Improving the Administration of Justice in Traffic Courts

It is high time that the bar should give careful thought to that part of the traffic enforcement problem which is legal and judicial. It is time to examine the fundamental theory of traffic law, the reason for the existence of such a body of law, and to ask whether it is being administered in tribunals equipped with proper facilities and adequate knowledge. It is time to inquire what is the purpose of traffic law, and whether its administration is such as to help serve that purpose. Such inquiry will reveal some strange and disturbing facts

An evaluation of Swim 21

Swim 21 is the Amateur Swimming Association’s club development model, a planning tool based on the principles of long term athlete development. Swim 21 aims to provide appropriate opportunities for swimmers in order to assist them to attain their full potential. Therefore Swim 21 is intended to focus on the needs of swimmers, enabling clubs to help athletes, teachers, coaches and administrators to achieve their full potential

The hidden endoscopic burden of sleeve gastrectomy and its comparison with Roux-en-Y gastric bypass

© Published by Hellenic Society of Gastroenterology. This is an open access article available under a Creative Commons licence. The published version can be accessed at the following link on the publisher’s website: http://www.annalsgastro.gr/index.php/annalsgastro/article/view/2284/1663BACKGROUND:This study aimed to assess the endoscopic burden of bariatric surgical procedures at our trust. This is an enhanced parallel study to "The Hidden Endoscopic burden of Roux-en-Y Gastric Bypass" published in Frontline Gastroenterology in 2013 incorporating the data for sleeve gastrectomy and comparison with Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (RYGB). METHODS:This is a retrospective study that included 211 patients undergoing sleeve gastrectomy over a 34-month period. We utilized previously collected data for the RYGB patient cohort which included 553 patients over a 29-month period. We searched our hospital endoscopic database for patients who underwent post-operative endoscopy for indications related to their surgery. RESULTS:16.6% of the sleeve gastrectomy patients required post-operative endoscopy, of whom 11.4% underwent therapeutic procedures. This compares to 20.4% of the RYGB cohort of whom 50.4% needed therapeutic procedures (P<0.001). 1.9% of sleeve gastrectomy patients encountered a post-operative staple line leak and collectively required 29 endoscopic procedures. One patient also developed stricturing (0.47%) requiring 18 pneumatic dilatations. 11.4% of the RYGB cohort developed an anastomotic stricture requiring 57 balloon dilatation procedures. To date, these procedures have accumulated an equivalent cost of €159,898 in endoscopy tariffs, or €177 per RYGB and €373 per sleeve gastrectomy performed. CONCLUSIONS:Bariatric surgery can have significant implications in terms of patient morbidity and financial cost. Having a local bariatric surgery service increases the demand for endoscopic procedures in our hospital, both in investigating for and dealing with post-operative complications. Provision of extra resources and expertise needs to be taken into account.Published versio

Do consulting services affect audit quality? Evidence from the workforce

There is a long-standing question in the literature about whether and how consulting services in audit firms affect audit quality. We address this question by using a unique and comprehensive office-level dataset of employment profiles and skills, covering approximately 86% of all employees at large U.S. public accounting firms. We guide our empirical analyses with interviews with 15 audit partners, which reveal that consulting expertise is used in approximately 60%-80% of audit engagements, and the main rationale for such collaboration is knowledge sharing and improved audit quality. In our empirical analyses, we document a positive effect of consulting employees on audit quality. Specifically, one standard deviation increase in the share of consulting employees in an office results in a 2.7 percentage point reduction in restatements in that office. This effect is strongest when consulting employees have skills complimentary to auditors, including special industry skills, technical skills and management skills, supporting the knowledge sharing hypothesis. In addition, we demonstrate that the effect increases with of consulting employees’ tenure with a firm, does not diminish over time, is present for both Big4 and non-Big4 firms, and is more pronounced for larger, more complex and more important audit clients

Maturity associated differences in match running performance in elite male youth soccer players

