Embassy of Canada in Washington, D.C

This paper presents a generalization of non-uniform B-spline surfaces called T-splines. T-spline control grids permit T-junctions, so lines of control points need not traverse the entire control grid. T-splines support many valuable operations within a consistent framework, such as local refinement, and the merging of several B-spline surfaces that have different knot vectors into a single gap-free model. The paper focuses on T-splines of degree three, which are C 2 (in the absence of multiple knots). T-NURCCs (Non-Uniform Rational Catmull-Clark Surfaces with T-junctions) are a superset of both T-splines and Catmull-Clark surfaces. Thus, a modeling program for T-NURCCs can handle any NURBS or Catmull-Clark model as special cases. T-NURCCs enable true local refinement of a Catmull-Clark-type control grid: individual control points can be inserted only where they are needed to provide additional control, or to create a smoother tessellation, and such insertions do not alter the limit surface. T-NURCCs use stationary refinement rules and are C 2 except at extraordinary points and features.

Artemisinin combination therapies (ACTs) have recently been adopted as first-line therapy for Plasmodium falciparum infections in most malaria-endemic countries. In this study, we estimated the association between artesunate-mefloquine therapy failure and genetic changes in the putative transporter, pfmdr1. Blood samples were acquired from 80 patients enrolled in an 2004 in vivo efficacy study in Pailin, Cambodia, and genotyped for pfmdr1 copy number and haplotype. Having parasites with three or more copies of pfmdr1 before treatment was strongly associated with recrudescence (hazard ratio [HR] = 8.30; 95% CI: 2.60-26.43). This relationship was maintained when controlling for initial parasite density and hematocrit (HR = 7.91; 95% CI: 2.38-26.29). Artesunate-mefloquine treatment selected for increased pfmdr1 copy number, because isolates from recurrent episodes had higher copy numbers than the paired enrollment samples (Wilcoxon rank test, P = 0.040). pfmdr1 copy number should be evaluated further as a surveillance tool for artesunate-mefloquine resistance in Cambodia.

Epidemiologic observations indicate that environment and lifestyle are the major determinants of the geographical patterns of cancer. The developing countries, which account for 75% of the world's population, have lower incidence rates of cancer compared with the industrialized nations but bear more than half the global cancer burden. Demographic trends resulting from economic progress (decreasing incidence of infectious diseases, population growth, aging, and urbanization), coupled with increased tobacco consumption and dietary changes, indicate that developing countries will bear a continually increasing proportion of the world's cancer burden and its accompanying demand for the provision of costly treatment programs. Yet the developing countries command only 5% of the world's economic resources, and health care programs are already fully extended and frequently inadequate. Thus, cancer control in the developing countries, including preemptive prevention of the anticipated increases in cancers presently more common in the industrialized nations (e.g., lung, breast, and colon), should include much greater emphasis on cancer prevention than is presently the case. But there is another perspective. The developing countries, with their dramatic contrasts in lifestyles and environments and equally diverse patterns of cancer, provide an unparalleled, and often neglected, opportunity for studies directed toward understanding the mechanisms of environmental carcinogenesis. Such an understanding should eventually lead to the development of novel intervention approaches. Unfortunately, cancer research is much more difficult to conduct in the developing countries because of the lack of population-based registries, poor communication and transportation systems, and deficiencies in infrastructure, financial support, and the training of health professionals. These difficulties could be overcome, to the benefit of all, if the extent of collaboration in cancer research between the developing and industrialized nations were to be greatly expanded.

Effective project evaluation necessitates incorporating the many conflicting objectives of decision maker(s) into decision models. Among the many proposed methodologies of multicriteria decision making, goal programming is perhaps the most popular and widely used. Although it incorporates multiple objectives and arrives at an optimal solution, its major drawback is that the decision maker(s) must specify goals and priorities a priori. To overcome this problem the Delphi method is suggested to be applied prior to goal programming formulation so that the objectives and their corresponding aspiration levels can be identified. Another drawback of goal programming is that it does not provide a systematic approach to set priorities and trade-offs among objectives. For this purpose an analytical hierarchy process is used. The application of the proposed methodology is then discussed and illustrated through an example.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>

