Never Again

This is the title of a novel of approximately 40,000 words in which no word is repeated; the full test can be found on ubu.com/contemp/nufer.pdf. It relates the adventures of George Raymond ( When the racetrack closed forever I had to get a job is the first sentence). The book is filled with vivid word-pictures using language reminiscent of James Joyce

Of Mice and Maidens: Ideologies of Interspecies Romance in Late Medieval and Early Modern Japan

Interspecies marriage (irui kon\u27in) has long been a central theme in Japanese literature and folklore. Frequently dismissed as fairytales, stories of interspecies marriage illuminate contemporaneous conceptions of the animal-human boundary and the anxieties surrounding it. This dissertation contributes to the emerging field of animal studies by examining otogizoshi (Muromachi/early Edo illustrated narrative fiction) concerning relationships between human women and male mice. The earliest of these is Nezumi no soshi ( The Tale of the Mouse ), a fifteenth century ko-e ( small scroll ) attributed to court painter Tosa Mitsunobu. Nezumi no soshi was followed roughly a century later by a group of tales collectively named after their protagonist, the mouse Gon no Kami. Unlike Nezumi no soshi, which focuses on the grief of the woman who has unwittingly married a mouse, the Gon no Kami tales contain pronounced comic elements and devote attention to the mouse-groom\u27s perspective. By elucidating the contrast between Nezumi no soshi and the earliest Gon no Kami manuscript and tracking the development of subsequent versions of Gon no Kami, I demonstrate mounting disenchantment with the irui kon\u27in trope as a means of telling stories about mice. Tales of interspecies marriage often end tragically; however, in fiction about mice, audience interest came to center on the utopian aspects of the imaginary mouse realm. Thus, mouse-human romance was displaced by storylines more conducive to happy endings, as in mid-seventeenth-century otogizoshi like Yahyoe nezumi ( The Mouse Yahyoe ) and Kakurezato ( The Hidden Village ), or slightly later kusazoshi (woodblock-print books) like Nezumi no yomeiri ( The Mouse\u27s Wedding ). The works above belong to a larger body of fiction about mice produced from the late Muromachi to mid-Edo. Previously, mice had received scant literary attention in irui kon\u27in tales and elsewhere. The sudden boom of mouse tales was driven by increased rodent-human contact due to urbanization, and also by the growing popularity of the god Daikokuten, whose iconography prominently featured mice. Mice were simultaneously reviled as vermin and celebrated as good omens, compelling the Gon no Kami stories and other mouse tales to negotiate between these contradictory identities

Certification of Legal Questions to the Utah Supreme Court

For 30 years, federal courts have certified questions of state law to the Utah Supreme Court. This thesis examines the history and utility of the process and recommends changes to the process in the federal district court and in the Utah Supreme Court. The current focus of federal judges in certifying questions is on utility for the case before the court. But certification of questions from a federal court to a state court is an expression of federalism—a humble acknowledgment by a federal authority which is often regarded as supreme that the state is the proper and best authority to declare its own law. Certification of questions is a rare instance of direct communication between state and federal courts, and a chance for both systems to cooperate in resolution of a single case, in their respective roles. Certification of legal questions from federal courts to state courts has emerged in the last 75 years. Similar purposes were accomplished previously in American law by very cumbersome procedures, and antecedents existed in English law. From Florida’s adoption of the first statutory certification procedure in 1945 through a 1960 U.S. Supreme Court endorsement of certification and promulgation of the Uniform Certification of Questions of Law Act, all states except North Carolina have adopted a certification procedure. The Utah procedure and practice began in 1975 with a rule later found to violate the Utah Constitution. But in 1984, a constitutional authorization paved the way for a valid process which has been used regularly, and most frequently in the last three years since a justice of the Utah Supreme Court became a district judge in the District of Utah. Thirty years of experience with certification in Utah federal and state courts is thoroughly examined in this thesis. Case histories and court practices demonstrate the usefulness of certification in Utah. But the thesis also suggests changes to Utah certification, by adoption of a new rule in the U.S. District Court for the District of Utah; by changes to the applicable Utah Rule of Appellate Procedure; and by changed practices of judges and lawyers. This thesis can serve as the basis for reflection, discussion and improvement between participants in the process of certification. This thesis also suggests other areas of study for the future, some related to Utah’s experience and other more general topics. Utah’s foundation for certification of questions from the federal court to the Utah Supreme Court has been laid. And now the process can be refined and improved for the future

