Pore-scale modeling of capillary trapping in water-wet porous media: A new cooperative pore-body filling model

We present a pore-network model study of capillary trapping in water-wet porous media. The amount and distribution of trapped non-wetting phase is determined by the competition between two trapping mechanisms - snap-off and cooperative pore-body filling. We develop a new model to describe the pore-body filling mechanism in geologically realistic pore-networks. The model accounts for the geometrical characteristics of the pore, the spatial location of the connecting throats and the local fluid topology at the time of the displacement. We validate the model by comparing computed capillary trapping curves with published data for four different water-wet rocks. Computations are performed on pore-networks extracted from micro-CT images and process-based reconstructions of the actual rocks used in the experiments. Compared with commonly used stochastic models, the new model describes more accurately the experimental measurements, especially for well connected porous systems where trapping is controlled by subtleties of the pore structure. The new model successfully predicts relative permeabilities and residual saturation for Bentheimer sandstone using in-situ measured contact angles as input to the simulations. The simulated trapped cluster size distributions are compared with predictions from percolation theory.The authors wish to acknowledge financial assistance provided through Australian National Low Emissions Coal Research and Development (Grant 7-0311-0128)

Medical uncertainty and reproduction of the “normal”: Decision-making around testosterone therapy in transgender pregnancy

In this work, we draw upon in-depth interview and focus group data from a three-year international study of 70 trans people (residing across Australia, Canada, the European Union, United Kingdom, and the United States) about their intentions and experiences around pregnancy, as well as 22 health care providers (practicing across Australia, Canada, the European Union, the United Kingdom, and the United States) with self-identified experience working with trans patients and pregnancy along a diverse cross-section of specialty areas (e.g., psychotherapists, general practitioners, endocrinologists, midwives, lactation consultants, OBGYNs, fertility specialists). The central motivating questions guiding the present work are: 1) For trans people who are taking testosterone, what is the medical advice and guidance around stopping or pausing testosterone therapy to become pregnant, throughout pregnancy, and during the postpartum period (particularly in the context of chestfeeding/breastfeeding); 2) What is the evidence base in the medical empirical literature for this guidance; and 3) How do trans people respond to this guidance

Transnormativity in the psy disciplines: Constructing pathology in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual and Standards of Care

The psy disciplines (i.e., psychiatry, psychology, psychoanalysis, and psychotherapy) have played a significant role in shaping understandings of transgender people’s lives in ways that are transnormative (i.e., by emphasizing one particular account of what it means to be transgender). This paper documents 1) how the rise of the psy disciplines created opportunities for transgender people to access treatment (but that such access often required tacit acceptance of transnormativity), and 2) how transgender people have resisted transnormative accounts within the psy disciplines. More specifically, this paper explores how both the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, and what is now the World Professional Association for Transgender Health’s Standards of Care, have often enshrined highly regulatory accounts of transgender people’s lives, while also changing over time, in part due to the contributions of transgender people. The paper concludes by considering recent contributions by transgender people in terms of the use of informed consent models of care and clinical research, and highlights the ongoing marginalization of transgender people in terms of access to ethical, trans-competent care

Analysis of errors in histology by root cause analysis: a pilot study

Introduction. The study objective is to evaluate critical points in the process of pre-analytical histology in an Anatomic Pathology laboratory. Errors are an integral part of human systems, includ- ing the complex system of Anatomic Pathology. Previous studies focused on errors committed in diagnosis and did not consider the issues related to the histology preparation of routine processes. Methods. Root Cause Analysis was applied to the process of histology preparation in order to identify the root cause of each previously identified problem. The analysis started by defining an ?a priori? list of errors that could occur in the histology prepara- tion processes. During a three-month period, a trained technician tracked the errors encountered during the process and reported them on a form. ?Fishbone? diagram and ?Five whys? methods were then applied. Results. 8,346 histological cases were reviewed, for which 19,774 samples were made and from which 29,956 histologies were pre- pared. 132 errors were identified. Errors were detected in each phase: accessioning (6.5%), gross dissecting (28%), processing (1.5%), embedding (4.5%), tissue cutting and slide mounting (23%), coloring, (1.5%), labeling and releasing (35%). Discussion. Root cause analysis is effective and easy to use in clinical risk management. It is an important step for the identifi- cation and prevention of errors, that are frequently due to multi- ple causes. Developing operators? awareness of their central role in the risk management process is possible by targeted training. Furthermore, by highlighting the most relevant points of interest, it is possible to improve both the methodology and the procedural safety

