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Comparative interpretations of religious symbolism in the design on a textile dated 1680

This study of religious symbolism was limited to consideration of the symbolic significance of the motifs and other forms and spaces in the design which borders a white linen embroidered textile, dated 1680, in the historic collection of The School of Home Economics at The University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Works specifically relevant to the objectives of this study were examined to establish an historic background for further research. The review of literature included: a survey of Christian symbols in art; a review of needlework for the church; and a survey of the historical development of religious symbolism, and the Passion symbols and their significance. Five versions of the Four Gospels were consulted for statements concerning the group of Passion symbols that are embroidered on this historic textile. The four twentieth century publications chosen for study included the King James Version, the Revised Standard Version, the J. B. Phillip's Version, and The New Enqlish Version of The Holy Bible. A seventeenth century Geneva Version of the Bible was used to establish a standard to which later translations could be compared

Heavy things: materiality and masculinity in African American literature

Heavy Things illustrates how African American writers redefine black manhood through metaphors of heaviness, figured primarily through their representation of material objects. Taking the literal and figurative weight the narrator's briefcase in Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man as a starting point, this dissertation examines literary representations of "heavy" objects, including gifts, toys, keepsakes, historical documents, statues, and souvenirs as modes of critiquing the materialist foundations of manhood in the United States. Historically, materialism has facilitated white male domination over black men by associating property ownership with both whiteness and manhood. These writers not only reject materialism as a vehicle of oppression but also reveal alternative paths along which black men can thrive in a hostile American society

A comparison of modeling, instructions and feedback in the development of three social responses of adult retardates

Both modeling and feedback procedures have been found to be effective in the modification of a wide variety of behaviors. Comparisons of these procedures applied either singly or in combination have been few and the results of these studies have been inconsistent. This investigation compared the relative efficacy of modeling and feedback procedures applied singly and in combination. Specifically, a modeling on video tape procedure and an instruction plus feedback procedure were compared. A combination procedure consisting of both modeling on video tape and instructions plus feedback was also compared to the procedures used separately. Comparisons were made of the effectiveness of these conditions in increasing the appropriate peer interaction of three retarded adults. Social interactions consisted of verbal, recreational, and cooperative responses. A counterbalanced, multiple baseline, experimental design was utilized. This design enabled treatment comparisons to be made within each subject's performance on the three responses. The design also allowed for comparisons of collateral changes accompanying training on each of the three responses

The Tests Of Basic Experiences And The Screening Test For Assignment Of Remedial Treatments As Predictors Of Readiness For First Grade

The present study was designed to test the ability of scores on the Tests of Basic Experiences and the Screening Test for Assignment of Remedial Treatments to identify pupils at the beginning of the kindergarten year who would be identified as not ready for first grade by the Metropolitan Readiness Tests score at the end of the kindergarten year

Very Early Smoke Detection Apparatus (VESDA), David Packham, John Petersen, Martin Cole: 2017 DiNenno Prize

The 2017 Phillip J. DiNenno Prize was awarded to the innovators of the VESDA smoke detection system. The initialtechnology was invented and patented byDavid PackhamandLen Gibson, who worked withJohn Petersenonprototype development, field trials, and applications engineering.Dr. Martin Colewas responsible for the successfulcommercial development and many further patented technical developments. The VESDA technology and its pre-eminent role in the introduction of aspirated smoke detection (ASD) internationally has led to a major global impacton public safety.The recipients of the 2017 Philip J. DiNenno Prize areDavid Packham,John Petersen,andDr. Martin Cole.Amplecommendation is given to their deceased co-inventor and passionate advocateLen Gibson.Otherimportantcontributions are noted, including technical and other staff from IEI, CSIRO, SSL and Telecom Australia

The regional economic impact of more graduates in the labour market: a “micro-to-macro” analysis for Scotland

This paper explores the system-wide impact of graduates on the regional economy. Graduates enjoy a significant wage premium, often interpreted as reflecting their greater productivity relative to non-graduates. If this is so there is a clear and direct supply-side impact of HEI activities on regional economies. We use an HEI-disaggregated computable general equilibrium model of Scotland to estimate the impact of the growing proportion of graduates in the Scottish labour force that is implied by the current participation rate and demographic change, taking the graduate wage premium in Scotland as an indicator of productivity enhancement. While the detailed results vary with alternative assumptions about the extent to which wage premia reflect productivity, they do suggest that the long-term supply-side impacts of HEIs provide a significant boost to regional GDP. Furthermore, the results suggest that the supply-side impacts of HEIs are likely to be more important than the expenditure impacts that are the focus of most HEI impact studies

