bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Aural health: knowledge, attitude and practice
Authors: S Firdose , Poduval Jayita Das
Published: June 2015

Background: A majority of the population, both educated and uneducated, is unaware that numerous disorders occur due to unhygienic maintenance of the ears. Ensuring correct aural hygiene limits the risk of ear injury. This study aims to make people aware of common misconceptions and educate them about correct practices of aural health.

Methods: A hospital based cross- sectional study comparing rural and urban populations.

Results: Knowledge, attitude and practice regarding various aspects of aural health were not found to be significantly different in the two populations.

Conclusions: As there are unhygienic practices prevalent among both rural and urban populations, educating people about correct methods of aural hygiene is very important. 

Keywords: Health, Aural, Hygiene, Ear, Knowledge, Attitude, Practice
Voice training for professional voice users
Authors: John Rhea , Poduval Jayita Das
Published: June 2015

Background: A professional voice user is defined as an individual who depends on the use of his or her voice to earn a living, and nowadays encompasses a gamut of professions ranging from highly skilled artistes to call center workers. All of them have various levels of vocal demand but not all are suitably equipped to meet these demands because of a lack of formal training.  

Methods: This study was conducted as a short-term project under the auspices of the ICMR (Indian Council of Medical Research). The principal investigator is the first author, an undergraduate medical student, while the corresponding author is the faculty who guided the student in this endeavor. With a view to exploring how voice training, as opposed to voice therapy for a specific complaint or lesion, could improve the outcome and performance of a professional voice user with no prior training, we carried out this study in our institution and in a nearby school and college.

Results: Over half the subjects were found to have a complaint about their voice. There were equal numbers of men and women in this study and the age group of 26-30 years was the best represented. This age group is significant as it represents the start of the working life of a typical individual, in this case the professional voice user. A positive correlation was found between increasing age (and years of work experience) and the frequency of a voice complaint. With years of work experience more than 15 years, the frequency of voice problems decreased slightly. On cross checking, it was found that these persons were in more senior levels of work, and so had less work pressure.

Conclusions: This study shows that voice training has to be imparted over a considerable period of time even for the less skilled group of professional voice users. 

Keywords: Voice assessment, Voice training, Professional voice user
Prevalence of overweight and obesity among medical students and their knowledge, attitude and practices about obesity
Authors: Deotale Manjusha Kashinath , Ranganathan U. , Akarte S. V.
Published: June 2015

Background: Overweight and obesity are recognized as an “escalating epidemic” affecting both developed and developing countries. Obesity is associated with a large number of debilitating and life- threatening disorders such as cardiovascular, metabolic and other non-communicable diseases. The childhood roots of adult obesity are widely recognized which calls for health promotion targeted at youth. Objectives: 1) To study the prevalence of obesity among medical students 2) To assess their knowledge, attitude and practices about obesity.  

Methods: A cross sectional study was conducted among 300 medical students from all batches of MBBS course i.e. Ist, IInd, IIIrd and final MBBS in Feb 2009 to March 2009 in Grant medical college Mumbai. A predesigned and pretested questionnaire was used as data collection tool and height and weight were measured and BMI was calculated.

Results: Majority (52%) were in the age group of 18-20. 61% were males and 39% were female. 25% (75) were day scholars and 75% were hostellers. When assessed about knowledge about obesity, 100% students scored 50% and above. Majority of them had positive attitude but lack of appropriate behaviour and practices. Prevalence of overweight and obesity according to WHO classification was 14.7% and 3% respectively and according to Asia-Pacific guidelines it was 9.3% and 18.4% respectively.

Conclusions: Promotion of daily physical activity in the form of outdoor games, Yoga, walking are recommended. Nutritional education on dietary practices and life style change should be built in as supporting educational activity during student years. 

Keywords: Obesity, Knowledge, Attitude, Practices, Medical students
Diagnosis and management of congenital epulis of new-born: a rare case report and literature review
Authors: Ottoman Bacem A. E.
Published: June 2015

The congenital epulis of new-born is a rare disease of idiopathic etiology and lineage. The literature recorded spontaneous regression of some cases. This finding rendered skeptical questions about its neoplastic nature and posed some speculations about hormonal influences, towards the end of pregnancy, on the growth of the lesion. No malignant potential has been ever reported. Surgery is indicated if the lesion grossly interferes with breast feeding. This paper reports an established diagnosis of congenital epulis of new-born, which was excised surgically with no evidence of recurrence hitherto. 

Keywords: Congenital epulis, Neonatal lesions, Mucosal swellings, Pediatric oncology
An unreported variant of fracture neck femur: a case report
Authors: Dharmshaktu Ganesh Singh
Published: June 2015

Fracture neck femur is common but ‘unsolved’ injury. Despite many classifications certain fractures do not fit into well recognized patterns or classifications. We report an unreported variation of the intraoperatively detected fracture. The fracture consisted of a subcapital fracture with a long intramedullary spike along the neck of femur attached to proximal segment. The patient was managed accordingly with good functional outcome. 

