Design Features for the Social Web: The Architecture of Deme

We characterize the "social Web" and argue for several features that are desirable for users of socially oriented web applications. We describe the architecture of Deme, a web content management system (WCMS) and extensible framework, and show how it implements these desired features. We then compare Deme on our desiderata with other web technologies: traditional HTML, previous open source WCMSs (illustrated by Drupal), commercial Web 2.0 applications, and open-source, object-oriented web application frameworks. The analysis suggests that a WCMS can be well suited to building social websites if it makes more of the features of object-oriented programming, such as polymorphism, and class inheritance, available to non-programmers in an accessible vocabulary.Comment: Appeared in Luis Olsina, Oscar Pastor, Daniel Schwabe, Gustavo Rossi, and Marco Winckler (Editors), Proceedings of the 8th International Workshop on Web-Oriented Software Technologies (IWWOST 2009), CEUR Workshop Proceedings, Volume 493, August 2009, pp. 40-51; 12 pages, 2 figures, 1 tabl

Sushi in the United States, 1945-1970

Sushi first achieved widespread popularity in the United States in the mid-1960s. Many accounts of sushi’s US establishment foreground the role of a small number of key actors, yet underplay the role of a complex web of large-scale factors that provided the context in which sushi was able to flourish. This article critically reviews existing literature, arguing that sushi’s US popularity arose from contingent, long-term, and gradual processes. It examines US newspaper accounts of sushi during 1945–1970, which suggest the discursive context for US acceptance of sushi was considerably more propitious than generally acknowledged. Using California as a case study, the analysis also explains conducive social and material factors, and directs attention to the interplay of supply- and demand-side forces in the favorable positioning of this “new” food. The article argues that the US establishment of sushi can be understood as part of broader public acceptance of Japanese cuisine

High Prevalence of Antimicrobial Resistance among Shigella Isolates in the United States Tested by the National Antimicrobial Resistance Monitoring System from 1999 to 2002

Shigella spp. infect approximately 450,000 persons annually in the United States, resulting in over 6,000 hospitalizations. Since 1999, the National Antimicrobial Resistance Monitoring System (NARMS) for Enteric Bacteria has tested every 10th Shigella isolate from 16 state or local public health laboratories for susceptibility to 15 antimicrobial agents. From 1999 to 2002, NARMS tested 1,604 isolates. Among 1,598 isolates identified to species level, 1,278 (80%) were Shigella sonnei, 295 (18%) were Shigella flexneri, 18 (1%) were Shigella boydii, and 7 (0.4%) were Shigella dysenteriae. Overall, 1,251 (78%) were resistant to ampicillin and 744 (46%) were resistant to trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole (TMP-SMX). Prevalence of TMP-SMX- or ampicillin- and TMP-SMX-resistant Shigella sonnei isolates varied by geographic region, with lower rates in the South and Midwest regions (TMP-SMX resistance, 27% and 30%, respectively; ampicillin and TMP-SMX resistance, 25% and 22%, respectively) and higher rates in the East and West regions (TMP-SMX resistance, 66% and 80%, respectively; ampicillin and TMP-SMX resistance, 54% and 65%, respectively). Nineteen isolates (1%) were resistant to nalidixic acid (1% of S. sonnei and 2% of S. flexneri isolates); 12 (63%) of these isolates had decreased susceptibility to ciprofloxacin. One S. flexneri isolate was resistant to ciprofloxacin. All isolates were susceptible to ceftriaxone. Since 1986, resistance to ampicillin and TMP-SMX has dramatically increased. Shigella isolates in the United States remain susceptible to ciprofloxacin and ceftriaxone