldinger placements (P = 0.99). Multiple puncture sites were required in 175 (2.1%) attempted direct sheathed needle puncture placements compared with 8 (1.7%) attempted modified Seldinger placements (P = 0.63). Phlebitis occurred in 94 (1.1%) direct sheathed needle puncture lines versus 5 (1.1%) modified Seldinger placed lines (P = 0.96). Vessel thrombosis occurred in 43 (0.5%) direct sheathed needle puncture lines versus 4 (0.9%) modified Seldinger placed lines (P = 0.30). The direct peel-away sheathed needle vessel puncture technique and the modified Seldinger technique used to place PICC lines in children have similar complication rates. (orig.)

A taxonomic synopsis of Altingiaceae with nine new combinations

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Stefanie Ickert-Bond

2013-12-01

Full Text Available A taxonomic synopsis of the Altingiaceae is presented, including the taxonomic enumeration and distribution of 15 recognized species based on studies of 1,500 specimens from 24 herbaria throughout the distributional range of the taxa. Previous phylogenetic analyses based on several molecular markers have shown that Altingia and Semiliquidambar are nested within Liquidambar. All Altingia and Semiliquidambar species are now formally transferred to Liquidambar, which has the nomenclatural priority. The following nine new combinations are herein made: Liquidambar cambodiana (Lecomte Ickert-Bond & J. Wen, L. caudata (H. T. Chang Ickert-Bond & J. Wen, L. chingii (Metcalf Ickert-Bond & J. Wen, L. gracilipes (Hemsl. Ickert-Bond & J. Wen, L. multinervis (Cheng Ickert-Bond & J. Wen, L. obovata (Merrill & Chun Ickert-Bond & J. Wen, L. poilanei (Tardieu Ickert-Bond & J. Wen, L. siamensis (Craib Ickert-Bond & J. Wen, and L. yunnanensis (Rehder & Wilson Ickert-Bond & J. Wen.

FROM BRAND PLACEMENT TO TOURISM PRODUCT PLACEMENT. FICTION SERIES AS PROMOTIONAL SUPPORT OF SPANISH TOURISM DESTINATIONS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Noelia Araújo-Vila

2011-12-01

Full Text Available Every day more consumers spend much of their free time to the consumption of audiovisual series, which is reflected in the notable increase in downloads and audiences. Therefore, many sectors have decided to use audiovisual series as advertising (brand placement, being one of them the tourism sector (tourism product placement. There are many worldwide destinations that have decided to set in a fiction series, thus being viewed by thousands of spectators, which has resulted in increases in visitors. In the Spanish case is not so clear the use of this strategy, as it is analysed in this article.

Mathematics Course Placement Using Holistic Measures: Possibilities for Community College Students

Science.gov (United States)

Ngo, Federick; Chi, W. Edward; Park, Elizabeth So Yun

2018-01-01

Background/Context: Most community colleges across the country use a placement test to determine students' readiness for college-level coursework, yet these tests are admittedly imperfect instruments. Researchers have documented significant problems stemming from overreliance on placement testing, including placement error and misdiagnosis of…

German causative events with placement verbs

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

De Knop Sabine

2016-06-01

Full Text Available Several studies have described the semantic uses of German posture verbs, but only few have dealt with German placement verbs. The present study wants to make up for this gap. Starting from a collection of examples from the core corpora of the Digitales Wörterbuch der Deutschen Sprache (DWDS and some former studies on posture verbs, it first describes the variety of the most common German placement verbs stellen (‘to put upright’, legen (‘to lay down’, setzen (‘to set’ and stecken (‘to stick’.

CATTLE FEEDER BEHAVIOR AND FEEDER CATTLE PLACEMENTS

OpenAIRE

Kastens, Terry L.; Schroeder, Ted C.

1994-01-01

Cattle feeders appear irrational when they place cattle on feed when projected profit is negative. Long futures positions appear to offer superior returns to cattle feeding investment. Cattle feeder behavior suggests that they believe a downward bias in live cattle futures persists and that cattle feeders use different expectations than the live cattle futures market price when making placement decisions. This study examines feeder cattle placement determinants, comparing performance of expec...

Pregnancy Outcomes After Myomectomy With Polytetrafluoroethylene Placement

OpenAIRE

Eaton, Jennifer L.; Milad, Magdy P.

2014-01-01

Background and Objectives: The aim of this study was to report preliminary data on pregnancy outcomes after myomectomy with placement of an expanded polytetrafluoroethylene adhesion barrier membrane. Methods: In this retrospective case series, 68 women who underwent myomectomy with expanded polytetrafluoroethylene membrane placement between January 1, 2003, and December 31, 2009, were identified. Of these women, 15 subsequently had documented pregnancies and were included in the final dataset...

Identification and conservation application of signal, noise, and taxonomic effects in diversity patterns

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Fleishman, E.

2005-01-01

Full Text Available Ongoing research on butterflies and birds in the Great Basin has identified biogeographic patterns while elucidating how dynamic measures of diversity (species richness and turnover affect inferences for conservation planning and adaptive management. Nested subsets analyses suggested that processes influencing predictability of assemblage composition differ among taxonomic groups, and the relative importance of those processes may vary spatially within a taxonomic group. There may be a time lag between deterministic environmental changes and a detectable faunal response, even for taxonomic groups that are known to be sensitive to changes in climate and land cover. Measures of beta diversity were sensitive to correlations between sampling resolution and local environmental heterogeneity. Temporal and spatial variation in species composition indicated that spatially extensive sampling is more effective for drawing inferences about biodiversity responses to environmental change than intensive sampling at relatively few, smaller sites.

TaxMan: a taxonomic database manager

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Blaxter Mark

2006-12-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Phylogenetic analysis of large, multiple-gene datasets, assembled from public sequence databases, is rapidly becoming a popular way to approach difficult phylogenetic problems. Supermatrices (concatenated multiple sequence alignments of multiple genes can yield more phylogenetic signal than individual genes. However, manually assembling such datasets for a large taxonomic group is time-consuming and error-prone. Additionally, sequence curation, alignment and assessment of the results of phylogenetic analysis are made particularly difficult by the potential for a given gene in a given species to be unrepresented, or to be represented by multiple or partial sequences. We have developed a software package, TaxMan, that largely automates the processes of sequence acquisition, consensus building, alignment and taxon selection to facilitate this type of phylogenetic study. Results TaxMan uses freely available tools to allow rapid assembly, storage and analysis of large, aligned DNA and protein sequence datasets for user-defined sets of species and genes. The user provides GenBank format files and a list of gene names and synonyms for the loci to analyse. Sequences are extracted from the GenBank files on the basis of annotation and sequence similarity. Consensus sequences are built automatically. Alignment is carried out (where possible, at the protein level and aligned sequences are stored in a database. TaxMan can automatically determine the best subset of taxa to examine phylogeny at a given taxonomic level. By using the stored aligned sequences, large concatenated multiple sequence alignments can be generated rapidly for a subset and output in analysis-ready file formats. Trees resulting from phylogenetic analysis can be stored and compared with a reference taxonomy. Conclusion TaxMan allows rapid automated assembly of a multigene datasets of aligned sequences for large taxonomic groups. By extracting sequences on the basis of

Automatic processing of semantic relations in fMRI: neural activation during semantic priming of taxonomic and thematic categories.

Science.gov (United States)

Sachs, Olga; Weis, Susanne; Zellagui, Nadia; Huber, Walter; Zvyagintsev, Mikhail; Mathiak, Klaus; Kircher, Tilo

2008-07-07

Most current models of knowledge organization are based on hierarchical or taxonomic categories (animals, tools). Another important organizational pattern is thematic categorization, i.e. categories held together by external relations, a unifying scene or event (car and garage). The goal of this study was to compare the neural correlates of these categories under automatic processing conditions that minimize strategic influences. We used fMRI to examine neural correlates of semantic priming for category members with a short stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA) of 200 ms as subjects performed a lexical decision task. Four experimental conditions were compared: thematically related words (car-garage); taxonomically related (car-bus); unrelated (car-spoon); non-word trials (car-derf). We found faster reaction times for related than for unrelated prime-target pairs for both thematic and taxonomic categories. However, the size of the thematic priming effect was greater than that of the taxonomic. The imaging data showed signal changes for the taxonomic priming effects in the right precuneus, postcentral gyrus, middle frontal and superior frontal gyri and thematic priming effects in the right middle frontal gyrus and anterior cingulate. The contrast of neural priming effects showed larger signal changes in the right precuneus associated with the taxonomic but not with thematic priming response. We suggest that the greater involvement of precuneus in the processing of taxonomic relations indicates their reduced salience in the knowledge structure compared to more prominent thematic relations.

Taxonomical analysis of the Cancer cluster of galaxies

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Perea, J.; Olmo, A. del; Moles, M.

1986-01-01

A description is presented of the Cancer cluster of galaxies, based on a taxonomical analysis in (α,delta, Vsub(r)) space. Earlier results by previous authors on the lack of dynamical entity of the cluster are confirmed. The present analysis points out the existence of a binary structure in the most populated region of the complex. (author)

Wavelength converter placement in optical networks with dynamic traffic

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Buron, Jakob Due; Ruepp, Sarah Renée; Wessing, Henrik

2008-01-01

We evaluate the connection provisioning performance of GMPLS-controlled wavelength routed networks under dynamic traffic load and using three different wavelength converter placement heuristics. Results show that a simple uniform placement heuristic matches the performance of complex heuristics...

Improved taxonomic assignment of human intestinal 16S rRNA sequences by a dedicated reference database

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Ritari, Jarmo; Salojärvi, Jarkko; Lahti, Leo; Vos, de Willem M.

2015-01-01

Background: Current sequencing technology enables taxonomic profiling of microbial ecosystems at high resolution and depth by using the 16S rRNA gene as a phylogenetic marker. Taxonomic assignation of newly acquired data is based on sequence comparisons with comprehensive reference databases to

Value-based distributed generator placements for service quality improvements

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Teng, Jen-Hao; Chen, Chi-Fa [Department of Electrical Engineering, I-Shou University, No. 1, Section 1, Syuecheng Road, Dashu Township, Kaohsiung Country 840 (Taiwan); Liu, Yi-Hwa [Department of Electrical Engineering, National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, Taipei (Taiwan); Chen, Chia-Yen [Department of Computer Science, The University of Auckland (New Zealand)

2007-03-15

Distributed generator (DG) resources are small, self-contained electric generating plants that can provide power to homes, businesses or industrial facilities in distribution feeders. They can be used to reduce power loss and improve service reliability. However, the values of DGs are largely dependent on their types, sizes and locations as they were installed in distribution feeders. A value-based method is proposed in this paper to enhance the reliability and obtain the benefits for DG placement. The benefits of DG placement described in this paper include power cost saving, power loss reduction, and reliability enhancement. The costs of DG placement include the investment, maintenance and operating costs. The proposed value-based method tries to find the best tradeoff between the costs and benefits of DG placement and then find the optimal types of DG and their corresponding locations and sizes in distribution feeders. The derived formulations are solved by a genetic algorithm based method. Test results show that with proper types, sizes and installation site selection, DG placement can be used to improve system reliability, reduce customer interruption costs and save power cost; as well as enabling electric utilities to obtain the maximal economical benefits. (author)

Life cycle assessment for dredged sediment placement strategies.

Science.gov (United States)

Bates, Matthew E; Fox-Lent, Cate; Seymour, Linda; Wender, Ben A; Linkov, Igor

2015-04-01

Dredging to maintain navigable waterways is important for supporting trade and economic sustainability. Dredged sediments are removed from the waterways and then must be managed in a way that meets regulatory standards and properly balances management costs and risks. Selection of a best management alternative often results in stakeholder conflict regarding tradeoffs between local environmental impacts associated with less expensive alternatives (e.g., open water placement), more expensive measures that require sediment disposal in constructed facilities far away (e.g., landfills), or beneficial uses that may be perceived as risky (e.g., beach nourishment or island creation). Current sediment-placement decisions often focus on local and immediate environmental effects from the sediment itself, ignoring a variety of distributed and long-term effects from transportation and placement activities. These extended effects have implications for climate change, resource consumption, and environmental and human health, which may be meaningful topics for many stakeholders not currently considered. Life-Cycle Assessment (LCA) provides a systematic and quantitative method for accounting for this wider range of impacts and benefits across all sediment management project stages and time horizons. This paper applies a cradle-to-use LCA to dredged-sediment placement through a comparative analysis of potential upland, open water, and containment-island placement alternatives in the Long Island Sound region of NY/CT. Results suggest that, in cases dealing with uncontaminated sediments, upland placement may be the most environmentally burdensome alternative, per ton-kilometer of placed material, due to the emissions associated with diesel fuel combustion and electricity production and consumption required for the extra handling and transportation. These results can be traded-off with the ecosystem impacts of the sediments themselves in a decision-making framework. Published by

Taxonomic and Phylogenetic Determinants of Functional Composition of Bolivian Bat Assemblages.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Luis F Aguirre

Full Text Available Understanding diversity patterns and the potential mechanisms driving them is a fundamental goal in ecology. Examination of different dimensions of biodiversity can provide insights into the relative importance of different processes acting upon biotas to shape communities. Unfortunately, patterns of diversity are still poorly understood in hyper-diverse tropical countries. Here, we assess spatial variation of taxonomic, functional and phylogenetic diversity of bat assemblages in one of the least studied Neotropical countries, Bolivia, and determine whether changes in biodiversity are explained by the replacement of species or functional groups, or by differences in richness (i.e., gain or loss of species or functional groups. Further, we evaluate the contribution of phylogenetic and taxonomic changes in the resulting patterns of functional diversity of bats. Using well-sampled assemblages from published studies we examine noctilionoid bats at ten study sites across five ecoregions in Bolivia. Bat assemblages differed from each other in all dimensions of biodiversity considered; however, diversity patterns for each dimension were likely structured by different mechanisms. Within ecoregions, differences were largely explained by species richness, suggesting that the gain or loss of species or functional groups (as opposed to replacement was driving dissimilarity patterns. Overall, our results suggest that whereas evolutionary processes (i.e., historical connection and dispersal routes across Bolivia create a template of diversity patterns across the country, ecological mechanisms modify these templates, decoupling the observed patterns of functional, taxonomic and phylogenetic diversity in Bolivian bats. Our results suggests that elevation represents an important source of variability among diversity patterns for each dimension of diversity considered. Further, we found that neither phylogenetic nor taxonomic diversity can fully account for

Taxonomic and Phylogenetic Determinants of Functional Composition of Bolivian Bat Assemblages.

Science.gov (United States)

Aguirre, Luis F; Montaño-Centellas, Flavia A; Gavilanez, M Mercedes; Stevens, Richard D

2016-01-01

Understanding diversity patterns and the potential mechanisms driving them is a fundamental goal in ecology. Examination of different dimensions of biodiversity can provide insights into the relative importance of different processes acting upon biotas to shape communities. Unfortunately, patterns of diversity are still poorly understood in hyper-diverse tropical countries. Here, we assess spatial variation of taxonomic, functional and phylogenetic diversity of bat assemblages in one of the least studied Neotropical countries, Bolivia, and determine whether changes in biodiversity are explained by the replacement of species or functional groups, or by differences in richness (i.e., gain or loss of species or functional groups). Further, we evaluate the contribution of phylogenetic and taxonomic changes in the resulting patterns of functional diversity of bats. Using well-sampled assemblages from published studies we examine noctilionoid bats at ten study sites across five ecoregions in Bolivia. Bat assemblages differed from each other in all dimensions of biodiversity considered; however, diversity patterns for each dimension were likely structured by different mechanisms. Within ecoregions, differences were largely explained by species richness, suggesting that the gain or loss of species or functional groups (as opposed to replacement) was driving dissimilarity patterns. Overall, our results suggest that whereas evolutionary processes (i.e., historical connection and dispersal routes across Bolivia) create a template of diversity patterns across the country, ecological mechanisms modify these templates, decoupling the observed patterns of functional, taxonomic and phylogenetic diversity in Bolivian bats. Our results suggests that elevation represents an important source of variability among diversity patterns for each dimension of diversity considered. Further, we found that neither phylogenetic nor taxonomic diversity can fully account for patterns of functional

Impact of an international workplace learning placement on personal and professional development.

Science.gov (United States)

Davies, Kerryn; Curtin, Michael; Robson, Kristy

2017-04-01

Workplace learning (WPL) placements are a mandatory part of occupational therapy courses. There is some evidence that suggests WPL placements in international settings are beneficial for students' learning, and personal and professional development. The aim of this study was to explore the impact an international WPL placement in Vietnam had on the perceived personal and professional development of a group of Australian occupational therapy graduates. Interpretative phenomenological analysis was used to explore the perceptions of how participation in the Charles Sturt University School of Community Health's Vietnam placement influenced the personal and professional development of occupational therapy graduates. Individual semi-structured interviews were conducted with nine graduates who participated in the Vietnam placement when they were final year occupational therapy students. Interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed verbatim and individually analysed to identify key themes. Two major themes emerged from the analysis: becoming resourceful, resilient and confident, and becoming respectful of difference. The participants indicated that participation in the Vietnam placement had a positive impact on their personal and professional development. Participants indicated that the Vietnam placement enabled them to develop their resourcefulness, resilience, reasoning skills, cultural competence, confidence and independence, beyond what they felt would have achieved on a domestic placement. For these reason these participants found the placement a beneficial and worthwhile experience. © 2016 Occupational Therapy Australia.

La confusa taxonomía de Cryptosporidium

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Gregorio Pérez-Cordón

2006-10-01

Full Text Available Los últimos descubrimientos en la biología y filogenética de Cryptosporidium refuerzan la necesidad de una exhaustiva revisión del ciclo de vida y la taxonomía de este parásito. Tanto futuros estudios de cultivo in vitro e in vivo así como estudios moleculares y genéticos permitirán avanzar en el profundo conocimiento de este interesante parásito.

Heterocyst placement strategies to maximize the growth of cyanobacterial filaments

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Brown, Aidan I; Rutenberg, Andrew D

2012-01-01

Under conditions of limited fixed-nitrogen, some filamentous cyanobacteria develop a regular pattern of heterocyst cells that fix nitrogen for the remaining vegetative cells. We examine three different heterocyst placement strategies by quantitatively modelling filament growth while varying both external fixed-nitrogen and leakage from the filament. We find that there is an optimum heterocyst frequency which maximizes the growth rate of the filament; the optimum frequency decreases as the external fixed-nitrogen concentration increases but increases as the leakage increases. In the presence of leakage, filaments implementing a local heterocyst placement strategy grow significantly faster than filaments implementing random heterocyst placement strategies. With no extracellular fixed-nitrogen, consistent with recent experimental studies of Anabaena sp. PCC 7120, the modelled heterocyst spacing distribution using our local heterocyst placement strategy is qualitatively similar to experimentally observed patterns. As external fixed-nitrogen is increased, the spacing distribution for our local placement strategy retains the same shape, while the average spacing between heterocysts continuously increases. (paper)

Clinical application of transnasal feeding tube placement under fluoroscopic guidance

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ge Kunyuan; Ni Caifang; Liu Yizhi; Zhu Xiaoli; Zou Jianwei; Jin Yonghai; Chen Long; Sun Ge; Sun Lingfang; Zhang Dong

2008-01-01

Objective: To evaluate the feasibility and effectiveness of duodenal feeding tube placement under fluoroscopic guidance and its clinical application. Methods: The transnasal duodenal nutriment tubes placement under fluoroscopic guidance were performed in 59 patients from June 3th, 2003 to August 17th, 2007. The successful placement of the feeding tube was defined as that of the tube tip was fixed at or distal to the duodenojejunal junction. Results: 57 out of 59 patients were successfully managed by feeding tube placement, with primary successful rate of 96.6% (57/59). The remaining two failures were due to overdistention of the stomach and were further managed after gastrointestinal decompression thoroughly. The mean fluoroscopy time of the procedure was 17.8 minutes with no severe immediate or delayed complications. Conclusion: The transnasal duodenal nutrient feeding tube placement under fluoroscopic guidance is a safe,economic, and effective management for enteral nutrition, providing extensive clinical utilization. (authors)

The gastropod-symbiotic sea anemone genus Isosicyonis Carlgren, 1927 (Actiniaria: Actiniidae: a new species from the Weddell Sea (Antarctica that clarifies the taxonomic position of the genus

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Estefanía Rodríguez

2008-03-01

Full Text Available A second species of the sea anemone genus Isosicyonis is described and illustrated from 16 specimens collected in the Weddell Sea (Antarctica on the Polarstern cruises ANT XVII/3, ANT XXI/2 and ANT XXIII/8. Isosicyonis striata n. sp. is easily distinguishable externally from the other species of the genus Isosicyonis alba by its pattern: white longitudinal stripes on the column, oral disc, and tentacles. It is also distinguished by internal features including the retractor muscles, parietobasilar muscles, marginal sphincter muscles, number of mesenteries, and cnidae. The genus Isosycionis is currently only known from the Southern Ocean. Both species of Isosicyonis live in association with a gastropod, with a single sea anemone occupying almost the whole shell of its gastropod host. The description of this new species, and our re-examination of Isosicyonis alba, resolves the controversial higher taxonomic position of the genus, confirming its placement within the Endomyaria.

Optimal PMU Placement with Uncertainty Using Pareto Method

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

A. Ketabi

2012-01-01

Full Text Available This paper proposes a method for optimal placement of Phasor Measurement Units (PMUs in state estimation considering uncertainty. State estimation has first been turned into an optimization exercise in which the objective function is selected to be the number of unobservable buses which is determined based on Singular Value Decomposition (SVD. For the normal condition, Differential Evolution (DE algorithm is used to find the optimal placement of PMUs. By considering uncertainty, a multiobjective optimization exercise is hence formulated. To achieve this, DE algorithm based on Pareto optimum method has been proposed here. The suggested strategy is applied on the IEEE 30-bus test system in several case studies to evaluate the optimal PMUs placement.

Measuring the Value of Placements to Employers: A Cost-Benefit Approach

Science.gov (United States)

Wond, Tracey; Rambukwella, Shan

2018-01-01

This article explores the concept and measurement of placement value, underexplored in theory and practice to date. The article makes a theoretical contribution to the placement value discourse by examining and articulating the placement value concept. It also offers a practical contribution by exploring a piloted tool to evaluate employer…

Taxonomic and functional responses to fire and post-fire management of a Mediterranean hymenoptera community.

Science.gov (United States)

Mateos, Eduardo; Santos, Xavier; Pujade-Villar, Juli

2011-11-01

Fire is one of the commonest disturbances worldwide, transforming habitat structure and affecting ecosystem functioning. Understanding how species respond to such environmental disturbances is a major conservation goal that should be monitored using functionally and taxonomically diverse groups such as Hymenoptera. In this respect, we have analyzed the taxonomic and functional response to fire and post-fire management of a Hymenoptera community from a Mediterranean protected area. Thus, Hymenoptera were sampled at fifteen sites located in three burnt areas submitted to different post-fire practices, as well as at five sites located in peripheral unburnt pine forest. A total of 4882 specimens belonging to 33 families, which were classified into six feeding groups according to their dietary preferences, were collected. ANOVA and Redundancy Analyses showed a taxonomic and functional response to fire as all burnt areas had more Hymenoptera families, different community composition and higher numbers of parasitoids than the unburnt area. Taxonomic differences were also found between burnt areas in terms of the response of Hymenoptera to post-fire management. In general the number of parasitoids was positively correlated to the number of potential host arthropods. Parasitoids are recognized to be sensitive to habitat changes, thus highlighting their value for monitoring the functional responses of organisms to habitat disturbance. The taxonomic and functional responses of Hymenoptera suggest that some pine-forest fires can enhance habitat heterogeneity and arthropod diversity, hence increasing interspecific interactions such as those established by parasitoids and their hosts.

Taxonomic and Functional Responses to Fire and Post-Fire Management of a Mediterranean Hymenoptera Community

Science.gov (United States)

Mateos, Eduardo; Santos, Xavier; Pujade-Villar, Juli

2011-11-01

Fire is one of the commonest disturbances worldwide, transforming habitat structure and affecting ecosystem functioning. Understanding how species respond to such environmental disturbances is a major conservation goal that should be monitored using functionally and taxonomically diverse groups such as Hymenoptera. In this respect, we have analyzed the taxonomic and functional response to fire and post-fire management of a Hymenoptera community from a Mediterranean protected area. Thus, Hymenoptera were sampled at fifteen sites located in three burnt areas submitted to different post-fire practices, as well as at five sites located in peripheral unburnt pine forest. A total of 4882 specimens belonging to 33 families, which were classified into six feeding groups according to their dietary preferences, were collected. ANOVA and Redundancy Analyses showed a taxonomic and functional response to fire as all burnt areas had more Hymenoptera families, different community composition and higher numbers of parasitoids than the unburnt area. Taxonomic differences were also found between burnt areas in terms of the response of Hymenoptera to post-fire management. In general the number of parasitoids was positively correlated to the number of potential host arthropods. Parasitoids are recognized to be sensitive to habitat changes, thus highlighting their value for monitoring the functional responses of organisms to habitat disturbance. The taxonomic and functional responses of Hymenoptera suggest that some pine-forest fires can enhance habitat heterogeneity and arthropod diversity, hence increasing interspecific interactions such as those established by parasitoids and their hosts.

Evolutionary history of Leishmania killicki (synonymous Leishmania tropica) and taxonomic implications.

Science.gov (United States)

Chaara, Dhekra; Ravel, Christophe; Bañuls, Anne- Laure; Haouas, Najoua; Lami, Patrick; Talignani, Loïc; El Baidouri, Fouad; Jaouadi, Kaouther; Harrat, Zoubir; Dedet, Jean-Pierre; Babba, Hamouda; Pratlong, Francine

2015-04-01

The taxonomic status of Leishmania (L.) killicki, a parasite that causes chronic cutaneous leishmaniasis, is not well defined yet. Indeed, some researchers suggested that this taxon could be included in the L. tropica complex, whereas others considered it as a distinct phylogenetic complex. To try to solve this taxonomic issue we carried out a detailed study on the evolutionary history of L. killicki relative to L. tropica. Thirty-five L. killicki and 25 L. tropica strains isolated from humans and originating from several countries were characterized using the MultiLocus Enzyme Electrophoresis (MLEE) and the MultiLocus Sequence Typing (MLST) approaches. The results of the genetic and phylogenetic analyses strongly support the hypothesis that L. killicki belongs to the L. tropica complex. Our data suggest that L. killicki emerged from a single founder event and that it evolved independently from L. tropica. However, they do not validate the hypothesis that L. killicki is a distinct complex. Therefore, we suggest naming this taxon L. killicki (synonymous L. tropica) until further epidemiological and phylogenetic studies justify the L. killicki denomination. This study provides taxonomic and phylogenetic information on L. killicki and improves our knowledge on the evolutionary history of this taxon.

Radiologic placement of metallic esophageal stents: preliminary experience

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Good, S.; Asch, M.R.; Jaffer, N.; Casson, A.G.

1997-01-01

To assess the usefulness of covered, self expanding metallic stents for alleviating stricture associated with malignant esophageal lesions. Patients and methods: Self-expanding metallic stents were placed in 10 patients with dysphagia related to stricture caused by malignant esophageal lesions. The stents were placed fluoroscopically with local anesthesia, and patency of the esophageal lumen was assessed by barium study after the procedure. The patients were then followed clinically. Results: In all 10 cases patency of the lumen was renewed after stent placement. After the procedure 9 of the patients could tolerate a normal or near-normal diet; in the other patient esophageal perforation occurred, and clinical deterioration prevented oral intake of food. In one patient, 2 stents were needed because of the length of the stricture. Two patients experienced reflux after placement of the stent across the gastro-esophageal junction. Another patient had asymptomatic aspiration after stent placement in the proximal esophagus. In 2 patients, symptoms associated with tracheoesophageal fistula were relieved after placement of the stents. Six of the 10 patients died; mean survival after the procedure was 12 (range 1 to 56) weeks. The other 4 patients were alive at the time of writing, having survived for a mean of 7.5 (range 2 to 13) weeks; all of these patients tolerated a near-normal diet. Conclusions: The placement of covered, self-expanding metallic stents is a quick, effective method of palliating dysphagia related to stricture caused by malignant esophageal lesions. (author)

The taxonomic status of giant sengis ( genus Rhynchocyon ) in ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

The sengis (elephant-shrews) of Mozambique are poorly known, especially the taxonomic status of the giant sengis, genus Rhynchocyon. Currently, Rhynchocyon from Mozambique are thought to be chequered sengis, R. cirnei with specimens from the central coastal areas being placed in the subspecies R. c. cirnei, while ...

Floristic composition and taxonomic distribution of plants in the ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Floristic composition and taxonomic distribution of plants in the dryland of Northwestern Nigeria. ... Analysis of abundance and rarity of species reveals that 10% and 90% of the encountered species were abundant and rare respectively in the study area. These finding poses serious ecological concerns in the study area, ...

Hollow mandrin facilitates external ventricular drainage placement.

Science.gov (United States)

Heese, O; Regelsberger, J; Kehler, U; Westphal, M

2005-07-01

Placement of ventricular catheters is a routine procedure in neurosurgery. Ventricle puncture is done using a flexible ventricular catheter stabilised by a solid steel mandrin in order to improve stability during brain penetration. A correct catheter placement is confirmed after removing the solid steel mandrin by observation of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) flow out of the flexible catheter. Incorrect placement makes further punctures necessary. The newly developed device allows CSF flow observation during the puncture procedure and in addition precise intracranial pressure (ICP) measurement. The developed mandrin is hollow with a blunt tip. On one side 4-5 small holes with a diameter of 0.8 mm are drilled corresponding exactly with the holes in the ventricular catheter, allowing CSF to pass into the hollow mandrin as soon as the ventricle is reached. By connecting a small translucent tube at the distal portion of the hollow mandrin ICP can be measured without loss of CSF. The system has been used in 15 patients with subarachnoid haemorrhage (SAH) or intraventricular haemeorrhage (IVH) and subsequent hydrocephalus. The new system improved the external ventricular drainage implantation procedure. In all 15 patients catheter placement was correct. ICP measurement was easy to perform immediately at ventricle puncture. In 4 patients at puncture no spontaneous CSF flow was observed, therefore by connecting a syringe and gentle aspiration of CSF correct placement was confirmed in this unexpected low pressure hydrocephalus. Otherwise by using the conventional technique further punctures would have been necessary. Advantages of the new technique are less puncture procedures with a lower risk of damage to neural structures and reduced risk of intracranial haemorrhages. Implantation of the ventricular catheter to far into the brain can be monitored and this complication can be overcome. Using the connected pressure monitoring tube an exact measurement of the opening

A Cloud-Computing-Based Data Placement Strategy in High-Speed Railway

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hanning Wang

2012-01-01

Full Text Available As an important component of China’s transportation data sharing system, high-speed railway data sharing is a typical application of data-intensive computing. Currently, most high-speed railway data is shared in cloud computing environment. Thus, there is an urgent need for an effective cloud-computing-based data placement strategy in high-speed railway. In this paper, a new data placement strategy named hierarchical structure data placement strategy is proposed. The proposed method combines the semidefinite programming algorithm with the dynamic interval mapping algorithm. The semi-definite programming algorithm is suitable for the placement of files with various replications, ensuring that different replications of a file are placed on different storage devices, while the dynamic interval mapping algorithm ensures better self-adaptability of the data storage system. A hierarchical data placement strategy is proposed for large-scale networks. In this paper, a new theoretical analysis is provided, which is put in comparison with several other previous data placement approaches, showing the efficacy of the new analysis in several experiments.

