170,079 research outputs found
The prefigurative politics of social movements and their processual production of space: The case of the indignados movement
No full text This paper investigates how the prefiguration of an alternative future by social movements produces new space through a processual dynamic. A case study of the Indignados movement in Barcelona shows how mobilizations evolved from symbolizing an alternative future in the square to constructing alternatives in the city in the post-encampment period. In the alternative projects forged during the post-square period, activists re-appropriated urban spaces and transformed them, wanting to live differently and to produce a radically different city, now. We conceptualize these new spaces as ‘prefigurative territories’, integrating the seemingly divergent anarchist-inspired theory of prefiguration with Lefebvre’s Marxist theory of space production. This integration helps to capture how participants strategized the type of evolution of the movement after the square as well as the type of space being produced. While the square’s encampment was a détournement of a capitalist space with limited spatial creativeness, in post-square counter-spaces the prefiguration of a different society takes an offensive stance, setting concrete objectives to counter-plan the state’s organization of space. Counter-spaces arise through a dialectical movement that preserves the first two dimensions of prefiguration, a consistency between means and ends and a proleptic foretaste of the future society, that realize and become the third dimension of created alternatives. This dialectical movement unfolds through three processes: experimentation, demonstration, and proliferation through ‘open prefiguration’. Prefigurative territories, we argue, signal strategic horizons, but members struggle with conflicts when opening up. </jats:p
Ratk' kallis hyvä asia On kiittää Herraa taivahan (4/4 C)
No full textLaulun sanat: Ratk' kallis, hyvä asia On kiittää Herraa taivahan, Kuin meidän rakas Isämm' on, Ja meill on kaikkee hyvää suon'
Development of an Instrument to Assess Health and Social Care Professionals' Knowledge and Attitudes Towards Later-Life Intimacy and Sexuality (HSCP-KALLIS): A Delphi Study
No full textAIMS: We aimed to ascertain the content validity of an instrument to assess health and social care professionals' knowledge and attitudes towards later-life intimacy and sexuality (HSCP-KALLIS).BACKGROUND: For older adults, intimacy and sexuality are important in maintaining their quality of life and well-being. However, addressing these needs remains challenging for health and social care professionals, particularly for nursing staff providing 24-h direct care to older people with dementia or those identified as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex or queer/questioning individuals. Existing instruments assessing knowledge and attitudes towards later-life intimacy and sexuality are dated and fail to adequately address dementia and sexual diversity.DESIGN: A two-round modified Delphi study was conducted.METHODS: Initially, 79 knowledge and attitude items were generated through an integrative review. Panellists rated each item's clarity and importance using online questionnaires. The content validity index for the individual and overall items was calculated. The panellists' written feedback-along with their knowledge level of later-life intimacy and sexuality-was obtained.RESULTS: Panellists included health and social care professionals (n = 9); healthcare-related educators (n = 2); researchers specialising in later-life intimacy, sexuality, dementia care and sexual diversity support (n = 7); and family carers of older people with dementia (n = 2). The instrument was revised based on the feedback received. The components of dementia, LGBTIQ+ and the provision of sex worker services in healthcare settings were highlighted by the panellists. Notably, 46 knowledge and 40 attitude items fulfilled the consensus criteria for clarity and importance.CONCLUSIONS: Acceptable content validity was established for the knowledge and attitude items. Further research is required to establish the psychometric properties of the HSCP-KALLIS. This instrument has implications for clinical practice-specifically, in nursing care-by addressing issues to improve awareness regarding later-life intimacy and sexuality in healthcare settings.IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE: The HSCP-KALLIS has the potential to inform the educational needs regarding knowledge and attitudes towards later-life intimacy and sexuality for health and social care professionals, specifically nursing staff. The findings of the HSCP-KALLIS can be used for the development of competencies for later-life intimacy and sexuality, establishing policies and guidelines to support older adults' intimacy and sexuality needs in health care settings.</p
Hepatitis C virus p7 protein is crucial for assembly and release of infectious virions
No full textHepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is associated with chronic liver disease and currently affects about 3% of the world population. Although much has been learned about the function of individual viral proteins, the role of the HCV p7 protein in virus replication is not known. Recent data, however, suggest that it forms ion channels that may be targeted by antiviral compounds. Moreover, this protein was shown to be essential for infectivity in chimpanzee. Employing the novel HCV infection system and using a genetic approach to investigate the function of p7 in the viral replication cycle, we find that this protein is essential for efficient assembly and release of infectious virions across divergent virus strains. We show that p7 promotes virus particle production in a genotype-specific manner most likely due to interactions with other viral factors. Virus entry, on the other hand, is largely independent of p7, as the specific infectivity of released virions with a defect in p7 was not affected. Together, these observations indicate that p7 is primarily involved in the late phase of the HCV replication cycle. Finally, we note that p7 variants from different isolates deviate substantially in their capacity to promote virus production, suggesting that p7 is an important virulence factor that may modulate fitness and in turn virus persistence and pathogenesis
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
No full textThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Life cycle analysis of a photovoltaic driven reversible heat pump
No full textThe growing concerns over the extensive dependence of the cooling and heating sector on conventional sources along with the EU targets for increasing penetration of renewables in residential applications have increased the importance of energy transition and electrification of final uses. Among these, photovoltaic (PV) driven heat pumps are the most competitive solutions from a techno-economic viewpoint. This study aims to quantify and assess the environmental benefits of the aforementioned solution by conducting a Life Cycle Assessment in comparison to different conventional heating and cooling alternatives, including separate production of electricity and heat, grid connected heat pumps and solar absorption systems. An average residential building of 100 m2 located in Milan, Italy, is selected as case study. The equivalent CO2 emissions from the PV driven heat pumps are estimated to be 71.8 kg/MWh, while the respective emissions of a solar absorption system are estimated to be 150.4 kg/MWh. Moreover, sensitivity analysis is conducted to analyze the effect on the overall environmental performance of different key parameters, including the system's location during the use phase and the number of the used PV panels. Results indicate that CO2 equivalent emissions in Trapani, where the best performance in global warming is presented, are lower by 57% compared to Bolzano which presents the worst performance. On the other hand, the number of installed PV panels reaches an optimal value beyond which the benefits of the excess of electricity production are counter-balanced by the added footprint by the manufacturing and end-of-life footprints. It was found that the 4 PVs system has a reduced impact by 57% in global warming, compared to the conventional heat pump, while the impact is lower only by 1% compared to the 5 PVs solution
Mitomycin C in highly myopic eyes - Author reply
No full textOphthalmology. 2005 Feb;112(2):208-18; discussion 219.
