26,972 research outputs found
âWe are against Islam!â: The Lega Nord and the Islamic folk devil
© 2012 the Author(s). This article has been published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. Without requesting permission from the Author or SAGE, you may further copy, distribute, transmit, and adapt the article, with the condition that the Author and SAGE Open are in each case credited as the source of the article.Since 1995, the Italian Lega Nord (LN) political party has depicted itself as the defender of Padania, a territory that covers the mainly affluent regions of Northern Italy. Around this politico-spatial territory, the LN has shaped an identity based on the notion of Popolo Padano (the Padanian People). Since the new millennium, LN rhetoric has increasingly focusedâstemming more from the demands of realpolitik than those of convictionâon opposing irregular immigration per se and, more specifically, Islam and Muslim immigration. In the eyes of the LN propagandists and their media, the theology of Islam and its practitioners represent a growing threat to the modern Italian and Padanian identity (and tradition). The LN has not been alone in using the media to oppose Islam; the Italian media has reinforced LN messages; Muslims are generally depicted as dangerous and compared with terrorists and their religion and culture are described as the opposite of Italian/West values. Something approximating to a âmoral panicâ around this issue has ensued. Integral to this are notions of morality combined with practices of moral entrepreneurship. What follows seeks to highlight the LNâs stereotypical depictions of Islam. This evaluation is important because the LN was a major player in former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconiâs government (2008-2011) and is still a significant party among the Italian political spectrum. Integral to what follows are the following questions: âIs contemporary Islamic immigration a threat to the Italian (and Padanian) way of life?â and âAre the perceived threats to be found in the periodic uncertainties that societies suffer or might we need to search for wider processes?
Five year mortality and direct costs of care for people with diabetic foot complications are comparable to cancer.
BackgroundIn 2007, we reported a summary of data comparing diabetic foot complications to cancer. The purpose of this brief report was to refresh this with the best available data as they currently exist. Since that time, more reports have emerged both on cancer mortality and mortality associated with diabetic foot ulcer (DFU), Charcot arthropathy, and diabetes-associated lower extremity amputation.MethodsWe collected data reporting 5-year mortality from studies published following 2007 and calculated a pooled mean. We evaluated data from DFU, Charcot arthropathy and lower extremity amputation. We dichotomized high and low amputation as proximal and distal to the ankle, respectively. This was compared with cancer mortality as reported by the American Cancer Society and the National Cancer Institute.ResultsFiveâyear mortality for Charcot, DFU, minor and major amputations were 29.0, 30.5, 46.2 and 56.6%, respectively. This is compared to 9.0% for breast cancer and 80.0% for lung cancer. 5âyear pooled mortality for all reported cancer was 31.0%. Direct costs of care for diabetes in general was 80 billion for cancer in 2015. As up to one-third of the direct costs of care for diabetes may be attributed to the lower extremity, these are also readily comparable.ConclusionDiabetic lower extremity complications remain enormously burdensome. Most notably, DFU and LEA appear to be more than just a marker of poor health. They are independent risk factors associated with premature death. While advances continue to improve outcomes of care for people with DFU and amputation, efforts should be directed at primary prevention as well as those for patients in diabetic foot ulcer remission to maximize ulcer-free, hospital-free and activity-rich days
Transitions to Nematic states in homogeneous suspensions of high aspect ratio magnetic rods
Isotropic-Nematic and Nematic-Nematic transitions from a homogeneous base
state of a suspension of high aspect ratio, rod-like magnetic particles are
studied for both Maier-Saupe and the Onsager excluded volume potentials. A
combination of classical linear stability and asymptotic analyses provides
insight into possible nematic states emanating from both the isotropic and
nematic non-polarized equilibrium states. Local analytical results close to
critical points in conjunction with global numerical results (Bhandar, 2002)
yields a unified picture of the bifurcation diagram and provides a convenient
base state to study effects of external orienting fields.Comment: 3 Figure
High-pressure calorimeter chamber tests for liquid oxygen/kerosene (LOX/RP-1) rocket combustion
An experimental program was conducted to investigate the rocket combustion and heat transfer characteristics of liquid oxygen/kerosene (LOX/RP-1) mixtures at high chamber pressures. Two water-cooled calorimeter chambers of different combustion lengths were tested using 37- and 61-element oxidizer-fuel-oxidizer triplet injectors. The tests were conducted at nominal chamber pressures of 4.1, 8.3, and 13.8 MPa abs (600, 1200, and 2000 psia). Heat flux Q/A data were obtained for the entire calorimeter length for oxygen/fuel mixture ratios of 1.8 to 3.3. Test data at 4.1 MPa abs compared favorably with previous test data from another source. Using an injector with a fuel-rich outer zone reduced the throat heat flux by 47 percent with only a 4.5 percent reduction in the characteristic exhaust velocity efficiency C* sub eff. The throat heat transfer coefficient was reduced approximately 40 percent because of carbon deposits on the chamber wall
