Illegal dumping and crime prevention: A case study of Ash Road, Liverpool Council

Illegal waste disposal is an increasingly significant and costly problem. This paper considers a specific hot-spot for illegal dumping in Sydney, Australia from criminological perspectives. We contribute to the developing criminological literature that considers environmental harms as a crime. This draws upon the symbolic aspect of criminal law, contributing to the notion of environmental harms as wrongs worthy of sanction, and facilitates analysis through the prism of criminological literature. We apply theories of crime prevention to the site and argue that these techniques of crime prevention would be cheaper and more effective long-term than current council responses of simply reacting to dumping after it has occurre

Relationships between hyperinsulinaemia, magnesium, vitamin D, thrombosis and COVID-19: rationale for clinical management

Risk factors for COVID-19 patients with poorer outcomes include pre-existing conditions: obesity, type 2 diabetes mellitus, cardiovascular disease (CVD), heart failure, hypertension, low oxygen saturation capacity, cancer, elevated: ferritin, C reactive protein (CRP) and D-dimer. A common denominator, hyperinsulinaemia, provides a plausible mechanism of action, underlying CVD, hypertension and strokes, all conditions typified with thrombi. The underlying science provides a theoretical management algorithm for the frontline practitioners. Vitamin D activation requires magnesium. Hyperinsulinaemia promotes: magnesium depletion via increased renal excretion, reduced intracellular levels, lowers vitamin D status via sequestration into adipocytes and hydroxylation activation inhibition. Hyperinsulinaemia mediates thrombi development via: fibrinolysis inhibition, anticoagulation production dysregulation, increasing reactive oxygen species, decreased antioxidant capacity via nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide depletion, haem oxidation and catabolism, producing carbon monoxide, increasing deep vein thrombosis risk and pulmonary emboli. Increased haem-synthesis demand upregulates carbon dioxide production, decreasing oxygen saturation capacity. Hyperinsulinaemia decreases cholesterol sulfurylation to cholesterol sulfate, as low vitamin D regulation due to magnesium depletion and/or vitamin D sequestration and/or diminished activation capacity decreases sulfotransferase enzyme SULT2B1b activity, consequently decreasing plasma membrane negative charge between red blood cells, platelets and endothelial cells, thus increasing agglutination and thrombosis. Patients with COVID-19 admitted with hyperglycaemia and/or hyperinsulinaemia should be placed on a restricted refined carbohydrate diet, with limited use of intravenous dextrose solutions. Degree/level of restriction is determined by serial testing of blood glucose, insulin and ketones. Supplemental magnesium, vitamin D and zinc should be administered. By implementing refined carbohydrate restriction, three primary risk factors, hyperinsulinaemia, hyperglycaemia and hypertension, that increase inflammation, coagulation and thrombosis risk are rapidly managed

Introducing New Guidelines on Geoheritage Conservation in Protected and Conserved Areas

The Cultural Heritage Administration, Republic of Korea, funded the design and publication of the Guidelines on which this paper is based.This paper introduces newly published guidelines on geoheritage conservation in protected and conserved areas within the “IUCN WCPA Best Practice Guidelines” series. It explains the need for the guidelines and outlines the ethical basis of geoheritage values and geoconservation principles as the fundamental framework within which to advance geoheritage conservation. Best practice in establishing and managing protected and conserved areas for geoconservation is described with examples from around the world. Particular emphasis is given to the methodology and practice for dealing with the many threats to geoheritage, highlighting in particular how to improve practice for areas with caves and karst, glacial and periglacial, and volcanic features and processes, and for palaeontology and mineral sites. Guidance to improve education and communication to the public through modern and conventional means is also highlighted as a key stage in delivering effective geoconservation. A request is made to geoconservation experts to continue to share best practice examples of developing methodologies and best practice in management to guide non-experts in their work. Finally, a number of suggestions are made on how geoconservation can be further promoted.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Googling the brain: discovering hierarchical and asymmetric network structures, with applications in neuroscience

