Noon-Hour Recreation in the Elementary Schools of Houston, Texas

During the school term of 1943, the writer, with the consent of the Superintendent of schools, Houston, Texas, contacted the principals of the 26 elementary schools of Houston, Texas. The writer\u27s purpose for interviewing these principals was to inform them of her study and to solicit their cooperation in any way they saw fit. The primary purpose of this study is to obtain trustworthy data from the principals of schools concerning the noon-hour program. The problem of this study is to make a survey of the colored elementary schools of Houston, Texas and to find the possible causes of confusion during the noon-hour. This study will attempt to find the answers to the following questions: 1. What is the nature of the present noon-hour program? 2. Should there be a long or a short noon-hour? 3. Should pupils be permitted or required to study at noon? 4. How can the program be best organized in order to provide for maximum student participation? 5. How should the eating period be handled? 6. How can the overloading of teachers be avoided? 7. What kind of noon-day activities can be planned that will meet the needs of the school

Blood on North American Soil: A Comparison of United States and Canadian Infectious Waste Disposal Regulations

It is the intent of this note to show that the United States federal government has failed to establish a clear national definition and standard for the handling of infectious waste, and that that failure is responsible for the confusion among state infectious waste policies. The federal approach taken by the United States will be compared with that of the Canadians, and both will be examined to determine the impact each has had on its nation, and the support each has given its state or provincial governments. By making these comparisons, this note will show the importance of a clear national definition and standard for infectious waste on the effectiveness of national and state infectious waste policies

Health Education in the Pineland Colored School, Sabine County, Texas

It has taken the world a long time to learn that a physically unfit nation soon becomes a mentally unfit nation and that a mentally unfit nation always becomes a a morally unfit nation. This is why educators are today stressing the need of Health Education. Our boast of making the world safe for democracy is an idle one if we do not make it safe for our children and the future generation. What folly to spend millions to preserve our nation if we forget its future, its childhood. Health heads the list of our cardinal principles of education. Interest in the health of the school child has spread rapidly as an outcome of cooperative study by educators and scientists. There has been awakened an interest in all phases of child life, social, emotional, mental as well as physical. In meeting the health problem of the growing child, it became necessary to know something of the child\u27s needs and adjustments. With the gradual teaching of health into the public schools came many problems, some of which are still undergoing solution. There is no excuse for ignorance of the rule of\u27 healthy living among children. As guardians of the future generation the responsibility of imparting the laws of health and practical application of these laws rests largely with the public school teacher. Health Education must go on through the whole school career of the child. The school must therefore lay its own plan and develop its own program. The purpose of the present study is to present actual facts concerning health conditions and make suggestions which will aid in improving the health program at the Pineland Colored School so that it will be more significant in the lives of the school children

Auto-tail dependence coefficients for stationary solutions of linear stochastic recurrence equations and for GARCH(1,1)

We examine the auto-dependence structure of strictly stationary solutions of linear stochastic recurrence equations and of strictly stationary GARCH(1, 1) processes from the point of view of ordinary and generalized tail dependence coefficients. Since such processes can easily be of infinite variance, a substitute for the usual auto-correlation function is needed

Cost-Effectiveness of Alternative Blood-Screening Strategies for West Nile Virus in the United States

BACKGROUND: West Nile virus (WNV) is endemic in the US, varying seasonally and by geographic region. WNV can be transmitted by blood transfusion, and mandatory screening of blood for WNV was recently introduced throughout the US. Guidelines for selecting cost-effective strategies for screening blood for WNV do not exist. METHODS AND FINDINGS: We conducted a cost-effectiveness analysis for screening blood for WNV using a computer-based mathematical model, and using data from prospective studies, retrospective studies, and published literature. For three geographic areas with varying WNV-transmission intensity and length of transmission season, the model was used to estimate lifetime costs, quality-adjusted life expectancy, and incremental cost-effectiveness ratios associated with alternative screening strategies in a target population of blood-transfusion recipients. We compared the status quo (baseline screening using a donor questionnaire) to several strategies which differed by nucleic acid testing of either pooled or individual samples, universal versus targeted screening of donations designated for immunocompromised patients, and seasonal versus year-long screening. In low-transmission areas with short WNV seasons, screening by questionnaire alone was the most cost-effective strategy. In areas with high levels of WNV transmission, seasonal screening of individual samples and restricting screening to blood donations designated for immunocompromised recipients was the most cost-effective strategy. Seasonal screening of the entire recipient pool added minimal clinical benefit, with incremental cost-effectiveness ratios exceeding US$1.7 million per quality-adjusted life-year gained. Year-round screening offered no additional benefit compared to seasonal screening in any of the transmission settings. CONCLUSIONS: In areas with high levels of WNV transmission, seasonal screening of individual samples and restricting screening to blood donations designated for immunocompromised recipients is cost saving. In areas with low levels of infection, a status-quo strategy using a standard questionnaire is cost-effective

Application of Confocal Laser Scanning Microscopy to Cytocompatibility Testing of Potential Orthopaedic Materials in Immortalised Osteoblast-Like Cell Lines

Confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM) was used in conjunction with in vitro cell culture to investigate cellular interactions with orthopaedic biomaterials. Transfected rat and human osteoblasts were seeded on two potential isoelastic hip prosthesis materials, carbon fibre reinforced polyetheretherketone (PEEK) and epoxy. Titanium 318 alloy was employed as a control. Determination of the material surface contour, an important factor influencing cellular adhesion, proliferation and function, was performed using the industry standard Talysurf® and compared to analogous results obtained using the CLSM. The latter technique consistently gave higher values of material roughness but offers the advantage that it can be used to correlate roughness with cell distribution on the same samples, whereas Talysurf® measurement of roughness requires clean rigid samples. Image analysis and processing, performed on cells after attachment and culture on the materials for 48 hours, provided cell morphology data. Cells cultured on titanium were larger, with a higher percentage of cytoplasm, than those grown on either of the other materials. The macroscopic surface of epoxy resulted in smaller cells with altered morphology, which orientated themselves along carbon fibres. In conclusion, we believe CLSM offers great potential for investigating the cellular interactions of biomaterials involving minimal sample preparation, non-invasive optical sectioning of samples and minimal opportunity for generation of cellular deformation and sample preparation artefacts

CLOVER - A new instrument for measuring the B-mode polarization of the CMB

We describe the design and expected performance of Clover, a new instrument designed to measure the B-mode polarization of the cosmic microwave background. The proposed instrument will comprise three independent telescopes operating at 90, 150 and 220 GHz and is planned to be sited at Dome C, Antarctica. Each telescope will feed a focal plane array of 128 background-limited detectors and will measure polarized signals over angular multipoles 20 < l < 1000. The unique design of the telescope and careful control of systematics should enable the B-mode signature of gravitational waves to be measured to a lensing-confusion-limited tensor-to-scalar ratio r~0.005.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figures. To appear in the proceedings of the XXXVIXth Rencontres de Moriond "Exploring the Universe

Panel Discussion: Expropriation, Threats of Expropriation and Developmental Policy

This panel discussion is a conversation about the place of expropriation in international law