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How can a higher level of earthquake preparedness be achieved, particularly in developing nations? The preceding Perspectives in this series ( 1 – 4 ) provide snapshots of the earthquake and tsunami risks, hazard monitoring and risk mitigation activities, and current research questions concerning some of the world's seismic hot spots—South Central Asia, the Caribbean, Turkey, Tokyo, and Santiago. The image that emerges is one of considerable progress in reducing losses due to earthquakes and tsunamis in some places but of growing and evolving risks in others.

A major tsunamigenic earthquake is expected in the near future along the coast of West Sumatra Province of Indonesia. In the city of Padang, the arrival time of the tsunami is expected to be ~30 min. Currently, there are approximately 400,000 people in the city living within the potential inundation zone. This study aimed to complement the existing research in appraising possible risk reduction interventions, specifically looking at enabling the timely evacuation of the area. This research, developed in consultation with national and local authorities, emergency planners and NGOs, analysed interventions for tsunami risk reduction in Padang through the development of a pedestrian and vehicular evacuation model and the appraisal of possible solutions to enhance the evacuation rates. Some of the conclusions from this research can be applied to other areas in Southeast Asia where the traffic patterns are similar to those in Padang and where the distance to safety is greater than 4–5 km. For the case of Padang, the results show that pedestrian evacuation is strongly preferable to vehicular evacuation due to the limited road capacity and the high population density. In the present situation, however, 70–80 % of the population in Padang could not evacuate within 30 min, even by foot. Common interventions such as widening roads and building bridges prove to be relatively ineffective in this case due to the large distance that has to be covered in a short time. These interventions would only have a decisive impact if a longer evacuation time was available (more than 60 min). In the case of Padang, the evacuation rate in the first 30 min is strongly dependent on the presence/absence of evacuation shelters, whose effectiveness is limited by the capacity of the structures. Building a few high-capacity and high-resilience structures such as evacuation hills is a more effective and robust evacuation strategy than constructing many small high-raised buildings. Even with evacuation structures, wider roads and bridges, about 20 % of the population would still be unable to reach safety by the time the tsunami arrives. This means about 70,000 people of Padang’s current population, which is rapidly increasing. The building of evacuation shelters may be a viable option for saving lives in the short term, but it is not a sustainable option in the medium to long term. It is therefore also necessary to set up and enforce regulations for land use planning that take into account the tsunami risk and prevent further urban development for the areas that may be affected by a tsunami.

Metrosideros polymorpha Gaud. (‘ōhi‘a) is the most abundant native forest tree in Hawai‘i and a keystone species of cultural, ecological, and economic importance. ‘Ōhi‘a forests, particularly on Hawaiʻi Island, are being severely impacted by Rapid ‘Ōhi‘a Death (ROD), which is caused by the fungal pathogens Ceratocystis lukuohia and C. huliohia. ROD is characterized by branch dieback, crown wilting, and mortality. Initial disease resistance screening of four varieties of M. polymorpha with C. lukuohia demonstrated that varieties may differ in susceptibility. Several survivors of field or screening-based infections still exist, providing strong impetus for the establishment of the ‘Ōhiʻa Disease Resistance Program (ʻŌDRP). Here, we outline a framework for guiding the ʻŌDRP throughout the process of identifying and developing ROD resistance in M. polymorpha and, possibly, all Hawaiian Metrosideros species. Core ʻŌDRP projects include: (1) evaluating and operationalizing methods for greenhouse-based production and screening of test plants; (2) greenhouse screening of seedlings and rooted cuttings sampled from native Metrosideros throughout Hawaiʻi; (3) establishing field trials to validate results from greenhouse assays; (4) understanding environmental and genetic drivers of resistance to characterize the durability of resistance to ROD; (5) developing remote sensing and molecular methods to rapidly detect ROD-resistant individuals; and (6) conducting breeding trials to improve the degree and durability of ROD resistance. Ultimately, the ʻŌDRP seeks to produce ROD-resistant material for the perpetuation of M. polymorpha across Hawai‘i, with the goal of preserving the ecology, culture, and communities that are dependent on this tree species.