The narrative potential of the British Birth Cohort Studies

This paper draws attention to the narrative potential of longitudinal studies such as the British Birth Cohort Studies (BBCS), and explores the possibility of creating narrative case histories and conducting narrative analysis based on information available from the studies. The BBCS have historically adopted a quantitative research design and used structured interviews and questionnaires to collect data from large samples of individuals born in specific years. However, the longitudinal nature of these studies means that they follow the same sample of individuals from birth through childhood into adult life, and this leads to the creation of data that can be understood as a quantitative auto/biography

Clustering Nominal and Numerical Data: A New Distance Concept for a Hybrid Genetic Algorithm

As intrinsic structures, like the number of clusters, is, for real data, a major issue of the clustering problem, we propose, in this paper, CHyGA (Clustering Hybrid Genetic Algorithm) an hybrid genetic algorithm for clustering. CHyGA treats the clustering problem as an optimization problem and searches for an optimal number of clusters characterized by an optimal distribution of instances into the clusters. CHyGA introduces a new representation of solutions and uses dedicated operators, such as one iteration of K-means as a mutation operator. In order to deal with nominal data, we propose a new definition of the cluster center concept and demonstrate its properties. Experimental results on classical benchmarks are given

Transnational reflections on transnational research projects on men, boys and gender relations

This article reflects on the research project, ‘Engaging South African and Finnish youth towards new traditions of non-violence, equality and social well-being’, funded by the Finnish and South African national research councils, in the context of wider debates on research, projects and transnational processes. The project is located within a broader analysis of research projects and projectization (the reduction of research to separate projects), and the increasing tendencies for research to be framed within and as projects, with their own specific temporal and organizational characteristics. This approach is developed further in terms of different understandings of research across borders: international, comparative, multinational and transnational. Special attention is given to differences between research projects that are in the Europe and the EU, and projects that are between the global North and the global South. The theoretical, political and practical challenges of the North-South research project are discussed

Robust Fuzzy Clustering via Trimming and Constraints

Producción CientíficaA methodology for robust fuzzy clustering is proposed. This methodology can be widely applied in very different statistical problems given that it is based on probability likelihoods. Robustness is achieved by trimming a fixed proportion of “most outlying” observations which are indeed self-determined by the data set at hand. Constraints on the clusters’ scatters are also needed to get mathematically well-defined problems and to avoid the detection of non-interesting spurious clusters. The main lines for computationally feasible algorithms are provided and some simple guidelines about how to choose tuning parameters are briefly outlined. The proposed methodology is illustrated through two applications. The first one is aimed at heterogeneously clustering under multivariate normal assumptions and the second one migh be useful in fuzzy clusterwise linear regression problems.Ministerio de Economía, Industria y Competitividad (MTM2014-56235-C2-1-P)Junta de Castilla y León (programa de apoyo a proyectos de investigación – Ref. VA212U13

Same-Sex Parents Negotiating the Law in Italy: Between Claims of Recognition and Practices of Exclusion

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Formalized Conceptual Spaces with a Geometric Representation of Correlations

The highly influential framework of conceptual spaces provides a geometric way of representing knowledge. Instances are represented by points in a similarity space and concepts are represented by convex regions in this space. After pointing out a problem with the convexity requirement, we propose a formalization of conceptual spaces based on fuzzy star-shaped sets. Our formalization uses a parametric definition of concepts and extends the original framework by adding means to represent correlations between different domains in a geometric way. Moreover, we define various operations for our formalization, both for creating new concepts from old ones and for measuring relations between concepts. We present an illustrative toy-example and sketch a research project on concept formation that is based on both our formalization and its implementation.Comment: Published in the edited volume "Conceptual Spaces: Elaborations and Applications". arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1706.06366, arXiv:1707.02292, arXiv:1707.0516