110 research outputs found
Refaat Alareer’s “If I Must Die”: The Death of the Author, the Afterlife of the Tale
No full textThis article traces the performative role of tales and storytelling in late Refaat Alareer’s life, career, (creative) writing, activism, and death. It ultimately examines this performativity’s intensification and culmination in Alareer’s Saidian late-style poem “If I Must Die.” The article combines close textual analysis and comparative literary criticism to investigate the intricate relationship between storytelling, mortality, and resistance in Alareer’s poem. Paying attention to nuance, the article examines the poem’s intertextual connections with Claude McKay’s “If We Must Die” (1919) to demonstrate how Alareer transforms storytelling into a powerful mode of cultural survival and a means of transcending physical destruction and preserving collective memory in the face of systematic oppression. Additionally, the research traces Alareer’s evolving conceptualization of storytelling from a personal imperative to a collective form of resistance, culminating in “If I Must Die” whose stylistic and thematic treatment of his impending death anchor his poem locally/nationally, namely in Gaza/Palestine
Integrated Framework of Departure Time Choice, Mode Choice, and Route Assignment for Optimal Design of Time-dependent Transit Pricing Strategies
No full textModern travel demand management (TDM) strategies, such as time and distance-based congestion pricing, require evidence-based quantitative assessment to measure the potential effects on the transportation network performance and people’s responses to the dynamic consequences of such applications. This thesis focuses on building an integrated framework of departure time choice, mode choice, and dynamic multi-modal route assignment for optimal design of TDM strategies applied to large-scale transportation networks, with the focus on time-based transit pricing. The proposed platform integrates a simulation-based dynamic multi-modal multi-user-class route assignment model with an econometric model that jointly estimates departure time and mode choices and a genetic algorithm engine.
The proposed platform has been used in optimizing time-dependent fares as a potential strategy to manage peak-hour transit crowding. Considering the traffic and transit networks as one system, the objective is to minimize travel times during peak periods by influencing travellers to alter their choice of transport mode, departure time, and/or route. The anticipated effect is to pace and spread out demand across space and time to yield the optimal spatio-temporal distribution of demand that minimizes end-to-end travel time. The control variables are the time-dependent transit fares. As a large and realistic use case, a model of the Greater Toronto Area has been developed to demonstrate and validate the results of this research.
The main contributions of this research include: (1) developing a simulation-based large-scale dynamic route assignment model that captures the interactions between the traffic and transit sides; (2) integrating the route assignment model with a joint econometric model of departure time and mode choice to build a comprehensive model (the METRO platform) that can be used to assess dynamic TDM strategies; (3) integrating the METRO model with a cloud-based genetic algorithm engine to enable optimizing the design of TDM policies with emphasis on transit fares; and lastly (4) optimizing time-dependent transit fares in Toronto to minimize average weighted door-to-door travel time of all individuals in the system using all driving and transit modes, and quantitatively assessing the impacts of the resulting time-dependent fares as a policy and its strengths and weaknesses in addressing transit crowding.Ph.D
Integrated Framework of Departure Time Choice, Mode Choice, and Route Assignment for Optimal Design of Time-dependent Transit Pricing Strategies
No full textModern travel demand management (TDM) strategies, such as time and distance-based congestion pricing, require evidence-based quantitative assessment to measure the potential effects on the transportation network performance and people’s responses to the dynamic consequences of such applications. This thesis focuses on building an integrated framework of departure time choice, mode choice, and dynamic multi-modal route assignment for optimal design of TDM strategies applied to large-scale transportation networks, with the focus on time-based transit pricing. The proposed platform integrates a simulation-based dynamic multi-modal multi-user-class route assignment model with an econometric model that jointly estimates departure time and mode choices and a genetic algorithm engine.
The proposed platform has been used in optimizing time-dependent fares as a potential strategy to manage peak-hour transit crowding. Considering the traffic and transit networks as one system, the objective is to minimize travel times during peak periods by influencing travellers to alter their choice of transport mode, departure time, and/or route. The anticipated effect is to pace and spread out demand across space and time to yield the optimal spatio-temporal distribution of demand that minimizes end-to-end travel time. The control variables are the time-dependent transit fares. As a large and realistic use case, a model of the Greater Toronto Area has been developed to demonstrate and validate the results of this research.