Concordance and discordance between taxonomic and functional homogenization: responses of soil mite assemblages to forest conversion.

Science.gov (United States)

Mori, Akira S; Ota, Aino T; Fujii, Saori; Seino, Tatsuyuki; Kabeya, Daisuke; Okamoto, Toru; Ito, Masamichi T; Kaneko, Nobuhiro; Hasegawa, Motohiro

2015-10-01

The compositional characteristics of ecological assemblages are often simplified; this process is termed "biotic homogenization." This process of biological reorganization occurs not only taxonomically but also functionally. Testing both aspects of homogenization is essential if ecosystem functioning supported by a diverse mosaic of functional traits in the landscape is concerned. Here, we aimed to infer the underlying processes of taxonomic/functional homogenization at the local scale, which is a scale that is meaningful for this research question. We recorded species of litter-dwelling oribatid mites along a gradient of forest conversion from a natural forest to a monoculture larch plantation in Japan (in total 11 stands), and collected data on the functional traits of the recorded species to quantify functional diversity. We calculated the taxonomic and functional β-diversity, an index of biotic homogenization. We found that both the taxonomic and functional β-diversity decreased with larch dominance (stand homogenization). After further deconstructing β-diversity into the components of turnover and nestedness, which reflect different processes of community organization, a significant decrease in the response to larch dominance was observed only for the functional turnover. As a result, there was a steeper decline in the functional β-diversity than the taxonomic β-diversity. This discordance between the taxonomic and functional response suggests that species replacement occurs between species that are functionally redundant under environmental homogenization, ultimately leading to the stronger homogenization of functional diversity. The insights gained from community organization of oribatid mites suggest that the functional characteristics of local assemblages, which support the functionality of ecosystems, are of more concern in human-dominated forest landscapes.

An Aggregated Optimization Model for Multi-Head SMD Placements

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Ashayeri, J.; Ma, N.; Sotirov, R.

2010-01-01

In this article we propose an aggregate optimization approach by formulating the multi-head SMD placement optimization problem into a mixed integer program (MIP) with the variables based on batches of components. This MIP is tractable and effective in balancing workload among placement heads,

An aggregated optimization model for multi-head SMD placements

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Ashayeri, J.; Ma, N.; Sotirov, R.

2011-01-01

In this article we propose an aggregate optimization approach by formulating the multi-head SMD placement optimization problem into a mixed integer program (MIP) with the variables based on batches of components. This MIP is tractable and effective in balancing workload among placement heads,

26 CFR 31.3506-1 - Companion sitting placement services.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-04-01

....3506-1 Companion sitting placement services. (a) Definitions—(1) Companion sitting placement service... agency that places babysitters with individuals who desire babysitting services. X furnishes all the.... B performs the services four days a week in A's home and follows specific instructions given by A...

FPGA Congestion-Driven Placement Refinement

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Vicente de, J.

2005-07-01

The routing congestion usually limits the complete proficiency of the FPGA logic resources. A key question can be formulated regarding the benefits of estimating the congestion at placement stage. In the last years, it is gaining acceptance the idea of a detailed placement taking into account congestion. In this paper, we resort to the Thermodynamic Simulated Annealing (TSA) algorithm to perform a congestion-driven placement refinement on the top of the common Bounding-Box pre optimized solution. The adaptive properties of TSA allow the search to preserve the solution quality of the pre optimized solution while improving other fine-grain objectives. Regarding the cost function two approaches have been considered. In the first one Expected Occupation (EO), a detailed probabilistic model to account for channel congestion is evaluated. We show that in spite of the minute detail of EO, the inherent uncertainty of this probabilistic model impedes to relieve congestion beyond the sole application of the Bounding-Box cost function. In the second approach we resort to the fast Rectilinear Steiner Regions algorithm to perform not an estimation but a measurement of the global routing congestion. This second strategy allows us to successfully reduce the requested channel width for a set of benchmark circuits with respect to the widespread Versatile Place and Route (VPR) tool. (Author) 31 refs.

Main functions and taxonomic distribution of virulence genes in Brucella melitensis 16 M.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Aniel Jessica Leticia Brambila-Tapia

Full Text Available Many virulence genes have been detected in attenuated mutants of Brucella melitensis 16 M; nevertheless, a complete report of these genes, including the main Cluster of Orthologous Groups (COG represented as well as the taxonomical distribution among all complete bacterial and archaeal genomes, has not been analyzed. In this work a total of 160 virulence genes that have been reported in attenuated mutants in B. melitensis were included and analyzed. Additionally, we obtained 250 B. melitensis randomly selected genes as a reference group for the taxonomical comparisons. The COGs and the taxonomical distribution profile for 789 nonredundant bacterial and archaeal genomes were obtained and compared with the whole-genome COG distribution and with the 250 randomly selected genes, respectively. The main COGs associated with virulence genes corresponded to the following: intracellular trafficking, secretion and vesicular transport (U; cell motility (N; nucleotide transport and metabolism (F; transcription (K; and cell wall/membrane/envelope biogenesis (M. In addition, we found that virulence genes presented a higher proportion of orthologs in the Euryarchaeota and Proteobacteria phyla, with a significant decrease in Chlamydiae, Bacteroidetes, Tenericutes, Firmicutes and Thermotogae. In conclusion, we found that genes related to specific functions are more relevant to B. melitensis virulence, with the COG U the most significant. Additionally, the taxonomical distribution of virulence genes highlights the importance of these genes in the related Proteobacteria, being less relevant in distant groups of organisms with the exception of Euryarchaeota.

Taxonomic perspective of plant species yielding vegetable oils used ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

A search conducted to determine the plants yielding vegetable oils resulted in 78 plant species with potential use in cosmetics and skin care products. The taxonomic position of these plant species is described with a description of vegetable oils from these plants and their use in cosmetic and skin care products.

Data composition and taxonomic resolution in macroinvertebrate stream typology

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Verdonschot, P.F.M.

2006-01-01

In the EU water framework directive (WFD) a typological framework is defined for assessing the ecological quality of water bodies in the future. The aim of this study was to test the effect of data composition and taxonomic resolution on this typology. The EU research projects AQEM and STAR provided

Environmental quality of a stream can be better predicted by phylogenetic than by taxonomic diversity

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Koperski Paweł

2017-01-01

Full Text Available Different indices of taxonomic diversity (TD and phylogenetic diversity (PD of the macrobenthos were compared to determine the efficient predictors of environmental quality (EQ in different types of watercourses in Poland. Archived data of 864 samples of benthic invertebrates identified to the family level were analysed on the basis of linear and non-linear multiply regression. The strengths of the correlations between two measures of EQ:BMWPpl (British Monitoring Working Party score system, Polish modification and MMI (Multimetric Macroinvertebrate Index and the values of taxonomic richness and three well-known TD indices: Shannon, Margalef and J' Evenness were compared to those for values of three PD indices, based on taxonomic distinctness. Taxonomic richness and all PD indices correlated more strongly with both measures of EQ than all TD indices. Correlations with both types of diversity indices were visibly stronger for BMWPpl when compared with MMI. We suggest that analysed indices of PD, especially MDis (mean phylogenetic distance between families in a sample, are related with EQ strongly enough to be taken into account as potential metrics in selection procedures of biological assessment.

Distribution of taxonomic classes and the compositional structure of the astreroid belt

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gradie, J.C.; Tedesco, E.F.

1989-01-01

The distribution of asteroid taxonomic classes and, presumably, actual composition varies systematically with heliocentric distance and is seen qualitatively in the results of a variety of taxonomy methods. In general, the distribution of taxonomic classes is characterized by moderate-albedo asteroids dominant in the inner belt with low-albedo asteroids prevalent in the outer belt and beyond. If the differences in taxonomic classes are assumed to be due to differences in composition, then the asteroid belt can be divided into many compositionally distinct regions defined by peaks and troughs in the distributions of the various classes. Unfortunately, differences in the class definitions used by different classification methods are manifested in the bias-corrected distribution of the classes, which makes detailed interpretation of these trends difficult. UBV color differences among members of the moderate-albedo S class show a distribution in semimajor axis which indicates subgroups in the S class. Explanations of the causes of the overall trends range from primarily dynamical to primarily in situ arrangements of igneous, metamorphic and unaltered primitive material, but a combination of several of these factors may be more likely

Chrysomya albiceps and C. rufifacies (Diptera: Calliphoridae): contribution to an ongoing taxonomic problem.

Science.gov (United States)

Tantawi, T I; Greenberg, B

1993-05-01

Until recently, the two biologically equivalent blow flies Chrysomya albiceps (Wiedemann) and Chrysomya rufifacies (Macquart) had disjunct distributions outside the Americas; the former was Palaearctic, the latter Australasian and Oriental. The two species are now spreading throughout the Americas and coexist in Argentina. The predatory "hairy" larvae of both species are difficult to separate, which could result in taxonomic errors. New diagnostic characters are presented to differentiate the third instars of the two species. The usefulness of the prostigmatic bristle as a diagnostic taxonomic character in distinguishing adults of these species is questioned.

Percutaneous placement of peritoneal port-catheter in oncologic patients

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Orsi, Franco; Vigna, Paolo Della; Bonomo, Guido; Penco, Silvia; Lovati, Elena; Bellomi, Massimo

2004-01-01

The aim of this paper is to describe the technique of percutaneous ultrasound (US)-guided placement of a peritoneal port-catheter in an interventional radiological setting. Nineteen patients with peritoneal carcinomatosis were selected for intraperitoneal port-catheter placement in order to perform intracavitary receptor-immuno- or radio-immunotherapy with Ytrium-90. All the procedures were performed percutaneously under US and fluoro guidance; the insertion site for catheters was chosen according to abdominal conditions and US findings: all devices were implanted at the lower abdominal quadrants. All patients were followed up with CT and US according to the therapy protocol. The procedure was successfully completed in 15/19 patients, in 4 being contraindicated by peritoneal adhesions. No procedure-related complications and device occlusions during therapy were observed; one catheter displaced 7 months later the placement. In our experience, this procedure was feasible, reliable and easy to perform, allowing the correct administration of the planned intracavitary therapy. Peritoneal adhesions are the main limitation of peritoneal port placement. (orig.)

A risk-based sensor placement methodology

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lee, Ronald W.; Kulesz, James J.

2008-01-01

A risk-based sensor placement methodology is proposed to solve the problem of optimal location of sensors to protect population against the exposure to, and effects of, known and/or postulated chemical, biological, and/or radiological threats. Risk is calculated as a quantitative value representing population at risk from exposure at standard exposure levels. Historical meteorological data are used to characterize weather conditions as the frequency of wind speed and direction pairs. The meteorological data drive atmospheric transport and dispersion modeling of the threats, the results of which are used to calculate risk values. Sensor locations are determined via an iterative dynamic programming algorithm whereby threats detected by sensors placed in prior iterations are removed from consideration in subsequent iterations. In addition to the risk-based placement algorithm, the proposed methodology provides a quantification of the marginal utility of each additional sensor. This is the fraction of the total risk accounted for by placement of the sensor. Thus, the criteria for halting the iterative process can be the number of sensors available, a threshold marginal utility value, and/or a minimum cumulative utility achieved with all sensors

Learning experiences on role-emerging placements: an exploration from the students' perspective.

Science.gov (United States)

Dancza, Karina; Warren, Alison; Copley, Jodie; Rodger, Sylvia; Moran, Monica; McKay, Elizabeth; Taylor, Ann

2013-12-01

Occupational therapy educators are challenged to provide students with practical experiences which prepare them for ever changing health-care contexts on graduation. Role-emerging placements have been widely used internationally to help meet this challenge, but research into the learning experiences of students during these innovative placements is limited. This research investigated the enablers and barriers to learning from the perspectives of students on such placements from two European universities. Two separate qualitative studies tracked 10 final year students. Interviews explored their learning experiences prior to, during and after an eight- or 10-week role-emerging placement in a range of settings. Four themes emerged, which were (1) adapting to less doing, more thinking and planning; (2) understanding the complexity of collaboration and making it work; (3) emotional extremes; and (4) realising and using the occupational therapy perspective. These placements presented a 'roller coaster' of authentic learning experiences which created the opportunity for students to use occupation in practice and develop skills for collaborative working in an interprofessional environment. Whereas students viewed their role-emerging placement experiences positively, challenges included the emotional responses of students and placement pace. Findings suggest the need for supportive student placement experiences in both established and role-emerging areas to prepare students for a range of opportunities in an uncertain future. © 2013 Occupational Therapy Australia.

The History of Nontraditional or Ectopic Placement of Reservoirs in Prosthetic Urology.

Science.gov (United States)

Perito, Paul; Wilson, Steven

2016-04-01

Reservoir placement during implantation of prosthetic urology devices has been problematic throughout the history of the surgical treatment of erectile dysfunction and urinary incontinence. We thought it would be interesting to review the history of reservoir placement leading up to current surgical techniques. To provide an overview of the past and present techniques for reservoir placement and discuss the evolutionary process leading to safe and effective placement of prosthetic reservoirs. We reviewed data pertaining to inflatable penile prosthesis (IPP) reservoirs and pressure-regulating balloons (PRB) in a chronological fashion, spanning 25 years. Main outcomes included a historical review of techniques for IPP reservoir and PRB placement leading to the subsequent incremental improvements in safety and efficacy when performing penile implants and artificial urinary sphincters. Prosthetic urologic reservoirs have traditionally been placed in the retropubic space. Over the years, urologists have attempted use of alternative spaces including peritoneal, epigastric, "ectopic," posterior to transversalis, and high submuscular. Current advances in prosthetic urologic reservoir placement allow safe and effective abdominal wall placement of reservoirs. These novel approaches appear to be so effective that urologists may now be able to cease using the traditional retropubic space for reservoir placement, even in the case of virgin pelves. Copyright © 2016 International Society for Sexual Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

AP: A Critical Examination of the Advanced Placement Program

Science.gov (United States)

Sadler, Philip M.; Sonnert, Gerhard; Tai, Robert; Klopfenstein, Kirstin

2016-01-01

The Advanced Placement (AP) program was created to enhance the experience of gifted students as they transition from high school to college. "AP: A Critical Examination of the Advanced Placement Program," edited by Philip M. Sadler, Gerhard Sonnert, Robert Tai, and Kirstin Klopfenstein (2010, Harvard Education Press), questions the…

Coastal habitats as surrogates for taxonomic, functional and trophic structures of benthic faunal communities.

Science.gov (United States)

Törnroos, Anna; Nordström, Marie C; Bonsdorff, Erik

2013-01-01

Due to human impact, there is extensive degradation and loss of marine habitats, which calls for measures that incorporate taxonomic as well as functional and trophic aspects of biodiversity. Since such data is less easily quantifiable in nature, the use of habitats as surrogates or proxies for biodiversity is on the rise in marine conservation and management. However, there is a critical gap in knowledge of whether pre-defined habitat units adequately represent the functional and trophic structure of communities. We also lack comparisons of different measures of community structure in terms of both between- (β) and within-habitat (α) variability when accounting for species densities. Thus, we evaluated a priori defined coastal habitats as surrogates for traditional taxonomic, functional and trophic zoobenthic community structure. We focused on four habitats (bare sand, canopy-forming algae, seagrass above- and belowground), all easily delineated in nature and defined through classification systems. We analyzed uni- and multivariate data on species and trait diversity as well as stable isotope ratios of benthic macrofauna. A good fit between habitat types and taxonomic and functional structure was found, although habitats were more similar functionally. This was attributed to within-habitat heterogeneity so when habitat divisions matched the taxonomic structure, only bare sand was functionally distinct. The pre-defined habitats did not meet the variability of trophic structure, which also proved to differentiate on a smaller spatial scale. The quantification of trophic structure using species density only identified an epi- and an infaunal unit. To summarize the results we present a conceptual model illustrating the match between pre-defined habitat types and the taxonomic, functional and trophic community structure. Our results show the importance of including functional and trophic aspects more comprehensively in marine management and spatial planning.

Land use change has stronger effects on functional diversity than taxonomic diversity in tropical Andean hummingbirds.

Science.gov (United States)

Tinoco, Boris A; Santillán, Vinicio E; Graham, Catherine H

2018-03-01

Land use change modifies the environment at multiple spatial scales, and is a main driver of species declines and deterioration of ecosystem services. However, most of the research on the effects of land use change has focused on taxonomic diversity, while functional diversity, an important predictor of ecosystem services, is often neglected. We explored how local and landscape scale characteristics influence functional and taxonomic diversity of hummingbirds in the Andes Mountains in southern Ecuador. Data was collected in six landscapes along a land use gradient, from an almost intact landscape to one dominated by cattle pastures. We used point counts to sample hummingbirds from 2011 to 2012 to assessed how local factors (i.e., vegetation structure, flowering plants richness, nectar availability) and landscape factors (i.e., landscape heterogeneity, native vegetation cover) influenced taxonomic and functional diversity. Then, we analyzed environment - trait relationships (RLQ test) to explore how different hummingbird functional traits influenced species responses to these factors. Taxonomic and functional diversity of hummingbirds were positively associated with landscape heterogeneity but only functional diversity was positively related to native vegetation coverage. We found a weak response of taxonomic and functional diversity to land use change at the local scale. Environment-trait associations showed that body mass of hummingbirds likely influenced species sensitivity to land use change. In conclusion, landscape heterogeneity created by land use change can positively influence hummingbird taxonomic and functional diversity; however, a reduction of native vegetation cover could decrease functional diversity. Given that functional diversity can mediate ecosystem services, the conservation of native vegetation cover could play a key role in the maintenance of hummingbird pollination services in the tropical Andes. Moreover, there are particular functional

Incorrect position of Essure microinserts 3 months after successful bilateral placement.

Science.gov (United States)

Gerritse, Maria B E; Veersema, Sebastiaan; Timmermans, Anne; Brölmann, Hans A M

2009-03-01

To describe incorrect positions of Essure microinserts detected at 3 months' follow-up. Case report. Outpatient department of obstetrics and gynecology in a Dutch teaching hospital. Initial series of 100 patients who underwent hysteroscopic sterilization using Essure between December 2003 and June 2004. Hysteroscopic placement of the Essure System, follow-up at 3 months with transvaginal ultrasound (TVU), and hysterosalpingography. Bilateral placement rate, tubal obstruction, and detection of incorrect Essure microinsert localization at follow-up after apparent successful bilateral placement. Bilateral placement of Essure microinserts in one session was successful in 93 women (93%). In 90 of these women (96.8%), tubal obstruction was proven at follow-up 3 months later. Three incorrect positions of an Essure insert were seen: two expulsions and one perforation into the abdominal cavity. Incorrect position of Essure microinserts was seen only when the initial placement procedure was difficult. When a placement procedure was difficult or other suboptimal conditions are present during the procedure, we advise performing a TVU or pelvic X-ray in these women 4 weeks after the procedure or after the first vaginal bleeding, instead of waiting for follow-up after 3 months.

Consumers with Major Depressive Disorder: Factors Influencing Job Placement

Science.gov (United States)

Hergenrather, Kenneth C.; Haase, Eileen; Zeglin, Robert J.; Rhodes, Scott D.

2013-01-01

The theory of planned behavior (TPB) was applied to study the factors that influence the intention of public rehabilitation placement professionals to place consumers with major depressive disorder (MDD) in jobs. A sample of 108 public rehabilitation placement professionals in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States completed the MDD…

Community placement and reintegration of service users from long ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Objective: To ascertain community placement and reintegration of service users from long-term mental health care facilities. Method: This study reviewed the progress during 2003 with the alternative placement of a selected candidate group of 27 service users in some of Lifecare's long-term mental health care facilities in ...

Bond graph to digraph conversion: A sensor placement optimization ...

Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

In this paper, we consider the optimal sensors placement problem for ... is due to the fact that the construction is generally done from the state equations, ... The Bond Graph (BG) tool defined in Paynter (1961) formal- ... Sensor placement and structural problem formulation .... Thus the obtained four matrices are as follows:.

28 CFR 541.49 - Review of control unit placement.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-07-01

... 28 Judicial Administration 2 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Review of control unit placement. 541.49... INMATE DISCIPLINE AND SPECIAL HOUSING UNITS Control Unit Programs § 541.49 Review of control unit placement. (a) Unit staff shall evaluate informally and daily an inmate's adjustment within the control unit...

Taxonomic and Thematic Organisation of Proper Name Conceptual Knowledge

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sebastian J. Crutch

2011-01-01

Full Text Available We report the investigation of the organisation of proper names in two aphasic patients (NBC and FBI. The performance of both patients on spoken word to written word matching tasks was inconsistent, affected by presentation rate and semantic relatedness of the competing responses, all hallmarks of a refractory semantic access dysphasia. In a series of experiments we explored the semantic relatedness effects within their proper name vocabulary, including brand names and person names. First we demonstrated the interaction between very fine grain organisation and personal experience, with one patient with a special interest in the cinema demonstrating higher error rates when identifying the names of actors working in a similar film genre (e.g. action movies: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Bruce Willis, Sylvester Stallone, Mel Gibson than those working in different genres (e.g. Arnold Schwarzenegger, Gregory Peck, Robin Williams, Gene Kelly. Second we compared directly two potential principles of semantic organisation – taxonomic and thematic. Furthermore we considered these principles of organisation in the context of the individuals' personal knowledge base. We selected topics matching the interests and experience of each patient, namely cinema and literature (NBC and naval history (FBI. The stimulus items were arranged in taxonomic arrays (e.g. Jane Austen, Emily Bronte, Agatha Christie, thematic arrays (e.g. Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, Mr Darcy, and unrelated arrays (e.g. Jane Austen, Wuthering Heights, Hercule Poirot. We documented that different patterns of taxonomic and thematic organisation were constrained by whether the individual has limited knowledge, moderate knowledge or detailed knowledge of a particular vocabulary. It is suggested that moderate proper name knowledge is primarily organised by taxonomy whereas extensive experience results in a more detailed knowledge base in which theme is a powerful organising principle.

Taxonomic and thematic organisation of proper name conceptual knowledge.

Science.gov (United States)

Crutch, Sebastian J; Warrington, Elizabeth K

2011-01-01

We report the investigation of the organisation of proper names in two aphasic patients (NBC and FBI). The performance of both patients on spoken word to written word matching tasks was inconsistent, affected by presentation rate and semantic relatedness of the competing responses, all hallmarks of a refractory semantic access dysphasia. In a series of experiments we explored the semantic relatedness effects within their proper name vocabulary, including brand names and person names. First we demonstrated the interaction between very fine grain organisation and personal experience, with one patient with a special interest in the cinema demonstrating higher error rates when identifying the names of actors working in a similar film genre (e.g., action movies: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Bruce Willis, Sylvester Stallone, Mel Gibson) than those working in different genres (e.g., Arnold Schwarzenegger, Gregory Peck, Robin Williams, Gene Kelly). Second we compared directly two potential principles of semantic organisation - taxonomic and thematic. Furthermore we considered these principles of organisation in the context of the individuals' personal knowledge base. We selected topics matching the interests and experience of each patient, namely cinema and literature (NBC) and naval history (FBI). The stimulus items were arranged in taxonomic arrays (e.g., Jane Austen, Emily Bronte, Agatha Christie), thematic arrays (e.g., Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, Mr Darcy), and unrelated arrays (e.g., Jane Austen, Wuthering Heights, Hercule Poirot). We documented that different patterns of taxonomic and thematic organisation were constrained by whether the individual has limited knowledge, moderate knowledge or detailed knowledge of a particular vocabulary. It is suggested that moderate proper name knowledge is primarily organised by taxonomy whereas extensive experience results in a more detailed knowledge base in which theme is a powerful organising principle.

Study on the placement of phosphorus fertilizer to improve fertilizer utilization by lowland rice

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sisworo, W.H.; Riswantoro; Mardjo, M.

1976-01-01

An experiment for studying the placement of phosphorus fertilizer was carried out in the glass house by using 32 P-labelled superphosphate. The specific activity of the labelled fertilizer used was 0,25 mCi/g P 2 O 5 . Three placement methods were studied: (1) Hill placement: Fertilizer was burried at a distance of 5cm from the plants at the depth of 5 cm, (2) Surface placement: Fertilizer was spread on the surface, and (3) Soil mixed application: Fertilizer was mixed with the soil at the depth of 5 cm. Superphosphate was applied at the rates of 0, 30, 60, 90, and 120 kg P 25 /ha. Results obtained from the experiment showed that the dry matter production was significantly affected by the methods of placement of phosphorus fertilizer. Soil mixed placement gave the lowest yield of dry plant material. It differed significantly from the two other methods of placement. However, there was no significant difference between hill and surface placement. The placement of phosphorus fertilizer significantly affected the total uptake of phosphorus nutrient, uptake fertilizer phosphorus, and the percentage of fertilizer utilization. Surface placement gave the highest utilization of fertilizer when supplied at rates higher than 60 kg P 2 O 5 /ha. At low rate applications, hill placement was the best, but, at rates higher than 60 kg P 2 O 5 /ha the percentage of fertilizer utilization decreased. Soil mixed application was the least efficient fertilizer utilization. (author)

Work Placements at 14-15 Years and Employability Skills

Science.gov (United States)

Messer, David

2018-01-01

Purpose: In the UK, concern frequently has been voiced that young people lack appropriate employability skills. One way to address this is to provide work based placements. In general, previous research findings have indicated that young people find such placements useful because of help with career choice and relevant skills. However, most…

Community Resources and Job Placement

Science.gov (United States)

Preston, Jim

1977-01-01

In cooperation with the chamber of commerce, various businesses, associations, and other community agencies, the Sarasota schools (Florida) supplement their own job placement and follow-up efforts with community job development strategies for placing high school graduates. (JT)

Taxonomic novelties within the genus Columnea (Gesneriaceae)

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Amaya Marquez, Marisol

2010-01-01

A new species of Columnea and a new variety of Columnea lanata (Seem.) Kuntze belonging to section Collandra (Gesneriaceae) are described and illustrated. The new species was found in the Pacific slopes of the Cordillera Occidental in the Department of Choco in Colombia; the new variety comes from the Pacific slopes of the Cordillera Occidental, in the region of Murri located at the North West of the Department of Antioquia . A taxonomic key to distinguish the new species from the morphologically closer species is presented.

Clinical predictors of port infections within the first 30 days of placement.

Science.gov (United States)

Bamba, Ravinder; Lorenz, Jonathan M; Lale, Allison J; Funaki, Brian S; Zangan, Steven M

2014-03-01

To identify risk factors for port infections within 30 days of placement. A retrospective chart review of port placements from 2002-2009 was conducted. Patients who had port removals secondary to infection within the first 30 days of placement were included. This group of patients was compared with a control group of patients with ports with no evidence of infection. For every one patient with a port infection, two control subjects were chosen of the same gender and new port placement during the same month as the corresponding patient with an infected port. From 2002-2009, 4,404 ports were placed. Of the 4,404 patients, 33 (0.7%) were found to have a port infection within 30 days of placement. Compared with the control group, the early infection group had a higher prevalence of leukopenia (21.2% vs 6.1%, P = .039) and thrombocytopenia (33% vs 12%, P = .0158). There was also a higher prevalence of an inpatient hospital stay during port placement and high international normalized ratio in the early infection group. Low preoperative white blood cell and platelet counts were risk factors for early infection. Abnormal coagulation profiles and inpatient access of ports after placement could be additional risk factors. Copyright © 2014 SIR. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Characteristics of People Providing Family Placements to Adult Persons with Intellectual Disabilities

Science.gov (United States)

McConkey, Roy; McConaghie, Jayne; Roberts, Paul; King, Diana

2005-01-01

The success of family placement schemes depends largely on the recruitment of suitable people who are willing to offer placements in their own home yet little research has been undertaken of their characteristics and the reasons for their involvement. Thirty providers of family based placements to adult persons with intellectual disabilities were…

The communication of "pure" group-based anger reduces tendencies toward intergroup conflict because it increases out-group empathy.

Science.gov (United States)

de Vos, Bart; van Zomeren, Martijn; Gordijn, Ernestine H; Postmes, Tom

2013-08-01

The communication of group-based anger in intergroup conflict is often associated with destructive conflict behavior. However, we show that communicating group-based anger toward the out-group can evoke empathy and thus reduce intergroup conflict. This is because it stresses the value of maintaining a positive long-term intergroup relationship, thereby increasing understanding for the situation (in contrast to the communication of the closely related emotion of contempt). Three experiments demonstrate that the communication of group-based anger indeed reduces destructive conflict intentions compared with (a) a control condition (Experiments 1-2), (b) the communication of group-based contempt (Experiment 2), and (c) the communication of a combination of group-based anger and contempt (Experiments 2-3). Moreover, results from all three experiments reveal that empathy mediated the positive effect of communicating "pure" group-based anger. We discuss the implications of these findings for the theory and practice of communicating emotions in intergroup conflicts.

Combining Taxonomic and Functional Approaches to Unravel the Spatial Distribution of an Amazonian Butterfly Community.

