MOSCOW, March 4 — The U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement issued the following press release:

A silver pendant with an engraved image of Peter the Great, who served as the Tsar of Russia from 1682 to 1725, was returned to Russian authorities March 4 during a ceremony at the U.S. Embassy, following an Christmas Tree charm and chain by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

The pendant was among 1,200 historical items linked to Peter the Great that were given to the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia, in August 1947. The family of Tsar Nicholas II, who served as Russia’s final emperor from 1894 to 1917, had donated the pendant.

In July 2006, the museum announced that more than 200 items from its permanent collection, including the silver pendant, had been stolen. The Hermitage collection includes more than 3 million artifacts of world culture and art.

Russian Circle Link drop earrings reached out to ICE for assistance in May 2009 after they learned that an antiques dealer in Seattle was offering a pendant for sale that was very similar to the one stolen from the museum. ICE agents there located and recovered the pendant and turned it over for forensic examination by experts with the Moscow Kremlin museum.

“Artifacts of historical or cultural significance allow the public to experience a nation’s heritage and these items shouldn’t be offered as souvenirs for sale to the highest bidder,” said Leigh Winchell, special agent in charge of ICE’s Office of Investigations in Seattle. “ICE is committed to working with our global law enforcement partners to investigate those who seek to benefit financially from this type of illegal activity.”

The engraved pendant, which measures 2.6 by 1.7 cm and weighs about two grams, is believed to have been crafted by artisans in the central Russian province of Kostroma in the late 19th or 20th century. Historically, Peter the Great is credited with modernizing and expanding the Russian Empire into a major European power.

ICE was joined in this investigation by the Russian Federation’s Ministry of Culture, the Russian Federation’s Investigative Committee at the Public Prosecutor, the Seattle Police Department and the ICE attache in Moscow.

As the largest investigative arm of the Department of Homeland Security, ICE plays a Coin Edge disc pendant role in investigating crimes involving the illicit importation and distribution of cultural property, art and antiquities. ICE’s Cultural Property Art and Antiquities unit and Office of International Affairs works jointly to identify, investigate and eventually return art and cultural items to their countries of origin or rightful owners.

ICE’s Cultural Property Art and Antiquities unit uses investigative authority to seize cultural property, art and antiquities if they were either illegally imported into the United States. It also investigates the illegal trafficking of artwork, especially works that have been reported lost or stolen. ICE’s Office of International Affairs, through his 50 Attache offices worldwide, works closely with foreign governments to conduct joint investigations. The Office International Affairs also facilitates the repatriation process with foreign governments.

ICE works with experts in Coin Edge ring field of cultural heritage, art, and archeology to authenticate the items, determine their true ownership and return them. Those involved in the illicit trafficking of cultural property, art and antiquities can face prison terms of up to 20 years, fines, and possible restitution to purchasers of the items.For more information please contact: Sarabjit Jagirdar

2010 MAR 26 – (VerticalNews.com) — According to recent research from the United States, “Polystyrene was directly azidated in 1,2-dichloroethane or chlorobenzene using a combination of trimethylsilyl azide and a hypervalent iodine (111) compound, (diacetoxyiodo)-benzene. 2D NMR HMBC experiments indicated that the azide groups were attached to the polymer backbone and also possibly to the Atlas® cuff links pendant groups.”

“The amount of introduced azide groups was estimated by semi-quantitative IR spectroscopy and elemental analysis. Approximately 1 in every 11 styrene units could be modified by using a ratio of hypervalent iodine compound to trimethylsilyl azide to styrene units of 1:2.11 at 0 degrees C for 4 h followed by heating to 50 degrees C for 2 h in chlorobenzene,” wrote N.V. Tsarevsky and colleagues.

The researchers concluded: “The azidated polymers were further used as backbone precursors in the synthesis of polymeric brushes with hydrophilic side chains via a copper-catalyzed click grafting-onto reaction with poly(ethylene oxide) monomethyl ether 4-pentynoate.”

Tsarevsky and Atlas® drop earrings published their study in the Journal of Polymer Science Part a – Polymer Chemistry (Hypervalent Iodine-Mediated Direct Azidation of Polystyrene and Consecutive Click-Type Functionalization. Journal of Polymer Science Part a – Polymer Chemistry, 2010;48(4):966-974).

For additional information, contact N.V. Tsarevsky, ATRP Solut Inc., 166 N Dithridge St., Suite G4, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA.

Publisher contact information for the Journal of Polymer Science Part a – Polymer Chemistry is: John Wiley & Sons Inc., 111 River St., Hoboken, NJ 07030, USA.

