Gene therapy:the potential applicability of gene transfer technology to the human germline

The theoretical possibility of applying gene transfer methodologies to the human germline is explored. Transgenic methods for genetically manipulating embryos may in principle be applied to humans. In particular, microinjection of retroviral vector appears to hold the greatest promise, with transgenic primates already obtained from this approach. Sperm-mediated gene transfer offers potentially the easiest route to the human germline, however the requisite methodology is presently underdeveloped. Nuclear transfer (cloning) offers an alternative approach to germline genetic modification, however there are major health concerns associated with current nuclear transfer methods. It is concluded that human germline gene therapy remains for all practical purposes a future possibility that must await significant and important advances in gene transfer technology

Factors influencing the inclusion of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) in undergraduate medical education

Objective To investigate the views and practices of UK medical schools regarding the inclusion (or exclusion) of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) in undergraduate medical curricula. Design Survey (by email) of UK medical schools offering MBBS (or equivalent) degrees. Results The overall response rate was 58.1% (18/31). All respondents indicated that their curricula included CAM elements. However, the quantity of CAM within curricula varied widely between medical schools, as did the methods by which CAM education was delivered. General Medical Council requirements were the strongest factor influencing the inclusion of CAM, although medical student preferences were also important. Respondents were generally satisfied with the extent of CAM provision within their curricula, while a wide range of views on the appropriateness of CAM in the medical curriculum were held by faculty members. Conclusions It may be useful for the General Medical Council to clarify the extent to which CAM should be incorporated into the curriculum. Current CAM education appears to exist primarily as a means of educating future doctors on the modalities that their patients may use or request. However, some forms of pedagogy arguably risk students assimilating CAM advocacy in an uncritical fashion

On Additive Divisor Sums and Partial Divisor Functions

We establish asymptotic formulae for various correlations involving general divisor functions $d_k(n)$ and partial divisor functions $d_l(n,A)=\sum_{q|n:q\leq n^A}d_{l-1}(q)$, where $A\in[0,1]$ is a parameter and $k,l\in\mathbb{N}$ are fixed. Our results relate the parameter $A$ to the lengths of arithmetic progressions in which $d_k(n)$ is uniformly distributed. As applications to additive divisor sums, we establish new lower bounds and a new equivalent condition for the conjectured asymptotic. We also prove a Tauberian theorem for general additive divisor sums.Comment: 28 page

Numbers of At-Risk Structures and Roadways in the City of Austin Floodplain

This memo presents information regarding the number of at-risk roadways and buildings in Austin floodplains.Waller Creek Working Grou

Evaluation of Pre-Trial Diversion Project, State of Alaska, Department of Law

In February 1978 the Alaska Department of Law initiated a pilot pretrial intervention (PTI) project in Anchorage directed at first-time property offenders with no history of violence and no current drug or alcohol dependency. The project was aimed at reducing recidivism and costs to the criminal justice system, and included a built-in evaluation component. This report explores the PTI project's impact by (1) comparing PTI clients with other defendants; (2) investigating compliance of PTI clients with contracts to which they agree at time of program entry; (3) comparing costs of PTI compared with those generated in ordinary criminal cases; (4) evaluating the program's administration, identifying its deficiencies, and suggesting improvements; and (5) looking at recidivism rates of PTI clients.State of Alaska Department of Law Grant No. 78-A-014 Law Enforcement Assistance Administration, United States Department of JusticeAcknowledgements / Introduction / Project Background / Project Clientele / Client Performance / Cost Comparisons / Project Administration / Appendix A. Eligibility Criteria / Appendix B. Data Collection For

Raising the Bar on Training at Valparaiso University

We have recently overhauled our IT training program that we offer our students, faculty and staff. In the past, the training program consisted of sessions about changes to campus systems or sessions related to very specific software uses such as mail merge or tables. Users can now expect that training will be more than software use and how-to’s. We have started looking at ways to enhance our clients overall use of campus technology. As we examined ways to better serve our campus community, we engaged in qualitative observations in many areas. We examined how our graduate students were using technology to collaborate. The faculty were observed by our training staff to see how they were employing campus technology in courses and integrating technology into their assignments given to students. We interviewed our Help Desk Student Consultants to see what they observed as major training goals throughout the campus based on their interactions with clients. Upon completion of our observations, we outline our course development plans for increasing technology integration and full use of our campus technology offerings to further our mission of enhancing learning, teaching and job function through technology. Our goal is to reach beyond the software functionality and take our clients to the apex of relevance and application

Toward the automated assessment of entity-relationship diagrams

The need to interpret imprecise diagrams (those with malformed, missing or extraneous features) occurs in the automated assessment of diagrams. We outline our proposal for an architecture to enable the interpretation of imprecise diagrams. We discuss our preliminary work on an assessment tool, developed within this architecture, for automatically grading answers to a computer architecture examination question. Early indications are that performance is similar to that of human markers. We will be using Entity-Relationship Diagrams (ERDs) as the primary application area for our investigation of automated assessment. This paper will detail our reasons for choosing this area and outline the work ahead

Truth­-Makers

During the realist revival in the early years of this century, philosophers of various persuasions were concerned to investigate the ontology of truth. That is, whether or not they viewed truth as a correspondence, they were interested in the extent to which one needed to assume the existence of entities serving some role in accounting for the truth of sentences. Certain of these entities, such as the Sätze an sich of Bolzano, the Gedanken of Frege, or the propositions of Russell and Moore, were conceived as the bearers of the properties of truth and falsehood. Some thinkers however, such as Russell, Wittgenstein in the Tractatus, and Husserl in the Logische Untersuchungen, argued that instead of, or in addition to, truth-bearers, one must assume the existence of certain entities in virtue of which sentences and/or propositions are true. Various names were used for these entities, notably 'fact', 'Sachverhalt', and 'state of affairs'. (1) In order not to prejudge the suitability of these words we shall initially employ a more neutral terminology, calling any entities which are candidates for this role truth-makers