This essay explores the acoustic dimension in Joseph von Eichendorff’s poetry. It draws a new connection between Eichendorff’s negative, modern element and his reliance on a limited vocabulary of sonic phenomena. Eichendorff often uses poetic means to depict an abrupt realization of transience, and I argue that he employs the nature of sound as one way to do so. By contrasting the ephemeral quality of man-made sounds with the ambient, droning noise of nature, Eichendorff is able to convey a discrepancy between the subject’s illusions of permanence and continuity and the reality of temporal loss. Moreover, his poetry extends that intimation of transience to Romanticism itself. His use of the ephemeral, unpreservable nature of sound undercuts the suspicion that he merely recombines images from earlier Romantic writers. When his works echo the most familiar tropes of Romantic poetry, they simultaneously point to the inevitable withering away of sound and thus of the very modes of Romantic expression those sounds exemplify. Attending to the acoustic dimension in Eichendorff’s poetry furthermore provides a case study that contributes to the growing awareness of the centrality of sound in the Age of Goethe.

We are inundated with game play today. Digital devices offer opportunities to play almost anywhere and anytime. No matter our age, gender, social, cultural, or educational background—we play. Play in the Age of Goethe: Theories, Narratives, and Practices of Play around 1800 is the first book-length work to explore how the modern discourse of play was first shaped during this pivotal period (approximately 1770-1830). The eleven chapters illuminate critical developments in the philosophy, pedagogy, psychology, politics, and poetics of playas evident in the work of major authors of the period including Lessing, Goethe, Kant, Schiller, Pestalozzi, Jacobi, Tieck, Jean Paul, Schleiermacher, and Fröbel.While drawing on more recent theories of play by thinkers such as Jean Piaget, Donald Winnicott,Jost Trier, Gregory Bateson, Jacques Derrida, Thomas Henricks, and Patrick Jagoda, the volume showsthe debates around play in German letters of this period to be far richer and more complex than previously thought, as well as more relevant for our current engagement with play. Indeed, modern debates about what constitutes good rather than bad practices of play can be traced to these foundational discourses.Published by Bucknell University Press. Distributed worldwide by Rutgers University Press.

When the serial publication of Effi Briest concluded in 1895, many readers were indignant at the novel’s outcome. Fontane addressed this reader response in his letters, casting the empathy for Effi as virtually unanimous, with some readers rejecting Innstetten as repulsive. At first glance, this looks like a typical three-person scene of empathy, but the present article aims to complicate the understanding of side-taking and moral judgment in the reception of Effi Briest. Though there are certainly moments of conflict in Fontane’s novels that accord with a three-person scene of empathy, I argue that Effi Briest is different, that Fontane’s final and most famous adultery novel adds further involutions to questions of moral judgment. Effi Briest does not just situate the reader as a third-party observer to marital conflict. It builds the dilemma of side-taking into the story itself, positioning the reader as a fourth party who observes an intradiegetic moment of side-taking when Innstetten must choose on which side he will fall. The reader response is thus predicated on the reaction to an intradiegetic conflict between empathy and spite. Readers want to see Innstetten punished for the malicious and excessive punishment that he inflicts on others.