Keywords: Fracture neck femur, Classification, Management, Hip trauma
A composição social importa para os efeitos das escolas no ensino fundamental?
Authors: Xavier Flavia Pereira , Alves Maria Teresa Gonzaga
Published: June 2015

O artigo analisa o efeito das escolas públicas brasileiras de ensino fundamental para o aprendizado de seus alunos, considerando o contexto socioeconômico e a composição do alunado por gênero e raça. Os alunos foram distribuídos em três níveis de proficiência: insuficiente, básico e adequado. Os que estão no nível insuficiente são considerados   excluídos, uma vez que o seu direito à educação não é atendido. Utilizaram-se os dados de 2007, 2009 e 2011 da Prova Brasil. Os principais resultados indicam que os efeitos das escolas para a retirada dos alunos da exclusão e para sua promoção ao nível adequado de aprendizagem estão associados às características de composição social dessas escolas em termos de raça e gênero, independentemente do nível socioeconômico médio da escola. Tal composição também afeta as chances individuais de os alunos serem retirados da exclusão e promovidos ao nível de adequação.
Ипотека в России: миф, или реальность?
Authors: Волков Николай Петрович
Published: June 2015

В данной статье рассмотрены проблемы ипотечного кредитования населения в России. Целью работы является предложение по снижению ставок по ипотечным кредитам для населения. Автор исследует причины высоких процентных ставок по ипотечным кредитам, методику расчета эффективной ставки для банка, а также предлагает вариант снижения ставок по ипотечным кредитам для населения, подкрепляя свои доводы расчетами. В качестве варианта предлагается компенсация разницы между эффективной ставкой для банка и реальной ставкой, которая устанавливается заемщику за счет средств Резервного фонда России или Фонда национального благосостояния.
Potential impacts of uv exposure on lichen communities: a pilot study of
nothofagus dombeyi
trunks in southernmost chile
Authors: Trest Marie T. , Will-wolf Susan , Keuler Rachel , Shay Nathaniel , Hill Karen , Studer Alyssa , Muench Andy , Alexander Zachary , Adams Axel , Dittberner Leah , Feehan Martin , Lee Hannah , Galleguillos-katz Nicholas , Zedler Joy B. , Graham Linda , Arancibia-avila Patricia
Published: June 2015

High‐latitude terrestrial ecosystems face the triple threats of climate warming, increased exposure to UV arising from polar ozone depletion, and deforestation. Lichen communities of southernmost Chile are recognized for their high diversity, which includes nitrogen‐fixing cyanolichens. Such lichens are common on forest trees, contribute nitrogen to forests, and are sensitive to exposure following deforestation (widespread in this region). In a pilot study of exposure effects on tree lichens, using nondestructive imaging methods, we compared lichen communities on trunks of isolated vs. forest tree trunks of southern Chilean beech (
Nothofagus dombeyi
, Nothofagaceae). We chose trees of similar diameter and trunk lean angle in conserved forest and nearby logged meadow on Navarino Island, XII Region Magallanes and Chilean Antarctica, Chile, within the annual southern ozone hole. Ninety‐five percent of cyanolichen records, including
Nephroma antarcticum
, and 66% of records for other foliose lichens were from the forest, whereas pendulous usneoid lichens dominated
N. dombeyi
bark at the meadow site. Limitation of cyanolichen growth on isolated trees could affect ecosystem function in this poorly studied habitat. Possible factors contributing to strong community differences were increased light intensity, UV radiation, and wind stress, plus limited ability of lichens to colonize isolated trees in the logged meadow. UV radiation was likely an important stressor for some lichen species but not others. We recommend more extensive monitoring to pinpoint causes of differing lichen communities, and we encourage better protection of bark‐dwelling lichens in southern hemisphere regions facing multiple threats.
Fire impacts recruitment more than survival of small‐mammals in a tropical savanna
Authors: Griffiths Anthony D. , Brook Barry W.
Published: June 2015

The frequency and spatial patterning of fire for optimal biodiversity conservation is often poorly understood by managers, in part due to a lack of understanding of the mechanisms responsible for altering population dynamics of individual species. We investigated changes in the vital rates (survival and recruitment) of four small mammal species (three marsupials and one rodent) in a tropical savanna under four different experimental fire treatments applied at a landscape scale. Apparent survival declined in all fire treatments for only one of four small mammal species (northern brown bandicootIsoodon macrourus). Recruitment was reduced in three of four species in multiple fire treatments. The suppression of recruitment in the northern brown bandicoot and the brushtail possumTrichosurus vulpeculapopulations was greatest immediately after the initial fire treatment was applied, compared to remaining treatment applications in successive years, possibly due to an elevated fire intensity as a result of higher initial fuel loads. The results suggest that higher intensity fire impacted recruitment more than survival for small mammals at this site. To assist fire managers to conserve small mammal populations in tropical savannas, we recommend fire regimes that optimise habitat resources for recruitment. This may be achieved by a reduction in fire frequency and managing fuel loads to prevent an increase in fire intensity.
Climate change and parasite transmission: how temperature affects parasite infectivity via predation on infective stages
Authors: Goedknegt M. Anouk , Welsh Jennifer E. , Drent Jan , Thieltges David W.
Published: June 2015

