Nuruddin Farah: A lived commitment to Africa

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Sam Selvon: Interview with Reed Dasenbrock and Feroza Jussawalla

Reed Dasenbrock You\u27ve been living in Canada now for some years. Sam Selvon: Yes, I moved in 1978, and I\u27ve been in Canada now about ten years. RD: Why Canada? Selvon: I came to England in 1950, and I spent twenty-eight years of my life here which I consider to be a good slice of my life. I suddenly felt that I had had enough of English tradition and European culture. I wanted to get back to the West before it was too late. Everyone asks why I selected Canada. Some of my wife\u27s relatives who had settled there some years ago were doing pretty well for themselves, so she said,\u27let\u27s go to Canada,\u27 and that\u27s how I ended up there

The Association between Meteorological Parameters and Aneurysmal Subarachnoid Hemorrhage: A Nationwide Analysis

Prior research has suggested that regional weather patterns impact the risk of rupture of cerebral aneurysms, but the findings in the literature have been inconsistent. Furthermore, no nationwide analysis to date has examined the association between meteorological factors and the post-procedural outcomes of patients after the treatment for ruptured cerebral aneurysms. The purpose of this study was to use a nationwide sample to analyze the association between specific meteorological parameters—temperature, precipitation, sunlight, and humidity—and hospital admission rate for and outcome after aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage. Patients were identified using the Nationwide Inpatient Sample (2001–2010): Those with an ICD-9 diagnosis code for subarachnoid hemorrhage and a procedural code for aneurysm repair were included. Climate data were obtained from the State of the Climate Report 2010 released by the National Climatic Data Center. Multivariate regression models were constructed to analyze the association between average state monthly temperature, precipitation, and percent possible sunlight, as well as relative morning humidity and both monthly hospital admission rate, adjusted for annual state population in millions, and in-hospital mortality. 16,970 admissions were included from 723 hospitals across 41 states. Decreased daily sunlight and lower relative humidity were associated with an increased rate of admission for ruptured cerebral aneurysms (p<0.001), but had no association with differential inpatient mortality. No significant changes in these observed associations were seen when multivariate analyses were constructed. This is the first nationwide study to suggest that decreased sunlight and lower relative humidity are associated with admission for ruptured cerebral aneurysms. While it has been postulated that external atmospheric factors may cause hormonal and homeostatic changes that impact the risk of rupture of cerebral aneurysms, additional research is needed to confirm and further understand these relationships

Performance Monitoring of a Bridge Abutment Spread Footing From Construction Through Service

The use of spread footings over compressible soils is becoming more common for Minnesota Department of Transportation bridges as technologies improve to better predict, mitigate, and evaluate settlement. In August of 2011 the north abutment of a new bridge crossing I-494 was constructed over compressible soils following a soil fill preload, designed to reduce the foundation settlement from several inches to less than one inch, to meet project requirements. Spread footing foundations are seldom outfitted with instrumentation; adequate performance is frequently assumed based on the decision to use shallow foundations. Here, a monitoring plan was developed to validate the preloading technique for mitigating otherwise unacceptable deformations, assess the efficacy of shallow foundation monitoring methods, and gain a better understanding of shallow foundation behavior with time. Instrumentation consisted of two earth pressure cells, a horizontal MEMS SAA deformation monitoring array, and four optical survey reflectors which were installed during the construction of the foundation and abutment wall. During the course of construction, portions of the abutment backfill soil volume were placed and removed to accommodate the construction of the bridge deck and the adjacent wall footings. The effect of the various loading and unloading conditions was observed on the sensors. The abutment foundation performance over the construction timeline is discussed, including apparent loading, deflection, and rotation. The data from the manually observed survey targets is compared to the automated data from the SAA and earth pressure cells

The Impact of Insurance Status on the Outcomes after Aneurysmal Subarachnoid Hemorrhage