The main contributions of this research include: (1) developing a simulation-based large-scale dynamic route assignment model that captures the interactions between the traffic and transit sides; (2) integrating the route assignment model with a joint econometric model of departure time and mode choice to build a comprehensive model (the METRO platform) that can be used to assess dynamic TDM strategies; (3) integrating the METRO model with a cloud-based genetic algorithm engine to enable optimizing the design of TDM policies with emphasis on transit fares; and lastly (4) optimizing time-dependent transit fares in Toronto to minimize average weighted door-to-door travel time of all individuals in the system using all driving and transit modes, and quantitatively assessing the impacts of the resulting time-dependent fares as a policy and its strengths and weaknesses in addressing transit crowding.Ph.D
Utility of the exercise electrocardiogram testing in sudden cardiac death risk stratification
No full textBackground Sudden cardiac death (SCD) remains a major public health problem. Current established criteria identifying those at risk of sudden arrhythmic death, and likely to benefit from implantable cardioverter defibrillators (ICDs), are neither sensitive nor specific. Exercise electrocardiogram (ECG) testing was traditionally used for information concerning patients' symptoms, exercise capacity, cardiovascular function, myocardial ischemia detection, and hemodynamic responses during activity in patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. Methods We conducted a systematic review of MEDLINE on the utility of exercise ECG testing in SCD risk stratification. Results Exercise testing can unmask suspected primary electrical diseases in certain patients (catecholaminergic polymorphic ventricular tachycardia or concealed long QT syndrome) and can be effectively utilized to risk stratify patients at an increased (such as early repolarization syndrome and Brugada syndrome) or decreased risk of SCD, such as the loss of preexcitation on exercise testing in asymptomatic Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome. Conclusions Exercise ECG testing helps in SCD risk stratification in patients with and without arrhythmogenic hereditary syndromes. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.Adler A, 2012, HEART RHYTHM, V9, P901, DOI 10.1016-j.hrthm.2012.01.026; Atta S, 2012, J CLIN EXP CARDIOLOG, V3, P223; Bastiaenen R, 2013, HEART RHYTHM, V10, P247, DOI 10.1016-j.hrthm.2012.10.032; Bershader RS BC, 2007, HEART RHYTHM, V4, pS138; Calloe K, 2013, CIRC-ARRHYTHMIA ELEC, V6, P177, DOI 10.1161-CIRCEP.112.974220; Chattha IS, 2010, HEART RHYTHM, V7, P906, DOI 10.1016-j.hrthm.2010.03.006; Cohen MI, 2012, HEART RHYTHM, V9, P1006, DOI 10.1016-j.hrthm.2012.03.050; Elhendy A, 2002, AM J CARDIOL, V90, P95, DOI 10.1016-S0002-9149(02)02428-1; Engel G, 2004, CURR PROB CARDIOLOGY, V29, P365, DOI 10.1016-j.cpcardiol.2004.02.007; Frolkis JP, 2003, NEW ENGL J MED, V348, P781, DOI 10.1056-NEJMoa022353; Gimeno JR, 2009, EUR HEART J, V30, P2599, DOI 10.1093-eurheartj-ehp327; Goldberger Jeffrey J, 2008, Heart Rhythm, V5, pe1, DOI 10.1016-j.hrthm.2008.05.031; Haissaguerre M, 2008, NEW ENGL J MED, V358, P2016, DOI 10.1056-NEJMoa071968; HINDMAN MC, 1973, ANN INTERN MED, V79, P654; Horner JM, 2011, HEART RHYTHM, V8, P1698, DOI 10.1016-j.hrthm.2011.05.018; Josephson ME, 2000, ANN INTERN MED, V133, P901; Kentta T, 2012, HEART RHYTHM, V9, P1083, DOI 10.1016-j.hrthm.2012.02.030; Lahat H, 2001, AM J HUM GENET, V69, P1378, DOI 10.1086-324565; Laitinen PJ, 2001, CIRCULATION, V103, P485; Makimoto H, 2010, J AM COLL CARDIOL, V56, P1576, DOI 10.1016-j.jacc.2010.06.033; MARIEB MA, 1990, AM J CARDIOL, V66, P172, DOI 10.1016-0002-9149(90)90583-M; Meli AC, 2011, CIRC RES, V109, P281, DOI 10.1161-CIRCRESAHA.111.244970; Morshedi-Meibodi A, 2004, CIRCULATION, V109, P2417, DOI 10.1161-01.CIR.0000129762.41889.41; O'Neill JO, 2004, J AM COLL CARDIOL, V44, P820, DOI 10.1016-j.jacc.2004.02.063; Priori SG, 2002, CIRCULATION, V106, P69, DOI 10.1161-01.CIR.0000020013.73106.D8; Priori SG, 2013, EUROPACE, V15, P1389, DOI 10.1093-europace-eut272; Raju H, 2011, HEART RHYTHM, V8, pS41; Roux-Buisson N, 2012, HUM MOL GENET, V21, P2759, DOI 10.1093-hmg-dds104; Steinhaus DA, 2012, AM HEART J, V163, P125, DOI 10.1016-j.ahj.2011.09.016; Sy RW, 2011, CIRCULATION, V124, P2187, DOI 10.1161-CIRCULATIONAHA.111.028258; Tseng ZH, 2009, HEART RHYTHM, V6, P1315, DOI 10.1016-j.hrthm.2009.06.034; van der Werf C, 2010, CIRC-ARRHYTHMIA ELEC, V3, P96, DOI 10.1161-CIRCEP.109.877142; Watanabe J, 2001, CIRCULATION, V104, P1911; Zheng ZJ, 2001, CIRCULATION, V104, P2158, DOI 10.1161-hc4301.098254; Zipes DP, 2006, J AM COLL CARDIOL, V48, pe247, DOI DOI 10.1016-J.JACC.2006.07.0100