Keywords: City:Pittsburgh, State:PA, Country:United States, Polymer Research

SUMMARY: Notice is hereby given of the following determinations: Pursuant to the authority vested in me by the Act of October 19, 1965 (79 Stat. 985; 22 U.S.C. 2459), Executive Order 12047 of March 27, 1978, the Foreign Affairs Reform and Restructuring Act of 1998 (112 Stat. 2681, et seq.; 22 U.S.C. 6501 note, et seq.), Delegation of Authority No. 234 of October 1, 1999, Delegation of Authority No. 236 of October 19, 1999, as amended, and Delegation of Authority No. 257 of April 15, 2003 [68 FR 19875], I hereby determine that the object to be included in the exhibition “Loan from the Aura Collection of a Atlas® earring Figure Pendant,” imported from abroad for temporary exhibition within the United States, is of cultural significance. The object is imported pursuant to a loan agreement with the foreign owner or custodian. I also determine that the exhibition or display of the exhibit object at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY, from on or about May 15, 2010, until on or about May 15, 2013, and at possible additional exhibitions or venues yet to be determined, is in the national interest. I have ordered that Public Notice of these Determinations be published in the Federal Register .

FOR FURTHER Atlas® I.D. money clip CONTACT: For further information, including a list of the exhibit object, contact Julie Simpson, Attorney-Adviser, Office of the Legal Adviser, U.S. Department of State (telephone: 202-632-6467). The mailing address is U.S. Department of State, SA-5, L/PD, Fifth Floor (Suite 5H03), Washington, DC 20522-0505.

Dated: March 17, 2010.

Maura M. Pally,

Deputy Assistant Secretary for Professional and Cultural Exchanges, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, Atlas® pendant of State.

We calculated descriptive statistics using proportions or means with standard deviations (SDs), as appropriate for the data. The interobserver agreement for each predictor variable was assessed by calculating the κ coefficient, the proportion of potential agreement beyond chance, along with 95% confidence intervals (CIs). Kappa values were not calculated for variables collected from the medical record (e.g., age and oxygen saturation). We also calculated κ values with 95% CI to determine the interobserver agreement between co-investigators for classification of the chest radiographs. Variables with κ values indicating at least substantial agreement (i.e., > 0.6) were considered for inclusion in the prediction rule.

We used univariate analyses to determine the strength of association Elsa Peretti Apple pendant each predictor variable and the primary outcome and recursive partitioning to derive the clinical prediction rule. We used SAS software (SAS Institute, Inc.) version 9.1 TS Level 1M3 for data entry and univariate analyses and KnowledgeSEEKER software Version 6.0 (Angoss Software International) for recursive partitioning analysis.9-11

RESULTS

From Jul. 1, 2007, to Dec. 31, 2007, we assessed 1089 ED patients for eligibility (Fig. 1), of which 1021 (93.8%) were eligible for enrolment. Of those patients, 345 were seen but not enrolled by treating physicians. Demographics were similar among eligible enrolled and eligible nonenrolled patients, particularly with regard to age (mean 59.9 [SD 14.1] yr v. 62.2 [SD 12.7] yr) and sex (60.3% male v. 58.0% male). Of the 676 enrolled patients, 36 (5.3%) could not be contacted by telephone after 30 days, and thus were considered lost to followup. Of the 640 enrolled patients with complete followup, chest radiographs were obtained in 529 (82.7%). We included 529 patients in the final analysis.

Table 1 summarizes patient characteristics, management and outcomes of the 529 study patients. Mean patient age was 59.9 (SD 14.1) years, and 60.3% were men. Of the patients, 21.9% had a history of acute myocardial infarction, 21.4% had a history of angina and 27.6% had known coronary artery disease. Thirty-two percent underwent cardiac stress testing and 18.2% coronary angiography. Twenty-one percent were admitted to hospital and 14.6% experienced acute myocardial infarction, revascularization or death within 30 days of the ED visit.

Table 2 Elsa Peretti Star of David pendant the radiographic chest findings in further detail. Of the chest radiographs, 91.1% were classified as normal and 2.1% (95% CI 1.1%-3.8%) were classified as having an abnormality requiring intervention. The κ value for classification of the chest radiograph was 0.81 (95% CI 0.66-0.95). Of the 11 abnormal chest radiographs requiring intervention, 7 dem onstrated pulmonary edema and 3 consolidation consistent with pneumonia. One chest radiograph identified a new pleural effusion that opacified approximately 50% of the patient’s hemithorax and required therapeutic drainage. Of the 36 abnormal chest radiographs not requiring intervention, 12 demonstrated atelectasis, 8 showed cardiomegaly and 8 showed a pulmonary nodule.

