Impact of an environmental education program on students' and parents' attitudes, motivation, and behaviours.

Changes in 184 6th grade students' and their parents' environmental knowledge, attitudes, motivation, and behaviors following an environmental education program (EEP) over a school year were investigated. Results indicated that at the end of the school year, children who were part of the EEP group engaged in ecological behaviors less for extrinsic motives than did children who were part of a control group. Parents of children in the EEP group were significantly more dissatisfied with local environmental conditions compared to parents of children in the control group. No other significant differences between groups were observed for other measured child and parental variables. Recommendations are presented to guide future studies evaluating an EEP. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Professionalization,risk transfer,and the effect on gender gap in project management

In this paper, we demonstrate that Project Management (PM) in Information Technologies (IT) sector, despite the claims of autonomy and self-determination at work of creative experts, sets up fairly tight controls through management and the rhetoric of professionalism. The client's position of strength overrides the employer's direct control, transferring a major share of the risk inherent in PM to the IT experts themselves. Ensuing long hours of unplanned and unpaid overtime are the most important obstacle facing women in IT's workforce. This paper is based on a qualitative research conducted on 7 Canadian companies acting in multimedia, information technology (IT) business services and optics–photonics. We have interviewed 88 IT experts, women and men, who talk about their working conditions.     

Preferential localization of DNA damage induced by depurination and bleomycin in a plasmid containing a scaffold-associated region

Recent evidence suggests that DNA damage of various origins is not randomly distributed in the genome but appears to be clustered in unidentified hypersensitive regions of the chromatin. A model was proposed that stipulates that unpaired DNA stretches, such as those found in scaffold- (or matrix)-associated regions (SARs) under torsional strain, are candidate regions of hypersensitivity to DNA damage in vivo. In this study, we assessed in vitro the relative susceptibility of supercoiled plasmids containing a SAR or chromatin loop DNA segment to DNA damage induced by acid-catalyzed depurination or FeIII-bleomycin. Single-strand specific S1 nuclease was used in combination with 3'-end-labeling to detect single-strand breaks or gaps, after cleavage of abasic sites or removal of 3'-phosphoglycolates by Escherichia coli endonuclease IV. The optimal conditions of DNA cleavage specificity by S1 nuclease were determined. Using these conditions, the DNA cleavage patterns obtained showed (i) a preferential localization of S1 hypersensitive sites in the SAR DNA as compared with plasmid or chromatin loop DNA and (ii) a strikingly similar localization of DNA damage with the two clastogenic treatments.     

Modelling biodiesel droplet evaporation using continuous thermodynamics

A model for the evaporation of droplets of biodiesel fuels based on continuous mixture theory is presented. The fuel is represented by three chemical groups - two fatty acid methyl ester (FAME) fractions and one monoglyceride fraction - and the parameters for each distribution function are derived by conducting a numerical simulation of a distillation test. Properties correlations are presented for saturated and unsaturated FAME’s and for monoglycerides, and it is demonstrated that the evaporation behaviour of saturated and unsaturated FAME’s is essentially identical. The model is tested against experiments on single suspended droplets and found to agree with the measurements to within 3% in d².     

Phenolic content, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and anticancer activities of the edible halophyte Suaeda fruticosa Forssk

Suaeda fruticosa is an edible and medicinal halophyte known for its hypoglycaemic and hypolipidaemic activities. In this study, novel biological activities of the shoot extracts related to their phenolics were investigated. Results showed an appreciable total phenolic (31.8 mg GAE/g DW) in shoot extracts. The estimation of antioxidant capacities using oxygen radical absorbance capacity (ORAC method) and a cell based-assay (WS1) of four extracts (hexane, dichloromethane, methanol and water) showed that shoot methanol extract exhibit the highest antioxidant activities. The same extract displayed the utmost anti-inflammatory activity, inhibiting nitric oxide (NO) release, by 66.4% at 160 μg/ml in lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-stimulated RAW 264.7 macrophages. Besides, the dichloromethane extract showed the highest anticancer activity against human lung carcinoma (A-549) and colon adenocarcinoma cell lines (DLD-1, Caco-2 and HT-29) with specificity against DLD-1 (IC₅₀ = 10 ± 1 μg/ml). These findings demonstrate the remarkable potentiality of this edible halophyte as valuable source of antioxidants which exhibit original and interesting anti-inflammatory and anticancer capacities.     

Neurocognitive characteristics of DUI recidivists

Individuals who drive under the influence (DUI) of alcohol may be at greater risk for neurocognitive impairment because of their exposure to multiple sources of neurological risk. This could contribute to the persistence of DUI behaviour and influence the effectiveness of remedial interventions. The objectives of this study were to clarify the neurocognitive characteristics of DUI recidivists and the nature of potential impairments, and to explore relationships between these characteristics and the frequency of past DUI convictions. One hundred male recidivists were evaluated for visuospatial constructional abilities and visual memory, verbal fluency, attention skills, cognitive flexibility, spatial planning, and verbal and movement inhibition. Results indicated that a majority of recidivists showed signs of neurocognitive impairment on several dimensions. Impairment was most marked on visuospatial constructional abilities and visual memory. In contrast to previous studies, no participants were found to have impulse control problems. Measures of memory and cognitive efficiency were significantly associated with the frequency of past convictions. Finally, exploratory analyses of two potential sources of impairment, alcohol exposure and head trauma, suggested the role of excessive alcohol use as the most obvious associated factor. Overall, the findings indicate that neurocognitive impairments are a common feature in recidivists and may contribute to DUI persistence. Development of a DUI-specific neurocognitive assessment and greater understanding of how neurocognitive status influences DUI risk could lead to remediation strategies better adapted to the individual characteristics of recidivists.     

Central electric thermal storage (ETS) feasibility for residential applications: Part 2. Techno‐economic study

This techno‐economic feasibility study was performed to evaluate the viability of central electric thermal storage (ETS) systems for the residential sector. Numerical models have been used to study the effect of a number of parameters on the annual heating cost and unit storage capacity. The considered parameters were the type of central ETS heating system, the proposed rate electricity structure and the storage strategy. The viability of thermal storage systems is determined using a simple payback criteria. The results show that the implementation of thermal storage in the Montreal area is economically viable only if hourly based differential rates are in effect. Simple rules for the design of central ETS heating units were also developed. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Architecture and Historical Representation

As a basis for the professionalization of their field, architectural historians have assumed the autonomy and verifiability of historical knowledge. Central to these premises is the view that the archives and monuments of the past are the primary sources of the discipline. The historian's task is conceived as the gathering, selection, and verification of facts, the interpretation of which is presented in “literary” form for the sake of communicability. As such, a separation of form from content is assumed. However, recent studies in historiography insist on the determinant role played by the language of the historian upon the representation of history. In these works, critical insights developed in the fields of linguistics, rhetoric, and literary theory are brought to bear upon the analysis of historical accounts, pointing to the other “source” of history: discourse and rhetoric. This article reassesses the link among history, literature, and language. It raises the issue of the nature and authority of historical narratives and encourages rethinking their role within the discipline of architecture.