Chinese Working-Class Lives

Taiwan’s working class has been shaped by Chinese tradition, by colonialism, and by rapid industrialization. This book defines that class, explores that history, and presents with sensitive honesty the life experiences of some of its women and men. Hill Gates first provides a solid and informative introduction to Taiwan’s history, showing how mainland China, Japan, the convulsions of twentieth-century wars, and the East Asian economic expansion interacted in forming Taiwanese urban life. She introduces nine individuals from Taiwan’s three major ethnic groups to tell the stories of their lives in their own words. The narrators include a fortuneteller, a woman laborer, and a retired air force mechanic. A former spirit medium and a janitor are among the others who speak

Spring Regrowth and Steer Performance on Tifton 85 and Coastal Bermudagrass Pastures Following Sod-Seeding with Ryegrass

Effects of autumn sod-seeded ryegrass (Lolium multiflorum; cv. Passerel; 37.7 kg/ha) in bermudagrass pastures (Cynodon spp.; cv. Coastal and cv. Tifton 85) on grazing steer performance were determined. Ryegrass was sod-seeded in three of six .81 ha pastures of each bermudagrass. Forage height was adjusted to10 cm during spring. Stocking rates were unaffected by ryegrass in Tifton 85 pastures, but they were higher (P \u3c .05) for Tifton 85 than Coastal. Ryegrass increased tester steer average daily gains by 34% (.86 vs .64 kg/day; P \u3c .01), and gain/ha by 26% (387 vs 306 kg/ha; P \u3c .05). Higher stocking rates resulted in 22% more grazing days (515 vs 421 days/ha; P \u3c .01), and 30% higher gain/ha (391 vs 301 kg/ha; P \u3c .05) for Tifton 85 than Coastal pastures. Ryegrass did not affect stocking rates or steer performance on Tifton 85, but it depressed both on Coastal pastures

RESPOND – A patient-centred program to prevent secondary falls in older people presenting to the emergency department with a fall: Protocol for a multi-centre randomised controlled trial

Introduction: Participation in falls prevention activities by older people following presentation to the Emergency Department (ED) with a fall is suboptimal. This randomised controlled trial (RCT) will test the RESPOND program which is designed to improve older persons’ participation in falls prevention activities through delivery of patient-centred education and behaviour change strategies. Design and setting: An RCT at two tertiary referral EDs in Melbourne and Perth, Australia. Participants: Five-hundred and twenty eight community-dwelling people aged 60-90 years presenting to the ED with a fall and discharged home will be recruited. People who: require an interpreter or hands-on assistance to walk; live in residential aged care or >50 kilometres from the trial hospital; have terminal illness, cognitive impairment, documented aggressive behaviour or history of psychosis; are receiving palliative care; or are unable to use a telephone will be excluded. Methods: Participants will be randomly allocated to the RESPOND intervention or standard care control group. RESPOND incorporates: (1) home-based risk factor assessment; (2) education, coaching, goal setting, and follow-up telephone support for management of one or more of four risk factors with evidence of effective intervention; and (3) healthcare provider communication and community linkage delivered over six months. Primary outcomes are falls and fall injuries per-person-year. Discussion: RESPOND builds on prior falls prevention learnings and aims to help individuals make guided decisions about how they will manage their falls risk. Patient-centred models have been successfully trialled in chronic and cardiovascular disease however evidence to support this approach in falls prevention is limited. Trial registration. The protocol for this study is registered with the Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry (ACTRN12614000336684)

Majorana neutrino versus Dirac neutrino in e+e−→W+W−{\rm e}^{+}{\rm e}^{-} \to {\rm W}^{+}{\rm W}^{-} through radiative corrections

Radiative corrections to ${\rm e}^{+}{\rm e}^{-}\! \rightarrow {\rm W}^{+}{\rm W}^{-}$ from Majorana neutrinos are studied in the context of the see-saw mechanism. Focusing on the effects of the fourth generation neutrinos, we calculate W-pair form factors, the differential cross sections and the forward-backward asymmetries for the polarized electrons at one-loop level. The behaviour of the form factors at the threshold of Majorana particle pair productions is found to differ from that of Dirac particle pair productions. In the cross section for unpolarized electrons, the radiative corrections, depending on the mass parameters of the see-saw mechanism, are found to be $\sim 0.5\%$ at the energy range of the LEP200 and the next generation linear colliders.Comment: 10 pages, Latex, 4 figures(no included, available on request

Prophylaxis for venous thromboembolic disease in pregnancy and the early postnatal period

Some women are at risk of forming blood clots in a deep vein during pregnancy, after a caesarean birth, or during the first few weeks after childbirth. If part of the clot breaks off and lodges in a blood vessel in the lungs, it can be life-threatening. Preventive treatments include blood-thinning drugs to prevent clots, support stockings, and exercise soon after the birth to keep circulation moving. However, some drugs might cause problems such as increased blood loss after the birth. Drugs used include heparin, low molecular weight heparin and aspirin. We included 16 randomised controlled studies in the review but only 13 trials with 1774 women contributed data for the outcomes of interest. We did not find enough evidence from the trials to be sure about the effects of these different preventive treatments.This means there is not enough evidence to show which are the best ways to prevent deep vein thrombosis (DVT) during or following pregnancy, or after a caesarean birth

