Language matters: Anti-oppressive software terminology

There is a long history of oppressive and offensive terminology within the software systems that Information Technology professionals use and develop. This presentation briefly introduces several events, perspectives, and trends regarding the remediation of oppressive and offensive language within software projects. The extensive prior efforts of marginalized Information Technology professionals and scholars support our local efforts to prioritize anti-oppressive technical labor. We further argue that Information Technology professionals contribute a unique perspective to reducing the harm of technical infrastructure. Finally, we present one example of local remediation of "master/slave" references from our software source code repositories

Exile Vol. XXXV No. 2

Peter Goes Groovy, by Carolyn Bern (cover) I Hate Poetry by Craig Bagno 1 Truancy by Richard Latimer 2 I ate a Star Last Night by Rory Herbster 3 Delivery by Amy Judge 4 Untitled by Sue McLain 5 Road Signs by Richard Latimer 7-8 Haiku for Me to Possess by Shannon J. Salser 9 Patches by Michael Payne 10 Untitled by Laura Johnson 11 He by Kent Lambert 13 At the Corner Grill by Lynn Pendleton 14-15 Black Licorice by Richard Latimer 16-17 Blue Shirt by Michael Payne 18 ...Loves a Clown by Margaret Dawson 21-24 The Surreal Sonnet by Shannon J. Salser 26 Untitled by Mat Benson 27 Swimming Lessons by Richard Latimer 29 Communion by Amy Judge 30 Beth\u27s Last Funny Joke by Ted Gould 31-35 Hope for a Peaceful Coming Around by Shannon J. Salser 36 Untitled by Laura Johnson 37 A Child\u27s Moment by Peter Witonsky 39 Observation by Rosemary Walsh 40 Untitled by Carolyn Burns 41 To My Sister by Amy B. Judge 43 Ideas In Bloom by Randy Casden 44 Untitled by Deb Tily 45 A Child of Mind by Charles Riedinger 47 Ars Poetica by Rory Herbster 48 Untitled by Mat Benson 49 REPRINTS Dancer by Bradford Cover 52 Skin Deep by Eric Whitney 53-55 Sunset by Chris Rynd 56 Editorial decision is shared equally among the Editorial Board Members -cover page The editors of Exile would like to formally apologize to those contributors whose works were misprinted in the Fall issue. We have reprinted a few of the pieces that contained the most errors. -51 NOTE: An uncredited and untitled piece of artwork appears on page 19. NOTE: Carolyn Bern (cover) Burns (41) and Berns (contributor notes) all appear to refer to the same artist

External Bone Size Is a Key Determinant of Strength‐Decline Trajectories of Aging Male Radii

Given prior work showing associations between remodeling and external bone size, we tested the hypothesis that wide bones would show a greater negative correlation between whole‐bone strength and age compared with narrow bones. Cadaveric male radii (n = 37 pairs, 18 to 89 years old) were evaluated biomechanically, and samples were sorted into narrow and wide subgroups using height‐adjusted robustness (total area/bone length). Strength was 54% greater (p < 0.0001) in wide compared with narrow radii for young adults (<40 years old). However, the greater strength of young‐adult wide radii was not observed for older wide radii, as the wide (R2 = 0.565, p = 0.001), but not narrow (R2 = 0.0004, p = 0.944) subgroup showed a significant negative correlation between strength and age. Significant positive correlations between age and robustness (R2 = 0.269, p = 0.048), cortical area (Ct.Ar; R2 = 0.356, p = 0.019), and the mineral/matrix ratio (MMR; R2 = 0.293, p = 0.037) were observed for narrow, but not wide radii (robustness: R2 = 0.015, p = 0.217; Ct.Ar: R2 = 0.095, p = 0.245; MMR: R2 = 0.086, p = 0.271). Porosity increased with age for the narrow (R2 = 0.556, p = 0.001) and wide (R2 = 0.321, p = 0.022) subgroups. The wide subgroup (p < 0.0001) showed a significantly greater elevation of a new measure called the Cortical Pore Score, which quantifies the cumulative effect of pore size and location, indicating that porosity had a more deleterious effect on strength for wide compared with narrow radii. Thus, the divergent strength–age regressions implied that narrow radii maintained a low strength with aging by increasing external size and mineral content to mechanically offset increases in porosity. In contrast, the significant negative strength–age correlation for wide radii implied that the deleterious effect of greater porosity further from the centroid was not offset by changes in outer bone size or mineral content. Thus, the low strength of elderly male radii arose through different biomechanical mechanisms. Consideration of different strength–age regressions (trajectories) may inform clinical decisions on how best to treat individuals to reduce fracture risk. © 2019 American Society for Bone and Mineral Research.Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/149566/1/jbmr3661_am.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/149566/2/jbmr3661.pd

Successful staged hip replacement in septic hip osteoarthritis in osteopetrosis: a case report

