The digital age project: strategies that enable older social housing residents to use the internet

Provides insights into the factors affecting technology adoption for older and disadvantaged people, and provides training and interface guidelines and a potential model for other public housing communities to become more digitally aware. Research Aims The experience of social housing communities in countries like the United Kingdom suggests that while access to digital infrastructure and equipment is important, access alone does not equate to digital inclusion. The aim of this research was two-fold, namely to: Understand the impact of access to and use of the internet, within a community of potentially vulnerable consumers; and, Determine the strategies that may assist people living in public housing communities to become more digitally aware and enable them to take advantage of online services such as health, government, news, shopping and methods of online communication. The research also sought to determine what benefits may flow from information technology skills to perceptions of social connectedness, self-efficacy, resilience, health and well-being. Given that people with low levels of computer literacy typically face greater risk of cognitive overload in attempting to learn new technologies, the principles and guidelines from Cognitive Load Theory were applied to training materials and activities to minimise cognitive load and thereby facilitate learning. The research was designed with a view to providing important insights into the factors affecting technology adoption for older and disadvantaged people, as well as providing training and interface guidelines and a potential model for other public housing communities to become more digitally aware

Exile Vol. XIII No. 2

FICTION The Garden by Joyce Horvath 5-8 Early Morning Man by Harvey Spurlock 12-24 28 Nisan 1960 by Cem Kozlu 29-35 Letters to the Editor by Rick Brown 39-55 POETRY World II by Jeffrey R. Smith 1-4 It is not for no reason by Bonnie Bishop 9 I have often wondered by Mike Engle 10 Without opera glasses by Trudi Spaeth 10 Differentiations in August by Alan Pavlik 11 Gold by Nancy Scott 25 With images by Trudi Spaeth 25 Grandpa by Karen Cozart 26-27 Meditation on a Line by Sylvia Plath by Lauren Shakely 28 Bantling by Francie King 36 Haiku by Suzanne Husting 36 I saw you yesterday by Rick Tucker 37 My Eyes Would Escape 38 ART untitled by Nancy Eastlake 8 The Diary of a Madman by Clare Conrad 24 Trumpeter by Bill Henderson 38 Untitled by Nancy Eastlake Cover design: Kee McFarland With special thanks to Mrs. Louis Brakeman for her services

An Intersection of Laws: Citizens United v. FEC

The Georgia State University College of Law will hold a one-day symposium on Friday, November 12, 2010, to discuss the controversial Supreme Court decision in Citizens United v. FEC. In Citizens United, the Court overruled Austin v. Michigan Chamber of Commerce and portions of McConnell v. FEC, holding bans on corporate independent campaign expenditures are unconstitutional under the First Amendment. Specifically, the Georgia State Law Review symposium will focus on how this case reflects the intersection of First Amendment Law, Corporate Law, and Election Law. The symposium itself will feature three 90-minute panel discussions focusing on each of these discreet areas. In addition, we will have a lunch time presentation by Heather Gerken of Yale Law School and a 60-minute panel discussion focusing on the impact of the decision on the Midterm Elections

Calvarium Thinning in Patients with Spontaneous Cerebrospinal Fluid Leaks of the Anterior Skull Base

Objectives/Hypothesis Patients with spontaneous cerebrospinal fluid leaks (sCSF-L) of the temporal bone have isolated calvarial and skull base thinning that is independent of obesity. This study determines if anterior skull base (ASB) sCSF-L patients also have calvarial thinning. Study Design Retrospective Cohort Study. Methods This was a retrospective cohort study of ASB sCSF-L patients compared to nonobese (body mass index [BMI] < 30 kg/m2) and obese (BMI ≥ 30) control groups. Twenty-one patients in the ASB sCSF-L group and 25 patients in each control group were included. Calvarium and extracranial zygoma thicknesses were measured bilaterally with blinded, standardized, volumetric analysis. Results ASB sCSF-L patients had a mean (SD) age of 50.43 (10.19) years, an average (SD) BMI of 38.81 (8.92) kg/m2, and most were female (85.71%). The calvarium in patients with ASB sCSF-L was significantly thinner than the nonobese (2.55 mm [0.77] vs. 2.97 [0.67] mm; P = .006; 95% confidence intervals [CI], 0.12–0.30; Cohen d, 0.58) and obese control groups (2.55 [0.77] vs. 2.92 [0.76] mm; P = .02; 95% CI, 0.05–0.34; Cohen d, 0.66). The calvarium thickness of the nonobese patients was not significantly different from the obese patient controls (2.97 [0.67] vs. 2.92 [0.76] mm, P = .9). The extracranial zygoma was not significantly different among the groups (analysis of variance, P = .33). Conclusions ASB sCSF-L patients have isolated calvarial thinning that is independent of obesity. Like lateral skull base sCSF-L patients, these data suggest that the additional obesity-associated intracranial process contributes to skull thinning

Pregnane X receptor regulates drug metabolism and transport in the vasculature and protects from oxidative stress

Aims Circulating endogenous, dietary and foreign chemicals can contribute to vascular dysfunction. The mechanism by which the vasculature protects itself from these chemicals is unknown. This study investigates whether the pregnane X receptor (PXR), the major transcriptional regulator of hepatic drug metabolism and transport that responds to such xenobiotics, mediates vascular protection by co-ordinating a defence gene program in the vasculature.Methods and Results PXR was detected in primary human and rat aortic endothelial and smooth muscle cells and blood vessels including human and rat aorta. Metabolic PXR target genes cytochrome P450 3A, 2B, 2C and glutathione-S-transferase mRNA and activity were induced by PXR ligands in rodent and human vascular cells and absent in the aortas from PXR null mice stimulated in vivo or in rat aortic smooth muscle cells expressing dominant negative PXR. Activation of aortic PXR by classical agonists had several protective effects; increased xenobiotic metabolism demonstrated by bio-activation of the pro-drug clopidogrel, which reduced adenosine diphosphate-induced platelet aggregation; increased expression of multidrug resistance protein 1, mediating chemical efflux from the vasculature; and protection from reactive oxygen species-mediated cell death.Conclusions PXR co-ordinately up-regulates drug metabolism, transport and anti-oxidant genes to protect the vasculature from endogenous and exogenous insults, thus representing a novel gatekeeper for vascular defence