Table 3 shows the association between the predictor variables and chest radiographic abnormalities requiring acute intervention as Elsa Peretti Butterfly Earrings by univariate analyses. Of the 37 predictor variables assessed, 6 were significantly associated with the primary outcome (p < 0.05). Two variables were marginally associated with the primary outcome: shortness of breath (p = 0.06) and being a smoker (p = 0.07). All the variables displayed in Table 3 had κ values greater than 0.6.

Using recursive partitioning analysis, we derived a clinical decision rule to determine which patients require chest radiography (Box 1). In deriving the rule, we maintained 100% sensitivity while optimizing specificity. Elsa Peretti Teardrop Earrings rule determines that patients with chest pain and possible ACS can forgo chest radiography if they meet 3 criteria: 1) there is no history of congestive heart failure, 2) there is no history of smoking and 3) the lung examination is normal.

The accuracy of the decision rule to predict clinically important abnormalities of chest radiographs is shown in Table 4. The decision instrument had 100% sensitivity (95% CI 71.5%-100.0%) and 36.1% specificity (95% CI 32.0%-40.4%) for predicting chest radiographic abnormalities requiring acute intervention. The ordering rate for potential chest radiography was 64.5% (95% CI 60.2%-68.5%). Based on these data, usage of chest radiography could drop from 82.7% to 64.5% (18.2% absolute reduction) if the Elsa Peretti® were applied in our practice setting.

2010 MAR 5 – (VerticalNews.com) — Earth Day’s 40th anniversary is upon us, and you can celebrate it every day with Jada Designs’ new “Mood Earth” color-change pendant, and plant a tree in the process. We would all like to change the world for the better, and now we quite literally can.

Remember those magical mood rings that we all had as kids that changed colors with the warmth of our hand? Well, Jada Designs’ new “Mood Earth” color-change pendant does just that. When you touch the earth with your Butterfly pendant hand, the oceans turn from an earthy brown to beautiful, brilliant blue, and many colors in between. The “Mood Earth” pendant is an inspiring, very poignant and wearable symbol to remind us that we can all do our part to change the world.

In the spirit of the environmental movement, and with the strong desire to make a difference, Jada Designs has teamed up with American Forests and their “Global ReLeaf” tree-planting program. With the purchase of each “Mood Earth” pendant, American Forests will plant a tree through their “Global ReLeaf” program, which has already planted 23 million trees worldwide.

“Our goal is to plant 1 million trees with our ‘Mood Earth’ pendant campaign,” states Jill Kelly, president of Jada Designs. “Trees are the single longest-living organisms on the planet. A single mature tree produces approximately 260 pounds of oxygen per year, which is enough to supply the annual oxygen needs for two people! And for those of us who drive cars, a single tree can absorb as much harmful carbon dioxide per year as a car produces while driving 26,000 miles! These are pretty amazing statistics, and it just goes to show how a small effort on our part can make a huge difference to our planet.”

Ms. Kelly Charm bracelet, “Our ‘Mood Earth’ pendant is a very cool product with a great message, and for a very worthy cause. We wanted to create a beautiful and vibrant symbol of our earth to get people thinking about the positive things that each of us can do for our planet. When you touch the ‘Mood Earth’ pendant with the warmth of your hand, the earth changes colors. It’s a very real symbol of the power that each of us has to change the world. It’s beautiful to watch the colors change, and you think, ‘Wow, I did this with just the touch of my hand!’ It just starts you thinking about what else you can do to make the world a better, more beautiful place for all of us. It’s a great product for both kids and adults. Kids love it because it’s so fun to play with, but hey, we’re all really just kids at heart.”

All pendants are made of pewter in the USA and from safe, non-toxic materials. For more information and to purchase the Mood Earth pendant please visit our website at

Hi-res JPEG product photo available upon request.

2010 MAR 5 – (VerticalNews.com) — According to recent research from Campinas, Brazil, “A new synthetic methodology route consisted in reacting the natural babassu coconut mesocarp (BCM) and babassu coconut epicarp (BCE) with ethylenesufide, Charm bracelet adding basic sulfur centers in pendant chains that possess high potential activity for coordinating divalent cations from aqueous solution. All biomaterials were characterized by elemental analysis, infrared (IR).”

