A visit to my birth-place /

Mode of access: Internet.

Historical and descriptive account of the birth-place of Shakspeare,

Mode of access: Internet.

Proper motions of thermally emitting isolated neutron stars measured with Chandra

The remarkable astrometric capabilities of the Chandra Observatory offer the possibility to measure proper motions of X-ray sources with an unprecedented accuracy in this wavelength range. We recently completed a proper motion survey of three of the seven thermally emitting radio-quiet isolated neutron stars (INSs) discovered in the ROSAT all-sky survey. These INSs (RXJ0420.0-5022, RXJ0806.4-4123 and RXJ1308.6+2127) either lack an optical counterpart or have one so faint that ground based or space born optical observations push the current possibilities of the instrumentation to the limit. Pairs of ACIS observations were acquired 3 to 5 years apart to measure the displacement of the sources on the X-ray sky using as a reference the background of extragalactic or remote Galactic X-ray sources. We derive 2 sigma upper limits of 123 mas yr(-1) and 86 mas yr(-1) on the proper motion of RXJ0420.0-5022 and RXJ0806.4-4123, respectively. RXJ1308.6+2127 exhibits a very significant displacement (similar to 9 sigma) yielding mu = 220 +/- 25 mas yr(-1), the second fastest measured among all ROSAT-discovered INSs. The source is probably moving away rapidly from the Galactic plane at a speed which precludes any significant accretion of matter from the interstellar medium. Its transverse velocity of similar to 740 (d/700 pc) km s(-1) might be the largest of all ROSAT INSs and its corresponding spatial velocity lies among the fastest recorded for neutron stars. RXJ1308.6+2127 is thus a middle-aged (age similar to 1 My) high velocity cooling neutron star. We investigate its possible origin in nearby OB associations or from a field OB star. In most cases, the flight time from birth place appears significantly shorter than the characteristic age derived from spin down rate. Overall, the distribution in transverse velocity of the ROSAT INSs is not statistically different from that of normal radio pulsars.

Increased risk of psychosis in rural-born individuals: An Australian catchment-area study

The aim of the Brisbane Psychosis Study was to examine a range of candidate genetic and nongenetic risk factors in a large, representative sample of patients with psychosis and well controls. The patients (n=310) were drawn from a census conducted as part of the National Survey of Mental Health and Wellbeing. An age and sex-matched well control group (n = 303) was drawn from the same catchment area. Candidate risk factors assessed included migrant status of proband and proband's parents, occupation of father at time of proband's birth, place of birth and place of residence during the first 5 years of life (urbanicity), self-reported pregnancy and birth complications, season of birth and family history. The main analyses were group (cases versus controls) comparisons, with planned subgroup analyses (1) group comparisons for Australian-born subjects only, (2) within-patient comparisons of affective versus nonaffective psychoses. Of the individuals with psychosis, 68% had DSMIII-R schizophrenia. In the main analyses, there were no significant group differences on season of birth, place of birth, place of residency in the first 5 years, occupation of fathers at time of birth or pregnancy and birth complications. Patients had significantly more family members with schizophrenia. Significantly fewer of the patients were migrants or offspring of migrants compared to the controls. When only Australianborn subjects were assessed (n=457), the findings were essentially unchanged apart from a significant excess of cases born in rural sites (chi-square=9.54, df3, p=0.02). There were no significant differences in the risk factors for the comparison involving affective versus nonaffective psychoses. Potential explanations for the inverse urban-rural risk gradient are reviewed. The Stanley Foundation supported this project

Investigando possíveis relações entre alcoolismo, sofrimento psíquico e violência intrafamiliar na perpectiva de mulheres atendidas pela Saúde da Família

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Il teatro di Sarah Kane fra biografia, performance e scrittura

Il presente studio si propone come una rilettura del profilo drammaturgico e teatrale di Sarah Kane a partire dalla ricostruzione e integrazione dei dati biografici e delle interazioni artistiche e personali dell’autrice. Lo studio si articola in due sezioni: in un primo momento esso inquadra contestualmente la drammaturgia inglese del secondo dopoguerra, origine della prima generazione dei Giovani Arrabbiati e sostrato della trasformazione teatrale britannica degli anni Novanta. La seconda sezione, invece, si articola come un’indagine biografica della vita della Kane scandita da documenti e immagini inediti. Tali immagini restituiscono una preziosa testimonianza dei primi spettacoli giovanili, delle prime regie e del percorso professionale maturo della drammaturga/regista, oltre a far luce sulla sua vita personale e famigliare e sugli influssi della stessa sul suo teatro. Inoltre, lo studio approfondito delle vicende biografiche dell’autrice ridisegna le caratteristiche fondanti dell'universo teatrale britannico comprendendo il valore che hanno: i teatri, la critica giornalistica e le strutture universitarie, per la configurazione del sistema teatrale.