Climate change is expected to affect disease risk in many parasite‐host systems, e.g., via an effect of temperature on infectivity (temperature effects). However, recent studies indicate that ambient communities can lower disease risk for hosts, for instance via predation on free‐living stages of parasites (predation effect). Since general physiological theory suggests predation effects to be temperature‐dependent, we hypothesized that increases in temperature may lead to reduced parasite infectivity via elevated consumption rates of free‐living parasite stages (temperature‐predation interaction). We experimentally investigated such interactions in three marine predators of infective parasite stages. Two species (the oyster Crassostrea gigas, and the barnacle Austrominius modestus) significantly reduced cercarial stages of the trematode Renicola roscovita in mussel hosts (Mytilus edulis), while the third (the crab Hemigrapsus takanoi) did not show a reduction of infective stages at all. In barnacles, cercarial consumption significantly interacted with temperature, with lowest infectivity at highest temperatures. Since these patterns reflected the known thermal responses of the three cercarial predators' feeding rates, parasite consumption rates may be predictable from temperature dependent feeding rates. Our results suggest that integrating temperature‐predation interactions into studies on parasite transmission and on climate change effects is essential and that predators of free‐living stages of parasites may play an important role in indirectly mediating disease risk under climate change.
The Next Steps in Improving the Outcomes of Advanced Ovarian Cancer
Authors: Openshaw Mark R , Fotopoulou Christina , Blagden Sarah , Gabra Hani
Published: June 2015

Worldwide ovarian cancer affects over 200,000 women per year. Overall survival rates are poor due to two predominate reasons. First, the majority of patients present with advanced disease creating significant difficulty with effecting disease eradication. Second, acquisition of chemotherapy resistance results in untreatable progressive disease. Advances in treatment of advanced ovarian cancer involve a spectrum of interventions including improvements in frontline debulking surgery and combination chemotherapy. Anti-angiogenic factors have been shown to have activity in frontline and recurrent disease while novel chemotherapeutic agents and targeted treatments are in development particularly for disease that is resistant to platinum-based chemotherapy. These developments aim to improve the progression-free and overall survival of women with advanced ovarian cancer
Should All Women Be Screened for Thyroid Dysfunction in Pregnancy?
Authors: Taylor Peter N , Okosieme Onyebuchi E , Premawardhana Lakdasa , Lazarus John H
Published: June 2015

The subject of universal thyroid screening in pregnancy generates impassioned debate. Thyroid dysfunction is common, has significant adverse implications for fetal and maternal well-being, is readily detectable and can be effectively and inexpensively treated. Furthermore, the currently recommended case-finding strategy does not identify a substantially proportion of women with thyroid dysfunction thus favoring universal screening. On the other hand subclinical thyroid dysfunction forms the bulk of gestational thyroid disorders and the paucity of high-level evidence to support correction of these asymptomatic biochemical abnormalities weighs against universal screening. This review critically appraises the literature, examines the pros and cons of universal thyroid screening in pregnancy, highlighting the now strong case for implementing universal screening and explores strategies for its implementation.
Branding “the Bay/la Baie”: Corporate Identity, the Hudson's Bay Company, and the Burden of History in the 1960s
Authors: Opp James
Published: June 2015

Abstract:

In 1965, the Hudson's Bay Company (hbc) unveiled “the Bay/la Baie” as the primary corporate identifier for its urban retail stores in Canada. At the same time, the company was also preparing to celebrate its 300th anniversary in 1970. Rather than viewing the “modern” Bay in opposition to the historical name, this article argues that competing regional historical sensibilities were central to the redesign of the company's corporate image. Following the company's merger with the Montreal-based Morgan's department stores in 1960, the hbc found itself navigating the historical attachments of its western base, the nationalist aspirations of Quebec, and the indifference of metropolitan Ontario. By drawing together corporate discussions around design, typeface, marketing, historical displays, and a commemorative film produced by Christopher Chapman, this article explores the image worlds assembled by the hbc to bridge multiple identities. It also analyzes how historical consciousness itself became an object of study for the company in trying to understand and predict consumer behaviour. The tensions and debates around corporate identity and the 1970 tercentenary point to the significance of visual aesthetics in the evocation and erasure of particular histories in the 1960s.
Onontio Gives Birth: How the French in Canada Became Fathers to Their Indigenous Allies, 1645–73
Authors: Cook Peter
Published: June 2015

Abstract:

As recent scholarship has recognized, kinship is at the heart of Indigenous visions of law and alliance. This article explores an important shift in the kin metaphors used in intercultural alliances and treaty making in seventeenth-century eastern Canada. At the beginning of this period, Indigenous peoples and French colonizers described their relationship as an alliance of brothers. By the end of the century, the governor in Quebec was ritually addressed as a father by First Nations allied to the French. This new metaphor would outlive the French regime and endure for another two centuries as a key symbol in British–Indigenous relations. Scholars have generally attributed the paternal status of French (and, later, British) royal representatives in the alliance to the insistence of patriarchally minded Europeans, but, in fact, the notion of French fatherhood originated with Mohawk and Onondaga leaders as early as the 1640s as a corollary of their efforts to establish an alliance with the French. Only later was the new kin metaphor embraced by King Louis XIV's colonial representatives as an expression of absolutist power, subject to the approval of Indigenous nations who held their own opinions about the obligations of fathers toward their children.
Defenders of Empire or Agents of Ruin? Hebridean Scot Colonies In British Columbia in the 1920s
Authors: Forest Timothy S.
Published: June 2015

Abstract:

In 1924, the government of British Columbia submitted to the British authorities a proposal that aimed to resettle what it hoped would be thousands of Scottish crofters from the Outer Hebrides of Scotland to work in its fisheries, taking advantage of funding made available by the recently passed Empire Settlement Act (ESA) of 1922. Ostensibly, the province endeavoured to provide a better life for a loyal, yet long-suffering, “British” population, to improve the filial imperial ties that were starting to fray following the First World War, to provide the fishing industry with “white” “British” workers to displace its largely Asian workforce, and to introduce a “martial race” to defend its shores. Yet, this scheme was abandoned in late 1925. In private, officials in Canada doubted that the Hebrideans could ever be rehabilitated, as the scheme and the ESA envisioned. Employers saw the Hebrideans as effete and lazy rather than as ready-made militiamen and continued to employ the Asians who they saw as superior workers. Labourers feared that the Hebrideans would undercut their wages and lower their elevated status as “white” and “British,” one that they and the province had carefully cultivated since its foundation. Lastly, the liminal status of the Hebridean Scots reflected and was part of the broader ambivalence of Canada's place in the evolving British Empire/Commonwealth of the 1920s, one that embraced the imperial tie yet also oftentimes sought greater autonomy from it.
Twists, Turning Points, and Tall Shoulders: Studying Canada and Feminist Family Histories
Authors: Bradbury Bettina
Published: June 2015

Abstract:

In this article, Bettina Bradbury reflects on how she became a feminist family historian in Canada. She relates the historical twists that led her to leave New Zealand with a Bachelor of Arts in English and sociology, undertake a Master of Arts in history at Simon Fraser, and then complete a Doctor of Philosophy in history at Concordia University. She attributes her contributions to history and women's studies to the importance of feminist mentors and pioneers and links her changing interests as a historian to the epistemological shifts of the last three decades and to turning points in her own life.
“The General Entertainment of My Life”: The Tatler, the Spectator, and the Quidnunc’s Cure
Authors: Sherman Stuart
Published: June 2015

The quidnunc—the news addict hooked on the latest dispatches— remained a figure of fun throughout the eighteenth century, partly because he functioned as a comic canary in the era’s ever-expanding coal mine of periodically printed news. Richard Steele coined the term and, with his collaborator Joseph Addison, satirized the affliction in the pages of the Tatler and the Spectator. Each periodical, in its own way, proposed the theatre as the quidnunc’s likeliest corrective and cure. The tactics by which they did so at once anticipate and rewire some powerful theories of performance and mediation: Peggy Phelan’s on the primacy of presence; Michael Warner’s on the distinctive temporalities—theatrical, periodical—inhabited by the early eighteenth century’s emerging, overlapping publics; Walter Benjamin’s on the different operations of “absorption” triggered by the singular, aureate work of art and the mass-directed entertainments made possible (and prolific) by modern technologies of reproduction. The quidnunc’s disorder is an obsession with the trivial, but Steele and Addison, over the course of their two papers, manage to spin from it an argument more momentous, about theatre, journalism, and time itself in Queen Anne’s age of burgeoning information.
Half-History, or The Function of Cato at the Present Time
Authors: O’Quinn Daniel
Published: June 2015

This essay examines three performances of Joseph Addison’s Cato (1713), each of which allegorizes George iii at different points in his life, in order to explore the relation of forgetting to the repertoire. I look at a famous 1812 portrait of John Philip Kemble in the role of Cato, painted by Thomas Lawrence, in order theorize a notion of “half-history,” and then turn to an earlier production of Addison’s play at the Prince of Wales’s residence at Leicester House in 1747. The future George iii, then age eleven, performed in this play as Cato’s son Portius, and I argue that the prologues and epilogues constitute a political future in opposition to George ii’s rule that resonates with the Prince of Wales’s political predicament. The essay next considers the famous performance of Cato at Valley Forge. Following the reading of these two private theatricals, I argue that Kemble’s revival of the play in the winter of 1811 reorients the allegory yet again in order to explore the complex politics of George iii’s madness and the Regency Bill of 1811. Kemble’s intervention in the play was “half-historical” in precisely the way presented in Lawrence’s painting.
Mourning the “Dignity of the Siddonian Form”
Authors: Freeman Lisa A.
Published: June 2015