Science.gov (United States)

Graça, Márlon B; Morais, José W; Franklin, Elizabeth; Pequeno, Pedro A C L; Souza, Jorge L P; Bueno, Anderson Saldanha

2016-04-01

This study investigated the spatial distribution of an Amazonian fruit-feeding butterfly assemblage by linking species taxonomic and functional approaches. We hypothesized that: 1) vegetation richness (i.e., resources) and abundance of insectivorous birds (i.e., predators) should drive changes in butterfly taxonomic composition, 2) larval diet breadth should decrease with increase of plant species richness, 3) small-sized adults should be favored by higher abundance of birds, and 4) communities with eyespot markings should be able to exploit areas with higher predation pressure. Fruit-feeding butterflies were sampled with bait traps and insect nets across 25 km(2) of an Amazonian ombrophilous forest in Brazil. We measured larval diet breadth, adult body size, and wing marking of all butterflies. Our results showed that plant species richness explained most of the variation in butterfly taxonomic turnover. Also, community average diet breadth decreased with increase of plant species richness, which supports our expectations. In contrast, community average body size increased with the abundance of birds, refuting our hypothesis. We detected no influence of environmental gradients on the occurrence of species with eyespot markings. The association between butterfly taxonomic and functional composition points to a mediator role of the functional traits in the environmental filtering of butterflies. The incorporation of the functional approach into the analyses allowed for the detection of relationships that were not observed using a strictly taxonomic perspective and provided an extra insight into comprehending the potential adaptive strategies of butterflies. © The Authors 2015. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Entomological Society of America. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

A Case for Faculty Involvement in EAP Placement Testing

Science.gov (United States)

James, Cindy; Templeman, Elizabeth

2009-01-01

The EAP placement procedure at Thompson Rivers University (TRU) involves multiple measures to assess the language skills of incoming students, some of which are facilitated and all of which are assessed by ESL faculty. In order to determine the effectiveness of this comprehensive EAP placement process and the effect of the faculty factor, a…

Effect of posterior crown margin placement on gingival health.

Science.gov (United States)

Reitemeier, Bernd; Hänsel, Kristina; Walter, Michael H; Kastner, Christian; Toutenburg, Helge

2002-02-01

The clinical impact of posterior crown margin placement on gingival health has not been thoroughly quantified. This study evaluated the effect of posterior crown margin placement with multivariate analysis. Ten general dentists reviewed 240 patients with 480 metal-ceramic crowns in a prospective clinical trial. The alloy was randomly selected from 2 high gold, 1 low gold, and 1 palladium alloy. Variables were the alloy used, oral hygiene index score before treatment, location of crown margins at baseline, and plaque index and sulcus bleeding index scores recorded for restored and control teeth after 1 year. The effect of crown margin placement on sulcular bleeding and plaque accumulation was analyzed with regression models (Prisk of bleeding at intrasulcular posterior crown margins was approximately twice that at supragingival margins. Poor oral hygiene before treatment and plaque also were associated with sulcular bleeding. Facial sites exhibited a lower probability of sulcular bleeding than lingual surfaces. Type of alloy did not influence sulcular bleeding. In this study, placement of crown margins was one of several parameters that affected gingival health.

Confirmation of gastric tube bedside placement with the sky blue method.

Science.gov (United States)

Imamura, Takashi; Maeda, Hajime; Kinoshita, Hidetoshi; Shibukawa, Yasuko; Suda, Kiyomi; Fukuda, Yutaka; Goto, Aya; Nagasawa, Katsutoshi

2014-02-01

The purpose was to review our experiences and determine if applying the sky blue method is reliable in confirming gastric tube (GT) placement in neonates. The study population consisted of 44 infants (55 placements) who were admitted to the Takeda General Hospital between April 2012 and March 2013 and who required GT exchange. The sky blue method using indigo carmine (IC) was indicated for planned tube exchange only. Diluted IC was injected into the gastric space via the old GT just before the tube exchange. The tube was exchanged using a standard method. Then, we checked whether the diluted IC could be collected through the new GT or not. The reasons for GT placement were a gestational age of sky blue method was considered successful in 52 placements (94.4%), with the remaining 3 placements (5.6%) considered to be failures due to the inability to obtain IC from the gastric space. No adverse events were observed during the tube exchange period. Based on the results, the sky blue method can be considered to be reliable method for the confirmation of GT placement. These results also suggest that the number of radiologic evaluations performed to confirm correct replacement of the GT in infants can be reduced in the future.

Isotropic Optical Mouse Placement for Mobile Robot Velocity Estimation

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sungbok Kim

2014-06-01

Full Text Available This paper presents the isotropic placement of multiple optical mice for the velocity estimation of a mobile robot. It is assumed that there can be positional restriction on the installation of optical mice at the bottom of a mobile robot. First, the velocity kinematics of a mobile robot with an array of optical mice is obtained and the resulting Jacobian matrix is analysed symbolically. Second, the isotropic, anisotropic and singular optical mouse placements are identified, along with the corresponding characteristic lengths. Third, the least squares mobile robot velocity estimation from the noisy optical mouse velocity measurements is discussed. Finally, simulation results for several different placements of three optical mice are given.

Does taxonomic diversity in indicator groups influence their effectiveness in identifying priority areas for species conservation?

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bladt, Jesper Stentoft; Larsen, Frank Wugt; Rahbek, Carsten

2008-01-01

The identification of priority areas for biodiversity conservation is a cornerstone of systematic conservation planning. However, biodiversity, or even the distribution of all species, cannot be directly quantified, due to the inherent complexity of natural systems. Species indicator groups may...... serve as important tools for the identification of priority areas for conservation. Yet, it is unclear which factors make certain indicator groups perform better than others. In this study, using data on the Danish distribution of 847 species of plants, vertebrates and insects, we assessed whether...... the taxonomic diversity in species indicator groups influence their effectiveness in the identification of priority areas for species conservation. We tested whether indicator groups comprising a higher taxonomic diversity (i.e. indicator groups consisting of species from many different taxonomic groups...

PRODUCT PLACEMENT IN BRAND PROMOTION

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Alicja Mikołajczyk

2015-06-01

Full Text Available Product placement can have a significant impact on brand awareness and customer purchasing decisions. The article discusses techniques applied in the mass media against the EU legal background and the opportunities it offers in reaching the target audience.

Post-placement temperature reduction techniques

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Liu, Wei; Nannarelli, Alberto

2010-01-01

With technology scaled to deep submicron era, temperature and temperature gradient have emerged as important design criteria. We propose two post-placement techniques to reduce peak temperature by intelligently allocating whitespace in the hotspots. Both methods are fully compliant with commercial...

Hepatocellular Carcinoma Complicated by Gastroduodenal Obstruction: Palliative Treatment with Metallic Stent Placement

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Lee, Ye Jin; Kim, Jin Hyoung, E-mail: m1fenew@daum.net; Song, Ho-Young; Park, Jung-Hoon; Na, Han Kyu; Kim, Pyeong Hwa; Fan, Yong [University of Ulsan College of Medicine, Department of Radiology and Research Institute of Radiology, Asan Medical Center (Korea, Republic of)

2012-10-15

Purpose: To evaluate the clinical effectiveness of self-expandable metallic stents in seven patients with malignant gastroduodenal obstruction caused by inoperable hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Methods: Seven patients with gastroduodenal obstruction caused by advanced HCC underwent metallic stent placement from 2003 to 2010. These patients had total dysphagia (n = 5) or were able to eat only liquids (n = 2) before stent placement. Patients had Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group performance scores of 2 or 3, and Child-Pugh classification B or C. Results: Stent placement was technically successful in all seven patients (100%) and clinically successful in six (86%). Five patients could eat a soft diet, and one patient tolerated regular diet after stent placement. Stent-related obstructive jaundice occurred in one patient. One patient had hematemesis 11 days after stent placement. Overall mean survival was 51 days (range, 10-119 days). Stent patency was preserved in six patients with clinical success until death. Conclusion: Placement of a covered self-expandable metallic stent may offer good palliation in patients with gastroduodenal obstruction due to advanced HCC.

Hepatocellular Carcinoma Complicated by Gastroduodenal Obstruction: Palliative Treatment with Metallic Stent Placement

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lee, Ye Jin; Kim, Jin Hyoung; Song, Ho-Young; Park, Jung-Hoon; Na, Han Kyu; Kim, Pyeong Hwa; Fan, Yong

2012-01-01

Purpose: To evaluate the clinical effectiveness of self-expandable metallic stents in seven patients with malignant gastroduodenal obstruction caused by inoperable hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Methods: Seven patients with gastroduodenal obstruction caused by advanced HCC underwent metallic stent placement from 2003 to 2010. These patients had total dysphagia (n = 5) or were able to eat only liquids (n = 2) before stent placement. Patients had Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group performance scores of 2 or 3, and Child-Pugh classification B or C. Results: Stent placement was technically successful in all seven patients (100%) and clinically successful in six (86%). Five patients could eat a soft diet, and one patient tolerated regular diet after stent placement. Stent-related obstructive jaundice occurred in one patient. One patient had hematemesis 11 days after stent placement. Overall mean survival was 51 days (range, 10–119 days). Stent patency was preserved in six patients with clinical success until death. Conclusion: Placement of a covered self-expandable metallic stent may offer good palliation in patients with gastroduodenal obstruction due to advanced HCC.

Observability-Based Guidance and Sensor Placement

Science.gov (United States)

Hinson, Brian T.

Control system performance is highly dependent on the quality of sensor information available. In a growing number of applications, however, the control task must be accomplished with limited sensing capabilities. This thesis addresses these types of problems from a control-theoretic point-of-view, leveraging system nonlinearities to improve sensing performance. Using measures of observability as an information quality metric, guidance trajectories and sensor distributions are designed to improve the quality of sensor information. An observability-based sensor placement algorithm is developed to compute optimal sensor configurations for a general nonlinear system. The algorithm utilizes a simulation of the nonlinear system as the source of input data, and convex optimization provides a scalable solution method. The sensor placement algorithm is applied to a study of gyroscopic sensing in insect wings. The sensor placement algorithm reveals information-rich areas on flexible insect wings, and a comparison to biological data suggests that insect wings are capable of acting as gyroscopic sensors. An observability-based guidance framework is developed for robotic navigation with limited inertial sensing. Guidance trajectories and algorithms are developed for range-only and bearing-only navigation that improve navigation accuracy. Simulations and experiments with an underwater vehicle demonstrate that the observability measure allows tuning of the navigation uncertainty.

The nutty world of hazel names - a crtitical taxonomic checklist of the genus Corylus (Betulaceae)

OpenAIRE

Holstein, Norbert; Tamer, Sarah el; Weigend, Maximilian

2018-01-01

Hazelnuts (Corylus L.) are the source of one of the globally most important nut crops. Despite their economic and cultural importance, taxonomic knowledge is poor, even the number of species is equivocal. Weak morphological differentiation, the inconsistent taxonomic treatment of horticultural selections and cultivars, and uncritical regional treatments generated a multitude of names. The situation is further complicated by an ancient history of use (at least 10 400 years), trade (at least 40...

Taxonomic Studies on the Genus Arnebia Forssk. (Boraginaceae in India

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kumar Ambrish

2014-12-01

Full Text Available The genus Arnebia Forssk. in India is taxonomically studied based on field surveys, collection of live plants, consultation of herbarium and literature. The genus is represented in India by 10 taxa including 8 species and 2 varieties viz., Arnebia bhattacharyyae K. Ambrish & S.K. Srivast., A. benthamii (Wall. ex G. Don I.M. Johnst., A. euchroma ( Royle I.M. Johnst., A. guttata Bunge, A. hispidissima (Sieber ex Lehm. A.DC., A. linearifolia A.DC., A. griffithii Boiss., A. nandadeviensis K. Chandra Sek. & R.S. Rawal , A. euchroma var. grandis (Bornm. Kazmi and A. guttata var. thomsonii (C.B. Clarke Kazmi, distributed in Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand in North-West Himalaya to Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and Rajasthan in India. Dichotomous keys to all the species in India along with taxonomic description, distribution, illustrations and images of most of the species including type and their economic importance are provided.

Photometric survey and taxonomic identifications of 92 near-Earth asteroids

Science.gov (United States)

Lin, Chien-Hsien; Ip, Wing-Huen; Lin, Zhong-Yi; Cheng, Yu-Chi; Lin, Hsing-Wen; Chang, Chan-Kao

2018-03-01

A photometric survey of near-Earth asteroids (NEAs) was conducted from 2012 through 2014 at Lulin Observatory, Taiwan. The measurements of the color indices, B-V, V-R, and V-I allow the classification of 92 NEAs into seven taxonomic types. Of these samples, 39 of them are new classifications. The fractional abundances of these taxonomic complexes are: A ∼3%, C∼6.5%, D∼8%, Q∼26%, S∼37%, V∼6.5%, and X∼13%. This result is similar to that of Thomas et al. (2011) even though the populations of the D- and X-complex with low albedos are under-represented. The ratio of the C-cluster to the total population of S + C clusters are 0.22 ± 0.06 for H ≤ 17.0 and 0.31 ± 0.06 for H > 17.0, indicating a slightly higher fraction of dark-object population with sizes smaller than 1 km.

A new branch of advertising: reviewing factors that influence reactions to product placement

NARCIS (Netherlands)

van Reijmersdal, E.; Neijens, P.; Smit, E.G.

2009-01-01

This iiterature review presents a quantitative synthesis of 57 studies on product placement and shows which factors are most effective, it shows that placement characteristics, such as placement commerciality, modality, and prominence, have a strong impact on audience reactions. Audience

Optimization of Placement Driven by the Cost of Wire Crossing

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Kapur, Nevin

1997-01-01

.... We implemented a prototype placement algorithm TOCO that minimizes the cost of wire crossing, and a universal unit-grid based placement evaluator place_eval. We have designed a number of statistical experiments to demonstrate the feasibility and the promise of the proposed approach.

Is the Routine Check Nephrostogram Following Percutaneous Antegrade Ureteric Stent Placement Necessary?

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Soh, Keng Chuan; Tay, Kiang Hiong; Tan, Bien Soo; MM Htoo, Austin; HG Lo, Richard; Lin, Shueh En

2008-01-01

Our aim was to review our experience with percutaneous antegrade ureteric stent (PAUS) placement and to determine if the routinely conducted check nephrostogram on the day following ureteric stent placement was necessary. Retrospective review of patients who had undergone PAUS placement between January 2004 and December 2005 was performed. There were 83 subjects (36 males, 47 females), with a mean age of 59.9 years (range, 22-94 years). Average follow-up duration was 7.1 months (range, 1-24 months). The most common indications for PAUS placement were ureteric obstruction due to metastatic disease (n = 56) and urinary calculi (n = 34). Technical success was 93.2% (96/103 attempts), with no major immediate procedure-related complications or mortalities. The Bard 7Fr Urosoft DJ Stent was used in more than 95% of the cases. Eighty-one of 89 (91.0%) check nephrostograms demonstrated a patent ureteric stent with resultant safety catheter removal. Three check nephrostograms revealed distal stent migration requiring repositioning by a goose-snare, while five others showed stent occlusion necessitating permanent external drainage by nephrostomy drainage catheter reinsertion. Following PAUS placement, the serum creatinine level improved or stabilized in 82% of patients. The serum creatinine outcome difference between the groups with benign and malignant indications for PAUS placement was not statistically significant (p = 0.145) but resolution of hydronephrosis was significantly better (p = 0.008) in patients with benign indications. Percutaneous antegrade ureteric stent placement is a safe and effective means of relief for ureteric obstruction. The check nephrostogram following ureteric stent placement was unnecessary in the majority of patients

[Family caregivers' adjustment to nursing home placement of older relatives].

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Szu-Yao; Davies, Elizabeth

2007-06-01

The literature on the impact of nursing home placement of older parents on family caregivers is still incomplete. Family caregivers experience stress, shock, anxiety, fear, resistance, and guilt in the process of decision making. The literature has demonstrated that family caregivers continue to experience stress and problems after placing older relatives into a long term care facility. Cultural values impact on people's attitudes, values and expectations. Culture will therefore affect the care-giving experience. Relatively little information is available from Asian and multicultural societies. Identifying family caregiver experiences after nursing home placement can alert professionals to the need for family guidance prior to nursing home placement and assist in early identification of potential problems. This article reviews the literature and discusses the impact on family caregivers of making a decision for nursing home placement and dealing with the stress and challenges that persist after nursing home admission.

Clinical placements and nursing students' career planning: a qualitative exploration.

Science.gov (United States)

McKenna, Lisa; McCall, Louise; Wray, Natalie

2010-04-01

Many nursing students enter undergraduate programmes with preconceived ideas about their future nursing careers, and intend to practice in particular areas such as midwifery or paediatrics. Through clinical placements, students are exposed to different clinical areas and professional socialization is facilitated. However, little is known about the influence of clinical placements on students' career intentions. This paper reports nursing findings drawn from a large qualitative study conducted in Victoria, Australia that sought to explore the influence of health professional students' clinical placements on their future career intentions. Participants were invited to be involved in either face-to-face or focus group interviews depending upon their own preference. Thematic data analysis revealed three main themes: 're-affirming career choice', 'working in a particular area' and 'work location'. Findings from the study add to our understanding of factors influencing nursing students' planning for their future careers including the impact of clinical placements.

Standardizing metadata and taxonomic identification in metabarcoding studies.

Science.gov (United States)

Tedersoo, Leho; Ramirez, Kelly S; Nilsson, R Henrik; Kaljuvee, Aivi; Kõljalg, Urmas; Abarenkov, Kessy

2015-01-01

High-throughput sequencing-based metabarcoding studies produce vast amounts of ecological data, but a lack of consensus on standardization of metadata and how to refer to the species recovered severely hampers reanalysis and comparisons among studies. Here we propose an automated workflow covering data submission, compression, storage and public access to allow easy data retrieval and inter-study communication. Such standardized and readily accessible datasets facilitate data management, taxonomic comparisons and compilation of global metastudies.

Product Category Layout and Organization: Retail Placement of Food Products

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Herpen, van E.

2016-01-01

This article discusses the placement of food products in retail stores, in particular how the placement of food products can influence how consumers perceive the store in general and these products in particular. It reviews the overall layout of the store, assortment organization, and shelf

[The implementation of Individual Placement and Support in the Netherlands].

Science.gov (United States)

Giesen, F; van Erp, N; van Weeghel, J; Michon, H; Kroon, H

2007-01-01

Individual Placement and Support is a vocational rehabilitation programme for people with severe mental illness, which was implemented during the period 2003-2005 at four locations in the Netherlands. To investigate the degree of compliance with the Individual Placement and Support programme, the factors that hindered or facilitated its implementation, and the results. The degree of compliance was assessed using the Individual Placement and Support fidelity scale. Data regarding the factors that hindered or facilitated the implementation were collected via interviews and monitoring. In addition, data were collected on patient characteristics, the support provided and the jobs found. None of the locations achieved the highest level of compliance, although two locations came close. Eighteen per cent of the 316 patients were helped to find a regular job. The most important obstacles to implementation were loss of vocational team members, project leaders' lack of time, lack of finance, and insufficient cooperation between the organisations involved. The most important facilitating factors were the skills and commitment of the vocational team member(s) and the integration of the vocational teammember(s) and the mental health team. It is not easy to implement Individual Placement and Support. However, if more attention is given to good project management, Individual Placement and Support can succeed in the Netherlands.

Retrievable Airway Stent Placement for Stoma Stricture after Anterior Mediastinal Tracheostomy: Case Report

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hwang, Jae Yeon; Shin, Ji Hoon; Kim, Yong Hee; Song, Ho Young; Kim, Jin Hyoung; Lee, Yeoun Joo

2013-01-01

Anterior mediastinal tracheostomy (AMT) is performed to establish an airway after resection of advanced tumors in the cervicothoracic region. We report a case of successful placement of a covered retrievable self-expandable nitinol stent for a stoma stricture that developed after AMT in a patient with adenoid cystic carcinoma of the trachea. Two stent placements and removals, at two and three months after their initial placement, were performed due to loosening of the stents. Although we did not achieve long-term results as the patient died of massive hemorrhage, the stent placement was both feasible and safe, thus suggesting that temporary stent placement may be a valuable option for treating stoma stricture occurring after AMT.

Retrievable Airway Stent Placement for Stoma Stricture after Anterior Mediastinal Tracheostomy: Case Report

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Hwang, Jae Yeon; Shin, Ji Hoon; Kim, Yong Hee; Song, Ho Young; Kim, Jin Hyoung [Dept. of University of Ulsan College of Medicine, Asan Medical Center, Seoul (Korea, Republic of); Lee, Yeoun Joo [Dept. of Pediatrics, Pusan National University Children' s Hospital, Yangsan (Korea, Republic of)

2013-06-15

Anterior mediastinal tracheostomy (AMT) is performed to establish an airway after resection of advanced tumors in the cervicothoracic region. We report a case of successful placement of a covered retrievable self-expandable nitinol stent for a stoma stricture that developed after AMT in a patient with adenoid cystic carcinoma of the trachea. Two stent placements and removals, at two and three months after their initial placement, were performed due to loosening of the stents. Although we did not achieve long-term results as the patient died of massive hemorrhage, the stent placement was both feasible and safe, thus suggesting that temporary stent placement may be a valuable option for treating stoma stricture occurring after AMT.

Comparative analysis of taxonomic, functional, and metabolic patterns of microbiomes from 14 full-scale biogas reactors by metagenomic sequencing and radioisotopic analysis.

Science.gov (United States)

Luo, Gang; Fotidis, Ioannis A; Angelidaki, Irini

2016-01-01

Biogas production is a very complex process due to the high complexity in diversity and interactions of the microorganisms mediating it, and only limited and diffuse knowledge exists about the variation of taxonomic and functional patterns of microbiomes across different biogas reactors, and their relationships with the metabolic patterns. The present study used metagenomic sequencing and radioisotopic analysis to assess the taxonomic, functional, and metabolic patterns of microbiomes from 14 full-scale biogas reactors operated under various conditions treating either sludge or manure. The results from metagenomic analysis showed that the dominant methanogenic pathway revealed by radioisotopic analysis was not always correlated with the taxonomic and functional compositions. It was found by radioisotopic experiments that the aceticlastic methanogenic pathway was dominant, while metagenomics analysis showed higher relative abundance of hydrogenotrophic methanogens. Principal coordinates analysis showed the sludge-based samples were clearly distinct from the manure-based samples for both taxonomic and functional patterns, and canonical correspondence analysis showed that the both temperature and free ammonia were crucial environmental variables shaping the taxonomic and functional patterns. The study further the overall patterns of functional genes were strongly correlated with overall patterns of taxonomic composition across different biogas reactors. The discrepancy between the metabolic patterns determined by metagenomic analysis and metabolic pathways determined by radioisotopic analysis was found. Besides, a clear correlation between taxonomic and functional patterns was demonstrated for biogas reactors, and also the environmental factors that shaping both taxonomic and functional genes patterns were identified.

Outcomes of Temporary Partially Covered Stent Placement for Benign Tracheobronchial Stenosis

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ma, Ji; Han, Xinwei; Wu, Gang; Jiao, Dechao; Ren, Kewei; Bi, Yonghua

2016-01-01

PurposeTo evaluate the intermediate outcomes of temporary partially covered tracheobronchial stenting in patients with benign tracheobronchial stenosis.Materials and MethodsWe conducted a retrospective study of patients with benign tracheobronchial stenosis who underwent stent placement. All stents were removed approximately 3 months after placement. Respiratory function was assessed using the visual analogue scale (VAS) and Karnofsky performance status scale (KPS) before and after stent placement. The lumen diameters of the stenotic lesions were measured using chest computed tomography (CT) and compared between before stent placement and after stent removal.ResultsA total of 51 stents were successfully placed in consecutive 51 patients with benign tracheobronchial stenosis. No serious complications occurred. The mean VAS and KPS scores significantly improved after stent removal (6.291 ± 0.495 and 25.352 ± 10.533, respectively) compared with those before stent placement (1.493 ± 0.504 and 60.140 ± 16.344, respectively; P   0.05).ConclusionTemporary partially covered stenting may be a safe and effective treatment for benign tracheobronchial stenosis.

Outcomes of Temporary Partially Covered Stent Placement for Benign Tracheobronchial Stenosis.

Science.gov (United States)

Ma, Ji; Han, Xinwei; Wu, Gang; Jiao, Dechao; Ren, Kewei; Bi, Yonghua

2016-08-01

To evaluate the intermediate outcomes of temporary partially covered tracheobronchial stenting in patients with benign tracheobronchial stenosis. We conducted a retrospective study of patients with benign tracheobronchial stenosis who underwent stent placement. All stents were removed approximately 3 months after placement. Respiratory function was assessed using the visual analogue scale (VAS) and Karnofsky performance status scale (KPS) before and after stent placement. The lumen diameters of the stenotic lesions were measured using chest computed tomography (CT) and compared between before stent placement and after stent removal. A total of 51 stents were successfully placed in consecutive 51 patients with benign tracheobronchial stenosis. No serious complications occurred. The mean VAS and KPS scores significantly improved after stent removal (6.291 ± 0.495 and 25.352 ± 10.533, respectively) compared with those before stent placement (1.493 ± 0.504 and 60.140 ± 16.344, respectively; P  0.05). Temporary partially covered stenting may be a safe and effective treatment for benign tracheobronchial stenosis.

Species delimitation in taxonomically difficult fungi: the case of Hymenogaster.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Benjamin Stielow

2011-01-01

Full Text Available False truffles are ecologically important as mycorrhizal partners of trees and evolutionarily highly interesting as the result of a shift from epigeous mushroom-like to underground fruiting bodies. Since its first description by Vittadini in 1831, inappropriate species concepts in the highly diverse false truffle genus Hymenogaster has led to continued confusion, caused by a large variety of prevailing taxonomical opinions.In this study, we reconsidered the species delimitations in Hymenogaster based on a comprehensive collection of Central European taxa comprising more than 140 fruiting bodies from 20 years of field work. The ITS rDNA sequence dataset was subjected to phylogenetic analysis as well as clustering optimization using OPTSIL software.Among distinct species concepts from the literature used to create reference partitions for clustering optimization, the broadest concept resulted in the highest agreement with the ITS data. Our results indicate a highly variable morphology of H. citrinus and H. griseus, most likely linked to environmental influences on the phenology (maturity, habitat, soil type and growing season. In particular, taxa described in the 19(th century frequently appear as conspecific. Conversely, H. niveus appears as species complex comprising seven cryptic species with almost identical macro- and micromorphology. H. intermedius and H. huthii are described as novel species, each of which with a distinct morphology intermediate between two species complexes. A revised taxonomy for one of the most taxonomically difficult genera of Basidiomycetes is proposed, including an updated identification key. The (semi-automated selection among species concepts used here is of importance for the revision of taxonomically problematic organism groups in general.

DIM and diagnostic placement for NIF experiments

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kalantar, D.

1999-01-01

The input that has been provided on the NIF experiment setup sheets has allowed us to review the diagnostic and DIM placement as well as the baseline unconverted light management plan. We have done an iteration to identify common diagnostic lines of sight, and with additional requirements defined by specific experiments, we propose (1) a baseline plan for DIM placement requiring only five DIMs that may be moved between up to seven DIM ports, and (2) a modified baseline unconverted light management plan. We request additional input to identify primary vs. secondary diagnostics for each experiment definition

Health professional students' rural placement satisfaction and rural practice intentions: A national cross-sectional survey.

Science.gov (United States)

Smith, Tony; Sutton, Keith; Pit, Sabrina; Muyambi, Kuda; Terry, Daniel; Farthing, Annie; Courtney, Claire; Cross, Merylin

2018-02-01

The aim of this study was to profile students undertaking placements at University Departments of Rural Health (UDRHs) and investigate factors affecting students' satisfaction and intention to enter rural practice. Cross-sectional survey comprising 21 core questions used by all UDRHs. Eleven UDRHs across Australia that support students' placements in regional, rural and remote locations. Medical, nursing and allied health students who participated in UDRH placements between July 2014 and November 2015 and completed the questionnaire. Key dependent variables were placement satisfaction and rural practice intention. Descriptive variables were age, gender, Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander (ATSI) background, location of placement, healthcare discipline, year of study and type and length of placement. A total of 3328 students responded. The sample was predominantly female (79%), the mean age was 26.0 years and 1.8% identified as ATSI. Most placements (69%) were >2 but ≤12 weeks, 80% were in Modified Monash 3, 4 or 5 geographical locations. Public hospitals and community health made up 63% of placements. Students satisfied with their placement had 2.33 higher odds of rural practice intention. Those satisfied with Indigenous cultural training, workplace supervision, access to education resources and accommodation had higher odds of overall satisfaction and post-placement rural practice intention. The majority of students were highly satisfied with their placement and the support provided by rural clinicians and the UDRHs. UDRHs are well placed to provide health professional students with highly satisfactory placements that foster rural practice intention. © 2017 National Rural Health Alliance Inc.

Distinguishing implicit from explicit brand attitudes in brand placement research

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Wennekers, A.M.; Vandeberg, L.; Zoon, K.; van Reijmersdal, E.A.; Verlegh, P.; Voorveld, H.; Eisend, M.

2016-01-01

Brand placement is a popular topic, both in business and academia. Brands are placed in a wide-ranging array of media, including television programs, movies, radio shows, magazines, games, music videos, and websites. Expenditures on brand placement are still growing (PQ Media, 2013), as well as the

Retrograde or antegrade double-pigtail stent placement for malignant ureteric obstruction?

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Uthappa, M.C.; Cowan, N.C.

