It is not sufficient to merely publish regulations and strictly control them to improve the living conditions of farm animals. The farmer must receive precise information, understand the individual measures and be able to act with personal responsibility. A new animal welfare law has been in force in Austria since the 1st of January 2005. A system of self-evaluation is being developed for putting these new legal requirements into practice. The aim of this self-evaluation system is to enable every farmer to personally check his animal housing system against the given standards. This independent work motivates the farmer and makes him aware of animal welfare issues. This new strategy for the implementation of animal welfare law was originally developed, tested and found to be successful by the Federal Administration of the Austrian Province of Vorarlberg. Self-evaluation is to be carried out by means of specific checklists and manuals. Checklists and manuals are currently being drawn up for cattle, pigs, poultry, sheep and goats. The checklists and manuals will include all of the requirements of Austrian animal welfare legislation and will be formulated in easily understandable questions with ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answers. The manuals will describe the methods for assessing legal requirements on the farm as well as the conditions for compliance with legislation, and give advice on how to improve the state of animal welfare on the farm. This paper gives an example of the self-evaluation system for cattle farming.

Research on assistive home technology (AT) aims to reduce care costs and increase quality of life of people with dementia. Currently it is unclear what the needs of people with dementia are and what kind of support they desire. The reported survey aims to identify personal attitudes towards AT in daily living: As how disturbing is the loss of competence in activities of daily living (ADL) experienced? For which ADLs would AT be accepted? Which kind of sensor technology and interaction devices would be tolerated at home? Interviews with open questions and rating scales were conducted with 53 persons (m = 14, f = 39; aged 19–59). Subjects were professional care givers (n = 23), relatives of people with dementia (n = 15), and persons without dementia background (n = 15). The answers were evaluated statistically. Loosing the ability to take care of own body hygiene was judged as most disturbing. Washing clothes was judged as least disturbing. In general people preferred being helped by family members. However, AT was mostly preferred over professional care. People can best imagine AT help for using the telephone and managing medicine taking. Help by AT is nearly excluded for social relationships and finances. Transponders on objects are accepted best, closely followed by motion sensors. Video sensors are approved least. The PDA is the most accepted shape of AT. When developing AT, it is worthwhile to include potential user groups in decisions about areas of support as well as technical design to increase acceptance.

Accurately dating when people first colonized new areas is vital for understanding the pace of past cultural and environmental changes, including questions of mobility, human impacts and human responses to climate change. Establishing effective chronologies of these events requires the synthesis of multiple radiocarbon (14C) dates. Various “chronometric hygiene” protocols have been used to refine 14C dating of island colonization, but they can discard up to 95% of available 14C dates leaving very small datasets for further analysis. Despite their foundation in sound theory, without independent tests we cannot know if these protocols are apt, too strict or too lax. In Iceland, an ice core-dated tephrochronology of the archaeology of first settlement enables us to evaluate the accuracy of 14C chronologies. This approach demonstrated that the inclusion of a wider range of 14C samples in Bayesian models improves the precision, but does not affect the model outcome. Therefore, based on our assessments, we advocate a new protocol that works with a much wider range of samples and where outlying 14C dates are systematically disqualified using Bayesian Outlier Models. We show that this approach can produce robust termini ante quos for colonization events and may be usefully applied elsewhere.

A number of publications have discussed approaches to training the scientific workforce in comparative effectiveness research (CER) and patient-centered outcomes research (PCOR). To meet this need, funders have offered resources for developing educational materials and establishing training programs. To extend these efforts into specific researcher communities, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality developed an R25 Funding Opportunity Announcement that called for basic, advanced, and experiential training for a specific researcher community in collaboration with associated program partners. This paper describes the strategies developed by the 5 subsequently funded programs, their specific researcher communities and program partners, and the challenges associated with developing in-person and online programs. We focus on lessons learned that can be translated into developing training programs nationwide and on training for the special populations of interest. We also discuss the creation of a sustainable network for training and the conduct of comparative effectiveness research/patient-centered outcomes research in targeted communities.

A series of phase transformations of a novel fluoroaluminosilicate glass forming a range of fluorapatite glass-ceramics on sintering are reported. The sintering process induces formation of fluorapatite, mullite, and anorthite phases within the amorphous silicate matrices of the glass-ceramics. The fluoroaluminosilicate glass, SiO2–Al2O3–P2O5–CaO–CaF2, is prepared from waste materials, such as rice husk ash, pacific oyster shells, and disposable aluminium cans. The thermally induced crystallographic and microstructure evolution of the fluoroaluminosilicate glass towards the fluorapatite glass-ceramics, with applications in dental and bone restoration, are investigated by powder X-ray diffraction and small-angle neutron-scattering techniques.

