Images of Trebizond and the Pontos in Contemporary Literature in English with a Gothic Conclusion

A Byzantinist specializing in the history of the Empire of Trebizond (1204–1461), the author presents four books of different genres written in English and devoted to the medieval state on the south coast of the Black Sea. The most spectacular of them is a novel by Rose Macaulay, Towers of Trebizond. Dąbrowska wonders whether it is adequate to the Trebizondian past or whether it is a projection of the writer. She compares Macaulay’s novel with William Butler Yeats’s poems on Byzantium which excited the imagination of readers but were not meant to draw their attention to the Byzantine past. This is, obviously, the privilege of literature. As a historian, Dąbrowska juxtaposes Macaulay’s narration with the historical novel by Nicolas J. Holmes, the travelogue written by Michael Pereira and the reports of the last British Consul in Trabzon, Vorley Harris. The author of the article draws the reader’s attention to the history of a rather unknown and exotic region. The Empire of Trebizond ceased to exist in 1461, conquered by Mehmed II. At the same time the Sultan’s army attacked Wallachia and got a bitter lesson from its ruler Vlad Dracula. But this Romanian hero is remembered not because of his prowess on the battlefield but due to his cruelty which dominated literary fiction and separated historical facts from narrative reality. The contemporary reader is impressed by the image of a dreadful vampire, Dracula. The same goes for Byzantium perceived through the magic stanzas by Yeats, who never visited Istanbul. Rose Macaulay went to Trabzon but her vision of Trebizond is very close to Yeats’s images of Byzantium. In her story imagination is stronger than historical reality and it is imagination that seduces the reader

Local protection against mountain hazards ? state of the art and future needs

International audienceDuring the last decades, settlement activities increased in European mountain regions. Due to the scarceness of areas suitable for development, residential estates were extended into areas endangered by natural hazards such as mass movements. These settlements generally show a considerable vulnerability to tangible assets. Integral risk management strategies to reduce the vulnerability to tangible assets are presented for the assessment of such endangered areas. Conventional mitigation and local structural measures are discussed with respect to the necessary delimitation of endangered areas, the preparedness of people and possible financial prevention. According to different natural hazard processes (flash floods with and without bedload transport, debris flows, land slides, rock falls and avalanches) and various structural elements of buildings, a catalogue of local structural measures is presented with respect to occurring process impacts and protection objectives. Thereby, different local structural measures are classified and recommended according to a possible implementation for newly-erected buildings and for upgrading existing buildings, respectively. Based on these recommendations, future needs for a sustainable and comprehensive reduction of risk in settlement areas endangered by mass movements are outlined. Above all, this includes a prescription of building codes and the re-introduction of an obligatory final inspection of buildings

Nevirapine hair and plasma concentrations and HIV-1 viral suppression among HIV infected ante-partum and post-partum women attended in a mother and child prevention program in Maputo city, Mozambique

Introduction: Prevention of mother to child transmission of HIV (PMTCT) is frequently challenged by irregular access to more effective anti-retroviral therapy. Nevirapine single dose (sdNVP), sdNVP+AZT+3TC for MTCT prophylaxis and NVP+ AZT+3TC for treatment and PMTCT were withdrawn due to low genetic resistance barrier and low efficacy. However current PMTCT lines in Mozambique include DTG+3TC+TDF, TDF+3TC+EFV, DTG +ABC+3TC, and AZT + NVP syrup prophylaxis for exposed babies. We assessed NVP hair and plasma concentrations and association with HIV-1RNA suppression among HIV+ ante-partum and post-partum women under PMTCT in Maputo, Mozambique. Methods: From December 2013 to November 2014, prospectively were enrolled 200 HIV+ ante-partum women on 200mg nevirapine and zidovudine 300 plus lamivudine 150mg twice daily at least with 3 months treatment and seen again at 24 weeks post-partum. Self-reported pill-taking adherence, NVP concentrations in hair, plasma, hemoglobin, CD4 cell count, HIV-1 RNA load was evaluated. NVP concentration in hair and plasma was analyzed as categorical quartile variable based on better data fit. NVP concentration was set between ≤3.77 ng/ml in plasma and ≤17,20 ng/mg in hair in quartile one to ≥5.36 ng/ml in plasma and ≥53.21 ng/mg in hair in quartile four. Logistic regression models for repeated measures were calculated. Following the World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines we set viral suppression at HIV-1RNA \u3c 1000 c/mL. Outcome was HIV-1 RNA\u3c1000 copies/ml. Predictor was NVP concentration in hair categorized in quartiles. Results: In total 369 person-visits (median of 1.85) were recorded. Self-reported adherence was 98% (IQR 97–100%) at ante-partum. In 25% person visits, NVP concentrations were within therapeutic levels (3.77 ng/ml to 5.35 ng/ml) in plasma and (17.20 ng/mg to 53.20 ng/mg) in hair. In 50% person visits NVP concentrations were above 5.36 ng/ml in plasm and 53.21 ng/mg in hair. HIV-1 RNA suppression was found in 34.7% of women with two viral loads, one at enrollment and another in post-partum. Odds of HIV-1 RNA suppression in quartile 4, was about 6 times higher than in quartile 1 (p-value = 0.006) for NVP hair concentration and 7 times for NVP plasma concentration (p-value = 0.012). Conclusions: The study results alert for potential low efficacy of current PMTCT drug regimens in use in Mozambique. Affordable means for individual monitoring adherence, ART plasma and hair levels, drug resistant and HIV-1 RNA levels monitoring are recommended for prompt identification of inadequate drug regimens exposure patterns and adjust accordingly