La Imagen del Viaje a a Efeso en el Yambo XIII de Calícamo

El Yambo XIII de Calímaco (fr. 203 Pf.) es conocido, junto con el Yambo I, por su naturaleza programática y por su tono polémico: el poeta disputa con sus detractores, quienes lo acusan por la "variedad formal" (polieídeia) de sus obras. Entre las críticas que recibe, se cuenta la de "no haber viajado a Efeso", patria de Hiponacte, yambógrafo de fines del VI siglo a. C., a quien se atribuye la invención del metro coliámbico que Calímaco adopta en la composición de su poema. Esa imagen, la de una travesía no emprendida, habrá de ser vinculada con el mencionado concepto de polieídeia y con los alcances que la metáfora del viaje adquiere, tanto en la tradición de los poetas precedentes como en otras obras del propio alejandrino

La Imagen del Viaje a a Efeso en el Yambo XIII de Calícamo

El Yambo XIII de Calímaco (fr. 203 Pf.) es conocido, junto con el Yambo I, por su naturaleza programática y por su tono polémico: el poeta disputa con sus detractores, quienes lo acusan por la "variedad formal" (polieídeia) de sus obras. Entre las críticas que recibe, se cuenta la de "no haber viajado a Efeso", patria de Hiponacte, yambógrafo de fines del VI siglo a. C., a quien se atribuye la invención del metro coliámbico que Calímaco adopta en la composición de su poema. Esa imagen, la de una travesía no emprendida, habrá de ser vinculada con el mencionado concepto de polieídeia y con los alcances que la metáfora del viaje adquiere, tanto en la tradición de los poetas precedentes como en otras obras del propio alejandrino

La Imagen del Viaje a a Efeso en el Yambo XIII de Calícamo

El Yambo XIII de Calímaco (fr. 203 Pf.) es conocido, junto con el Yambo I, por su naturaleza programática y por su tono polémico: el poeta disputa con sus detractores, quienes lo acusan por la "variedad formal" (polieídeia) de sus obras. Entre las críticas que recibe, se cuenta la de "no haber viajado a Efeso", patria de Hiponacte, yambógrafo de fines del VI siglo a. C., a quien se atribuye la invención del metro coliámbico que Calímaco adopta en la composición de su poema. Esa imagen, la de una travesía no emprendida, habrá de ser vinculada con el mencionado concepto de polieídeia y con los alcances que la metáfora del viaje adquiere, tanto en la tradición de los poetas precedentes como en otras obras del propio alejandrino

1.2 Water Valley, Mississippi, Birthplace of Lloyd Gaines

Lloyd Gaines was born in Water Valley, Mississippi in 1911. Gaines’ family was sharecroppers outside the small Mississippi town, toiling in the cotton fields which caused Lloyd’s school attendance to be quite sporadic.

Complex Congenital Heart Disease: The Influence of Prenatal Diagnosis

INTRODUCTION: Complex congenital heart disease is a group of severe conditions. Prenatal diagnosis has implications on morbidity and mortality for most severe conditions. The purpose of this work was to evaluate the influence of prenatal diagnosis and distance of residence and birth place to a reference center, on immediate morbidity and early mortality of complex congenital heart disease. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Retrospective study of complex congenital heart disease patients of our Hospital, born between 2007 and 2012. RESULTS: There were 126 patients born with complex congenital heart disease. In 95%, pregnancy was followed since the first trimester, with prenatal diagnosis in 42%. There was a statistically significant relation between birth place and prenatal diagnosis. Transposition of great arteries was the most frequent complex congenital heart disease (45.2%), followed by pulmonary atresia with ventricular septal defect (17.5%) and hypoplastic left ventricle (9.5%). Eighty-two patients (65.1%) had prostaglandin infusion and 38 (30.2%)were ventilated before an intervention. Surgery took place in the neonatal period in 73%. Actuarial survival rate at 30 days, 12 and 24 months was 85%, 80% and 75%, respectively. There was no statistically significant relation between prenatal diagnosis and mortality. DISCUSSION: Most patients with complex congenital heart disease did not have prenatal diagnosis. All cases with prenatal diagnosis were born in a tertiary center. Prenatal diagnosis did not influence significantly neonatal mortality, as already described in other studies with heterogeneous complex heart disease. CONCLUSION: prenatal diagnosis of complex congenital heart disease allowed an adequate referral. Most patients with complex congenital heart disease were not diagnosed prenatally. This data should be considered when planning prenatal diagnosis of congenital heart disease.

