44 research outputs found
Fighting Uncertainty: Municipal Partnerships with Redevelopment Agencies Can Mitigate Uncertainty to Encourage Brownfield Redevelopment
Section I of this Comment surveys the brownfield problem and provides background. It notes the conflicting views of environmentalists and developers toward brownfield remediation and outlines the federal and California laws that govern cleanup of contaminated properties. Section II of this Comment examines the effect of uncertainty on liability risk and investment risk, proposing that brownfield developments be municipally led in partnership with redevelopment agencies. It also notes that municipal control of land use, eminent domain, and tax incentives make municipal public-sector leadership of brownfield projects effective. The section notes national concern over property rights, suggesting that condemnation of contaminated property provides an additional public-use justification for redevelopment. The section argues that planning and environmental justice concerns are best addressed at the municipal level early in the development process. It notes that notice and open-government laws, combined with the political pressure of electoral politics, are an existing if imperfect means of addressing planning and environmental justice concerns. The section posits that municipalities should lead brownfield projects only when the affected communities demand that they do so and the gains from redevelopment are great. Section III concludes that remediation is possible in the existing legal and policy framework, but advisable only when the gains are great and environmental justice concerns are addressed by the planning process and final development
Spherical structures on torus knots and links
The present paper considers two infinite families of cone-manifolds endowed
with spherical metric. The singular strata is either the torus knot or the torus link . Domains of existence for a
spherical metric are found in terms of cone angles and volume formul{\ae} are
presented.Comment: 17 pages, 5 figures; typo
Designing a Serious Game: Teaching Developers to Embed Privacy into Software Systems
Software applications continue to challenge user privacy when users interact
with them. Privacy practices (e.g. Data Minimisation (DM), Privacy by Design
(PbD) or General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)) and related "privacy
engineering" methodologies exist and provide clear instructions for developers
to implement privacy into software systems they develop that preserve user
privacy. However, those practices and methodologies are not yet a common
practice in the software development community. There has been no previous
research focused on developing "educational" interventions such as serious
games to enhance software developers' coding behaviour. Therefore, this
research proposes a game design framework as an educational tool for software
developers to improve (secure) coding behaviour, so they can develop
privacy-preserving software applications that people can use. The elements of
the proposed framework were incorporated into a gaming application scenario
that enhances the software developers' coding behaviour through their
motivation. The proposed work not only enables the development of
privacy-preserving software systems but also helping the software development
community to put privacy guidelines and engineering methodologies into
practice.Comment:
Digital girl:Cyberfeminism and the emancipation potential of digital entrepreneurship in emerging economies
Digital entrepreneurship has been described as a “great leveler” in terms of equalizing the
entrepreneurial playing field for women. However, little is known of the emancipatory
possibilities offered by digital entrepreneurship for women constrained by social and cultural
practices such as male guardianship of female relatives and legally enforced gender
segregation. In order to address this research gap, this paper examines women’s engagement
in digital entrepreneurship in emerging economies with restrictive social and cultural practices.
In so doing, we draw upon the analytical frameworks provided by entrepreneurship as
emancipation and cyberfeminism. Using empirical data from an exploratory investigation of
entrepreneurship in Saudi Arabia, we examine how women use digital technologies in the
pursuit of entrepreneurial opportunities. Our findings reveal that women in Saudi Arabia use
digital entrepreneurship to transform their embodied selves and lived realities rather than to
escape gender embodiment as offered by the online environment
Acromioclavicular joint augmentation at the time of coracoclavicular ligament reconstruction fails to improve functional outcomes despite significantly improved horizontal stability
Purpose: Acromioclavicular joint reconstruction is a well-established and frequently performed procedure. Recent scientific and commercial interest has led to a drive to develop and perform surgical techniques that more reliably restore horizontal stability in order to improve patient outcomes. The aim of this systematic review was to evaluate the biomechanical evidence for procedures directed at restoring horizontal stability and determine whether they are associated with superior clinical results when compared to well-established procedures.
Methods: A review of the online databases Medline and EMBASE was conducted in accordance with the PRISMA guidelines on the 23rd December 2017. Biomechanical and clinical studies reporting either static or dynamic horizontal displacement following acromioclavicular joint reconstruction (Coracoclavicular reconstruction or Weaver-Dunn) were included. In addition, biomechanical and clinical studies reporting outcomes after additional augmentation of the acromioclavicular joint were included. The studies were appraised using the Methodological index for non-randomised studies tool.
Results: The search strategy identified 18 studies eligible for inclusion: six biomechanical and 12 clinical studies. Comparative biomechanical studies demonstrated that acromioclavicular augmentation provided significantly increased horizontal stability compared to the coracoclavicular reconstruction and Weaver–Dunn procedure. Comparative clinical studies demonstrated no significant differences between coracoclavicular reconstruction with and without acromioclavicular augmentation in terms of functional outcomes (American Shoulder and Elbow Surgeon and Constant score), complication or revision rates. However, one comparative study did demonstrate an improvement in Taft (p = 0.018) and Acromioclavicular Joint Instability scores (p = 0.0001) after acromioclavicular augmentation.
Conclusion: In conclusion, coracoclavicular reconstruction with augmentation of the acromioclavicular joint has been shown to provide improved horizontal stability in both biomechanical and clinical studies compared to isolated coracoclavicular reconstruction. However, comparative studies have shown no clinical advantage with respect to American Shoulder and Elbow Surgeon or Constant scores and, therefore, the results of this systematic review do not support acromioclavicular augmentation in routine clinical practice.
Level of evidence: IV
Ductuloendocrine cell proliferation in the pancreas of two young dogs with diabetes mellitus
Two cases of diabetes mellitus in juvenile does (a 3-4-month-old Golden Retriever and a 2-month-old Labrador Retriever) are described here in terms of their clinical, histologic, and immunohistologic findings. Only very few insulin-positive cells were demonstrated immunohistochemically in one dog. In the second dog, the alterations of the pancreas consisted of hydropic vacuolar degeneration of B cells in the islets of Langerhans. In both cases, hyperplasia of the vacuolated cells was prominent. These cells formed tubular structures and were immunohistochemically positive for cytokeratin and proliferating eel antigen (MIB-1). Furthermore, within these vacuolated areas, some cells were positive to varying degrees for insulin, glucagon, somatostatin, and pancreatic polypeptide. Apoptotic cells could be seen in the exocrine pancreas, in vacuolated areas, and occasionally in the islets of both dogs. We interpret these alterations as ductuloendocrine cell proliferation, probably as an idiopathic compensatory response