Prevention of infectious diseases in athletes.

The sports medicine physician may face challenging issues regarding infectious diseases when dealing with teams or highly competitive athletes who have difficulties taking time off to recover. One must treat the individual sick athlete and take the necessary precautions to contain the spread of communicable disease to the surrounding team, staff, relatives, and other contacts. This article reviews preventive strategies for infectious disease in athletes, including immunization recommendations and prophylaxis guidelines, improvements in personal hygiene and prevention of spread of infectious organisms by direct contact, insect-borne disease precautions, and prevention of sexually transmitted diseases. A special emphasis on immunizations focuses on pertussis, influenza, and meningococcal prophylaxis

Predictive Modelling of Bone Age through Classification and Regression of Bone Shapes

Bone age assessment is a task performed daily in hospitals worldwide. This involves a clinician estimating the age of a patient from a radiograph of the non-dominant hand. Our approach to automated bone age assessment is to modularise the algorithm into the following three stages: segment and verify hand outline; segment and verify bones; use the bone outlines to construct models of age. In this paper we address the final question: given outlines of bones, can we learn how to predict the bone age of the patient? We examine two alternative approaches. Firstly, we attempt to train classifiers on individual bones to predict the bone stage categories commonly used in bone ageing. Secondly, we construct regression models to directly predict patient age. We demonstrate that models built on summary features of the bone outline perform better than those built using the one dimensional representation of the outline, and also do at least as well as other automated systems. We show that models constructed on just three bones are as accurate at predicting age as expert human assessors using the standard technique. We also demonstrate the utility of the model by quantifying the importance of ethnicity and sex on age development. Our conclusion is that the feature based system of separating the image processing from the age modelling is the best approach for automated bone ageing, since it offers flexibility and transparency and produces accurate estimate

Master of Arts

thesisThis thesis addresses the question of the ethnic cleansing of Palestine by examining Zionism as a settler-colonial national movement, and it demonstrates that the realization of Zionism in both its Labor and Revisionist interpretations has inevitably led to continuous policies of ethnic cleansing in Palestine. The thesis begins by defining "ethnic cleansing" and analyzing various cases of population cleansing to determine whether they fit this definition. It then traces the development of Zionism and its national content, and discusses the state of Palestine before the rise of Zionism. To provide the necessary framework for understanding Zionism as a settler-colonial nationalism that embraced ethnic cleansing to achieve and sustain its national content, the thesis discusses the events of 1947-49, the developments in the wake of the 1967 war, and the 2002 and 2008-09 Israeli military campaigns in the West Bank and Gaza. Under the leadership of Labor Zionists, the Jewish community in Palestine launched a campaign of ethnic Labor Zionists, the Jewish community in Palestine launched a campaign of ethnic cleansing in 1947-49 in order to secure a Jewish state with a Jewish majority. The consequences of the 1967 war and the Revisionists' rise to power in 1977 began a new chapter of ethnic cleansing through land confiscations, illegal settlements, and violent military campaigns against the Palestinians of the West Bank and Gaza. More than sixty years after the nakba, Palestinians continue to be forcefully removed from their homes, a consequence of Labor Zionism dominating the Zionist project before 1977, and the powerful influence of the Revisionists ever since

