Diagnosis and treatment of paraneoplastic neurological disorders

In about two thirds of cases, patients with paraneoplastic neurological disorders present to the neurologist without a known tumor. Due to the ongoing immune response, this tumor tends to stay biologically relatively benign, and therefore difficult to diagnose. In patients with a known tumor, the neurological symptoms often precede a tumor recurrence. In both scenarios, anti-neuronal antibodies are an invaluable diagnostic help to the clinician, and may be supplemented by other diagnostic tests such as MRI, CSF, and electrophysiology. Tumor therapy remains the mainstay of therapeutic options, although early immune therapy must be started in parallel. It is hoped that the recent fundamental advances in understanding the autoimmune pathology of these disorders, especially the role of cytotoxic T cells, will eventually lead to more effective treatment options

Orgelunterricht am Lehrerseminar in Straubing. Versuch einer Rekonstruktion

Der Dienst als Kantor und Organist gehört zu den häufigsten Nebentätigkeiten des Volksschullehrers im 19. Jahrhundert. Er war sowohl von staatlicher als auch von kirchlicher Seite erwünscht und für die kirchenmusikalische Versorgung im ländlichen und kleinstädtischen Bereich von wesentlicher Bedeutung. Um diese Dienstleistung zu sichern, stellte die Ausbildung zum Organisten einen wichtigen Teil der seminaristischen Lehrerbildung im 19. Jahrhundert dar. Die Dissertationsschrift Orgelunterricht in der seminaristischen Lehrerbildung beabsichtigt, diese Ausbildung zu erforschen und in ihrer Eigenart darzustellen. Dabei wird, neben der Darstellung der entsprechenden Ausbildungsordnungen und einer Analyse der relevanten Unterrichts werke, auch der Versuch unternommen, Einblicke in die Realität des Orgelunterrichts zu gewähren. Dass der Orgelunterricht an den Lehrerbildungsanstalten sehr unterschiedlich sein konnte, geht aus den Quellen eindeutig hervor. Um das Thema konkreter zu erfassen, wird der Versuch unternommen, ein Lehrerseminar exemplarisch herauszugreifen. Da für die im Rahmen der Dissertation ebenfalls durchgeführte Studie zum Berufsalltag der Kirchschullehrer bereits eine umfangreiche Quelle aus der Nähe von Straubing / Niederbayern zur Verfügung steht, liegt es nahe, auch für die Darstellung der Realität des Orgelunterrichts auf das Lehrerseminar im niederbayerischen Straubing zurückzugreifen. (DIPF/Orig.

Labor Law-Federal Pre-Emption-State Power to Exclude Ex-Felons From Union Office

A New York statute, implementing a congressionally-approved interstate compact, prohibits a waterfront union from collecting dues if any officer of the union has been convicted of a felony, unless he has been subsequently pardoned or given a certificate of good conduct by the parole board. In response to a threat of prosecution by the defendant district attorney, plaintiff\u27s international union suspended him from his local union office on a showing that he had been convicted of grand larceny in 1920. Plaintiff sought in a declaratory suit to have the statute declared unconstitutional and to have its operation enjoined. The New York trial court granted defendant\u27s motion for judgment on the pleadings; this was affirmed by the appellate division and by the court of appeals. On appeal to the United States Supreme Court, held, affirmed, three Justices dissenting a Despite potential conflict with the National Labor Relations Act and the Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act of 1959, the state statute does not violate the supremacy clause of the Constitution since Congress has demonstrated its intent to permit this form of state regulation of labor activities. De Veau v. Braisted, 363 U.S. 144 (1960)

Developing and Assessing a Workshop That Utilizes a Serious Game to Introduce Joint All-domain Operations

The DoD has begun developing Joint All-Domain Operations (JADO) to prepare for the future of warfare. As complexity and technological capability increases, the U.S. military needs to adapt to provide a more lethal and capable force, able to compete and win against near-peer adversaries. This research describes the development of an Introduction to JADO Workshop designed to provide a structured primer into JADO concepts. The research also presents an extension of BSN in the form of BSN scenarios. These scenarios alter the rules to lessen the learning curve for the game and to engage with JADO concepts. This research proposed a format for future JADO education course, refined the BSN tool to improve effectiveness, measurement of the response to JADO education, and an assessment of the workshop from JADO leaders across the Air Force

Negligence - Interspousal Tort Immunity - Action by Wife Against Deceased Husband\u27s Estate