Vulnerable defendants in the criminal courts: a review of provision for adults and children

A report on the treatment of vulnerable defendants within the criminal courts of England and Wales. The report is in two parts: Part I is concerned with vulnerable adult defendants, and particularly those with learning disabilities; Part II is about child defendants – that is, defendants aged between 10 and 17

Analysis of Linoprint distribution channels, development of marketing concepts and tools

PFC del programa Erasmus EPS elaborat a Fachhochschule Kiel University of Applied SciencesTreball desenvolupat dins el marc del programa 'European Project Semester'.The objective of this report is to analyze the effectiveness of current Linoprint distributors and potential new distributors, to analyze Linoprint’s company strengths compared to its competitors in the digital printing market, to develop Microsoft Excel based marketing tools, and to propose marketing concepts to Linoprint by analyzing Linoprint’s current marketing material and the package printing industry, which is the market that Linoprint is active in. The results of the project are used to develop tools and recommendations to improve Linoprint’s marketing and current company positioning, and to recommend strategies for Linoprint to consider as it enters the market

Cellular, Wide-Area, and Non-Terrestrial IoT: A Survey on 5G Advances and the Road Towards 6G

The next wave of wireless technologies is proliferating in connecting things among themselves as well as to humans. In the era of the Internet of things (IoT), billions of sensors, machines, vehicles, drones, and robots will be connected, making the world around us smarter. The IoT will encompass devices that must wirelessly communicate a diverse set of data gathered from the environment for myriad new applications. The ultimate goal is to extract insights from this data and develop solutions that improve quality of life and generate new revenue. Providing large-scale, long-lasting, reliable, and near real-time connectivity is the major challenge in enabling a smart connected world. This paper provides a comprehensive survey on existing and emerging communication solutions for serving IoT applications in the context of cellular, wide-area, as well as non-terrestrial networks. Specifically, wireless technology enhancements for providing IoT access in fifth-generation (5G) and beyond cellular networks, and communication networks over the unlicensed spectrum are presented. Aligned with the main key performance indicators of 5G and beyond 5G networks, we investigate solutions and standards that enable energy efficiency, reliability, low latency, and scalability (connection density) of current and future IoT networks. The solutions include grant-free access and channel coding for short-packet communications, non-orthogonal multiple access, and on-device intelligence. Further, a vision of new paradigm shifts in communication networks in the 2030s is provided, and the integration of the associated new technologies like artificial intelligence, non-terrestrial networks, and new spectra is elaborated. Finally, future research directions toward beyond 5G IoT networks are pointed out.Comment: Submitted for review to IEEE CS&

Memory for pain: recalling the quality and intensity of expected acute pain.

This thesis reports a series of studies designed to assess the extent to which the intensity and qualitative nature of expected acute pain events can be recalled. The first preliminary study assessed recall of the intensity and quality of postoperative pain following day surgery for varicose vein removal. Twenty four participants reported their expectations of pain, their actual pain experiences and their retrospective ratings of pain using the Short Form McGill Pain Questionnaire (SF-MPQ) and a VAS to report pain intensity. In line with prior research, recollections of pain quality appeared to be less accurate than the retrospective ratings of pain intensity. In the second preliminary study, 50 participants who had never experienced vascular surgery were required to provide estimates of the likely nature of postoperative pain following varicose vein removal, based on the information provided in one of two patient information leaflets. Although both groups of non-patient participants overestimated the intensity of the pain, both provided estimates of the qualitative nature of the pain that were similar to the reports made by the patient participants. These preliminary studies highlighted the limitations of prior research which has inferred pain recall accuracy by simply by comparing descriptions of acute pain made whilst in pain with ratings made retrospectively, and demonstrated the need to employ a more direct method of assessing memory for pain. The preliminary studies also highlighted the need to consider the influence of the participants ’ expectations of the likely nature o f a forthcoming pain and levels of anxiety on memory for pain. Finally, investigating the relative extent to which pain can be recalled relative to another sensory experience was deemed to be necessary. The main study for this thesis assessed memory for experimentally induced acute pain using the remember/know research paradigm (see Tulving, 1985). In Part One of this study, Cold Pressor (CP) pain was induced in 97 participants who provided ratings of their expectations of the CP pain, followed by reports of their actual pain experiences using the MPQ and a VAS whilst using the CP. Participants also provided ratings of anxiety and used a list of 57 descriptors to report the taste of an unusual drink. In Part Two of the study, two weeks later, participants provided retrospective ratings of the CP pain using the MPQ and a VAS, ratings of anxiety, and the taste of the drink. Participants were then asked to make ‘remember’ or ‘know ’judgements about the MPQ pain and taste descriptors that they had selected, based on the level of conscious awareness accompanying their recollections. The findings indicate that memory for the intensity of expected acute pain was reliable for at least two weeks. In addition, the data suggest that recollections of the broad defining aspects of the quality of acute pain can also be reliable, but may be more appropriately assessed at a ‘type of pain’ level rather than the fine-grained level of individual MPQ descriptors. Central to this investigation was the finding that participants were readily able to distinguish between whether their recollections reflected ‘remembering’ and ‘knowing’ about their prior experiences of both pain and taste. It is concluded that the use of the remember/know distinction allows for a more direct assessment of the participants ’ reports of their memories than inferring the likely nature of these recollective experiences, and that recollections of pain and of other sensory experiences are broadly similar. Expectations and anxiety were not related to pain recall accuracy