12 research outputs found
Newspaper serials in Tanzania: the case of Eric James Shigongo (with an interview)
No full textNewspaper serials have a long history in Tanzania. Since the privatisation of media in the 1990s, the number of newspapers and tabloids has multiplied, and serials have become abundant. I would dare to say that they are the most popular form of fiction at the moment in terms of quantity of readers. They are especially prevalent in the tabloids, where there often are more than three stories being serialised at a time. Some authors publish serials only occasionally, while there are also established serial writers such as Sultan Tamba, Faki A. Faki and Hamees M. Suba.However, the most prominent writer specialising in newspaper serials is Eric James Shigongo, who probably is also the most prolific author of popular literature of the last decade in Tanzania altogether. In his case, novel writing has reached a new quality as a well organised, apparently successful, self-owned business
Prediction of postoperative opioid analgesia using clinical-experimental parameters and electroencephalography
No full textBACKGROUND: Opioids are often used for pain treatment, but the response is often insufficient and dependent on e.g. the pain condition, genetic factors and drug class. Thus, there is an urgent need to identify biomarkers to enable selection of the appropriate drug for the individual patient, a concept known as personalized medicine. Quantitative sensory testing (QST) and clinical parameters can provide some guidance for response, but better and more objective biomarkers are urgently warranted. Electroencephalography (EEG) may be suitable since it assesses the central nervous system where opioids mediate their effects.METHODS: Clinical parameters, QST and EEG (during rest and tonic pain) was recorded from patients the day prior to total hip replacement surgery. Postoperative pain treatment was performed using oxycodone and piritramide as patient-controlled analgesia. Patients were stratified into responders and non-responders based on pain ratings 24 h post-surgery. Parameters were analysed using conventional group-wise statistical methods. Furthermore, EEG was analysed by machine learning to predict individual response.RESULTS: Eighty-one patients were included, of which 51 responded to postoperative opioid treatment (30 non-responders). Conventional statistics showed that more severe pre-existing chronic pain was prevalent among non-responders to opioid treatment (p = 0.04). Preoperative EEG analysis was able to predict responders with an accuracy of 65% (p = 0.009), but only during tonic pain.CONCLUSIONS: Chronic pain grade before surgery is associated with the outcome of postoperative pain treatment. Furthermore, EEG shows potential as an objective biomarker and might be used to predict postoperative opioid analgesia.SIGNIFICANCE: The current clinical study demonstrates the viability of EEG as a biomarker and with results consistent with previous experimental results. The combined method of machine learning and electroencephalography offers promising results for future developments of personalized pain treatment.</p
Reply of authors of “on the linear independence of testing functions used in the method of moments”
No full textThe convergence of iterative solutions to the Electric Field Integral Equation
No full textAbstractThe Jacobi iterative method is applied to the system of linear equations arising from the discretization of the Electric Field Integral Equation (EFIE). It is shown that the resulting matrix equation is a contraction mapping, guaranteeing monotonic mean square convergence, for any initial guess, and for a preferred choice of a relaxation parameter (α). Both the criterion for convergence and for the generation of the initial guess are discussed in detail. Results are shown for the 2-dimensional TM scattering by a perfectly conducting strip which illustrates the major points of this paper. The mathematical criterion herein may be applied to any electromagnetic problem employing the EFIE for perfectly conducting surfaces
Comment on “on the linear independence of testing functions used in the method of moments” by M. KAYE, K. M. Pasala, and D. Reuster [1]
No full textSwahili Literature into Italian: The Challenge of Translating Abdilatif Abdalla's Poems
No full textThe considerations on the translation of Swahili poetry which are developed in this article originate from a work (carried out with Roberto Gaudioso) devoted to the Italian translation of selected verses by two contemporary poets, Euphrase Kezilahabi and Abdilatif Abdalla. After providing further details about the publication project within the framework of which the translations of Abdilatif Abdalla’s poems were conceived of and accomplished, the focus will be on the textual challenges and the main translational strategies that were adopted in this work, which were based on some stylistic features of his poetry, i.e. the language variety and the prosody. Finally, by drawing from Umberto Eco’s semiotic and aesthetic reflections on translation (2003), the discourse will attempt to show that the stylistic choices adopted by an author intermingle indissolubly with other aspects of that author’s creative work in constructing the text’s whole as it is encountered by the reader/listener