2005-01-01

AIM: To determine the optimum approach for double-pigtail stent placement in malignant ureteric obstruction. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Retrograde stent placement was attempted in a consecutive series of patients presenting with malignant ureteric obstruction. If retrograde stent placement was unsuccessful, percutaneous nephrostomy was performed immediately followed by elective antegrade stent placement. Identical digital C-arm fluoroscopy for image-guidance and conditions for anaesthesia and analgesia were employed for both retrograde and antegrade procedures. Identical 8 Fr (20-26 cm) double-pigtail hydrophilic coated stents were used for each approach. RESULTS: Retrograde placement was attempted in 50 ureters in 30 patients {19 male, 11 female, average age 61.4 yr (range 29-90 yr)} over a 24-month period. The success rate for retrograde ureteric stent placement was 50% (n=25/50). Technical failures were due to failure to identify the ureteric orifice (n=22), failure to cross the stricture (n=1), failure to pass the stent (n=1) and failure to pass a 4 Fr catheter (n=1). Antegrade placement was attempted in 25 ureters with a success rate of 96% (n=24/25). Failure in the one case was due to inability to cross an upper third stricture secondary to pyeloureteritis cystica. CONCLUSION: It is suggested that retrograde route should be the initial approach if imaging shows no involvement of ureteric orifice (UO), when nephrostomy is technically very difficult or in cases of solitary kidney. The antegrade route is preferred if imaging shows tumour occlusion of the UO or if there is a tight stricture very close to the uretero-vesical junction (UVJ) making purchase within the ureter difficult for crossing the stricture

Palliation of malignant gastric obstruction : fluoroscopic guided covered metallic stent placement

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lee, Jeong Min; Han, Young Min; Kim, Chong Soo; Lee, Sang Yong; Choi, Ki Chul; Lee, Soo Tak; Han, Hyun Young

2000-01-01

To demonstrate the feasibility and clinical efficacy of self-expanding, covered metallic stent placement for the palliative treatment of malignant gastric obstruction. Under fluoroscopic guidance, the placement of self-expanding, covered stents was attempted in 23 patients (age range, 31-78 years) with inoperable or recurrent gastric malignancies. All 23 suffered dysphagia and/or vomiting after the ingestion of soft foods, or swallowing difficulty. Three different types of self-expanding, covered metallic stents were used and in all patients, these were placed perorally using over the guide wire technique. Success was defined both technically and clinically. Stent placement was technically successful in 19 patients (82.6%) but because the guidewire failed to successfully negotiate the sites at which there was obstruction, was unsuccessful in four (17.4%). Stent placement was well tolerated in all patients except one, in whom an acutely angled efferent loop from remnant stomach was present. In this case, stent placement required a strong metallic guidewire. After placement, 17 of the 19 patients (89.5%) were able to ingest solid and/or soft foods without dysphagia and showed a markedly decreased incidence of vomiting. Two others showed some improvement in the frequency of vomiting but were able to ingest only a liquid diet. In one patient, the stent migrated two days after the procedure. During the follow-up period of 2-7 months (mean, 74 days), there were no clinically significant complications. For the short-term palliative treatment of patients with gastric inlet or outlet obstruction, the placement of self-expanding metallic stents has proven relatively easy and safe, as well as reasonably effective. (author)

Efficient placement of structural dynamics sensors on the space station

Science.gov (United States)

Lepanto, Janet A.; Shepard, G. Dudley

1987-01-01

System identification of the space station dynamic model will require flight data from a finite number of judiciously placed sensors on it. The placement of structural dynamics sensors on the space station is a particularly challenging problem because the station will not be deployed in a single mission. Given that the build-up sequence and the final configuration for the space station are currently undetermined, a procedure for sensor placement was developed using the assembly flights 1 to 7 of the rephased dual keel space station as an example. The procedure presented approaches the problem of placing the sensors from an engineering, as opposed to a mathematical, point of view. In addition to locating a finite number of sensors, the procedure addresses the issues of unobserved structural modes, dominant structural modes, and the trade-offs involved in sensor placement for space station. This procedure for sensor placement will be applied to revised, and potentially more detailed, finite element models of the space station configuration and assembly sequence.

Accounting for L2 learners’ errors in word stress placement

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Clara Herlina Karjo

2016-01-01

Full Text Available Stress placement in English words is governed by highly complicated rules. Thus, assigning stress correctly in English words has been a challenging task for L2 learners, especially Indonesian learners since their L1 does not recognize such stress system. This study explores the production of English word stress by 30 university students. The method used for this study is immediate repetition task. Participants are instructed to identify the stress placement of 80 English words which are auditorily presented as stimuli and immediately repeat the words with correct stress placement. The objectives of this study are to find out whether English word stress placement is problematic for L2 learners and to investigate the phonological factors which account for these problems. Research reveals that L2 learners have different ability in producing the stress, but three-syllable words are more problematic than two-syllable words. Moreover, misplacement of stress is caused by, among others, the influence of vowel lenght and vowel height.

Placement shift, sibling relationship quality, and child outcomes in foster care: a controlled study.

Science.gov (United States)

Linares, L Oriana; Li, MiMin; Shrout, Patrick E; Brody, Gene H; Pettit, Gregory S

2007-12-01

Sibling unity during family transitions is considered a protective factor for child behavior problems, but there is little empirical support for the widespread child protection policy of placing siblings together in foster care. In a prospective study of 156 maltreated children, siblings were classified in 1 of 3 placement groups: continuously together (n = 110), continuously apart (n = 22), and disrupted placement (siblings placed together were separated; n = 24). Changes in child adjustment as a function of sibling relationship and placement group were examined. Sibling positivity predicted lower child problems at follow-up (about 14 months later), while sibling negativity predicted higher child problems. Placement group did not affect child behavior problems at follow-up; however, compared to siblings in continuous placement (either together or apart), siblings in disrupted placement with high initial behavior problems were rated as having fewer problems at follow-up, while siblings in disrupted placement with low initial behavior problems were rated as having more problems at follow-up. These findings highlight the importance of considering relationships between siblings and the risk that one poses to another before early placement decisions are made.

Intraoperative Factors that Predict the Successful Placement of Essure Microinserts.

Science.gov (United States)

Arthuis, Chloé J; Simon, Emmanuel G; Hébert, Thomas; Marret, Henri

To determine whether the number of coils visualized in the uterotubal junction at the end of hysteroscopic microinsert placement predicts successful tubal occlusion. Cohort retrospective study (Canadian Task Force classification II-2). Department of obstetrics and gynecology in a teaching hospital. One hundred fifty-three women underwent tubal microinsert placement for permanent birth control from 2010 through 2014. The local institutional review board approved this study. Three-dimensional transvaginal ultrasound (3D TVU) was routinely performed 3 months after hysteroscopic microinsert placement to check position in the fallopian tube. The correlation between the number of coils visible at the uterotubal junction at the end of the hysteroscopic microinsert placement procedure and the device position on the 3-month follow-up 3D TVU in 141 patients was evaluated. The analysis included 276 microinserts placed during hysteroscopy. The median number of coils visible after the hysteroscopic procedure was 4 (interquartile range, 3-5). Devices for 30 patients (21.3%) were incorrectly positioned according to the 3-month follow-up 3D TVU, and hysterosalpingography was recommended. In those patients the median number of coils was in both the right (interquartile range, 2-4) and left (interquartile range, 1-3) uterotubal junctions. The number of coils visible at the uterotubal junction at the end of the placement procedure was the only factor that predicted whether the microinsert was well positioned at the 3-month 3D TVU confirmation (odds ratio, .44; 95% confidence interval, .28-.63). When 5 or more coils were visible, no incorrectly placed microinsert could be seen on the follow-up 3D TVU; the negative predictive value was 100%. No pregnancies were reported. The number of coils observed at the uterotubal junction at the time of microinsert placement should be considered a significant predictive factor of accurate and successful microinsert placement. Copyright © 2017

Determination of taxonomic status of chinese species of the genus clematis by using high performance liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (HPLC-MS) technique

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ishtiaq, M.; Ahmed, H.

2010-01-01

A comparative taxonomic study using chemometric and numerical taxonomic approaches on 15 populations of 12 species of major taxa of the genus Clematis, belonging to sections, Rectae, Clematis, Meclatis, Tubulosae and Viorna were analyzed by HPLC coupled with diode array detector and ESI-MS. The chemo diversity profile of saponins proved to be useful taxonomic markers for the genus and results are presented in pheno grams. The compound 'Huzhangoside D' was the most abundant in analyzed species of the genus. Numerical taxonomic study was also conducted based on phylogenetically informative characters which corroborated with chemical fingerprinting findings. The significance of chemical markers in taxonomic study as well as their correlation between morphology and chemical compound profile is also debated with its significant role in botanic drugs identification. (author)

Global Taxonomic Diversity of Living Reptiles

Science.gov (United States)

Pincheira-Donoso, Daniel; Bauer, Aaron M.; Meiri, Shai; Uetz, Peter

2013-01-01

Reptiles are one of the most ecologically and evolutionarily remarkable groups of living organisms, having successfully colonized most of the planet, including the oceans and some of the harshest and more environmentally unstable ecosystems on earth. Here, based on a complete dataset of all the world’s diversity of living reptiles, we analyse lineage taxonomic richness both within and among clades, at different levels of the phylogenetic hierarchy. We also analyse the historical tendencies in the descriptions of new reptile species from Linnaeus to March 2012. Although (non-avian) reptiles are the second most species-rich group of amniotes after birds, most of their diversity (96.3%) is concentrated in squamates (59% lizards, 35% snakes, and 2% amphisbaenians). In strong contrast, turtles (3.4%), crocodilians (0.3%), and tuataras (0.01%) are far less diverse. In terms of species discoveries, most turtles and crocodilians were described early, while descriptions of lizards, snakes and amphisbaenians are multimodal with respect to time. Lizard descriptions, in particular, have reached unprecedented levels during the last decade. Finally, despite such remarkably asymmetric distributions of reptile taxonomic diversity among groups, we found that the distributions of lineage richness are consistently right-skewed, with most clades (monophyletic families and genera) containing few lineages (monophyletic genera and species, respectively), while only a few have radiated greatly (notably the families Colubridae and Scincidae, and the lizard genera Anolis and Liolaemus). Therefore, such consistency in the frequency distribution of richness among clades and among phylogenetic levels suggests that the nature of reptile biodiversity is fundamentally fractal (i.e., it is scale invariant). We then compared current reptile diversity with the global reptile diversity and taxonomy known in 1980. Despite substantial differences in the taxonomies (relative to 2012), the patterns of

Global taxonomic diversity of living reptiles.

Science.gov (United States)

Pincheira-Donoso, Daniel; Bauer, Aaron M; Meiri, Shai; Uetz, Peter

2013-01-01

Reptiles are one of the most ecologically and evolutionarily remarkable groups of living organisms, having successfully colonized most of the planet, including the oceans and some of the harshest and more environmentally unstable ecosystems on earth. Here, based on a complete dataset of all the world's diversity of living reptiles, we analyse lineage taxonomic richness both within and among clades, at different levels of the phylogenetic hierarchy. We also analyse the historical tendencies in the descriptions of new reptile species from Linnaeus to March 2012. Although (non-avian) reptiles are the second most species-rich group of amniotes after birds, most of their diversity (96.3%) is concentrated in squamates (59% lizards, 35% snakes, and 2% amphisbaenians). In strong contrast, turtles (3.4%), crocodilians (0.3%), and tuataras (0.01%) are far less diverse. In terms of species discoveries, most turtles and crocodilians were described early, while descriptions of lizards, snakes and amphisbaenians are multimodal with respect to time. Lizard descriptions, in particular, have reached unprecedented levels during the last decade. Finally, despite such remarkably asymmetric distributions of reptile taxonomic diversity among groups, we found that the distributions of lineage richness are consistently right-skewed, with most clades (monophyletic families and genera) containing few lineages (monophyletic genera and species, respectively), while only a few have radiated greatly (notably the families Colubridae and Scincidae, and the lizard genera Anolis and Liolaemus). Therefore, such consistency in the frequency distribution of richness among clades and among phylogenetic levels suggests that the nature of reptile biodiversity is fundamentally fractal (i.e., it is scale invariant). We then compared current reptile diversity with the global reptile diversity and taxonomy known in 1980. Despite substantial differences in the taxonomies (relative to 2012), the patterns of

Global taxonomic diversity of living reptiles.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Daniel Pincheira-Donoso

Full Text Available Reptiles are one of the most ecologically and evolutionarily remarkable groups of living organisms, having successfully colonized most of the planet, including the oceans and some of the harshest and more environmentally unstable ecosystems on earth. Here, based on a complete dataset of all the world's diversity of living reptiles, we analyse lineage taxonomic richness both within and among clades, at different levels of the phylogenetic hierarchy. We also analyse the historical tendencies in the descriptions of new reptile species from Linnaeus to March 2012. Although (non-avian reptiles are the second most species-rich group of amniotes after birds, most of their diversity (96.3% is concentrated in squamates (59% lizards, 35% snakes, and 2% amphisbaenians. In strong contrast, turtles (3.4%, crocodilians (0.3%, and tuataras (0.01% are far less diverse. In terms of species discoveries, most turtles and crocodilians were described early, while descriptions of lizards, snakes and amphisbaenians are multimodal with respect to time. Lizard descriptions, in particular, have reached unprecedented levels during the last decade. Finally, despite such remarkably asymmetric distributions of reptile taxonomic diversity among groups, we found that the distributions of lineage richness are consistently right-skewed, with most clades (monophyletic families and genera containing few lineages (monophyletic genera and species, respectively, while only a few have radiated greatly (notably the families Colubridae and Scincidae, and the lizard genera Anolis and Liolaemus. Therefore, such consistency in the frequency distribution of richness among clades and among phylogenetic levels suggests that the nature of reptile biodiversity is fundamentally fractal (i.e., it is scale invariant. We then compared current reptile diversity with the global reptile diversity and taxonomy known in 1980. Despite substantial differences in the taxonomies (relative to 2012, the

Occupational therapy students' contribution to occasions of service during practice placements in health settings.

Science.gov (United States)

Rodger, Sylvia; Stephens, Elizabeth; Clark, Michele; Ash, Susan; Graves, Nicholas

2011-12-01

Currently in the Australian higher education sector, the productivity benefits of occupational therapy clinical education placements are a contested issue. This article will report results of a study that developed a methodology for documenting time use during placements and investigated the productivity changes associated with occupational therapy clinical education placements in Queensland, Australia. Supervisors' and students' time use during placements and how this changed for supervisors compared to pre- and post-placement is also presented. Using a cohort survey design, participants were students from two Queensland universities, and their supervisors employed by Queensland Health. Time use was recorded in 30 minute blocks according to particular categories. There was a significant increase in supervisors' time spent in patient care activities (F = 94.011(2,12.37 df) , P increasing between pre- and during placement (P = 0.028). There was a significant decrease in supervisors' time spent in placement activities (F = 5.133(2,19.18 df) , P = 0.016) from during to post-placement. Students spent more time than supervisors in patient care activities while on placement. A novel method for reporting productivity and time-use changes during clinical education programs for occupational therapy has been applied. Supervisors spent considerable time in assessing and managing students and their clinical education role should be seen as core business in standard occupational therapy practice. This paper will contribute to future assessments of the economic impact of student placements for allied health disciplines. © 2011 The Authors. Australian Occupational Therapy Journal © 2011 Occupational Therapy Australia.

Método para la construcción de una taxonomía: estructura base para riesgos en outsourcing de software

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Gloria Piedad Gasca Hurtado

2011-01-01

Full Text Available Este artículo propone una taxonomía de riesgos enfocada en el ámbito de outsourcing de software. El objetivo es definir una estructura de clasificación de riesgos, relacionada con el proceso de outsourcing de software. La motivación está dada por la importancia que tiene la identificación de riesgos, y la ayuda que prestan las taxonomías al respecto, por lo cual se les conoce como una técnica efectiva que permite desarrollar una mejor gestión de riesgos. Este artículo incluye el método para construir la taxonomía (llamado MECT y la estructura de una taxonomía de riesgos para outsourcing de software.

Speeding Up FPGA Placement via Partitioning and Multithreading

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Cristinel Ababei

2009-01-01

placement subproblems are created by partitioning and then processed concurrently by multiple worker threads that are run on multiple cores of the same processor. Our main goal is to investigate the speedup that can be achieved with this simple approach compared to previous approaches that were based on distributed computing. The new hybrid parallel placement algorithm achieves an average speedup of 2.5× using four worker threads, while the total wire length and circuit delay after routing are minimally degraded.

37 CFR 211.6 - Methods of affixation and placement of mask work notice.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-07-01

... placement of mask work notice. 211.6 Section 211.6 Patents, Trademarks, and Copyrights COPYRIGHT OFFICE, LIBRARY OF CONGRESS COPYRIGHT OFFICE AND PROCEDURES MASK WORK PROTECTION § 211.6 Methods of affixation and placement of mask work notice. (a) General. (1) This section specifies methods of affixation and placement...

Volunteering and overseas placements in the NHS: a survey of current activity.

Science.gov (United States)

Chatwin, John; Ackers, Louise

2016-10-19

The study aimed to establish current levels of overseas volunteering and placement activity across all staff grades within the National Health Service (NHS) in the North West of England. Cross-sectional survey. Descriptive statistics. 4 main regional hospitals in the North West of England, and additional NHS staff training events. Convenience sample of NHS staff (n=911). 911 NHS staff took part in the survey. The medical and dental staff group returned the highest number of responses (32.1%). 42% of staff reported some form of overseas volunteering or placement experience. Most staff took an international placement as students (33.6% men; 40.6% women). Medium-term placements were undertaken by 46.7% of men, and 52.5% of women. Settlement stays (ie, over 1 year) were reported by 7.6% men, and 8.3% women). The majority of respondents engaged in international placement were from the age groups incorporating 'below 25' to '41-50' (74%). Multiple placement experiences were uncommon: 2.5% of respondents reported three periods of overseas activity, and 1.5% reported four. All those with multiple placement experience came from the staff groups incorporating midwife/nurse/health visitor, and medical and dental. This survey captured a snapshot of current levels of volunteering and overseas placement activity across NHS staff grades in the North West. Owing to relatively homogenous organisational structures, findings are likely to broadly represent the position across the organisation as a whole. Although some degree of overseas placement activity is undertaken by a relatively high proportion of NHS staff, such activity is currently heavily skewed towards higher clinical staff grades. Significant numbers of allied health professionals and equivalent non-clinical cadres also report overseas experience, and we anticipate that the numbers will continue to rise if current policy initiatives gain momentum. Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use

Selective Placement Program Coordinator (SPPC) Directory

Data.gov (United States)

Office of Personnel Management — List of the Selective Placement Program Coordinators (SPPC) in Federal agencies, updated as needed. Users can filter the list by choosing a state and/or agency name.

Mode of communication and classroom placement impact on speech intelligibility.

Science.gov (United States)

Tobey, Emily A; Rekart, Deborah; Buckley, Kristi; Geers, Ann E

2004-05-01

To examine the impact of classroom placement and mode of communication on speech intelligibility scores in children aged 8 to 9 years using multichannel cochlear implants. Classroom placement (special education, partial mainstream, and full mainstream) and mode of communication (total communication and auditory-oral) reported via parental rating scales before and 4 times after implantation were the independent variables. Speech intelligibility scores obtained at 8 to 9 years of age were the dependent variables. The study included 131 congenitally deafened children between the ages of 8 and 9 years who received a multichannel cochlear implant before the age of 5 years. Higher speech intelligibility scores at 8 to 9 years of age were significantly associated with enrollment in auditory-oral programs rather than enrollment in total communication programs, regardless of when the mode of communication was used (before or after implantation). Speech intelligibility at 8 to 9 years of age was not significantly influenced by classroom placement before implantation, regardless of mode of communication. After implantation, however, there were significant associations between classroom placement and speech intelligibility scores at 8 to 9 years of age. Higher speech intelligibility scores at 8 to 9 years of age were associated with classroom exposure to normal-hearing peers in full or partial mainstream placements than in self-contained, special education placements. Higher speech intelligibility scores in 8- to 9-year-old congenitally deafened cochlear implant recipients were associated with educational settings that emphasize oral communication development. Educational environments that incorporate exposure to normal-hearing peers were also associated with higher speech intelligibility scores at 8 to 9 years of age.

A review of the taxonomic status and biology of the Cape Parrot ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

A review of the taxonomic status and biology of the Cape Parrot Poicephalus robustus , with reference to the Brown-necked Parrot P. fuscicollis fuscicollis and the Grey-headed Parrot P. f. suahelicus.

Substantial changes in mastery perceptions of dementia caregivers with the placement of a care recipient.

Science.gov (United States)

Infurna, Frank J; Gerstorf, Denis; Zarit, Steven H

2013-03-01

The current study examined how a key component of caregiving stress processes, global mastery perceptions, changes with placing the care recipient in a nursing home or institution. We also explored the role of primary stressors in accounting for mastery changes with placement and whether characteristics of the caregiver and care recipient moderate reactions to placement. We applied multiphase growth curve models to prospective longitudinal data from 271 caregivers in the Caregiver Stress and Coping Study who experienced placement of their care recipient. Using a time-to/from-placement metric, we found that caregivers typically experienced declines in mastery preceding placement, followed by a significant increase within 1 year after placement and further increases thereafter. Corresponding changes in primary stressors (role overload) mediated the placement-related increase in mastery. Caregivers who reported more depressive symptoms and activities of daily living/instrumental activities of daily living dependencies of the care recipient were more likely to experience larger placement-related increases in mastery perceptions. Our findings suggest that placement alters psychological resources of caregivers and this effect is driven by corresponding changes in primary stressors. Findings also underscore the importance of examining change processes across salient life events and transitions.

Private Placements as Sources of Long Term Funds for publicly ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Thereafter, an overview of the concept of private placement is given to enable a better appreciation of its unique role in raising funds for organizations that are not publicly quoted in a registered stock exchange. It concludes with an exposition of the problems of allowing private placements for publicly quoted firms.

Advanced Placement U.S. History: What Happens after the Examination?

Science.gov (United States)

Henry, Michael

1991-01-01

Discusses a survey of 56 advanced placement (AP) U.S. history teachers. Explores the scope of AP history and types of posttest activities used after Advanced Placement examinations. Concludes that public school courses developed more deeply into post-1960 events than the private schools did. Describes movies, debates, simulations, and local…

Product placement in Hollywood blockbusters: brand recognition and attitude towards the practice : A case study on product placement attitudes among international students

OpenAIRE

Tiavin, Kiril; Köllisch, Frederic; Nurminen, Vili

2015-01-01

Background: Advertising channels in today's marketplace are becoming more limited with the development of ad-free sources of entertainment. The phenomenon of product placements is therefore becoming one of the most important sources for advertising in media. Especially film productions have turned into a canvas for companies to display their brands upon. Purpose: The purpose of this thesis was to investigate the case of product placements in Hollywood blockbuster movies. In particular, brand ...

Description of a taxonomically undefined Sclerotiniaceae strain from withered rotten-grapes.

Science.gov (United States)

Lorenzini, Marilinda; Zapparoli, Giacomo

2016-02-01

A necrotrophic member of the Sclerotiniaceae family (herewith named strain C10) isolated from withered rotten-grapes, is described. Interestingly, the fungus has no defined taxonomic position since it has been impossible to attribute it to an existing genus. Phylogenetic analysis of partial sequences of glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate dehydrogenase (G3PDH), heat shock protein 60 (HSP60) and DNA-directed RNA polymerase II subunit (RPB2), revealed that strain C10 is distantly related to Amphobotrys and Botrytis. This evidence clearly distinguishes this new Sclerotiniaceae member from other taxa of the family. Moreover, its morphological characteristics did not match those of Amphobotrys and Botrytis. Infectivity assays demonstrated that strain C10 could be a potential postharvest pathogen of withered grapes. This study revealed the taxonomic importance of this strain suggesting the existence of a possible new genus, a theory that requires further investigation.

Restrictive educational placements increase adolescent risks for students with early-starting conduct problems.

Science.gov (United States)

Powers, Christopher J; Bierman, Karen L; Coffman, Donna L

2016-08-01

Students with early-starting conduct problems often do poorly in school; they are disproportionately placed in restrictive educational placements outside of mainstream classrooms. Although intended to benefit students, research suggests that restrictive placements may exacerbate the maladjustment of youth with conduct problems. Mixed findings, small samples, and flawed designs limit the utility of existing research. This study examined the impact of restrictive educational placements on three adolescent outcomes (high school noncompletion, conduct disorder, depressive symptoms) in a sample of 861 students with early-starting conduct problems followed longitudinally from kindergarten (age 5-6). Causal modeling with propensity scores was used to adjust for confounding factors associated with restrictive placements. Analyses explored the timing of placement (elementary vs. secondary school) and moderation of impact by initial problem severity. Restrictive educational placement in secondary school (but not in elementary school) was iatrogenic, increasing the risk of high school noncompletion and the severity of adolescent conduct disorder. Negative effects were amplified for students with conduct problem behavior with less cognitive impairment. To avoid harm to students and to society, schools must find alternatives to restrictive placements for students with conduct problems in secondary school, particularly when these students do not have cognitive impairments that might warrant specialized educational supports. © 2015 Association for Child and Adolescent Mental Health.

25 CFR 26.11 - What type of Job Placement and Training assistance may be approved?

Science.gov (United States)

2010-04-01

... 25 Indians 1 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false What type of Job Placement and Training assistance may be... JOB PLACEMENT AND TRAINING PROGRAM General Applicability § 26.11 What type of Job Placement and... supplemental assistance that supports job placement or training activities (see subpart B of this part for Job...

A shared experience of fragmentation: making sense of foster placement breakdown.

Science.gov (United States)

Rostill-Brookes, Helen; Larkin, Michael; Toms, Amy; Churchman, Clare

2011-01-01

Multiple placement transitions have been associated with poorer psychosocial outcomes for children growing up in local authority care. However, although there is an expanding literature examining the risk and protective factors connected with placement breakdown, very few studies have explored the quality of the move experience for those most closely involved with it. Our study considered how young people, foster carers and social workers made sense of unplanned placements' endings. Bringing together the lived experiences of these key stakeholders in the placement system added a novel dimension to existing research knowledge. What emerged from our analysis was evidence of a pervasive and shared emotional experience; all of the participants were affected by the breakdown irrespective of age, experience, or professional role. However, despite many commonalities, there was also a strong sense of fragmentation between the groups, which was characterised by discourses of mistrust and miscommunication. This meant that emotional reactions to the breakdown were often suppressed or dismissed, resentments built-up and attempts to find a solution were thwarted by silence or angry recrimination. These findings raise real challenges for practice and policy development. In particular, they stress the importance of shared and meaningful dialogue between all key stakeholders within the social care system, the need for more effective and timely support when placements are in crisis and opportunities for those most closely involved with the placement breakdown to process the emotional experience.

Making short-term international medical volunteer placements work: a qualitative study.

Science.gov (United States)

Elnawawy, Omnia; Lee, Andrew C K; Pohl, Gerda

2014-06-01

International medical volunteering has grown in recent decades. It has the potential to benefit and harm the volunteer and host countries; but there is a paucity of literature on the impacts of international medical volunteering and a need to find ways to optimise the benefits of such placements. In this study, one example of international medical volunteering was examined involving British GPs on short-term placements in Nepal. The intention was to explore the expectations and experiences of the local health workers, volunteers, and host organisation to try and understand what makes volunteer placements work. Qualitative study of key informant interviews. Stakeholders of a short-term international medical volunteer (IMV) placement programme in Nepal. Key informant interviews were carried out via face-to-face or telephone/internet interviews with five previous volunteers, three representatives from a non-governmental organisation providing placements, and five local health workers in Nepal who had had contact with the IMVs. Interviews were recorded, transcribed, and analysed using standard thematic framework approaches. All the stakeholders had their own specific motives for participating in the IMV programme. The relationship between volunteers and the Nepalese health workers was complex and characterised by discrepant and occasionally unrealistic expectations. Managing these different expectations was challenging. Contextual issues and cultural differences are important considerations in medical volunteer programmes, and this study highlights the importance of robust preparation pre-placement for the volunteer and host to ensure positive outcomes. © British Journal of General Practice 2014.

Radiography students' clinical placement experiences in MRI: A phenomenological study

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Portanier Mifsud, Claude; Castillo, Joseph; Portelli, Jonathan Loui

2015-01-01

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to gain an insight into radiography students' clinical practice experiences within an MRI unit of a large teaching hospital in Malta. The underlying objectives of the study were to identify and explore the descriptions and meanings of the MRI clinical experiences of students. Methods: Five students, independently undergoing their clinical placements in MRI were asked to write a diary about their daily experiences. Each student then participated in a follow up interview. Data analysis was based on Husserls' phenomenological approach. Results: Eight themes emerged from the data analysed. Students described their experience as one mainly based on observation, where, during their placements, they observed radiographers at work. In this respect, students described their experience as lacking ‘hands on practice’. Students indicated that they felt uncomfortable, unsupervised and unwelcome most of the time. They also expressed the need to feel useful and part of the MRI team during their placement and so they tried to help the team in areas such as patient screening. This helped them build confidence. Learning in MRI was specifically based on the university tasks prescribed and possibly there was no motivation to learn more. The students also described their experience as varied and different when compared to other placements. Conclusion: This study provides a rare insight into radiography students' placement experiences in MRI and should enable the supervising radiographer and educator to obtain a deeper appreciation of the clinical placement experience

Angioplasty and stent placement - peripheral arteries

Science.gov (United States)

... medlineplus.gov/ency/article/007393.htm Angioplasty and stent placement - peripheral arteries To use the sharing features ... inside the arteries and block blood flow. A stent is a small, metal mesh tube that keeps ...

Comparative SEM and LM foliar epidermal and palyno-morphological studies of Amaranthaceae and its taxonomic implications.

Science.gov (United States)

Hussain, Amara Noor; Zafar, Muhammad; Ahmad, Mushtaq; Khan, Raees; Yaseen, Ghulam; Khan, Muhammad Saleem; Nazir, Abdul; Khan, Amir Muhammad; Shaheen, Shabnum

2018-05-01

Palynological features as well as comparative foliar epidermal using light and scanning electron microscope (SEM) of 17 species (10genera) of Amaranthaceae have been studied for its taxonomic significance. Different foliar and palynological micro-morphological characters were examined to explain their value in resolving the difficulty in identification. All species were amphistomatic but stomata on abaxial surface were more abundant. Taxonomically significant epidermal character including stomata type, trichomes (unicellular, multicellular, and capitate) and epidermal cells shapes (polygonal and irregular) were also observed. Pollens of this family are Polypantoporate, pores large, spheroidal, mesoporous region is sparsely to scabrate, densely psilate, and spinulose. All these characters can be active at species level for identification purpose. This study indicates that at different taxonomic levels, LM and SEM pollen and epidermal morphology is explanatory and significant to identify species and genera. © 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Something has shifted: Nursing students' global perspective following international clinical placements.

