60419 research outputs found
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A Relational Database of Roman Law Based on Justinian’s Digest
No full textThe Digest is the definitive historical sourcebook of Roman law compiled under the Byzantine emperor Justinian I (533 CE). This relational database includes the text of Theodor Mommsen’s authoritative edition of the Digest with accompanying information about its compositional structure and its featured jurists. The data was collected from raw text files and transformed to structured machine-readable form in a Python coding environment. Preprocessed data stored in flat files were loaded to a single super lightweight SQLite database (<7Mb) which chains six tables to each other in many-to-one relationships. The database can be easily browsed, queried and expanded in a variety of free-to-use interfaces. Apart from reliable, efficient and structured information retrieval, the database assists large scale quantitative analyses and it can be used as the starting point for further computer-assisted Roman law projects
Re-focusing cancer Multidisciplinary Team (MDT) meetings in the United Kingdom; comparing Urology to other specialities
No full textIntroduction
Multi-disciplinary meetings (MDMs) have been the gold standard of cancer care in the UK since the 1990s. Our aim was to identify the views of UK Urology cancer multi-disciplinary team (MDT) members on ways to improve the functioning of MDMs and compare them with other specialities in order to manage the increasing demand on healthcare resources and enhance the care of complex cancer cases.
Materials and Methods
An analysis of data from two national surveys (2294 and 1258 MDT members respectively) distributed by Cancer Research UK, focussing on their views about cancer MDT meetings.
Results
The majority of Breast, Colorectal, Lung and Urology cancer teams felt that cancer MDMs could be improved in the following areas: time for MDM preparation in job plans, streamlining of patients, auditing MDT decisions and prioritising complex cases. With regards streamlining, 87% percent of Urology respondents agreed some patients could be managed outside a full MDT discussion. The support was lower in other specialities (Breast 75%, Colorectal 64%, Lung 78%).
Discussion
To facilitate decisions on which patients do require discussion, factors across all tumour types were identified as adding to case complexity, including rare tumour type, cognitive impairment and previous treatment failure.
Conclusion
This study confirms that Urology MDT members are supportive of a change in approach from reviewing all new cancer diagnoses to discussing complex cases with all others managed using a more protocolised pathway. The mechanism for how this is done and how the safety of patients is ensured requires further clarification.</p
Monocyte activation in systemic CoVid-19 infection: assay and rationale
No full textMononuclear phagocytes are a widely distributed family of cells contributing to innate and
adaptive immunity. Circulating monocytes and tissue macrophages participate in all stages of
SARS COVID-19. They contribute to comorbidities predisposing to clinical infection, virus
resistance and dissemination, and to host factors that determine disease severity, recovery and
sequelae. Assays are available to detect viral infection and antibody responses, but no adequate
tests have been developed to measure the activation level of monocytes and tissue
macrophages, and the risk of progression to a fatal hyperinflammatory syndrome. Blood
monocytes provide a window on the systemic immune response, from production to tissue
recruitment, reflecting the impact of infection on the host. Ready availability of blood makes
it possible to monitor severity and the risk of potentially lethal complications, by developing
tests to assess the status of monocyte activation and its potential for further inflammatory
dysregulation after recruitment to tissues and during recovery
Impact of open innovation on industries and firms – A dynamic complex systems view
No full textThis paper develops novel behavioural models of open innovation (OI) for competitive markets and uses them to compare the impact of two types of OI frameworks – open source (OS) and patent-licensing (PL). The dynamic consequences of OI, for both OS and PL, are studied using a complex adaptive systems approach. We examine how profits, technology levels, R&D investment, technology adoption and market structure evolve under each and are impacted by underlying market characteristics. While both OS and PL are found to be equivalent in technology outcomes, OS comes with additional advantages to participating firms. Firms in the OS framework earn higher profit and are more efficient with their R&D investments. The industry is less concentrated under OS than under PL, except when market size is very large. In both frameworks, consumer preference for new product adoption has a significant impact. When consumers adopt newly introduced products relatively quickly, market concentration is the higher and overall rate of technological progress slower. These results contribute towards a deeper theoretical understanding of OI, opening new avenues for future research
Detection of localized pulsatile motion in cutaneous microcirculation by speckle decorrelation optical coherence tomography angiography
No full textSignificance: Pulsatility is a vital characteristic of the cardiovascular system. Characterization of the pulsatility pattern locally in the peripheral microvasculature is currently not readily available and would provide an additional source of information which may prove important in understanding the pathophysiology of arterial stiffening, vascular ageing, and their linkage with cardiovascular disease development.
