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Background: Whereas the beneficial effect of antiplatelet therapy for recurrent stroke prevention has been well established, uncertainties remain regarding the optimal antithrombotic regimen for recently symptomatic carotid stenosis. We sought to explore the approaches of stroke physicians to antithrombotic management of patients with symptomatic carotid stenosis. Methods: We employed a qualitative descriptive methodology to explore the decision-making approaches and opinions of physicians regarding antithrombotic regimens for symptomatic carotid stenosis. We conducted semi-structured interviews with a purposive sample of 22 stroke physicians (11 neurologists, 3 geriatricians, 5 interventional-neuroradiologists, and 3 neurosurgeons) from 16 centers on four continents to discuss symptomatic carotid stenosis management. We then conducted thematic analysis on the transcripts. Results: Important themes revealed from our analysis included limitations of existing clinical trial evidence, competing surgeon versus neurologist/internist preferences, and the choice of antiplatelet therapy while awaiting revascularization. There was a greater concern for adverse events while using multiple antiplatelet agents (e.g., dual-antiplatelet therapy (DAPT)) in patients undergoing carotid endarterectomy compared to carotid artery stenting. Regional variations included more frequent use of single antiplatelet agents among European participants. Areas of uncertainty included antithrombotic management if already on an antiplatelet agent, implications of nonstenotic features of carotid disease, the role of newer antiplatelet agents or anticoagulants, platelet aggregation testing, and timing of DAPT. Conclusion: Our qualitative findings can help physicians critically examine the rationale underlying their own antithrombotic approaches to symptomatic carotid stenosis. Future clinical trials may wish to accommodate identified variations in practice patterns and areas of uncertainty to better inform clinical practice.

Do state-level exams in civics have a positive impact on young people's civic knowledge? We hypothesize that civics exams have the biggest effect in states where they are a requirement for high school graduation—theincentivehypothesis. We further hypothesize that civics requirements have the biggest effect on young people with less exposure to information about the U.S. political system at home, specifically Latinos and, especially, immigrants—thecompensationhypothesis. We test these hypotheses with the 2006 and 2010 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) civics test administered to high school students, and with a large national survey of 18–24 year-olds. Across the two datasets, we find modest support for the incentive hypothesis and strong support for the compensation hypothesis.

This symposium examines the politics of religious alliances. While the literature on religion and politics generally focuses ondifferencesacross individuals, congregations, denominations, or traditions, these articles instead ask how, when, and why religious groups do — and do not — form alliances with other organizations, both religious and secular. Specifically, this collection of original research examines the formation of multi-denominational coalitions among party activists, litigants, and religious leaders. These varied articles arose from a workshop at Oxford University in March 2015, an event hosted and funded by the Rothermere American Institute. The collection explores the impact of religious coalitional activity upon political attitudes, decision-making, and public policy development. It is wide-ranging, extending our understanding of religious coalitional activity beyond the United States and dealing with topics of vital current significance, including the swiftly changing landscape of school voucher and tax credit expansion, same-sex marriage, healthcare, and abortion advocacy.

OBJECTIVETo determine the effect of interhospital patient sharing via transfers on the rate of Clostridium difficile infections in a hospital.DESIGNRetrospective cohort.METHODSUsing data from the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project California State Inpatient Database, 2005–2011, we identified 2,752,639 transfers. We then constructed a series of networks detailing the connections formed by hospitals. We computed 2 measures of connectivity, indegree and weighted indegree, measuring the number of hospitals from which transfers into a hospital arrive, and the total number of incoming transfers, respectively. Next, we estimated a multivariate model of C. difficile infection cases using the log-transformed network measures as well as covariates for hospital fixed effects, log median length of stay, log fraction of patients aged 65 or older, and quarter and year indicators as predictors.RESULTSWe found an increase of 1 in the log indegree was associated with a 4.8% increase in incidence of C. difficile infection (95% CI, 2.3%–7.4%) and an increase of 1 in log weighted indegree was associated with a 3.3% increase in C. difficile infection incidence (1.5%–5.2%). Moreover, including measures of connectivity in our models greatly improved their fit.CONCLUSIONSOur results suggest infection control is not under the exclusive control of a given hospital but is also influenced by the connections and number of connections that hospitals have with other hospitals.Infect. Control Hosp. Epidemiol. 2015;36(9):1031–1037

