Mass media,class, and democracy: the struggle over newspaper representation of the UPS strike

–This paper investigates whether organized labor can challenge the news media's pro-corporate representations of strikes and labor struggles. I studied the coverage of the 1997 UPS strike in three newspapers: USA Today, The Washington Post, and The New York Times. I found that their strike coverage, spanning about 191 articles, went through three distinct phases over the 15-day period. By studying these phases I agree that, for a brief period, public opinion and class solidarity, mobilized on the basis of a strike against corporate mistreatment of workers, played a key role in changing the tone of reporting, particularly in the Post and the Times. During this phase, the contradictions of the 1990s economic recovery and the problems of the working class became an issue of sustained interest in the public sphere. By showing how labor was able briefly to create an “open marketplace of ideas,” the paper concludes with an assessment of the democratizing potential of a politicized labor movement.     

Utilization of Consortium for e-Resources in Agriculture (CeRA) by Faculty of Guru Angad Dev Veterinary and Animal Sciences University (GADVASU)

Consortium for e-Resources in Agriculture (CeRA) provides access to about 2,900 scholarly journals including almost 300 journals in veterinary science and related fields such as dairy science and technology, biotechnology, and fisheries. This article presents the results of a study assessing the utilization of CeRA by faculty of Guru Angad Dev Veterinary and Animal Sciences University (GADVASU), Ludhiana (Punjab), India. Data was collected via questionnaire with a response rate of 95%. Among the factors assessed are user awareness of CeRA, purpose of use, sources of information about consortium, search strategies used to access articles, users’ opinion about usefulness of consortium, and problems faced by them in using CeRA. It concludes with the need for adopting suitable measures for promoting utilization of CeRA.     

User Fees in Academic Law Libraries

Summary

Fees for services in 58 academic law libraries are reviewed using results from a national questionnaire and interviews with law library staff. Five fee-based services were investigated: printing, document delivery, reference services, unaftiliatcd borrowing, and library access. The primary factors intluencing tees include: the reason for the fee, the type of services, geographic location, and whether the law school is private or public. Additional factors include the receptiveness of the student body to the fees and the impact the fee may have on fund-raising. Libraries should consider reevaluating fee policies based on the data presented.     

Buckling analysis of a beam–column using multilayer perceptron neural network technique

We present the mathematical model and an artificial neural network method for calculating the buckling load of a beam column with different end conditions. A trial solution of the beam column equation is written as a sum of two parts, in which first part satisfies the boundary conditions and the second part represents the feed forward neural network containing adjustable parameters, weights and biases. We prepared the Error function by using the beam column equation and its boundary conditions, which is used in the back propagation method with deflection term to update the network parameters. It is found that the artificial neural network method is capable for calculating deflection of a beam column as a part of the training process. To ascertain the soundness, efficiency and accuracy of the proposed method the results are compared to the Euler critical load.     

Psychological resilience in sport performers: a review of stressors and protective factors

Abstract

Psychological resilience is important in sport because athletes must utilise and optimise a range of mental qualities to withstand the pressures that they experience. In this article, we discuss psychological resilience in sport performers via a review of the stressors athletes encounter and the protective factors that help them withstand these demands. It is hoped that synthesising what is known in these areas will help researchers gain a deeper profundity of resilience in sport, and also provide a rigorous and robust foundation for the development of a sport-specific measure of resilience. With these points in mind, we divided the narrative into two main sections. In the first section, we review the different types of stressors encountered by sport performers under three main categories: competitive, organisational and personal. Based on our recent research examining psychological resilience in Olympics champions, in the second section we discuss the five main families of psychological factors (viz. positive personality, motivation, confidence, focus, perceived social support) that protect the best athletes from the potential negative effect of stressors. It is anticipated that this review will help sport psychology researchers examine the interplay between stressors and protective factors, which will, in turn, focus the analytical lens on the processes underlying psychological resilience in athletes.     

Ethanolic leaves extract of <Emphasis Type="Italic">Trianthema portulacastrum</Emphasis> L. ameliorates aflatoxin B<Subscript>1</Subscript> induced hepatic damage in rats

Aflatoxins are potent hepatotoxic and hepatocarcinogenic agents. Reactive oxygen species and consequent peroxidative damage caused by aflatoxin are considered to be the main mechanisms leading to hepatotoxicity. The present investigation aims at assessing the hepatoprotective effect of ethanolic leaves extract of Trianthema portulacastrum on aflatoxin B₁ (AFB₁)-induced hepatotoxicity in a rat model. The hepatoprotection of T. portulacastrum is compared with silymarin, a well known standard hepatoprotectant. Lactate dehydrogenase, alkaline phosphatase, alanine and aspartate aminotransferases were found to be significantly increased in the serum and decreased in the liver of AFB₁ administered (1 mg/kg bw, orally) rats, suggesting hepatic damage. Marked increase in the lipid peroxide levels and a concomitant decrease in the enzymic (superoxide dismutase, catalase, glutathione peroxidase, glutathione reductase, glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase and glutathione-S-transferase) and nonenzymic (reduced glutathione, vitamin C and vitamin E) antioxidants in the hepatic tissue were observed in AFB1 administered rats. Pretreatment with T. portulacastrum (100 mg/kg/p.o) and silymarin (100 mg/kg /p.o) for 7 days reverted the condition to near normal. The results of this study indicate that the ethanolic leaves extract of T. portulacastrum is a potent hepatoprotectant as silymarin.