Death in the age of eternity: How Facebook users cope with personal loss

This study explores the relatively new phenomenon of Facebook users creating memorial content in order to grieve. Using a survey with 230 undergraduate and graduate respondents, the study examines the factors that influence the creation of memorial content on Facebook. Users who post more and actively create content that is not related to mourning are more likely to create memorial content. For a majority of Facebook users, the site is a supportive and nurturing place. providing a social space for the grieving to interact with each other. Most users do not post memorial content, but those who do create memorial content found it helpful in the mourning process. Overall, the research indicates that while mourning on Facebook is viewed as a positive and helpful experience for individuals dealing with the loss of a friend, it does not take the place of being with loved ones when somebody close to them passes on

Extensions of operator algebras I

We transcribe a portion of the theory of extensions of C*-algebras to general operator algebras. We also include several new general facts about approximately unital ideals in operator algebras and the C*-algebras which they generate

Inmate Education as a Service Learning Opportunity for Students: Preparation, Benefits, and Lessons Learned

There is mounting evidence that prison inmates benefit from educational opportunities but may not be offered to them. In addition, when they are offered, priority is given to prisoners who will be released in the near future, and those serving long-term or life sentences are less likely to have access to classes. A service learning opportunity was created where students taught a life span development class to women serving long-term sentences. This article provides a guide to setting up the class while avoiding obstacles along the way. It also outlines benefits to students, inmates, supervising faculty, and society. In order to teach, students must apply what they have learned, and the prison experience challenges them to consider their power and privilege

A Visual Impact Assessment Methodology for the National Park Service

As the National Park Service (NPS) set out to create a visual resource management program, the first major component was the development of a robust visual resource inventory (VRI) process to identify, locate, and assess high value views, both within and near NPS units, based on both scenic quality and the importance of the view to the visitor experience. The next component in the program has been the development of a visual impact assessment (VIA) process to understand how changes in the landscape— whether inside the park or beyond its boundaries—could impact the scenic quality of valued views and visitor experience of those views. This presentation will discuss the NPS VIA process and highlight results of field-testing. Units of the National Park System encompass a wide variety of landscape types and visual settings. Particular views are enjoyed not only for scenic qualities but also appreciated for their historic and cultural values. NPS incorporates visible elements of views into their interpretive and educational activities. As a result, the NPS VRI was designed to identify not only the visual qualities of views but also the other values that make views important to NPS and park visitors. The NPS VRI was also built to support VIAs, both for NPS projects and actions within NPS unit boundaries, and projects and activities beyond NPS unit boundaries, where NPS is a stakeholder rather than a permitting agency. The detailed information from the VRI provides a sound basis for articulating the full effects of a proposed project or activity, which may go far beyond measuring visual contrast and other more purely scenic aspects of visual impact. Building on the inventory process the NPS visual impact assessment (VIA) methodology identifies the expected level of visual change from a proposed project or activity, and assesses the likely effects of the change on scenic quality as determined in the VRI. The NPS VIA approach provides parks with information to pursue better planning and design for park projects and credible support for understanding and communicating the potential impacts of changes beyond park boundaries

Eating Disorders and Intrasexual Competition: Testing an Evolutionary Hypothesis among Young Women

The sexual competition hypothesis (SCH) contends that intense female intrasexual competition (ISC) is the ultimate cause of eating disorders. The SCH explains the phenomenon of the pursuit of thinness as an adaptation to ISC in the modern environment. It argues that eating disorders are pathological phenomena that arise from the mismatch between the modern environment and the inherited female adaptations for ISC. The present study has two aims. The first is to examine the relationship between disordered eating behavior (DEB) and ISC in a sample of female undergraduates. The second is to establish whether there is any relationship between disordered eating behavior and life history (LH) strategy. Participants completed a battery of questionnaires examining eating-related attitudes and behaviors, ISC, and LH strategy. A group of 206 female undergraduates were recruited. A structural equation model was constructed to analyze the data. ISC for mates was significantly associated with DEB, as predicted by the SCH. DEB was found to be predicted by fast LH strategy, which was only partially mediated by the SCH. The results of this study are supportive of the SCH and justify research on a clinical sample

A multicenter comparison between Child Pugh and ALBI scores in patients treated with sorafenib for hepatocellular carcinoma