Science.gov (United States)

Gower, Shelley; Duggan, Ravani; Dantas, Jaya A R; Boldy, Duncan

2017-10-01

To examine understandings of global health issues among nursing students following participation in an international clinical placement during their pre-registration university education. Universities use international clinical placements, especially in developing countries, to develop cultural awareness in students; however, little is known about the longer term influences on students' understandings of global nursing. A retrospective cross-sectional design was used, using an exploratory, descriptive qualitative approach. Individual semi-structured interviews were conducted in 2014 with a purposive sample of 25 pre-registration nursing students from four Western Australian universities who undertook clinical placements across five countries. Data were analysed using inductive thematic analysis. Findings highlight that students developed new understandings around health systems including fragility of resource access, differences in clinical practice and variances in nursing roles between settings. Students also experienced challenges but were able to appreciate alternative world viewpoints. International clinical placements can develop greater awareness and help students form realistic strategies for using their nursing skills globally. Pre-placement training in cultural awareness and health system realities, along with strong supervisory support, is critical to success. © 2017 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Research Review: Evaluating and reformulating the developmental taxonomic theory of antisocial behaviour

Science.gov (United States)

Fairchild, Graeme; Goozen, Stephanie HM; Calder, Andrew J; Goodyer, Ian M

2013-01-01

BackgroundThe developmental taxonomic theory proposes that there are two subtypes of antisocial behaviour. The first is a neurodevelopmental disorder which emerges in early childhood and follows a life-course persistent course, whereas the second emerges in adolescence, remits in early adulthood and reflects peer processes such as mimicry of antisocial peers. The aim of this review was to evaluate the developmental taxonomic theory in the light of recent empirical research. MethodsWe conducted a comprehensive literature review comparing these subtypes of antisocial behaviour based on searches on PubMed and other scientific databases covering the period from 1993 to 2013. We focused on research encompassing psychiatric epidemiology, personality assessment, neuropsychology, neuroendocrinology, genetics, and structural and functional neuroimaging. Sixty one empirical studies were identified that investigated one of these forms of antisocial behaviour separately or explicitly compared childhood-onset and adolescence-onset forms of antisocial behaviour. ResultsEmpirical research provides support for the hypothesis that life-course persistent antisocial behaviour is a neurodevelopmental disorder which emerges in the transactions between individual vulnerabilities and environmental adversity. In contrast to the developmental taxonomic theory, however, empirical findings suggest that severe antisocial behaviour that emerges in adolescence frequently has a negative prognosis and is rarely limited to the adolescent period. In addition, both forms of antisocial behaviour are associated with emotion processing deficits, changes in brain structure and function, alterations in cortisol secretion, and atypical personality traits (such as increased callous-unemotional traits). ConclusionsWe conclude that the developmental taxonomic theory is in need of revision, as differences between life-course persistent and adolescence-onset forms of antisocial behaviour appear to be

Placement Evaluations and Remedial Education: Are Students Shopping for Bargains?

Science.gov (United States)

Fletcher, Stephen H.

2014-01-01

The purpose of this study is to provide evidence that students may be doing comparison shopping when it comes to community college placement in English and mathematics courses. Comparisons may occur because of the difference in the placement process across campuses and the variation in the levels of developmental education offered. The…

34 CFR 300.325 - Private school placements by public agencies.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-07-01

... Programs, and Educational Placements Development of Iep § 300.325 Private school placements by public... child to, a private school or facility, the agency must initiate and conduct a meeting to develop an IEP... disability enters a private school or facility, any meetings to review and revise the child's IEP may be...

25 CFR 26.3 - What is the purpose of the Job Placement and Training Program?

Science.gov (United States)

2010-04-01

... 25 Indians 1 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false What is the purpose of the Job Placement and Training... PLACEMENT AND TRAINING PROGRAM General Applicability § 26.3 What is the purpose of the Job Placement and Training Program? The purpose of the Job Placement and Training Program is to assist eligible applicants to...

Wavelength converter placement for different RWA algorithms in wavelength-routed all-optical networks

Science.gov (United States)

Chu, Xiaowen; Li, Bo; Chlamtac, Imrich

2002-07-01

Sparse wavelength conversion and appropriate routing and wavelength assignment (RWA) algorithms are the two key factors in improving the blocking performance in wavelength-routed all-optical networks. It has been shown that the optimal placement of a limited number of wavelength converters in an arbitrary mesh network is an NP complete problem. There have been various heuristic algorithms proposed in the literature, in which most of them assume that a static routing and random wavelength assignment RWA algorithm is employed. However, the existing work shows that fixed-alternate routing and dynamic routing RWA algorithms can achieve much better blocking performance. Our study in this paper further demonstrates that the wavelength converter placement and RWA algorithms are closely related in the sense that a well designed wavelength converter placement mechanism for a particular RWA algorithm might not work well with a different RWA algorithm. Therefore, the wavelength converter placement and the RWA have to be considered jointly. The objective of this paper is to investigate the wavelength converter placement problem under fixed-alternate routing algorithm and least-loaded routing algorithm. Under the fixed-alternate routing algorithm, we propose a heuristic algorithm called Minimum Blocking Probability First (MBPF) algorithm for wavelength converter placement. Under the least-loaded routing algorithm, we propose a heuristic converter placement algorithm called Weighted Maximum Segment Length (WMSL) algorithm. The objective of the converter placement algorithm is to minimize the overall blocking probability. Extensive simulation studies have been carried out over three typical mesh networks, including the 14-node NSFNET, 19-node EON and 38-node CTNET. We observe that the proposed algorithms not only outperform existing wavelength converter placement algorithms by a large margin, but they also can achieve almost the same performance comparing with full wavelength

[Eleven Patients with Gastric Cancer Who Received Chemotherapy after Stent Placement for Gastric Outlet Obstruction].

Science.gov (United States)

Endo, Shunji; Nakagawa, Tomo; Konishi, Ken; Ikenaga, Masakazu; Ohta, Katsuya; Nakashima, Shinsuke; Matsumoto, Kenichi; Nishikawa, Kazuhiro; Ohmori, Takeshi; Yamada, Terumasa

2017-01-01

Endoscopic placement of self-expandable metallic stents is reportedly effective for gastric outlet obstructions due to advanced gastric cancer, and is less invasive than gastrojejunostomy. For patients who have good performance status, we administer chemotherapy after stent placement, although the safety and feasibility of this chemotherapy have not yet been discussed in full. Between 2011 and 2015, 15 patients at our institution underwent endoscopic gastroduodenal stent placement for gastric outlet obstruction due to gastric cancer. Eleven of these patients were administered chemotherapy after stent placement. In our case series, we did not observe any specific adverse event caused by stent placement plus chemotherapy. Adverse events after chemotherapy included anemia of CTCAE Grade 3 in 7 patients. Stent-in-stent placement was needed in 2 patients. Neither stent migration nor perforation was observed. Therefore, chemotherapy after stent placement for gastric outlet obstruction due to gastric cancer was considered safe and feasible. Stent placement is useful not only as palliative care for patients with terminal-stage disease, but also as one of the multimodal therapeutic strategies for gastric cancer.

Taxonomic and ad hoc categorization within the two cerebral hemispheres.

Science.gov (United States)

Shen, Yeshayahu; Aharoni, Bat-El; Mashal, Nira

2015-01-01

A typicality effect refers to categorization which is performed more quickly or more accurately for typical than for atypical members of a given category. Previous studies reported a typicality effect for category members presented in the left visual field/right hemisphere (RH), suggesting that the RH applies a similarity-based categorization strategy. However, findings regarding the typicality effect within the left hemisphere (LH) are less conclusive. The current study tested the pattern of typicality effects within each hemisphere for both taxonomic and ad hoc categories, using words presented to the left or right visual fields. Experiment 1 tested typical and atypical members of taxonomic categories as well as non-members, and Experiment 2 tested typical and atypical members of ad hoc categories as well as non-members. The results revealed a typicality effect in both hemispheres and in both types of categories. Furthermore, the RH categorized atypical stimuli more accurately than did the LH. Our findings suggest that both hemispheres rely on a similarity-based categorization strategy, but the coarse semantic coding of the RH seems to facilitate the categorization of atypical members.

Biotechnological application and taxonomical distribution of plant growth promoting actinobacteria.

Science.gov (United States)

Hamedi, Javad; Mohammadipanah, Fatemeh

2015-02-01

Plant growth promoting (PGP) bacteria are involved in various interactions known to affect plant fitness and soil quality, thereby increasing the productivity of agriculture and stability of soil. Although the potential of actinobacteria in antibiotic production is well-investigated, their capacity to enhance plant growth is not fully surveyed. Due to the following justifications, PGP actinobacteria (PGPA) can be considered as a more promising taxonomical group of PGP bacteria: (1) high numbers of actinobacteria per gram of soil and their filamentous nature, (2) genome dedicated to the secondary metabolite production (~5 to 10 %) is distinctively more than that of other bacteria and (3) number of plant growth promoter genera reported from actinobacteria is 1.3 times higher than that of other bacteria. Mechanisms by which PGPA contribute to the plant growth by association are: (a) enhancing nutrients availability, (b) regulation of plant metabolism, (c) decreasing environmental stress, (d) control of phytopathogens and (e) improvement of soil texture. Taxonomical and chemical diversity of PGPA and their biotechnological application along with their associated challenges are summarized in this paper.

This is advertising! Effects of disclosing television brand placement on adolescents

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Reijmersdal, E.A. van; Boerman, S.C.; Buijzen, M.A.; Rozendaal, E.

2017-01-01

As heavy media users, adolescents are frequently exposed to embedded advertising formats such as brand placements. Because this may lead to unwitting persuasion, regulations prescribe disclosure of brand placements. This study aimed to increase our understanding of the effects of disclosing

This is Advertising! Effects of Disclosing Television Brand Placement on Adolescents

NARCIS (Netherlands)

van Reijmersdal, E.A.; Boerman, S.C.; Buijzen, M.; Rozendaal, E.

As heavy media users, adolescents are frequently exposed to embedded advertising formats such as brand placements. Because this may lead to unwitting persuasion, regulations prescribe disclosure of brand placements. This study aimed to increase our understanding of the effects of disclosing

The hand hygiene compliance of student nurses during clinical placements.

Science.gov (United States)

Sundal, Jorun Saetre; Aune, Anne Grethe; Storvig, Eline; Aasland, Jenny Kristin; Fjeldsaeter, Kaja Linn; Torjuul, Kirsti

2017-12-01

To observe student nurses' overall and moment-specific hand hygiene compliance during clinical placement. Hand hygiene is the single most important measure to prevent healthcare-associated infections. However, research has shown low compliance among healthcare workers. During clinical placements, student nurses perform various nursing tasks and procedures to a large number of patients, requiring extensive patient contact. It is crucial that they practice correct hand hygiene to prevent healthcare-associated infections. Open, standardised and nonparticipating observations. Twenty-nine student nurses were observed three times for 20 ± 10 min during clinical placement in a Norwegian university hospital. To measure compliance, we used WHO's Hand Hygiene Observation tool, based on the model "My five moments for hand hygiene". Overall hand hygiene compliance in the student group was 83.5%. Highest moment-specific compliance was after touching patient surroundings, after touching patients and after body fluid exposure risk. Lowest moment-specific compliance was recorded before touching patients or patient surroundings, and before clean/aseptic procedures. Nurse education needs to be improved both theoretically and during clinical placements in order to advance and sustain compliance among student nurses. Increasing healthcare workers' compliance with hand hygiene guidelines remains a challenge to the clinical community. In order to reduce healthcare-associated infections, it is important to educate student nurses to comply with the guidelines during clinical placements. Identifying student nurses' hand hygiene performance is the first step towards developing teaching methods to improve and sustain their overall and moment-specific compliance. As a measure to ensure student compliance during clinical placements, mentors should be aware of their influence on students' performance, act as hand hygiene ambassadors, encourage students to comply with established guidelines

Shaping children's healthy eating habits with food placements? Food placements of high and low nutritional value in cartoons, Children's BMI, food-related parental mediation strategies, and food choice.

Science.gov (United States)

Naderer, Brigitte; Matthes, Jörg; Binder, Alice; Marquart, Franziska; Mayrhofer, Mira; Obereder, Agnes; Spielvogel, Ines

2018-01-01

Research on media induced food choices of children has not sufficiently investigated whether food placements of snacks high in nutritional value can strengthen children's healthy eating behavior. Furthermore, we lack knowledge about the moderating role of children's individual characteristics such as parental food-related mediation or BMI. The current study combines data from an experiment involving children with a survey of their parents. We exposed children to a cartoon either containing no food placements, placements of mandarins (i.e., snack high in nutritional value), or placements of fruit gums (i.e., snack low in nutritional value). Afterwards, food consumption was measured by giving children the option to choose between fruit gums or mandarins. Children in both snack placement conditions showed stronger preference for the snack low in nutritional value (i.e., fruit gum) compared to the control group. Interestingly, neither restrictive nor active food-related mediation prevented the effects of the placements on children's choice of snacks low in nutritional value. Compared to children with a low BMI, children with high BMI levels had a stronger disposition to choose the fruit gums if a snack high in nutritional value (i.e., mandarin) was presented. Thus, making snacks high in nutritional attractive for children through media presentation might need stronger persuasive cues. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

25 CFR 26.5 - Who may be eligible for Job Placement and Training?

Science.gov (United States)

2010-04-01

... 25 Indians 1 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Who may be eligible for Job Placement and Training? 26.5 Section 26.5 Indians BUREAU OF INDIAN AFFAIRS, DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR HUMAN SERVICES JOB PLACEMENT AND TRAINING PROGRAM General Applicability § 26.5 Who may be eligible for Job Placement and Training? You may...

Managing disclosure following recent-onset psychosis: utilizing the individual placement and support model.

Science.gov (United States)

Allott, Kelly A; Turner, Luana R; Chinnery, Gina L; Killackey, Eoin J; Nuechterlein, Keith H

2013-08-01

Individual Placement and Support is the most defined and evidence-based approach to supported employment for severe mental illness, including recent-onset psychosis. However, there is limited evidence or detailed guidelines informing the management of mental illness disclosure to educators or employers when delivering individual placement and support. In this paper, we describe the initial disclosure preferences of young people with recent-onset psychosis enrolled in individual placement and support and provide guidance for managing disclosure when delivering Individual Placement and Support with this population. Drawing from sites in Melbourne, Australia and Los Angeles, USA, clients' initial disclosure preferences were examined. We describe approaches to providing individual placement and support when no disclosure is permitted compared with when disclosure is permitted, including two illustrative case vignettes. No disclosure of mental illness or disability was requested by 54-59% of clients; 41-46% of clients permitted partial or complete disclosure. The 'no disclosure' scenario required the individual placement and support worker to provide support 'behind the scenes', whereas when disclosure was permitted, the individual placement and support worker could have contact with instructors/employers and work 'on the front lines'. The case vignettes illustrate how both approaches can lead to successful vocational outcomes. We found that Individual Placement and Support can be provided in an educative, flexible, creative and collaborative manner according to client disclosure preferences. We suggest that disclosure preferences do not prevent successful vocational outcomes, although this supposition requires empirical investigation. © 2013 Wiley Publishing Asia Pty Ltd.

Inferior Vena Cava Filter Placement and Retrieval Rates among Radiologists and Nonradiologists.

Science.gov (United States)

Guez, David; Hansberry, David R; Eschelman, David J; Gonsalves, Carin F; Parker, Laurence; Rao, Vijay M; Levin, David C

2018-04-01

To evaluate inferior vena cava (IVC) filter placement and retrieval rates among radiologists, vascular surgeons, cardiologists, other surgeons, and all other health care providers for Medicare fee-for-service beneficiaries in the years 2012-2015. The nationwide Medicare Physician/Supplier Procedure Summary Master Files were used to determine the volume and utilization rate of IVC filter placement, IVC filter repositioning, and IVC filter retrieval, which correspond to procedure codes 37191, 37192, and 37193, respectively. Procedural code 37193 was not available before 2012, so data were reviewed for the years 2012-2015. The total volume of Medicare IVC filter placement decreased from 57,785 in 2012 to 44,378 in 2015, with radiologists responsible for 60% of all filter placements. Volume of IVC filter placement declined across all specialties, including radiologists, who placed 33,744 in 2012 and 27,957 in 2015. In contrast, total retrieval of IVC filters increased from 4,060 removals in 2012 to 6,166 in 2015. Retrieval rate per 100,000 Medicare beneficiaries increased from 11 in 2012 to 16 in 2015. Radiologists removed the bulk of the filters: 64% in both 2012 and 2015. Vascular surgeons, cardiologists, and other surgeons retrieved, respectively, 20%, 10%, and 5% of all IVC filters in 2012 and 22%, 9%, and 5% in 2015. From 2012 to 2015, IVC filter placement steadily decreased across all specialties. Retrieval rate of IVC filters continued to rise over the same period. Radiologists were responsible for the majority of IVC filter placements and retrievals. Copyright © 2017 SIR. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Unilateral placement of the Adiana device after failed bilateral placement of the Essure device for hysteroscopic sterilization.

Science.gov (United States)

Gimpelson, Richard J; Wagner, Corey A

2010-01-01

This case report outlines the successful completion of hysteroscopic sterilization using the Adiana Permanent Contraception device (Hologic, Inc., Bedford, MA) after failure of multiple attempts to bilaterally place the Essure Permanent Birth Control system (Conceptus Inc., Mountain View, CA). The patient desired hysteroscopic sterilization using the Essure system. Although the first coil was easily placed in the right ostium, the second coil could not be passed beyond 2.4 cm into the left ostium. Inasmuch as the Adiana system needs to be passed only 1.4 cm into the ostium, this was found to be adequate for appropriate placement of the implant. Adiana may be an effective alternative to Essure, especially in patients in whom tubal stricture or spasm prevents Essure placement. Copyright © 2010 AAGL. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

34 CFR 300.116 - Placements.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-07-01

... educational placement of a child with a disability, including a preschool child with a disability, each public... with a disability requires some other arrangement, the child is educated in the school that he or she... modifications in the general education curriculum. (Approved by the Office of Management and Budget under...

Optimal PMU Placement By Improved Particle Swarm Optimization

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Rather, Zakir Hussain; Liu, Leo; Chen, Zhe

2013-01-01

This paper presents an improved method of binary particle swarm optimization (IBPSO) technique for optimal phasor measurement unit (PMU) placement in a power network for complete system observability. Various effective improvements have been proposed to enhance the efficiency and convergence rate...... of conventional particle swarm optimization method. The proposed method of IBPSO ensures optimal PMU placement with and without consideration of zero injection measurements. The proposed method has been applied to standard test systems like 17 bus, IEEE 24-bus, IEEE 30-bus, New England 39-bus, IEEE 57-bus system...

Placement of an implantable port catheter in the biliary stent: an experimental study in dogs

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ko, Gi Young; Lee, Im Sick; Choi, Won Chan

2004-01-01

To investigate the feasibility of port catheter placement following a biliary stent placement. We employed 14 mongrel dogs as test subject and after the puncture of their gaIl bladders using sonographic guidance, a 10-mm in diameter metallic stent was placed at the common duct. In 12 dogs, a 6.3 F port catheter was placed into the duodenum through the common duct and a port was secured at the subcutaneous space following stent placement. As a control group, an 8.5 F drain tube was placed into the gallbladder without port catheter placement in the remaining two dogs. Irrigation of the bile duct was performed every week by injection of saline into the port, and the port catheter was replaced three weeks later in two dogs. Information relating to the success of the procedure, complications and the five-week follow-up cholangiographic findings were obtained. Placement of a biliary stent and a port catheter was technically successful in 13 (93%) dogs, while stent migration (n=3), gallbladder rupture (n=1) and death (n=5) due to subcutaneous abscess and peritonitis also occurred. The follow-up was achieved in eight dogs (seven dogs with a port catheter placement and one dog with a drain tube placement). Irrigation of the bile duct and port catheter replacement were successfully achieved without any complications. Cholangiograms obtained five weeks after stent placement showed diffuse biliary dilation with granulation tissue formation. However, focal biliary stricture was seen in one dog with stent placement alone. Placement of a port catheter following biliary stent placement seems to be feasible. However, further investigation is necessary to reduce the current complications

Placement of an implantable port catheter in the biliary stent: an experimental study in dogs

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Ko, Gi Young; Lee, Im Sick; Choi, Won Chan [Asan Medical Center, Seoul (Korea, Republic of)

2004-04-01

To investigate the feasibility of port catheter placement following a biliary stent placement. We employed 14 mongrel dogs as test subject and after the puncture of their gaIl bladders using sonographic guidance, a 10-mm in diameter metallic stent was placed at the common duct. In 12 dogs, a 6.3 F port catheter was placed into the duodenum through the common duct and a port was secured at the subcutaneous space following stent placement. As a control group, an 8.5 F drain tube was placed into the gallbladder without port catheter placement in the remaining two dogs. Irrigation of the bile duct was performed every week by injection of saline into the port, and the port catheter was replaced three weeks later in two dogs. Information relating to the success of the procedure, complications and the five-week follow-up cholangiographic findings were obtained. Placement of a biliary stent and a port catheter was technically successful in 13 (93%) dogs, while stent migration (n=3), gallbladder rupture (n=1) and death (n=5) due to subcutaneous abscess and peritonitis also occurred. The follow-up was achieved in eight dogs (seven dogs with a port catheter placement and one dog with a drain tube placement). Irrigation of the bile duct and port catheter replacement were successfully achieved without any complications. Cholangiograms obtained five weeks after stent placement showed diffuse biliary dilation with granulation tissue formation. However, focal biliary stricture was seen in one dog with stent placement alone. Placement of a port catheter following biliary stent placement seems to be feasible. However, further investigation is necessary to reduce the current complications.

PD2P : PanDA Dynamic Data Placement for ATLAS

CERN Multimedia

CERN. Geneva

2012-01-01

The PanDA Dynamic Data Placement (PD2P) system has been developed to cope with difficulties of data placement for ATLAS. PD2P is an intelligent subsystem of PanDA to distribute data by taking the following factors into account: popularity, locality, the usage pattern of the data, the distribution of CPU and storage resources, ...

Placements: An Underused Vehicle for Quality Enhancement in Higher Education?

Science.gov (United States)

Kettis, Asa; Ring, Lena; Gustavsson, Maria; Wallman, Andy

2013-01-01

Placements have the potential to contribute more effectively to the quality of higher education. The aim of this article is to discuss how placements can be made more worthwhile for individual students, while also contributing to the overall quality of teaching and learning at HEIs as well as to the development of workplace cultures that are…

College Math Assessment: SAT Scores vs. College Math Placement Scores

Science.gov (United States)

Foley-Peres, Kathleen; Poirier, Dawn

2008-01-01

Many colleges and university's use SAT math scores or math placement tests to place students in the appropriate math course. This study compares the use of math placement scores and SAT scores for 188 freshman students. The student's grades and faculty observations were analyzed to determine if the SAT scores and/or college math assessment scores…

When ideology meets conflict-related content: Influences on emotion generation and regulation.

Science.gov (United States)

Pliskin, Ruthie; Halperin, Eran; Bar-Tal, Daniel; Sheppes, Gal

2018-03-01

Do rightists and leftists experience information about suffering and harm with differing emotional intensities, depending on the identity of target depicted? Do they consequently choose differently how to regulate or cope with these emotions? Research has identified ideological differences in emotional processes, but it has yet to identify what types of content lead to ideological differences in emotional intensity or whether these content-dependent differences relate to differing preferences for engaging versus disengaging emotion-regulation strategies. We posited that right-left differences in experienced emotional intensity would be context-dependent, emerging mostly in response to depictions of harm to the outgroup, in accordance with the centrality of intergroup attitudes to ideological self-placement in conflict. Study 1 (N = 83) supported this hypothesis, with leftists (vs. rightists) experiencing outgroup harm (but not ingroup harm or conflict-irrelevant harm) with greater emotional intensity. Study 2 (N = 101), which replicated this finding, additionally examined whether behavioral differences in regulatory choice consequently emerge mostly regarding outgroup harm. We tested 2 competing hypotheses as to the nature of these differences: (a) the intensity hypothesis, positing that leftists (more than rightists) would regulate their intensified reactions to outgroup harm through disengagement-distraction (vs. engagement-reappraisal) due to a documented greater preference for disengaging coping strategies as intensity increases, and (b) the motivation hypothesis, positing that leftists (more than rightists) would prefer engagement-reappraisal (vs. disengagement-distraction), consistent with leftists' documented greater preference for intergroup empathy. Results exclusively supported the intensity hypothesis, and the significance of both studies is discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

Analog integrated circuit design automation placement, routing and parasitic extraction techniques

CERN Document Server

Martins, Ricardo; Horta, Nuno

2017-01-01

This book introduces readers to a variety of tools for analog layout design automation. After discussing the placement and routing problem in electronic design automation (EDA), the authors overview a variety of automatic layout generation tools, as well as the most recent advances in analog layout-aware circuit sizing. The discussion includes different methods for automatic placement (a template-based Placer and an optimization-based Placer), a fully-automatic Router and an empirical-based Parasitic Extractor. The concepts and algorithms of all the modules are thoroughly described, enabling readers to reproduce the methodologies, improve the quality of their designs, or use them as starting point for a new tool. All the methods described are applied to practical examples for a 130nm design process, as well as placement and routing benchmark sets. Introduces readers to hierarchical combination of Pareto fronts of placements; Presents electromigration-aware routing with multilayer multiport terminal structures...

The experiences of student nurses on placements with practice nurses: A pilot study.

Science.gov (United States)

Gale, Julia; Ooms, Ann; Sharples, Kath; Marks-Maran, Di

2016-01-01

To prepare the registered nurse of tomorrow in the United Kingdom (UK) to care for patients in general practice (GP)-led services, today's student nurses need to have the opportunity to experience placements with practice nurses to enable them to make positive career choices to become practice nurses in the future. The role of the practice nurse is described in the article. As a pilot project, seventeen students undertook placements with practice nurses in one of seven GP practices selected by the London GP Deanery and the university as having fulfilled the criteria to support student nurses in placements. A mentorship preparation programme was provided to prepare practice nurses for mentoring these students. An evaluation study was undertaken of this pilot project. Findings showed that students were highly positive about the experience; the majority rated this placement as being as good as or better than previous placement experiences. The evaluation also explored the impact on student learning and the value that the placement had. There was a positive impact on students' knowledge and skills in certain clinical areas especially related to health promotion. Students also indicated that they would like to have additional placements with practice nurses and would consider a career as a practice nurse in the future. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Others' opinions count, but not all of them: anchoring to ingroup versus outgroup members' behavior in charitable giving

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Dorina Hysenbelli

2013-11-01

Full Text Available Because of the large amount of information and the difficulty in selecting an appropriate recipient in the context of charitable giving, people tend to make extensive use of heuristics, which sometimes leads them to wrong decisions. In the present work, we focused on exploring how individuals are influenced by anchoring heuristics and how group membership interacts with this heuristic. In Experiment 1, two different groups of participants were informed about low versus high average donations of other people, and a third control group did not receive any information about the others' donations. The results showed that participants were willing to donate significantly more in the high-anchor condition compared to the low-anchor condition, as well as about the same amount of money in the low-anchor condition and no-anchor condition. Experiment 2 and 3 showed that high anchors are more effective when the information about others' donations reflects members of the ingroup rather than the outgroup. Other variables related to these results are further discussed.

Expectations of Cattle Feeding Investors in Feeder Cattle Placements

OpenAIRE

Kastens, Terry L.; Schroeder, Ted C.

1993-01-01

Cattle feeders appear irrational when they place cattle on feed when projected profits are negative. Long futures positions appear to offer superior returns to cattle feeding investment. Cattle feeder behavior suggests that they believe a downward bias in live cattle futures persists and that cattle feeders use different information than the live cattle futures market price when making placement decisions. This paper examines feeder cattle placement determinants and compares performance of ex...

Guidelines for supporting placement learning via video communications technologies

OpenAIRE

Taylor, Teri

2014-01-01

Purpose – Current drivers in higher education have led to the questioning of traditional placement support methods. Within many programmes, students undertaking practice-based learning experience structured, one-to-one support from an academic in the placement location. With the financial and environmental implications of this practice, the potential for using video-based communications as a replacement for face-to-face dialogue was explored. The paper aims to discuss the above issues. \\ud \\u...

Different Influences on Lexical Priming for Integrative, Thematic, and Taxonomic Relations

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lara L. Jones

2012-07-01

Full Text Available Word pairs may be integrative (i.e., combination of two concepts into one meaningful entity; e.g., fruit - cake, thematically related (i.e., connected in time and place; e.g., party - cake, and/or taxonomically related (i.e., shared features and category co-members; e.g., muffin - cake. Using participant ratings and computational measures, we demonstrated distinct patterns across measures of similarity and co-occurrence, and familiarity for each relational construct in two different item sets. Overall, target RTs and priming magnitudes were consistent across the SOAs for both item sets. However, results of a standard lexical decision task with various delays between prime and target presentation further demonstrated distinct patterns among these three relations on some of the underlying measures influencing target word recognition (LSA, Google, and BEAGLE. These distinct patterns suggest different mechanisms of lexical priming and further demonstrate that integrative relations are distinct from thematic and taxonomic relations.

Mixing advertising and editorial content in radio programmes: appreciation and recall of brand placements versus commercials

NARCIS (Netherlands)

van Reijmersdal, E.A.

2011-01-01

Although the literature on brand placement is rapidly evolving, no studies thus far have focused on radio brand placement or on the effects of the combination of brand placement and commercials. Therefore, the present experiment (N = 153) focused on the effects of radio brand placement on liking,

The effects of brand placement disclosures on scepticism and brand memory

NARCIS (Netherlands)

van Reijmersdal, E.A.; Tutaj, K.; Boerman, S.C.

2013-01-01

Recently, the European Union decreed that European countries should use disclosures of brand placement in programs and movies on television to guarantee fair communication. However, an understanding of the effects of disclosing brand placement is lacking. The present study is the first to test the

34 CFR 300.536 - Change of placement because of disciplinary removals.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-07-01

... THE EDUCATION OF CHILDREN WITH DISABILITIES Procedural Safeguards Due Process Procedures for Parents and Children Discipline Procedures § 300.536 Change of placement because of disciplinary removals. (a... 34 Education 2 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Change of placement because of disciplinary removals...

Product Placement: A Smart Marketing Tool Shifting a Company to the Next Competitive Level

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kramolis Jan

2013-12-01

Full Text Available The primary aim of this paper was to discover connection between company’s competitiveness and product placement as a marketing tool. The secondary aim was searching for the genesis of product placement. The mentioned issues are explained from the perspectives of three groups: TV studios experts, directors and producers, and other experts (media agencies and advertisers. The Czech Republic market where product placement can be registered is very small – only few television companies. The survey was conducted during years 2011 and 2012 in the Czech Republic. There is no directly measurable tool to tell us exact outputs. However, the results reveal: Marketers are sure that product placement is efficient. The product placement belongs to a longterm marketing field where the brand building is also included. On the basis of the ascertainments acquired by the survey, the basic links between product placement, long-term marketing, and competitiveness are explained in this paper.

