245 research outputs found

    TRIVIAL TECHNOLOGIES OF EFFECT IN THE HOME

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    Most accounts of how new technology has transformed the domestic realm focus on the provision of comfort, sanitation and labour-saving devices. In parallel, but typically not visible in these histories, there has been a minor strand of development that we identify as trivial technologies of effect. These are gadgets and devices whose utility cannot be separated from wonder and delight. They bring a kind of non-essential utility for private enjoyment, and so occupy a distinct ground somewhere between function and entertainment. In this sense they can be thought of as aligned to the practice of architectural design, which similarly pursues both functionalism and art. The paper explores this category of trivial technology through two significant examples of mechanised houses. The first is the house of Jean Eugene Robert-Houdin, a nineteenth century magician and noted amateur inventor. From this case, the form of the magic trick provides a metaphor for our analysis of technologies of effect. The second example is the penthouse addition of the appartement de Beisetgui, designed by Le Corbusier. Here we trace the same lineage of devices in the modernist guise. Finally we briefly examine the present-day phenomenon of the ‘smart house’, and other attempts to rekindle wonder in domestic digital technologies through the designs of Bill Gaver. In conclusion, we use the inherent ambiguity and irony of trivial technologies to explore the modernist mantra of the machine a habité in a different light, that is less about satisfying functionalism, and more about producing automated and sensory effects

    Ductility and compressibility accommodate high magma flux beneath a silicic continental rift caldera:Insights from Corbetti caldera (Ethiopia)

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    Abstract Large silicic magma reservoirs preferentially form in the upper crust of extensional continental environments. However, our quantitative understanding of the link between mantle magmatism, silicic reservoirs, and surface deformation during rifting is very limited. Here, we focus on Corbetti, a peralkaline caldera in the densely populated Main Ethiopian Rift, which lies above a focused zone of upper mantle partial melt and has been steadily uplifting at a maximum rate of 6.6±1.2 cm yr−1 for more than 10 yr. Numerical modeling shows that a maximum concomitant residual gravity increase of 9±3 μGal yr−1 by the intrusion of mafic magma at ∼7 km depth into a compressible and inelastic crystal mush best explains the observed deformation and gravity changes. The derived magma mass flux of ∼1011 kg yr−1 is anomalously high and at least 1 order of magnitude greater than the mean long‐term mass eruption rate. This study demonstrates that periodic and high‐rate magmatic rejuvenation of upper‐crustal mush is a significant and rapid contributor to mature continental rifting

    Tourism Development and Impacts of Local Livelihood Transition on The Highlands Of Mount Nona, Ambon Island

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    Purpose : Tourism development in rural areas is considered as a strategic step to lower the poverty level through new potentials in household livelihoods.This study aims to investigate the tourism development and the impacts of livelihood transition in the highlands of Mount Nona, Ambon Island.As a result, both the government and the land owner are not able to manage this local asset   Theoretical Framework : Due to huge contributions in tourism to the regional income, it is need more focused and coordination between the governmnet and community. However mostly the area which had a plethora natural resources is the poorest area. It indicated that there are lack of the government contributions in developing tourism area and land owner issue. . To solve this issues, it is important to give an attention and explanation related to the natural resources management theory beside human resources. If the government can manage all with their policy and bureaucracy, it will be convenient  to realize the development goals in tourism sector.      Design/Methodology/Approach : This study was done using a qualitative method with a case study approach, studying a touristy attraction focusing on a selfie tourism called Siwang Paradise located in the highlands of Mount Nona, Ambon Island. The data was collected through in-depth interviews and observations done in two phases in November 2021 to February 2022. A total of 24 key informants participated in this study was selected using a purposive sampling technique based on the following criteria: first, the key informant must be part of the management of of Siwang Paradise; second, the key informant must be the member of rural community benefitted from the opening of Siwang Paradise. After the data collection process, the data was analyzed following the stages proposed by Creswell.   Findings : The results show that the development of Siwang Paradise did have a significant contribution to the creation of new livelihoods through increased income. However, on the other hand, this livelihood transition had a potential threat to the household economy of the rural community itself. This condition could be caused by the community’s lack of knowledge and experience regarding the management of touristy objects, the uncertain tourist season, and the Covid-19 pandemic. These various threats left the community with no other alternative to maintain their livelihood.   Future Implications : There are a limitations in this study which is need to be completed by future research. For instance tourism development arisen from the community level, the role of the government and the private sector was highly needed. It should also be followed by the rural community as targets for the tourism development to be given knowledge transfer, promotion, and the access to information and infrastructure. This phenomenon need to be discussed by further research more deeply by using  another methods and approach such as mix method to suggest several recommendations and policy to solve the tourism issues in rural area.   Originality/Value : The findings of the study indicated that natural resources manajement and ownership theory are important to develop tourism business in rural area so that people will lived in poverty through wise management and economically.Otomatically, the regional income will be increase

    Twin-Twin Transfusion Syndrome: study protocol for developing, disseminating, and implementing a core outcome set.

