Evaluating Potential Decay Control Agents With A Small Block Test

A small-scale test was developed to evaluate the ability of fungicides to control decay fungi established in wood. The test, which uses blocks 2.5 x 2.5 x 10 cm, tests the ability of a chemical to migrate from the middle of the block to control a previously established decay fungus, Poria carbonica. The effect of block size, degree of fungal development, chemical exposure period, and aeration during exposure were evaluated on chemicals previously shown to be effective for remedial control of decay. The method was then used to evaluate potential decay control chemicals. Highly volatile chemicals proved to be most effective, while water-soluble and oil-borne chemicals produced much poorer control. The small block tests appear to provide a simple, rapid, and accurate method for predicting how chemicals will control established decay fungi in wood

Using a model of group psychotherapy to support social research on sensitive topics

This article describes the exploratory use of professional therapeutic support by social researchers working on a sensitive topic. Talking to recently bereaved parents about the financial implications of their child's death was expected to be demanding work, and the research design included access to an independent psychotherapeutic service. Using this kind of professional support is rare within the general social research community, and it is useful to reflect on the process. There are likely to be implications for collection and interpretation of data, research output and the role and experience of the therapist. Here, the primary focus is the potential impact on researcher well-being

Identification of the factors associated with outcomes in a condition management programme

<p>Background: A requirement of the Government’s Pathways to Work (PtW) agenda was to introduce a Condition Management Programme (CMP). The aim of the present study was to identify the differences between those who engaged and made progress in this telephone-based biopsychosocial intervention, in terms of their health, and those who did not and to determine the client and practitioner characteristics and programme elements associated with success in a programme aimed at improving health.</p> <p>Methods: Data were obtained from the CMP electronic spreadsheets and clients paper-based case records. CMP standard practice was that questionnaires were administered during the pre- and post-assessment phases over the telephone. Each client’s record contains their socio-demographic data, their primary health condition, as well as the pre- and post-intervention scores of the health assessment tool administered. Univariate and multivariate statistical analysis was used to investigate the relationships between the database variables. Clients were included in the study if their records were available for analysis from July 2006 to December 2007.</p> <p> Results: On average there were 112 referrals per month, totalling 2016 referrals during the evaluation period. The majority (62.8%) of clients had a mental-health condition. Successful completion of the programme was 28.5% (575 “completers”; 144 “discharges”). Several factors, such as age, health condition, mode of contact, and practitioner characteristics, were significant determinants of participation and completion of the programme. The results showed that completion of the CMP was associated with a better mental-health status, by reducing the number of clients that were either anxious, depressed or both, before undertaking the programme, from 74% to 32.5%.</p> <p>Conclusions: Our findings showed that an individual's characteristics are associated with success in the programme, defined as completing the intervention and demonstrating an improved health status. This study provides some evidence that the systematic evaluation of such programmes and interventions could identify ways in which they could be improved.</p&gt

On duality of Drell-Yan and J/psi production processes

It is studied the model on J/psi production allowing to extract parton distribution functions (PDFs) from the combined analysis with both data on Drell-Yan and J/psi production processes. It is shown that this, so attractive from theoretical point of view, model, can be safely used in the low energy region E<100 GeV. The significance of gluon contributions to the J/psi cross-sections is investigated. The obtained results in the high energy region occur to be rather surprising

Protección y Empleo

This paper sets out a framework for thinking about the effects of protection on employment. The first part, primarily theoretical, reviews simple models, but they provide insights into more complex effects on employment of changes in the level or structur

Accessing transversity via J/Psi production in polarized p-pbar interactions

We discuss the possibility of a direct access to transversity distributions by measuring the double transverse spin asymmetry A_TT in p pbar --> J/Psi + X --> l^- l^+ + X processes at future GSI-HESR experiments with polarized protons and anti-protons. In the J/Psi resonance production region, with 30 < s < 45 GeV^2, both the cross-section and A_TT are expected to be sufficiently large to allow a measurement of h_1^q(x,M^2); numerical estimates are given.Comment: 10 pages, 2 figures. Version accepted for publication in PLB; comments and references adde

Growth in densely populated Asia: implications for primary product exporters

Economic growth and integration in Asia is rapidly increasing the global economic importance of the region. To the extent that this growth continues and is strongest in natural resource-poor Asian economies, it will add to global demand for imports of primary products, to the benefit of (especially nearby) resource-abundant countries. How will global production, consumption and trade patterns change by 2030 in the course of such economic developments and structural changes? We address this question using the GTAP model and Version 8.1 of the 2007 GTAP database, together with supplementary data from a range of sources, to support projections of the global economy from 2007 to 2030 under various scenarios. Factor endowments and real gross domestic product are assumed to grow at exogenous rates, and trade-related policies are kept unchanged to generate a core baseline, which is compared with an alternative slower growth scenario. We also consider the impact of several policy changes aimed at increasing China's agricultural self-sufficiency relative to the 2030 baseline. Policy implications for countries of the Asia-Pacific region are drawn out in the final section

The cos 2 phi asymmetry of Drell-Yan and J/psi production in unpolarized ppbar scattering

We investigate the cos 2 phi azimuthal asymmetry in Drell--Yan and J/psi production from unpolarized ppbar scattering at GSI-HESR energies. The contribution to this asymmetry arising from the leading-twist Boer-Mulders function h_1^perp(x, k_T^2), which describes a correlation between the transverse momentum and the transverse spin of quarks in an unpolarized hadron, is explicitly evaluated, and predictions for the GSI-HESR kinematic regime are presented. We show that the cos 2 phi asymmetry is quite sizable both on the J/psi peak and in the Drell-Yan continuum region. Therefore these processes may offer an experimentally viable access to the Boer-Mulders function in the early unpolarized stage of GSI experiments.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, to be published in Eur. Phys.

The conceptual and practical ethical dilemmas of using health discussion board posts as research data.

Increasing numbers of people living with a long-term health condition are putting personal health information online, including on discussion boards. Many discussion boards contain material of potential use to researchers; however, it is unclear how this information can and should be used by researchers. To date there has been no evaluation of the views of those individuals sharing health information online regarding the use of their shared information for research purposes