Aim: We aim to confirm the suitability of speckle decorrelation optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA) under various non-contact/contact scanning protocols for the visualization of pulsatility patterns in vessel-free tissue and in the microvasculature of peripheral human skin.
Results: Results from 5 healthy subjects show distinct pulsatile patterns both in vessel-free tissue with either non-contact or contact imaging and in individual microvessels with contact imaging; respectively, likely caused by the pulsatile pressure and pulsatile blood flow. The pulse rates show good agreement with those from pulse oximetry, confirming that the pulsatile signatures reflect pulsatile hemodynamics.
Conclusions: This study demonstrates the potential of speckle decorrelation OCTA for measuring localized peripheral cutaneous pulsatility and defines scanning protocols necessary to undertake such measurements. Non-contact imaging should be used for the study of pulsatility in vessel-free tissue and contact imaging with strong mechanical coupling in individual microvessels. Further studies of microcirculation based upon this method and protocols are warranted.</p
A Survey on Resource Allocation in Vehicular Networks
No full textVehicular networks, an enabling technology for Intelligent Transportation System (ITS), smart cities, and autonomous driving, can deliver numerous on-board data services, e.g., road-safety, easy navigation, traffic efficiency, comfort driving, infotainment, etc. Providing satisfactory quality of service (QoS) in vehicular networks, however, is a challenging task due to a number of limiting factors such as hostile wireless channels (e.g., high mobility or asynchronous transmissions), increasingly fragmented and congested spectrum, hardware imperfections, and explosive growth of vehicular communication devices. Therefore, it is highly desirable to allocate and utilize the available wireless network resources in an ultra-efficient manner. In this paper, we present a comprehensive survey on resource allocation (RA) schemes for a range of vehicular network technologies including dedicated short range communications (DSRC) and cellular based vehicular networks. We discuss the challenges and opportunities for resource allocations in modern vehicular networks and outline a number of promising future research directions
Compressive behaviour of fired-clay brick and lime mortar masonry components in dry and wet conditions
No full textThis paper examines the fundamentalmechanical properties of masonry elements incorpo-rating fired-clay bricks and hydraulic lime mortarsunder ambient-dry and wet conditions, correspondingto 48 h submersion in water. In addition to comple-mentary material characterisation assessments, twotypes of specimens are tested: cylindrical cores incompression, and wall elements in compression.Overall, a detailed account of more than 50 tests isgiven. Apart from conventional measurements, the useof digital image correlation techniques enables adetailed assessment of the influence of moisture on theconstitutive response, confinement effects andmechanical properties of masonry components. Theuniaxial compressive strengths of wet brick elementsand brick–mortar components, resulting from tests oncylindrical cores with height-to-depth ratios of aroundtwo, are shown to be 13–18% lower than those inambient-dry conditions. The tests also show thatenhanced confinement levels in brick units mobilise67–92% higher strengths than in the correspondingunconfined cylinders. Moreover, experimental obser-vations indicate that the presence of significantconfinement reduces the influence of moisture on themechanical properties as a function of the brick andmortar joint thickness and their relative stiffness. As aresult, the failure of wet masonry walls in compressionis found to be only marginally lower than those inambient-dry conditions. Based on the test results, theinfluence of moisture on the constitutive response andmechanical properties of masonry components isdiscussed, and considerations for practical applicationare highlighte
Direct measurement of the intrinsic electric dipole moment in pear-shaped thorium-228