Exploring the equity of GP practice prescribing rates for selected coronary heart disease drugs: a multiple regression analysis with proxies of healthcare need

Background There is a small, but growing body of literature highlighting inequities in GP practice prescribing rates for many drug therapies. The aim of this paper is to further explore the equity of prescribing for five major CHD drug groups and to explain the amount of variation in GP practice prescribing rates that can be explained by a range of healthcare needs indicators (HCNIs). Methods The study involved a cross-sectional secondary analysis in four primary care trusts (PCTs 1–4) in the North West of England, including 132 GP practices. Prescribing rates (average daily quantities per registered patient aged over 35 years) and HCNIs were developed for all GP practices. Analysis was undertaken using multiple linear regression. Results Between 22–25% of the variation in prescribing rates for statins, beta-blockers and bendrofluazide was explained in the multiple regression models. Slightly more variation was explained for ACE inhibitors (31.6%) and considerably more for aspirin (51.2%). Prescribing rates were positively associated with CHD hospital diagnoses and procedures for all drug groups other than ACE inhibitors. The proportion of patients aged 55–74 years was positively related to all prescribing rates other than aspirin, where they were positively related to the proportion of patients aged >75 years. However, prescribing rates for statins and ACE inhibitors were negatively associated with the proportion of patients aged >75 years in addition to the proportion of patients from minority ethnic groups. Prescribing rates for aspirin, bendrofluazide and all CHD drugs combined were negatively associated with deprivation. Conclusion Although around 25–50% of the variation in prescribing rates was explained by HCNIs, this varied markedly between PCTs and drug groups. Prescribing rates were generally characterised by both positive and negative associations with HCNIs, suggesting possible inequities in prescribing rates on the basis of ethnicity, deprivation and the proportion of patients aged over 75 years (for statins and ACE inhibitors, but not for aspirin)

Complex systems analysis of bladder cancer susceptibility reveals a role for decarboxylase activity in two genome-wide association studies

BACKGROUND: Bladder cancer is common disease with a complex etiology that is likely due to many different genetic and environmental factors. The goal of this study was to embrace this complexity using a bioinformatics analysis pipeline designed to use machine learning to measure synergistic interactions between single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in two genome-wide association studies (GWAS) and then to assess their enrichment within functional groups defined by Gene Ontology. The significance of the results was evaluated using permutation testing and those results that replicated between the two GWAS data sets were reported. RESULTS: In the first step of our bioinformatics pipeline, we estimated the pairwise synergistic effects of SNPs on bladder cancer risk in both GWAS data sets using Multifactor Dimensionality Reduction (MDR) machine learning method that is designed specifically for this purpose. Statistical significance was assessed using a 1000-fold permutation test. Each single SNP was assigned a p-value based on its strongest pairwise association. Each SNP was then mapped to one or more genes using a window of 500 kb upstream and downstream from each gene boundary. This window was chosen to capture as many regulatory variants as possible. Using Exploratory Visual Analysis (EVA), we then carried out a gene set enrichment analysis at the gene level to identify those genes with an overabundance of significant SNPs relative to the size of their mapped regions. Each gene was assigned to a biological functional group defined by Gene Ontology (GO). We next used EVA to evaluate the overabundance of significant genes in biological functional groups. Our study yielded one GO category, carboxy-lysase activity (GO:0016831), that was significant in analyses from both GWAS data sets. Interestingly, only the gamma-glutamyl carboxylase (GGCX) gene from this GO group was significant in both the detection and replication data, highlighting the complexity of the pathway-level effects on risk. The GGCX gene is expressed in the bladder, but has not been previously associated with bladder cancer in univariate GWAS. However, there is some experimental evidence that carboxy-lysase activity might play a role in cancer and that genes in this pathway should be explored as drug targets. This study provides a genetic basis for that observation. CONCLUSIONS: Our machine learning analysis of genetic associations in two GWAS for bladder cancer identified numerous associations with pairs of SNPs. Gene set enrichment analysis found aggregation of risk-associated SNPs in genes and significant genes in GO functional groups. This study supports a role for decarboxylase protein complexes in bladder cancer susceptibility. Previous research has implicated decarboxylases in bladder cancer etiology; however, the genes that we found to be significant in the detection and replication data are not known to have direct influence on bladder cancer, suggesting some novel hypotheses. This study highlights the need for a complex systems approach to the genetic and genomic analysis of common diseases such as cancer