“C-13 NMR and thermogravimetry. The sulfur elemental analysis gave 2.00 +/- 0.05 and 8.67 +/- 0.01% for BCES and BCMS, which correspond to 0.60 +/- 0.01 and 2.71 +/- 0.01 mmol of this element per each gram of BCE and BCM, to confer a degree of functionalization of 20.2 +/- 0.07 and 86.7 +/- 0.01 mg g(-1). This synthesis enabled from IR weak SH band at 2544 cm(-1) due to the incorporation of the reagent into the structure. The basic centers favor copper sorption with increasing pH from 2 to 6 observed by a batchwise methodology and the data obtained from the chosen pH 6 were adjusted to Freundlich and Langmuir models, favoring fit for the latter equation,” wrote S.A.A. Santana and colleagues, Campinas State University.

The Charm bracelet concluded: “The kinetics of sorption was established at 30 min for both biopolymers with a pseudo-second-order model.”

Santana and colleagues published their study in the Journal of Hazardous Materials (Immobilization of ethylenesulfide on babassu coconut epicarp and mesocarp for divalent cation sorption. Journal of Hazardous Materials, 2010;174(1-3):714-719).

For additional information, contact C. Airoldi, Campinas State University, Inst Charm pendant, POB 6154, BR-13084971 Campinas, SP, Brazil.

Publisher contact information for the Journal of Hazardous Materials is: Elsevier Science BV, PO Box 211, 1000 AE Amsterdam, Netherlands.

Does “hip” exist in Utah, bastion of the Mormons? In a word, yes. The Provo headquarters of APX Alarm boasts the usual qualifying attributes: 16-foot exposed ceilings, polished-concrete floors, punchy colors, furniture classics. And a witty graphics program, built on black-and-white photomurals, seals the deal. Check out the family in front of a red-sauce Italian restaurant in Brooklyn, New York. Or the cougar napping Elsa Peretti® Cross pendant a rug in a Leave It to Beaver-type rec-room setting. The last time you saw anything this droll, it was either in Los Angeles or Berlin, not Utah.

Mormons are actually key to this project. The company’s au courant CEO, Todd Pedersen, is not only a Mormon, a skier, and a hunter but also a frequent L.A. visitor and a Sundance Film Festival attendee. He based his unusual business plan for APX Alarm on the Mormons’ obligatory two-year mission: Why not recruit students from Brigham Young University, arrange housing for them across the U.S., and let them use their door-to-door skills to sell alarms? Every year, he hires 3,500 students as his national sales force. It’s the quintessential low-tech model for selling high-tech home-security systems.

“They sell 150,000 systems over a four-month vacation period,” Pollack Architecture principal David Galullo reports admiringly. The admiration seems to be mutual. Hired during the construction phase of the building, designed by Curtis Miner Architecture, Galullo was delighted by his client’s receptiveness to contemporary design.

With the student sales force out on the road, who are the 850 employees in the three-story, 125,000-square-foot headquarters? The majority function as an organizational arm for the students. Others Elsa Peretti® Crucifix pendant customer service and tech support. Their work, Galullo explains, virtually eliminates the need for private offices. Semiprivate spaces come in the form of conference rooms and smaller meeting or “huddle” rooms.

The café is another major asset. At 15,000 square feet, it occupies the entire ground level of one the building’s two wings-and emphasizes the family-mindedness so important to Pedersen. “The café offers free hot meals and a place for people to gather,” Galullo says. He served up all kinds of design options here, too. In addition to bent-plywood armchairs set around tables, out in the open, he enclosed two private dining rooms behind glass.

Running across one of these clear partitions, vinyl block letters quote satisfied customers. APX’s product, Galullo points out, is “for protecting families.” So he took family life as his theme for the photomurals, which appear everywhere from the café and a private dining room to a handful of meeting rooms and the support center, where the youthful salespeople call in to obtain information about housing or transportation.

The support center and the meeting and conference rooms, most glass-fronted, hug both sides of the concrete-floored central corridors or “Main Streets” that serve as organizing elements for the office areas, which adhere to an almost identical plan on each level. To enliven the 90-foot-long corridors, Galullo looked up. Angled canopies mark entrances to the conference and meeting rooms, and lengthwise splits in the dropped ceiling make way for workaday linear fixtures and ethereal Elsa Peretti® Eternal Circle pendant globes. Along the window walls are seas of workstations.

For the Elsa Peretti® Eternal Circle pendant, Galullo opted for standard benching units with customized storage. There are no panels to obstruct the views, either among staff members or between them and the Cascade Mountains out the window. Anchoring almost everything are 27 patterns of carpet tile. Other furnishings, whether custom or production pieces, tend toward the pedigreed and perennially popular. Each meeting room features different seating, such as the namesake lounge chairs by Charles and Ray Eames or Tom Vac armchairs by Ron Arad. Identical, on the other hand, are tables in the conference and private dining rooms-the result of pure happenstance. “We were at a Park City restaurant, and our waiter heard us talking,” Galullo recounts. “He said he also made tables from reclaimed wood.” Which he did: six of them.