Improved Safety and Efficacy of Small-Bore Feeding Tube Confirmation Using an Electromagnetic Placement Device.

Science.gov (United States)

Powers, Jan; Luebbehusen, Michael; Aguirre, Lillian; Cluff, Julia; David, Mary Ann; Holly, Vince; Linford, Lorraine; Park, Nancy; Brunelle, Rocco

2018-04-01

Early enteral nutrition has been shown to decrease complications and improve patient outcomes. Post pyloric feeding is recommended for patients with gastric intolerance or at high risk for aspiration. Feeding tube placement can be challenging and pose risk of pulmonary complications. Reliance on radiographic confirmation for feeding tube placement exposes the patient to radiation. Electromagnetic placement device (EMPD) may offer a method to minimize pulmonary complications, increase successful placement, and decrease radiation exposure to the patient. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the safety and efficacy of using EMPD verification, instead of routine abdominal radiographic confirmation, for small-bore feeding tube placement. Variables evaluated were adverse events, utilization of radiographs for confirmation, and success rate of feeding tube placement in the ordered location. Two time frames were reviewed. In a 1-year period, 3754 small-bore feeding tubes were placed using EMPD, with zero adverse events noted. Radiographic confirmation was utilized in 0%-29.2% of the EMPD placed tubes. Successful placement of feeding tubes using EMPD ranged from 94%-99.6%. During a 5-year period, 7081 EMPD feeding tubes were evaluated. One adverse event, pneumothorax, occurred during the placement of these 7081 tubes, for a rate of 0.014%. Feeding tube placement confirmation is safe and efficacious via EMPD providing an effective method of feeding tube placement with a success rate >94% into the desired location. EMPD is an accurate verification method of distal tip location, eliminating the need for routine abdominal radiographic confirmation. © 2018 American Society for Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition.

Encountering aged care: a mixed methods investigation of medical students' clinical placement experiences.

Science.gov (United States)

Annear, Michael J; Lea, Emma; Lo, Amanda; Tierney, Laura; Robinson, Andrew

2016-02-04

Residential aged care is an increasingly important health setting due to population ageing and the increase in age-related conditions, such as dementia. However, medical education has limited engagement with this fast-growing sector and undergraduate training remains primarily focussed on acute presentations in hospital settings. Additionally, concerns have been raised about the adequacy of dementia-related content in undergraduate medical curricula, while research has found mixed attitudes among students towards the care of older people. This study explores how medical students engage with the learning experiences accessible in clinical placements in residential aged care facilities (RACFs), particularly exposure to multiple comorbidity, cognitive impairment, and palliative care. Fifth-year medical students (N = 61) completed five-day clinical placements at two Australian aged care facilities in 2013 and 2014. The placements were supported by an iterative yet structured program and academic teaching staff to ensure appropriate educational experiences and oversight. Mixed methods data were collected before and after the clinical placement. Quantitative data included surveys of dementia knowledge and questions about attitudes to the aged care sector and working with older adults. Qualitative data were collected from focus group discussions concerning medical student expectations, learning opportunities, and challenges to engagement. Pre-placement surveys identified good dementia knowledge, but poor attitudes towards aged care and older adults. Negative placement experiences were associated with a struggle to discern case complexity and a perception of an aged care placement as an opportunity cost associated with reduced hospital training time. Irrespective of negative sentiment, post-placement survey data showed significant improvements in attitudes to working with older people and dementia knowledge. Positive student experiences were explained by in

Modified Miniplates for Temporary Skeletal Anchorage in Orthodontics: Placement and Removal Surgeries

Science.gov (United States)

Cornelis, Marie A.; Scheffler, Nicole R.; Mahy, Pierre; Siciliano, Sergio; De Clerck, Hugo J.; Tulloch, J.F. Camilla

2009-01-01

Purpose Skeletal anchorage systems are increasingly used in orthodontics. This article describes the techniques of placement and removal of modified surgical miniplates used for temporary orthodontic anchorage and reports surgeons’ perceptions of their use. Patients and Methods We enrolled 97 consecutive orthodontic patients having miniplates placed as an adjunct to treatment. A total of 200 miniplates were placed by 9 oral surgeons. Patients and surgeons completed questionnaires after placement and removal surgeries. Results Fifteen miniplates needed to be removed prematurely. Antibiotics and anti-inflammatories were generally prescribed after placement but not after removal surgery. Most surgeries were performed with the patient under local anesthesia. Placement surgery lasted on average between 15 and 30 minutes per plate and was considered by the surgeons to be very easy to moderately easy. The surgery to remove the miniplates was considered easier and took less time. The patients’ chief complaint was swelling, lasting on average 5.3 ± 2.8 days after placement and 4.5 ± 2.6 days after removal. Conclusions Although miniplate placement/removal surgery requires the elevation of a flap, this was considered an easy and relatively short surgical procedure that can typically be performed with the patient under local anesthesia without complications, and it may be considered a safe and effective adjunct for orthodontic treatment. PMID:18571028

The cost and value of pre-registration clinical placements for Project 2000 students.

Science.gov (United States)

Jones, M L; Akehurst, R

1999-07-01

The research outlined in this article was commissioned by the Sheffield and North Trent College of Nursing and Midwifery to explore the cost implications of pre-registration clinical placements in the context of Project 2000. The authors outline the methodology and findings of an exercise designed to collect relevant cost information which was not readily available. On the basis of these findings, they suggest that: at 1995/1996 pay and prices, clinical placements cost the education provider approximately pound 890 per student per annum; in terms of real resources, the value to service providers of the service contribution made by second- and third-year nursing and midwifery students on ward-based placements outweighs the value of the time spent by qualified staff on their supervision and education. Once the funding assumptions underlying the introduction of Project 2000 have been taken into account, second- and third-year nursing and midwifery students benefit the service provider by on average pound 3.46 for every hour they spend in an unrostered ward-based placement. The service contribution made by students in community-based clinical placements cannot free staff time in the same way as on the wards and, because qualified staff in these areas are generally more highly graded, the value of the time they spend on the supervision and education of students on placement is higher than in ward-based placements. Second- and third-year students therefore appear to cost the service provider on average pound 0.48 for each hour they spend in a community-based placement. It was not possible to determine whether this cost translates into a reduction in patient contacts.

Taxonomic revision of the spider family Penestomidae (Araneae, Entelegynae)

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Miller, J.A.; Griswold, C.E.; Haddad, C.R.

2010-01-01

Conflicting character evidence and a scarcity of male specimens has historically made placement of the spider subfamily Penestominae Simon problematic. The Penestominae was recently removed from the family Eresidae and promoted to family rank based on the results of a molecular phylogenetic study; a

Nursing students' perceptions of a collaborative clinical placement model: A qualitative descriptive study.

Science.gov (United States)

van der Riet, Pamela; Levett-Jones, Tracy; Courtney-Pratt, Helen

2018-03-01

Clinical placements are specifically designed to facilitate authentic learning opportunities and are an integral component of undergraduate nursing programs. However, as academics and clinicians frequently point out, clinical placements are fraught with problems that are long-standing and multidimensional in nature. Collaborative placement models, grounded in a tripartite relationship between students, university staff and clinical partners, and designed to foster students' sense of belonging, have recently been implemented to address many of the challenges associated with clinical placements. In this study a qualitative descriptive design was undertaken with the aim of exploring 14 third year third year nursing students' perceptions of a collaborative clinical placement model undertaken in an Australian university. Students participated in audio recorded focus groups following their final clinical placement. Thematic analysis of the interview data resulted in identification of six main themes: Convenience and Camaraderie, Familiarity and Confidence, Welcomed and Wanted, Belongingness and Support, Employment, and The Need for Broader Clinical Experiences. The clinical collaborative model fostered a sense of familiarity for many of the participants and this led to belongingness, acceptance, confidence and meaningful learning experiences. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Experiences of Supervision at Practice Placement Sites

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lesley Diack

2014-01-01

Full Text Available Background. Whilst placement supervision and clinical education programmes are of significant value in shaping the behaviours of undergraduate healthcare students, appropriate provisions which are efficacious to the learner are somewhat lacking, particularly for students studying on UK MPharm programmes. Objectives. To explore and explain the value of placement supervision to the personal development and employability of undergraduate pharmacy students. Methods. Students participated in a week long community pharmacy pilot programme, a result of a collaborative effort between the School of Pharmacy and Life Sciences and a small consortium of community pharmacies. Students and stakeholders were asked to evaluate their experiences via separate questionnaires which had been developed to elicit views and attitudes. Key Findings. Feedback from students and stakeholders towards the experience was overwhelmingly positive with multiple benefits being reported. Of particular prominence was the emphasis in student feedback on the value of placement supervision to their professional and personal development. Findings were indicative of a development in clinical practice proficiencies, core skills, and improvement in decision-making practice. Conclusions. The benefits of clinical supervision to the professional and personal development of MPharm students are well documented, although attracting professional pharmacy supervisors is proving a problematic task for educational providers in the UK.

Brand Placement in Establishing Corporate Identity - A University Example -

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Saliha AĞAÇ

2015-06-01

Full Text Available With competition becoming ever fiercer, brands must conform to modern marketing and become more influential on consumer perceptions by developing strategies according to the needs and demands of consumers. Hence it is very important to determine how the br and is perceived and placed in the consumer’s mind. Branding is a key issue on the modern agenda. As universities have understood the importance of establishing corporate identity and brand placement, they have joined the race and begun developing social strategies to develop their brand values. These include establishing brand belongingness, advertising and promotions and efforts to make the university stand out among similar ones. Brand placement in the minds of users is attempted through the name, logo , colors, characters and fonts representing the university used on clothing, office material and similar. Brand placement efforts include definitions by consumers of the product or service or attempts to distinguish these from those of competitors. This r esearch deals with a clothing b rand representing a university, brand image and product perceptions as well as the brand placement efforts. The scanning method was used in the research. The brand of casual clothing used as an example for brand placement as well as similarly known brands were examined for their product variety, prices and consumer portfolios. Measurement devices were prepared for the brand placement of the apparel designed and produced for the university, and a pilot trial was performed. I n the pilot trial, a set of questions was asked to a group of randomly chosen 242 people, consisting of academics, university students and administrative staff. The data obta ined were analyzed using SPSS 16 .0. Findings were given in tables according to sta tus variables. The finding of the research indicate that in brand placing efforts, for the intended consumer the apparel’s fabric, stitching and print/embroidery quality, its price

Chemical placement in heterogeneous and long reach horizontal wells

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Stalker, Robert; Wahid, Fazrie; Graham, Gordon M.

2006-03-15

The effective placement of chemical squeeze treatments in heterogeneous wells and long reach horizontal wells has proved a significant challenge, with various factors including heterogeneity, crossflow and pressure gradients between otherwise non-communicating zones within the well, all contributing to an uneven placement of the scale squeeze treatment into the reservoir. Current methods to circumvent these problems often rely on extremely expensive coiled tubing operations, staged diversion (temporary shut off) treatments or by designing treatments to deliberately overdose some zones in order to gain placement in other (e.g. low permeability) zones. Moreover for deepwater sub sea horizontal wells the costs associated with ''spot'' treating along the length of horizontal wells by coil tubing tractor operations can often be prohibitively expensive. For other very near well bore treatments such as acid stimulation a number of self diverting strategies including gelled acid treatments, staged viscoelastic surfactant treatments and foams have been applied in field treatments with some success. However the properties which make such treatments applicable for acid stimulation may also make them inappropriate for bullhead scale squeeze treatments. Recent work by the current authors has however indicated the possible benefits of using modified injection fluids to aid uniform scale inhibitor placement in such wells in order to effect more even placement. In summary this paper will describe the various options available for achieving self diversion and describes the potential drawbacks associated with the viscous placement fluids commonly used for acid simulation techniques. In addition, various simulation packages commonly used for scale related calculations are reviewed and their limitations, primarily due to the inherent assumptions made and input parameters used, for modelling squeeze treatments using such modified fluids are described. The paper

Minimal guided bone regeneration procedure for immediate implant placement in the esthetic zone

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Nettemu Sunil Kumar

2013-01-01

Full Text Available The anterior maxilla presents a challenging milieu interior for ideal placement of implants because of the compromised bone quality. With the advent of intraoral bone harvesting and augmentation techniques, immediate implant placement into fresh extraction sockets have become more predictable. Immediate implant placement has numerous advantages compared to the delayed procedure including superior esthetic and functional outcomes, maintenance of soft and hard tissue integrity and increased patient compliance. This case report exhibits immediate implant placement in the maxillary esthetic zone by combining a minimal invasive autogenous block bone graft harvest technique for ensuring successful osseointegration of the implant at the extraction site.

At the Roots of Product Placement: The Mere Exposure Effect

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Stefano Ruggieri

2013-05-01

Full Text Available The present study aims to analyze the effect of product placement on attitude change and takes into consideration psychological models of the mere exposure effect. A sample of high school students watched an excerpt from two widely-distributed movies in which several products were shown by using the technique known as product placement. The results indicate that students who saw the commercial brand liked the products more than those who didn’t see it. This effect, in line with the literature on the product placement effect, seems to be independent from the recognition of the brand in the movie excerpt. This study also shows that, in the high involvement condition, one exposure is enough to produce a positive attitude toward the brand.

Optimal Placement of Phasor Measurement Units with New Considerations

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Su, Chi; Chen, Zhe

2010-01-01

Conventional phasor measurement unit (PMU) placement methods normally use the number of PMU installations as the objective function which is to be minimized. However, the cost of one installation of PMU is not always the same in different locations. It depends on a number of factors. One of these......Conventional phasor measurement unit (PMU) placement methods normally use the number of PMU installations as the objective function which is to be minimized. However, the cost of one installation of PMU is not always the same in different locations. It depends on a number of factors. One...... of these factors is taken into account in the proposed PMU placement method in this paper, which is the number of adjacent branches to the PMU located buses. The concept of full topological observability is adopted and a version of binary particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm is utilized. Results from...

Performance and impact of dynamic data placement in ATLAS

CERN Document Server

Maier, Thomas; The ATLAS collaboration

2018-01-01

For high-throughput computing the efficient use of distributed computing resources relies on an evenly distributed workload, which in turn requires wide availability of input data that is used in physics analysis. In ATLAS, the dynamic data placement agent C3PO was implemented in the ATLAS distributed data management system Rucio which identifies popular data and creates additional, transient replicas to make data more widely and more reliably available. This contribution presents studies on the performance of C3PO and the impact it has on throughput rates of distributed computing in ATLAS. This includes analysis of the placement algorithm selection behaviour regarding the data considered for replication and destination storage elements, usage after the placement decision of the chosen datasets in general and the newly created copies in particular, and the impact on metrics like job waiting times, task completion times and failure rates of tasks.

Student engagement in interprofessional working in practice placement settings.

Science.gov (United States)

Pollard, Katherine

2009-10-01

. To investigate the nature of student engagement in interprofessional interaction while on placement. Due to continuing emphasis on improving interprofessional collaboration, UK educational establishments are required to offer pre-qualifying health and social care students interprofessional education in order that they acquire relevant competencies. However, few formal interprofessional education initiatives occur in practice settings and little is known about pre-qualifying students' non-formal learning about interprofessional issues while on placement. From 2003-2005 an English Faculty of Health and Social Care conducted a qualitative study to explore opportunities for interprofessional learning and working available to students in practice placement settings. Case studies were conducted in a coronary care ward, a medical ward for older patients, a maternity unit, a paediatric unit, an integrated community learning disabilities team and a residential facility for adults with challenging behaviour. Gaining access was complex, due to variable student timetables and UK research governance requirements. Sites were therefore selected according to geographical area and timing of student placements. Details of interprofessional interaction (formal and informal) were observed and recorded. Interviews were conducted with a convenience sample of 20 practitioners and 15 students. Data were analysed thematically. Student experience varied considerably. Contributing factors included the influence of doctors and differing professional cultures; mentors' support for student engagement in interprofessional working; and individual students' confidence levels. Most sites were managed by nurses and some senior nurses were proactive in involving students interprofessionally. However, many students lacked systematic support for interprofessional engagement. Students lack parity of experience concerning interprofessional activity on placement. Where they do not have systematic

Rapid action in the Palaeogene, the relationship between phenotypic and taxonomic diversification in Coenozoic mammals

Science.gov (United States)

Raia, P.; Carotenuto, F.; Passaro, F.; Piras, P.; Fulgione, D.; Werdelin, L.; Saarinen, J.; Fortelius, M.

2013-01-01

A classic question in evolutionary biology concerns the tempo and mode of lineage evolution. Considered variously in relation to resource utilization, intrinsic constraints or hierarchic level, the question of how evolutionary change occurs in general has continued to draw the attention of the field for over a century and a half. Here we use the largest species-level phylogeny of Coenozoic fossil mammals (1031 species) ever assembled and their body size estimates, to show that body size and taxonomic diversification rates declined from the origin of placentals towards the present, and very probably correlate to each other. These findings suggest that morphological and taxic diversifications of mammals occurred hierarchically, with major shifts in body size coinciding with the birth of large clades, followed by taxonomic diversification within these newly formed clades. As the clades expanded, rates of taxonomic diversification proceeded independently of phenotypic evolution. Such a dynamic is consistent with the idea, central to the Modern Synthesis, that mammals radiated adaptively, with the filling of adaptive zones following the radiation. PMID:23173207

Solar-phase-angle effects on the taxonomic classification of asteroids

Science.gov (United States)

Carvano, J.; Davallos, J.

2014-07-01

Asteroid taxonomy is the effort of grouping asteroids into classes based on similarities of a number of their observational properties. The most used properties include measurements of their spectral reflectance (by means of low-resolution spectra, spectro-photometry, or colors), and geometric albedo. The usefulness of asteroid taxonomic classes derived in this way relies on the assumption that the classes bear some correspondence to the mineralogy of the asteroids, and on the fact that such classification can be made using types of observations that presently are available to a large number of asteroids. Therefore, asteroid taxonomy can be used to infer trends in the distribution of compositions in the main belt and other populations, as an additional parameter in defining asteroid families, and as a selection tool to identify candidates for more detailed observations. However, the fact that the correspondence between taxonomic class and composition is far from perfect is still sometimes overlooked in the literature. Indeed, although a taxonomic classification narrows down the possible mineralogies of a given asteroid, it will seldom point univocally to one particular mineralogy. This happens for a number of reasons, some linked to the intrinsic difficulty involved in the remote characterization of the mineralogy of an asteroid, since it depends on the presence of absorption bands in its reflectance spectrum which may be absent or not completely sampled by the observations used to derive taxonomy. Other problem here is the exposure of the material on the surface of the asteroid to space-weathering effects, such as solar wind implantation and micro-meteorite bombardment, which can change the optical properties of the material. Finally, the overall shape of the reflectance spectrum of an asteroid is also affected by the geometry of the observation, as well as by its shape. In this work, we analyze how the classification of asteroids observed by the Sloan Digital Sky

Immediate placement of dental implants in the mandible

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Gurkar Haraswarupa Puttaraju

2013-01-01

Full Text Available This case describes extraction of teeth in the mandibular arch, i.e., 41 42 43 44 45 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 (grade two mobility, followed by immediate placement of four dental implants (3i biomet, two in the 45 55 region and two dental implants in 12 21 region. A prefabricated provisional mandibular denture was immediately placed. The purpose of immediate placement was to aid the patient resume his professional duties the next day itself along with esthetic and functional comfort, psychological well-being and most importantly preserving the remaining tissue in a healthy condition.

Perspectives of Foster Parents and Social Workers on Foster Placement Disruption

Science.gov (United States)

Taylor, Brian J.; McQuillan, Karen

2014-01-01

The potential human and financial costs of foster placement disruption for the children, families, professionals and agencies involved are widely accepted. This service evaluation identified and described perspectives of foster parents and social workers regarding placement disruptions in order to identify the main issues of concern and to derive…

Advanced Placement Academy: Case Study of a Program within a School

Science.gov (United States)

Swanson, Julie Dingle; Nagy, Steven

2014-01-01

The focus of this study was the first year of implementation of the Advanced Placement Academy (APA), a program within a high school providing honors and Advanced Placement coursework for high-ability African American students with previously limited access to rigorous courses. The qualitative investigation explores practical solutions from…

Urethral catheterization facilitates preradiation fiducial marker placement in postprostatectomy patients.

Science.gov (United States)

Williams, Christopher; Costa, Joseph; Mandia, Stephen; Henderson, Randal; Marino, Robert; Mendenhall, Nancy

2012-05-01

Surgical absence of the prostate can make placement of fiducial markers difficult, because anatomic landmarks are distorted and there is a paucity of substantial tissue to hold fast the markers. We describe a method for improving the accuracy of fiducial marker placement for the purpose of salvage or adjuvant external beam radiation therapy for prostate cancer in patients who have undergone radical prostatectomy. To assist with identification of the urethrovesical junction and to facilitate placement of the markers, a Foley catheter was placed and the balloon was inflated. Gentle traction on the catheter seated the balloon at the bladder neck to echographically define the anatomy of the urethrovesical junction. Next, a rectal ultrasound probe was inserted into the rectum, allowing visualization of the region of the urethrovesical junction. Fiducial markers were then placed bilaterally in the detrusor muscle at the bladder neck or in the periurethral tissue using the applicator needle. The treating radiation oncologist verified that marker placement was suitable for assisting with radiation therapy in all cases. Preradiation pelvic imaging verified that markers were not in the bladder or urethral lumen, and there were no patient complaints of voiding out the markers with urination.

International clinical placements for Australian undergraduate nursing students: A systematic thematic synthesis of the literature.

Science.gov (United States)

Browne, Caroline A; Fetherston, Catherine M; Medigovich, Kristina

2015-10-01

International clinical placements provide undergraduate nursing students with the opportunity to experience or practice nursing care in diverse countries, settings, and cultures. This systematic review aims to ascertain the current knowledge on international clinical placements offered by undergraduate nursing programs in Australia. It seeks to explore three questions: (1) How have previous experiences of nursing students' international clinical placements been described? (2) How have participants and stakeholders determined if the placement has been successful? And (3) What benefits or challenges have been identified by stakeholders as a result of participating in international clinical placements? A systematic thematic synthesis was undertaken. A search of electronic databases including CINAHL, Proquest Central, Scopus, PubMed, and Health Collection was undertaken between September and October 2014. Key terms including 'international clinical placement', 'study abroad', 'international exchange', 'nursing', and 'Australia' were used to identify articles that appeared in peer-reviewed English language journals and that explored international clinical placements offered to undergraduate nursing students by Australian universities. Eight studies were identified that meet the inclusion criteria, and through thematic analysis, five key themes were identified including developing cultural awareness and competence, providing a global perspective on health care, translation of theory to practice, growing personally through reflection, and overcoming apprehension to successfully meet the challenge. A comparison search of literature from Canada and the United Kingdom revealed that similar themes occurred internationally. Although personal successes were identified by students undertaking international clinical placement, further research is required to identify all stakeholder experiences including those of the educators, the educational institutions, and travel providers

Bipolar hysteroscopic procedures and placement of Essure microinserts for tubal sterilization: a case control study.

Science.gov (United States)

Panel, Pierre; Grosdemouge, Isabelle; Houllier, Marie; Renouvel, Frédérique; Friederich, Ludovic; Le Tohic, Arnaud

2011-06-01

To assess the effectiveness and complication rate with Essure microinsert placements for tubal sterilization and the concomitant bipolar intrauterine surgical procedure. Case control study. Department of gynecology and obstetrics of a general hospital in France. 382 women, including 41 undergoing one or several concomitant uterine procedures with Essure placement, and 341 undergoing Essure placement only (controls). Essure placement with or without bipolar hysteroscopic procedure for polyp, myoma, or endometrial ablation. Success rate for microinsert placement and complications at 3 months. Forty-one patients had Essure microinserts placed in combination with a bipolar hysteroscopic procedure: endometrial resection (n=32), fibroma resection (n=4), or polyp ablation (n=5). They were compared with 341 patients who underwent Essure placement only. The success rate for Essure placement was 97.6% in the combination group versus 97.6% in the control group. The complication rate was 4.9% (n=2) in the combination group versus 2.6% (n=9) in the control group. The difference in the success and complication rates was not statistically significant. Performing intrauterine bipolar resection during hysteroscopy for sterilization is possible without reducing the Essure placement success rate and without increasing morbidity. Copyright © 2011 American Society for Reproductive Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The process and challenges of obtaining and sustaining clinical placements for nursing and allied health students.

Science.gov (United States)

Taylor, Christine; Angel, Liz; Nyanga, Lucy; Dickson, Cathy

2017-10-01

To describe the process and challenges from a project that aimed to develop processes, source new placements and place students primarily in the discipline of nursing, but also occupational therapy, physiotherapy, podiatry, social work, and speech therapy. Clinical experience in health facilities is an essential element of health professional education, yet globally, there is a lack of clinical placements to meet demands. Educational providers are seeking placements in nontraditional facilities, yet little has been reported on the challenges in the process of procuring clinical placements. The project used a descriptive approach within a quality implementation framework. The project was guided by the quality implementation framework that included four critical steps: considerations of the host setting, structuring the implementation, supporting the implementation and improving future applications. A total of 115 new student placements were finalised across six health disciplines, including elderly care, nongovernment organisations and general practice. Sixty-two nursing students were placed in the new placements during the project. Challenges included communication, the time-consuming nature of the process and 'gatekeeping' blocks to obtaining placements. Recommendations included the importance of personal interaction in developing and maintaining relationships, and the need for clear communication processes and documentation. Potential areas for research are also given. There is great potential for growth in establishing new placements outside the traditional placement facilities for nursing and allied health and for expanding already existing nonhospital placements. Clinical professional experiences are essential to any nursing or allied health programme. There is an increasing demand for, and global lack of, clinical placements for nursing and allied health students. The results provide nursing and allied health educators and managers a framework for planning

Job Placement in Germany: Developments before and after Deregulation. IAB Labour Market Research Topics No. 31.

Science.gov (United States)

Walwei, Ulrich

Since 1994, the German public employment service has not had a monopoly on placement. A new law permits private job placement as an independent activity, but only with a license from the public employment service. Since deregulation, the number of job placement licenses has increased continuously, but the number of placements made by private…

25 CFR 26.8 - Where do I go to apply for Job Placement and Training assistance?

Science.gov (United States)

2010-04-01

... 25 Indians 1 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Where do I go to apply for Job Placement and Training... PLACEMENT AND TRAINING PROGRAM General Applicability § 26.8 Where do I go to apply for Job Placement and Training assistance? You may apply for Job Placement and Training assistance at the servicing office...

Taxonomic distinctness and richness of helminth parasite assemblages of freshwater fishes in Mexican hydrological basins.

Science.gov (United States)

Quiroz-Martínez, Benjamín; Salgado-Maldonado, Guillermo

2013-01-01

In this paper, we analyse the distributional patterns of adult helminth parasites of freshwater fishes with respect to the main hydrological basins of Mexico. We use the taxonomic distinctness and the variation in taxonomic distinctness to explore patterns of parasite diversity and how these patterns change between zoogeographical regions. We address questions about the factors that determine the variation of observed diversity of helminths between basins. We also investigate patterns of richness, taxonomic distinctness and distance decay of similarity amongst basins. Our analyses suggest that the evolution of the fauna of helminth parasites in Mexico is mostly dominated by independent host colonization events and that intra--host speciation could be a minor factor explaining the origin of this diversity. This paper points out a clear separation between the helminth faunas of northern--nearctic and southern--neotropical components in Mexican continental waters, suggesting the availability of two distinct taxonomic pools of parasites in Mexican drainage basins. Data identifies Mexican drainage basins as unities inhabited by freshwater fishes, hosting a mixture of neotropical and nearctic species, in addition, data confirms neotropical and neartic basins/helminth faunas. The neotropical basins of Mexico are host to a richest and more diversified helminth fauna, including more families, genera and species, compared to the less rich and less diverse helminth fauna in the nearctic basins. The present analysis confirms distance--decay as one of the important factors contributing to the patterns of diversity observed. The hypothesis that helminth diversity could be explained by the ichthyological diversity of the basin received no support from present analysis.

Taxonomic distinctness and richness of helminth parasite assemblages of freshwater fishes in Mexican hydrological basins.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Benjamín Quiroz-Martínez

Full Text Available In this paper, we analyse the distributional patterns of adult helminth parasites of freshwater fishes with respect to the main hydrological basins of Mexico. We use the taxonomic distinctness and the variation in taxonomic distinctness to explore patterns of parasite diversity and how these patterns change between zoogeographical regions. We address questions about the factors that determine the variation of observed diversity of helminths between basins. We also investigate patterns of richness, taxonomic distinctness and distance decay of similarity amongst basins. Our analyses suggest that the evolution of the fauna of helminth parasites in Mexico is mostly dominated by independent host colonization events and that intra--host speciation could be a minor factor explaining the origin of this diversity. This paper points out a clear separation between the helminth faunas of northern--nearctic and southern--neotropical components in Mexican continental waters, suggesting the availability of two distinct taxonomic pools of parasites in Mexican drainage basins. Data identifies Mexican drainage basins as unities inhabited by freshwater fishes, hosting a mixture of neotropical and nearctic species, in addition, data confirms neotropical and neartic basins/helminth faunas. The neotropical basins of Mexico are host to a richest and more diversified helminth fauna, including more families, genera and species, compared to the less rich and less diverse helminth fauna in the nearctic basins. The present analysis confirms distance--decay as one of the important factors contributing to the patterns of diversity observed. The hypothesis that helminth diversity could be explained by the ichthyological diversity of the basin received no support from present analysis.