Bis- and Tris-(1,2,3,4-Dithiadiazolium) salts and related radicals

Using the cycloaddition of [SNS][AsF(_6)] to nitriles a variety of 5-substituted-1,3,2,4- dithiadiazolium salts (salts containing the -CNSNS cationic ring) were prepared : mono- (1,3,2,4-dithiadiazolium) salts from mononitriles, bis-(l,3,2,4-dithiadiazolium) salts from dinitriles and l,3,5-tris-(l,3,2,4-dithiadiazohum) salts from 1,3,5-tricyanobenzene. salts of these dithiadiazolium cations with other anions were prepared by simple anion metathesis reactions. Bis- and tris-(l,3,2,4-dithiadiazolium) salts were reduced to give stable bis- and tris- (1,3,2,4-dithiadiazolyl) radicals which were studied by electron spin resonance spectroscopy (ESR). These multiradicals were formed as dark, sparingly soluble powders upon reduction of a dithiadiazolium salt. Bis- and tris-(l,3,2,4-dithiadiazolyl)s were shown by ESR to undergo rearrangement in solution to the more stable 1,2,3,5-dithiadiazolyl isomer (containing the -CNSSN ring). Preparation of the l,3,5-rm-(l,3,2,4-dithiadiazolium) iodide [C6H3-1,3,5-(CNSNS)(_3)][I](_3)] in an ESR tube gave a series of ESR spectra similar to those observed for dithiadiazolyl radicals. Reduction of the l,3,5-rm-(l,3,2,4-dithiadiazolium) cation [C(_6)H(_3)-1,3,5-(CNSNS)3](^3+) gave a material identified by elemental analysis as l,3,5-tris-(dithiadiazolyl). Reoxidation of this material with bromine gave a tris-(tribromide) salt [C(_6)H(_3)-1,3,5-(CN(_2)S(_2))(_3)] [Br(_3)](_3). In the same way, reoxidation of the bis-(dithiadiazolyl) [C(_6)H(_4)-1,3-(CN(_2)S(_2))(_2)] gave a bis- (tribromide) [C(_6)H(_4)-l,3-(CN(_2)S)(_2)][Br(_3)]2.1,3,2,4-dithiadiazolium cations were found to initiate the cationic ring-opening polymerization of tetrahydrofuran, and samples of high molecular weight po/y(THF) with low polydispersity initiated by [PhCNSNS][AsF(_6)] and [C(_6)H(_3)-l,3,5-(CNSNS)(_3)][AsF(_6)](_3) were prepared and studied. The reaction of 1,3,2,4-dithiadiazoUum salts with water was studied, and it was shown by infrared and NMR spectroscopy that one dithiadiazolium ring reacts with two equivalents of water, with a 1:1 reaction compound not being formed. The 1,2,3,5-dithiadiazolyl dimer (PhCNSSN)(_2) was found to dechlorinate the activated quinone o-chloranil to give [PhCNSSN]Cl and a quinone coupling produc

ASSOCIATIONS BETWEEN SUICIDE IDEATION AND DEMOGRAPHIC FACTORS, MEDICAL COMORBIDITIES, MEDICATIONS, AND AXIS-I MENTAL DISORDERS AMONG OLDER ADULTS WHO PRESENT TO PRIMARY CARE

In the present study, associations between suicide ideation and demographic factors, medical comorbidities, medications, and Axis-I mental disorders among 745 patients age 65 years and older recruited from primary care practices in the Northeastern United States were assessed. Cross-sectional associations between various risk indices and patient self-reported suicide ideation were evaluated using multivariate logistic regression. Findings indicated that single and widowed participants were more likely to report suicide ideation than were married participants. Expression of suicide ideation was further associated with presence of major depressive disorder, minor depression, an anxiety disorder, more functional impairment, sleep disturbance, and vision impairment. Use o f benzodiazepines or other sedatives was significantly associated with suicide ideation independent of having an anxiety disorder. Having a history of suicide ideation emerged as the strongest predictor of current suicide ideation. These findings have implications for enhancing clinical detection of suicide risk and improving treatment with older adults in a primary care context

Rethinking Africa's GDP, 1796-1950

Treballs Finals del Màster d'Economia, Facultat d'Economia i Empresa, Universitat de Barcelona, Curs: 2017-2018, Tutor: Federico TadeiHas Africa always been poor? This thesis attempts to answer this question, presenting estimates of incomes in Africa from 1796 onwards. I build upon the work of Prados de la Escosura, who exploited the relationship between GDP per capita and income terms of trade to create African GDP estimates from 1870 to 1950. I produce new estimates, which are both of a higher quality and more extensive. My regional estimates go back as far as 1796 and the majority of my country estimates go back to 1830. Outside of South Africa, this is the first insight into the incomes in sub-Saharan Africa during this period. I find two interesting results. The first, that there was an economic boom in West and East Africa immediately prior to the scramble for Africa. The second, more surprising result, is that GDP per capita levels rise prior to 1840. I demonstrate how this contradicts previous literature and highlight how both of these booms were triggered primarily by the many structural changes which occurred during and shortly after the transatlantic slave trade. Finally, I make comparisons of my GDP estimates with the available estimates supporting the validity of my results