Origins of Australian Football: Victoria's Early History. Volume 3: Covert 'Professionalism': The Power of the Wealthy Clubs 1886 to 1890

This volume continues the story of football in Marvellous Melbourne during the 1880s. At this time the VFA continued to expand as Melbourne’s boom continued apace. In 1886 Port Melbourne, Prahran, St Kilda, Footscray and South Williamstown joined the competition, and the Ballarat clubs Ballarat, Ballarat Imperial and South Ballarat were also contending for the VFA premiership. In 1886 matches were divided into four quarters, goal umpires waved two flags to announce a goal, and time clocks and bells were employed to mark the end of quarters. Victoria also played inter-colonial matches against New South Wales, Tasmania and South Australia. VFA secretary T.S. Marshall was at the forefront of fighting the game’s turn towards professionalism, but although it was illegal to pay players, the practice continued. The period 1886 to 1890 also set the stage for the eventual formation of the Victorian Football League, for by the end of the 1880s the Victorian Football Association had become in effect a two-tier competition. The most popular clubs in the VFA, South Melbourne, Geelong, Carlton and Essendon collected the lion’s share of the gate money, which they used to build their wealth and entrench their position as the dominant Victorian teams. The lower tier clubs had to make do with paltry gate money and season fixtures that advantaged the strong clubs. In these fixtures the strong clubs elected to play each other first to increase their gate money, and only deemed to play the poorer clubs at the start of the season. This led to an increasing divide between the VFA’s rich and poor, and by 1890 South Williamstown and Prahran merged with Williamstown and St Kilda respectively, University dropped out of senior ranks, and the Ballarat clubs were excluded from competing for the VFA premiership, which left 12 senior clubs until Collingwood’s emergence in 1892. At this time, no team was as powerful as South Melbourne, which experienced the greatest success in the club’s VFA and VFL history when it collected triple premiership crowns in 1888, 1889, and 1890. South Melbourne was a most ambitious club and spearheaded the move towards professionalism, although this could not be made public. The fine teams it produced at this time contained some of the greatest players of the era, such as Peter Burns, “Sonny” Elms and “Dinny” McKay, and it looked after players with health insurance, jobs, inter-colonial trips, and other incentives. Geelong’s premiership in 1886 was perhaps its greatest triumph, but this success was followed by a premiership drought that would last for 39 years. Carlton remained one of Victorian football’s power clubs, and after securing the premiership in 1887 continued to compete for top honours. As always, the game became ever more popular and world record crowds of over 30,000 attended matches between South Melbourne, Carlton, Geelong and Essendon.

Common variants at 12q14 and 12q24 are associated with hippocampal volume

Aging is associated with reductions in hippocampal volume that are accelerated by Alzheimer's disease and vascular risk factors. Our genome-wide association study (GWAS) of dementia-free persons (n = 9,232) identified 46 SNPs at four loci with P values of <4.0 × 10 -7. In two additional samples (n = 2,318), associations were replicated at 12q14 within MSRB3-WIF1 (discovery and replication; rs17178006; P = 5.3 × 10 -11) and at 12q24 near HRK-FBXW8 (rs7294919; P = 2.9 × 10 -11). Remaining associations included one SNP at 2q24 within DPP4 (rs6741949; P = 2.9 × 10 -7) and nine SNPs at 9p33 within ASTN2 (rs7852872; P = 1.0 × 10 -7); along with the chromosome 12 associations, these loci were also associated with hippocampal volume (P < 0.05) in a third younger, more heterogeneous sample (n = 7,794). The SNP in ASTN2 also showed suggestive association with decline in cognition in a largely independent sample (n = 1,563). These associations implicate genes related to apoptosis (HRK), development (WIF1), oxidative stress (MSR3B), ubiquitination (FBXW8) and neuronal migration (ASTN2), as well as enzymes targeted by new diabetes medications (DPP4), indicating new genetic influences on hippocampal size and possibly the risk of cognitive decline and dementia.

