Lazarus Junction: Crossing the Divide. The Influence of Crime Procedural Tropes on the Construction of Supernatural Urban Fantasy

This thesis considers the influence of crime procedural tropes in the writing of Lazarus Junction: Crossing the Divide. It considers the intrusion of the city, and examines how Lazarus Junction seeks to portray a world threatened by a malevolent force. It delves beneath the everyday façade, and in doing so brings the principal characters, author and reader face to face with the shadowed ghosts that lie beneath.It observes the genre of Hull Noir and examines two of its core writers Robert Edric and David Mark both of whom tap into society’s changing values and tolerances. It explores a historical personage in the shape of Harry Lazarus, his role in the late nineteenth century transmigrant business and how he became the genesis for the writing of this book.This exegesis examines this writer’s development throughout the writing this Ph.D. set against a world beset by a global pandemic. It observes the relationships between the principal characters, Detective Inspector Jack Kane, Detective Sergeant Ashleigh Young, and Police Constable Watson - both within their inner circle, and indeed the tensions brought about with extended colleagues within Hull’s Police Divisional Head Quarters. It seeks to present Kingston Upon Hull as a principal character and explores the role grief and death have to play within the narrative instead of skirting around the subject.The exegesis concludes with an examination of tropes hidden in plain sight. A prime example being a culture of violence against woman in crime fiction and how Lazarus Junction ultimately rejects this philosophy. It seeks to resolve the narrative and explores the role Jack and his team have to play beyond the writing of this Ph.D

A capillary column gas chromatography, resonance enhanced multiphoton ionization, time-of-flight mass spectrometry, laser-induced fluorescence, flame ionization detection system for the determination of polynuclear aromatic compounds in complex mixtures

Of the thousands of chemical compounds that have been deemed mutagenic or carcinogenic, it is generally agreed that the polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons (PAC) are among the most potent. Typically, a multitude of different PAC are present, at trace levels, in a variety of environmental samples. Because of the wide range of potency of PAC, even among geometric isomers and substitutional derivatives, it is important to fully characterize these samples. This task is a formidable one, usually requiring elaborate sample clean-up and fractionation prior to analysis. Even with extensive sample preparation, however, many isomers cannot be distinguished by conventional GC/MS techniques. A multidimensional, laser-based analytical instrument has been developed that, when utilized to the full extent of its capabilities could be the solution to this complex analytical problem. The over- all technique is termed Capillary Column Gas Chromatography, Resonance Enhanced Multiphoton Ionization, Time-Of-Flight Mass Spectrometry, Laser-induced Fluorescence, with parallel Flame Ionization Detection (CC/GC-REMPI-TOF/MS-LIF-FID). This system combines the selectivity and sensitivity of two complementary laser-based methods, REMPI and LIF, with an extremely powerful and proven analytical tool, GC/MS. The GC effluent passes through the ion source of a TOF/MS, where it is interrogated by a tunable ultraviolet laser beam. Thus, PAC and other absorbing species may be selectively excited and/or ionized in the presence of nonabsorbing components. All laser-analyte interaction products (cations, electrons, and photons) are simultaneously monitored utilizing the TOF/MS, a total electron current detector (TECD), and a LIF detector. The beauty of this technique is that all analytically useful data for each absorbing chromatographic eluent may be collected on-the-fly. The simultaneous availability of this information simplifies the characterization task. The present absolute detection limits for several PAC have been determined to be low picogram range. Also, a linear dynamic range of approximately four orders of magnitude has been established for the TECD, indicating that this technique is both sensitive and quantitative. Further, the use of deuterated analogs, of selected PAC, as internal reference standards greatly assists in quantitation. (\u27(UPSILON))DOE Report IS-T-1262. This work was performed under Contract W-7405-Eng-82 with the U.S. Department of Energy

Successes and Challenges of Optimal Trauma Care for Rural Family Physicians in Kansas