Hierarchical organisation is a common feature of many directed networks arising in nature and technology. For example, a well-defined message-passing framework based on managerial status typically exists in a business organisation. However, in many real-world networks such patterns of hierarchy are unlikely to be quite so transparent. Due to the nature in which empirical data is collated the nodes will often be ordered so as to obscure any underlying structure. In addition, the possibility of even a small number of links violating any overall “chain of command” makes the determination of such structures extremely challenging. Here we address the issue of how to reorder a directed network in order to reveal this type of hierarchy. In doing so we also look at the task of quantifying the level of hierarchy, given a particular node ordering. We look at a variety of approaches. Using ideas from the graph Laplacian literature, we show that a relevant discrete optimization problem leads to a natural hierarchical node ranking. We also show that this ranking arises via a maximum likelihood problem associated with a new range-dependent hierarchical random graph model. This random graph insight allows us to compute a likelihood ratio that quantifies the overall tendency for a given network to be hierarchical. We also develop a generalization of this node ordering algorithm based on the combinatorics of directed walks. In passing, we note that Google’s PageRank algorithm tackles a closely related problem, and may also be motivated from a combinatoric, walk-counting viewpoint. We illustrate the performance of the resulting algorithms on synthetic network data, and on a real-world network from neuroscience where results may be validated biologically

THISTLE:trial of hands-on Interprofessional simulation training for local emergencies: a research protocol for a stepped-wedge clustered randomised controlled trial

Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Automatic ROI detection and classification of the Achilles tendon ultrasound images

Ultrasound (US) imaging plays an important role in medical imaging technologies. It is widely used because of its ease of use and low cost compared to other imaging techniques. Specifically, ultrasound imaging is used in the detection of the Achilles Tendon (AT) pathologies as it detects important details. For example, US imaging is used for AT rupture that affects about 1 in 5,000 people worldwide. Decision support systems are important in medical imaging, as they assist radiologist in detecting probable diagnoses and lesions. The work presented in this paper concerns the development of a software application to detect changes in the AT ultrasound images and subsequently classify them into normal or abnormal. We propose an approach that fully automates the detection for the Region of Interest (ROI) in ultrasound AT images. The original image is divided into six blocks with 1 cm size in each direction. The blocks lie inside the vulnerable area considered as our ROI. The proposed system achieved an accuracy of 97.21%

A trait‐based approach to plant species selection to increase functionality of farmland vegetative strips

Farmland vegetative strips are a proven source of support for ecosystem services and are globally used to mitigate effects of agricultural intensification. However, increasing pressures on agricultural land require increases in their functionality, such as supporting multiple ecosystem services concurrently. The plant species sown in a vegetative strip seed mix determine the establishment, plant community, and ecosystem services that are supported. Currently, there is no clearly defined or structured method to select plant species for multifunctional vegetative strips. Plant traits determine how plants support ecosystem services. Also, the establishment and persistence of plant communities is influenced by key internal and external factors. We propose a novel, evidence‐informed method of multifunctional vegetative strip design based on these essential traits and factors. This study had three distinct stages. The first identified plant traits that support water quality protection, pollinators and/or crop pest natural enemies, using existing research evidence. We then identified key factors affecting plant community establishment and persistence. Finally, we applied these standardized methods to design a multifunctional vegetative strip for a specific case study (UK lowland farmland). Key plant traits identified, included floral display size, flower color, nectar content, leaf surface area, leaf trichome density, percentage fine roots, root length, rooting depth, and root density. Key internal and external establishment factors included life history, native status, distribution, established competitive strategy, associated floristic diversity, flowering time and duration, and preferred soil type and pH. In the United Kingdom case study, we used five different plant traits and all of the identified factors to design a seed mix for a multifunctional vegetative strip. We present a transferable method of vegetative strip design that can be adapted for other ecosystem services and climates. It provides landowners and advisors with an evidence‐informed approach to increase field margin functionality while supporting farmland biodiversity

