The Biological Standard of Living in the two Germanies.

Physical stature is used as a proxy for the biological standard of living in the two Germanies before and after unification in an analysis of a cross-sectional sample (1998) of adult heights, as well as among military recruits of the 1990s. West Germans tended to be taller than East Germans throughout the period under consideration. Contrary to official proclamations of a classless society, there were substantial social differences in physical stature in East-Germany. Social differences in height were greater in the East among females, and less among males than in the West. The difficulties experienced by the East-German population after 1961 is evident in the increase in social inequality of physical stature thereafter, as well as in the increasing gap relative to the height of the West-German population. After unification, however, there is a tendency for East-German males, but not of females, to catch up with their West-German counterparts

ScotGrid: Providing an Effective Distributed Tier-2 in the LHC Era

ScotGrid is a distributed Tier-2 centre in the UK with sites in Durham, Edinburgh and Glasgow. ScotGrid has undergone a huge expansion in hardware in anticipation of the LHC and now provides more than 4MSI2K and 500TB to the LHC VOs. Scaling up to this level of provision has brought many challenges to the Tier-2 and we show in this paper how we have adopted new methods of organising the centres, from fabric management and monitoring to remote management of sites to management and operational procedures, to meet these challenges. We describe how we have coped with different operational models at the sites, where Glagsow and Durham sites are managed "in house" but resources at Edinburgh are managed as a central university resource. This required the adoption of a different fabric management model at Edinburgh and a special engagement with the cluster managers. Challenges arose from the different job models of local and grid submission that required special attention to resolve. We show how ScotGrid has successfully provided an infrastructure for ATLAS and LHCb Monte Carlo production. Special attention has been paid to ensuring that user analysis functions efficiently, which has required optimisation of local storage and networking to cope with the demands of user analysis. Finally, although these Tier-2 resources are pledged to the whole VO, we have established close links with our local physics user communities as being the best way to ensure that the Tier-2 functions effectively as a part of the LHC grid computing framework..Comment: Preprint for 17th International Conference on Computing in High Energy and Nuclear Physics, 7 pages, 1 figur

The Web Magazine 1979, March/April

The Web Magazine focuses on alumni news and campus events from Gardner-Webb College; now Gardner-Webb University. This issue features an article that announces that the Convocation Center Campaign has reached a benchmark in fundraising. The SGA was apart of the fundraising efforts as they began a campaign to donate room key deposits. The Special Olympics for 1979 in Cleveland County was held in Spangler Stadium.It also offers a overview of the state of the Spring Sports teams during the time, particularly focusing on baseball.https://digitalcommons.gardner-webb.edu/the-web/1090/thumbnail.jp

The Web Magazine 1977, Winter

The Web Magazine focuses on alumni news and campus events from Gardner-Webb College; now Gardner-Webb University. This issue discusses several gifts to the college, some of which were to go towards scholarships. It recalls Homecoming and the Choral Clinic, discusses the efforts that GW is making towards reaching deaf and blind students/alumni, highlights several ministries on campus, and writes on Dr. Dan Proctor\u27s time in a Jewish Theological Seminary.https://digitalcommons.gardner-webb.edu/the-web/1087/thumbnail.jp

The Web Magazine 1979, May/June

The Web Magazine focuses on alumni news and campus events from Gardner-Webb College; now Gardner-Webb University. This issue spotlights four alumni that received awards for service to their respective communities. It also briefly features that Rev. Buddy Freeman resigned from the college entirely. A gift of 65,000 dollars, given anonymously, allowed Gardner Webb to establish a permanent program in asserting practical leadership. Broyhill Industries donated 100,000 dollars for a new program entitled BASIC, focusing on the importance of a free economic system with a private sector.https://digitalcommons.gardner-webb.edu/the-web/1092/thumbnail.jp

The Web Magazine 1979, January/February

The Web Magazine focuses on alumni news and campus events from Gardner-Webb College; now Gardner-Webb University. This issue discusses the Gardner Webb Music Program being accredited. It also speaks of how Gardner Webb set up a new placement office. There were also new officers of the Board of Trustees elected. Dr. Larry Sale was elected the NC and SC coordinator for Phi Delta Kappa district 7H. Sale also wrote a piece entitled Portrait of Cindy: An Emerging Adolescent.https://digitalcommons.gardner-webb.edu/the-web/1089/thumbnail.jp

