In reply to "Hynes S.O. et al. Back to the future: routine morphological assessment of the tumour microenvironment is prognostic in stage II/III colon cancer in a large population-based study"

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Entropy of energy crops and GHG mitigation

The photosynthesis process generates beside carbon hydrates also complex chemical compounds. The artificial synthesis of such compounds is often impossible or may require high energy input compared to their heat value. In other words, the entropy of energy crops is low compared to fossil fuels. This fact is usually neglected in energy analysis of bio fuels resulting in questionable political decisions concerning renewable energy. The objective of this paper is to demonstrate that the GHG mitigation potential of e.g. fibre crops may be enhanced using them first as raw material for commercial products before processing to fuel at the end of their lifetime. For example, reed canary grass may be used for paper production and after recycling, the used paper can be processed to insulation material in buildings before thermal use. Such a chain of usage trades off both, the low entropy as raw material for pulp and the heat value of the carbon hydrates. A calculation model is used to estimate the reduction of CO2 equivalents of two options: Alternative A: Production of reed canary grass + processing to fuel for heating. Alternative B: Production of reed canary grass + processing to paper + recycling of paper + processing to insulation material + installation of insulation material in buildings + recycling of insulation material + processing for heating. The results show, that alternative B is outclassing alternative A. However, fossil fuels render a higher energy return of investment and are for the time being more competitive than both options

Law and economy in the medieval monastic rules: a dialogue with Giorgio Agamben

En este artículo pretendemos presentar una lectura crítica del trabajo de Giorgio Agamben dedicado a la interpretación del fenómeno de las reglas monásticas cristianas y, en particular, del "usus pauper" franciscano. Por un lado, proponemos defender el carácter jurídico de las reglas monásticas (a diferencia de la concepción exclusivamente antinomista de Agamben) y, por otro, buscamos mostrar cómo el "usus pauper" de la Orden franciscana no puede ser pensado únicamente como una forma vivendi que cuestiona el orden económico preexistente. Al contrario, es posible encontrar en el franciscanismo radical una defensa de un orden económico basado en una "riqueza legítima" (disociada de la usura). Finalmente, intentarmos demostrar la pertinencia del análisis de las reglas monásticas para la genealogía de la biopolítica moderna.In this article, we aim at presenting a critical reading of Giorgio Agamben’s work dedicated to the interpretation of the Christian monastic rules and, in particular, the usus pauper of the Franciscans. On one hand, we propose to defend the juridical character of the monastic rules (as distinguished from Agamben’s exclusively antinomistic conception) and, on the other hand, we seek to show how the usus pauper of the Franciscan order cannot only be thought as a forma vivendi that questions the preexisting economic order. On the contrary, it is possible to find in the radical Franciscanism a defense of an economic order based on the “legitimate wealth” (dissociated form usury). Finally, we intend to demonstrate the pertinence of the analysis of monastic rules for the genealogy of modern biopolitics.Fil: Ludueña, Fabian Javier. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Sociales. Instituto de Investigaciones "Gino Germani"; Argentina. Universidad Argentina de la Empresa; Argentin

Space-Efficient Dictionaries for Parameterized and Order-Preserving Pattern Matching

Let S and S\u27 be two strings of the same length.We consider the following two variants of string matching. * Parameterized Matching: The characters of S and S\u27 are partitioned into static characters and parameterized characters. The strings are parameterized match iff the static characters match exactly and there exists a one-to-one function which renames the parameterized characters in S to those in S\u27. * Order-Preserving Matching: The strings are order-preserving match iff for any two integers i,j in [1,|S|], S[i] <= S[j] iff S\u27[i] <= S\u27[j]. Let P be a collection of d patterns {P_1, P_2, ..., P_d} of total length n characters, which are chosen from an alphabet Sigma. Given a text T, also over Sigma, we consider the dictionary indexing problem under the above definitions of string matching. Specifically, the task is to index P, such that we can report all positions j where at least one of the patterns P_i in P is a parameterized-match (resp. order-preserving match) with the same-length substring of $T$ starting at j. Previous best-known indexes occupy O(n * log(n)) bits and can report all occ positions in O(|T| * log(|Sigma|) + occ) time. We present space-efficient indexes that occupy O(n * log(|Sigma|+d) * log(n)) bits and reports all occ positions in O(|T| * (log(|Sigma|) + log_{|Sigma|}(n)) + occ) time for parameterized matching and in O(|T| * log(n) + occ) time for order-preserving matching