Placement of tracheobronchial silicone Y-stents: Multicenter experience and systematic review of the literature

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Inderpaul Singh Sehgal

2017-01-01

Full Text Available Background: Airway obstruction or tracheoesophageal fistula (TEF near the tracheal carina requires placement of Y-shaped stents. Herein, we describe our multicenter experience with the placement of Dumon silicone Y-stents. We also conduct a systematic review for studies describing the deployment of airway silicone Y-stents. Methods: This was a retrospective analysis of consecutive subjects who underwent placement of silicone Y-stents. The clinical details including the underlying diagnosis, indication for the placement of silicone Y-stents, success of stent placement, and follow-up are presented. The PubMed and EMBASE databases were also reviewed for studies describing the placement of silicone Y-stents. Results: During the study, 27 silicone Y-stents were placed. The mean (standard deviation age of the study population (85.2% males was 57.7 (13.5 years. The stents were placed for airway obstruction in 77.8% and TEF in 29.6% of the patients. The most common underlying disease was carcinoma of the esophagus. The degree of airway obstruction was grade 3–4 in 18 subjects, and respiratory failure was encountered in 18 subjects. The stent was deployed successfully in all the subjects. No deaths were encountered during stent placement. Most subjects had rapid relief of symptoms following the procedure. Excessive secretions and mucostasis were the most common stent-related complications followed by the development of granulation tissue. The systematic review yielded nine studies (338 subjects with airway obstruction and/or TEF. The most common indication for silicone Y-stent placement was tracheobronchial obstruction and TEF due to malignancy. Benign disorders that necessitated stent placement included postintubation tracheal stenosis, airway malacia, and others. The stent was successfully placed in 98% with only one periprocedural death. Granulation tissue formation and mucostasis were the most common stent-related complications. Conclusion

Can a clinical placement influence stigma? An analysis of measures of social distance.

Science.gov (United States)

Moxham, Lorna; Taylor, Ellie; Patterson, Christopher; Perlman, Dana; Brighton, Renee; Sumskis, Susan; Keough, Emily; Heffernan, Tim

2016-09-01

The way people who experience mental illness are perceived by health care professionals, which often includes stigmatising attitudes, can have a significant impact on treatment outcomes and on their quality of life. To determine whether stigma towards people with mental illness varied for undergraduate nursing students who attended a non-traditional clinical placement called Recovery Camp compared to students who attended a 'typical' mental health clinical placement. Quasi-experimental. Seventy-nine third-year nursing students were surveyed; n=40 attended Recovery Camp (intervention), n=39 (comparison group) attended a 'typical' mental health clinical placement. All students completed the Social Distance Scale (SDS) pre- and post-placement and at three-month follow-up. Data analysis consisted of a one-way repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA) exploring parameter estimates between group scores across three time points. Two secondary repeated measures ANOVAs were performed to demonstrate the differences in SDS scores for each group across time. Pairwise comparisons demonstrated the differences between time intervals. A statistically significant difference in ratings of stigma between the intervention group and the comparison group existed. Parameter estimates revealed that stigma ratings for the intervention group were significantly reduced post-placement and remained consistently low at three-month follow-up. There was no significant difference in ratings of stigma for the comparison group over time. Students who attended Recovery Camp reported significant decreases in stigma towards people with a mental illness over time, compared to the typical placement group. Findings suggest that a therapeutic recreation based clinical placement was more successful in reducing stigma regarding mental illness in undergraduate nursing students compared to those who attended typical mental health clinical placements. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Stabilization, pole placement, and regular implementability

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Belur, MN; Trentelman, HL

In this paper, we study control by interconnection of linear differential systems. We give necessary and sufficient conditions for regular implementability of a-given linear, differential system. We formulate the problems of stabilization and pole placement as problems of finding a suitable,

A virtual reality based simulator for learning nasogastric tube placement.

Science.gov (United States)

Choi, Kup-Sze; He, Xuejian; Chiang, Vico Chung-Lim; Deng, Zhaohong

2015-02-01

Nasogastric tube (NGT) placement is a common clinical procedure where a plastic tube is inserted into the stomach through the nostril for feeding or drainage. However, the placement is a blind process in which the tube may be mistakenly inserted into other locations, leading to unexpected complications or fatal incidents. The placement techniques are conventionally acquired by practising on unrealistic rubber mannequins or on humans. In this paper, a virtual reality based training simulation system is proposed to facilitate the training of NGT placement. It focuses on the simulation of tube insertion and the rendering of the feedback forces with a haptic device. A hybrid force model is developed to compute the forces analytically or numerically under different conditions, including the situations when the patient is swallowing or when the tube is buckled at the nostril. To ensure real-time interactive simulations, an offline simulation approach is adopted to obtain the relationship between the insertion depth and insertion force using a non-linear finite element method. The offline dataset is then used to generate real-time feedback forces by interpolation. The virtual training process is logged quantitatively with metrics that can be used for assessing objective performance and tracking progress. The system has been evaluated by nursing professionals. They found that the haptic feeling produced by the simulated forces is similar to their experience during real NGT insertion. The proposed system provides a new educational tool to enhance conventional training in NGT placement. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Development of the Animal Management and Husbandry Online Placement Tool.

Science.gov (United States)

Bates, Lucy; Crowther, Emma; Bell, Catriona; Kinnison, Tierney; Baillie, Sarah

2013-01-01

The workplace provides veterinary students with opportunities to develop a range of skills, making workplace learning an important part of veterinary education in many countries. Good preparation for work placements is vital to maximize learning; to this end, our group has developed a series of three computer-aided learning (CAL) packages to support students. The third of this series is the Animal Management and Husbandry Online Placement Tool (AMH OPT). Students need a sound knowledge of animal husbandry and the ability to handle the common domestic species. However, teaching these skills at university is not always practical and requires considerable resources. In the UK, the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons (RCVS) requires students to complete 12 weeks of pre-clinical animal management and husbandry work placements or extramural studies (EMS). The aims are for students to improve their animal handling skills and awareness of husbandry systems, develop communication skills, and understand their future clients' needs. The AMH OPT is divided into several sections: Preparation, What to Expect, Working with People, Professionalism, Tips, and Frequently Asked Questions. Three stakeholder groups (university EMS coordinators, placement providers, and students) were consulted initially to guide the content and design and later to evaluate previews. Feedback from stakeholders was used in an iterative design process, resulting in a program that aims to facilitate student preparation, optimize the learning opportunities, and improve the experience for both students and placement providers. The CAL is available online and is open-access worldwide to support students during veterinary school.

Esophagojejunostomy Feeding Tube Placement in 5 Dogs with Pancreatitis and Anorexia

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Forrest Cummings

2014-01-01

Full Text Available Enteral feeding tube placement has been described in veterinary medicine for several years. Indications include oral, esophageal, gastrointestinal, pancreatic, hepatic, and neurologic diseases. In this paper, endoscopically assisted placement of an esophagojejunostomy (EJ feeding tube in dogs with pancreatitis and prolonged anorexia is described. To the author’s knowledge there are no published reports of this procedure. Esophagojejunostomy feeding tubes provide an alternative to other forms of postgastric feeding tube placement (e.g., nasojejunal, gastrojejunostomy, and jejunostomy tubes without the associated complications of patient discomfort, sneezing, epistaxis, and peritonitis. Tube occlusion, transient vomiting and loose stool were the most commonly reported complications.

State-PID Feedback for Pole Placement of LTI Systems

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sarawut Sujitjorn

2011-01-01

Full Text Available Pole placement problems are especially important for disturbance rejection and stabilization of dynamical systems and regarded as algebraic inverse eigenvalue problems. In this paper, we propose gain formulae of state feedback through PID-elements to achieve desired pole placement for a delay-free LTI system with single input. Real and complex stable poles can be assigned with the proposed compact gain formulae. Numerical examples show that our proposed gain formulae can be used effectively resulting in very satisfactory responses.

Fitting in with the Team: Facilitative Mentors in Physiotherapy Student Placements

Science.gov (United States)

Hamshire, Claire; Wibberley, Christopher

2017-01-01

Clinical placements are central to physiotherapy students' education, providing an environment in which students can apply learning they have been introduced to in academic settings. However placement learning has been identified as fraught with problems and resultant stress, and there is limited evidence available on what exactly makes a good…

25 CFR 26.12 - Who provides the Job Placement and Training?

Science.gov (United States)

2010-04-01

... 25 Indians 1 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Who provides the Job Placement and Training? 26.12... AND TRAINING PROGRAM General Applicability § 26.12 Who provides the Job Placement and Training? The... associations or small business establishments with apprenticeship or on-the-job training (OJT) programs leading...

Research review: evaluating and reformulating the developmental taxonomic theory of antisocial behaviour.

Science.gov (United States)

Fairchild, Graeme; van Goozen, Stephanie H M; Calder, Andrew J; Goodyer, Ian M

2013-09-01

The developmental taxonomic theory proposes that there are two subtypes of antisocial behaviour. The first is a neurodevelopmental disorder which emerges in early childhood and follows a life-course persistent course, whereas the second emerges in adolescence, remits in early adulthood and reflects peer processes such as mimicry of antisocial peers. The aim of this review was to evaluate the developmental taxonomic theory in the light of recent empirical research. We conducted a comprehensive literature review comparing these subtypes of antisocial behaviour based on searches on PubMed and other scientific databases covering the period from 1993 to 2013. We focused on research encompassing psychiatric epidemiology, personality assessment, neuropsychology, neuroendocrinology, genetics, and structural and functional neuroimaging. Sixty one empirical studies were identified that investigated one of these forms of antisocial behaviour separately or explicitly compared childhood-onset and adolescence-onset forms of antisocial behaviour. Empirical research provides support for the hypothesis that life-course persistent antisocial behaviour is a neurodevelopmental disorder which emerges in the transactions between individual vulnerabilities and environmental adversity. In contrast to the developmental taxonomic theory, however, empirical findings suggest that severe antisocial behaviour that emerges in adolescence frequently has a negative prognosis and is rarely limited to the adolescent period. In addition, both forms of antisocial behaviour are associated with emotion processing deficits, changes in brain structure and function, alterations in cortisol secretion, and atypical personality traits (such as increased callous-unemotional traits). We conclude that the developmental taxonomic theory is in need of revision, as differences between life-course persistent and adolescence-onset forms of antisocial behaviour appear to be quantitative, rather than qualitative, in

Structural damage detection-oriented multi-type sensor placement with multi-objective optimization

Science.gov (United States)

Lin, Jian-Fu; Xu, You-Lin; Law, Siu-Seong

2018-05-01

A structural damage detection-oriented multi-type sensor placement method with multi-objective optimization is developed in this study. The multi-type response covariance sensitivity-based damage detection method is first introduced. Two objective functions for optimal sensor placement are then introduced in terms of the response covariance sensitivity and the response independence. The multi-objective optimization problem is formed by using the two objective functions, and the non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm (NSGA)-II is adopted to find the solution for the optimal multi-type sensor placement to achieve the best structural damage detection. The proposed method is finally applied to a nine-bay three-dimensional frame structure. Numerical results show that the optimal multi-type sensor placement determined by the proposed method can avoid redundant sensors and provide satisfactory results for structural damage detection. The restriction on the number of each type of sensors in the optimization can reduce the searching space in the optimization to make the proposed method more effective. Moreover, how to select a most optimal sensor placement from the Pareto solutions via the utility function and the knee point method is demonstrated in the case study.

Barcoding snakeheads (Teleostei, Channidae) revisited: Discovering greater species diversity and resolving perpetuated taxonomic confusions

Science.gov (United States)

Conte-Grand, Cecilia; Britz, Ralf; Dahanukar, Neelesh; Raghavan, Rajeev; Pethiyagoda, Rohan; Tan, Heok Hui; Hadiaty, Renny K.; Yaakob, Norsham S.

2017-01-01

Snakehead fishes of the family Channidae are predatory freshwater teleosts from Africa and Asia comprising 38 valid species. Snakeheads are important food fishes (aquaculture, live food trade) and have been introduced widely with several species becoming highly invasive. A channid barcode library was recently assembled by Serrao and co-workers to better detect and identify potential and established invasive snakehead species outside their native range. Comparing our own recent phylogenetic results of this taxonomically confusing group with those previously reported revealed several inconsistencies that prompted us to expand and improve on previous studies. By generating 343 novel snakehead coxI sequences and combining them with an additional 434 coxI sequences from GenBank we highlight several problems with previous efforts towards the assembly of a snakehead reference barcode library. We found that 16.3% of the channid coxI sequences deposited in GenBank are based on misidentifications. With the inclusion of our own data we were, however, able to solve these cases of perpetuated taxonomic confusion. Different species delimitation approaches we employed (BIN, GMYC, and PTP) were congruent in suggesting a potentially much higher species diversity within snakeheads than currently recognized. In total, 90 BINs were recovered and within a total of 15 currently recognized species multiple BINs were identified. This higher species diversity is mostly due to either the incorporation of undescribed, narrow range, endemics from the Eastern Himalaya biodiversity hotspot or the incorporation of several widespread species characterized by deep genetic splits between geographically well-defined lineages. In the latter case, over-lumping in the past has deflated the actual species numbers. Further integrative approaches are clearly needed for providing a better taxonomic understanding of snakehead diversity, new species descriptions and taxonomic revisions of the group. PMID

High taxonomic diversity of cultivation-recalcitrant endophytic bacteria in grapevine field shoots, their in vitro introduction, and unsuspected persistence.

Science.gov (United States)

Thomas, Pious; Sekhar, Aparna C; Shaik, Sadiq Pasha

2017-11-01

Molecular and microscopic analyses reveal enormous non-cultivable endophytic bacteria in grapevine field shoots with functional significance. Diverse bacteria enter tissue cultures through surface-sterilized tissues and survive surreptitiously with varying taxonomic realignments. The study was envisaged to assess the extent of endophytic bacterial association with field shoot tissues of grapevine and the likelihood of introduction of such internally colonizing bacteria in vitro adopting molecular techniques targeting the non-cultivable bacterial community. PowerFood ® -kit derived DNA from surface-sterilized field shoot tips of grapevine Flame Seedless was employed in a preliminary bacterial class-specific PCR screening proving positive for major prokaryotic taxa including Archaea. Taxonomic and functional diversity were analyzed through whole metagenome profiling (WMG) which revealed predominantly phylum Actinobacteria, Proteobacteria, and minor shares of Firmicutes, Bacteroidetes, and Deinococcus-Thermus with varying functional roles ascribable to the whole bacterial community. Field shoot tip tissues and callus derived from stem segments were further employed in 16S rRNA V3-V4 amplicon taxonomic profiling. This revealed elevated taxonomic diversity in field shoots over WMG, predominantly Proteobacteria succeeded by Actinobacteria, Firmicutes, Bacteroidetes, and 15 other phyla including several candidate phyla (135 families, 179 genera). Callus stocks also displayed broad bacterial diversity (16 phyla; 96 families; 141 genera) bearing resemblance to field tissues with Proteobacterial dominance but a reduction in its share, enrichment of Actinobacteria and Firmicutes, disappearance of some field-associated phyla and detection of a few additional taxonomic groups over field community. Similar results were documented during 16S V3-V4 amplicon taxonomic profiling on Thompson Seedless field shoot tip and callus tissues. Video microscopy on tissue homogenates

A taxonomic, phylogenetic and biogeographic study of the genus Acanthophora (Rhodomelaceae, Rhodophyta)

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Jong, de Yde S.D.M.; Hitipeuw, Creusa; Prud’homme van Reine, Willem F.

1999-01-01

A cladistic analysis, based on a taxonomic revision is carried out for 7 Acanthophora species using 19 characters. Hypotheses on species affinities are based primarily on morphological characters. Because most species show only few distinctive characters, emphasis was placed on features of spine

Strengthening rural health placements for medical students ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Strengthening rural health placements for medical students: Lessons for South Africa ... rural health, primary healthcare and National Health Insurance strategies. ... preferential selection of students with a rural background, positioning rural ...

Heuristic Data Placement for Data-Intensive Applications in Heterogeneous Cloud

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Qing Zhao

2016-01-01

Full Text Available Data placement is an important issue which aims at reducing the cost of internode data transfers in cloud especially for data-intensive applications, in order to improve the performance of the entire cloud system. This paper proposes an improved data placement algorithm for heterogeneous cloud environments. In the initialization phase, a data clustering algorithm based on data dependency clustering and recursive partitioning has been presented, and both the factor of data size and fixed position are incorporated. And then a heuristic tree-to-tree data placement strategy is advanced in order to make frequent data movements occur on high-bandwidth channels. Simulation results show that, compared with two classical strategies, this strategy can effectively reduce the amount of data transmission and its time consumption during execution.

Single perineal incision placement of artificial urinary sphincter with cadaveric correlation of sub-dartos pump placement

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Cooper R. Benson

Full Text Available ABSTRACT Purpose We present a novel AUS implantation technique using a single perineal incision for single device placement or in combination with an inflatable penile prosthesis (IPP. Urinary and sexual dysfunction following the management of prostate cancer has a significant impact on the quality of life of our patients. While there are marginal changes in the prosthetic devices, we strive to reduce post-operative morbidity while maximizing efficacy. Materials and Methods We retrospectively reviewed the outcomes of 6 patients who underwent single perineal incision placement of a virgin AUS in 2014, 3 with simultaneous IPP placement. In all cases, the pressure regulating balloons (PRB were placed in a high sub-muscular ectopic position and the pumps were placed into a sub-dartos pouch through the perineal incision, which was also validated using a cadaveric model. Results The mean patient age was 61 (SD, 7.5 years with mean body mass index of 31 (SD, 5.9. The average pre-operative pad usage was 7.7 (SD 1.63 pads per day. The mean follow-up was 13.9 months (SD 9.45. Four out of the six patients reported utilizing ≤1 pad daily at follow-up. The one patient who was not initially dry required downsizing of his cuff to 3.5cm; the remaining patient was lost to follow-up. There were no identifiable perioperative or post-operative complications. Conclusions We present our initial report of using a single perineal incision for AUS implantation with a validated sub-dartos pump location, which is safe and effective for implantation of an AUS as a single or double implantation in well-selected patients.

Guidelines for quality assurance and quality control of fish taxonomic data collected as part of the National Water-Quality Assessment Program

Science.gov (United States)

Walsh, Stephen Joseph; Meador, Michael R.

1998-01-01

Fish community structure is characterized by the U.S. Geological Survey's National Water-Quality Assessment (NAWQA) Program as part of a perennial, multidisciplinary approach to evaluating the physical, chemical, and biological conditions of the Nation's water resources. The objective of quality assurance and quality control of fish taxonomic data that are collected as part of the NAWQA Program is to establish uniform guidelines and protocols for the identification, processing, and archiving of fish specimens to ensure that accurate and reliable data are collected. Study unit biologists, collaborating with regional biologists and fish taxonomic specialists, prepare a pre-sampling study plan that includes a preliminary faunal list and identification of an ichthyological curation center for receiving preserved fish specimens. Problematic taxonomic issues and protected taxa also are identified in the study plan, and collecting permits are obtained in advance of sampling activities. Taxonomic specialists are selected to identify fish specimens in the field and to assist in determining what fish specimens should be sacrificed, fixed, and preserved for laboratory identification, independent taxonomic verification, and long-term storage in reference or voucher collections. Quantitative and qualitative sampling of fishes follows standard methods previously established for the NAWQA Program. Common ichthyological techniques are used to process samples in the field and prepare fish specimens to be returned to the laboratory or sent to an institutional repository. Taxonomic identifications are reported by using a standardized list of scientific names that provides nomenclatural consistency and uniformity across study units.

Floral Volatiles in Parasitic Plants of the Orobanchaceae. Ecological and Taxonomic Implications

Science.gov (United States)

Tóth, Peter; Undas, Anna K.; Verstappen, Francel; Bouwmeester, Harro

2016-01-01

The holoparasitic broomrapes, Orobanche spp. and Phelipanche spp. (Orobanchaceae), are root parasites that completely depend on a host plant for survival and reproduction. There is considerable controversy on the taxonomy of this biologically and agronomically important family. Flowers of over 25 parasitic Orobanchaceae and a number of close, parasitic and non-parasitic, relatives emitted a complex blend of volatile organic compounds (VOCs), consisting of over 130 VOCs per species. Floral VOC blend-based phylogeny supported the known taxonomy in internal taxonomic grouping of genus and eliminated the uncertainty in some taxonomical groups. Moreover, phylogenetic analysis suggested separation of the broomrapes into two main groups parasitizing annual and perennial hosts, and for the annual hosts, into weedy and non-weedy broomrapes. We conclude that floral VOCs are a significant tool in species identification and possibly even in defining new species and can help to improve controversial taxonomy in the Orobanchaceae. PMID:27014329

33 CFR 74.01-15 - Charges for placement of temporary aids.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-07-01

... temporary aids. 74.01-15 Section 74.01-15 Navigation and Navigable Waters COAST GUARD, DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY AIDS TO NAVIGATION CHARGES FOR COAST GUARD AIDS TO NAVIGATION WORK Charges to the Public § 74.01-15 Charges for placement of temporary aids. Charges for placement of temporary aids will be...

34 CFR 300.327 - Educational placements.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-07-01

... 34 Education 2 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Educational placements. 300.327 Section 300.327 Education Regulations of the Offices of the Department of Education (Continued) OFFICE OF SPECIAL EDUCATION AND REHABILITATIVE SERVICES, DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION ASSISTANCE TO STATES FOR THE EDUCATION OF...

An efficient macro-cell placement algorithm

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Aarts, E.H.L.; Bont, de F.M.J.; Korst, J.H.M.; Rongen, J.M.J.

1991-01-01

A new approximation algorithm is presented for the efficient handling of large macro-cell placement problems. The algorithm combines simulated annealing with new features based on a hierarchical approach and a divide-and-conquer technique. Numerical results show that these features can lead to a

Resolving prokaryotic taxonomy without rRNA: longer oligonucleotide word lengths improve genome and metagenome taxonomic classification.

Science.gov (United States)

Alsop, Eric B; Raymond, Jason

2013-01-01

Oligonucleotide signatures, especially tetranucleotide signatures, have been used as method for homology binning by exploiting an organism's inherent biases towards the use of specific oligonucleotide words. Tetranucleotide signatures have been especially useful in environmental metagenomics samples as many of these samples contain organisms from poorly classified phyla which cannot be easily identified using traditional homology methods, including NCBI BLAST. This study examines oligonucleotide signatures across 1,424 completed genomes from across the tree of life, substantially expanding upon previous work. A comprehensive analysis of mononucleotide through nonanucleotide word lengths suggests that longer word lengths substantially improve the classification of DNA fragments across a range of sizes of relevance to high throughput sequencing. We find that, at present, heptanucleotide signatures represent an optimal balance between prediction accuracy and computational time for resolving taxonomy using both genomic and metagenomic fragments. We directly compare the ability of tetranucleotide and heptanucleotide world lengths (tetranucleotide signatures are the current standard for oligonucleotide word usage analyses) for taxonomic binning of metagenome reads. We present evidence that heptanucleotide word lengths consistently provide more taxonomic resolving power, particularly in distinguishing between closely related organisms that are often present in metagenomic samples. This implies that longer oligonucleotide word lengths should replace tetranucleotide signatures for most analyses. Finally, we show that the application of longer word lengths to metagenomic datasets leads to more accurate taxonomic binning of DNA scaffolds and have the potential to substantially improve taxonomic assignment and assembly of metagenomic data.

Resolving prokaryotic taxonomy without rRNA: longer oligonucleotide word lengths improve genome and metagenome taxonomic classification.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Eric B Alsop

Full Text Available Oligonucleotide signatures, especially tetranucleotide signatures, have been used as method for homology binning by exploiting an organism's inherent biases towards the use of specific oligonucleotide words. Tetranucleotide signatures have been especially useful in environmental metagenomics samples as many of these samples contain organisms from poorly classified phyla which cannot be easily identified using traditional homology methods, including NCBI BLAST. This study examines oligonucleotide signatures across 1,424 completed genomes from across the tree of life, substantially expanding upon previous work. A comprehensive analysis of mononucleotide through nonanucleotide word lengths suggests that longer word lengths substantially improve the classification of DNA fragments across a range of sizes of relevance to high throughput sequencing. We find that, at present, heptanucleotide signatures represent an optimal balance between prediction accuracy and computational time for resolving taxonomy using both genomic and metagenomic fragments. We directly compare the ability of tetranucleotide and heptanucleotide world lengths (tetranucleotide signatures are the current standard for oligonucleotide word usage analyses for taxonomic binning of metagenome reads. We present evidence that heptanucleotide word lengths consistently provide more taxonomic resolving power, particularly in distinguishing between closely related organisms that are often present in metagenomic samples. This implies that longer oligonucleotide word lengths should replace tetranucleotide signatures for most analyses. Finally, we show that the application of longer word lengths to metagenomic datasets leads to more accurate taxonomic binning of DNA scaffolds and have the potential to substantially improve taxonomic assignment and assembly of metagenomic data.

Taxonomic uncertainty and the loss of biodiversity on Christmas Island, Indian Ocean.

Science.gov (United States)

Eldridge, Mark D B; Meek, Paul D; Johnson, Rebecca N

2014-04-01

The taxonomic uniqueness of island populations is often uncertain which hinders effective prioritization for conservation. The Christmas Island shrew (Crocidura attenuata trichura) is the only member of the highly speciose eutherian family Soricidae recorded from Australia. It is currently classified as a subspecies of the Asian gray or long-tailed shrew (C. attenuata), although it was originally described as a subspecies of the southeast Asian white-toothed shrew (C. fuliginosa). The Christmas Island shrew is currently listed as endangered and has not been recorded in the wild since 1984-1985, when 2 specimens were collected after an 80-year absence. We aimed to obtain DNA sequence data for cytochrome b (cytb) from Christmas Island shrew museum specimens to determine their taxonomic affinities and to confirm the identity of the 1980s specimens. The Cytb sequences from 5, 1898 specimens and a 1985 specimen were identical. In addition, the Christmas Island shrew cytb sequence was divergent at the species level from all available Crocidura cytb sequences. Rather than a population of a widespread species, current evidence suggests the Christmas Island shrew is a critically endangered endemic species, C. trichura, and a high priority for conservation. As the decisions typically required to save declining species can be delayed or deferred if the taxonomic status of the population in question is uncertain, it is hoped that the history of the Christmas Island shrew will encourage the clarification of taxonomy to be seen as an important first step in initiating informed and effective conservation action. © 2013 Society for Conservation Biology.

Notes on the taxonomic position of several species of the genus Diphascon (Tardigrada, Hypsibiidae).

Science.gov (United States)

Tumanov, Denis V

2018-03-20

For this paper I analysed the descriptions of all species, attributed to the genus Diphascon Plate, 1889, to ascertain if they fit the diagnosis of this genus, provided by Bertolani et al. 2014. Thirty four species (the majority of the species diversity classified within the genus) fully match its emended diagnosis, while three: Diphascon opisthoglyptum Maucci, 1987, Diphascon procerum Pilato, Sabella Lisi, 2014 and Diphascon ziliense Lisi, Sabella Pilato, 2014, demonstrate a combination of characters, typical to the genus Pilatobius Bertolani et al., 2014. I propose the transfer these three species to the genus Pilatobius, thus their new taxonomic positions are as follows: Pilatobius opisthoglyptus (Maucci, 1987) comb. nov., Pilatobius procerus (Pilato, Sabella Lisi, 2014) comb. nov. and Pilatobius ziliense (Lisi, Sabella Pilato, 2014) comb. nov. Descriptions of three other Diphascon species (Diphascon mariae (Mihelčič, 1951), Diphascon rivulare (Mihelčič, 1967) and Diphascon punctatum (Iharos, 1962)) contain too little detail to conclude on their taxonomic position. The species Pilatobius halapiense (Iharos, 1964) was erroneously transferred from the genus Diphascon, and here I suggest it is transferred back to Diphascon. The new taxonomic position of this species is: Diphascon halapiense (Iharos, 1964) comb. nov. Emended list of species, attributed to the genus Diphascon is given.

Pregnancy after Essure placement: report of two cases.

Science.gov (United States)

Moses, A Whitney; Burgis, Judith T; Bacon, Janice L; Risinger, Jennifer

2008-03-01

To report two cases of pregnancy after placement of Essure micro-inserts. Case report. University-based Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology. Patient 1, a 38-year-old woman, presented with a positive pregnancy test 7 months after Essure hysteroscopic sterilization. Patient 2, a 35-year-old female, became pregnant approximately 1 year after undergoing the Essure procedure. Patient 1 received obstetric ultrasounds, a prophylactic cerclage, a cesarean section, and a tubal ligation. Patient 2 underwent a postprocedure hysterosalpingogram, an obstetric ultrasound, pregnancy termination, diagnostic pelvic ultrasound, and a hysterectomy. Documentation of normal progress of pregnancy after Essure placement. Patient 1 carried an uncomplicated pregnancy to term with an Essure micro-insert in place. Patient 2 became pregnant despite an hysterosalpingogram showing tubal occlusion and was ultimately found to have a micro-insert perforating the uterine wall. The presence of Essure micro-inserts in the fallopian tubes do not appear to interfere with implantation and pregnancy. Uterine perforation by an Essure micro-insert in proximity to the tubal ostia may mimic proper micro-insert placement and bilateral tubal occlusion on both hysterosalpingogram and saline infusion sonography.

Endotracheal tube placement by EMT-Basics in a rural EMS system.

Science.gov (United States)

Pratt, Jeffrey C; Hirshberg, Alan J

2005-01-01

To evaluate the effectiveness of an intubation-training module and special-waiver project in which Emergency Medical Technician (EMT)-Basics were trained to perform endotracheal intubations in a rural community. This was a prospective observational study over a four-year period (July 1998 through May 2002) of all intubation attempts by EMT-Basics in the field. The authors observed intubation data, training methods, and quality-assurance methods of a special-waiver project agreed to by the State Department of Public Health to train and allow EMT-Basics to intubate patients. Data were from documentation unique to the project. Project documentation evaluated the placement and complication(s) of endotracheal tube (ETT) placement after arrival to the emergency department. An intubation attempt was defined as direct laryngoscopy. A successful attempt was defined as an appropriately sized ETT placed and secured in the trachea below the vocal cords and above the carina. Confirmation of placement in the field included accepted clinical methods and the use of qualitative colorimetric end-tidal carbon dioxide detectors. The EMT-Basics were trained using a paramedic curriculum, including operating room intubations on live adult patients. All patients were in either cardiopulmonary or respiratory arrest. Thirty-two intubations were performed by EMT-Basics. Thirty attempts were successful and two were unsuccessful (94%; 95% confidence interval [CI] 80-98%). Unsuccessful ETT placements were managed with accepted basic life support airway standards. There were no unrecognized esophageal ETT placements (0%; 95% CI 0-11%). This study demonstrated that with an intensive training program using selected highly motivated providers and close monitoring, a program of EMT-Basic ETT placement in a rural setting can achieve acceptable success rates in patients in cardiac or respiratory arrest.