Effect of Root-Rot Upon Sugar-Beet Seed Production

Due to considerable loss through root-rot of mother beets while in storage during the winter of 1918-1919 the Amalgamated Sugar Company asked advice in regard to planting beets which had decay lesions on them. Would the beets yield seed if planted? How much seed would these beets yield as compared with healthy beets? Would the seed produced be injured by having been grown on decayed beets? It was felt that an experiment carried out with the above questions in view would bring out many facts upon which to base conclusions in answering the questions of the Sugar Company

The cost effectiveness of selected optometric procedures

As funding of optometric care by third parties and the government increases, more regulation of vision care is anticipated. Utilization of cost effectiveness studies may largely determine methods of optometric care provided by third. parties and government. Consequently, a method of determining cost effectiveness of optometric procedures is developed and applied to three models of optometric care. Data taken from a review of patient records are used to develop quantifiable cost criteria for a specified patient group. These criteria include actual cost, patient acceptance (satisfaction), and professional acceptance of prescribed therapy. These criteria are then applied to each model of patient care to quantify the most cost effective model

Assessing a Longitudinal Reflection Curriculum: A Case Study Of Student Self-Awareness Expressed Through Rotation Goal Achievement

The Center for the Advancement of Pharmacy Education 2013 Affective Domain mandates students develop self-awareness of personal attributes affecting professional growth. Students should self-identify needs, create and implement goals, and evaluate success. This case study describes the qualitative and quantitative findings of an intentional reflection assignment prompting students to engage in a cycle of goal writing – monitoring – reflection – new goal writing, during an immersive clinical practice experience. A blinded review of 144 student assignments is presented in the context of a curricular review of the Reflective Practitioner Program (RPP), a longitudinal reflective thread spanning four years of professional pharmacy training. Evidence gathered in the assignment review indicates that students are sufficiently capable of establishing meaningful goals and describing why the goal is important to their professional development. In contrast, students struggle with articulating strategies for goal achievement and emotions experienced during goal monitoring. In consideration of these findings, RPP faculty identified three major themes when discussing key aspects of the RPP curricular design: 1) students need to articulate strategies for goal achievement in addition to stated aims, 2) students hesitate to identify emotions when reflecting, and 3) reflection needs to be both retrospective and prospective in nature.  This case study has resulted in meaningful changes to RPP curricular design and illustrates how programs may approach assessment of the Affective Domain via common curricular elements. Conflict of Interst: None   Type: Case Stud

Diabetes care and prevention services provided by pharmacists: progress made during the COVID-19 pandemic and the need for additional efforts in the post-pandemic era

Diabetes is a challenging metabolic disease that significantly impacts people's health worldwide. It requires a comprehensive approach for better prevention and control, especially during challenging times such as the recent pandemic. The COVID-19 pandemic has altered how health care professionals, including pharmacists, provide health care. With the widespread use of virtual and online platforms for service delivery, pharmacist-led diabetes care has been transformed to meet the needs of patients during the pandemic. This article aims to discuss examples of pharmacist-led diabetes care services during the pandemic and highlight areas where additional pharmacist efforts are needed in the post-pandemic era

Context-free hyperspectral image enhancement for wide-field optical biomarker visualization

Many well-known algorithms for the color enhancement of hyperspectral measurements in biomedical imaging are based on statistical assumptions that vary greatly with respect to the proportions of different pixels that appear in a given image, and thus may thwart their application in a surgical environment. This article attempts to explain why this occurs with SVD-based enhancement methods, and proposes the separation of spectral enhancement from analysis. The resulting method, termed affinity-based color enhancement, or ACE for short, achieves multi- and hyperspectral image coloring and contrast based on current spectral affinity metrics that can physically relate spectral data to a particular biomarker. This produces tunable, real-time results which are analogous to the current state-of-the-art algorithms, without suffering any of their inherent context-dependent limitations. Two applications of this method are shown as application examples: vein contrast enhancement and high-precision chromophore concentration estimation.Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities (FIS2010-19860, TEC2016-76021-C2-2-R); Spanish Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitiveness and Instituto de Salud Carlos III (DTS15-00238, DTS17-00055); Instituto de Investigación Valdecilla (IDIVAL) (INNVAL16/02, INNVAL18/23); Spanish Ministry of Education, Culture, and Sports (FPU16/05705