Adapting to new challenges: extension theory and practice for the 21st century

Twenty first century challenges facing agriculture include climate change, threats to food security for a growing population and downward economic pressures on rural livelihoods. Addressing these challenges will require innovation in extension theory, policy and education, at a time when the dominance of the state in the provision of knowledge and information services to farmers and rural entrepreneurs continues to decline. This paper suggests that extension theory is catching up with and helping us to understand innovative extension practice, and therefore provides a platform for improving rural development policies and strategies. Innovation is now less likely to be spoken of as something to be passed on to farmers, than as a continuing process of creativity and adaptation that can be nurtured and sustained. Innovation systems and innovation platforms are concepts that recognise the multiple factors that lead to farmers’ developing, adapting and applying new ideas and the importance of linking all actors in the value chain to ensure producers can access appropriate information and advice for decision making at all stages in the production process. Concepts of social learning, group development and solidarity, social capital, collective action and empowerment all help to explain and therefore to apply more effectively group extension approaches in building confidence and sustaining innovation. A challenge facing educators is to ensure the curricula for aspiring extension professionals in our higher education institutions are regularly reviewed and keep up with current and future developments in theory, policy and practice

Astu ulos ajasta : Kerronnalliset näkökulmat Sauli Niinistön ja Kari Mäkisen puheissa

Yhteiskuntaorientoituneen uskonnon teorian mukaan länsimainen kirkko on palannut julkiseen tilaan modernien ja universaalien arvojen puolustajana. Omien oikeuksiensa puolustamisesta se on siirtynyt yksilön vapauden ja uskonnon vapauden puolustamiseen. Taustaa vasten voi olettaa, että arkkipiispa puheissa ihmisten asema korostuu, kirkon aseman sijaan. Tutkimus selvittää mistä näkökulmista tasavallan presidentti Sauli Niinistö ja arkkipiispa Kari Mäkinen tarkastelevat suomalaista yhteiskuntaa. Arkkipiispan ja tasavallan presidentin valta on merkittävässä määrin yhteiskunnalliseen keskusteluun vaikuttavaa valtaa. Heille on osoitettu tila areenalla, jossa yhteistä ymmärrystä rakennetaan. Tutkimusaineistona on tasavallan presidentti Sauli Niinistön ja arkkipiispa Kari Mäkisen verkkosivuilla julkaistut puheet vuodelta 2014. Molemmat kritisoivat vallitsevaa keskustelukulttuuria. Mäkinen mukaan tarinat siloitellaan muotoon, jossa on kertojalle itselleen mielekäs järjestys. Niinistö muistuttaa että vain yhden näkökulman vastaukset eivät ole rehellisiä, eivätkä kestäviä vastauksia. Vaurauden jako on esillä molempien puheissa. Niinistö mukaan vähempikin varallisuus on jaettava oikeudenmukaisesti. Mäkinen muistuttaa, että kirkko itse istuu rikkaan miehen pöydässä. Mäkinen toteaa myös, että talous on se ikkuna, jonka kautta tarkastellaan muita elämän alueita. Niinistön mukaan suomalaisten vahvuudet ovat vastuuntunto, yhteisöllisyys ja koulutus. Näillä vahvuuksilla Suomi pärjää tulevaisuudessakin. Kirkolle tuleva on ongelmallisempi. Muuttuva yhteiskunta haastaa kirkon oppia. Mäkisen puheiden peruspilareina ovat ihmisen tiedon rajallisuus, lähimmäisen rakkaus ja usko jumalalliseen armoon. Tältä pohjalta Mäkinen rakentaa kuvaa kirkosta, jonka opilliset tulkinnat eivät ole erehtymättömiä tai muuttumattomia. Tutkimuksen keskeiseksi elementiksi nousi valitun näkökulman vaikutus ymmärrykseen. Alasdair MacIntyren näkemyksen mukaan valittaessa tulkinnan premissit, valitaan myös tulkinnan loogiset rajat. Tutkimuksen teoreettisen taustan ja aineiston pohjalta näyttää siltä, että valittaessa premissit ja tulkinnallinen näkökulma, valitaan myös argumentaation looginen lopputulos. Tämän ilmiön ymmärtäminen näkyy molempien puhujien puheissa

Translation Policy: A Tool to DigitallyEmpoweror to DigitallyDisempower Migrant Communities?