Editorial

This time of year we look back at the year that has passed and make plans for the next year. I like to reflect on things that I have learnt and people that I have met, especially those who facilitated that learning. In 2009 I went to various conferences, The BCLA conference in Manchester, The Romanian Optical Society meeting in Brasov, Transylvania (where the university is actually on Vlad Tepes Street), The European Council for Optometry and Optics (ECOO) in Brno, Czech Republic, The American Academy of Optometry (AAO) in Orlando USA, The International Association of Contact Lens Educators (IACLE) meeting in Tianjin China and finally The Vereinigung Deutscher Contactlinsen-Spezialisten (VDCO) meeting in Jena. All were interesting places and thoroughly all were enjoyable conferences with their own highlights but I wanted to focus on Jena and one person I met there and his inspirational search for knowledge and the contributions he made in the field of contact lenses. Jena itself is a fascinating place and should be on the ‘must visit’ list of anyone involved in eye care. It is the birth place of Carl Zeiss of course and where he started his company. It is also the birth place of Ernst Abbe (physicist and optometrist and expert lens maker), and Otto Schott (chemist and technologist who made high quality glass. There are many road signs bearing witness to these famous pioneers. The optical museum is worth spending a few hours looking around too. I was invited to speak at the VDCO at the kind invitation from colleagues at the Jena School of Optometry, Professor Wolfgang Sickenberger and Professor Sebastian Marx. At this meeting I met 87-year-old Willi KAUE who was being awarded the Adolf Wilhelm Müller-Welt prize by the VDCO for contribution to contact lenses over his 60-year career. At the age of 15 Willi Kaue took up an apprenticeship to become an Optician in Germany in 1937. At this time he first heard about the scleral glass lenses made by the Carl Zeiss Company in Jena. This started his lifelong fascination which was to become his passion but not yet his career. During the war he was enlisted into military service but immediately after was back to his former career. In 1950 Willi corrected his own 3.5 dioptres of myopia with a plastic scleral lens. His fascination strengthened as for the first time he himself could experience a wider field of view than his spectacles gave him, less aberrations and less retinal minification. He also appreciated the fact that contact lenses did not cause pressure on the nose or ears and did not slide down his nose plus remained optically centred with his eye movements. He decided that form now on he would make fitting contact lenses his career. He travelled to London to learn more about contact lenses and how to fit them but initially did not find many willing teachers and to start with became largely self-taught. He wanted to know how to make scleral lenses. So far he only knew that pulverized polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) was pressed and moulded. In 1951 he met Berlin optician Otto Marzock. He made his only scleral lenses from using military PMMA windshields. His process involved lathe cutting the lenses and resulted in lenses that were thinner than moulded ones. Willi developed a manufacturing method, using a rotary diamond drill, starting form the outer edge and towards the centre at a constant cut speed. This enabled him to make more reproducible lenses and in less time. His enthusiasm in the field was clear from the travels he made in the pursuit of advancement - travelling around Europe, South America, North America and Asia. In 1963 he visited George Nissel in Hemel Hempstead, England. Constantly thriving towards innovations Willi came across the new Naturalens from the USA made from HEMA at a congress in Marseille in 1969. Amongst his contributions to the field, was his own technique of fitting ocular prosthetics, using an alginate impression of the orbit. I was fortunate enough to have dinner with Willi Kaue and learnt more about his fascinating career through the patient interpreting skills of Hilmar Bussacker (the 2008 winner of the same award and the 2007 winner of the European Federation of the Contact Lens and IOL Industries Award). I look forward to 2010 with eager anticipation as to what I may learn and who I might meet!!! Copyright © 2009 British Contact Lens Association. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

A comparative study of high -achieving and low -achieving African -American students in an urban setting

The purpose of this study was to delineate which demographic and school variables were important for predicting the achievement of 10th grade African-American students. The sample population was divided into two groups: high-achievers, students with GPAs of 3.5 or higher, and low-achievers, students with GPAs of 1.5 or lower. Variables examined in the study included: gender; birth place; student's native language; exceptionality (ESE); history of English proficiency (LEP); SES (lunch status) in elementary and high school; the percentage of the Black student population in high school; and suspensions, absences, tardies, and the Stanford Achievement Test (SAT) scores in reading comprehension, mathematics computation, and mathematics applications in elementary and middle school. Two separate logistic regression analyses were conducted to determine which variables were influential in predicting achievement.^ Analysis 1 (N = 366), which included all the variables, except the SAT percentile scores, correctly classified 87% of the students as high-achievers or low-achievers. The results from Analysis 1 revealed that students who--were female; spoke a language other than English as their first language; did not apply for free or reduced lunch in elementary school; were in the gifted program; had no absences or tardies in elementary school; had no suspensions or tardies in middle school; and attended a high school with a lower percentage of Black students--were more likely to be high-achieving than low-achieving.^ Analysis 2 (N = 274) included all the variables and resulted in 94% of the students being correctly classified. It was found that students who--were female; were currently or previously classified as Limited English Proficient (LEP); did not apply for free or reduced lunch in elementary school; had no suspensions or tardies in middle school; and had higher percentile scores in reading comprehension and mathematics computation on the SAT in middle school--were more likely to high-achieving than low-achieving.^ The quantitative analyses were coupled with interviews from a purposeful sample of the population (N = 12) to gain additional insight about why some African-American students are succeeding in our schools and others are not. This study provides a viable means for assessing African-American students' achievement patterns in our schools. ^