173 research outputs found
Le Congrès d'Etudes Coloniales de Florence (Avril 1981) et les Travaux de la Section Historique
No full textMichiels Roberto. Le Congrès d'Etudes Coloniales de Florence (Avril 1981) et les Travaux de la Section Historique. In: Revue d'histoire des colonies, tome 20, n°85, Janvier-février 1932. pp. 35-40
Literary analysis of Orchis militaris, a book by Ivo Michiels
No full textA 'Type-ideal novel' (een 'idealtype van roman')', is according to the Flemish writer Ivo Michiels such a novel, 'that a film which can not be filmized of brought into the concrete milieu. It's a novel that does not want to compete with consumer industry, based on abundance of information, especially in the film.' (Janssens, 5) In the thesis Literary Analysis of Orchis militaris, a book by Ivo Michiels we have analysed how does a novel look like, written by an author of such a vision. The focus ov this thesis is the literary analysis of Orchis militaris (1968), which includes both formal and thematic analysis. Moreover, I integrated this book into the literary-historical context, which indicates the connection between this book and the Flemish, Dutch and world literature - especially important was the experimental literature of 50th and 60th and the French nouveau roman. During the research I managed to define the typical features of this work, a.o. the expanding sentences, almost forming a labyrinth, not censored inner monologue, very slow time, unclear boundaries between individuals and the images, the characters, which do not have any character - the only things we knoě about them, are the situations in which the characters are, there is no perspective of future or direction of movement, in the book is..
Toward a Family Science Perspective on Executive Compensation in Family Firms: A Review and Research Agenda
No full textIn family firms, the family often plays a central role in the strategic decisions of the business. However, until recently, research has primarily focused on exploring the role that business factors play in firm decision-making, with less attention given to the role of the family system. This article reviews the research on executive compensation in family firms to understand whether and how the family system has been considered within this work. Guided by the application of family science theories, we provide a framework to explain why it is important to incorporate the family system in the future study of executive compensation in family firms. We conclude by discussing a research agenda outlining how elements of the family system can be integrated into future executive compensation research to inspire scholars to think differently about this important research topic.The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article
A Poisson approach to the validation of failure time surrogate endpoints in individual patient data meta-analyses
No full textSurrogate endpoints are often used in clinical trials instead of well-established hard endpoints for practical convenience. The meta-analytic approach relies on two measures of surrogacy: one at the individual level and one at the trial level. In the survival data setting, a two-step model based on copulas is commonly used. We present a new approach which employs a bivariate survival model with an individual random effect shared between the two endpoints and correlated treatment-by-trial interactions. We fit this model using auxiliary mixed Poisson models. We study via simulations the operating characteristics of this mixed Poisson approach as compared to the two-step copula approach. We illustrate the application of the methods on two individual patient data meta-analyses in gastric cancer, in the advanced setting (4069 patients from 20 randomized trials) and in the adjuvant setting (3288 patients from 14 randomized trials).The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: The present work has been supported by the Institut National du Cancer (INCa), Grant SHS 2014-141, and by the Ligue Nationale Contre le Cancer. The study sponsors had no involvement in either the study design; the collection, analysis, and interpretation of data; the writing of the manuscript; nor in the decision to submit the manuscript for publication
Projector-camera calibration with non-overlapping fields of view using a planar mirror
No full textProjector-camera systems have numerous applications across diverse domains. Accurate calibration of both intrinsic and extrinsic parameters is crucial for these systems. Intrinsic parameters include focal length, distortion parameters, and the principal point, while extrinsic parameters encompass the position and orientation of the projector and camera. A non-overlapping projector-camera system is required in certain scenarios due to practical limitations, physical arrangements, or specific application requirements. These systems pose a more complex calibration challenge because the devices have no direct correspondences or overlapping fields of view, necessitating intermediate objects or methods. This paper proposes a calibration method for non-overlapping projector-camera systems using a planar mirror. The method involves a straightforward process that requires a calibrated camera and a separate mirror calibration step. In this setup, the projector displays a pattern on a planar calibration board, and the camera has an indirect view of this calibration board through the mirror. Using homography, 3D-2D correspondences of the projector are established, enabling the calibration of the system. This method is empirically evaluated using real-world setups and quantitatively assessed in a synthetic environment. The results demonstrate that the proposed method achieves precise calibration across various setups, proving its effectiveness. This approach is an easy-to-use and accessible calibration process for non-overlapping projector-camera systems, made possible by a mirror.This research was partly funded by the European Union
(HORIZON MAX-R, Mixed Augmented and Extended Reality Media
Pipeline, 101070072), the Flanders Make’s XRTwin SBO project
(R-12528), the Special Research Fund (BOF) of Hasselt University
(R-14360) and the specialized FWO fellowship grant (1SHDZ24N).
