Detached from their homeland: the Latter-day Saints of Chihuahua, Mexico

Over the past few decades, the homeland concept has received an ever-increasing amount of attention by cultural geographers. While the debate surrounding the necessity and applicability of the concept continues, it is more than apparent that no other geographic term (including culture areas or culture regions) captures the essence of peoples’ attachment to place better than homeland. The literature, however, provides few examples of the deep-seated loyalty people have for a homeland despite being physically detached from that space. Employing land use mapping and informal interviews, this paper seeks to help fill that gap by exemplifying how the daily lives of Mormons living in Chihuahua, Mexico reflect their connection to the United States and the Mormon Homeland. Our research revealed that, among other things, the Anglo residents perpetuate their cultural identity through their unique self-reference, exhibit territoriality links reflected in their built environment, and demonstrate unconditional bonding to their homeland through certain holiday celebrations. It is clear to us, as the Anglo-Mormon experience illustrates, that the homeland concept deserves a place within the geographic lexicon

Usefulness and reliability of online assessments: a Business Faculty's experience

The usefulness and reliability of online assessment results relate to the clarity, specificity and articulation of assessment purposes, goals and criteria. Cheating and plagiarism are two frequent and controversial issues that arise and there is a view that the online assessments mode inherently lends itself to both these practices. However, reconceptualising practice and redeveloping techniques can pave the way for an authentic assessment approach which minimizes student academic dishonesty. This article describes research which investigated online assessments practice in a business faculty at an Australian university and proposes what might constitute good, sustainable practice and design in university online assessment practices

Pseudopolymorphism in Brucine: Brucine-Water (1/2), The Third Crystal Hydrate of Brucine

The structure of the third pseudopolymorphic hydrate of brucine, brucine-water (1/2) [systematic name 2,3-dimethoxystrychnidin-10-one-water (1/2)], C23H26N2O4 . 2H2O, has been determined at 130 K. The asymmetric unit comprises two independent brucine molecules and four water molecules of solvation. The four water molecules form uncommon cyclic hydrogen-bonded homomolecular R2/2(8) tetramer rings, which then form primary hydrogen-bonded chain substructures, extending down the 21 screw axis in the unit cell. The two brucine molecules are linked peripherally to these substructures by either single O-H...O(brucine) or O-H...N(brucine) hydrogen bonds

Groupoid normalisers of tensor products: infinite von Neumann algebras

The groupoid normalisers of a unital inclusion $B\subseteq M$ of von Neumann algebras consist of the set $\mathcal{GN}_M(B)$ of partial isometries $v\in M$ with $vBv^*\subseteq B$ and $v^*Bv\subseteq B$. Given two unital inclusions $B_i\subseteq M_i$ of von Neumann algebras, we examine groupoid normalisers for the tensor product inclusion $B_1\ \overline{\otimes}\ B_2\subseteq M_1\ \overline{\otimes}\ M_2$establishing the formula$$ \mathcal{GN}_{M_1\,\overline{\otimes}\,M_2}(B_1\ \overline{\otimes}\ B_2)''=\mathcal{GN}_{M_1}(B_1)''\ \overline{\otimes}\ \mathcal{GN}_{M_2}(B_2)'' $$ when one inclusion has a discrete relative commutant $B_1'\cap M_1$ equal to the centre of $B_1$ (no assumption is made on the second inclusion). This result also holds when one inclusion is a generator masa in a free group factor. We also examine when a unitary $u\in M_1\ \overline{\otimes}\ M_2$ normalising a tensor product $B_1\ \overline{\otimes}\ B_2$ of irreducible subfactors factorises as $w(v_1\otimes v_2)$ (for some unitary $w\in B_1\ \overline{\otimes}\ B_2$and normalisers$v_i\in\mathcal{N}_{M_i}(B_i)$). We obtain a positive result when one of the$M_i$is finite or both of the$B_i$are infinite. For the remaining case, we characterise the II$_1$factors$B_1$for which such factorisations always occur (for all$M_1, B_2$and$M_2$) as those with a trivial fundamental group.Comment: 22 page

General Practitioners' perceptions of the route to evidence-based medicine: a questionnaire survey

Objectives: To determine the attitude of general practitioners towards evidence based medicine and their related educational needs. Design: A questionnaire study of general practitioners. Setting: General practice in the former Wessex region, England. Subjects: Randomly selected sample of 25% of all general practitioners (452), of whom 302 replied. Main outcome measures: Respondents' attitude towards evidence based medicine, ability to access and interpret evidence, perceived barriers to practising evidence based medicine, and best method of moving from opinion based to evidence based medicine. Results: Respondents mainly welcomed evidence based medicine and agreed that its practice improves patient care. They had a low level of awareness of extracting journals, review publications, and databases (only 40% knew of the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews), and, even if aware, many did not use them. In their surgeries 20% had access to bibliographic databases and 17% to the world wide web. Most had some understanding of the technical terms used. The major perceived barrier to practising evidence based medicine was lack of personal time. Respondents thought the most appropriate way to move towards evidence based general practice was by using evidence based guidelines or proposals developed by colleagues. Conclusion: Promoting and improving access to summaries of evidence, rather than teaching all general practitioners literature searching and critical appraisal, would be the more appropriate method of encouraging evidence based general practice. General practitioners who are skilled in accessing and interpreting evidence should be encouraged to develop local evidence based guidelines and advice

Predicting cesarean section and uterine rupture among women attempting vaginal birth after prior cesarean section

