"Strenuous Competition on the field of play, Diplomacy off it" – The 1908 London Olympics, Theodore Roosevelt, Arthur Balfour, and Transatlantic Relations

Through the lens of the 1908 Summer Olympic Games, and the sport-based ideals and philiospohies of the US president Roosevelt and the UK prime minister Balfour, this article explores the nature of transatlantic relations. It shows how views of sport cross into the political sphere and can be used in serious diplomatic relations and strategies

Communication about HIV and death: Maternal reports of primary school-aged children's questions after maternal HIV disclosure in rural South Africa

Introduction: Children's understanding of HIV and death in epidemic regions is under-researched. We investigated children's death-related questions post maternal HIV-disclosure. Secondary aims examined characteristics associated with death-related questions and consequences for children's mental health. Methods: HIV-infected mothers (N = 281) were supported to disclose their HIV status to their children (6–10 years) in an uncontrolled pre-post intervention evaluation. Children's questions post-disclosure were collected by maternal report, 1–2 weeks post-disclosure. 61/281 children asked 88 death-related questions, which were analysed qualitatively. Logistic regression analyses examined characteristics associated with death-related questions. Using the parent-report Child Behaviour Checklist (CBCL), linear regression analysis examined differences in total CBCL problems by group, controlling for baseline. Results: Children's questions were grouped into three themes: ‘threats’; ‘implications’ and ‘clarifications’. Children were most concerned about the threat of death, mother's survival, and prior family deaths. In multivariate analysis variables significantly associated with asking death-related questions included an absence of regular remittance to the mother (AOR 0.25 [CI 0.10, 0.59] p = 0.002), mother reporting the child's initial reaction to disclosure being “frightened” (AOR 6.57 [CI 2.75, 15.70] p=<0.001) and level of disclosure (full/partial) to the child (AOR 2.55 [CI 1.28, 5.06] p = 0.008). Controlling for significant variables and baseline, all children showed improvements on the CBCL post-intervention; with no significant differences on total problems scores post-intervention (β -0.096 SE1.366 t = -0.07 p = 0.944). Discussion: The content of questions children asked following disclosure indicate some understanding of HIV and, for almost a third of children, its potential consequence for parental death. Level of maternal disclosure and stability of financial support to the family may facilitate or inhibit discussions about death post-disclosure. Communication about death did not have immediate negative consequences on child behaviour according to maternal report. Conclusion: In sub-Saharan Africa, given exposure to death at young ages, meeting children's informational needs could increase their resilience

GEORGE BERNARD SHAW

O autor afirma que Shaw, em qualquer avaliação da literatura britânica, durante o século passado e o começo deste, merece um lugar proeminente.Uma das razões para isso, é que Shaw foi um escritor que percebeu a necessidade premente das mudanças sociais e tentou tornar essa necessidade evidente aos olhos dos outros.Desenvolvendo esse tema, o autor trata da centralidade das questões levantadas nas peças de Shaw, em relação aos problemas sociais, políticos, culturais e morais da época. No desenvolvimento cênico daquelas questões, Shaw desenvolve uma técnica teatral rigorosa e minuciosa em que os menoresdetalhes, formando um conjunto de expressão, são previamente controlados pelo dramaturgo, em suas instruções cênicas, onde o elemento visual do esquema da peça é tão importante como o elemento verbal, e os gestos dos atores são cuidadosamente cronometrados, de modo que, lendo-se uma ação descrita, ela pode representar quase nada, mas sendo encenada, elaadquire um alto valor de comunicação

SWUIS-A: A Versatile, Low-Cost UV/VIS/IR Imaging System for Airborne Astronomy and Aeronomy Research

We have developed and successfully flight-tested on 14 different airborne missions the hardware and techniques for routinely conducting valuable astronomical and aeronomical observations from high-performance, two-seater military-type aircraft. The SWUIS-A (Southwest Universal Imaging System - Airborne) system consists of an image-intensified CCD camera with broad band response from the near-UV to the near IR, high-quality foreoptics, a miniaturized video recorder, an aircraft-to-camera power and telemetry interface with associated camera controls, and associated cables, filters, and other minor equipment. SWUIS-A's suite of high-quality foreoptics gives it selectable, variable focal length/variable field-of-view capabilities. The SWUIS-A camera frames at 60 Hz video rates, which is a key requirement for both jitter compensation and high time resolution (useful for occultation, lightning, and auroral studies). Broadband SWUIS-A image coadds can exceed a limiting magnitude of V = 10.5 in <1 sec with dark sky conditions. A valuable attribute of SWUIS-A airborne observations is the fact that the astronomer flies with the instrument, thereby providing Space Shuttle-like "payload specialist" capability to "close-the-loop" in real-time on the research done on each research mission. Key advantages of the small, high-performance aircraft on which we can fly SWUIS-A include significant cost savings over larger, more conventional airborne platforms, worldwide basing obviating the need for expensive, campaign-style movement of specialized large aircraft and their logistics support teams, and ultimately faster reaction times to transient events. Compared to ground-based instruments, airborne research platforms offer superior atmospheric transmission, the mobility to reach remote and often-times otherwise unreachable locations over the Earth, and virtually-guaranteed good weather for observing the sky. Compared to space-based instruments, airborne platforms typically offer substantial cost advantages and the freedom to fly along nearly any groundtrack route for transient event tracking such as occultations and eclipses

Role of Spherical Aberration in Contrast Sensitivity Loss with Radial Keratotomy

A technique is described to determine the change in image contrast as a result of the spherical aberration induced by the radial keratotomy procedure. The hypothesis that the loss in contrast sensitivity of the RK eye is due to the change in spherical aberration postsurgically, is found to be acceptable for some patients. However, this is not a sufficient explanation in all cases. This conclusion may be due to assumptions inherent in the technique derived for calculating spherical aberration or to other factors of importance in the post-RK eye. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci 30: [1997][1998][1999][2000][2001]1989 It has been reported by several investigators 1 9 that some subjects show a measurable change in contrast sensitivity (CS) following radial keratotomy (RK). In some cases the losses reported appear transitory. In a recent study by Tomlinson and Caroline 1 CS was measured 1 year postoperatively on six subjects who had undergone RK on one eye only. In three of these subjects it was found that the CS of the maximally corrected, operated eye was significantly reduced compared to that of the maximally corrected, unoperated eye. Assuming that the CS of the unoperated eye is similar to the preoperative CS of the fellow eye this implies a reduction in visual performance as a consequence of RK. The losses in contrast sensitivity noted in this study 1 are not found in all patients undergoing the procedure. It is of interest to discover the source of the visual loss found in some patients since this might allow anticipation of such consequences of RK. Several possibilities have been considered including increased glare, 3 changes in corneal thickness 4 and change in retinal image size. 5 Another possibility, the one to be considered in this paper, is the loss of retinal image quality as a result of the change in spherical aberration of the post-RK cornea. Since we have pre-and 1 year postoperative photokeratoscopic data on each of the eyes which underwent RK in the previous study, it is possible to esti- mate the visual effects of increased spherical aberration resulting from change in corneal shape. We have carried out such a calculation and have compared our results to the measured differences in CS for each of the subjects. Technique of Calculation of Spherical Aberration with the Post-RK Eye Typical photokeratoscopic 10 data are shown in (1) and have used a least squares method to find the &quot;best&quot; values for the coefficients in Equation (1) by fitting Equation (1) to the nine data points. Typical pre-and postoperative results are shown i