Ensuring protection against caste discrimination in Britain: Should the Equality Act 2010 be extended?

: Section 97 of the Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Act 2013 requires the addition of caste to the Equality Act 2010 by secondary legislation as ‘an aspect of’ the protected characteristic of race; but despite being mandated, no secondary legislation has been introduced and the addition of caste remains contested by some academics, civil society organisations, and politicians who question the adequacy of any definition of caste, the estimates of the extent of caste discrimination, and whether legal protection against caste discrimination already exists under the Equality Act. In this article we assess whether legal protection against caste discrimination is now assured following the Employment Tribunal judgment in September 2015 in Tirkey v Chandhok & Anor which held that discrimination on grounds of caste, depending on the facts, might be capable of falling within the scope of race as currently defined in the Equality Act. We argue that Tirkey is significant but not decisive and that it remains open to government to extend the Equality Act to cover caste

Calcaneal fractures: a management dilemma-minimally invasive approach for intra and extra articular calcaneal fractures

Background: Calcaneal fractures which constitutes 2% of total fractures are frequent and very debilitating if not treated properly. Calcaneal fractures generally affect younger population leading to significant man-days loss(around 2-5 years3) and in-turn leading significant economic burden on the society. The goal of treatment for calcaneal fractures is elimination of pain and restoration of normal foot shape, biomechanics, and walking ability. Wound related complications are common with open surgeries. After open reduction internal fixation with perimeter plates for displaced calcaneal fractures, wound edge necrosis is commonly observed with the extended lateral approach. Because of such high incidence of wound complications in open reduction of calcaneum fractures, minimally invasive approach takes priority over open reduction of these fractures.Methods: The study aimed to evaluate the results of minimally invasive approach for calcaneal fractures. To reduce the operative complications, 30 patients were treated with minimally invasive methods in both extra articular and intra-articular calcaneal fractures and the results were evaluated. All patients were evaluated clinically , functionally and radiologically 3D- CT reconstruction images.Results: All cases were followed up for 2 years at specified intervals. The outcome measures were evaluated by AOFAS scores10 with excellent result in 13 cases and good to fair results in the rest. Operated patients had no wound infection, no skin necrosis, 5 patients had mild subtalar arthrosis and 3 patients complained slight difficulty in wearing shoes. None of them have any gait abnormalities.Conclusions: Our study suggests that the minimally invasive methods will reduce the operative complication rates. The minimally invasive surgical intervention in an expert hand can yield better results with less complication rates

Quasars with Super Metal Rich Emission Line Regions

We study the degree of chemical enrichment in the Broad Emission Line Regions (BELRs) of two QSOs with unusually strong nitrogen emission lines. The N V 1240/ C IV 1549 intensity ratio is often used as a metallicity indicator for QSOs. The validity of this approach can be tested by studying objects in which the N IV] and N III] lines, in addition to N V, are unusually strong and easily measurable. If all of these ionization states of nitrogen point to the same metallicity, it implies that the large N V strengths observed in most QSOs are not due to some peculiarity of the N V 1240 line. This test had previously been applied to Q0353-383, a QSO long known to have extremely strong N III] and N IV] lines, with the result supporting high metallicity in that object. Here we make the same check in two other QSOs with very strong nitrogen lines, as a step towards using such QSOs to better probe the early chemical enrichment histories of their host galaxies. J1254+0241 has a metallicity of about 10x solar, with good agreement between the abundance results from different line ratios. J1546+5253 has a more moderate metallicity, about 5x solar, but the abundances determined from different line ratios show a much wider scatter than they do for J1254+0241 or Q0353-383. This QSO also has an unusual low-ionization emission line spectrum similar to some low-ionization BAL QSOs and to the unusual AGN I Zw 1. We attribute the peculiarities in its spectrum to some combination of unusual structure and/or unusual physical conditions in its BELR. Our results further affirm the validity of the N V/C IV ratio as an abundance indicator in QSOs.Comment: Accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journa

A WORKFLOW FOR GEOMETRIC COLOUR PHOTOGRAPHY OF PAINTED SURFACES

Colour fidelity is vital when documenting painted surfaces. The 2.5D nature of many painted surfaces makes orthophotos and digital surface models (DSMs) common products of the documentation process. This paper presents a workflow to combine photographic and photogrammetric methods to produce aligned colour and depth (orthophotos and DSMs). First, two photogrammetric software (Agisoft Photoscan and Capturing Reality Reality Capture) were tested to determine if they adjusted the colour data during the processing stages. It was found that Photoscan can produce 16-bit orthophotos without manipulating the data; however, Reality Capture is currently limited to 8-bit results. When capturing a surface using photogrammetry, it is common to use the same data for colour and depth. The presented workflow, however, argues that better colour accuracy can be achieved by capturing the two datasets separately and combining them in photogrammetric software. The workflow is demonstrated through the documentation of an unnamed religious painting from the 17th century