A Terracotta Votive Shield : Style and Iconography

"Traits of Greek Archaic art constantly reappear in works of the late fifth century and the fourth century B.C., in the Hellenistic Age and in the Roman period. The terms "archaistic" and "archaizing" are understood to include a wide range of works which incorporate features inspired by the Archaic or intended to suggest it. Scholarly literature has been devoted overwhelmingly to the elegant poses and stylized drapery of the Neo-Attic reliefs; however, late Hellenistic archaizing art combines Neo-Attic motifs and a more general group of works which reflect Archaic elements, these often eclectically combined with fifth-century B.C. and early Hellenistic types. The Museum of Art and Archaeology at the University of Missouri-Columbia possesses a unique example of late Hellenistic archaizing -- a terracotta shield with figures in relief."--First paragraph.Includes bibliographical reference

Does electronic government deter corruption? Evidence from across the world

Electronic government innovations are one of the most important changes in public administration in recent years. Governments in many countries have implemented e-government policies to foster efficiency and transparency, and to mitigate corruption. This paper explores the effects of e-government on corruption using longitudinal data for more than 170 countries for the period 2002-2017. Empirical results strongly support the hypothesis that e-government can be used to deter corruption. This result is robust to alternative indicators of corruption and e-government, as well as to a variety of estimation techniques. A novelty of our research is that we analyse under which conditions is e-government more effective in reducing corruption. Quantile regressions indicate that the potential of e-government to deter corruption is higher between quantiles 0.3 to 0.8 of the corruption distribution. E-government also reveals to be a more effective corruption deterrent in countries that are not classified as high-income countries and that are not in the extremes of the freedom of the press variable distribution.Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT

The Price of Palliative Care: Towards a Complete Accounting of Costs and Benefits

The costs and benefits of hospice and palliative care have recently received attention for many compelling reasons. First, the cost of medical care over a lifetime is largely expended near the end-of-life. The impending demographic bulge of aging baby boomers will only heighten concerns about costs. Second, hospice and palliative care have been offered as potential vehicles for reducing late-in-life spending. Third, palliative care has gained legitimacy as a distinct medical specialty, having as it does a characteristic philosophy, specialized skill sets, and specific service delivery needs. This philosophy of care is consistent with and, to some degree, builds on the philosophy of care that geriatrics also promotes. In this article, currently accepted standards for cost-benefit analysis of health care interventions are outlined, and a framework to evaluate palliative care within these standards is provided. Recent publications on the economic implications of palliative care are reviewed, which are only the ‘‘tip of the iceberg’’ of the potential costs and benefits. Using this framework, the authors offer guidelines for performing comprehensive cost-benefit analyses of palliative care and conclude that many of the issues beneath the surface may be substantial and deserving of closer scrutiny. Methods for gathering relevant cost-benefit information are detailed, along with potential obstacles to implementation. This approach is applicable to palliative care in general, including palliative care for elders

The Business of Employing People with Disabilities: Four Case Studies

This exploratory study examines employer attitudes towards people with disabilities in the labor market. Through in-depth, semi-structured interviews with senior management, human resources staff, directors of diversity, and hiring managers at four corporations, it pinpoints reasons why businesses chose to hire people with disabilities, investigates the perceived benefits and barriers to hiring people with disabilities, and identifies strategies for successfully hiring and retaining workers with disabilities. It fills a gap in examining the attitudes and decision-making processes of U.S. companies that have been leaders in hiring people with disabilities, as well as delving into the special issues of small businesses that may lack exposure to disability employment. It closes with directions for future studies that could extend our understanding of employment of people with disabilities

The Price of Palliative Care: Towards a Complete Accounting of Costs and Benefits

The costs and benefits of hospice and palliative care have recently received attention for many compelling reasons. First, the cost of medical care over a lifetime is largely expended near the end-of-life. The impending demographic bulge of aging baby boomers will only heighten concerns about costs. Second, hospice and palliative care have been offered as potential vehicles for reducing late-in-life spending. Third, palliative care has gained legitimacy as a distinct medical specialty, having as it does a characteristic philosophy, specialized skill sets, and specific service delivery needs. This philosophy of care is consistent with and, to some degree, builds on the philosophy of care that geriatrics also promotes. In this article, currently accepted standards for cost-benefit analysis of health care interventions are outlined, and a framework to evaluate palliative care within these standards is provided. Recent publications on the economic implications of palliative care are reviewed, which are only the ‘‘tip of the iceberg’’ of the potential costs and benefits. Using this framework, the authors offer guidelines for performing comprehensive cost-benefit analyses of palliative care and conclude that many of the issues beneath the surface may be substantial and deserving of closer scrutiny. Methods for gathering relevant cost-benefit information are detailed, along with potential obstacles to implementation. This approach is applicable to palliative care in general, including palliative care for elders

Main axis of elongation dynamics and the planar bias in active object inspection: a developmental approach

Poster apresentado em "Leuven Christmas Applied Vision Association (AVA) Conference", em Leuven, Bélgica, 2014.As we turn our bodies, as we hold and move objects close to us and act on them, we generate dynamic views. Recent studies have examined the viewpoints that infants select during free play and found large developmental changes in dwell time distribution, namely an increasing preference for orienting objects on or around planar views – i.e. main axis is parallel (foreshortened) or perpendicular to the line of sight, and flat surfaces are perpendicular. This bias is characteristic of mature viewing and was found to promote more efficient learning. The functional role of this bias is poorly understood. We investigated two properties that seem relevant: (1) main axis expansion/foreshortening, and (2) instability – related to dynamic viewing, where rotations around planar views typically yield larger visual changes. In two experiments (E1: N=21, 18-24 months; E2: N = 54, 12-36 months), children inspected objects in a free play task and we measured 3D orientation; the main measures were the angle between the main axis of elongation and the line of sight, and its angular velocity and acceleration. There were two key results: (1) main axis is typically maintained in view (infrequent foreshortening) – this suggests that elongation is a distinctive property of preferred views; (2) planar views correspond to more stable periods of the object manipulation – this suggests that sampling planar views corresponds to moments of focused attention to a particular view and perhaps learning of a static view is occurring, leaving open the question of how view transitions are integrated over time.Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT

Decisions at the end of life: have we come of age?

Decision making is a complex process and it is particularly challenging to make decisions with, or for, patients who are near the end of their life. Some of those challenges will not be resolved - due to our human inability to foresee the future precisely and the human proclivity to change stated preferences when faced with reality. Other challenges of the decision-making process are manageable. This commentary offers a set of approaches which may lead to progress in this field

Treatment with p33 Curtails Morbidity and Mortality in a Histone-Induced Murine Shock Model.

Collateral damage caused by extracellular histones has an immediate impact on morbidity and mortality in many disease models. A significant increase in the levels of extracellular histones is seen in critically ill patients with trauma and sepsis. We showed that histones are released from necrotic cells in patients with invasive skin infections. Under in vitro conditions, endogenous p33, an endothelial surface protein also known as the gC1q receptor, interacts with histones released from damaged endothelial cells. Functional analyses have revealed that recombinantly expressed p33 completely neutralizes the harmful features of histones, i.e. hemolysis of erythrocytes, lysis of endothelial cells and platelet aggregation. We also noted that mice treated with a sublethal dose of histones developed severe signs of hemolysis, thrombocytopenia and lung tissue damage already 10 min after inoculation. These complications were fully counteracted when p33 was administered together with the histones. Moreover, application of p33 significantly improved survival in mice receiving an otherwise lethal dose of histones. Together, our data suggest that treatment with p33 is a promising therapeutic approach in severe infectious diseases. © 2014 S. Karger AG, Basel