Factual Causation: The Missing Link in Hydraulic Fracture—Groundwater Contamination Litigation

A speech-based material that early can assess a child's hearing is needed to provide an indication of a hearing impaired child's language development. Being able to identify and discriminate between different sounds is a requirement for interpreting speech. Hearing assessments that examine speech perception can therefore, unlike, for example, pure tone audiometry, examine a hearing impaired child's perceptual language skills and provide a basis for intervention. The purpose of this work is to evaluate a new auditory material on 3-year-old children. The auditory material is based on the Ling-6-sounds and the main question was which of the sounds in the test were adequate for test of discrimination. Furthermore, it was investigated how the test works with children aged 3:0–3:11 years and how age and gender affect the result. Twenty-four children aged 3:0–3:11 years were tested using a computer based test. The goal  for the child was to discriminate between pairs of sounds and react to an odd pair. Several instruction techniques were tested by two different test administrators. The results of the tests indicated that equal pairs of sounds (/do/-/do/, /s/-/s/) gave more correct responses. The test section where only two different pairs were used generated more adequate responses than the test section with six different pairs. Differences in age influenced the outcome more than sex and different instructions. There is also a need for improved instructions and sounds. Generally, children became more involved in the test when given instructions that were short and direct

Wood deck bridges-stress laminated wood panels on steel beams

The objective of this project was to simulate a stress laminated timber bridge deck model stiffened with wide flange steel stringers for performance monitoring. The simulation accounted for typical HS-20 repetitive loadings offered by a mechanically controlled actuator.;Based on the results incorporated in this report and additional projects accredited in the literature review, some general recommendations can be established regarding the best approach for constructing timber bridges in the future.;In general, short span prestressed timber bridges appear to be a reliable alternative in rural bridge design applications. Pure aesthetics responsive to timber construction add to the allure of this optional approach. Incorporation of steel stringers offers adequate stiffness contributions, while serving to lower overall project costs and nominal space requirements. Additional stringer implementation, along with an increased deck thickness, should accommodate any imposing design equations

Factors affecting pathways to care for children and adolescents with complex vascular malformations: Parental perspectives

BACKGROUND: Complex vascular malformations (VMs) are rare disorders that can cause pain, coagulopathy, disfigurement, asymmetric growth, and disability. Patients with complex VMs experience misdiagnosis, delayed diagnosis, delayed or inappropriate treatments, and worsened health. Given the potential consequences of delaying expert care, we must identify the factors that impede or facilitate this access to care. RESULTS: We performed semi-structured interviews with 24 parents (21 mothers; 3 fathers; median age = 42.5 years) of children with complex VMs and overgrowth disorders living in the US, recruited through two patient advocacy groups - CLOVES Syndrome Community, and Klippel-Trenaunay Support Group. We performed thematic analysis to assess parental perspectives on barriers and facilitators to accessing expert care. We identified 11 factors, representing 6 overarching themes, affecting families\u27 ability to access and maintain effective care for their child: individual characteristics (clinician behaviors and characteristics, parent behaviors and characteristics), health care system (availability of specialist multidisciplinary teams, care coordination and logistics, insurance and financial issues, treatments and services), clinical characteristics (accuracy and timing of diagnosis, features of clinical presentation), social support networks, scientific progress, and luck and privilege. Additionally, access to information about VMs and VM care was a crosscutting theme affecting each of these factors. These factors influenced both the initial access to care and the ongoing maintenance of care for children with VMs. CONCLUSION: Parents of children with VMs report multiple factors that facilitate or impede their ability to provide their child with optimal care. These factors represent possible targets for future interventions to improve care delivery for families affected by VMs

Progress toward phidianidine analogues containing a 1,2,3-triazole ring

Phidianidines are a class of compound that has been extracted from the sea mollusk Phidianis militaris. These compounds have been shown to exhibit a variety of useful properties such as antihistamine effects, anti-cancer activity, agonism of the µ-opioid receptor and neuroprotection. The biological activities are thought to be caused by the 1,2,4- oxadiazole ring found within the molecule. The goal of this project is to synthesize analogues of phidianidine that contain a 1,2,3-triazole instead of the 1,2,4 oxadiazole ring using a method that will allow for other regions of the molecule to be changed. This will help to elucidate the role of the 1,2,4-oxadiazole ring in biological activity as well as probe if the 1,2,3-triazole analogue can provide significant improvement to any activities

