The Vietnam War and the ‘Miracle of East Asia’

Abstract

The Muslim community in Sri Lanka has a pre-Islamic origin. Ethnically they are a mixed group, but changing political fortunes throughout the course of Sri Lankan history have made them realize that their identity lies in holding fast to the religion of Islam and not to any ethnic category. The current Sinhala-Tamil ethnic war has once again reinforced the need to hold on to the religious identity even more tightly. However, recent economic and political changes in the country and changes taking place in the Muslim world have injected new concerns for the community to worry about. The community is well and truly trapped in a political quagmire. This article highlights some aspects of this predicament.     

Brain Health Knowledge in Community-Dwelling Older Adults

Aging and its effects on a person's quality of life are a growing health concern and burden for many Americans. Recently, studies have shown that adopting certain healthy behaviors may help maintain and or prevent age-related health issues such as cognitive decline. However, many people are unaware of these newfound facts. Furthermore, there is insufficient research evidence to understand how older adults view brain health and the differences between diverse groups of older adults. This study examines brain health knowledge and behaviors among Caucasian and African-American community-dwelling older adults in North Carolina. Findings were significant for level of education and total brain health knowledge scores, though there were no significant differences between races. In addition, there was a significant association between total number of health conditions and total brain health knowledge scores that warrants further study.     

Adult education and agricultural extension: some comparisons ‡

In this paper, Alan Rogers draws on his experience in several countries, especially Namibia, to outline ways in which understandings of both training for extension and for adult education are drawing closer together, particularly in a move from a directive approach of trainer and learner through a responsive approach (meeting the learner's needs) to the more recent acknowledgement on both sides of the need for an interactive approach (what the author calls ‘third generation activity'). He suggests that both adult education and extension need new approaches to the training of their field workers.

     

Women, Literacy and Citizenship: A Critique

This paper examines the recent increase in the concern of adult literacy for citizenship, especially aimed at women in developing societies. It looks at what is happening in this field and why; it examines some of the critiques of this range of activity; and it suggests some alternatives which in the end may be more effective in promoting both literacy learning and the practices of citizenship among women.     

Dickens for All: Inclusive Approaches to Literature and Communication with People with Severe and Profound Learning Disabilities

Keith Park, a teacher of children with visual impairment and learning disabilities with the Greenwich Visual Impairment Service, describes a series of multisensory interactive drama games re-telling the story of A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, following a discussion of the potential uses of literature with people with severe and profound learning disabilities.     

Centrifugal multiplexing fixed-volume dispenser on a plastic lab-on-a-disk for parallel biochemical single-end-point assays

In this study, a multiple sample dispenser for precisely metered fixed volumes was successfully designed, fabricated, and fully characterized on a plastic centrifugal lab-on-a-disk (LOD) for parallel biochemical single-end-point assays. The dispenser, namely, a centrifugal multiplexing fixed-volume dispenser (C-MUFID) was designed with microfluidic structures based on the theoretical modeling about a centrifugal circumferential filling flow. The designed LODs were fabricated with a polystyrene substrate through micromachining and they were thermally bonded with a flat substrate. Furthermore, six parallel metering and dispensing assays were conducted at the same fixed-volume (1.27 μl) with a relative variation of ±0.02 μl. Moreover, the samples were metered and dispensed at different sub-volumes. To visualize the metering and dispensing performances, the C-MUFID was integrated with a serpentine micromixer during parallel centrifugal mixing tests. Parallel biochemical single-end-point assays were successfully conducted on the developed LOD using a standard serum with albumin, glucose, and total protein reagents. The developed LOD could be widely applied to various biochemical single-end-point assays which require different volume ratios of the sample and reagent by controlling the design of the C-MUFID. The proposed LOD is feasible for point-of-care diagnostics because of its mass-producible structures, reliable metering/dispensing performance, and parallel biochemical single-end-point assays, which can identify numerous biochemical.     

How liberals and conservatives respond to feasibility and desirability appeals in anti-tobacco campaigns

Using two experiments, this study aims to investigate how politically liberal or conservative message recipients respond to anti-tobacco appeals. The results show that in Study 1, respondents were exposed to a message about price policy. In Study 2, they were exposed to a message about a warning policy. In both studies, liberal participants more favorably evaluated anti-tobacco messages emphasizing feasibility rather than desirability, whereas conservative participants more positively evaluated messages emphasizing desirability rather than feasibility. Implications for policymakers and marketers are discussed.