The Web Magazine 1978, Spring

The Web Magazine focuses on alumni news and campus events from Gardner-Webb College; now Gardner-Webb University. This issue discusses a new Building Campaign in which the Chairman and the Architect was selected. It also discusses a Bold Dimensions program which was steadily gaining momentum in fundraising. Jerry McGee was named Associate Director of Development. Pat Spangler, a heavy influence at Gardner-Webb, was spotlighted. The Basketball Team tied for Number 2 in the nation. There was also a new human performance lab set up by the health and physical education department.https://digitalcommons.gardner-webb.edu/the-web/1088/thumbnail.jp

Curriculum in early childhood education: critical questions about content, coherence, and control

A continuing struggle over curriculum in early childhood education is evident in contemporary research and debate at national and international levels. This reflects the dominant influence of developmental psychology in international discourses, and in policy frameworks that determine approaches to curriculum, pedagogy, and assessment. Focusing on early childhood education, we argue that this struggle generates critical questions about three significant themes within curriculum theory: content, coherence, and control. We outline two positions from which these themes can be understood: Developmental and Educational Psychology and contemporary policy frameworks. We argue that within and between these positions, curriculum content, coherence, and control are viewed in different and sometimes oppositional ways. Following this analysis, we propose that a focus on ‘working theories’ as a third position offers possibilities for addressing some of these continuing struggles, by exploring different implications for how content, coherence, and control might be understood. We conclude that asking critical questions of curriculum in early childhood education is a necessary endeavour to develop alternative theoretical frameworks for understanding the ways in which curriculum can be considered alongside pedagogy, assessment, play, and learning

Resolving the neural circuits of anxiety

Although anxiety disorders represent a major societal problem demanding new therapeutic targets, these efforts have languished in the absence of a mechanistic understanding of this subjective emotional state. While it is impossible to know with certainty the subjective experience of a rodent, rodent models hold promise in dissecting well-conserved limbic circuits. The application of modern approaches in neuroscience has already begun to unmask the neural circuit intricacies underlying anxiety by allowing direct examination of hypotheses drawn from existing psychological concepts. This information points toward an updated conceptual model for what neural circuit perturbations could give rise to pathological anxiety and thereby provides a roadmap for future therapeutic development.National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (U.S.) (NIH Director’s New Innovator Award DP2-DK-102256-01)National Institute of Mental Health (U.S.) (NIH) R01-MH102441-01)JPB Foundatio

Consumption of a soy drink has no effect on cognitive function but may alleviate vasomotor symptoms in post-menopausal women; a randomised trial

Purpose: Cognitive decline is commonly reported during the menopausal transition, with memory and attention being particularly affected. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of a commercially available soy drink on cognitive function and menopausal symptoms in post-menopausal women. Methods: 101 post-menopausal women, aged 44–63 years, were randomly assigned to consume a volume of soy drink providing a low (10 mg/day; control group), medium (35 mg/day), or high (60 mg/day) dose of isoflavones for 12 weeks. Cognitive function (spatial working memory, spatial span, pattern recognition memory, 5-choice reaction time, and match to sample visual search) was assessed using CANTAB pre- and post-the 12 week intervention. Menopausal symptoms were assessed using Greene’s Climacteric Scale. Results: No significant differences were observed between the groups for any of the cognitive function outcomes measured. Soy drink consumption had no effect on menopausal symptoms overall; however, when women were stratified according to the severity of vasomotor symptoms (VMS) at baseline, women with more severe symptoms at baseline in the medium group had a significant reduction (P = 0.001) in VMS post-intervention (mean change from baseline score: − 2.15 ± 1.73) in comparison to those with less severe VMS (mean change from baseline score: 0.06 ± 1.21). Conclusions: Soy drink consumption had no effect on cognitive function in post-menopausal women. Consumption of ~ 350 ml/day (35 mg IFs) for 12 weeks significantly reduced VMS in those with more severe symptoms at baseline. This finding is clinically relevant as soy drinks may provide an alternative, natural, treatment for alleviating VMS, highly prevalent among western women