The public opinion literature shows that cues about the policy positions of social groups influence citizens’ political attitudes. We assess whether cues about religious groups’ positions affect attitudes on three issues: protection of homosexuals in the workplace, improving the socio-economic conditions of African-Americans, and government-provided health insurance. We argue that such cues should shape issue attitudes and condition the impact of religious and political orientations on those attitudes. That should be especially true on issues closely connected to religion and for citizens with low levels of political awareness. We assess this argument with a survey experiment pitting pairs of religious groups on opposite sides of issues. We find that religious group cues matter primarily for cultural attitudes, among less politically-aware individuals, and for the religiously unaffiliated, Democrats, and liberals. The dominant effect is negative, moving these groups away from the positions of religious leaders and especially evangelical leaders.

The soils of the Seabee Hook area of Cape Hallett in northern Victoria Land, Antarctica, were mapped and characterized. Seabee Hook is a low-lying gravel spit of beach deposits built up by coastal currents carrying basalt material from nearby cliffs. Seabee Hook is the location of an Adélie penguin (Pygoscelis adeliae) colony which influences the soils with additions of guano, dead birds, eggshells and feathers. A soil-landscape model was developed and a soil association was identified between the soils formed on mounds (relict beach ridges) favoured by penguins for nests (Typic Haplorthel) and the soils in the areas between the mounds (Typic Haplorthel/Typic Aquorthel). Soils formed on the mounds inhabited by penguins contained guano in the upper 50 cm, overlying sub-rounded beach-deposited gravel and sand. Soils between mounds had a thin veneer (< 5 cm) of guano overlying basaltic gravelly sand similar to that in the lower parts of the mound soils. The soils had high concentrations of nitrogen, organic carbon, phosphorus, cadmium, zinc, copper, and increased electrical conductivity, within horizons influenced by penguin guano. Five buried penguin bones were collected from the base of soil profiles and radiocarbon dated. The dates indicate that Seabee Hook has been colonized by penguins for at least 1000 years.

Seabee Hook is a low lying gravel spit adjacent to Cape Hallett, northern Victoria Land, in the Ross Sea region of Antarctica and hosts an Adélie penguin (Pygoscelis adeliae) rookery. Dipwells were inserted to monitor changes in depth to, and volume of, groundwater and tracer tests were conducted to estimate aquifer hydraulic conductivity and groundwater velocity. During summer (November–February), meltwater forms a shallow, unconfined, aquifer perched on impermeable ice cemented soil. Groundwater extent and volume depends on the amount of snowfall as meltwater is primarily sourced from melting snow drifts. Groundwater velocity through the permeable gravel and sand was up to 7.8 m day−1, and hydraulic conductivities of 4.7 × 10−4 m s−1 to 3.7 × 10−5 m s−1 were measured. The presence of the penguin rookery, and the proximity of the sea, affects groundwater chemistry with elevated concentrations of salts (1205 mg L−1 sodium, 332 mg L−1 potassium) and nutrients (193 mg L−1 nitrate, 833 mg L−1 ammonia, 10 mg L−1 total phosphorus) compared with groundwater sourced away from the rookery, and with other terrestrial waters in Antarctica.

The biodiversity of insect trypanosomes is largely unknown, resulting in significant gaps in the understanding of pathogen evolution. A culture-independent preliminary survey of trypanosomatid fauna was conducted for the parasites of Heteroptera (Hemiptera) from several localities in Costa Rica. Trypanosomatid infections were detected by light microscopy of smeared gut contents. Out of 257 insects representing 6 families, infections were found in 62 cases; cultures were obtained for 29 new isolates. Gut material from infected hosts was preserved in the field using an SDS–EDTA buffer solution for subsequent DNA extraction in the laboratory. PCR amplification of the trypanosomatid-specific spliced leader (SL) RNA gene repeats was successful for 60 field samples. Eighteen distinct SL RNA typing units were identified in a set of 28 samples analysed in detail. Cluster analysis indicated that these typing units were unique and thus could represent new species and, in some cases, new genera. This study reveals only a minor fraction of the trypanosomatid biodiversity, which is anticipated to be high.