Digitally mediated communication in the public sector has changed how citizens and authorities communicate.Within this digital context, it has been identified thatlanguage problems may be an underlying cause of social exclusion for migrant groups(seeKhorshed and Imran, 2015, p. 347), whichseems to indicate that the lack of language proficiency in the host country’s language may give rise to new forms of digital dividesin migratory contexts. Bearing this in mind, here we claim that, for migrants with language barriers, access to key digital services within the public sector can happen through translationprovision, which may be used as a tool to digitally empowerthem. Thus, based on this logic, in this paper the digital empowerment (Mäkinen, 2006) of migrant communities is explored assessing to whatextent the implementation of translation policy empowers migrants’digital communication with the host country’ authoritieswithin the public services. To this end, we will focus on a case study in which the methodological concept of domain will be used to investigate the translation policy implemented in the case of the digital communication between the Spanish Ministry forInclusion, Social Securityand Migration and migrants in two immigration procedures.Our initial findings suggest that the translation policy implemented by this Spanish Ministryresults in diametrically opposed levels of migrants’ digital empowermentin our case study. Thus, arguably, even if translation policy could be used as a tool to digitally empower all migrants inour case study,it seems to be used as a tool to empower only some of them; the most powerfulmigrant communities.La introducción de la comunicación digital en el sector público ha cambiado la forma en la que los ciudadanos y la Administración se comunican. En este contexto digital, las barreras lingüísticas se han identificado como una causa de exclusión social para los migrantes (ver Khorshed e Imran, 2015, p. 347), lo que parece indicar que la falta de dominio del idioma del país de acogida puede dar lugar a nuevas brechas digitales en contextos migratorios. Tomando este hecho en consideración, aquí sostenemos que, en el caso de los migrantes que experimentan barreras lingüísticas, la provisión de traducción puede darles acceso a servicios digitales claves dentro del sector público, y, por tanto, que la traducción puede emplearse como una herramienta para empoderar a este colectivo digitalmente. Con esta lógica, aquí exploramos el empoderamiento digital (Mäkinen, 2006) de los migrantes analizando en qué medida las políticas de traducción implementadas favorecen la comunicación digital entre los migrantes y la Administración de acogida ellos servicios públicos. Para ello, nos centraremos en un estudio de caso, el que emplearemos el concepto metodológico de dominio para analizar las políticas de traducción implementadas por el Ministerio de Inclusión, Seguridad Social y Migraciones español para comunicarse digitalmente con los migrantes en el caso de dos procedimientos de extranjería. Nuestros resultados iniciales sugieren que la política de traducción implementada por este ministerio tiene como resultado un empoderamiento digital diametralmente opuesto de las comunidades migrantes involucradas en nuestro estudio de caso. Por consiguiente, se podría argumentar que, aunque la implementación de las políticas de traducción podría usarse como una herramienta para empoderar digitalmente a todos los migrantes por igual, en nuestro estudio, parece emplearse como una herramienta para empoderar exclusivamente a algunos; aquellos más poderosos

Las políticas de traducción: ¿Una herramienta para empoderar o desempoderar a los migrantes en el contexto digital?