Data availability The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during
the current study are available from the corresponding author on
reasonable request
Can physical activity reduce the risk of having tinnitus?
No full textObjective
Tinnitus, the perception of sound without an external source, affects many adults, impacting quality of life. While factors like hearing loss and psychological distress are linked to tinnitus, the relationship with physical activity remains unclear. This study aimed to explore the association between physical activity, sedentary behaviour, and the presence of tinnitus.
Design
This study is a cross-sectional study. The participants completed the long form of the International Physical Activity Questionnaire. Adjusted logistic regression models were used to investigate associations between (components of) physical activity and the presence of tinnitus, and odds ratios (ORs) were calculated.
Study Sample
This study involved 3004 participants (2751 tinnitus patients, 253 healthy controls).
Results
Engaging in moderate or vigorous-intensity physical activity during leisure time for more than 2.5 hours per week was associated with a reduced risk of having tinnitus (OR = 0.515, p < 0.001). Conversely, individuals who reported sitting for more than 7 hours per day had a significantly higher risk of having tinnitus (OR = 2.366, p < 0.001).
Conclusions
The study suggests a potential protective effect of leisure-time physical activity against tinnitus and highlights the importance of reducing sedentary behaviour. Further research is needed to confirm these findings and to understand underlying mechanisms.There was no Conflict of Interest for any of the authors in this study. The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. The results of the study are presented clearly, honestly, and without fabrication, falsification, or inappropriate data manipulation. The results of the present study do not constitute endorsement by ACSM
Pattern Analysis in Networks of Diffusively Coupled Lur’e Systems
No full textsponsorship: The author received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement No. 675080. (European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant|675080)status: Publishe
Stanley Kowalski’s T-shirt, Metatheater, Intermediality, and Grotesque: Monographs on Tennessee Williams
No full textPublished in 2021, both monographs on Tennessee Williams — Stanley Gontarski’s Tennessee Williams, T-shirt Modernism and the Refashionings of Theater and Laura Michiels’ The Metatheater of Tennessee Williams: Tracing the Artistic Process Through Seven Plays perform the dual task of offering new perspectives on the playwright’s wellstudied plays and elaborating on the lesser-known material with its non-obvious cultural functions. Researchers show the complexity of Williams’ late oeuvre, demonstrating how his plays of the 1960s and early 1980s continue theatrical experiments of the second half of the 20th century. Developing the themes of his earlier period (theatricality of life and experience, the vulnerability of beauty and artistry, the fragility of memory, and the conflicts between the strong and the weak), Williams has enriched both poetic and naturalistic theater styles through absurdist aesthetics, his use of stylistic excess and an emphasis on metatheatre — spectacles about spectacles. Gontarski's book discusses Williams' influence on subsequent popular culture and its representation of the images of masculinity. Gontarski shows how Williams' success across the Atlantic depended on censorship (“The Lord Chamberlain’s Blue Pencil” being an intriguing part of Chapter 2) or greater stage freedom (Sweden). Late plays (In the Bar of a Tokyo Hotel, Two-Character Play, Clothes for a Summer Hotel) allow the author to take a closer look at Williams’ absurdist poetics and the intriguing process of “becoming Beckett,” which the American playwright reenacts. Laura Michiels explores different types of metatheater in Williams’s work: “mythical” (Orpheus Descending), “esoteric” (Two-Character Play), “marauding” (Clothes for the Summer Hotel), “multiplying" and “negotiating” (Sweet Bird of Youth, Something Cloudy, Something Clear). Michiels shows how Williams' dramas open up to issues important for contemporary interdisciplinary studies: the audience’s emotional and affective responsiveness, the work of memory, and intermedial dialogism. Michiels’ book offers a wide range of tools for unpacking metatheatricality of the 20th-century drama