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    BACKGROUND: Twin-Twin Transfusion Syndrome (TTTS) is associated with an increased risk of perinatal mortality and morbidity. Several treatment interventions have been described for TTTS, including fetoscopic laser surgery, amnioreduction, septostomy, expectant management, and pregnancy termination. Over the last decade, fetoscopic laser surgery has become the primary treatment. The literature to date reports on many different outcomes, making it difficult to compare results or combine data from individual studies, limiting the value of research to guide clinical practice. With the advent and ongoing development of new therapeutic techniques, this is more important than ever. The development and use of a core outcome set has been proposed to address these issues, prioritising outcomes important to the key stakeholders, including patients. We aim to produce, disseminate, and implement a core outcome set for TTTS. METHODS: An international steering group has been established to oversee the development of this core outcome set. This group includes healthcare professionals, researchers and patients. A systematic review is planned to identify previously reported outcomes following treatment for TTTS. Following completion, the identified outcomes will be evaluated by stakeholders using an international, multi-perspective online modified Delphi method to build consensus on core outcomes. This method encourages the participants towards consensus 'core' outcomes. All key stakeholders will be invited to participate. The steering group will then hold a consensus meeting to discuss results and form a core outcome set to be introduced and measured. Once core outcomes have been agreed, the next step will be to determine how they should be measured, disseminated, and implemented within an international context. DISCUSSION: The development, dissemination, and implementation of a core outcome set in TTTS will enable its use in future clinical trials, systematic reviews and clinical practice guidelines. This is likely to advance the quality of research studies and their effective use in order to guide clinical practice and improve patient care, maternal, short-term perinatal outcomes and long-term neurodevelopmental outcomes. TRIAL REGISTRATION: Core Outcome Measures in Effectiveness Trials (COMET), 921 Registered on July 2016. International Prospective Register of Systematic Reviews (PROSPERO), CRD42016043999 . Registered on 2 August 2016

    Efficient public-key cryptography with bounded leakage and tamper resilience

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    We revisit the question of constructing public-key encryption and signature schemes with security in the presence of bounded leakage and tampering memory attacks. For signatures we obtain the first construction in the standard model; for public-key encryption we obtain the first construction free of pairing (avoiding non-interactive zero-knowledge proofs). Our constructions are based on generic building blocks, and, as we show, also admit efficient instantiations under fairly standard number-theoretic assumptions. The model of bounded tamper resistance was recently put forward by Damgård et al. (Asiacrypt 2013) as an attractive path to achieve security against arbitrary memory tampering attacks without making hardware assumptions (such as the existence of a protected self-destruct or key-update mechanism), the only restriction being on the number of allowed tampering attempts (which is a parameter of the scheme). This allows to circumvent known impossibility results for unrestricted tampering (Gennaro et al., TCC 2010), while still being able to capture realistic tampering attack

    Crustal structure of active deformation zones in Africa: Implications for global crustal processes

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    The Cenozoic East African rift (EAR), Cameroon Volcanic Line (CVL), and Atlas Mountains formed on the slow-moving African continent, which last experienced orogeny during the Pan-African. We synthesize primarily geophysical data to evaluate the role of magmatism in shaping Africa's crust. In young magmatic rift zones, melt and volatiles migrate from the asthenosphere to gas-rich magma reservoirs at the Moho, altering crustal composition and reducing strength. Within the southernmost Eastern rift, the crust comprises ~20% new magmatic material ponded in the lower crust sills, and intruded as sills and dikes at shallower depths. In the Main Ethiopian rift, intrusions comprise 30% of the crust below axial zones of dike-dominated extension. In the incipient rupture zones of the Afar rift, magma intrusions fed from crustal magma chambers beneath segment centers create new columns of mafic crust, as along slow-spreading ridges. Our comparisons suggest that transitional crust, including seaward-dipping sequences, is created as progressively smaller screens of continental crust are heated and weakened by magma intrusion into 15-20 km-thick crust. In the 30Ma-Recent CVL, which lacks a hotspot age-progression, extensional forces are small, inhibiting the creation and rise of magma into the crust. In the Atlas orogen, localized magmatism follows the strike of the Atlas Mountains from the Canary Islands hotspot towards the Alboran Sea. CVL and Atlas magmatism has had minimal impact on crustal structure. Our syntheses show that magma and volatiles are migrating from the asthenosphere through the plates, modifying rheology and contributing significantly to global carbon and water fluxes

    Conventional radical versus focal treatment for localised prostate cancer: a propensity score weighted comparison of 6-year tumour control