OBJECTIVE: To review the clinical findings in the first 1000 veterans seen in the Ministry of Defence's Gulf war medical assessment programme to examine whether there was a particular illness related to service in the Gulf. DESIGN: Case series of 1000 veterans who presented to the programme between 11 October 1993 and 24 February 1997. SUBJECTS: Gulf war veterans. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Diagnosis of veterans' conditions according to ICD-10 (international classification of diseases, 10th revision). Cases referred for psychiatric assessment were reviewed for available diagnostic information from consultant psychiatrists. RESULTS: 588 (59%) veterans had more than one diagnosed condition, 387 (39%) had at least one condition for which no firm somatic or psychological diagnosis could be given, and in 90 (9%) veterans no other main diagnosis was made. Conditions characterised by fatigue were found in 239 (24%) of patients. At least 190 (19%) patients had a psychiatric condition, which in over half was due to post-traumatic stress disorder. Musculoskeletal disorders and respiratory conditions were also found to be relatively common (in 182 (18%) and 155 (16%) patients respectively). CONCLUSION: Many Gulf war veterans had a wide variety of symptoms. This initial review shows no evidence of a single illness, psychological or physical, to explain the pattern of symptoms seen in veterans in the assessment programme. As the veterans assessed by the programme were all self selected, the prevalence of illness in Gulf war veterans cannot be determined from this study. Furthermore, it is not known whether the veterans in this study were representative of sick veterans as a group.

Journal Article Fostering Identities: Mexico's Relations with Its Diaspora Get access Carlos González Gutiérrez Carlos González Gutiérrez head of the Division of Hispanic Affairs Embassy of Mexico in the United States Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Journal of American History, Volume 86, Issue 2, September 1999, Pages 545–567, https://doi.org/10.2307/2567045 Published: 01 September 1999

Kyrgyzstan has undertaken wide-ranging reforms of its health system in a challenging socioeconomic and political context. The country has developed two major health reform programmes after becoming independent: Manas (1996 to 2006) and Manas Taalimi (2006 to 2010). These reforms introduced comprehensive structural changes to the health care delivery system with the aim of strengthening primary health care, developing family medicine and restructuring the hospital sector.Major service delivery improvements have included the introduction of new clinical practice guidelines, improvements in the provision and use of pharmaceuticals, quality improvements in the priority programmes for mother and child health, cardiovascular diseases, tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS, strengthening of public health and improvements in medical education. A Community Action for Health programme was introduced through new village health committees, enhancing health promotion and allowing individuals and communities to take more responsibility for their own health. Health financing reform consisted of the introduction of a purchaser provider split and the establishment of a single payer for health services under the state-guaranteed benefit package (SGBP). Responsibility for purchasing health services has been consolidated under the Mandatory Health Insurance Fund (MHIF), which pools general revenue and health insurance funding. Funds have been pooled at national level since 2006, replacing the previous pooling at oblast level. The transition from oblast-based pooling of funds to pooling at the national level allowed the MHIF to distribute funds more equitably for the SGBP and the Additional Drug Package. Although utilization of both primary care and hospital services declined during the 1990s and early 2000s, it is increasing again. There is increasing equality of access across regions, improved financial protection and a decline in informal payments, but more efforts will be required in these areas in the future.

‘No nation can escape its geography’, warned Percy Spender, Australia’s Minister for External Affairs, in 1950. With the immediate turmoil of World War II over, communism and decolonisation had ended any possibility that Asia could continue to be ignored by Australia. In the early 1950s, Australia embarked on its most ambitious attempt to engage with Asia: the Colombo Plan.

A technique for computing climatological power spectra based on the concept of utilizing non-integer values in the sine and cosine waveforms (NI technique) is developed and applied to climatological rainfall data. This technique provides a powerful alternative to the more common techniques used in the computation of climatological power spectra. The major advantage of this technique is the greatly improved resolution of wavelengths in the 5–25 year region, often a critical region of interest for climatologists. The technique produces spectral density values which are not necessarily independent; however, methods of specifying and then testing the departure from independence (orthogonality) are given. Furthermore, it is shown that the usual equations for the Fourier coefficients are special cases of the more general condition in which the spectral estimates include some degree of non-independence (i.e., lack of orthogonality). It is anticipated that this technique will have wide applicability in climatology, meteorology, hydrology and the other geophysical sciences.