Investigation into the association of insurance status with the outcomes of patients undergoing neurosurgical intervention has been limited: this is the first nationwide study to analyze the impact of primary payer on the outcomes of patients with aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage who underwent endovascular coiling or microsurgical clipping. The Nationwide Inpatient Sample (2001–2010) was utilized to identify patients; those with both an ICD-9 diagnosis codes for subarachnoid hemorrhage and a procedure code for aneurysm repair (either via an endovascular or surgical approach) were included. Hierarchical multivariate regression analyses were utilized to evaluate the impact of primary payer on in-hospital mortality, hospital discharge disposition, and length of hospital stay with hospital as the random effects variable. Models were adjusted for patient age, sex, race, comorbidities, socioeconomic status, hospital region, location (urban versus rural), and teaching status, procedural volume, year of admission, and the proportion of patients who underwent ventriculostomy. Subsequent models were also adjusted for time to aneurysm repair and time to ventriculostomy; subgroup analyses evaluated for those who underwent endovascular and surgical procedures separately. 15,557 hospitalizations were included. In the initial model, the adjusted odds of in-hospital mortality were higher for Medicare (OR 1.23, p<0.001), Medicaid (OR 1.23, p<0.001), and uninsured patients (OR 1.49, p<0.001) compared to those with private insurance. After also adjusting for timing of intervention, Medicaid and uninsured patients had a reduced odds of non-routine discharge (OR 0.75, p<0.001 and OR 0.42, p<0.001) despite longer hospital stays (by 8.35 days, p<0.001 and 2.45 days, p = 0.005). Variations in outcomes by primary payer–including in-hospital post-procedural mortality–were more pronounced for patients of all insurance types who underwent microsurgical clipping. The observed differences by primary payer are likely multifactorial, attributable to varied socioeconomic factors and the complexities of the American healthcare delivery system

Historische Lösungsverfahren für quadratische Gleichungen: Mathematikgeschichte im zeitgemäßen Mathematikunterricht

Der Einsatz der Mathematikgeschichte im aktuellen Schulunterricht der Sekundarstufe lohnt nicht nur hinsichtlich der Einbettung wichtiger Mathematiker, wie Euklid oder Adam Ries, sondern auch in Bezug auf die Entwicklung mathematischer Themen im Laufe der Zeit. Gerade dies ermöglicht den Lernenden eine intensive und reflektierende Auseinandersetzung mit der Mathematik, den Einblick in die Mathematik als eine gewachsene Wissenschaft sowie ein vertieftes Verständnis von mathematischen Konzepten, Begriffen, Problemen und Lösungen. Die Konzeption entsprechender Unterrichtsmaterialien verspricht auch für die sie erstellenden Lehramtsstudierende gewinnbringend zu sein. Beide Seiten sollen im Beitrag beleuchtet werden

Second harmonic AC calorimetry technique within a diamond anvil cell

Tuning the energy density of matter at high pressures gives rise to exotic and often unprecedented properties, e.g., structural transitions, insulator-metal transitions, valence fluctuations, topological order, and the emergence of superconductivity. The study of specific heat has long been used to characterize these kinds of transitions, but their application to the diamond anvil cell (DAC) environment has proved challenging. Limited work has been done on the measurement of specific heat within DACs, in part due to the difficult experimental setup. To this end we have developed a novel method for the measurement of specific heat within a DAC that is independent of the DAC design and therefore readily compatible with any DACs already performing high pressure resistance measurements. As a proof-of-concept, specific heat measurements of the MgB2 superconductor were performed, showing a clear anomaly at the transition temperature (Tc), indicative of bulk superconductivity. This technique allows for specific heat measurements at higher pressure than previously possible.Comment: 5 pages with 5 figure

SciGRID_gas: The raw NO data set

The goal of SciGRID_gas is to develop methods to create an automated process that can generate a gas transmission network data set for Europe. Gas transmission networks are fundamental for simulations by the gas transmission modelling community, to derive major dynamic characteristics. Such simulations have a large scope of application, for example, they can be used to perform case scenarios, to model the gas consumption, to minimize leakages and to optimize overall gas distribution strategies. The focus of SciGRID_gas will be on the European transmission gas network, but the principal methods will also be applicable to other geographic regions. Data required for such models are the gas facilities, such as compressor stations, LNG terminals, pipelines, etc. One needs to know their locations, in addition to a large range of attributes, such as pipeline diameter and capacity, compressor capacity, configuration, etc. Most of this data is not freely available. However throughout the SciGRID_gas project it was determined, that data can be found and grouped into two fundamental different groups: a) OSM data, and b) non-OSM data. The OSM data consists of geo-referenced facility data that is stored in the OpenStreetMap (OSM) data base, and is freely available. However, the OSM data set currently contains hardly any other information than the location of the facilities. The Non-OSM data set can fill some of those gaps, by supplying information such as pipeline diameter, compressor capacity and more. Part of the SciGRID_gas project is to mine and collate such data, and combine it with the OSM data set. Here, this document describes one of the non-OSM data set, called the "NO" data set, which originated from the norwegian "Gassco" entity :cite:`NO_Gassco`. This document explains the origin and structure of this single data sets. In this document, the chapter "Introduction" will supply some background information on the SciGRID_gas project, followed by the chapter "Data structure", that gives a detailed description of the data structure that is being used in the SciGRID_gas project. Chapter "Data sources" describes the NO data set. The appendix contains a glossary, references, location name alterations convention and finishes with the table of country abbreviation