Unsupervised Machine Learning‐Based Clustering of Nanosized Fluorescent Extracellular Vesicles
No full textExtracellular vesicles (EV) are biological nanoparticles that play an important role in cell-to-cell communication. The phenotypic profile of EV populations is a promising reporter of disease, with direct clinical diagnostic relevance. Yet, robust methods for quantifying the biomarker content of EV have been critically lacking, and require a single-particle approach due to their inherent heterogeneous nature. Here, multicolor single-molecule burst analysis microscopy is used to detect multiple biomarkers present on single EV. The authors classify the recorded signals and apply the machine learning-based t-distributed stochastic neighbor embedding algorithm to cluster the resulting multidimensional data. As a proof of principle, the authors use the method to assess both the purity and the inflammatory status of EV, and compare cell culture and plasma-derived EV isolated via different purification methods. This methodology is then applied to identify intercellular adhesion molecule-1 specific EV subgroups released by inflamed endothelial cells, and to prove that apolipoprotein-a1 is an excellent marker to identify the typical lipoprotein contamination in plasma. This methodology can be widely applied on standard confocal microscopes, thereby allowing both standardized quality assessment of patient plasma EV preparations, and diagnostic profiling of multiple EV biomarkers in health and disease.The authors thank Veronique Vastmans and Iris Reniers for the technical assistance. S.K. was funded by Hasselt University. J.H. acknowledges funding by UH-BOF (BOF20TT06). The FWO-Hercules Foundation of Flanders (grant number R-7087), the Research Foundation Flanders (FWO, Herculesstichting) (Grant number G0H3716N) and the province of Limburg (Belgium) (tUL Impuls II) are acknowledged for funding the microscopy hardware. L.M. and B.H. acknowledge the funding by the EU/EFRO through the Interreg V Flanders-the Netherlands project Trans Tech Diagnostics (TTD) and grant number 2015N017047 of the province of Limburg.Hendrix, J; Hosseinkhani, B (corresponding author), Hasselt Univ, Biomed Res Inst BIOMED, Martelarenlaan 42, B-3500 Hasselt, Belgium ;
Hasselt Univ, Adv Opt Microscopy Ctr, Dynam Bioimaging Lab, B-3500 Hasselt, Belgium.
[email protected]; [email protected]
Cotton-textile-apparel sectors of India:
No full text"Cotton, textiles, and apparel are critical agricultural and industrial sectors in India. This study provides descriptions of these sectors and examines the key developments emerging domestically and internationally that affect the challenges and opportunities the sectors face. More than four million farm households produce cotton in India, and about one-quarter of output is produced by marginal and small farms. Although production has expanded—most recently with the introduction of Bt (Bacillus thuringiensis) cotton—domestic prices dropped sharply in the late 1990s, in parallel to world cotton prices. Using partial equilibrium simulations, we estimate that a price movement of the magnitude that occurred has a significant effect on levels of poverty among cotton-producing households. The fiber-to-fabric production chain, from cotton processing through apparel, employs more than 12 million workers in India and provides 16 percent of export earnings. Except for the spinning industry, these sectors are dominated by small, fragmented, and nonintegrated units, which adversely affect their competitiveness. Recent policy reforms have induced some technological improvements. In terms of future prospects for the Indian processing, textile, and apparel industries, our analysis emphasizes three dimensions of reform—the need for further investments in human resource development to improve industry productivity and reduce poverty among workers in these sectors, the emergence of modern domestic retail marketing chains, and the potentially vibrant prospects for the industry that arise from a growing domestic fabric demand and new opportunities in world markets if appropriate policies and investments are undertaken." from authors' abstractCotton, textiles, Apparel, Rural poverty, subsidies, Industry policy, World markets,
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