Controlled traffic farming increases root growth, crop and soil nitrogen in vegetable cropping systems

Results from field trials on sandy and sandy loam of controlled traffic farmin

Increasing Capacity for Evaluation of Community-Based Organizations: Lessons from the Ohio Equity Institute

Background: Community-based organizations (CBOs) play an important role delivering disease prevention and health promotion activities to address community health needs and improve the health of individuals living in their communities. While CBOs play this important role, evaluation of the services they deliver is hampered by limited infrastructure to systematically collect data from these organizations. To address this gap, we report on a case study of the development of the Ohio Equity Institute (OEI) Data Portal. The OEI is a statewide initiative that supports 65 CBOs across Ohio to deliver 3 evidence-based interventions (ie, CenteringPregnancy, Community Health Workers, and Home Visiting) to address infant mortality in underserved populations. Methods: Employing principles of community-engaged stakeholder research and user-centered design, we conducted Plan-Do-Study-Act cycles, including semistructured interviews with 43 key informants, to improve the development, implementation, and use of the OEI Data Portal. Results: This process identified both technical and implementation challenges, and offered opportunities to make improvements to the data collection system itself as well as to the integration of this system with CBO workflows. These improvements yielded significant gains in terms of the quantity and quality of data submission, ultimately contributing to ongoing outcome evaluation efforts. Conclusion: Our findings provide important insight into the challenges experienced by CBOs when participating in a statewide CBO data evaluation infrastructure development and implementation. As Ohio and other states push to expand collaborations between CBOs and health care organizations, leaders should leverage existing data collection to facilitate a more comprehensive and effective process

Book reviews

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/44483/1/10745_2004_Article_BF00889024.pd

Microstructural Study of CMR Films as a Function of Growth Temperature, As-Deposited and Annealed

The properties encompassed by the family of complex metal oxides span the spectrum from superconductors to insulating ferroelectrics. Included in this family are the new colossal magneto-resistive perovskites with potential applications in advanced high density magnetic data storage devices based on single or multilayer thin films units of these materials fabricated by vapor phase deposition (PVD) methods. The realization of this potential requires solving basic thin film materials problems requiring understanding and controlling the growth of these materials. Toward this end, we have grown La{sub 0.7}Ca{sub 0.3}MnO{sub 3} and La{sub 0.7}Sr{sub 0. 3}MnO{sub 3} on LaAIO{sub 3} single crystal substrates by pulsed laser and RF sputter deposition at 500 to 900 C and annealed at over 900 C for about 10 hours. The evolution of the microstructure of these films was studied by scanning probe microscopies and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Results of SPM characterization showed that at the lower end of the growth temperature range, the as-grown films were polygranular with grain size increasing with temperature. The 500 C as-grown films appeared to be amorphous while the 750 C film grains were layered with terrace steps often one unit cell high. In contrast, films grown at 900 C consisted of coalesced islands with some 3-D surface crystals. After annealing, all films had coalesced into very large extended layered islands. The change in microstructure was reflected in a decreased resistivity of coalesced films over their unannealed granular precursors. Previous reported work on the growth of La{sub 0. 84}Sr{sub 0.16}MnO{sub 3} and La{sub 0.8}Sr{sub 0.2}CoO{sub 3} grown demonstrated the sensitivity of the microstructure to substrate and deposition conditions. Films grown on an ``accidental`` vicinal surface grew by a step flow mechanism

Control of hypersonic turbulent skin friction by boundary-layer combustion of hydrogen

Shvab-Zeldovich coupling of flow variables has been used to extend Van Driest's theory of turbulent boundary-layer skin friction to include injection and combustion of hydrogen in the boundary layer. The resulting theory is used to make predictions of skin friction and heat transfer that are found to be consistent with experimental and numerical results. Using the theory to extrapolate to larger downstream distances at the same experimental conditions, it is found that the reduction in skin-friction drag with hydrogen mixing and combustion is three times that with mixing alone. In application to flow on a flat plate at mainstream velocities of 2, 4, and 6 knits, and Reynolds numbers from 3 X 10(6) to 1 x 10(8), injection and combustion of hydrogen yielded values of skin-friction drag that were less than one-half of the no-injection skin-friction drag, together with a net reduction in heat transfer when the combustion heat release in air was less than the stagnation enthalpy. The mass efficiency of hydrogen injection, as measured by effective specific impulse values, was approximately 2000 s

Democratization and the Diffusion of Shari'a Law: Comparative Insights from Indonesia

The democratization of politics has been accompanied by a rise of Islamic laws in many Muslim-majority countries. Despite a growing interest in the phenomenon, the Islamization of politics in democratizing Muslim-majority countries is rarely understood as a process that unfolds across space and time. Based on an original dataset established during years of field research in Indonesia, this article analyzes the spread of shari’a regulations across the world’s largest Muslim-majority democracy since 1998. The article shows that shari’a regulations in Indonesia diffused unevenly across space and time. Explanations put forward in the literature on the diffusion of morality policies in other countries such as geographic proximity, institutions, intergovernmental relations and economic conditions did not explain the patterns in the diffusion of shari’a regulations in Indonesia well. Instead, shari’a regulations in Indonesia were most likely to spread across jurisdictions where local Islamist groups situated outside the party system had an established presence. In short, the Islamization of politics was highly contingent on local conditions. Future research will need to pay more attention to local Islamist activists and networks situated outside formal politics as potential causes for the diffusion of shari’a law in democratizing Muslim-majority countries