When Sarah Siddons (1755–1831) returned to the stage in 1816 for two command performances in the role of Lady Macbeth, her body, at the age of fifty-seven, was already in an advanced state of decrepitude. Most critics writing about Siddons focus on only William Hazlitt’s “goddess,” one of the greatest actresses to grace the British stage. Focusing on the decaying body of the actress and on the melancholic sense of loss that haunts many of the essays, news paper articles, and biographies written on Siddons, I argue that the actress functioned as a kind of cipher through which to filter Romantic preoccupations with mortality and the aging self. Siddons’s iconic status clashed with the aesthetic of authenticity she cultivated, making her into a living effigy of the self. In the face of her visible decline, her biographers strove to breathe new life into the ephemeral body theatric and indemnify for all time what Anna Seward termed “the dignity of the Siddonian form.”
Guns and Tender Cotton: Feminized States in Rawi Hage's De Niro's Game
Authors: Grekul Lisa
Published: June 2015

The article, informed by the recent work of scholars who have examined and theorized the feminization of nation-states in the context of contemporary postcolonial literary production, performs an analysis of Rawi Hage's De Niro's Game (2006) that focuses on the novel's conflations of woman and nation. The paper argues that, while Bassam, the text's narrator and protagonist, undertakes a journey toward manhood that is troubled by his country's (Lebanon's) civil unrest and violent political upheaval, he, like the text's other male characters, is and remains throughout an active subject-citizen endowed with agency. Because the same cannot be said about the female characters in De Niro's Game, the narrative ultimately illustrates that, however “in flux” Lebanon society may be, patriarchal power structures persist, rendering real women the passive objects and symbolic projections of a nation whose destiny is determined by her “sons” and “lovers.”
Happily Ever After? HowLovingEnds
Authors: Tarnopolsky Damian
Published: June 2015

Henry Green's odd and wonderful novel Loving (1945) ends with the familiar phrase “happily ever after,” but there have long been conflicting views about how these words should best be understood. The article adds a new reading that – by closely analysing the ways Green's careful, almost microscopic textual innovations invite and defer closure – reveals fuller ironic possibilities than have hitherto been seen. Deploying concepts derived from the criticism of Theodor Adorno to examine the significance of Green's mode of ending in its broader cultural context, the article suggests that the ambiguous close of Loving exemplifies late modernist literary and social attitudes. These are interestingly different from high modernist and postmodernist mores and modes of leaving off. Finally, the article explores the larger implications of Green's ending for our sense of what an ending is, in literature and in life.
Simple Empirical Guide to Pavement Design of Low-Volume Roads in Indiana
Authors: Warith Karim A. Abdel , Anastasopoulos Panagiotis C. , Seidel Joseph C. , Haddock John E.
Published: June 2015

Low-volume roads constitute the vast majority of the U.S. road network. From an economic standpoint, preservation of low-volume roads costs more than $80 billion per year, or more than half the annual investment in roads. Although low-volume roads carry a small percentage of the overall traffic, their associated crash rates are considerably higher than those for higher-volume roads. Because low-volume roads are an important part of the nation's transportation infrastructure, engineering principles should be used when these roads are designed to ensure economy and to avoid premature road failure. Many agencies have proposed design methods for low-volume roads, yet most of these roads require input that may not be available to local agencies. This paper presents an empirical design guide for low-volume roads that requires local agencies to gather only limited, readily available information and that is simple for agencies to use but customizable to account for specific weather and subgrade conditions.
Environmentally Optimized Design for Low-Volume District Roads in Tanzania
Authors: Kelly Kieran , Juma Salehe
Published: June 2015

A demonstration project was carried out on district roads in the Bagomoyo and Siha Districts of Tanzania. Funds available for upgrading the roads were not sufficient to provide bitumen or concrete surfacing over the full length, and traffic levels did not justify this level of investment. An environmentally optimized design approach, by which different solutions were applied to each section of road in response to local conditions, had to be adopted. This approach included earth- and gravel-surfaced options where the existing road was stable. The opportunity was taken to demonstrate a range of road surfacing options (bituminous and non-bituminous) so as to obtain data on their life-cycle costs, acceptability to road users, and likely durability over the life of the road. Pavement design was based on recent innovations for low-volume sealed roads in the region, including the use of the dynamic cone penetrometer method. Conclusions highlight a number of bituminous pavement options found to be more economical than regraveling. In addition, economic and social benefits, in lower maintenance and labor-based construction, result from using concrete paving blocks and concrete pavements.
Worst-Case Connection Strength Considerations in Designing Certification Crash Test Experiments for W-Beam Guardrail
Authors: Ochoa Carl M. , Ochoa Tania A.
Published: June 2015