Adolescent sexual behavioral intentions measurement: A gender approach in the Colombian Caribbean region [Medición de la Intención en la Actividad Sexual en Adolescentes: una Aproximación de Acuerdo al Género del Caribe Colombiano]

The study of 1777 male and female adolescent students of 11-19 years in the Colombian Caribbean had two objectives: development and validation of two reproductive health intention scales and analyze gender differences. The pilot of the scale consisted of 8 items and was reduced to 6, to check the reliability and validity using factor analysis and principal components with VARIMAX rotation yielded two factors: Intention and Intention Risk Protection, explained between 69.4% and 70% respectively. In the male Protection Intent (M = 3.87 and SD = 1.29) and risk (M = 2.56 and SD = 1.18) obtained an alpha between 0.74 and 0.86, and in Protection of Intent to female (M = 3.49 and SD = 1.35) and risk (M = 1.50 and SD = 0.89) ranged between 0.78 and 086. In conclusion, the reliability and structural stability are adequate and there are gender differences in the scales.

Colonoscopy preparation in children: Safety, efficacy, and tolerance of high- versus low-volume cleansing methods

Background: The use of large-volume electrolyte balanced solutions as preparation for colonoscopy often results in poor patient compliance and acceptance. The tolerance, safety, and efficacy of high-versus low volume colon-cleansing methods as preparation for colonoscopy in children were compared by randomized operator-blinded trial. Methods: Twenty-nine children ages 3.6-14.6 years had either high-volume nasogastric balanced polyethylene glycol electrolyte lavage (20 ml/kg/h) until the effluent was clear (n = 15), or two oral doses of sodium phosphate solution (22.5-45 ml) separated by oral fluid intake (n = 14). Results: Both preparations were equally effective. The low-volume preparation was better tolerated and caused less discomfort that the high-volume preparation, judging by serial nurse observations. The incidence of abdominal symptoms, diarrhea, sleep disturbance, and vomiting was not significantly different between the two groups. Both groups had a small reduction in mean hematocrit and serum calcium levels. The sodium phosphate preparation caused increases in mean serum sodium concentrations from 140 to 145 mmol/L and serum phosphate concentrations from 1.41 to 2.53 mmol/L. Ten hours after the commencement of the preanesthetic fast, these concentrations had returned to normal. Conclusions: There are advantages in terms of tolerance, discomfort, and case of administration with acceptable colonic cleansing with the use of the less-invasive oral sodium phosphate low-volume colon-cleansing preparation in children. Safe use requires ensuring an adequate oral fluid intake during the preparation time and avoidance of use in patients with renal insufficiency.

Finite volume evolution Galerkin method for hyperbolic conservation laws with spatially varying flux functions

We present a generalization of the finite volume evolution Galerkin scheme [M. Lukacova-Medvid'ova,J. Saibertov'a, G. Warnecke, Finite volume evolution Galerkin methods for nonlinear hyperbolic systems, J. Comp. Phys. (2002) 183 533-562; M. Luacova-Medvid'ova, K.W. Morton, G. Warnecke, Finite volume evolution Galerkin (FVEG) methods for hyperbolic problems, SIAM J. Sci. Comput. (2004) 26 1-30] for hyperbolic systems with spatially varying flux functions. Our goal is to develop a genuinely multi-dimensional numerical scheme for wave propagation problems in a heterogeneous media. We illustrate our methodology for acoustic waves in a heterogeneous medium but the results can be generalized to more complex systems. The finite volume evolution Galerkin (FVEG) method is a predictor-corrector method combining the finite volume corrector step with the evolutionary predictor step. In order to evolve fluxes along the cell interfaces we use multi-dimensional approximate evolution operator. The latter is constructed using the theory of bicharacteristics under the assumption of spatially dependent wave speeds. To approximate heterogeneous medium a staggered grid approach is used. Several numerical experiments for wave propagation with continuous as well as discontinuous wave speeds confirm the robustness and reliability of the new FVEG scheme.

Prediction of compressive strength of SCC and HPC with high volume fly ash using ANN

An artificial neural network (ANN) is presented to predict a 28-day compressive strength of a normal and high strength self compacting concrete (SCC) and high performance concrete (HPC) with high volume fly ash. The ANN is trained by the data available in literature on normal volume fly ash because data on SCC with high volume fly ash is not available in sufficient quantity. Further, while predicting the strength of HPC the same data meant for SCC has been used to train in order to economise on computational effort. The compressive strengths of SCC and HPC as well as slump flow of SCC estimated by the proposed neural network are validated by experimental results.