No full textAtomic nuclei with certain combinations of proton and neutron numbers can adopt reflection-asymmetric or octupole-deformed shapes at low excitation energy. These nuclei present a promising avenue in the search for a permanent atomic electric dipole moment—the existence of which has implications for physics beyond the Standard Model of particle physics. Theoretical studies have suggested that certain thorium isotopes may have large octupole deformation. However, due to experimental challenges, the extent of the octupole collectivity in the low-energy states in these thorium nuclei has not yet been demonstrated. Here, we report measurements of the lifetimes of low-energy states in 228Th (Z = 90) with a direct electronic fast-timing technique, the mirror symmetric centroid difference method. From lifetime measurements of the low-lying Jπ = 1− and Jπ = 3− states, the E1 transition probability rates and the intrinsic dipole moment are determined. The results are in agreement with those of previous theoretical calculations, allowing us to estimate the extent of the octupole deformation of 228Th. This study indicates that the nuclei 229Th and 229Pa (Z = 91) may be good candidates for the search for a permanent atomic electric dipole moment
Bufadienolides and anti-angiogenic homoisoflavonoids from Rhodocodon cryptopodus, Rhodocodon rotundus and Rhodocodon cyathiformis
No full textBackground
Homoisoflavonoids have been shown to have potent anti-proliferative activities in endothelial cells over other cell types and have demonstrated a strong antiangiogenic potential in vitro and in vivo in animal models of ocular neovascularization. Three species of Rhodocodon (Scilloideaea subfamily of the Asparagaceae family), endemic to Madagascar, R. cryptopodus, R. rotundus and R. cyathiformis, were investigated.
Purpose
To isolate and test homoisoflavonoids for their antiangiogenic activity against human retinal microvascular endothelial cells (HRECs), as well as specificity against other ocular cell lines.
Methods
Plant material was extracted at room temperature with EtOH. Compounds were isolated using flash column chromatography and were identified using NMR and CD spectroscopy and HRESIMS. Compounds were tested for antiproliferative effects on primary human microvascular retinal endothelial cells (HRECs), ARPE19 retinal pigment epithelial cells, 92–1 uveal melanoma cells, and Y79 retinoblastoma cells. HRECs exposed to compounds were also tested for migration and tube formation ability.
Results
Two homoisoflavonoids, 3S-5,7-dihydroxy-(3′-hydroxy-4′-methoxybenzyl)-4-chromanone (1) and 3S-5,7-dihydroxy-(4′-hydroxy-3′-methoxybenzyl)-4-chromanone (2), were isolated along with four bufadienolides. Compound 1 was found to be non-specifically antiproliferative, with GI50 values ranging from 0.21–0.85 μM across the four cell types, while compound 2 showed at least 100-fold specificity for HRECs over the other tested cell lines. Compound 1, with a 3S configuration, was 700 times more potent that the corresponding 3R enantiomer recently isolated from a Massonia species.
Conclusion
Select homoisoflavonoids have promise as antiangiogenic agents that are not generally cytotoxic.</p
Publishing and flourishing: writing for desire in higher education
No full textIn the current performative climate of higher education, where academic outputs are highly valorised, professional academic writing has become ‘high stakes’ and is often framed as fraught with tension and anxiety. In this article, we contest the phrase ‘publish or perish’ and argue that is not necessarily helpful or, indeed, always true. Through interviews involving critical incidents with a team of academics, the authors found that tensions in experiences of scholarly writing do indeed exist. However, participants also reported on the affordances of the process of professional academic writing in terms of developing ideas, collaborations, and creating spaces for creativity and desire. We emphasise the juxtaposition of the value of creation with the value of the finished product and argue that writing for publication needs to be highlighted as a process permeated with learning opportunities for both early career researchers and more experienced academics
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