Certification crash test experiments conducted in controlled laboratory environments play a crucial role in the product development cycle of roadside safety hardware by linking analysis, design, and real-world in-service performance along low-volume roads (LVRs). The AASHTO Manual for Assessing Safety Hardware worst-case testing philosophy prescribes a commonsense approach to ensuring reliable real-world performance in designing certification crash test experiments for W-beam guardrails. Literature of the past two decades establishes extreme rail-to-post connection strength variability as a component-level trigger mechanism of guardrail system-level failure modes that degrade the reliability of guardrail safety performance. A range of primary and secondary release mechanisms with their associated variability sources is examined from the perspective of characterizing the worst case for each release mechanism. A case is made to support a recommendation that worst-case connection strength be systematically represented in designing certification crash test experiment matrices that are intended to ensure adequate performance of guardrails along LVRs. A systematic general methodology is introduced for defining compounded worst-case connection strength. The standard button head mounting bolt of the modified G4(1S) and Midwest Guardrail System family is considered as an example. Detailed evaluation of variability extremes in button head bolt connection strength indicates that optimizing the existing button head bolt release mechanism is not possible, even with the use of mid-span splices. Thus, it is recommended that an optimized release mechanism solution—such as the Gregory Mini Spacer guardrail fastener—be considered, consistent with the award-winning science of release for guardrail optimization to improve roadside safety along LVRs and other roadways in the United States, Europe, and developing countries.
Can Traffic Signs be Too Bright on Low-Volume Roads?
Authors: Carlson Paul J.
Published: June 2015

The objective of this study was to investigate the concern that signs along rural highways can be so bright that they cause reduced legibility or glare, or both, to the point of their being a safety hazard. The researchers recruited participants and conducted visibility studies on a closed-course facility to assess how various levels of brightness of speed limit signs can affect nighttime participants' ability to read the signs and detect various types of potentially hazardous objects along the edge of the traveled way. From the findings, considerations are provided for low-volume rural highways with average daily traffic of 5,000 vehicles per day or less. To avoid glare and reduced object detection distances, ASTM Type III or IV materials should be specified for regulatory and nonfluorescent warning signs on these low-volume roads. Also, because of reduced object detection distances, recommendations are made to avoid the installation of unnecessary signs. Not only do unnecessary signs provide a potential hazard for errant vehicles, but they also add to the overall maintenance responsibility, breed disrespect for traffic signs, and reduce the visibility of potentially hazardous objects along the roadside.
Driver Speed Behavior on Circular Curves of Undivided Two-Lane Rural Roads
Authors: Russo Francesca , Fric Sanja , Biancardo Salvatore Antonio , Gavran Dejan
Published: June 2015

Many researchers have proved that one of the parameters that most influence safe driving is operating speed, defined as the speed at which drivers travel on a dry road in free-flow conditions during daylight hours. This study describes a comparison between driver speed behavior on horizontal circular curves located in Serbia and on circular curves located in Italy with analogous infrastructural–geometric contexts. Only curves within a two-lane rural road network in low-volume conditions without spiral transition curves were studied. Operating speed profiles were plotted, and a careful analysis was carried out to study the deceleration and acceleration motion at each selected curve. Speed measurements were conducted by using different devices: (a) for the Italian case, laser detectors were used that emit and receive a pair of laser beams perpendicular to the road's axis and record the instantaneous vehicle speed and (b) for the Serbian case, sensors were used with an application software developed in the LabVIEW programming environment, and signals were logged in a binary file for which the vehicle speed was measured on the basis of the passing time between two consecutive sensors along the curve. Two types of driver behavior were found: (a) deceleration when approaching the middle of the curve and acceleration leaving it and (b) deceleration over the whole circular curve length. A t-test was performed. Statistically, no significant difference was produced from the analysis when circular curves were located in different states that reflected the same geometric, traffic, and environmental context.
Safety Inspection and Management Tools for Low-Volume Road Network
Authors: Cafiso Salvatore , Di Graziano Alessandro , Pappalardo Giuseppina
Published: June 2015

On low-volume roads, where crash frequency is less than on high-volume roads, the role of procedures alternative to and complementing crash investigations becomes substantially more important; safety inspections as a proactive approach to road safety can be very effective for this class of roads. From the results of the European Union research report Identification of Hazard Location and Ranking of Measures to Improve Safety on Local Rural Roads, a safety risk index (SRI) was formulated as a measure of risk that uses the safety inspection as the primary source of information associated with design consistency assessment of the horizontal alignment. Moreover, because of its quantitative evaluation, the SRI can be used to determine benefits and a cost–benefit ratio of different intervention strategies. Then, since there are often situations in which the available budget will not be enough to undertake all the measures in the road network, an SRI-based optimization algorithm was defined for selecting projects to be included in the budget.
Low-Cost Measures for Reducing Speeds at Curves on Two-Lane Rural Highways
Authors: Montella Alfonso , Galante Francesco , Mauriello Filomena , Pariota Luigi
Published: June 2015