A meta-analytic review of stand-alone interventions to improve body image

Objective Numerous stand-alone interventions to improve body image have been developed. The present review used meta-analysis to estimate the effectiveness of such interventions, and to identify the specific change techniques that lead to improvement in body image. Methods The inclusion criteria were that (a) the intervention was stand-alone (i.e., solely focused on improving body image), (b) a control group was used, (c) participants were randomly assigned to conditions, and (d) at least one pretest and one posttest measure of body image was taken. Effect sizes were meta-analysed and moderator analyses were conducted. A taxonomy of 48 change techniques used in interventions targeted at body image was developed; all interventions were coded using this taxonomy. Results The literature search identified 62 tests of interventions (N = 3,846). Interventions produced a small-to-medium improvement in body image (d+ = 0.38), a small-to-medium reduction in beauty ideal internalisation (d+ = -0.37), and a large reduction in social comparison tendencies (d+ = -0.72). However, the effect size for body image was inflated by bias both within and across studies, and was reliable but of small magnitude once corrections for bias were applied. Effect sizes for the other outcomes were no longer reliable once corrections for bias were applied. Several features of the sample, intervention, and methodology moderated intervention effects. Twelve change techniques were associated with improvements in body image, and three techniques were contra-indicated. Conclusions The findings show that interventions engender only small improvements in body image, and underline the need for large-scale, high-quality trials in this area. The review identifies effective techniques that could be deployed in future interventions

“It Was Easier in Prison!” : Russian Baptist Rehab as a Therapeutic Community, Monastery, Prison, and Ministry

This chapter revisits a Foucauldian concept of “complete and austere institutions,” using the ethnographic study of therapeutic communities, monasteries, prisons, and religious ministries to draw a line between those concepts, specifically addressing a Christian ministry in the Russian Baptist interpretation. My argument is based on an ethnographic account of the Russian Baptist ministry for people suffering from addiction. I unfold the concept of an Evangelical ministry, contrasting it to the Foucauldian austere institutions in order to highlight its nature. I argue that even though a rehabilitation ministry may use methods and techniques of austere institutions, and even resemble them in their implementation, the distinctive feature of a ministry is its focus on the result, rather than the process, interpreted as serving God by serving men.Peer reviewe

Immunostimulatory Motifs Enhance Antiviral siRNAs Targeting Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza H5N1

Highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) H5N1 virus is endemic in many regions around the world and remains a significant pandemic threat. To date H5N1 has claimed almost 300 human lives worldwide, with a mortality rate of 60% and has caused the death or culling of hundreds of millions of poultry since its initial outbreak in 1997. We have designed multi-functional RNA interference (RNAi)-based therapeutics targeting H5N1 that degrade viral mRNA via the RNAi pathway while at the same time augmenting the host antiviral response by inducing host type I interferon (IFN) production. Moreover, we have identified two factors critical for maximising the immunostimulatory properties of short interfering (si)RNAs in chicken cells (i) mode of synthesis and (ii) nucleoside sequence to augment the response to virus. The 5-bp nucleoside sequence 5′-UGUGU-3′ is a key determinant in inducing high levels of expression of IFN -α, -β, -λ and interleukin 1- β in chicken cells. Positioning of this 5′-UGUGU-3′ motif at the 5′- end of the sense strand of siRNAs, but not the 3′- end, resulted in a rapid and enhanced induction of type I IFN. An anti-H5N1 avian influenza siRNA directed against the PB1 gene (PB1-2257) tagged with 5′-UGUGU-3′ induced type I IFN earlier and to a greater extent compared to a non-tagged PB1-2257. Tested against H5N1 in vitro, the tagged PB1-2257 was more effective than non-tagged PB1-2257. These data demonstrate the ability of an immunostimulatory motif to improve the performance of an RNAi-based antiviral, a finding that may influence the design of future RNAi-based anti-influenza therapeutics

The elite's collective subjectivities of the history of ethnic politics in Malaysia

Malaysia is one of the multi-ethnic, multi-cultural and multi-religious countries in Southeast Asia. Due to the pluralistic nature of Malaysia, it has a political structure based on ethnic politics. The ethnic preferential policies affected most domains of this country. The objective of this article is to examine the origin and background of ethnic politics in Malaysia. Findings of this study indicate that, ethnic politics originated during the British colonial period, it became a tool used by the Barisan Nasional for the legitimacy of regime. Moreover, ethnic politics in Malaysia today is intertwined with religion. Besides, there is the dilemma of the choice between the interest of certain ethnic group and national interests. However, with the opposition coalition Pakatan Harapan won the election in 9th May, UMNO-led BN lost power and interrupted its 61 years control, which leaves us an interesting topic to think about the future of Malaysian ethnic politics