The limits of inter-religious dialogue and the form of football rituals: The case of Bosnia-Herzegovina

The difficulties with interfaith dialogue are linked, at least in part, to the lack of ritual forms (consisting of rules, ceremonial idioms, liturgy, and repertoires of action) designed to unite and integrate the "meta-group "formed by the various religious communities. By means of ethnographic research conducted in Bosnia-Herzegovina, the author studied the mechanisms with which, under particular conditions, some forms of collective ritual were able to create opportunities for the re-integration of the Bosnian population, which had been profoundly divided after the terrible war of 199295. Comparing the forms of religious rituals and those of sports ritualsin particular, of football ritualsthe author develops some considerations that can be applied to the general debate about inter-religious dialogue. The comparison brings to light some of the limits and difficulties that religious institutions encounter in giving life to an interfaith dialogue that directly and concretely involves the members of different communities. © 2007 Social Compass

Identification of baryon resonances in central heavy-ion collisions at energies between 1 and 2 AGeV

The mass distributions of baryon resonances populated in near-central collisions of Au on Au and Ni on Ni are deduced by defolding the $p_t$ spectra of charged pions by a method which does not depend on a specific resonance shape. In addition the mass distributions of resonances are obtained from the invariant masses of $(p, \pi^{\pm})$ pairs. With both methods the deduced mass distributions are shifted by an average value of -60 MeV/c$^2$ relative to the mass distribution of the free $\Delta(1232)$ resonance, the distributions descent almost exponentially towards mass values of 2000 MeV/c^2. The observed differences between $(p, \pi^-)$ and $(p, \pi^+)$ pairs indicate a contribution of isospin $I = 1/2$ resonances. The attempt to consistently describe the deduced mass distributions and the reconstructed kinetic energy spectra of the resonances leads to new insights about the freeze out conditions, i.e. to rather low temperatures and large expansion velocities.Comment: 30 pages, 13 figures, Latex using documentstyle[12pt,a4,epsfig], to appear in Eur. Phys. J.

Prediction of Preterm Deliveries from EHG Signals Using Machine Learning

There has been some improvement in the treatment of preterm infants, which has helped to increase their chance of survival. However, the rate of premature births is still globally increasing. As a result, this group of infants are most at risk of developing severe medical conditions that can affect the respiratory, gastrointestinal, immune, central nervous, auditory and visual systems. In extreme cases, this can also lead to long-term conditions, such as cerebral palsy, mental retardation, learning difficulties, including poor health and growth. In the US alone, the societal and economic cost of preterm births, in 2005, was estimated to be $26.2 billion, per annum. In the UK, this value was close to £2.95 billion, in 2009. Many believe that a better understanding of why preterm births occur, and a strategic focus on prevention, will help to improve the health of children and reduce healthcare costs. At present, most methods of preterm birth prediction are subjective. However, a strong body of evidence suggests the analysis of uterine electrical signals (Electrohysterography), could provide a viable way of diagnosing true labour and predict preterm deliveries. Most Electrohysterography studies focus on true labour detection during the final seven days, before labour. The challenge is to utilise Electrohysterography techniques to predict preterm delivery earlier in the pregnancy. This paper explores this idea further and presents a supervised machine learning approach that classifies term and preterm records, using an open source dataset containing 300 records (38 preterm and 262 term). The synthetic minority oversampling technique is used to oversample the minority preterm class, and cross validation techniques, are used to evaluate the dataset against other similar studies. Our approach shows an improvement on existing studies with 96% sensitivity, 90% specificity, and a 95% area under the curve value with 8% global error using the polynomial classifier

Hypothyroid Hashimoto’s thyroiditis (HT) with scintigraphic and acho-color doppler features mimicking autonomous adenoma.

A 48-years-old women on L-thyroxine (L-T4) therapy (100 g/day) for primary autoimmune hypothyroidism, diagnosed 15 years before, was seen in the outpatient clinic. She had a firm oval lump in the right thyroid lobe and symptoms of mild thyrotoxicosis. Serum free thyroid hormone were in the upper limit of normal range and TSH <0.01 mU/L by ultrasensitive assay. High titres of anti-thyroperoxidase, anti-thyroglobulin and anti-thyroid microsomal antibodies were detected. Thyroid ultrasonography (US) and colour flow doppler sonography (CFDS) revealed a voluminous hypoechoic hypervascularized nodule with increased peak systolic velocity (type III pattern) in the right lobe, with atrophic and hypoechoic extranodular tissue. An autonomous functioning nodule associated to HT was suspected, L-T4 therapy was temporary withdrawn, and the patient re-evaluated 2 months later. Off L-T4 therapy, thyroid function tests revealed marked primary hypothyroidism, while thyroid US and CFDS were unchanged. 99mTc thyroid scan showed a “hot” nodule in the right lobe with nearly absent uptake in the remaining thyroid tissue. In contrast, 131I scan displayed only faint patchy distribution, with very low uptake. Cytological examination revealed normal follicular cells and several lymphocytes. The final diagnosis was therefore hypothyroid HT with pseudo-nodular thyroid tissue of the right lobe. This is to our knowledge the first report of HT mimicking both scintigraphic and CFDS features of an autonomous functioning nodule

A View on the Future of Applied Thermodynamics

Thermodynamics is the science of the interactions between energy and matter. It was formalized in the late 19th century and remains an essential piece in solving many technological challenges that society faces today. Yet, it is often considered complex and challenging, perhaps because it is often taught within a rigid mathematical framework, without highlighting the extensive range of applications and the tools that it offers for understanding and elaborating a sustainable future. The authors of this paper have performed an industrial survey (Kontogeorgis et al., Ind. Eng. Chem. Res., 2021, 60, 13, 4987-5013), which pointed out that thermodynamics is indeed a cornerstone of many processes in a large range of industries, but that as of today, many questions and needs remain unanswered. Some missing answers are caused by a lack of knowledge of the existing tools (educational issue), some by the unavailability of models, parameters or by the lack of transferability of the concepts from one system to another. In other cases, simply, no generally accepted approach exists, and fundamental research is required for understanding the phenomena. In all cases, data are needed, either to understand, develop, or validate the models. Specific recent examples of applied thermodynamics research relevant to industrial practice are discussed. This manuscript aims not only at promoting research but also at encouraging highly trained professionals to engage in education, laboratory work, fundamental developments, and/or model validation. Such professionals should find positions both in academia and in industry, as well as with software vendors. Collaboration between academia, industry, and software vendors is essential in order to foster new developments and serve the goals of sustainable development and circular economy

Angioma cavernoso del IV ventricolo. Sintomatologia oculare. Relazione su un caso clinico.

L'angioma cavernoso intraventricolare è una rara malformazione cerebrale congenita benigna; secondo la sua localizzazione può sviluppare una sintomatologia variabile. Non sempre il trattamento chirurgico è possibile, e talvolta è insufficiente a risolvere la sintomatologia. Gli Autori presentano un caso clinico di angioma cavernoso, che ha causato nella paziente l'improvvisa comparsa di diplopia.The intraventricular carvenous hemangioma is a rare cerebral congenital benign malformation; according to his site it could develop a different symptomatology. The surgical treatment not always is possible, and sometimes it is insufficient to resolve the symptomatology. The Authors present a clinical case of cavernous hemangiomas, that has caused in the patient a sudden appearance of diplopia