Abstract Recent studies on the decomposition and combustion of ammonium perchlorate are reviewed with particular emphasis on the chemistry of the process and on the role of catalysts. This is used for a detailed discussion of the possible reaction mechanisms to attempt to select the specific areas requiring further investigation, both to extend the understanding of the combustion mechanism and to improve the basis of the theoretical models.

The application of the principle of non-cut off is a significant tool in maritime delimitation to provide an equitable solution. Unfortunately, scholars and experts have paid scant attention to this principle of maritime delimitation. This article analyzes the growing role of the principle of non-cut off in the law of maritime boundary delimitation and examines the related jurisprudence on the issue.

Circular Economy represents today a new economic paradigm based on the environment and on the recovery of material. The pursuit of this change can be implemented through different policies with a top-down or bottom-up approach. Following the latter approach Spin-Offs, typically defined as “Science Based” companies, represent an alternative tool to promote technology transfer. In other words, they represent a bridge between the research and the production system. This part of the study is part of a larger and more complex project whose objective is to verify whether the development of research Spin-Offs and in particular academics, operating in the environment sector, or more generally sustainable, facilitate the transition from the classic model of linear economics to the innovative model of circular economics. The aim of the paper is to investigate how spin off enterprises can be a driver for the development of a Circular Business Model and to facilitate the transition from the classical model of linear economy to the new model of Circular Economy. At the methodological level, a multiple compared analysis was made between a sample of firms located in Lazio Region- Italy, that operates in the area of green economy Smart Specialization Strategy (S3). The analysis shows a rapid succession of variables that lead to the identification of four scenarios, deriving from the interconnection of the outcome: “closed loop”, “open loop” and the presence or absence of Circular Economy practices. The result confirms that the Academic Spin-Offs can be a driver of Circular economy, as long as that fall within the IV scenario, characterized by the interconnection of an open loop system that works in a circular approach. The “High valorization of waste” represents the discriminant in this scenario, which allows to activate a cascade system in a multi-stakeholder perspective.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the mediating role of leader-member exchange in the relationship between organizational justice and job performance. The study primarily focused on the perception of university libraries personnel regarding organizational justice practices and the quality of their relationship with their supervisors and how such perceptions predict their job performance. Design/methodology/approach – This study tested a sample of 15 university libraries of Islamabad, Pakistan. Data were accumulated through questionnaire and analyzed on SPSS. Descriptive and correlation analysis showed the positive and significant relationship between all variables. Series of separate hierarchical regression analysis were used to test the hypothesis. Findings – The result revealed that all three kinds of organizational justices (distributive justice, procedural justice and interactional justice) predict the job performance but interactional justice along with leader-member exchange impacts more strongly on job performance. Research limitations/implications – The result of this study will assist the library leadership to foster a greater sense of employee worth and teamwork among staff members by implementing organizational justice practices. The study would also enhance the interest of Pakistani Library Information Science professionals and researchers toward behavioral aspects of library administration. Limitation: The results of this study may not be generalized to all universities and other industries of Pakistan as data is collected only from 15 universities of Pakistan. Second, interpretations of results are limited by the cross-sectional design of study and does not allow casual conclusion. Originality/value – According to researcher knowledge very few studies have been conducted on the management side of libraries in Pakistan. This paper is the first study in Pakistan Librarianship that examines the linkage between organizational justice, leader-member exchange and job performance.

In 2009–2010 India faces dramatically different foreign policy challenges than it faced even ten years ago. Similar to other ascendant powers such as China and Brazil but unlike smaller powers, India must not only cope with a transformed international system and project the country's global aspirations, but also ensure that its emergence as a rising power responds to its domestic dilemmas and constraints. India's actions and aspirations on the global stage have changed dramatically toward greater activism and leveraging of its newfound economic strengths. Yet, despite powerful pressures and opportunities nudging India toward a greater role in the global system, India must also attend to crucial capacity building to mobilize its potential and aspirations. The path toward a major power role and status needs to be paved with more than good intentions and be accompanied by political will and institutional flexibilities that can transform India's traditional emphasis on autonomy and self-reliance and new ambitions into real power that is sustainable at the global level and yields crucial benefits for India's diverse population.

