Precise determination of mini railway track with ground based laser scanning

In order to determine the relative or absolute railway track and foundation deformation, ground-based laser scanning technology is utilised in this study to attain a precise 3D track reference. Located at the University of Nottingham’s Innovation Park, the newly built Nottingham Geospatial Building, where the Nottingham Geospatial Institute is based, has a roof laboratory that has unique testing facilities. This includes a mini railway track of 120m in length and other long-term monitoring monuments. A test was performed to precisely determine the ground-truth location of the railway track using a phase-based laser scanner for the formation of a standard reference. A real three dimensional mesh of the laser scanning data forms the basis for the line extraction. The compactly supported radial basis function (CS-RBF) was employed to determine the track features based on a 3D mesh approach. To verify the achievable accuracy of laser scanning technology, ground truth points measured with geodetic methods are compared with the extracted sample points and the results are presented in this paper

PCASTt/SPCG-17-a randomised trial of active surveillance in prostate cancer : rationale and design

Introduction Overtreatment of localised prostate cancer is substantial despite increased use of active surveillance. No randomised trials help define how to monitor patients or when to initiate treatment with curative intent. Methods and analysis A randomised, multicentre, intervention trial designed to evaluate the safety of an MRI-based active surveillance protocol, with standardised triggers for repeated biopsies and radical treatment. The aim is to reduce overtreatment of prostate cancer. 2000 men will be randomly allocated to either surveillance according to current practice or to standardised triggers at centres in Sweden, Norway, Finland and the UK. Men diagnosed in the past 12 months with prostate cancer, 0.2ng/mL/cc, any International Society of Urological Pathology (ISUP) grade 1 are eligible. Men with ISUP grade 2 in Ethics and dissemination Ethical approval was obtained in each participating country. Results for the primary and secondary outcome measures will be submitted for publication in peer-reviewed journals. Trial registration number NCT02914873.Peer reviewe

Medications and addictive substances potentially inducing or attenuating sleep bruxism and/or awake bruxism

Bruxism is a repetitive jaw-muscle activity characterised by clenching or grinding of the teeth and/or by bracing or thrusting of the mandible. It can occur during sleep, indicated as sleep bruxism, or during wakefulness, indicated as awake bruxism. Exogenous risk indicators of sleep bruxism and/or awake bruxism are, among others, medications and addictive substances, whereas also several medications seem to have the potential to attenuate sleep bruxism and/or awake bruxism. The objective of this study was to present a narrative literature on medications and addictive substances potentially inducing or aggravating sleep bruxism and/or awake bruxism and on medications potentially attenuating sleep bruxism and/or awake bruxism. Literature reviews reporting evidence or indications for sleep bruxism and/or awake bruxism as an adverse effect of several (classes of) medications as well as some addictive substances and literature reviews on medications potentially attenuating sleep bruxism and/or awake bruxism were used as starting point and guidelines to describe the topics mentioned. Additionally, two literature searches were established on PubMed. Three types of bruxism were distinguished: sleep bruxism, awake bruxism and non-specified bruxism. Generally, there are insufficient evidence-based data to draw definite conclusions concerning medications and addictive substances inducing or aggravating sleep bruxism and/or awake bruxism as well as concerning medications attenuating sleep bruxism and/or awake bruxism. There are insufficient evidence-based data to draw definite conclusions concerning medications and addictive substances inducing or aggravating sleep bruxism and/or awake bruxism as well as concerning medications attenuating sleep bruxism and/or awake bruxism.Peer reviewe

Migrant participation in Norwegian health care. A qualitative study using key informants

Background Little is known about how migrants adapt to first-world public health systems. In Norway, patients are assigned a registered general practitioner (RGP) to provide basic care and serve as gatekeeper for other medical services. Objectives: To explore determinants of migrant compliance with the RGP scheme and obstacles that migrants may experience. Methods: Individuals in leadership positions within migrant organizations for the 13 largest migrant populations in Norway in 2008 participated in this qualitative study. Semi-structured interviews, with migrants serving as key informants, were used to elucidate possible challenges migrant patients face in navigating the local primary health-care system. Conversations were structured using an interview guide covering the range of challenges that migrant patients meet in the health-care system. Results: According to informants, integration into the RGP scheme and adequacy of patient-physician communication varies according to duration of stay in Norway, the patient's country of origin, the reason for migration, health literacy, intention to establish permanent residence in Norway, language proficiency, and comprehension of information received about the health system. Informants noted as obstacles: doctor-patient interaction patterns, conflicting ideas about the role of the doctor, and language and cultural differences. In addressing noted obstacles, one strategy would be to combine direct intervention by migrant associations with indirect intervention via the public-health system

Union inclusiveness and temporary agency workers: the role of power resources and union ideology

This article investigates the determinants of union inclusiveness towards agency workers in Western Europe, using an index which combines unionization rates with dimensions of collective agreements covering agency workers. Using fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis, we identify two combinations of conditions leading to inclusiveness: the ‘Northern path’ includes high union density, high bargaining coverage and high union authority, and is consistent with the power resources approach. The ‘Southern path’ combines high union authority, high bargaining coverage, statutory regulations of agency work and working-class orientation, showing that ideology rather than institutional incentives shapes union strategies towards the marginal workforce

Noise Sensitivity in Continuum Percolation

We prove that the Poisson Boolean model, also known as the Gilbert disc model, is noise sensitive at criticality. This is the first such result for a Continuum Percolation model, and the first for which the critical probability p_c \ne 1/2. Our proof uses a version of the Benjamini-Kalai-Schramm Theorem for biased product measures. A quantitative version of this result was recently proved by Keller and Kindler. We give a simple deduction of the non-quantitative result from the unbiased version. We also develop a quite general method of approximating Continuum Percolation models by discrete models with p_c bounded away from zero; this method is based on an extremal result on non-uniform hypergraphs.Comment: 42 page