Some American Dolomites

These rocks are among the important building materials of the country and have a wide distribution. We secured a few typical specimens from different sections, in order to make a comparison of their chemical composition. The specimens analyzed are all used as building stones in their respective localities

Differing Impact Levels from Risk Factors on Virtual and Co-Located Software Development Projects

Although software development projects increasingly incorporate virtual team members they still fall prey to risks which produce challenges as do co-located projects. Most research performed on project risk was conducted on projects using traditional co-located team members. This paper reports on the results of a survey of over 150 Information Technology (IT) practitioners. One goal of the survey was to identify differences in the degree of impact between risk factors on virtual software projects and those on co-located software projects. Out of fifty-five surveyed risk factors, seven risk factors showed significant differences in impact on the successful completion of projects in these two types of project environments. Additionally, the results showed a greater impact for each of the seven risk factors on virtual rather than co-located software projects. These results can be useful to practitioners who are managing in a virtual environment and need to correctly identify potential risks

Adolescents with irritable bowel syndrome report increased eating-associated symptoms, changes in dietary composition, and altered eating behaviors: a pilot comparison study to healthy adolescents

About half of adult Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) patients report symptoms with eating and disordered eating habits. However little is known about eating in adolescent IBS patients, a common age at which eating disorders develop. The aim of the study was to investigate if adolescents with IBS are more likely than healthy controls to experience eating associated symptoms, report disordered eating patterns, and show differences in diet composition

Localization and Causality for a free particle

Theorems (most notably by Hegerfeldt) prove that an initially localized particle whose time evolution is determined by a positive Hamiltonian will violate causality. We argue that this apparent paradox is resolved for a free particle described by either the Dirac equation or the Klein-Gordon equation because such a particle cannot be localized in the sense required by the theorems.Comment: 9 pages,no figures,new section adde

Foot-and-Mouth Disease Impact on Smallholders - What Do We Know, What Don't We Know and How Can We Find Out More?

Foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) endemic regions contain three-quarters of the world's FMD susceptible livestock and most of the world's poor livestock keepers. Yet FMD impact on smallholders in these regions is poorly understood. Diseases of low mortality can exert a large impact if incidence is high. Modelling and field studies commonly find high FMD incidence in endemic countries. Sero-surveys typically find a third of young cattle are sero-positive, however, the proportion of sero-positive animals that developed disease, and resulting impact, are unknown. The few smallholder FMD impact studies that have been performed assessed different aspects of impact, using different approaches. They find that FMD impact can be high (>10% of annual household income). However, impact is highly variable, being a function of FMD incidence and dependency on activities affected by FMD. FMD restricts investment in productive but less FMD-resilient farming methods, however, other barriers to efficient production may exist, reducing the benefits of FMD control. Applying control measures is costly and can have wide-reaching negative impacts; veterinary-cordon-fences may damage wildlife populations, and livestock movement restrictions and trade bans damage farmer profits and the wider economy. When control measures are ineffective, farmers, society and wildlife may experience the burden of control without reducing disease burden. Foot-and-mouth disease control has benefitted smallholders in South America and elsewhere. Success takes decades of regional cooperation with effective veterinary services and widespread farmer participation. However, both the likelihood of success and the full cost of control measures must be considered. Controlling FMD in smallholder systems is challenging, particularly when movement restrictions are hard to enforce. In parts of Africa this is compounded by endemically infected wildlife and limited vaccine performance. This paper reviews FMD impact on smallholders in endemic countries. Significant evidence gaps exist and guidance on the design of FMD impact studies is provided

Pain and quality of life in youth with inflammatory bowel disease: The role of parent and youth perspectives on family functioning