This paper investigated, by means of a dynamic driving-simulator experiment, drivers' behavior at curves on rural two-lane highways in relation to different advance warning signs, perceptual measures, and delineation treatments. The tested treatments were intended to alert drivers to the presence of curves, prompting a reduction in curve approach speeds, and to affect drivers' speed as they drove through curves. A benefit–cost analysis was performed to determine the economic feasibility of applying the countermeasures to speeding tested in the driving simulator. Study results showed that all the treatments produced significant effects on drivers' speed behavior at curves on rural two-lane highways. The perceptual treatments (i.e., colored transverse strips, dragon-teeth markings, and colored median island) were the most effective. The safety benefits measured in lower crash costs arising from speed reductions were much greater than the costs of the alternatives. The most cost-effective treatment was the curve warning sign because of the lower cost. However, colored transverse strips and dragon-teeth markings produced higher benefits and were highly cost-effective for average daily traffic greater than 1,000 vehicles per day. The study results strongly support real-world implementation of colored transverse strips, dragon-teeth markings, and the colored median island.
Automated Extraction of Horizontal Curve Information for Low-Volume Roads
Authors: Li Zhixia , Chitturi Madhav V. , Bill Andrea R. , Zheng Dongxi , Noyce David A.
Published: June 2015

Rates of fatal and injury crashes on low-volume roads are much higher than those on higher-volume roads. A large proportion of crashes on low-volume roads are roadway departure crashes. Research has shown that roadway departure crashes are 1.5 to 4 times more likely at curves than on tangent sections. Therefore, knowledge of where horizontal curves are located and their geometric characteristics is key to addressing safety issues for low-volume roads. In the United States, although many states have a horizontal curve database for their state routes and Interstate highways, most states do not have such a database for non-state-owned roads, especially for low-volume rural roads, because of the lack of funds for additional data collection. A novel approach is presented that can extract curve data for both state and local roads in an accurate, cost-effective, and time-efficient manner without additional data collection. An ArcGIS add-in tool, CurveFinder, was developed by the authors previously to automatically identify horizontal curves from a selected roadway layer, classify curves, compute curve geometrics, and, finally, create a geographic information system for curve layers. CurveFinder was updated to incorporate compatibility with curve elements of FHWA's Model Inventory of Roadway Elements. Case studies are used to demonstrate the application of the updated CurveFinder on rural low-volume roads in different states and the lessons learned. Results show that none of the control curves were 100% missed by CurveFinder. False identification rates were also low. Both results validate CurveFinder. Causes of the few errors in the extracted curve data are identified, and potential solutions are explored.
Cost-Effective Safety Treatment of Trees on Low-Volume Rural Roads
Authors: Lechtenberg Karla A. , Stolle Cody S. , Faller Ronald K. , Schrum Kevin D.
Published: June 2015

Generally, trees are naturally occurring fixed objects that are found along many roadways and that potentially pose safety risks to errant motorists. Unfortunately, trees have been responsible for numerous fatal and serious injury crashes during run-off-road events. This study included an incremental benefit-to-cost (B-C) analysis that used the Roadside Safety Analysis Program to investigate the efficacy of safety treatment alternatives for trees on roadways with volumes of less than 500 vehicles per day (vpd) and speed limits of 55 mph (88.5 km/h) or greater. The study was based on a parametric analysis of site characteristics from a field survey in Kansas. It used four tree groupings, three tree diameters, and four lateral offsets from the roadway to configure 120 scenarios. Three safety treatment methods were considered: (a) a do-nothing option representing the baseline condition; (b) tree removal, with cost estimates coming from reliable sources; and (c) a crashworthy guardrail system. For various reasons, the guardrail system was no more cost-effective than the do-nothing or tree removal options. B-C ratios were used to recommend tree removal on the basis of several pertinent variables. In all cases, B-C ratios for tree removal were never less than 1.0, which indicated limited justification for keeping the trees. Tree removal was considered the safest and primary alternative when trees were far from other fixed obstacles. Because these guidelines are based solely on B-C analyses, the road designer or engineer is encouraged to use them as a foundation for making safety improvements but also to consider site-specific investigation and analysis.
Translation and Transformation: English-Language Children's Literature in (Soviet) Russian Guise
Authors: Inggs Judith
Published: June 2015

This article investigates the perceived image of English-language children's literature in Soviet Russia. Framed by Even-Zohar's polysystem theory and Bourdieu's philosophy of action, the discussion takes into account the ideological constraints of the practice of translation and the manipulation of texts. Several factors involved in creating the perceived character of a body of literature are identified, such as the requirements of socialist realism, publishing practices in the Soviet Union, the tradition of free translation and accessibility in the translation of children's literature. This study explores these factors and, with reference to selected examples, illustrates how the political and sociological climate of translation in the Soviet Union influenced the translation practices and the field of translated children's literature, creating a particular image of English-language children's literature in (Soviet) Russia.
Words Not in the Story: Paratextual Analysis of Moral Education in a School Edition of Gulliver's Travels in China
Authors: Hui Haifeng , Fan Lei
Published: June 2015