CP Violation Induced by Heavy Majorana Neutrinos in the Decays of Higgs Scalars into Top-Quark, W- and Z-Boson Pairs

We analyze the possibility of $CP$ violation induced by heavy Majorana neutrinos in the decays of the Higgs particle into top-quark, $W$- and $Z$-boson pairs. In the framework of various ``see-saw" models with interfamily mixings, we find that Majorana neutrinos may give rise to sizable $CP$-odd observables at the one-loop electroweak order. Numerical estimates of these $CP$-violating effects that may be detected in high-energy colliders are presented.Comment: 16 p. (1 Figure), LaTeX, MAD/PH/78

Empty rituals? A qualitative study of users’ experience of monitoring & evaluation systems in HIV interventions in western India

In global health initiatives, particularly in the context of private philanthropy and its ‘business minded’ approach, detailed programme data plays an increasing role in informing assessments, improvements, evaluations, and ultimately continuation or discontinuation of funds for individual programmes. The HIV/AIDS literature predominantly treats monitoring as unproblematic. However, the social science of audit and indicators emphasises the constitutive power of indicators, noting that their effects at a grassroots level are often at odds with the goals specified in policy. This paper investigates users' experiences of Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) systems in the context of HIV interventions in western India. Six focus groups (totalling 51 participants) were held with employees of 6 different NGOs working for government or philanthropy-funded HIV interventions for sex workers in western India. Ten donor employees were interviewed. Thematic analysis was conducted. NGO employees described a major gap between what they considered their “real work” and the indicators used to monitor it. They could explain the official purposes of M&E systems in terms of programme improvement and financial accountability. More cynically, they valued M&E experience on their CVs and the rhetorical role of data in demonstrating their achievements. They believed that inappropriate and unethical means were being used to meet targets, including incentives and coercion, and criticised indicators for being misleading and inflexible. Donor employees valued the role of M&E in programme improvement, financial accountability, and professionalising NGO-donor relationships. However, they were suspicious that NGOs might be falsifying data, criticised the insensitivity of indicators, and complained that data were under-used. For its users, M& E appears an ‘empty ritual’, enacted because donors require it, but not put to local use. In this context, monitoring is constituted as an instrument of performance management rather than as a means of rational programme improvement

Gold amides as anticancer drugs: synthesis and activity studies

Modular gold amide chemotherapeutics: Access to modern chemotherapeutics with robust and flexible synthetic routes that are amenable to extensive customisation is a key requirement in drug synthesis and discovery. A class of chiral gold amide complexes featuring amino acid derived ligands is reported herein. They all exhibit in vitro cytotoxicity against two slow growing breast cancer cell lines with limited toxicity towards normal epithelial cells

Levels of pathogen virulence and host resistance both shape the antibody response to an emerging bacterial disease

This is the final version. Available on open access from Nature Research via the DOI in this recordData availability: Data reported in this paper have been deposited in Dryad Digital Repository https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.x69p8czhtQuantifying variation in the ability to fight infection among free-living hosts is challenging and often constrained to one or a few measures of immune activity. While such measures are typically taken to reflect host resistance, they can also be shaped by pathogen effects, for example, if more virulent strains trigger more robust immune responses. Here, we test the extent to which pathogen-specific antibody levels, a commonly used measure of immunocompetence, reflect variation in host resistance versus pathogen virulence, and whether these antibodies effectively clear infection. House finches (Haemorhous mexicanus) from resistant and susceptible populations were inoculated with > 50 isolates of their novel Mycoplasma gallisepticum pathogen collected over a 20-year period during which virulence increased. Serum antibody levels were higher in finches from resistant populations and increased with year of pathogen sampling. Higher antibody levels, however, did not subsequently give rise to greater reductions in pathogen load. Our results show that antibody responses can be shaped by levels of host resistance and pathogen virulence, and do not necessarily signal immune clearance ability. While the generality of this novel finding remains unclear, particularly outside of mycoplasmas, it cautions against using antibody levels as implicit proxies for immunocompetence and/or host resistance.Natural Environment Research Council (NERC)Genetics Societ

Quantum Effects on Higgs-Boson Production and Decay due to Majorana Neutrinos

We analyze the phenomenological implications for new electroweak physics in the Higgs sector in the framework of SU(2)_L x U(1)_Y theories that naturally predict heavy Majorana neutrinos. We calculate the one-loop Majorana-neutrino contributions to the decay rates of the Higgs boson into pairs of quarks and intermediate bosons and to its production cross section via bremsstrahlung in e^+e^- collisions. It turns out that these are extremely small in three- generation models. On the other hand, the sizeable quantum corrections generated by a conventional fourth generation with a Dirac neutrino may be screened considerably in the presence of a Majorana degree of freedom.Comment: 27 p. (10 figs. available upon request), LaTeX, ISSN 0418-9833, DESY 94-020, RAL/94-02