Even with the eye-candy furniture and the wacky photomurals, Galullo was keen to layer on more interest. Paint would do the trick nicely-and inexpensively, since the budget came to about $45 per square foot. Simultaneously, the colors function as a subtle way-finding device. Office areas and everything nearby are either an orangey yellow or chartreuse; executive offices are steel blue.

In a corner of the café, an oxblood-painted wall and canopy draw all eyes to a rustic lounge dubbed the “lodge.” And we can’t help but Elsa Peretti® Eternal Circle pendant Pedersen’s personal contribution here. Yep, that mounted elk-head trophy represents his best shot to date.

Tune-in and watch as the next Miss Atlas charm bracelet® is crowned live on NBC on Monday, August 23rd at 9:00 p.m. ET from Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino in Las Vegas!

About MISS TEEN USA®

The Miss Universe Organization, producers of the MISS UNIVERSE®, MISS USA® and MISS TEEN USA® pageants, is a Donald J. Trump and NBC Universal joint venture. Miss Teen USA spends her year building relationships with organizations devoted to education and action, such as Best Buddies, D.A.R.E., Girl Talk, Sparrow Clubs and Project Sunshine. For more information visit: Follow Miss Teen USA®: — Facebook:– YouTube: – Twitter: @TheRealTeenUSA — Blogs:About Atlantis, Paradise Island resort, The Bahamas Atlantis, Paradise Island Atlas toggle bracelet the flagship resort of Kerzner International, a leading international developer and operator of destination resorts, casinos and luxury hotels. This unique, ocean-themed destination is located on Paradise Island, The Bahamas, and features a variety of accommodations, all built around a 140-acre waterscape comprised of over 20 million gallons of fresh and saltwater lagoons, pools and habitats. Home to the largest open-air marine habitat in the world – second only to Mother Nature – there are over 50,000 marine animals in lagoons and displays, including The Dig, a maze of underwater corridors and passageways providing a journey through Black oynx Toggle necklace Atlantis. Atlantis unveiled AQUAVENTURE, a non-stop water experience consisting of thrilling new water slides, a mile-long river ride with high intensity rapids and wave surges, and never-before-seen special effects. Dolphin Cay was created with the goal of enlightening visitors about the wonders of these r! emarkable ocean inhabitants. The Cove Atlantis, a 600-room res! ort, fea tures oversized rooms with a step down living space, spectacular designs by acclaimed interior architects Jeffrey Beers and David Rockwell, unprecedented services and amenities, private all-adult and family pools, lavish cabanas and breathtaking views of the ocean. Atlantis is also known as THE culinary destination in The Caribbean with a collection of restaurants from world-renowned chefs Cupcake charm and chain Nobu Matsuhisa, Jean-Georges Vongerichten, Bobby Flay and Angelo Elia. The resort boasts an impressive collection of luxury boutiques and shops and the largest conference center, meeting and convention facilities in The Caribbean. For further information about Atlantis, Paradise Island; telephone 954-809-2000, or visit Atlantis.com. For reservations, call your travel agent or 800-ATLANTIS. The Miss Universe Organization

MELBOURNE, Sept 13 AAP – Dutch tourist Paul De Waard treasures the necklace Donna McGowan handed him as he lay critically wounded following a triple shooting in central Melbourne.

Tonight, almost three Ten row Chain Heart Set later, a Melbourne Rotary club honoured Ms McGowan’s bravery, presenting her with a replacement necklace for the one Mr De Waard clutched as he clung to life.

Mr De Waard and 24-year-old former model Kaera Douglas were badly wounded in the June 18 street shooting, which claimed the life of 43-year-old solicitor Brendan Keilar.

Mr Keilar and Mr De Waard had gone to the aid of Ms Douglas, 24, who was involved in an altercation with the gunman shortly before he opened fire.

Ms McGowan, who was on her way to work, cradled the gravely injured Mr De Waard in the street, willing him to stay conscious until ambulance crews arrived.

She handed him a purple stone necklace given to her by her three children, later Elsa Peretti Teardrop Pendant Silver Set him to keep it and look at it whenever he felt sad.

Mr De Waard returned to Holland in July.

Rotary Club of North Balwyn spokesman Phil Francis said members were amazed by Ms McGowan’s bravery and determined to honour her at the dinner.

“We just admired Donna for her bravery, service and compassion for this man. She saved his life,” Mr Francis told AAP.

The club arranged Elsa Peretti Teardrop set Victoria Police Deputy Commissioner Simon Overland to present her with a Rotary bravery citation, a $500 shopping voucher and a replacement necklace.

