Telling the trugh about history APPLEBY, J; HUNT, L; JACOB, M
History and theory :Studies in the philosophy of history,
1995, Letnik:
34, Številka:
4
Journal Article
Higham examines arguments contained in the book "Telling the Truth about History." The book is incongrously monistic about historical method and claims that there is no foundation for historical ...truth other than the scientific method.
Low-income pregnant women of Mexican descent were studied to determine whether their food habits could be improved by nutrition education. Biochemical indices of nutritional status were also ...investigated. Twenty-four-hour dietary recalls were obtained at an initial interview and again at a final interview after a nutrition education program, which was offered to a randomly selected treatment group. At the initial interview, the mean nutrient intakes that were most often below two-thirds of the Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA) were iron, vitamin A, thiamin, and calcium. The mean energy value of the diets was also frequently below the RDA. At the final interview, although the mean energy values and the calcium and carbohydrate intakes of both the control and treatment groups increased significantly, the following improvements in dietary intakes were seen only within the treatment group: 1) there were significant increases in the mean intake of protein, ascorbic acid, niacin, riboflavin, and thiamin, 2) there were significant decreases in the percentage of intakes below two-thirds of the RDA for ascorbic acid and riboflavin, and 3) there was a significant decrease in the incidence of multiple low nutrient intakes. These dietary improvements, which occurred only in the treatment group, suggest the effectiveness of the nutrition education program. The most common biochemical deficiencies were of folic acid, thiamin, and riboflavin. Except for an improvement in mean serum folate levels, the biochemical indices for the treatment group did not appear to be influenced by the nutrition education. It is possible that the vitamin and mineral supplements which were taken by 80% of the women could have obscured improvements in biochemical indices which may have been due to the education program.
We describe the construction of a highly reliable sample of approximately 7,000 optically faint periodic variable stars with light curves obtained by the asteroid survey LINEAR across 10,000 sq.deg ...of northern sky. Majority of these variables have not been cataloged yet. The sample flux limit is several magnitudes fainter than for most other wide-angle surveys; the photometric errors range from ~0.03 mag at \(r=15\) to ~0.20 mag at r=18. Light curves include on average 250 data points, collected over about a decade. Using SDSS-based photometric recalibration of the LINEAR data for about 25 million objects, we selected ~200,000 most probable candidate variables and visually confirmed and classified approximately 7,000 periodic variables using phased light curves. The reliability and uniformity of visual classification across eight human classifiers was calibrated and tested using a SDSS Stripe 82 region variable star catalog, and verified using an unsupervised machine learning approach. The resulting sample of periodic LINEAR variables is dominated by 3,900 RR Lyrae stars and 2,700 eclipsing binary stars of all subtypes, and includes small fractions of relatively rare populations such as asymptotic giant branch stars and SX Phoenicis stars. We discuss the distribution of these mostly uncataloged variables in various diagrams constructed with optical-to-infrared SDSS, 2MASS and WISE photometry, and with LINEAR light curve features. An interesting side result is a robust and precise quantitative description of a strong correlation between the light-curve period and color/spectral type for close and contact eclipsing binary stars. These large samples of robustly classified variable stars will enable detailed statistical studies of the Galactic structure and physics of binary and other stars, and we make them publicly available.
Consumer confidence in payment card systems has been built up over many decades. Cardholders expect to use their cards to execute payment instructions in a reliable and timely manner. Data breaches ...that degrade the perceived safety and reliability of payment cards may weaken consumer confidence in those systems and potentially cause cardholders to shift to other, and perhaps less efficient, forms of payment. A sizable shift away from payment cards --induced by the consequences of one or more data breaches is unlikely. Even so, the probability of such an outcome is uncertain. In other words, this could be an example of "tail risk" for payment card systems. The authors informally interviewed a number of market participants and several experts to better understand the risks presented by data breaches, the efforts to protect payment card systems against data breaches, and areas where more might be done to secure these systems. In particular, the authors investigated whether existing levels of investment, coordination, information sharing, and management of incentives in securing payment card systems by firms and organizations in the private and public sectors are adequate to confront the threats arising from modern data breaches. The lessons learned from these conversations are described in this paper. These insights may also be helpful in considering the risks that data breaches may broadly pose to retail payments in the United States.
Protecting the Most Vulnerable Victoria Mayer; Jacob van Garderen; Jeff Handmaker ...
Advancing Refugee Protection in South Africa,
03/2008
Book Chapter
Globally, children are said to form the largest demographic age group amongst refugees. Despite the lack of comprehensive data, it is estimated that children represent half of the world’s forcibly ...displaced population.¹ South Africa has been fortunate in recent years not to witness the large-scale refugee movements faced in many other countries on the continent. Consequently, the number of child applicants has been rather small, but not insignificant.
Since the introduction of asylum determination procedures in 1994 up until June 2005, the South African Department of Home Affairs had reportedly received a total of 6,495 ‘child-related’ applications for refugee status;
Biochemical parameters of nutritional status were investigated in 300 women of Mexican descent during the first and second trimesters of pregnancy. Blood samples were obtained from the women during ...clinic visits, and measurements were made of serum iron, hemoglobin, hematocrit, serum protein, and transferrin saturation. Additionally, the nutritional status of seven vitamins was determined either by direct assay of the vitamin levels in blood or by measurement of erythrocyte enzyme stimulation. Thiamin and riboflavin were also determined in casual urine samples. Very few women, 8% or less, were classified as being low or deficient in hemoglobin, serum protein, iron, transferrin saturation, vitamin C, carotene, vitamin A, or vitamin B12. Thirty-one percent had low or deficient hematocrit values according to the guidelines used. Folic acid was the most prevalent vitamin deficiency, with 69% of the women having low or deficient serum levels. Based on the erythrocyte enzyme stimulation tests, 22% of the women were low or deficient in thiamin, 29% were low or deficient in riboflavin, and 9% were deficient in pyridoxine. None of the women had a low urinary excretion of thiamin, but 8% had excretion values of riboflavin below the acceptable level. Fewer deficiencies of thiamin and serum folic acid were observed in women taking vitamin and mineral supplements than in those who were not.
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