Solid volume fraction estimation of bone:marrow replica models using ultrasound transit time spectroscopy

The acceptance of broadband ultrasound attenuation (BUA) for the assessment of osteoporosis suffers from a limited understanding of both ultrasound wave propagation through cancellous bone and its exact dependence upon the material and structural properties. It has recently been proposed that ultrasound wave propagation in cancellous bone may be described by a concept of parallel sonic rays; the transit time of each ray defined by the proportion of bone and marrow propagated. A Transit Time Spectrum (TTS) describes the proportion of sonic rays having a particular transit time, effectively describing the lateral inhomogeneity of transit times over the surface aperture of the receive ultrasound transducer. The aim of this study was to test the hypothesis that the solid volume fraction (SVF) of simplified bone:marrow replica models may be reliably estimated from the corresponding ultrasound transit time spectrum. Transit time spectra were derived via digital deconvolution of the experimentally measured input and output ultrasonic signals, and compared to predicted TTS based on the parallel sonic ray concept, demonstrating agreement in both position and amplitude of spectral peaks. Solid volume fraction was calculated from the TTS; agreement between true (geometric calculation) with predicted (computer simulation) and experimentally-derived values were R2=99.9% and R2=97.3% respectively. It is therefore envisaged that ultrasound transit time spectroscopy (UTTS) offers the potential to reliably estimate bone mineral density and hence the established T-score parameter for clinical osteoporosis assessment.

Effects of the sensorimotor training volume on sensorimotor function in patients following lower limb arthroplasty

Background Sensorimotor function is degraded in patients after lower limb arthroplasty. Sensorimotor training is thought to improve sensorimotor skills, however, the optimal training stimulus with regard to volume, frequency, duration, and intensity is still unknown. The aim of this study, therefore, was to firstly quantify the progression of sensorimotor function after total hip (THA) or knee (TKA) arthroplasty and, as second step, to evaluate effects of different sensorimotor training volumes. Methods 58 in-patients during their rehabilitation after THA or TKA participated in this prospective cohort study. Sensorimotor function was assessed using a test battery including measures of stabilization capacity, static balance, proprioception, and gait, along with a self-reported pain and function. All participants were randomly assigned to one of three intervention groups performing sensorimotor training two, four, or six times per week. Outcome measures were taken at three instances, at baseline (pre), after 1.5 weeks (mid) and at the conclusion of the 3 week program (post). Results All measurements showed significant improvements over time, with the exception of proprioception and static balance during quiet bipedal stance which showed no significant main effects for time or intervention. There was no significant effect of sensorimotor training volume on any of the outcome measures. Conclusion We were able to quantify improvements in measures of dynamic, but not static, sensorimotor function during the initial three weeks of rehabilitation following TKA/THA. Although sensorimotor improvements were independent of the training volume applied in the current study, long-term effects of sensorimotor training volume need to be investigated to optimize training stimulus recommendations.

Estudio diacrónico comparativo de los usos y la semántica de la preposición DE en dos novelas españolas: Libro del caballero Zifar y El ingenioso hidalgo don Quijote de la Mancha

Prepositioner är välkända för sin polysemi eller betydelsemångfald, och utgångspunkten för den här uppsatsen har varit ett intresse av att undersöka om det är möjligt att för en av de mest mångtydiga spanska prepositionerna, DE, finna en sammanhängande semantisk struktur, eller om det är nödvändigt att se de olika betydelserna som inbördes orelaterade. För att utreda den här frågan och ge den ett diakroniskt perspektiv undersöker jag i den här uppsatsen användningen av den spanska prepositionen DE i två romaner ur den spanska litteraturhistorien, Libro del caballero Zifar och El ingenioso hidalgo don Quijote de la Mancha, del I. Uppsatsen består av tre delar. I kapitel två ger jag en teoretisk översikt över spanskans prepositionssystem och prepositionerna beskrivs både ur syntaktisk och semantisk synvinkel. Dessutom presenteras den kognitiva grammatiken och dess synsätt på prepositioner. Huvuddelen av arbetet koncentrerar sig på att presentera prepositionen DE på två sätt och enligt två skilda metoder. I kapitel tre presenteras de olika kontextuella användningarna av DE enligt den traditionella, historisk-komparativa metoden. Med utgångspunkt i dessa kontextuella användningar ställer jag i kapitel fyra med stöd av den kognitiva grammatikens begreppssystem upp en semantisk nätverksmodell av de olika betydelser som jag fastställt för DE i den funktionella analysen. För den semantiska beskrivningen har jag använt mig av den kognitiva grammatiken, eftersom denna grammatikuppfattning i motsats till den traditionella grammatiken ser polysemin som regel och utgångspunkt i den semantiska strukturen. Analysdelen av uppsatsen inleds med den funktionella presentationen av användningarna av DE av två grundläggande skäl: För det första anser jag det ändamålsenligt att för den semantiska beskrivningen ha en solid bas av exempel där användningen av DE analyserats med hänsyn till kontexten. Kapitel tre är därför indelat i fyra huvuddelar, enligt vilken ordklass DEs huvudord tillhör, t.ex.: substantiv, adjektiv, verb. I exemplen i den fjärde gruppen fungerar prepositionsfrasen som inleds av DE som en mer fristående bestämning på frasnivå, där huvudordets ordklasstillhörighet inte är av avgörande betydelse. För det andra utgår jag från att en viss utveckling av DE har skett under de 300 år som tidsmässigt skiljer de båda romanerna åt, både vad gäller dess användning och dess semantik. För att komma underfund med och beskriva utsträckningen hos denna utveckling är det nödvändigt att den komparativa delen presenteras innan den semantiska beskrivningen kan inledas. Resultaten av den komparativa analysen är att ett antal smärre skillnader i användningen förekommer, men detta till trots har ingen betydande semantisk utveckling kunnat iakttas. Detta innebär att den semantiska beskrivningen av DE kan göras utifrån ett relativt enhetligt material. Jag har följaktligen också kunnat ställa upp en enhetlig semantisk nätverksmodell av tolv olika, relaterade betydelser hos DE. Utgående från mitt material är det sålunda möjligt att se DEs polysemi som ett sammanhängande nätverk, trots att vissa av betydelserna kan verka sinsemellan motstridiga och att 300 år skiljer åt de två böckerna. Nyckelord: prepositioner, DE: semantik och användning, polysemi, kognitiv grammatik, diakroni