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    Background: For localised prostate cancer, focal therapy offers an organ-sparing alternative to radical treatments (radiotherapy or prostatectomy). Currently, there is no randomised comparative effectiveness data evaluating cancer control of both strategies. Methods: Following the eligibility criteria PSA < 20 ng/mL, Gleason score ≤ 7 and T-stage ≤ T2c, we included 830 radical (440 radiotherapy, 390 prostatectomy) and 530 focal therapy (cryotherapy, high-intensity focused ultrasound or high-dose-rate brachytherapy) patients treated between 2005 and 2018 from multicentre registries in the Netherlands and the UK. A propensity score weighted (PSW) analysis was performed to compare failure-free survival (FFS), with failure defined as salvage treatment, metastatic disease, systemic treatment (androgen deprivation therapy or chemotherapy), or progression to watchful waiting. The secondary outcome was overall survival (OS). Median (IQR) follow-up in each cohort was 55 (28–83) and 62 (42–83) months, respectively. Results: At baseline, radical patients had higher PSA (10.3 versus 7.9) and higher-grade disease (31% ISUP 3 versus 11%) compared to focal patients. After PSW, all covariates were balanced (SMD < 0.1). 6-year weighted FFS was higher after radical therapy (80.3%, 95% CI 73.9–87.3) than after focal therapy (72.8%, 95% CI 66.8–79.8) although not statistically significant (p = 0.1). 6-year weighted OS was significantly lower after radical therapy (93.4%, 95% CI 90.1–95.2 versus 97.5%, 95% CI 94–99.9; p = 0.02). When compared in a three-way analysis, focal and LRP patients had a higher risk of treatment failure than EBRT patients (p < 0.001), but EBRT patients had a higher risk of mortality than focal patients (p = 0.008). Conclusions: Within the limitations of a cohort-based analysis in which residual confounders are likely to exist, we found no clinically relevant difference in cancer control conferred by focal therapy compared to radical therapy at 6 years

    Treatment and outcome of 370 cases with spontaneous or post-laser twin anemia-polycythemia sequence managed in 17 fetal therapy centers.

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    OBJECTIVE: To investigate the antenatal management and outcome in a large international cohort of monochorionic twin pregnancies with spontaneous or post-laser twin anemia-polycythemia sequence (TAPS). METHODS: This study analyzed data of monochorionic twin pregnancies diagnosed antenatally with spontaneous or post-laser TAPS in 17 fetal therapy centers, recorded in the TAPS Registry between 2014 and 2019. Antenatal diagnosis of TAPS was based on fetal middle cerebral artery peak systolic velocity > 1.5 multiples of the median (MoM) in the TAPS donor and < 1.0 MoM in the TAPS recipient. The following antenatal management groups were defined: expectant management, delivery within 7 days after diagnosis, intrauterine transfusion (IUT) (with or without partial exchange transfusion (PET)), laser surgery and selective feticide. Cases were assigned to the management groups based on the first treatment that was received after diagnosis of TAPS. The primary outcomes were perinatal mortality and severe neonatal morbidity. The secondary outcome was diagnosis-to-birth interval. RESULTS: In total, 370 monochorionic twin pregnancies were diagnosed antenatally with TAPS during the study period and included in the study. Of these, 31% (n = 113) were managed expectantly, 30% (n = 110) with laser surgery, 19% (n = 70) with IUT (± PET), 12% (n = 43) with delivery, 8% (n = 30) with selective feticide and 1% (n = 4) underwent termination of pregnancy. Perinatal mortality occurred in 17% (39/225) of pregnancies in the expectant-management group, 18% (38/215) in the laser group, 18% (25/140) in the IUT (± PET) group, 10% (9/86) in the delivery group and in 7% (2/30) of the cotwins in the selective-feticide group. The incidence of severe neonatal morbidity was 49% (41/84) in the delivery group, 46% (56/122) in the IUT (± PET) group, 31% (60/193) in the expectant-management group, 31% (57/182) in the laser-surgery group and 25% (7/28) in the selective-feticide group. Median diagnosis-to-birth interval was longest after selective feticide (10.5 (interquartile range (IQR), 4.2-14.9) weeks), followed by laser surgery (9.7 (IQR, 6.6-12.7) weeks), expectant management (7.8 (IQR, 3.8-14.4) weeks), IUT (± PET) (4.0 (IQR, 2.0-6.9) weeks) and delivery (0.3 (IQR, 0.0-0.5) weeks). Treatment choice for TAPS varied greatly within and between the 17 fetal therapy centers. CONCLUSIONS: Antenatal treatment for TAPS differs considerably amongst fetal therapy centers. Perinatal mortality and morbidity were high in all management groups. Prolongation of pregnancy was best achieved by expectant management, treatment by laser surgery or selective feticide. © 2020 The Authors. Ultrasound in Obstetrics & Gynecology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of the International Society of Ultrasound in Obstetrics and Gynecology
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