Introduction. Kansas has a regionalized trauma systemwith formal mechanisms for review, however, increasedcommunication with rural providers can uncover opportunitiesfor system process improvement. Therefore, thisqualitative study explored perceptions of family medicinephysicians staffing emergency departments (ED) in rural areas,specifically to determine what is going well and what areasneeded improvement in relation to the trauma system. Methods. A focus group included Kansas rural family physiciansrecruited from a local symposium for family medicinephysicians. Demographic information was collected via surveyprior to the focus group session, which was audiotaped.Research team members read the transcription, identifiedthemes, and grouped the findings into categories for analysis. Results. Seven rural family medicine physicians participated inthe focus group. The majority were male (71%) with the mean age46.71 years. All saw patients in the ED and had treated injuriesdue to agriculture, falls, and motor vehicle collisions. Participantsidentified successes in the adoption and enforcement of standardizedprocesses, specifically through level IV trauma centercertification and staff requirements for Advanced Trauma LifeSupport training. Communication breakdown during patient dischargeand skill maintenance were the most prevalent challenges. Conclusions. Even with an established regionalized traumasystem in the state of Kansas, there continues to be opportunitiesfor improvement. The challenges acknowledged byfocus group participants may not be identified through patientcase reviews (if conducted), therefore tertiary centersshould conduct system reviews with referring hospitals regularlyto improve systemic concerns. KS J Med 2017;10(1):12-16

Trauma care in the tropics: addressing gaps in treating injury in rural and remote Australia

In Australia, over half a million people are admitted to hospital every year as a result of injury, and where you live matters. Rural populations have disproportionately higher injury hospitalisation rates (1.5 to 2.5-fold), higher rates of preventable secondary complications, higher mortality rates (up to 5-fold), and higher costs (3-fold) than patients injured in major cities. These disparities scale up rapidly with increased remoteness, and shift the service needle from ‘scoop and run’ to ‘continuum-of-care’ . Poorer outcomes, however, are not solely due to longer retrieval distances or delays; but arise from inefficiencies in one or more potentially modifiable factors in the chain-of-survival. After discussing the burden of injury in Australia, we present a brief history of retrieval services in Queensland and discuss how remoteness requires a different kind of service delivery with many moving parts from point-of-injury to definitive care. We next address the ongoing challenges for the Australian Trauma Registry, and how centralisation of data from the metropolitan cities masks the inequities in rural and remote trauma. There is an urgent need for accurate data from all service providers around Australia to inform state and federal governments, and we highlight the paucity of trauma data analysis in North Queensland. Lastly, we identify some major gaps in treating rural and remote polytrauma and en-route patient stabilisation, and discuss the relevance of combat casualty care research and practices. We conclude that a greater emphasis should be placed on collecting more robust trauma patient records, as only accurate data will drive change

An Iterative CT Reconstruction Algorithm for Fast Fluid Flow Imaging

The study of fluid flow through solid matter by computed tomography (CT) imaging has many applications, ranging from petroleum and aquifer engineering to biomedical, manufacturing, and environmental research. To avoid motion artifacts, current experiments are often limited to slow fluid flow dynamics. This severely limits the applicability of the technique. In this paper, a new iterative CT reconstruction algorithm for improved a temporal/spatial resolution in the imaging of fluid flow through solid matter is introduced. The proposed algorithm exploits prior knowledge in two ways. First, the time-varying object is assumed to consist of stationary (the solid matter) and dynamic regions (the fluid flow). Second, the attenuation curve of a particular voxel in the dynamic region is modeled by a piecewise constant function over time, which is in accordance with the actual advancing fluid/air boundary. Quantitative and qualitative results on different simulation experiments and a real neutron tomography data set show that, in comparison with the state-of-the-art algorithms, the proposed algorithm allows reconstruction from substantially fewer projections per rotation without image quality loss. Therefore, the temporal resolution can be substantially increased, and thus fluid flow experiments with faster dynamics can be performed

Quiver Bundles and Wall Crossing for Chains

Holomorphic chains on a Riemann surface arise naturally as fixed points of the natural C*-action on the moduli space of Higgs bundles. In this paper we associate a new quiver bundle to the Hom-complex of two chains, and prove that stability of the chains implies stability of this new quiver bundle. Our approach uses the Hitchin-Kobayashi correspondence for quiver bundles. Moreover, we use our result to give a new proof of a key lemma on chains (due to \'Alvarez-C\'onsul, Garc\'ia-Prada and Schmitt), which has been important in the study of Higgs bundle moduli; this proof relies on stability and thus avoids the direct use of the chain vortex equations