<p><b>Background:</b> There is currently no validated method for antepartum prediction of the risk of failed vaginal birth after cesarean section and no information on the relationship between the risk of emergency cesarean delivery and the risk of uterine rupture.</p> <p><b>Methods and Findings:</b> We linked a national maternity hospital discharge database and a national registry of perinatal deaths. We studied 23,286 women with one prior cesarean delivery who attempted vaginal birth at or after 40-wk gestation. The population was randomly split into model development and validation groups. The factors associated with emergency cesarean section were maternal age (adjusted odds ratio [OR] = 1.22 per 5-y increase, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.16 to 1.28), maternal height (adjusted OR = 0.75 per 5-cm increase, 95% CI: 0.73 to 0.78), male fetus (adjusted OR = 1.18, 95% CI: 1.08 to 1.29), no previous vaginal birth (adjusted OR = 5.08, 95% CI: 4.52 to 5.72), prostaglandin induction of labor (adjusted OR = 1.42, 95% CI: 1.26 to 1.60), and birth at 41-wk (adjusted OR = 1.30, 95% CI: 1.18 to 1.42) or 42-wk (adjusted OR = 1.38, 95% CI: 1.17 to 1.62) gestation compared with 40-wk. In the validation group, 36% of the women had a low predicted risk of caesarean section (<20%) and 16.5% of women had a high predicted risk (>40%); 10.9% and 47.7% of these women, respectively, actually had deliveries by caesarean section. The predicted risk of caesarean section was also associated with the risk of all uterine rupture (OR for a 5% increase in predicted risk = 1.22, 95% CI: 1.14 to 1.31) and uterine rupture associated with perinatal death (OR for a 5% increase in predicted risk = 1.32, 95% CI: 1.02 to 1.73). The observed incidence of uterine rupture was 2.0 per 1,000 among women at low risk of cesarean section and 9.1 per 1,000 among those at high risk (relative risk = 4.5, 95% CI: 2.6 to 8.1). We present the model in a simple-to-use format.</p> <p><b>Conclusions:</b> We present, to our knowledge, the first validated model for antepartum prediction of the risk of failed vaginal birth after prior cesarean section. Women at increased risk of emergency caesarean section are also at increased risk of uterine rupture, including catastrophic rupture leading to perinatal death.</p&gt

Strong singularity of singular masas in II₁ factors

A singular masa A in a II1 factor N is defined by the property that any unitary w ∈ N for which A=wAw* must lie in A. A strongly singular masa A is one that satisfies the inequality ||EA- EwAw*||∞,2 ≥||w- EA(w)||2 for all unitaries w ∈ N where EA is the conditional expectation of N onto A, and ||⋅||∞,2 is defined for bounded maps Φ : N → N by sup{||Φ (x)||2:x ∈ N,||x||≤1}. Strong singularity easily implies singularity, and the main result of this paper shows the reverse implication

Perturbations of C*-algebraic invariants

Kadison and Kastler introduced a metric on the set of all C*-algebras on a fixed Hilbert space. In this paper structural properties of C*-algebras which are close in this metric are examined. Our main result is that the property of having a positive answer to Kadison’s similarity problem transfers to close C*-algebras. In establishing this result we answer questions about closeness of commutants and tensor products when one algebra satisfies the similarity property. We also examine K-theory and traces of close C*-algebras, showing that sufficiently close algebras have isomorphic Elliott invariants when one algebra has the similarity property

Normalizers of Irreducible Subfactors

We consider normalizers of an irreducible inclusion $N\subseteq M$ of $\mathrm{II}_1$ factors. In the infinite index setting an inclusion $uNu^*\subseteq N$ can be strict, forcing us to also investigate the semigroup of one-sided normalizers. We relate these normalizers of $N$ in $M$ to projections in the basic construction and show that every trace one projection in the relative commutant $N'\cap$ is of the form $u^*e_Nu$ for some unitary $u\in M$ with $uNu^*\subseteq N$. This enables us to identify the normalizers and the algebras they generate in several situations. In particular each normalizer of a tensor product of irreducible subfactors is a tensor product of normalizers modulo a unitary. We also examine normalizers of irreducible subfactors arising from subgroup--group inclusions $H\subseteq G$. Here the normalizers are the normalizing group elements modulo a unitary from $L(H)$. We are also able to identify the finite trace $L(H)$-bimodules in $\ell^2(G)$ as double cosets which are also finite unions of left cosets.Comment: 33 Page

The systemic environment: at the interface of aging and adult neurogenesis.

Aging results in impaired neurogenesis in the two neurogenic niches of the adult mammalian brain, the dentate gyrus of the hippocampus and the subventricular zone of the lateral ventricle. While significant work has characterized intrinsic cellular changes that contribute to this decline, it is increasingly apparent that the systemic environment also represents a critical driver of brain aging. Indeed, emerging studies utilizing the model of heterochronic parabiosis have revealed that immune-related molecular and cellular changes in the aging systemic environment negatively regulate adult neurogenesis. Interestingly, these studies have also demonstrated that age-related decline in neurogenesis can be ameliorated by exposure to the young systemic environment. While this burgeoning field of research is increasingly garnering interest, as yet, the precise mechanisms driving either the pro-aging effects of aged blood or the rejuvenating effects of young blood remain to be thoroughly defined. Here, we review how age-related changes in blood, blood-borne factors, and peripheral immune cells contribute to the age-related decline in adult neurogenesis in the mammalian brain, and posit both direct neural stem cell and indirect neurogenic niche-mediated mechanisms