Outcomes of Temporary Partially Covered Stent Placement for Benign Tracheobronchial Stenosis

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Ma, Ji; Han, Xinwei, E-mail: hanxinwei2006@163.com; Wu, Gang; Jiao, Dechao; Ren, Kewei; Bi, Yonghua [The First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University, Department of Interventional Radiology (China)

2016-08-15

PurposeTo evaluate the intermediate outcomes of temporary partially covered tracheobronchial stenting in patients with benign tracheobronchial stenosis.Materials and MethodsWe conducted a retrospective study of patients with benign tracheobronchial stenosis who underwent stent placement. All stents were removed approximately 3 months after placement. Respiratory function was assessed using the visual analogue scale (VAS) and Karnofsky performance status scale (KPS) before and after stent placement. The lumen diameters of the stenotic lesions were measured using chest computed tomography (CT) and compared between before stent placement and after stent removal.ResultsA total of 51 stents were successfully placed in consecutive 51 patients with benign tracheobronchial stenosis. No serious complications occurred. The mean VAS and KPS scores significantly improved after stent removal (6.291 ± 0.495 and 25.352 ± 10.533, respectively) compared with those before stent placement (1.493 ± 0.504 and 60.140 ± 16.344, respectively; P < 0.05). The mean lumen transverse diameters of the stenotic site in trachea and main bronchus after stent removal (17.235 ± 3.457 and 8.993 ± 0.961 mm; 1 month post-removal; 16.353 ± 4.132 and 8.357 ± 1.082 mm; 6 months post-removal) were significantly larger than those before stent placement (7.876 ± 2.351 and 2.143 ± 0.770 mm, respectively; P < 0.05). However, the mean lumen diameters between 1 and 6 months after stent removal had no significant difference (P > 0.05).ConclusionTemporary partially covered stenting may be a safe and effective treatment for benign tracheobronchial stenosis.

Flexible taxonomic assignment of ambiguous sequencing reads

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jansson Jesper

2011-01-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background To characterize the diversity of bacterial populations in metagenomic studies, sequencing reads need to be accurately assigned to taxonomic units in a given reference taxonomy. Reads that cannot be reliably assigned to a unique leaf in the taxonomy (ambiguous reads are typically assigned to the lowest common ancestor of the set of species that match it. This introduces a potentially severe error in the estimation of bacteria present in the sample due to false positives, since all species in the subtree rooted at the ancestor are implicitly assigned to the read even though many of them may not match it. Results We present a method that maps each read to a node in the taxonomy that minimizes a penalty score while balancing the relevance of precision and recall in the assignment through a parameter q. This mapping can be obtained in time linear in the number of matching sequences, because LCA queries to the reference taxonomy take constant time. When applied to six different metagenomic datasets, our algorithm produces different taxonomic distributions depending on whether coverage or precision is maximized. Including information on the quality of the reads reduces the number of unassigned reads but increases the number of ambiguous reads, stressing the relevance of our method. Finally, two measures of performance are described and results with a set of artificially generated datasets are discussed. Conclusions The assignment strategy of sequencing reads introduced in this paper is a versatile and a quick method to study bacterial communities. The bacterial composition of the analyzed samples can vary significantly depending on how ambiguous reads are assigned depending on the value of the q parameter. Validation of our results in an artificial dataset confirm that a combination of values of q produces the most accurate results.

Functional effects of renal artery stent placement on treated and contralateral kidneys.

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Leertouwer, T.C.; Derkx, F.H.M.; Pattynama, P.M.; Deinum, J.; Dijk, L.C. van; Schalekamp, M.A.D.H.

2002-01-01

BACKGROUND: This study examined the effects of stent placement for renal artery stenosis on the function of treated and contralateral kidneys. METHODS: Eighteen patients who underwent stent placement for unilateral renal artery stenosis presenting with hypertension and/or renal failure were studied

Una taxonomía de modelos de desarrollo sustentable

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Darcy Tetreault

2004-01-01

Full Text Available Este ensayo pretende ayudar a desenmarañar una parte del discurso sobre desarrollo sustentable mediante la construcción de una taxonomía de modelos de desarrollo sustentable. La misma taxonomía se basa en una revisión literaria extensiva que en cierta medida privilegia la experiencia mexicana. De este modo, el ensayo presenta y compara tanto modelos normativos como positivos. Los modelos incluidos son el modelo dominante, el cual corresponde con la estrategia esbozada en el Informe Bruntland y Agenda 21; la ecología política, un modelo desarrollado por el economista francés Alain Lipietz; el modelo comunitario de desarrollo sustentable, cuyas raíces se encuentran en una escuela de pensamiento de la década de los setenta conocida como el “otro desarrollo”; el comercio justo, una experiencia cuyas raíces se encuentran en las comunidades indígenas de Oaxaca; la producción forestal industrial comunitaria, que ha sido puesta en práctica por varias comunidades forestales en el sur y el centro del país; el activismo ambiental, sobre todo respecto a los con- fl ictos locales que giran en torno al control de los recursos naturales; y la conservación basada en la comunidad, cuya manifestación principal es la reserva de la biosfera

Phylogenetic analysis and taxonomic revision of Physodactylinae (Coleoptera, Elateridae

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Simone Policena Rosa

2014-01-01

Full Text Available A phylogeny based on male morphological characters and taxonomic revision of the Physodactylinae genera are presented. The phylogenetic analysis based on 66 male characters resulted in the polyphyly of Physodactylinae which comprises four independent lineages. Oligostethius and Idiotropia from Africa were found to be sister groups. Teslasena from Brazil was corroborated as belonging to Cardiophorinae clade. The South American genera Physodactylus and Dactylophysus were found to be sister groups and phylogenetically related to Heterocrepidius species. The Oriental Toxognathus resulted as sister group of that clade plus (Dicrepidius ramicornis (Lissomus sp, Physorhynus erythrocephalus. Taxonomic revisions include diagnoses and redescriptions of genera and distributional records and illustrations of species. Key to species of Teslasena, Toxognathus, Dactylophysus and Physodactylus are also provided. Teslasena lucasi is synonymized with T. femoralis. A new species of Dactylophysus is described, D. hirtus sp. nov., and lectotypes are designated to non-conspecific D. mendax sensu Fleutiaux and Heterocrepidius mendax Candèze. Physodactylus niger is removed from synonymy under P. oberthuri; P. carreti is synonymized with P. niger; P. obesus and P. testaceus are synonymized with P. sulcatus. Nine new species are described in Physodactylus: P. asper sp. nov., P. brunneus sp. nov., P. chassaini sp. nov., P. flavifrons sp. nov., P. girardi sp. nov., P. gounellei sp. nov., P. latithorax sp. nov., P. patens sp. nov. and P. tuberculatus sp. nov.

A taxonomic survey of Saudi Arabian Red Sea octocorals (Cnidaria: Alcyonacea)

KAUST Repository

Haverkort-Yeh, Roxanne D.

2013-05-04

A preliminary survey of Saudi Arabian Alcyonacea is presented, which combines classical taxonomy, multilocus molecular barcodes, and in situ photographs. We explored 14 locations along the west coast of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to assess the regional taxonomic diversity of non-gorgonian alcyonaceans. We collected samples from a total of 74 colonies, distributed among four families: 18 colonies of Alcyoniidae, 14 of Nephtheidae, 9 of Tubiporidae, and 33 of Xeniidae. We sequenced the octocorals using multiple nuclear [ribosomal Internal Transcribed Spacers (ITS) and ATP Synthetase Subunit α (ATPSα)] and mitochondrial [MutS homolog (mtMutS) and Cytochrome C Oxidase subunit one (COI)] loci, providing molecular barcodes which will: (1) allow direct comparison of biodiversity from this location to others for which molecular data are available, and (2) facilitate future identifications of these taxa. Finally, this preliminary phylogeny of sampled taxa provides insights on the resolution of mitochondrial versus nuclear loci, and highlights octocoral taxa that require further taxonomic attention. © 2013 Senckenberg Gesellschaft für Naturforschung and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.

Catheter placement via the occipital artery to achieve superselective intra-arterial chemotherapy for oral cancer

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Iwai, Toshinori; Mitsudo, Kenji; Fukui, Takafumi

2008-01-01

Superselective intra-arterial chemotherapy via the superficial temporal artery (STA) has become useful for oral cancer. However, this method can not be performed if catheter placement via the STA is impossible. Therefore, we report a surgical method for catheter placement via the occipital artery (OA) to achieve retrograde superselective intra-arterial chemotherapy. Preoperatively, three-dimensional computed tomography angiography was performed to identify the course of the external carotid artery and the relationship between OA and the target artery. Ten patients with oral cancer underwent catheter placement via the OA with Doppler ultrasound and Harmonic Scalpel under local anesthesia. Catheter placement via the OA was superselectively successful in all the patients. The mean exposure time of OA and mean operating time were 17.5 min and 70.5 min, respectively. Catheter placement via the OA is useful when catheter placement via the STA is impossible. Three-dimensional vascular mapping and the use of Doppler ultrasound and Harmonic Scalpel can shorten the surgical time. (author)

Effects of placement point of background music on shopping website.

Science.gov (United States)

Lai, Chien-Jung; Chiang, Chia-Chi

2012-01-01

Consumer on-line behaviors are more important than ever due to highly growth of on-line shopping. The purposes of this study were to design placement methods of background music for shopping website and examine the effect on browsers' emotional and cognitive response. Three placement points of background music during the browsing, i.e. 2 min., 4 min., and 6 min. from the start of browsing were considered for entry points. Both browsing without music (no music) and browsing with constant music volume (full music) were treated as control groups. Participants' emotional state, approach-avoidance behavior intention, and action to adjust music volume were collected. Results showed that participants had a higher level of pleasure, arousal and approach behavior intention for the three placement points than for no music and full music. Most of the participants for full music (5/6) adjusted the background music. Only 16.7% (3/18) participants for other levels turn off the background music. The results indicate that playing background music after the start of browsing is benefit for on-line shopping atmosphere. It is inappropriate to place background music at the start of browsing shopping website. The marketer must manipulated placement methods of background music for a web store carefully.

Angioplasty and stent placement - carotid artery - discharge

Science.gov (United States)

... medlineplus.gov/ency/patientinstructions/000235.htm Angioplasty and stent placement - carotid artery - discharge To use the sharing ... the hospital. You may have also had a stent (a tiny wire mesh tube) placed in the ...

Angioplasty and stent placement - peripheral arteries - discharge

Science.gov (United States)

... medlineplus.gov/ency/patientinstructions/000234.htm Angioplasty and stent placement - peripheral arteries - discharge To use the sharing ... peripheral artery). You may have also had a stent placed. To perform the procedure: Your doctor inserted ...

Neuro-critical care: a valuable placement during foundation and early neurosurgical training.

Science.gov (United States)

Dyson, Edward W; Kolias, Angelos G; Burnstein, Rowan M; Hutchinson, Peter J A; Garnett, Matthew R; Menon, David K; Trivedi, Rikin A

2014-10-01

Neurosciences critical care units (NCCUs) present a unique opportunity to junior trainees in neurosurgery as well as foundation trainees looking to gain experience in the management of critically ill patients with neurological conditions. Placements in NCCUs are undertaken in the early years of neurosurgical training or during neurosciences themed foundation programmes. We sought to quantify the educational benefits of such placements from the trainee perspective. Thirty-two trainees who had undertaken placements at Foundation Year 2 (FY2) to Specialty Trainee Year 3 (ST3) level between August 2009 and April 2013 were invited to take part in an online questionnaire survey. Competence in individual skills was self-rated on a ranked scale from one (never observed) to five (performed unsupervised) both before and after the placement. Trainees were also asked a series of questions pertaining to their ability to manage common neurosurgical conditions, as well as the perceived educational rigour of their placement. Twenty-three responses were received. Eighteen responses were from FY2s and seven were from ST1-3 level trainees. Following their placements, 100% of respondents felt better equipped to deal with neurosurgical and neurological emergencies and cranial trauma. Most felt better equipped to manage hydrocephalus (95.7%), polytrauma patients (95.7%), spontaneous intracranial haemorrhage (91.3%) and spinal trauma (82.6%). Significant increases were seen in experience in all practical skills assessed. These included central venous catheterisation (p training programme as well as in the Foundation Programme. This supports the incorporation of a four- to six-month NCCU rotation in early years training as educationally valuable.

Perceived Impacts of a Public Health Training Center Field Placement Program Among Trainees

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Patrik eJohansson

2014-07-01

Full Text Available There is heightened interest in identifying the impact of the federally-funded Public Health Training Center (PHTC program. Although evaluation studies have been conducted of public health training in general, evaluations of PHTC programs are rare. Field placement components are Congressionally-mandated requirements of PHTCs. Field placements are typically intensive, supervised externships for students to gain public health experience with local health departments or non-profit organizations. We have found no published evaluations of PHTC field placement components. This may be because of their small size and unique nature. We designed and evaluated a 200-hour field placement program at an established Public Health Training Center. The evaluation included pre/post surveys measuring public health core competencies, and post-experience interviews. We found significant increases in three competency domains among trainees: policy development and program planning, communication skills, and community dimensions of practice. These outcomes contribute to an evidence base on the efficacy of PHTC field placement programs, and underscore their role in public health training.

Common ECG Lead Placement Errors. Part I: Limb Lead Reversals

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Allison V. Rosen

2015-10-01

Full Text Available Background: Electrocardiography (ECG is a very useful diagnostic tool. However, errors in placement of ECG leads can create artifacts, mimic pathologies, and hinder proper ECG interpretation. It is important for members of the health care team to be able to recognize the common patterns resulting from lead placement errors. Methods: 12-lead ECGs were recorded in a single male healthy subject in his mid 20s. Six different limb lead reversals were compared to ECG recordings from correct lead placement. Results: Classic ECG patterns were observed when leads were reversed. Methods of discriminating these ECG patterns from true pathologic findings were described. Conclusion: Correct recording and interpretation of ECGs is key to providing optimal patient care. It is therefore crucial to be able to recognize common ECG patterns that are indicative of lead reversals.

Validation of Foot Placement Locations from Ankle Data of a Kinect v2 Sensor.

Science.gov (United States)

Geerse, Daphne; Coolen, Bert; Kolijn, Detmar; Roerdink, Melvyn

2017-10-10

The Kinect v2 sensor may be a cheap and easy to use sensor to quantify gait in clinical settings, especially when applied in set-ups integrating multiple Kinect sensors to increase the measurement volume. Reliable estimates of foot placement locations are required to quantify spatial gait parameters. This study aimed to systematically evaluate the effects of distance from the sensor, side and step length on estimates of foot placement locations based on Kinect's ankle body points. Subjects (n = 12) performed stepping trials at imposed foot placement locations distanced 2 m or 3 m from the Kinect sensor (distance), for left and right foot placement locations (side), and for five imposed step lengths. Body points' time series of the lower extremities were recorded with a Kinect v2 sensor, placed frontoparallelly on the left side, and a gold-standard motion-registration system. Foot placement locations, step lengths, and stepping accuracies were compared between systems using repeated-measures ANOVAs, agreement statistics and two one-sided t -tests to test equivalence. For the right side at the 2 m distance from the sensor we found significant between-systems differences in foot placement locations and step lengths, and evidence for nonequivalence. This distance by side effect was likely caused by differences in body orientation relative to the Kinect sensor. It can be reduced by using Kinect's higher-dimensional depth data to estimate foot placement locations directly from the foot's point cloud and/or by using smaller inter-sensor distances in the case of a multi-Kinect v2 set-up to estimate foot placement locations at greater distances from the sensor.

A Meta-Analysis of Bilateral Essure® Procedural Placement Success Rates on First Attempt.

Science.gov (United States)

Frietze, Gabriel; Leyser-Whalen, Ophra; Rahman, Mahbubur; Rouhani, Mahta; Berenson, Abbey B

2015-12-01

Background: The Essure ® (Bayer HealthCare Pharmaceuticals, Leverkusen, Germany) female sterilization procedure entails using a hysteroscope to guide a microinsert into the Fallopian tube openings. Failed placement can lead to patient dissatisfaction, repeat procedures, unintended or ectopic pregnancy, perforation of internal organs, or need for subsequent medical interventions. Additional interventions increase women's health risks, and costs for patients and the health care industry. Demonstrated successful placement rates are 63%-100%. To date, there have not been any systematic analyses of variables associated with placement rates. Objectives: The aims of this review were: (1) to estimate the average rate of successful bilateral Essure microinsert placement on first attempt; and (2) to identify variables associated with successful placement. Materials and Methods: A meta-analysis was conducted on 64 published studies and 19 variables. Following Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines, all published studies between November 2001 and February 2015 were reviewed. The studies were taken from from PubMed and Google Scholar, and by using the the "snowball" method that reported variables associated with successful bilateral Essure placement rates. Results: The weighted average rate of successful bilateral microinsert placement on first attempt was 92% (0.92 [95% confidence interval: 0.904-0.931]). Variables associated with successful placements were: (1) newer device models; (2) higher body mass index; and (3) a higher percent of patients who received local anesthesia. Conclusions: The data gathered for this review indicate that the highest bilateral success rates may be obtained by utilizing the newest Essure device model with local anesthesia in heavier patients. More standardized data reporting in published Essure studies is recommended. (J GYNECOL SURG 31:308).

Nursing students' perceptions of their clinical learning environment in placements outside traditional hospital settings.

Science.gov (United States)

Bjørk, Ida T; Berntsen, Karin; Brynildsen, Grethe; Hestetun, Margrete

2014-10-01

To explore students' opinions of the learning environment during clinical placement in settings outside traditional hospital settings. Clinical placement experiences may influence positively on nursing students attitudes towards the clinical setting in question. Most studies exploring the quality of clinical placements have targeted students' experience in hospital settings. The number of studies exploring students' experiences of the learning environment in healthcare settings outside of the hospital venue does not match the growing importance of such settings in the delivery of health care, nor the growing number of nurses needed in these venues. A survey design was used. The Clinical Learning Environment Inventory was administered to two cohorts of undergraduate nursing students (n = 184) after clinical placement in mental health care, home care and nursing home care. Nursing students' overall contentment with the learning environment was quite similar across all three placement areas. Students in mental health care had significantly higher scores on the subscale individualisation, and older students had significantly higher scores on the total scale. Compared with other studies where the Clinical Learning Environment Inventory has been used, the students' total scores in this study are similar or higher than scores in studies including students from hospital settings. Results from this study negate the negative views on clinical placements outside the hospital setting, especially those related to placements in nursing homes and mental healthcare settings. Students' experience of the learning environment during placements in mental health care, home care and nursing homes indicates the relevance of clinical education in settings outside the hospital setting. © 2014 The Authors. Journal of Clinical Nursing published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Foot placement strategy in pushing and pulling.

Science.gov (United States)

Lee, Tzu-Hsien

2018-01-01

Pushing and pulling tasks are very common in daily and industrial workplaces. They are one major source of musculoskeletal complaints. This study aimed to examine the foot placement strategy while pushing and pulling. Thirteen young males and ten young females were recruited as participants. A two (pushing and pulling) by four (48 cm, 84 cm, 120 cm, and 156 cm) factorial design was used. Exertion direction and exertion height significantly affected foot placement strategy. Pushing task needed more anteroposterior space than pulling task. The percentages of female/male for trailing foot position ranged from 77% to 90% (pushing) and from 80% to 93% (pulling) across the exertion heights. Practitioners should provide an anteroposterior space approximately to 70% body stature for workers to exert their maximum pulling and pushing strengths.

25 CFR 26.15 - What makes an applicant eligible for Job Placement and Training services?

Science.gov (United States)

2010-04-01

... SERVICES JOB PLACEMENT AND TRAINING PROGRAM General Applicability § 26.15 What makes an applicant eligible for Job Placement and Training services? You are eligible for services if: (a) You meet the definition... show a need for job training or placement services in order to become gainfully and meaningfully...

Previous PICC Placement May Be Associated With Catheter-Related Infections in Hemodialysis Patients

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Butler, Philip J.; Sood, Shreya; Mojibian, Hamid; Tal, Michael G.

2011-01-01

Background: Catheter-related infections (CRIs) are a significant source of morbidity and mortality in hemodialysis patients. The identification of novel, modifiable risk factors for CRIs may lead to improved outcomes in this population. Peripherally inserted central catheters (PICCs) have been hypothesized to compromise vascular access due to vascular damage and venous thrombosis, whereas venous thrombosis has been linked to the development of CRIs. Here we examine the association between PICC placement and CRIs. Methods: A retrospective review was performed of all chronic hemodialysis catheter placements and exchanges performed at a large university hospital from September 2003 to September 2008. History of PICC line use was determined by examining hospital radiologic records from December 1993 to September 2008. Catheter-related complications were assessed and correlated with PICC line history. Results: One hundred eighty-five patients with 713 chronic tunneled hemodialysis catheter placements were identified. Thirty-eight of those patients (20.5%) had a history of PICC placement; these patients were more likely to have CRIs (odds ratio = 2.46, 95% confidence interval = 1.71–3.53, p < .001) compared with patients without a history of PICC placement. There was no difference between the two groups in age or number of catheters placed. Conclusion: Previous PICC placement may be associated with catheter-related infections in hemodialysis patients.

Stone extraction balloon-guided repeat self-expanding metal stent placement

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

Hyung; Hun; Kim; Jeong; Seop; Moon; Soo; Hyung; Ryu; Jung; Hwan; Lee; You; Sun; Kim

2010-01-01

Self-expanding metal stent (SEMS) placement offers safe and effective palliation in patients with upper gastrointestinal obstruction due to a malignancy. Well described complications of SEMS placement include tumor growth, obstruction, and stent migration. SEMS occlusions are treated by SEMS redeployment, argon plasma coagulation application, balloon dilation, and surgical bypass. At our center, we usually place the second SEMS into the first SEMS if there is complete occlusion by the tumor. We discovered a...

Parallel algorithms for placement and routing in VLSI design. Ph.D. Thesis

Science.gov (United States)

Brouwer, Randall Jay

1991-01-01

The computational requirements for high quality synthesis, analysis, and verification of very large scale integration (VLSI) designs have rapidly increased with the fast growing complexity of these designs. Research in the past has focused on the development of heuristic algorithms, special purpose hardware accelerators, or parallel algorithms for the numerous design tasks to decrease the time required for solution. Two new parallel algorithms are proposed for two VLSI synthesis tasks, standard cell placement and global routing. The first algorithm, a parallel algorithm for global routing, uses hierarchical techniques to decompose the routing problem into independent routing subproblems that are solved in parallel. Results are then presented which compare the routing quality to the results of other published global routers and which evaluate the speedups attained. The second algorithm, a parallel algorithm for cell placement and global routing, hierarchically integrates a quadrisection placement algorithm, a bisection placement algorithm, and the previous global routing algorithm. Unique partitioning techniques are used to decompose the various stages of the algorithm into independent tasks which can be evaluated in parallel. Finally, results are presented which evaluate the various algorithm alternatives and compare the algorithm performance to other placement programs. Measurements are presented on the parallel speedups available.

A comparative analysis of radiological and surgical placement of central venous catheters

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

McBride, Kieran D.; Fisher, Ross; Warnock, Neil; Winfield, David A.; Reed, Malcolm W.; Gaines, Peter A.

1997-01-01

Purpose. To compare the differences in practice and outcome of all radiologically and surgically placed central venous catheters retrospectively over a 2-year period simultaneously, at a single institution. Methods.A total of 253 Hickman catheters were inserted in 209 patients; 120 were placed radiologically in 102 patients and 133 were placed surgically in 107 patients. The indication was chemotherapy in 76% of radiological and in 47% of surgical cases; the remainder were for total parenteral nutrition and venous access. Results. There were 6 (4.5%) primary surgical failures and a further 17 (13%) surgical cases requiring multiple placement attempts. Pneumothorax occurred once (0.8%) surgically and four times (3.3%) radiologically. There were no radiological primary misplacements but there were five (3.7%) surgical ones. Catheter or central vein thrombosis occurred in four (3.3%) radiological and five (3.7%) surgical cases. The rate of infection per 1000 catheter-days was 1.9 in radiologically placed catheters and 4.0 in surgically placed ones (p<0.001). Average catheter life-span was similar for the two placement methods (100±23 days). Conclusion. Radiological placement is consistently more reliable than surgical placement. There are fewer placement complications and fewer catheter infections overall

Optimized Virtual Machine Placement with Traffic-Aware Balancing in Data Center Networks

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Tao Chen

2016-01-01

Full Text Available Virtualization has been an efficient method to fully utilize computing resources such as servers. The way of placing virtual machines (VMs among a large pool of servers greatly affects the performance of data center networks (DCNs. As network resources have become a main bottleneck of the performance of DCNs, we concentrate on VM placement with Traffic-Aware Balancing to evenly utilize the links in DCNs. In this paper, we first proposed a Virtual Machine Placement Problem with Traffic-Aware Balancing (VMPPTB and then proved it to be NP-hard and designed a Longest Processing Time Based Placement algorithm (LPTBP algorithm to solve it. To take advantage of the communication locality, we proposed Locality-Aware Virtual Machine Placement Problem with Traffic-Aware Balancing (LVMPPTB, which is a multiobjective optimization problem of simultaneously minimizing the maximum number of VM partitions of requests and minimizing the maximum bandwidth occupancy on uplinks of Top of Rack (ToR switches. We also proved it to be NP-hard and designed a heuristic algorithm (Least-Load First Based Placement algorithm, LLBP algorithm to solve it. Through extensive simulations, the proposed heuristic algorithm is proven to significantly balance the bandwidth occupancy on uplinks of ToR switches, while keeping the number of VM partitions of each request small enough.

BIBLIOGRAPHIC GUIDE FOR ADVANCED PLACEMENT, LATIN.

Science.gov (United States)

BARRON, ROBERT; ROSELLE, LEONE

LITERARY AND CRITICAL WORKS, REFERENCE BOOKS, PERIODICALS, RECORDS, FILMS, AND FILMSTRIPS DEALING WITH ROMAN LITERATURE, HISTORY, CIVILIZATION, MYTHOLOGY, AND LANGUAGE ARE INCLUDED IN THIS BIBLIOGRAPHY OF RECOMMENDED READING IN ENGLISH FOR ADVANCED PLACEMENT PROGRAMS IN LATIN. THE LIST IS DIVIDED INTO TWO $500 GROUPS, SO THAT FOR CONVENIENCE IN…

Floral Volatiles in Parasitic Plants of the Orobanchaceae. Ecological and Taxonomic Implications

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Peter eTóth

2016-03-01

Full Text Available The holoparasitic broomrapes, Orobanche spp. and Phelipanche spp. (Orobanchaceae, are root parasites that completely depend on a host plant for survival and reproduction. There is considerable controversy on the taxonomy of this biologically and agronomically important family. Flowers of over 25 parasitic Orobanchaceae and a number of close, parasitic and non-parasitic, relatives emitted a complex blend of volatile organic compounds (VOCs, consisting of over 130 VOCs per species. Floral VOC blend-based phylogeny supported the known taxonomy in internal taxonomic grouping of genus and eliminated the uncertainty in some taxonomical groups. Moreover, phylogenetic analysis suggested separation of the broomrapes into two main groups parasitizing annual and perennial hosts, and for the annual hosts, into weedy and non-weedy broomrapes. We conclude that floral VOCs are a significant tool in species identification and possibly even in defining new species and can help to improve controversial taxonomy in the Orobanchaceae.

Practitioner perspectives on extended clinical placement programs in optometry.

Science.gov (United States)

Bentley, Sharon A; Cartledge, Amy; Guest, Daryl J; Cappuccio, Skye; Woods, Craig A

2016-05-01

Some universities are looking to provide a more diverse range of clinical learning experiences through extended clinical placement programs. This approach will potentially have a significant impact on practitioners. The aim of this study was to conduct a national survey of optometrists to ascertain their perspectives on participating in extended clinical placement programs. Members of Optometry Australia were invited to participate in a survey conducted during June and July 2014. A total of 268 practitioners participated (six per cent of registered Australian optometrists): 159 were predominantly employees or locums and 109 were owners or managers who identified as the key representative of a practice or organisation for the purpose of this survey. Almost two-thirds (65 per cent) of participants, who were employees or locums were supportive of extended clinical placement programs. Among this group, females were more likely to be supportive than males (p = 0.033). In comparison, just over one-third (34 per cent) of participants who were key decision-makers were supportive, with 30 per cent possibly supportive and 36 per cent not supportive. Among key decision-makers, males were more likely to be supportive (p = 0.009). The top three perceived advantages of supervising a student were: opportunity to mentor early career development, opportunity to give back to the profession and future recruitment. The top three perceived disadvantages were: burden on time, decrease in number of patients examined and burden on support staff. Suggested incentives for supervising students were credit for continuing professional development and financial remuneration. There appears to be moderate support for extended clinical placement programs; however, there are incentives that might engage a larger proportion of the profession in the future. These findings can inform the development of effective and sustainable clinical training programs for optometry students. Additionally

Using a Regression Discontinuity Design to Estimate the Impact of Placement Decisions in Developmental Math

Science.gov (United States)

Melguizo, Tatiana; Bos, Johannes M.; Ngo, Federick; Mills, Nicholas; Prather, George

2016-01-01

This study evaluates the effectiveness of math placement policies for entering community college students on these students' academic success in math. We estimate the impact of placement decisions by using a discrete-time survival model within a regression discontinuity framework. The primary conclusion that emerges is that initial placement in a…

Taxonomic history and invasion biology of two Phyllonorycter leaf miners (Lepidoptera: Gracillariidae) with links to taxonomic and molecular datasets.

Science.gov (United States)

De Prins, Jurate; De Prins, Willy; De Coninck, Eliane; Kawahara, Akito Y; Milton, Megan A; Hebert, Paul D N

2013-01-01

This paper deals with two European species, Phyllonorycter mespilella (Hübner, 1805) and P. trifasciella (Haworth, 1828), that have colonized the subtropical Canary Islands. The Rosaceae leaf miner, P. mespilella, is recorded for the first time from Lanzarote and La Palma, while the Caprifoliaceae leaf miner, P. trifasciella, is recorded from Tenerife. We present the diagnoses of these species based on morphology, a preliminary DNA barcode (COI) library of congeneric and con-familial species, and discuss the taxonomic position of the colonizers within the blancardella and trifasciella species groups. The recent intensification of anthropogenic disturbance likely accounts for their range expansion, an event that may impact the relict flora present on the Canary Islands.