Trypanosomes isolated from South American bats include the human pathogen Trypanosoma cruzi. Other Trypanosoma spp. that have been found exclusively in bats are not well characterized at the DNA sequence level and we have therefore used the SL RNA gene to differentiate and characterize kinetoplastids isolated from bats in South America. A Trypanosoma sp. isolated from bats in southern Brazil was compared with the geographically diverse isolates T. cruzi marinkellei, T. vespertilionis, and T. dionisii. Analysis of the SL RNA gene repeats revealed size and sequence variability among these bat trypanosomes. We have developed hybridization probes to separate these bat isolates and have analysed the DNA sequence data to estimate their relatedness. A new species, Trypanosoma desterrensis sp. n., is proposed, for which a 5S rRNA gene was also found within the SL RNA repeat.

Trends in the political engagement of America's high school students present a paradox. At the same time that an unprecedented number of opportunities exist for American adolescents to get involved in activities with a political flavor like student governments, model United Nations, model Congress, Young Republicans and Young Democrats, and debate clubs, both interest and participation in political activities among high school students is low and declining. This is not unlike what has been observed among adults in the general population. A proliferation of advocacy groups has not resulted in more Americans getting involved in politics. Nor has a never-ending supply of political news on TV and radio, in print, and online led to an increase in the nation's attention to political matters.It would be too presumptuous for me to claim that there is a direct causal connection between an increasing supply of opportunities for extracurricular political activities among young people and their declining rates of civic engagement. A more modest claim does seem plausible, however: politics has increasingly become a niche activity, pursued by that relatively small slice of the population who are, as Robert Dahl (1961) famously put it, “homo politicus,” i.e., “political junkies.” Television channels provide a telling analogy. Whereas once, events like national political conventions and presidential press conferences would preempt all network programming, they are increasingly shunted off to all-news cable channels and C-SPAN. Ironically, a greater supply of political news has meant that it is easier for people who are not pre-disposed to seek out politically-oriented programming to avoid it.

The arbitrary genus Phytomonas includes a biologically diverse group of kinetoplastids that live in a wide variety of plant environments. To understand better the subdivisions within the phytomonads and the variability within groups, the exon, intron and non-transcribed spacer sequences of the spliced leader RNA gene were compared among isolates of the phloem-restricted members. A total of 29 isolates associated with disease in coconut, oil palm and red ginger (Alpinia purpurata, Zingibreaceae) were examined, all originating from plantations in South America and the Caribbean over a 12-year period. Analysis of non-transcribed spacer sequences revealed 2 main groups, I and II; group II could be further subdivided into 2 subgroups, IIa and Ilb. Three classes of spliced leader (SL) RNA gene were seen, with SLI corresponding to group I, SLIIa to group lIa, and SLIIb to group IIb. Two isolates showed some characteristics of both major groups. Group-specific oligonucleotide probes for hybridization studies were tested, and a multiplex amplification scheme was devised to allow direct differentiation between the 2 major groups of phloem-restricted Phytomonas. These results provide tools for diagnostic and molecular epidemiology of plant trypanosomes that are pathogenic for commercially important flowers and palms.