Pilot study for early prognosis of Azoospermia in relation to Y-STR Profiling
No full textAbstractBackgroundAzoospermia constitutes 20% of male infertility situations and affects 1% of the total male population (Jarvi et al., 2010). This condition is classified into three major types; pre-testicular, testicular and post-testicular Azoospermia (Sermondade et al., 2012). Genetic defects causing Azoospermia are due to chromosomal or non-chromosomal alterations on the Y-Chromosome (Lee et al., 2011). Initial diagnosis of Azoospermia is established when no spermatozoa are detected on microscopic examination of semen (World Health Organisation, 1999).ObjectiveTo evaluate the correlation of Y-STR Profiling results and the prevalence of Azoospermia, to help for early prognosis of Azoospermia before puberty.MethodsBuccal swab samples were taken from two groups of individuals (50 fertile and 50 Azoospermic patients), then DNA was isolated using QIAamp DNA Micro kit. DNA quantification was done using a Real-time PCR utilizing Quantifiler Kit. PCR was done using PowerPlex® Y PCR Amplification Kit, then amplified products were typed using a 3130 Genetic Analyzer.ResultsFive haplotypes in four different Y-STR loci were found to possess significantly higher occurrence percentages in Azoospermic than in fertile Saudi individuals, which can serve as a group of pre-diagnostic markers for early prognosis of Azoospermia in Saudi population.ConclusionThere was a significant correlation of Y-STR Profiling results and the prevalence of Azoospermia condition, which supports the idea of using Y-STR Profiling in early prognosis of Azoospermia
Under siege : remembering Leningrad, surviving Gaza
No full textHow does one communicate what life is like under siege? Much has been written to describe the besieged Gaza Strip yet Al-Shabaka Policy Member Ayah Abubasheer and Guest Author Esther Rappaport bring new insights and perspectives in this Roundtable. Ayah Abubasheer lives under the siege of Gaza at the present time; Esther Rappaport’s family lived under the siege of Leningrad during World War II. Ayah and Esther came to know each other through social media during the Summer 2014 attack on Gaza and first thought of writing this piece during this war. In their reflections and analysis of the two sieges they ably communicate the stark reality of life under siege. The reflections of each of the two authors are given in their own voice. They also provide some additional factual information and background, and this part of their discussion, conversation, and argument is presented in the voice of a “narrator”
Cardiac electrophysiology in Lebanon-part II
No full textSystematic national effort to improve cardiac electrophysiology practice in Lebanon is lacking, and the quality improvement program mainly relates to individual efforts along with regulations, which are set as a Road Map by the Lebanese Arrhythmia Working Group. Lebanon currently has fve electrophysiology laboratories. The Road Map mainly consists of creating a registry and a National Card for Electronic Device Holder, centralization of complex electrophysiology procedures in institutions where electrophysiologists are available, setting regulations to conform to international guidelines, and creating a National Arrhythmia Website and E-Journal. Most importantly, we emphasize that the practice of device checking must be performed by physicians with expertise and not by industry technicians. © the author(s), publisher and licensee Libertas Academica Ltd
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