No other issue in recent times has so troubled our relations [with Mexico]; no other problem has so taxed our determination to seek mutually satisfactory solutions to common problems; no other problem has so tested the sincerity and ingenuity of our diplomats; and no other problem has so challenged the mutual respect and goodwill that our two countries have for each other.

In several studies it has been shown that, since the political and economic changes precipitated by the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1989, English in the ‘new’ Hungary is in great demand and the number of its uses and users is expanding (e.g. Halasz, 1993; Medgyes, 1993; Petzold, 1994). This paper discusses the functional range of English and its penetration into Hungarian society and shows that in just a few years English has become an essential tool for modernization and economic development and a significant medium in the tourist and entertainment industries as well as education, and that need for the use of English in the workplace has had a major impact on its learning, especially in Budapest. The data is drawn from Petzold's comprehensive study of English in the capital city (1994). The authors offer an account of the sociolinguistic contexts of English in Hungary and provide insights into the reasons why Hungarians regard English proficiency as vital to their country's efforts to catch up with its more prosperous neighbors to the west.

Nuclear DNA-dependent RNA polymerase II has been purified from leaves of Zea mays by a new procedure that improves enzyme stability and thus permits more manipulation during purification. The purification procedure includes a heating step, gel filtration on Sepharose 6B and 4B, and chromatography on DEAE- and DNA-celluloses. This method of purification yields an enzyme that exhibits maximal activity when denatured DNA is used as a template. Electrophoresis of highly purified enzyme on polyacrylamide gels containing sodium dodecyl sulfate indicates that maize RNA polymerase IIa is composed of several polypeptide subunits. The most highly purified preparations contain polypeptides with molecular weights of 200,000, 160,000, 35,000, 25,000, 20,000, and 17,000.

Purpose The paper is an excerpt from a bigger study with an overall aim of examining the extent to which climate change adaptation has been integrated in the EIA studies undertaken in Kenya since the process inception in 2000. The purpose was to establish whether adequate attention is given to the issue of climate change mitigation as major challenge in the world during the 21st century. Design/methodology/approach The research design is based on qualitative research involving a review of EIA reports approved by the national environmental authority and also based on key informant consultations with licensed EIA experts in the country. Thereafter, the findings were analyzed through standard statistical procedures. Findings The findings showed that climate change integration in all the reviewed EIA reports was mainly restricted to mere consideration of historical climate change information in the project areas and totally weak in terms of climate change prediction scenarios and their likely impacts on the proposed development projects. However, consultations with most EIA practitioners indicated that integration of climate change adaptive capabilities into the EIA process was a relevant issue but admitted that the implementation modalities were unclear. Originality/value The study is the first in evaluating the level of integration for climate change in EIA studies in Kenya and the findings will inform EIA implementation in the country. It also forms a good basis for comparative studies with EIA studies in other countries of the world.

The Carnegie Unit (the “credit hour” in higher education) is embedded in nearly every aspect of the educational system, from federal financial aid to faculty-workload and cost-per-student calculati...

Interest in natural ingredients with multifunctions in food has led to the investigation of the antimicrobial activity of raisins, a traditional baking ingredient. Water and 60% ethanol extracts, and raisin juice concentrate (RJC, a commercial food ingredient) were assessed for their ability to inhibit the growth of ropy-bread-causing Bacillus species. The ability of these additives and raisin paste were tested for antifungal activity in liquid bread model system and bread. In the liquid bread model, concentrations as low as 20 and 36 mg crude extract or RJC per gram media significantly (P < 0.05) reduced the populations of B. licheniformis and B. subtilis, respectively. A significant reduction in the population of Aspergillus flavus and Penicillium chrysogenum was achieved at 80 and 470 mg crude extract per gram media, respectively. Bread formulas containing 7.5% of a water extract (equivalent to 70 mg extract per gram dough) or RJC (70 mg/g dough) produced bread that had equivalent mold-free shelf life. The mean mold-free shelf life of the bread containing 7.5% water extract was 18.1 +/- 3.3 d at room temperature while the negative control was mold free for 9.4 +/- 2.4 d. The antifungal efficacy of the extracts in bread was equivalent to 0.24% calcium propionate in 21 d of storage. Doubling the concentration of the extract did not improve the mold-retarding property in bread. The bread containing raisin paste, the percentage of which in dough was equivalent to 15% raisin extract, exhibited a stronger antifungal activity than did the extracts in bread.