Digitally mediated communication in the public sector has changed how citizens and authorities communicate. Within this digital context, it has been identified that language problems may be an underlying cause of social exclusion for migrant groups (see Khorshed and Imran, 2015, p. 347), which seems to indicate that the lack of language proficiency in the host country’s language may give rise to new forms of digital divides in migratory contexts. Bearing this in mind, here we claim that, for migrants with language barriers, access to key digital services within the public sector can happen through translation provision, which may be used as a tool to digitally empower them. Thus, based on this logic, in this paper the digital empowerment (Mäkinen, 2006) of migrant communities is explored assessing to what extent the implementation of translation policy empowers migrants’ digital communication with the host country’ authorities within the public services. To this end, we will focus on a case study in which the methodological concept of domain will be used to investigate the translation policy implemented in the case of the digital communication between the Spanish Ministry for Inclusion, Social Security and Migration and migrants in two immigration procedures. Our initial findings suggest that the translation policy implemented by this Spanish Ministry results in diametrically opposed levels of migrants’ digital empowerment in our case study. Thus, arguably, even if translation policy could be used as a tool to digitally empower all migrants in our case study, it seems to be used as a tool to empower only some of them; the most powerful migrant communities.La introducción de la comunicación digital en el sector público ha cambiado la forma en la que los ciudadanos y la Administración se comunican. En este contexto digital, las barreras lingüísticas se han identificado como una causa de exclusión social para los migrantes (ver Khorshed e Imran, 2015, p. 347), lo que parece indicar que la falta de dominio del idioma del país de acogida puede dar lugar a nuevas brechas digitales en contextos migratorios. Tomando este hecho en consideración, aquí sostenemos que, en el caso de los migrantes que experimentan barreras lingüísticas, la provisión de traducción puede darles acceso a servicios digitales claves dentro del sector público, y por tanto, que la traducción puede emplearse como una herramienta para empoderar a este colectivo digitalmente. Con esta lógica, aquí exploramos el empoderamiento digital (Mäkinen, 2006) de los migrantes analizando en qué medida las políticas de traducción implementadas favorecen la comunicación digital entre los migrantes y la Administración de acogida en los servicios públicos. Para ello, nos centraremos en un estudio de caso, el que emplearemos el concepto metodológico de dominio para analizar las políticas de traducción implementadas por el Ministerio de Inclusión, Seguridad Social y Migraciones español para comunicarse digitalmente con los migrantes en el caso de dos procedimientos de extranjería. Nuestros resultados iniciales sugieren que la política de traducción implementada por este ministerio tiene como resultado un empoderamiento digital diametralmente opuesto de las comunidades migrantes involucradas en nuestro estudio de caso. Por consiguiente, se podría argumentar que, aunque la implementación de las políticas de traducción podría usarse como una herramienta para empoderar digitalmente a todos los migrantes por igual, en nuestro estudio, parece emplearse como una herramienta para empoderar exclusivamente a algunos; a aquellos más poderosos

Decoding Hidden Markov Models Faster Than Viterbi Via Online Matrix-Vector (max, +)-Multiplication

In this paper, we present a novel algorithm for the maximum a posteriori decoding (MAPD) of time-homogeneous Hidden Markov Models (HMM), improving the worst-case running time of the classical Viterbi algorithm by a logarithmic factor. In our approach, we interpret the Viterbi algorithm as a repeated computation of matrix-vector $(\max, +)$-multiplications. On time-homogeneous HMMs, this computation is online: a matrix, known in advance, has to be multiplied with several vectors revealed one at a time. Our main contribution is an algorithm solving this version of matrix-vector $(\max,+)$-multiplication in subquadratic time, by performing a polynomial preprocessing of the matrix. Employing this fast multiplication algorithm, we solve the MAPD problem in $O(mn^2/ \log n)$ time for any time-homogeneous HMM of size $n$ and observation sequence of length $m$, with an extra polynomial preprocessing cost negligible for $m > n$. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first algorithm for the MAPD problem requiring subquadratic time per observation, under the only assumption -- usually verified in practice -- that the transition probability matrix does not change with time.Comment: AAAI 2016, to appea

Effectiveness of silver diamine fluoride and sodium fluoride varnish in arresting dentin caries in Chinese pre-school children

Untreated dental caries in Chinese pre-school children is common. This prospective controlled clinical trial investigated the effectiveness of topical fluoride applications in arresting dentin caries. Three hundred seventy-five children, aged 3-5 years, with carious upper anterior teeth were divided into five groups. Children in the first and second groups received annual applications of silver diamine fluoride solution (44,800 ppm F). Sodium fluoride varnish (22,600 ppm F) was applied every three months to the lesions of children in the third and fourth groups. For children in the first and third groups, soft carious tissues were removed prior to fluoride application. The fifth group was the control. Three hundred eight children were followed for 30 months. The respective mean numbers of arrested carious tooth surfaces in the five groups were 2.5, 2.8, 1.5, 1.5, and 1.3 (p < 0.001). Silver diamine fluoride was found to be effective in arresting dentin caries in primary anterior teeth in pre-school children.published_or_final_versio