Characteristics, of TIROS, GOES, DMSP and LANDSAT Systems
The characteristics of the TIROS, GOES, DMSP and LANDSAT systems of satellites are described. The data listed for each system are altitude of orbit, inclination/position, orbit type, orbits per day, expected operational lifetime and the sensor systems. The sensor systems are described as to wavelength of each channel, resolution, field of view and other pertinent information. Data information such as availability rate, collection method, primary use/application and how to obtain additional information is also given
An Overview of Near Infrared Fluorescent Cholangiography with Indocyanine Green during Cholecystectomy
Laparoscopic cholecystectomy (LC) is one of the most common surgical procedures performed globally but continues to carry to an unacceptably high risk of iatrogenic bile duct injury (BDI). In recent years several centres have proposed Near Infrared Fluorescent Cholangiography (NIRFC) with Indocyanine Green (ICG) as a potential method of dynamic intraoperative extra hepatic bile duct mapping. We provide an overview of the current problem of BDI during laparoscopic cholecystectomy including the incidence, aetiology and medico legal ramifications. We also provide a short summary of the enduring argument for and against routine intraoperative cholangiogram (IOC) and we discuss the new technology of NIRFC with ICG in detail. We provide an informative summary of the small number of highly heterogeneous clinical trials of NIRFC with ICG currently available and briefly discuss limitations of the technology
TDIR: Time-Delay Interferometric Ranging for Space-Borne Gravitational-Wave Detectors
Space-borne interferometric gravitational-wave detectors, sensitive in the
low-frequency (mHz) band, will fly in the next decade. In these detectors, the
spacecraft-to-spacecraft light-travel times will necessarily be unequal and
time-varying, and (because of aberration) will have different values on up- and
down-links. In such unequal-armlength interferometers, laser phase noise will
be canceled by taking linear combinations of the laser-phase observables
measured between pairs of spacecraft, appropriately time-shifted by the light
propagation times along the corresponding arms. This procedure, known as
time-delay interferometry (TDI), requires an accurate knowledge of the
light-time delays as functions of time. Here we propose a high-accuracy
technique to estimate these time delays and study its use in the context of the
Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) mission. We refer to this ranging
technique, which relies on the TDI combinations themselves, as Time-Delay
Interferometric Ranging (TDIR). For every TDI combination, we show that, by
minimizing the rms power in that combination (averaged over integration times
s) with respect to the time-delay parameters, we obtain estimates
of the time delays accurate enough to cancel laser noise to a level well below
the secondary noises. Thus TDIR allows the implementation of TDI without the
use of dedicated inter-spacecraft ranging systems, with a potential
simplification of the LISA design. In this paper we define the TDIR procedure
formally, and we characterize its expected performance via simulations with the
\textit{Synthetic LISA} software package.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figure
Bound states of Dipolar Bosons in One-dimensional Systems
We consider one-dimensional tubes containing bosonic polar molecules. The
long-range dipole-dipole interactions act both within a single tube and between
different tubes. We consider arbitrary values of the externally aligned dipole
moments with respect to the symmetry axis of the tubes. The few-body structures
in this geometry are determined as function of polarization angles and dipole
strength by using both essentially exact stochastic variational methods and the
harmonic approximation. The main focus is on the three, four, and five-body
problems in two or more tubes. Our results indicate that in the weakly-coupled
limit the inter-tube interaction is similar to a zero-range term with a
suitable rescaled strength. This allows us to address the corresponding
many-body physics of the system by constructing a model where bound chains with
one molecule in each tube are the effective degrees of freedom. This model can
be mapped onto one-dimensional Hamiltonians for which exact solutions are
known.Comment: 22 pages, 7 figures, revised versio
An evaluation of different methods of preparation of quartz grains for study of their surface features by scanning electron microscopy
Sediments from periglacial and glacial environments were subjected to initial preparation and portions were subsequently further prepared using either the dichromate or the hydrogen peroxide method before being examined by scanning electron microscopy. Statistically significant differences did not occur in the results obtained for samples subjected only to initial or to initial and either of the two further preparations: it is concluded that initial preparation is satisfactory and further preparation unnecessary
- âŠ