The epidemiology of varicella is believed to differ between temperate and tropical countries. We conducted a varicella seroprevalence study in elementary and college students in the US territory of American Samoa before introduction of a routine varicella vaccination programme. Sera from 515 elementary and 208 college students were tested for the presence of varicella-zoster virus (VZV) IgG antibodies. VZV seroprevalence increased with age from 76·0% in the 4–6 years group to 97·7% in those aged ⩾23 years. Reported history of varicella disease for elementary students was significantly associated with VZV seropositivity. The positive and negative predictive values of varicella disease history were 93·4% and 36·4%, respectively, in elementary students and 97·6% and 3·0%, respectively, in college students. VZV seroprevalence in this Pacific island appears to be similar to that in temperate countries and suggests endemic VZV circulation.

LOFT (Large Observatory For X-ray Timing) is one of the four candidate missions currentlyunder assessment study for the M3 mission in ESAs Cosmic Vision program to be launched in2024. LOFT will carry two instruments with prime sensitivity in the 2–30 keV range: a 10m2 class large area detector (LAD) with a <1° collimated field of viewand a wide field monitor (WFM) instrument. The WFM is based on the coded mask principle,and 5 camera units will provide coverage of more than 1/3 of the sky. The prime goal ofthe WFM is to detect transient sources to be observed by the LAD. With its wide field ofview and good energy resolution of <500 eV, the WFM will be an excellent instrumentfor detecting and studying GRBs and X-ray flashes. The WFM will be able to detect~150 gamma ray bursts per year, and a burst alert system will enable thedistribution of ~100 GRB positions per year with a ~1 arcmin locationaccuracy within 30 s of the burst.

The objective of the present study was to compare the performance of seven different, widely applied crop models in predicting heat and drought stress effects. The study was part of a recent suite of model inter-comparisons initiated at European level and constitutes a component that has been lacking in the analysis of sources of uncertainties in crop models used to study the impacts of climate change. There was a specific focus on the sensitivity of models for winter wheat and maize to extreme weather conditions (heat and drought) during the short but critical period of 2 weeks after the start of flowering. Two locations in Austria, representing different agro-climatic zones and soil conditions, were included in the simulations over 2 years, 2003 and 2004, exhibiting contrasting weather conditions. In addition, soil management was modified at both sites by following either ploughing or minimum tillage. Since no comprehensive field experimental data sets were available, a relative comparison of simulated grain yields and soil moisture contents under defined weather scenarios with modified temperatures and precipitation was performed for a 2-week period after flowering. The results may help to reduce the uncertainty of simulated crop yields to extreme weather conditions through better understanding of the models’ behaviour. Although the crop models considered (DSSAT, EPIC, WOFOST, AQUACROP, FASSET, HERMES and CROPSYST) mostly showed similar trends in simulated grain yields for the different weather scenarios, it was obvious that heat and drought stress caused by changes in temperature and/or precipitation for a short period of 2 weeks resulted in different grain yields simulated by different models. The present study also revealed that the models responded differently to changes in soil tillage practices, which affected soil water storage capacity.

A new subspecies of Ornithoptera croesus Wallace, O. c. toeantei, is described from Morotai Island, Indonesia; an annotated illustration of a gynandromorph of O. croesus lydius Felder from Halmaheira Island is presented.

Post-attack injections of full- and half-strength Silvisar 510 (cacodylic acid) appear to inhibit populations of Dendroctonus rufipennis (Kirby) more effectively than quarter- and tenth-strength dilutions. Arsenic concentrations in the phloem were highest in the full-strength treatments and progressively decreased in the lesser strength treatments. Arsenic concentrations in the phloem were generally highest just above the frill while concentrations at 20 ft and higher above the frill were significantly lower than those just above the frill. Arsenic concentrations in the needles were highest in the full- and half-strength treatments and decreased progressively in the lesser strength treatments. Concentrations in the needles were essentially equal in the upper and lower portions of the crown. Arsenic concentrations in the soil were not affected by the treatments.

Two subspecies, Troides amphrysus chrysomelas new subspecies and T. helena bunguranensis Ohya, from Natuna islands, Indonesia are described.

We report on a measles outbreak originating in an anthroposophic community in Austria, 2008. A total of 394 (94·9%) cases fulfilled the outbreak case definition including 168 cases affiliated to the anthroposophic community. The source case was a school pupil from Switzerland. The Austrian outbreak strain was genotype D5, indistinguishable from the Swiss outbreak strain. A school-based retrospective cohort study in the anthroposophic school demonstrated a vaccine effectiveness of 97·3% in pupils who had received a single dose of measles-containing vaccine and 100% in those who had received two doses. The vaccination coverage of the cases in the anthroposophic community was 0·6%. Of the 226 outbreak cases not belonging to the anthroposophic community, the 10–24 years age group was the most affected. Our findings underline the epidemiological significance of suboptimal vaccination coverage in anthroposophic communities and in older age groups of the general population in facilitating measles virus circulation. The findings of this outbreak investigation suggest that the WHO European Region is unlikely to achieve its 2010 target for measles and rubella elimination.