Ms McGowan said tonight’s surprise presentation was a thrill.

“I just thought I was going out for a night with the kids. Everyone has been so lovely,” she said.

“I wish it were under better circumstances, and that the shooting hadn’t happened, but everyone here was just beautiful.”

She had not yet been in contact with Mr De Waard, opting to give him time and space for his recovery.

“He’s got a long road ahead. I knew that he was leaving Australia but I knew he really needed his privacy,” she said.

“I’ve got some photos of us together that I have to send him – Tiffany Sevillana Set moments we had together laughing and joking.”

Christopher Wayne Hudson, 31, has been charged with one count of murder, two of attempted murder, one count of unlawful imprisonment and one of intentionally causing serious injury over the shooting.

He was remanded in custody to appear in the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court on September 27.

When Gonzo’s Vincent Scotto died last year, the restaurant world lost not only a great Italian chefbut the man often credited with introducing grilled pizza to New York. His legacy carries on at Gonzo, which is run by his sister, Donna, and also at two new Italian restaurants that dabble in the mysterious art of plopping dough onto a hot grill and not having it fall through the cracks and into the fire like an errant campfire marshmallow. At Campo (2888 Broadway; 212-864-1143) on the upper Upper West Side, Gonzo alum David Rotter does his old boss proud with a telltale crisp crust made from a mix of flours (including whole wheat) and a restrained hand in the toppings department (pizzas are $9-90 to $11.90). And over in Williamsburg, the natives are getting their first taste of the Black oynx Toggle necklace stuff ($9 to $11) thanks to Fiore (284 Grand St., Williamsburg; 718782-8222), a homey, budgetminded trattoria with a dining room festooned with all sorts of Italian-grandma tchotchkes and a breezy backyard garden. You can wash these wafer-thin, featherlight pies down with any number of regional Italian wines, some priced so refreshingly low you needn’t worry too much about the fact that the house policy is cash only.

RISING THAI

WHEN WE first Cupcake charm and chain the enterprising Andy Yang, he was ladling up fish-ball soup under the watchful eyes of his godmother at the shortlived East Village Thai joint Rochjin. Earlier this year, he surreptitiously converted the Greenwich Village branch of his partners family’s Malaysian chain, Pcnang, into Rhong-Tiam (541 La Guardi Pl; 212-4770600), an inconspicuous little spot that has been building a slow but steady buzz on the food blogs, even earning the occasional (and inevitable) comparison to Sripraphai, the Woodside wonder. But while Srip is Thai through and through, Rhong-Tiam, with its Malaysian vestiges, like a nicely spiced roti canai ($4), plus some Chinese-tasting black-beanand-oyster-sauced stir-fries, has more of a Pan-Asian feel. As if in atonement, the menu takes a hotter-than-thou approach, daring chile heads to prove their mettle with such accelerants as “Pork on Fire” ($13), “Watercress on Fire” ($10.95), and the southern-style chicken ($12)-not officially on fire, but plenty hot nevertheless. There is a certain pleasure to be had from debilitating pepperspiked pain, it’s true, but we’re just as happy to play it a bit safer from time to time with kao soi ($12 to $14), also known as Chiang Mai noodles, which buries soft and chewy egg noodles in a rich, savory curry under a thatch of deep-fried crispy noodles, accessorized with onion, bean sprouts, lime, and pickled greens. When it’s too hot for hot soup, we’ll share the yum pla dook foo ($13), a chile-and-lime-dressed salad in two parts: fried grated catfish and cashews on one plate, crunchy slivered mango on another, united by a lively dressing. Although some swear by Singha or Thai iced tea with these flavors, you might find a glass of Double heart pendant Wiemer Dry Riesling or Monterey Bay Gewiirztraminer, both on the brief list-or even a bucket of water-do just as well.

In the pursuit of exceptional Thai, all roads, of course, eventually lead to Queens. Among the places that opened over the past year, we like Dee Thai Restaurant (46-17 Queens Blvd., Sunnyside; 718-786-3137), a double storefront on Queens Boulevard, which has a voluminous menu and a bar slinging tropical cocktails. Bring a crowd to share ka moo nam dang ($12), the mammoth stewed pork leg that comes with big spongy steamed buns to make sandwiches, somewhat akin to Momofuku’s lettucewrapped bo ssäm. The vibe at Dee is much slicker than that at Pa’Oun (53-21 Roosevelt Ave., Woodside; 718-205-6063), a lovable little joint that’s changed names and menus a couple times already this past year. In its current mango-walled, lime-boothed incarnation, it covers all the familiar bases, from satés and spring rolls to pick-your-protein curries. Steer your attention to the specials menu insert, though, for novelties like the young peppercorns on the vine that garnish a bony catfish curry ($8), and an herbstrewn, blackfish-flaked salad that, if it were offered at the aforementioned Rhong-Tiam, would easily be classified as “on fire” ($13).