Background & aims: The ALBI grade was proposed as an objective means to evaluate liver function in patients with Hepatocellular Carcinoma (HCC). ALBI grade 1 vs 2 were proposed as stratification factors within the Child Pugh (CP) A class. However, the original publication did not provide comparison with the sub-classification by points (5 to 15) within the CP classification. Methods: We retrospectively analyzed data from patients treated with sorafenib for HCC from 17 centers in United Kingdom and France. Overall survival (OS) was analyzed with the Kaplan-Meier method and a Cox regression model. Discriminatory abilities of the classifications were assessed with the log likelihood ratio, Harrell’s C statistics and Akaike information criterion. Results: Data from 1,019 patients were collected, of which 905 could be assessed for both scores. 92% of ALBI grade 1 were CP A5 while ALBI 2 included a broad range of CP scores of which 44% were CP A6. Median OS was 10.2, 7.0 and 3.6 months for CP scores A5, A6 and >A6, respectively (P<0.001), Hazard Ratio (HR)=1.60 (95%CI: 1.35-1.89, P<0.001) for A6 vs A5. Median OS was 10.9, 6.6 and 3.0 months for ALBI grade 1, 2 and 3, respectively (P<0.001), HR=1.68 (1.43-1.97, P<0.001) for grade 2 vs 1. Discriminatory abilities of CP and ALBI were similar in the CP A population, but better for CP in the overall population. Conclusions: Our findings support the use CP class A as an inclusion criterion, and ALBI as a stratification factor in trials of systemic therapy

Assessment of dam trapping efficiency from water residence time: Application to fluvial sediment transport in the Adour, Dordogne, and Garonne River basins (France)

Dam-trapping efficiency can be estimated by using the hydraulic residence time. On the regional scale, the global impact of several dams can be assessed by taking into account the spatial organization of dams along the river network. Therefore, in this study, a method is proposed to estimate the global-trapping efficiency, TEw, for any watershed containing more than one dam. This method is applied to the Adour, Dordogne, and Garonne River watersheds (southwestern France). The spatial organization of dams and its impact on TEw and on sediment yields measured at 37 TSM sampling stations over 2 years are discussed. Positive correlation between drainage areas and river sediment loads corrected from dam regulation using TEw, as well as comparisons between TEw-corrected sediment yields and sediment yields measured upstream from dams, point out the interest of the method in order to reconstitute the natural sediment yields

Spatial and Temporal Variations in Interstellar Absorption toward HD 72127AB

New optical spectra of Ca II and Na I toward HD 72127AB provide additional evidence for both spatial and temporal variations in the complex interstellar absorption along the two sight lines; archival UV spectra yield information on the abundances, depletions, and physical conditions in the gas toward HD 72127A. Similarities in the strengths of various tracers of interstellar material in the two lines of sight suggest that the total hydrogen column densities [N(H) ~ 2.5 x 10^{20} cm^{-2}] and the depletions and ionization in the main components at low LSR velocities also are similar. Toward HD 72127A, the main components are relatively cool (T < 900 K), but with depletions resembling those found in warm, diffuse disc clouds; the generally weaker components at higher velocities have much milder depletions, more like those found in halo clouds. Several trace neutral species -- Ca I, Cr I, and Fe I -- are much stronger toward HD 72127B, however. The column density of Cr I, for example, is about 30 times the value determined toward zeta Oph (the only previous detection of that species in the ISM). Dielectronic recombination in warmer gas (T > 5000 K) may be largely responsible for the enhanced abundances of those trace neutral species toward HD 72127B. If the main components toward HD 72127AB are associated with material in the Vela SNR, the differences in abundances and physical conditions occur on scales of about 1100 AU.Comment: 13 pages, 4 figures, accepted to MNRA

Nonunital spectral triples and metric completeness in unbounded KK-theory

By considering the general properties of approximate units in differentiable algebras, we are able to present a unified approach to characterising completeness of spectral metric spaces, existence of connections on modules, and the lifting of Kasparov products to the unbounded category. In particular, by strengthening Kasparov's technical theorem, we show that given any two composable KK-classes, we can find unbounded representatives whose product can be constructed to yield an unbounded representative of the Kasparov product.Comment: 65 page

Closed quantum subgroups of locally compact quantum groups

We investigate the fundamental concept of a closed quantum subgroup of a locally compact quantum group. Two definitions - one due to S.Vaes and one due to S.L.Woronowicz - are analyzed and relations between them discussed. Among many reformulations we prove that the former definition can be phrased in terms of quasi-equivalence of representations of quantum groups while the latter can be related to an old definition of Podle\'s from the theory of compact quantum groups. The cases of classical groups, duals of classical groups, compact and discrete quantum groups are singled out and equivalence of the two definitions is proved in the relevant context. A deep relationship with the quantum group generalization of Herz restriction theorem from classical harmonic analysis is also established, in particular, in the course of our analysis we give a new proof of Herz restriction theorem.Comment: 24 pages, v3 adds another reference. The paper will appear in Advances in Mathematic