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Osteopetrosis is a rare, inherited, bone disorder, characterized by osteosclerosis, obliteration of the medullary cavity and calcified cartilage. The autosomal dominant form is compatible with a normal life span, although fractures often result from minimal trauma, due to the pathologic nature of bone. Osteomyelitis is common in patients with osteopetrosis because of a reduced resistance to infection, attributed to the lack of marrow vascularity and impairment of white cell function. Only one case of osteomyelitis of the proximal third of the femur has been previously reported, treated with several repeated debridements and finally with femoral head resection. Here we present for the first time a case of a staged implant of a cementless total hip prosthesis for the treatment of a septic hip in femoral neck nonunion in osteopetrosis.</p> <p>Case presentation</p> <p>A 36-years-old woman, affected by autosomal dominant osteopetrosis was referred to our department because of a septic hip arthritis associated with femoral neck septic non-union, with draining fistulas. The infection occurred early after a plate osteosynthesis for a closed perthrocanteric fracture of the femur and persisted in spite of osteosynthesis removal, surgical debridement and external fixation. In our hospital the patient underwent accurate debridement, femoral head and greater trochanter resection, preparation of the diaphyseal intramedullary canal and implant of an antibiotic-loaded cement spacer. The spacer was exchanged after one month, due to infection recurrence and four months later, a cementless total hip arthroplasty was implanted, with no clinical and laboratory signs of infection recurrence at two years follow-up.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>In case of hip septic arthritis and proximal femur septic non-union, femoral head resection may not be the only option available and staged total hip arthroplasty can be considered.</p

Self-help interventions for depressive disorders and depressive symptoms: a systematic review

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Research suggests that depressive disorders exist on a continuum, with subthreshold symptoms causing considerable population burden and increasing individual risk of developing major depressive disorder. An alternative strategy to professional treatment of subthreshold depression is population promotion of effective self-help interventions that can be easily applied by an individual without professional guidance. The evidence for self-help interventions for depressive symptoms is reviewed in the present work, with the aim of identifying promising interventions that could inform future health promotion campaigns or stimulate further research.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>A literature search for randomised controlled trials investigating self-help interventions for depressive disorders or depressive symptoms was performed using PubMed, PsycINFO and the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. Reference lists and citations of included studies were also checked. Studies were grouped into those involving participants with depressive disorders or a high level of depressive symptoms, or non-clinically depressed participants not selected for depression. A number of exclusion criteria were applied, including trials with small sample sizes and where the intervention was adjunctive to antidepressants or psychotherapy.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The majority of interventions searched had no relevant evidence to review. Of the 38 interventions reviewed, the ones with the best evidence of efficacy in depressive disorders were S-adenosylmethionine, St John's wort, bibliotherapy, computerised interventions, distraction, relaxation training, exercise, pleasant activities, sleep deprivation, and light therapy. A number of other interventions showed promise but had received less research attention. Research in non-clinical samples indicated immediate beneficial effects on depressed mood for distraction, exercise, humour, music, negative air ionisation, and singing; while potential for helpful longer-term effects was found for autogenic training, light therapy, omega 3 fatty acids, pets, and prayer. Many of the trials were poor quality and may not generalise to self-help without professional guidance.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>A number of self-help interventions have promising evidence for reducing subthreshold depressive symptoms. Other forms of evidence such as expert consensus may be more appropriate for interventions that are not feasible to evaluate in randomised controlled trials. There needs to be evaluation of whether promotion to the public of effective self-help strategies for subthreshold depressive symptoms could delay or prevent onset of depressive illness, reduce functional impairment, and prevent progression to other undesirable outcomes such as harmful use of substances.</p

Building crowdsourced photographic collections with lentil and Instagram

In January 2013, the NCSU Libraries opened the James B. Hunt Jr. Library at North Carolina State University. Telling the story of the new library was crowdsourced through an Instagram-based project called My #HuntLibrary. Developed collaboratively by our Digital Library Initiatives, Communications, and Special Collections departments, My #HuntLibrary is both a user engagement tool and a digital preservation effort. Photographs tagged #HuntLibrary are included in a collection that is displayed in multiple interactive, responsive views, ranging from four inches to twenty feet. The entire collection of digital images will be preserved in our digital archives. In May 2013, the My #HuntLibrary code was released as an open-source Rails Engine called “lentil” in order to simplify the creation of similar projects. lentil is a framework for applications that harvest image metadata from Instagram, provides moderation, browsing, voting, and sharing tools, and harvests image files and submits donor agreements in preparation of ingest into external repositories. A lentil-based application can be quickly customized and deployed to any Rails-capable web server (including Heroku) as a complete crowdsourced photographic documentation project. lentil serves as a platform for investigating questions related to library approaches to user engagement, the preservation of social media, large-scale interface design, and including new participants in digital archival materials creation and selection processes. This presentation will present insights based on user interviews, application usage data, image contributions, social media feedback, voting (community curation) trends, and experience integrating these materials into existing digital collections systems