A soil climate monitoring network, consisting of seven automated weather stations, was established between 1999 and 2003, ranging from Minna Bluff to Granite Harbour and from near sea level to about 1700 m on the edge of the polar plateau. Active layer depth was calculated for each site for eight successive summers from 1999/2000 to 2006/2007. The active layer depth varied from year to year and was deepest in the warm summer of 2001-02 at all recording sites. No trends of overall increase or decrease in active layer depth were evident across the up-to-eight years of data investigated. Average active layer depth decreased with increasing latitude from Granite Harbour (778S, active layer depth of . 90 cm) to Minna Bluff (78.58S, active layer depth of 22 ± 0.4 cm), and decreased with increasing altitude from Marble Point (50 m altitude, active layer depth of 49 ± 9 cm) through to Mount Fleming (1700 m altitude, active layer depth of 6 ± 2 cm). When all data from the sites were grouped together and used to predict active layer depth the mean summer air temperature, mean winter air temperature, total summer solar radiation and mean summer wind speed explained 73% of the variation (R 2 5 0.73). Received 9 December 2008, accepted 8 June 2009

The Averaged America: Surveys, Citizens, and the Making of a Mass Public. By Sarah E. Igo. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2007. 408p. $35.00. If I told you that this book is about the history of survey research in America, would you read it? If I told you that much of the book deals with Alfred Kinsey's reports on human sexuality, would that pique your interest?

My purpose in this article is to call attention to the inconclusive nature of the evidence for the view that the proper accompaniment of early Greek elegiac poetry was the flute. The elegiac couplet has been aptly called ‘a variation upon the heroic hexameter in the direction of lyric poetry’. But how far did it go in this direction? In particular, did early elegiac poetry have a close connexion with music? A distinction is commonly drawn between poetry written κατὰ στίχον, for example the epic hexameter and the iambic trimeter, which was spoken or at most intoned, and poetry in lyric metres which was sung to musical accompaniment: to which group does elegiac poetry belong?Passages in Plutarch and Pausanias and hints in the lexicographers and in the early elegists themselves have suggested to some scholars that there was a connexion between elegiac poetry and the flute.

v. Maclaren 1 that a corporation " may, for the purposes of jurisdiction, be deemed to have two domiciles.... The places of business may, for the purposes of jurisdiction, properly be deemed the domicile," 2 England has recognised the validity of the theory that a corporation can be in several states at once, wherever it is doing business.3 There is no problem relating to service of process against a foreign corporation doing business within the jurisdiction, nor of execution of judgment against the corporation. The common law has not, however, exploited the full import of a theory of juristic entity. Unlike many Continental countries, the common law has conferred legal personality only upon the body which has undergone prescribed steps to acquire this status, and the results have been restricted to what has come to be known as corporate personality.4 The common law has never given the partnership full juristic personality. The partnership is a group of persons each having his given legal status, but the sum of them does not amount to one overriding legal entity. Contemporary civil procedure has provided an admirable patchwork to remedy many of the consequences which result from an inadequate theory of juristic personality, but a new theory has not been supplied. Consequently, the basis of the modern law continues to be that of non-juristic personality for groups not enjoying the status of the corporation. England had by the end of the nineteenth century succeeded in discarding the last important ramifications of the nonentity of partnerships by reaching the position that service of a writ may be issued against the foreign partnership in the partnership name, proceedings may be carried

W. S. Gilbert's very model of a modern majorgeneral knew among other things the croaking chorus of the Frogs of Aristophanes, and their refrain is perhaps the most widely-quoted line in Greek literature. But the interpretation of the Frogs’ scene gives rise to debate, and there is no agreement on even basic questions: for example, were the Frogs visible in the theatre or did they croak unseen behind the skene? What is the nature of the competition between the Frogs and Dionysus? Is the scene simply a self-contained piece of entertainment or has it an element of literary parody which would make it relevant to the main theme of the play? Here I attempt to answer the last of these questions.

There is no agreement about the supplement at the end of the first line. almost certainly refers to marriage, discussion of which is postponed till something becomes black or turns dark.Theiler's (‘solange mir das Haar noch schwarz ist’) hardly fits thecontext, and Burkert's with the sense ‘when the grapes ripen’ (‘jetzt ist Frühling’) is not convincing. A metaphorical sense for ‘grapes’ is preferable, e.g. or, better, (Ebert-Luppe), (Slings), ‘when youwill be old enough to marry’; but the phrase comes with a jolt in the absence of any preparation or immediate follow-up: in the passages of Philodemus andHorace quoted as parallel by Ebert-Luppes the metaphor is not simply a singleword but is extended over two or three lines.