As a world classic, Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels is on the compulsory reading list for elementary students in China, and many school editions have been published to meet this curricular requirement. This paper aims to reveal how the paratext, which is often neglected because of its peripheral position, contributes to moral education, especially in influencing young readers' positive interpretation of the protagonist. The two additional narrators which are introduced in the paratext by the translator/adapter form a dialogue with the main story and represent an effort to harness the story with a specific moral educational direction.
Lexilalia: On Translating a Dictionary of Untranslatable Philosophical Terms
Authors: Apter Emily
Published: June 2015

Lexilalia, a kind of repetition disorder or form of ‘repeat-after-reading’, is contextualized in this article as a term for continual or interminable translation. Barbara Cassin has emphasized how one definition of the ‘Untranslatable’ is temporal, associated with a symptomatic condition of ‘keeping on translating’. In extending Cassin's ‘time’ of translation to the psychic condition of translating philosophical terms and working with encyclopedic objects, the article concludes with some reflections on anxiety, concept-making and the death drive.
Biosensors Best Paper Award 2015
Authors: Newman Jeff
Published: June 2015

With the start of 2015, Biosensors is instituting an annual award to recognize outstanding papers related to science and technology of biosensors and biosensing that meet the aims, scope and high standards of this journal.[...]
Detecting Chronotaxic Systems from Single-Variable Time Series with Separable Amplitude and Phase
Authors: Lancaster Gemma , Clemson Philip , Suprunenko Yevhen , Stankovski Tomislav , Stefanovska Aneta
Published: June 2015

The recent introduction of chronotaxic systems provides the means to describe nonautonomous systems with stable yet time-varying frequencies which are resistant to continuous external perturbations. This approach facilitates realistic characterization of the oscillations observed in living systems, including the observation of transitions in dynamics which were not considered previously. The novelty of this approach necessitated the development of a new set of methods for the inference of the dynamics and interactions present in chronotaxic systems. These methods, based on Bayesian inference and detrended fluctuation analysis, can identify chronotaxicity in phase dynamics extracted from a single time series. Here, they are applied to numerical examples and real experimental electroencephalogram (EEG) data. We also review the current methods, including their assumptions and limitations, elaborate on their implementation, and discuss future perspectives.
Correction: The Impact of a Carbon Tax on the Chilean Electricity Generation Sector
Authors: Benavides Carlos , Gonzales Luis , Diaz Manuel , Fuentes Rodrigo , García Gonzalo , Palma-Behnke Rodrigo , Ravizza Catalina
Published: June 2015

We would like to change the authors’ affiliations on Page 2674 of paper [1] from: [...]
The Fork in the Road: Histone Partitioning During DNA Replication
Authors: Annunziato Anthony
Published: June 2015

In the following discussion the distribution of histones at the replication fork is examined, with specific attention paid to the question of H3/H4 tetramer "splitting." After a presentation of early experiments surrounding this topic, more recent contributions are detailed. The implications of these findings with respect to the transmission of histone modifications and epigenetic models are also addressed.
Arrest of Viral Proliferation by Ectopic Copies of Its Cognate Replication Origin
Authors: Valenzuela Manuel , Sharan Chakradhari
Published: June 2015

The initiation step of DNA replication is the crucial determinant of proliferation in all organisms. This step depends on the specific interaction of DNA sequences present at origins of DNA replication and their cognate activators. We wished to explore the hypothesis that the presence of ectopic origin copies may interfere with proper genome duplication. Bacteriophage λ was used as a model system. To this end, the outcome of an infection of an E. coli strain harboring ectopic copies of the λ origin region was analyzed. By measuring the effect on the host growth, viral production, and electro-microscopic visualization of the resulting λ replicative intermediates, we concluded that the ectopic copies had prevented the normal initiation step of λ DNA replication. These results suggest that DNA decoys encoding viral origins could constitute effective tools to specifically arrest viral proliferation.
Memantine Attenuates Delayed Vasospasm after Experimental Subarachnoid Hemorrhage via Modulating Endothelial Nitric Oxide Synthase
Authors: Huang Chih-Yuan , Wang Liang-Chao , Shan Yan-Shen , Pan Chia-Hsin , Tsai Kuen-Jer
Published: June 2015

Delayed cerebral vasospasm is an important pathological feature of subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH). The cause of vasospasm is multifactorial. Impairs nitric oxide availability and endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS) dysfunction has been reported to underlie vasospasm. Memantine, a low-affinity uncompetitive N-methyl-d-aspartate (NMDA) blocker has been proven to reduce early brain injury after SAH. This study investigated the effect of memantine on attenuation of vasospasm and restoring eNOS functionality. Male Sprague-Dawley rats weighing 350–450 g were randomly divided into three weight-matched groups, sham surgery, SAH + vehicle, and SAH + memantine groups. The effects of memantine on SAH were evaluated by assessing the severity of vasospasm and the expression of eNOS. Memantine effectively ameliorated cerebral vasospasm by restoring eNOS functionality. Memantine can prevent vasospasm in experimental SAH. Treatment strategies may help combat SAH-induced vasospasm in the future.