Introduction: Daily pain experiences are a common feature of pediatric inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), which can negatively influence their health-related quality of life (HRQOL). A holistic, family systems approach is needed to further our understanding of daily pain experiences in youth with IBD and their influence on youth’s HRQOL. Objectives: The study’s objectives were to 1) provide a detailed description of daily pain experiences in youth with IBD, 2) investigate the relative contribution of family functioning and pain in explaining youth’s HRQOL, and 3) explore differences in parental and youth perspectives. Methods: Sixty youth with IBD (8-17years) and a parent completed questionnaires to assess family functioning, HRQOL and pain experiences within the past week. A subsample of 16 youth completed an online diary (7 days) about their pain experiences. Results: When including any pain experiences, higher youth-reported family satisfaction and lower pain intensity were related to better HRQOL, while higher parent-reported family cohesion and satisfaction indirectly related to youth HRQOL via lower pain intensity. When only accounting for abdominal pain, pain intensity related negatively with HRQOL, and only parent-reported cohesion showed an indirect relation with HRQOL via pain intensity. Diary data revealed large heterogeneity: abdominal pain, described as cramping, sharp, and/or stinging was most frequent, but other pain symptoms (e.g. back pain, headache) often co-occured. Conclusion: The findings provide a rich picture of the daily pain experiences of youth with IBD and underscore the importance of a family systems approach to understand how family functioning and pain symptoms influence HRQOL

Local states of free bose fields

These notes contain an extended version of lectures given at the ``Summer School on Large Coulomb Systems'' in Nordfjordeid, Norway, in august 2003. They furnish a short introduction to the theory of quantum harmonic systems, or free bose fields. The main issue addressed is the one of local states. I will adopt the definition of Knight of ``strictly local excitation of the vacuum'' and will then state and prove a generalization of Knight's Theorem which asserts that finite particle states cannot be perfectly localized. It will furthermore be explained how Knight's a priori counterintuitive result can be readily understood if one remembers the analogy between finite and infinite dimensional harmonic systems alluded to above. I will also discuss the link between the above result and the so-called Newton-Wigner position operator thereby illuminating, I believe, the difficulties associated with the latter. I will in particular argue that those difficulties do not find their origin in special relativity or in any form of causality violation, as is usually claimed

Transition readiness assessment: The importance of the adolescent perspective

Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/136535/1/petr12921_am.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/136535/2/petr12921.pd

Matrix-free calcium in isolated chromaffin vesicles

Isolated secretory vesicles from bovine adrenal medulla contain 80 nmol of Ca2+ and 25 nmol of Mg2+ per milligram of protein. As determined with a Ca2+-selective electrode, a further accumulation of about 160 nmol of Ca2+/mg of protein can be attained upon addition of the Ca2+ ionophore A23187. During this process protons are released from the vesicles, in exchange for Ca2+ ions, as indicated by the decrease of the pH in the incubation medium or the release of 9-aminoacridine previously taken up by the vesicles. Intravesicular Mg2+ is not released from the vesicles by A23 187, as determined by atomic emission spectroscopy. In the presence of N H Q , which causes the collapse of the secretory vesicle transmembrane proton gradient (ApH), Ca2+ uptake decreases. Under these conditions A23 187-mediated influx of Ca2+ and efflux of H+ cease at Ca2+ concentrations of about 4 pM. Below this concentration Ca2+ is even released from the vesicles. At the Ca2+ concentration at which no net flux of ions occurs the intravesicular matrix free Ca2+ equals the extravesicular free Ca2+. In the absence of NH4C1 we determined an intravesicular pH of 6.2. Under these conditions the Ca2+ influx ceases around 0.15 pM. From this value and the known pH across the vesicular membrane an intravesicular matrix free Ca2+ concentration of about 24 pM was calculated. This is within the same order of magnitude as the concentration of free Ca2+ in the vesicles determined in the presence of NH4C1. Calculation of the total Ca2+ present in the secretory vesicles gives an apparent intravesicular Ca2+ concentration of 40 mM, which is a factor of lo4 higher than the free intravesicular concentration of Ca2+. It can be concluded, therefore, that the concentration gradient of free Ca2+ across the secretory vesicle membrane in the intact chromaffin cells is probably small, which implies that less energy is required to accumulate and maintain Ca2+ within the vesicles than was previously anticipated