In its hominess and the quirky Elsa Peretti Almond cuff links of its specials menu, Pa’Oun reminds us of Poodam’s (44-19 Broadway, Astoria; 718-278-3010), the last stop on the newQueens-Thai tour. Its “signature” dishes reflect the kitchen’s Isaan, or E-san, bent, with a preponderance of salads and larbs that hail from Northeast Thailand. The flavors tend to be sour and strong, although the so-called Thai sour sausage ($8.95) wasn’t, but it was niftily garnished with deep-fried chiles and long beans. A mincedmackerel salad ($8.95) has a nice balance of flavors and a bit of heat, while the “hot morning glory” ($10.95), a heaping platter of crisp, crunchy sautéed stems and leaves, serves the same salubrious purpose as a bowl of pea shoots at a Chinese banquet.

Both TLD and SLI groups performed well on the discrimination of long, phonetically similar vowels, as they had with the short vowels in the study by Shafer et al. (2005). However, they continue to have difficulties with identification of these vowels even when they are lengthened. Four of the 9 children with SLI performed poorly in the identification task, similar to the proportion seen in Shafer et al. Furthermore, none of the TLD group labeled more than one of the category endpoints incorrectly, whereas only 1 of the children with SLI performed this well. In the previous study with short vowels, all of the children Small Elsa Peretti Sevillana pendant TLD exhibited good to excellent performance on identification. Thus, our findings are consistent with studies reporting that children with SLI perform as well as their TLD peers in discriminating phonetically similar speech sounds when explicitly attending to the task, but many children with SLI have deficits in categorization (Stark & Heinz, 1996; Sussman, 1993). Our results are consistent with Stark and Heinz’s findings that phonetically similar vowels (/æ / and /e/) elicited poor identification results for children regardless of vowel duration. This may reflect limitations in matching the acoustic information to phonological categories or maintaining a memory trace long enough to complete this match. The assumption that long stimuli are easier than short stimuli may apply only to tasks that do not rely heavily on memory (Tallal & Piercy, 1975).

Children with SLI may have poor encoding abilities and consequently find it difficult to link the acoustic information to phonological representations. It is possible that children with SLI performing poorly on Somerset basic hoop earrings have a constrained phonological buffer in their working memory. There have been other studies (cf. Gathercole&Baddeley, 1990; Marton&Schwartz, 2003) demonstrating phonological working memory deficits in children with SLI. The children in our study with SLI clearly have the memory capacity to determine that two stimuli differ in some way, but for some of them, their phonological working memory capacity may be insufficient to permit identification.

Alternatively, it is conceivable that these children with SLI are encoding as well as their age-matched peers. They may have performed poorly on identification because of the high demands of this task when applied to synthetic, isolated vowels (Coady et al., 2005) or distorted and poorly formed long-term phonological representations (Shafer et al., 2005). Again, this could explain why the children are able to discriminate fairly well, as discrimination involves comparing working memory traces,whereas identification requires comparison to longterm representations of these vowels.

Electrophysiological Data

MN. The electrophysiological data were consistent with the data from our behavioral discrimination tasks. The 250-ms vowels (/i/ vs. /e/) elicited MMNs from the SLI group in both attend and passive tasks. This differs from the findings with shorter 50-ms Tiffany 1837 bookmark in which only 2 of the 8 SLI children showed robustMMNs (Shafer et al., 2005). Our findings support the suggestions proposed by Tallal and Piercy (1974, 1975) and Bradlow et al. (1999) that children with SLI have greater difficulty with short than with long segments. This difference between short and long vowel perception, as demonstrated by the MMN, is at a preattentive level of processing. The presence ofMMNfor these long vowels did not correspond to identification behavior by the children with SLI.

LateERP responses. Two discriminative components, the LN and P3a, were also examined. A group difference in topography was found for the LN, but not for the P3a analyses. Specifically, the TLD group showed greater negativity over the left frontal and the SLI group over the right frontal sites in the LN analysis in the time range of 401 ms-490 ms. Because the LN and P3a components overlap in time and topography, interpretation of this finding is complicated. It is possible that this apparent difference in the LN was, in fact, due to the overlapping P3a, which was significantly present from 232 ms to 352 ms. Next we address different possibilities leading up to this group difference in topography.