When the automobile driven by plaintiff\u27s husband collided with another vehicle, plaintiff\u27s husband was killed and she was seriously injured and rendered mentally incompetent. Plaintiff\u27s guardian brought a negligence action for her injuries against the other driver, who impleaded the administrator of her husband\u27s estate as a third-party defendant. The trial court denied administrator\u27s pre-trial motion for summary judgment, and subsequently entered judgment against the administrator. On certification, held, affirmed. The doctrine of tort immunity between spouses is based on a policy of preserving domestic peace and harmony and preventing fraudulent collusion against insurance companies, and does not apply where death dissolves the marital relationship and eliminates the opportunity for collusion. Long v. Landy, 171 A.2d 1 (N.J. 1961)

Teachers\u27, Students\u27, and Principal\u27s Perceptions of School Effectiveness Factors at Sullivan High School

Statement of Purpose The purpose of this field experience is to compare and contrast school effectiveness factors from the prospectives of students, teachers, and principal (the researcher) of Sullivan High School. In order to evaluate the effectiveness of a school, the perceptions of these people are determined to be most important. Therefore, this researcher recognized the need to ascertain and study such data. Procedure Three surveys were developed by Dr. Dave Bartz, Associate Professor of Educational Administration of Eastern Illinois University, based on a review of current literature addressing the issue of identifying school effectiveness factors. These were a Teacher Feedback Survey, Student Feedback Survey, and Principal Feedback Survey. The surveys were distributed to the teachers and students on February 7, 1985. The surveys were scored by the computer center at Eastern Illinois University. The study is divided into five chapters. Chapter One gives background information concerning why this topic was chosen, relates the specific statement of the problem being researched, and gives the limitations of the study. Chapter Two is a study of the related literature and research concerning school effectiveness factors. Chapter Three expains the design of the study, the method of data collection and instrumentation, and the method of data analysis. Chapter Four lists the results, recommendations, and conclusions of the data that was collected from the three surveys. Chapter Five summarizes the recommendations of the researcher based on the results of the surveys. Twenty recommendations are listed

The Electric Zoo: Video Game Paratext in American Arcades and Homes

This thesis explores the use of paratext, or the material surrounding a text, in the rise of video games in American arcades and homes. Paratext bridged the gap between the game and the player, inviting players to play and providing context to a game\u27s content. By translating game rules into context players understood, paratext mirrored American culture and common themes players recognized. While arcades were the originating space for video games, home console games became more prevalent in the late 1970s and eclipsed the arcade as innovative space for video games. Atari dominated the game industry and its paratext through the video game market crash in 1982 and 1983. Following that, Nintendo used paratext to create and control its own image to break into the American market. The research shows that material surrounding a game remained as important as gameplay throughout the formative years of the game industry

Fonctionnement hydrologique d'un interfluve sédimentaire de la plaine côtière ancienne de Guyane Française