Background Hippocampal slices swell and release taurine during oxidative stress. The influence of cellular signalling pathways on this process is unclear. Glutamate signalling can facilitate volume regulation in other CNS preparations. Therefore, we hypothesize activation of taurine release by oxidative stress results from tissue swelling and is coupled to activation of glutamate receptors. Methods Rat hippocampi were incubated at room temperature for 2 hr in artificial cerebrospinal fluid (aCSF) equilibrated with 95% O 2 plus 5% CO 2 . For some slices, 1 mM taurine was added to the aCSF to maintain normal tissue taurine content. Slices then were perfused with aCSF at 35° C and baseline data recorded before 2 mM H 2 O 2 was added. For some studies, mannitol or inhibitors of glutamate receptors or the volume-regulated anion channel (VRAC) were added before and during H 2 O 2 treatment. The intensity of light transmitted through the slice (the intrinsic optical signal, IOS) was determined at 1-min intervals. Samples of perfusate were collected at 2-min intervals and amino acid contents determined by HPLC. Data were analyzed by repeated measures ANOVA and post hoc Dunnett’s test with significance indicated for p<0.05. Results IOS of slices prepared without taurine treatment increased significantly by 3.3±1.3% (mean±SEM) during oxidative stress. Little taurine was detected in the perfusate of these slices and the rate of taurine efflux did not change during H 2 O 2 exposure. The α-amino-3-hydroxyl-5-methyl-4-isoxazole-propionate antagonist, 25 µM CNQX, but not the N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor antagonist, 10 µM MK-801, inhibited the increase in IOS during H 2 O 2 treatment. Taurine-treated slices exposed to H 2 O 2 showed no change in IOS; however, taurine efflux increased by 335±178%. When these slices were perfused with hypertonic aCSF (350 mOsm) or exposed to the VRAC inhibitor, 20 µM DCPIB, no increase in the taurine efflux rate was observed during H 2 O 2 exposure. Taurine-treated slices perfused with 10 µM MK-801 during H 2 O 2 exposure showed a 4.6±1.9% increase in IOS but no increase in the taurine efflux rate. Conclusions Taurine efflux via VRAC is critical for volume regulation of hippocampal slices exposed to oxidative stress. This increased taurine efflux does not result from direct activation of the taurine release pathway by H 2 O 2 . NMDA receptor activation plays an important role in taurine release during oxidative stress.

BackgroundStaphylococcus aureus is among the most important pathogens in today’s hospital setting MethodsThe effects of sneezing on the airborne dispersal of S. aureus and other bacteria were assessed in 11 healthy nasal S. aureus carriers with experimentally induced rhinovirus colds. Airborne dispersal was studied by volumetric air sampling in 2 chamber sessions with and without histamine-induced sneezing. After 2 days of preexposure measurements, volunteers were inoculated with a rhinovirus and monitored for 14 days. Daily quantitative nasal- and skin-culture samples for bacteria and nasal-culture samples for rhinovirus were obtained, cold symptoms were assessed, and volunteer activities were recorded during sessions ResultsAll participants developed a cold. Sneezing caused a 4.7-fold increase in the airborne dispersal of S. aureus a 1.4-fold increase in coagulase-negative staphylococci (CoNS), and a 3.9-fold increase in other bacteria (P<.001). An additional 2.83 colony forming units (cfu) of S. aureus/m3/min, 3.24 cfu of CoNS/m3/min, and 474.61 cfu of other bacteria/m3/min were released per sneeze. Rhinovirus exposure did not change the frequency of sneezing or airborne dispersal. Having respiratory allergies increased the spread of S. aureus by 3.8-fold during sneezing sessions (P<.001) ConclusionNasal S. aureus carriers disperse a significant amount of S. aureus into the air by sneezing. Experimental colds do not alter bacterial dispersal, but respiratory allergies multiply the effect of dispersing S. aureus

This research study addressed student satisfaction levels encountered in undergraduate online student modalities. This quantitative nonexperimental correlational study aimed to analyze the influence online instructors perceived servant leadership traits have on the student satisfaction levels of undergraduate online learners and understand what higher education professors exhibit in online modalities to retain virtual learners. The Servant Leadership Theory, the student satisfaction model revealed in the SLS-OLE measurement, and Malcolm Knowles’ andragogical model provide the conceptual framework for the research. Two specific research questions shepherded the study. First, does a statistically significant relationship exist between discernable servant leadership behavior and student satisfaction levels among undergraduate online learners? Secondly, does a statistically significant relationship exist between discernable servant leadership behavior and student satisfaction with teacher effectiveness among undergraduate online learners? Eighty-four online undergraduate participants completed a combined servant leadership and student satisfaction inventory featuring 69 questions on leadership perspectives and experiences regarding servant leadership traits of empowerment, standing back, accountability, forgiveness, courage, authenticity, humility, and stewardship. The participants concurred that stewardship and authenticity remain impactful toward online learners’ perceptions of teaching effectiveness (instructor presence), course, and overall satisfaction scores. The instructor’s long-term vision and concern for student success is the most impactful item toward online student satisfaction. The participants expressed that stewardship, found in instructors online, remains the most critical servant leadership trait for online student satisfaction. Future recommendations are to perform longitudinal studies using qualitative analysis so that narrative inquiry can better understand student satisfaction and retention rates.