Uso del pronombre personal sujeto de la primera persona del singular en español y portugués hablados: factores semánticos y pragmáticos

Tutkimuksen aihe on subjektipronominin ei-pakollinen käyttö finiittisten verbimuotojen yhteydessä espanjan ja portugalin kielessä. Tutkimuskohteena ovat yksikön ensimmäisen persoonan verbimuodot Espanjassa ja Portugalissa kerätyissä puhekielen korpuksissa. Tutkimuksen tarkoitus on selvittää, mitkä semanttiset ja pragmaattiset tekijät vaikuttavat subjektipronominin ei-pakollisen käytön yleisyyteen ja mitä systemaattisia eroja subjektipronominin käytössä on espanjan ja portugalin välillä. Tutkimus kuuluu korpuslingvistiikan alaan ja ensisijaisena tutkimusmetodina on kvantitatiivinen vertailu. Tutkimus osoittaa, että yksikön ensimmäisen persoonan subjektipronominin ei-pakollinen käyttö on käytännössä kaikissa konteksteissa yleisempää portugalissa kuin espanjassa. Tätä eroa voidaan selittää kielten konstituenttirakenteen typologisella erilaisuudella. Subjektin semanttinen rooli on tutkimuksen perusteella sidoksissa subjektipronominin käyttöön enemmän espanjassa kuin portugalissa, mutta kummassakaan kielessä subjektipronominin käyttöä ei voida selittää pelkästään subjektin semanttisella roolilla. Molemmissa kielissä samanviitteisyys edellisen subjektin kanssa vähentää subjektipronominin käyttöä, kun taas subjektipronominin ei-referentiaalinen käyttö ja toisaalta verbin ilmaiseman toiminnan irreaalisuus lisäävät sitä. Tutkimustulokset antavat aihetta lisätutkimukseen pronominien ja verbien ei-referentiaalisesta ja irreaalisesta käytöstä espanjassa ja portugalissa sekä typologi-seen tutkimukseen subjektipronominien käyttöön vaikuttavista tekijöistä eri kielissä.

Acacia nilotica ssp. indica (L.) Willd. ex Del. (Mimosaceae)

Prickly acacia, a Weed of National Significance or WONS, is a serious problem in Queensland particularly the Mitchell grass downs where it was once planted to provide shade for livestock. The chapter summarises current knowledge about the taxonomy, biology, distribution, ecology, impacts and biological control of the weed. Queensland has been trying to achieve biological control of prickly acacia since 1980 when it began foreign exploration in Pakistan. Since then further exploration was undertaken in Kenya, South Africa and presently India. Six insects have been released in Queensland but only two of these are established. Greater emphasis is being placed on climate matching, plant response to herbivory and genotype matching in present work and it is hoped that this approach will allow more rigorous evaluations of agent performance and better understanding of reasons for success or failure of agents.