Le fonctionnement hydrologique de la plaine côtière ancienne de Guyane française constitue une des contraintes majeures à sa mise en valeur agricole, du fait de l'existence de périodes d'excès d'eau prolongées.L'objectif de cet article est d'analyser, sur un interfluve caractéristique de la plaine côtière ancienne, la forme et la dynamique de la nappe et ses sources d'alimentation en relation avec la variabilité des propriétés physiques des sols.Sur le plan expérimental, le travail est conduit à partir d'un suivi hydrologique in situ des fluctuations de la nappe observées sur 21 stations et d'une caractérisation de la variabilité spatiale de la conductivité hydraulique des sols par la méthode du trou de tarière à charge variable. Sur le plan de la modélisation, l'identification de la répartition spatiale de la recharge sur l'interfluve est déterminée par une modélisation inverse. Les suivis montrent d'une part la rapidité de réponse de la nappe aux pluies et d'autre part des temps de présence de la nappe en surface variables selon les sols. La modélisation conforte l'hypothèse d'isolement hydraulique de l'interfluve. La dynamique de la nappe est directement reliée aux entrées pluviométriques et dans une moindre mesure aux sols. La variabilité spatiale de la recharge est par ailleurs sous la dépendance de la topographie et de l'hétérogénéité spatiale de la conductivité hydraulique. Enfin, une estimation du ruissellement de surface souligne son importance sur l'interfluve.Les résultats obtenus montrent que l'engorgement des sols de la plaine côtière est sous la dépendance directe des processus hydrologiques observés à l'échelle de chaque interfluve. La prédiction des zones à excès d'eau marqué et des zones où la recharge est homogène peut être envisagée à partir de la connaissance de la topographie et de la distribution des sols. Sur le plan agronomique et pour les sols à forte contrainte hydrique, la mise en place de systèmes de drainage permettant leur mise en valeur agricole est à considérer.The hydrological behaviour of the old coastal plain in French Guyana causes intense soil waterlogging, which is a major constraint to the agricultural development of this area. The old coastal plain presents a succession of similar old offshore bars (Fig. 1). To elucidate the factors affecting groundwater fluctuations in the plain, the hydrological behaviour of one typical bar was studied. This paper presents the results of the survey of the bar and of the identification of groundwater recharge by inverse modelling. It also investigates the relationships between the spatial variability of recharge rates, the topography, and the soil distribution over the bar to provide means for extrapolation to the whole plain.A bar, covering 0.16 km2, was chosen for the present study (Fig. 2). The maximum relief of the bar is 5 m and its general elevation lies between 2 and 7 m above sea level. The bar is drained by two convergent thalwegs. An important lateral and vertical soil differentiation was observed over a depth of approximately 1 m. Four main soil types (FAO/UNESCO classification) were identified at specific positions on the bar: podzols on the top, ferralsols on the upper slope, alluvial gleysols on the thalwegs and planosolic soils on the mid slope and between ferralsols and podzols. Ferralsols exhibit a progressive increase of clay content with increasing depth. The other soil types present sandy horizons with an irregular textural discontinuity (TD) located at a depth of 70 to 100 cm. Underneath the textural discontinuity lies a sandy clay marine alluvium, which is heterogeneous, ferrallitized and hydromorphic, with lenses of sand and clay. An impervious clay layer (NI) occurs at the base of the bar at an average height of 2 m above sea level. The climate is equatorial and has two marked seasons, wet and dry. Rain is mostly confined to the period November-July, but with a maximum from May to July. Mean annual rainfall is 2700 mm.A network of 21 piezometers was set up at the various topographic and pedological situations (Fig. 3). Six sampling sites were also equipped with tensiometers and access tubes for neutron probes. Groundwater monitoring lasted for three years from 1983 to 1986. The variability of soil hydraulic conductivity over the bar was measured by the auger hole method at the intersections of a 50 m square grid and at 25 m away from a few such intersections. A geostatistical analysis was performed and kriged maps of hydraulic conductivity were produced (Figs. 4 and 5). The comparison between the kriged maps and the soil map indicates that ferralsols exhibit higher conductivities than the other soils.Groundwater monitoring showed three main points. First, a fast response of groundwater fluctuations to rainfall was observed on the bar, which suggests that the hydrology of the bar is little influenced by contributions from neighbouring bars or from the Precambrian basement situated upgradient. Second, time length of soil saturation varied markedly over the bar and was related to the soil types (Fig. 7). Lastly, the observed spatial variability of the hydraulic conductivities and the evolution of water table levels indicate the possibility of a variable distribution of recharge over the bar.The deterministic flow model used for this study, WATASI (WAter TAble SImulation, Wolsack, 1982) is based on a Darcy-Dupuit hydraulic schematization. It is an integrated finite element and multilayer groundwater model with square cells of variable size. Here, three layers were considered: one representing the topsoil, from surface to the textural discontinuity, the second representing the sandy clayey alluvium, lying over the impervious layer, and the third representing the thalwegs surrounding the interfluve (Fig. 10). All layers were divided into cells whose length was either 25 m or 50 m. For the purpose of recharge identification, according to the results of the survey, the cells were grouped in six zones of homogeneous slope and soil type, with each zone assumed to exhibit constant recharge. Calibration of the parameters of the model and identification of recharge over the six zones were conducted over three periods, one exhibiting steady state flow and the two others transient flow, by minimizing the difference between the measured and simulated hydraulic heads. The results obtained by the simulation approach are:- No assumption of lateral inflow is necessary to simulate properly the evolution of hydraulic heads (Figs. 11 and 13); thus groundwater recharge only originates from the seepage of rainfall through the soil cover of the bar. - The spatial variability of recharge appears to follow firstly the slope distribution, and secondly the soil distribution: zones of high recharge correspond to zones of limited waterlogging and vice versa (Figs. 12 and 14). - The estimated rates of recharge are small in comparison to rainfall, and soil water budget calculations demonstrate the existence of large runoff rates. It can be concluded that the waterlogging of soils on the old coastal plain is mainly caused by the hydrological processes at the scale of each bar. Thus, for improving the agricultural suitability of the soils on the plain, local drainage of the waterlogged soils should be sufficient. To predict over the plain which zones should be drained, information on topography and soil distribution can be used as there are good correlations between the variability of these parameters and the variability in groundwater recharge and water table depths