Purpose: To investigate the influence of maturation on match running performance in elite male youth soccer players. Methods: A total of 37 elite male youth soccer participants from an English professional soccer academy from the U14s, U15s, and U16s age groups were assessed over the course of 1 competitive playing season (2018-2019). Relative biological maturity was assessed using percentage of predicted adult height. A global positioning system device was used between 2 and 30 (mean = 8 [5]) times on each outfield player. The position of each player in each game was defined as defender, midfielder, or attacker and spine or lateral. A total of 5 match-running metrics were collected total distance covered, high-speed running distance, very high-speed running distance, maximum speed attained, and number of accelerations. Results: Relative biological maturity was positively associated with all global positioning system running metrics for U14s. The U15/16s showed variation in the associations among the global positioning system running metrics against maturity status. A multilevel model which allowed slopes to vary was the best model for all parameters for both age groups. In the U14 age group, advanced maturation was associated with greater high-speed running distance. However, maturation did not contribute toward variance in any of the indices of running performance in the U15/16s. In the U15/16 age group, significance was observed in the spine/lateral playing positions when undertaking actions that required covering distance at high speeds. Conclusions: Maturation appeared to have an impact on match-running metrics within the U14s cohort. However, within the U15/16s, the influence of maturation on match-running metrics appeared to have less of an impact

Cross-Lingual Cross-Media Content Linking: Annotations and Joint Representations

Dagstuhl Seminar 15201 was conducted on “Cross-Lingual Cross-Media Content Linking: Annotations and Joint Representations”. Participants from around the world participated in the seminar and presented state-of-the-art and ongoing research related to the seminar topic. An executive summary of the seminar, abstracts of the talks from participants and working group discussions are presented in the forthcoming sections

Endothelial injury in rheumatoid arthritis: a crosstalk between dimethylarginines and systemic inflammation

BACKGROUND: Symmetric (SDMA) and asymmetric (ADMA) dimethylarginines have emerged as novel biomarkers of cardiovascular disease (CVD) in several disease settings associated with atherosclerosis. Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic systemic inflammatory disease characterized by high CVD mortality and morbidity. ADMA and SDMA levels are abnormal in RA patients, but their correlation with assessments of endothelial function and structure remains unknown. We aimed to investigate whether SDMA and ADMA are associated with carotid intima media thickness (cIMT) and arterial stiffness as well as non-invasive assessments of in vivo micro- and macrovascular endothelial function in RA patients with high systemic inflammatory load. METHOD: ADMA and SDMA levels were measured using immunoassays in 197 RA individuals. Twenty-six of these [23 (86.4%) females, median age 70, quartiles (60, 73)] were identified as having high inflammatory markers [erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) >25 mm/hr and C-reactive protein (CRP) > 5 mg/L], and were compared to the remainder of the cohort. Patients underwent assessments of microvascular endothelium-dependent and endothelium-independent function [laser Doppler imaging with iontophoresis of acetylcholine (Ach) and sodium-nitroprusside (SNP) respectively], macrovascular endothelium-dependent and endothelium-independent function (flow-mediated dilatation and glyceryl-trinitrate-mediated dilation respectively), and vascular morphology [pulse wave analysis, and carotid intima media thickness (cIMT)]. RESULTS: Significant interactions with inflammation were detected in the associations between ACh and both SDMA (p = 0.014) and ADMA:SDMA ratio (p = 0.027), as well as between SNP and SDMA (p = 0.042) and between arterial stiffness and ADMA:SDMA (p = 0.036), with the associations being stronger in the patients with high inflammatory markers in each case. CONCLUSIONS: Besides their emerging role as markers of endothelial dysfunction SDMA and ADMA may promote endothelial injury in RA as mediators of the adverse effects of systemic inflammation on micro- and macrovasculature respectively in patients with active disease

Non-Hodgkin lymphoma.

The term non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) covers a spectrum of malignant disorders arising from cells of the immune system and manifesting predominantly as lymphadenopathy or solid tumour. The classification of NHL is complex and ever-evolving, with more than 50 different subtypes listed in the latest WHO classification of lymphoma (1). In this clinical update, we address the distinction between low-grade (indolent) and high-grade lymphoma, and discuss the principles of diagnosis and management that are of particular relevance to the non-specialist physician who may encounter patients with NHL during their initial presentation, during therapy and during periods of follow-up

Comparison of Analysis, Simulation, and Measurement of Wire-to-Wire Crosstalk

In this investigation, we compare crosstalk analysis, simulation, and measurement results for electrically short configurations. Methods include hand calculations, PSPICE simulations, Microstripes transient field solver, and empirical measurement. In total, four representative physical configurations are examined, including a single wire over a ground plane, a twisted pair over a ground plane, generator plus receptor wires inside a cylindrical conduit, and a single receptor wire inside a cylindrical conduit. Part 1 addresses the first two cases, and Part 2 addresses the final two. Agreement between the analysis, simulation, and test data is shown to be very good