Propagating EUV disturbances in the solar corona : two-wavelength observations

Quasi-periodic EUV disturbances simultaneously observed in 171 Å and 195 Å TRACE bandpasses propagating outwardly in a fan-like magnetic structure of a coronal active region are analysed. Time series of disturbances observed in the different bandpasses have a relatively high correlation coefficient (up to about 0.7). The correlation has a tendency to decrease with distance along the structure: this is consistent with an interpretation of the disturbances in terms of parallel-propagating slow magnetoacoustic waves. The wavelet analysis does not show a significant difference between waves observed in different bandpasses. Periodic patterns of two distinct periods: 2-3 min and 5-8 min are detected in both bandpasses, existing simultaneously and at the same distance along the loop, suggesting the nonlinear generation of the second harmonics

The establishment of an effective farming system for the Allan Waters communal area in the Eastern Cape Province

Allan Waters, a communal area near Queenstown in the former Ciskei of the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa, have about 80 households who are involved in agriculture. These households were surveyed with two questionnaires. The first was at household level, focusing on the current socioeconomic situations and farming systems. Data were collected from sixty-three households in the village. The socio-economics questionnaire was divided into sections: demographic information, land and agricultural information, income and expenditure. In order to improve the livelihood of the households and to secure food production and food security, a situation analysis of the rural farmers was carried out using typology as a research tool. Typologies were built in order to analyze the diversity of production units (farms) or households (agricultural households). To define household typologies, factors such as land, source of income, modes of farming and composition of the family were used to identify six typology categories and to divide these into two main groups. The two main groups comprised of (a) livestock farming and (b) non-livestock farming or very little farming activities. The six types are as follows: Type 1: Poverty-stricken households Type 2: Newly arrived households Type 3: Households’ depending on old age pensions Type 4: Households’ main income from old age pensions and supported by substantial farming Type 5: Households’ revenue generated from business, wages and farming Type 6: Full time farming Five types had access to grazing and arable land for agricultural purposes, but type two had not yet been granted the rights to graze or the use of arable fields for agricultural purposes by the village. The source of income for the households in type one was made up of welfare grants and remittances. Types three and four, mainly depended on pensions when compared to the other four types. The households in type five mainly received incomes from farming and business. In type six, the main income received was from farming. The most common modes of farming for the types were: garden-poultry- dry land- crop- cattle-sheep-goats. Using the data from the first questionnaire, the three active agricultural types were targeted with a production survey (28 households). The production survey revolved around animal production, but a number of questions had to do with general information concerning agriculture. From the survey, the households reported that the main aim for keeping livestock and chickens was self- consumption and sale of animals, except in the case of sheep, which were kept for wool production. In the case of the wool farmers, the committee controlled activities such as mating of animals, grazing management, shearing, dipping of animals and wool sorting. The other tasks were left to the farmer himself. Wool data obtained for 2001 indicated that the average fleece weight was 3.88 kg greasy wool per sheep, with an A- to C- length. The fibre diametre of the wool in general fell in a medium class (21.1 micron). From the survey a number of projects were identified to assist the rural farmers in improving the livelihood of the households and in securing food production and food security

Integrating Naturalized Areas onto the University at Albany Campus

The purpose of this management plan is to provide recommendations to create naturalized areas and increase biodiversity on the University at Albany campus. The University currently follows a number of environmental policies in an effort to promote uniformity. There are many benefits to increasing biodiversity on campus such as providing ecosystem services, increasing education and awareness, aiding in stormwater management, and support institutional advancement. There are already several areas on the campus that would serve as prime locations for projects of this nature including the front lawn and the Dutch and State parking lots. Future directions that the campus can take includes a biodiversity sanctuary and a habitat corridor along a proposed rapid transit bus route. If we implement these policies, the University at Albany can become more appealing and a model for enhancing biodiversity on other urban campuse

Integrating Naturalized Areas onto the University at Albany Campus

The purpose of this management plan is to provide recommendations to create naturalized areas and increase biodiversity on the University at Albany campus. The University currently follows a number of environmental policies in an effort to promote uniformity. There are many benefits to increasing biodiversity on campus such as providing ecosystem services, increasing education and awareness, aiding in stormwater management, and support institutional advancement. There are already several areas on the campus that would serve as prime locations for projects of this nature including the front lawn and the Dutch and State parking lots. Future directions that the campus can take includes a biodiversity sanctuary and a habitat corridor along a proposed rapid transit bus route. If we implement these policies, the University at Albany can become more appealing and a model for enhancing biodiversity on other urban campuse