Mitomycin C modulation of corneal wound healing after photorefractive keratectomy in highly myopic eyes.
Gambato C, Ghirlando A, Moretto E, Busato F, Midena E.
SourceRefractive Surgery Service and Antimetabolite Therapy Research Unit, Department of Ophthalmology, University of Padova, Padova, Italy.
Abstract
PURPOSE: To evaluate the role of topical mitomycin C in corneal wound healing (CWH) after photorefractive keratectomy (PRK) in highly myopic eyes.
DESIGN: Prospective, double-masked, randomized clinical trial.
PARTICIPANTS: Seventy-two eyes of 36 patients affected by high (>7 diopters) myopia.
METHODS: In each patient, one eye was randomly assigned to PRK with intraoperative topical 0.02% mitomycin C application, and the fellow eye was treated with a placebo. Postoperatively, mitomycin C-treated eyes received artificial tears (3 times daily, tapered in 3 months), whereas the fellow eye was treated with fluorometholone sodium 2% and artificial tears (3 times daily, tapered in 3 months).
MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Uncorrected visual acuity (UCVA) and best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA), contrast sensitivity, manifest refraction, and biomicroscopy. Contrast sensitivity was determined using the Pelli-Robson chart. Corneal confocal microscopy documented CWH.
RESULTS: Mean follow-up was 18 months (range, 12-36). No side effects or toxic effects were documented. At 12-month follow-up examination, UCVAs (logarithm of the minimum angle of resolution) were 0.4+/-0.48 and 0.5+/-0.53 (P = .03) in mitomycin C-treated eyes and corticosteroid-treated eyes, respectively. At 1 year, corneal haze developed in 20% of corticosteroid-treated eyes, versus 0% of mitomycin C-treated eyes. At 12, 24, and 36 months, corneal confocal microscopy showed activated keratocytes and extracellular matrix significantly more evident in untreated eyes (Ps = 0.004, 0.024, and 0.046, respectively).
CONCLUSION: Topical intraoperative application of 0.02% mitomycin C can reduce haze formation in highly myopic eyes undergoing PRK.
Comment in
Ophthalmology. 2006 Feb;113(2):357; author reply 357-8
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
No full textWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
A Multi-Language Comparison of Influences on Author Verification using Character N-Grams
No full textWe create a new multi-language corpus for author verification based on Wikipedia talkpages, and evaluate the influence that differences in topic and time have on character n-gram author profiles. Topic alignment between two texts is found to increase author verification precision, and an authors writing style is found to change over time, but not more significantly after 3 years than after 1 year.Information ArchitectureWISElectrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Scienc
A 0.12mm<sup>2</sup> Wien-Bridge Temperature Sensor with 0.1°C (3σ) Inaccuracy from -40°C to 180°C
No full text Resistor-based temperature sensors can achieve much higher resolution and energy efficiency than conventional BJT-based sensors [1], but they typically occupy more area (> 0.25 mm 2 ) and have lower operating temperatures (le 125 {circ} {C}) [2]-[4]. This work describes a 0.12mm 2 resistor-based sensor that uses a Wien-bridge (WB) filter to achieve 0.1 {circ} {C} (3 sigma) inaccuracy from - 40 {circ} {C} to 180 {circ} {C}. Compared to a state-of-the-art WB sensor [4], it occupies 6 × less area and achieves comparable relative accuracy over a 76% wider operating range. Session 10.3 Green Open Access added to TU Delft Institutional Repository ‘You share, we take care!’ – Taverne project https://www.openaccess.nl/en/you-share-we-take-care Otherwise as indicated in the copyright section: the publisher is the copyright holder of this work and the author uses the Dutch legislation to make this work public.Electronic InstrumentationMicroelectronic
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