Non-operative treatment for perforated gastro-duodenal peptic ulcer in Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy: a case report

BACKGROUND: Clinical characteristics and complications of Duchenne muscular dystrophy caused by skeletal and cardiac muscle degeneration are well known. Gastro-intestinal involvement has also been recognised in these patients. However an acute perforated gastro-duodenal peptic ulcer has not been documented up to now. CASE PRESENTATION: A 26-year-old male with Duchenne muscular dystrophy with a clinical and radiographic diagnosis of acute perforated gastro-duodenal peptic ulcer is treated non-operatively with naso-gastric suction and intravenous medication. Gastrointestinal involvement in Duchenne muscular dystrophy and therapeutic considerations in a high risk patient are discussed. CONCLUSION: Non-surgical treatment for perforated gastro-duodenal peptic ulcer should be considered in high risk patients, as is the case in patients with Duchenne muscular dystrophy. Patients must be carefully observed and operated on if non-operative treatment is unsuccessful

Some results about diagonal operators on Köthe echelon spaces

[EN] Several questions about diagonal operators between Köthe echelon spaces are investigated: (1) The spectrum is characterized in terms of the Köthe matrices defining the spaces, (2) It is characterized when these operators are power bounded, mean ergodic or uniformly mean ergodic, and (3) A description of the topology in the space of diagonal operators induced by the strong topology on the space of all operators is given.This research was partially supported by MINECO Project MTM2016-76647-P and the grant PAID-01-16 of the Universitat Politècnica de València.Rodríguez-Arenas, A. (2019). Some results about diagonal operators on Köthe echelon spaces. Revista de la Real Academia de Ciencias Exactas Físicas y Naturales Serie A Matemáticas. 113(4):2959-2968. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13398-019-00663-yS295929681134Agathen, S., Bierstedt, K.D., Bonet, J.: Projective limits of weighted (LB)-spaces of continuous functions. Arch. Math. 92, 384–398 (2009)Albanese, A.A., Bonet, J., Ricker, W.J.: Mean ergodic operators in Fréchet spaces. Ann. Acad. Sci. Fenn. Math. 34(2), 401–436 (2009)Bennett, G.: Some elementary inequalities. Quart. J. Math. 38, 401–425 (1987)Bennett, G.: Factorizing the classical inequalities. Mem. Am. Math. Soc. (1996). https://doi.org/10.1090/memo/0576Bierstedt, K.D.: An introduction to locally convex inductive limits, Functional analysis and its applications (Nice, 1986), 35–133, ICPAM Lecture Notes. World Sci. Publishing, Singapore (1988)Bierstedt, K.D., Bonet, J.: Some aspects of the modern theory of Fréchet spaces. Rev. R. Acad. Cienc. Exactas Fís. Nat. Ser. A Mat. 97(2), 159–188 (2003)Bierstedt, K.D., Meise, R., Summers, W.H.: Köthe sets and Köthe sequence spaces, Functional Analysis, Holomorphy and Approximation Theory. North-Holland Math. Studies 71, 27–91 (1982)Bonet, J., Jordá, E., Rodríguez-Arenas, A.: Mean ergodic multiplication operators on weighted spaces of continuous functions. Mediterr. J. Math 15, 108 (2018)Crofts, G.: Concerning perfect Fréchet spaces and transformations. Math. Ann. 182, 67–76 (1969)Kellogg, C.N.: An extension of the Hausdorff–Young theorem. Michig. Math. J. 18, 121–127 (1971)Krengel, U.: Ergodic Theorems. de Gruyter, Berlin (1985)Meise, R., Vogt, D.: Introduction to Functional Analysis. Oxford University Press, New York (1997)Vasilescu, F.H.: Analytic Functional Calculus and Spectral Decompositions. D. Reidel Publ. Co., Dordrecht (1982)Wengenroth, J.: Derived Functors in Functional Analysis. Springer, Berlin (2003)Yosida, K.: Functional Analysis. Springer, Berlin (1980