43 research outputs found

    Re-presenting the Paralympics: (contested) philosophies, production practices and the hypervisibility of disability

    Get PDF
    Studies that have engaged para-sport broadcasting, particularly through a narrative lens, have almost exclusively relied on textual and/or content analysis of the Paralympic Games as the source of cultural critique. We know far less about the decisions taken inside Paralympic broadcasters that have led to such representations. In this study – based on interviews with senior production and promotion staff at the UK’s Paralympic broadcaster, Channel 4 – we provide the first detailed examination of mediated para-sport from this vantage point. We explore the use of promotional devices such as athletes’ backstories – the “Hollywood treatment” – to both hook audiences and serve as a vehicle for achieving its social enterprise mandate to change public attitudes toward disability. In so doing, we reveal myriad tensions that coalesce around representing the Paralympics; with respect to the efforts made to balance the competing goals of key stakeholders and a stated desire to make the Paralympics both a commercial and socially progressive success

    Physicochemical attack against solid tumors based on the reversal of direction of entropy flow: an attempt to introduce thermodynamics in anticancer therapy

    Get PDF
    BACKGROUND: There are many differences between healthy tissue and growing tumor tissue, including metabolic, structural and thermodynamic differences. Both structural and thermodynamic differences can be used to follow the entropy differences in cancerous and normal tissue. Entropy production is a bilinear form of the rates of irreversible processes and the corresponding "generalized forces". Entropy production due to various dissipation mechanisms based on temperature differences, chemical potential gradient, chemical affinity, viscous stress and exerted force is a promising tool for calculations relating to potential targets for tumor isolation and demarcation. METHODS: The relative importance of five forms of entropy production was assessed through mathematical estimation. Using our mathematical model we demonstrated that the rate of entropy production by a cancerous cell is always higher than that of a healthy cell apart from the case of the application of external energy. Different rates of entropy production by two kinds of cells influence the direction of entropy flow between the cells. Entropy flow from a cancerous cell to a healthy cell transfers information regarding the cancerous cell and propagates its invasive action to the healthy tissues. To change the direction of entropy flow, in addition to designing certain biochemical pathways to reduce the rate of entropy production by cancerous cells, we suggest supplying external energy to the tumor area, changing the relative rate of entropy production by the two kinds of cells and leading to a higher entropy accumulation in the surrounding normal cells than in the tumorous cells. CONCLUSION: Through the use of mathematical models it was quantitatively demonstrated that when no external force field is applied, the rate of entropy production of cancerous cells is always higher than that of healthy cells. However, when the external energy of square wave electric pulses is applied to tissues, the rate of entropy production of normal cells may exceed that of cancerous cells. Consequently, the application of external energy to the body can reverse the direction of the entropy current. The harmful effect brought about by the entropy flow from cancerous to healthy tissue can be blocked by the reversed direction of entropy current from the irradiated normal tissue around the tumor

    Efficient Strict-Binning Particle-in-Cell Algorithm for Multi-Core SIMD Processors

    Get PDF
    International audienceParticle-in-Cell (PIC) codes are widely used for plasma simulations. On recent multi-core hardware, performance of these codes is often limited by memory bandwidth. We describe a multi-core PIC algorithm that achieves close-to-minimal number of memory transfers with the main memory, while at the same time exploiting SIMD instructions for numerical computations and exhibiting a high degree of OpenMP-level parallelism. Our algorithm keeps particles sorted by cell at every time step, and represents particles from a same cell using a linked list of fixed-capacity arrays, called chunks. Chunks support either sequential or atomic insertions, the latter being used to handle fast-moving particles. To validate our code, called Pic-Vert, we consider a 3d electrostatic Landau-damping simulation as well as a 2d3v transverse instability of magnetized electron holes. Performance results on a 24-core Intel Sky-lake hardware confirm the effectiveness of our algorithm, in particular its high throughput and its ability to cope with fast moving particles

    Policing and Race: Disparate Treatment, Perceptions, and Policy Responses

    No full text
    Police shootings of unarmed African Americans, including Michael Brown, Sean Bell, and Oscar Grant, sparked nationwide protests, debate, and consciousness-raising about race in policing. These high-profile shootings provide pressing reason for an in-depth analysis of race, policing, and policy. This article details the deleterious consequences that racial disparities in policing have on the lives of racial minorities. In trying to understand the source of this disparate treatment, it highlights what empirical social science knows about racial bias in policing, emphasizing how contemporary forms of racial bias can contribute to racially disparate outcomes. The article makes a distinction between what research reveals about the existence of racial bias in policing and perceptions of racially biased policing. Existing racial bias is not always accurately identified nor perceived, which makes it harder to enact change. Examining how to counteract its potential influence, it reviews empirically based interventions to address both police behavior and community perceptions regarding race in policing. From a policy perspective, the article considers the use of police body-worn cameras as a means to promote equitable policing. It concludes with recommendations based on scientific literature, arguing that effective policies must address both the perception of and actual biased policing

    Prospective multicentre randomised trial comparing the efficacy and safety of single-anastomosis duodeno-ileal bypass with sleeve gastrectomy (SADI-S) versus Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (RYGB): SADISLEEVE study protocol

    No full text
    International audienceINTRODUCTION: Despite the non-negligible weight loss failure rate at midterm, Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (RYGB) remains the reference procedure in the treatment of morbid obesity with metabolic comorbidities. A recently emerged procedure, the single anastomosis duodeno-ileal bypass with sleeve gastrectomy (SADI-S), could be more effective on weight loss with similar morbidity and lower weight loss failure rate than RYGB. We propose the first randomised, open, multicentre superiority trial comparing the SADI-S to RYGB (SADISLEEVE). METHODS AND ANALYSIS: The main objective is to demonstrate the superiority at 2 years after surgery of the SADI-S compared with RYGB in term of excess weight loss percentage. The secondary objectives are the evaluation of nutritional status, metabolic outcomes, overall complication rates and quality of life, within 2 years after surgery. Key inclusion criteria are obese patients with body mass index (BMI) ≥40 kg/m(2) or ≥35 kg/m(2) with at least one comorbid condition and candidate to a first bariatric procedure or after failure of sleeve gastrectomy. Patients randomised by minimisation in two arms, based on centre, surgery as a revisional procedure, presence of type 2 diabetes and BMI \textgreater50 kg/m(2) will be included over 2 years.A sample size of 166 patients in each group will have a power of 90% to detect a probability of 0.603 that excess weight loss in the RYGB arm is less than excess weight loss in the SADI-S arm with a 5% two-sided significance level. With a drop-out rate of 10%, it will be necessary to include 183 patients per group. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: The study was approved by Institutional Review Board of Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Morvan (CPP1089-HPS1). Study was also approved by the French national agency for drug safety (2018061500148). Results will be reported in peer-reviewed scientific journals. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: NCT03610256
    corecore