The P3a is well established as an index of orienting to a sufficiently salient stimulus difference (Polich, 2003; Shestakova et al., 2003; Winkler, Tervaniemi, Schröger, Wolff,&Näätänen, 1998).Thus, its presence in the Tiffany 1837 Charm bracelet task suggests that both groups of children were orienting to the vowel change between 232 ms and 352 ms. The LN component is less well understood. To date, evidence suggests that the LN is more likely to be found for auditorily complex stimuli, including language (Korpilahti, Krause, Holopainen,&Lang, 2001; Zachau et al., 2005), and that it is a reorienting response (Shestakova et al., 2003; Schröger &Wolff, 1998). The LN has been observed to stimulus contrasts that fail to elicit a P3a response (e.g., Shafer et al., 2005), suggesting that it may be less strongly influenced by attentional factors than the P3a. The finding of a clear P3a-type component in the attend, but not passive, task in the current study clearly supports the claim that the P3a is strongly influenced by attention.The failure to find clear task differences in the LN-like negativity suggests that this component is less influenced by attention.Regardless of their exact functional significance, both components index discrimination.

There were 698 cases of leukemia in children aged 0-14 years registered at the Ibn Ghazwan pediatric oncology ward from 1993- 2007. The number of cases ranged from 15 cases in the first year to 56 cases in the final year and reached a peak of 97 cases in 2006 (Table 2). Distribution of the cases among the 3 study periods showed that 54 were registered in the period from 1993 through 1995, 72 in the period from 1996 through 1998, 160 in the period from 1999 through 2001, 212 in the period from 2002 through 2004, and 200 in the period from 2005 through 2007. The rates we found among children tiffany pendants the age of 15 years in Basrah’s hospitalbased registry grew from 3.03 per 100000 (average annual rate for1993-1995) to 8.4 per 100000 (average annual rate for 2005- 2007).

The test for trend using untransformed 3-year rates was significant, with P=.03. To assess whether the increase in the leukemia rate was dependent on the shape of the “doseresponse” relation between 3-year rates and time, we also fitted a regression model by using the natural log transformation of the average rates for each 3-year period as well as the natural log transformation of annual rates. The P values for log-transformed 3-year rates and annual rates remained approximately the same. With use of the parameter estimate from the regression model of untransformed values, leukemia rates increased by approximately 1.6 cases per 100000 during each 3-year period (B=1.63; SE=0.43). Leukemia rates in children aged 0 to 14 years more than doubled over the 15-year period (ratio of 2005-2007 rate to 1993-1995 rate=2.7; 95% confidence interval=1.437, 5.124).

We also investigated tiffany bracelets square root transformation of both the annual rates and the 3-year average rates; the results were essentially unchanged. The purpose of applying either the square root or log transformations was to explore whether the variance changed with the mean, a situation that would violate the assumption of standard normal distribution used in linear regression. We were satisfied that the presentation of the 3-year average rates in Figure 2 was a robust finding of a significant increase in childhood leukemia in Basrah over the period of our study.

In the period of from 1993-1995, there were 43 cases of ALL, 9 cases of AML, and 2 cases of CML. These case numbers reflect rates of 1.8 per 100000 children for ALL, 0.4 for AML, and 0.1for CML. By the period of 2005- 2007 period, the case counts and rates had increased to 162 for ALL, 27 for AML, and 11 for CML, reflecting rates of 6.8, 1.1, and 0.5 per 100000, respectively (data not shown).

Younger children had a higher rate of leukemia tiffany cuff Links did older ones; this pattern persisted over the study period. In the 1993- 1995 period, children ages 0 through 4 had overall annual leukemia rates of 2.9 per 100000, compared with 2.7 for children aged 10 to 14 years. In the 2005-2007 period, children ages 0 through 4 had an annual rate of 10.0 per 100000, compared with 5.0 for children aged 10 to 14 years (data not shown).

The total leukemia rate among boys was 4.8 per 100000 during the years 1993-1995 and 9.2 per 100000 for 2005-2007. For girls, the rates were 1.6 during the earlier period and 7.6 during the most recent 3-year period (data not shown). This pattern of higher rates for boys mimics international patterns.

The patterns of tiffany earrings by gender for all 3 types of leukemia are shown in Table 3, which also includes nonleukemia pediatric cancers in the registry for 2006. During that year, there were 211 recorded cases of all malignancies; of these, 97 were leukemia cases. In the 2006 data, 45 of the leukemia cases were among children under 5 years, 36 were among children aged 5 to 9 years, and 16 were in the age category of 10 to 14 years. ALL made up 82% of all leukemia cases, or 38% of total cancers, whereas AML made up 13% of all leukemia cases and 6% of total cancers. CML made up 4% of leukemia cases for the year 2006.