Return to the Wood in Roman Kent

This short piece concerns a Roman writing tablet housed in the Museum of London. The tablet in question contains an incomplete record of a transaction between two Roman citizens containing the sale of a woodland in Roman Kent. Owing to the fragmentary nature of the text, the nature of the transaction and the context in which the tablet was produced cannot be determined with certainty. The aim of this piece is to set out current scholarly opinions on the possible nature of the transaction and the context in which it was produced and to venture a new interpretation of this document

The nature of the mule

This paper is concerned with the emergence of the concept of imperitia (lack of skill) as a form of culpa (fault) in the context of the Roman contract of letting and hiring. After revisiting the state of the debate, this paper focuses on one of the many different contexts in which lack of skill is discussed in Roman juristic thought, namely the mule driver. The central question posed by this article is why mule drivers were deemed in law to be “skilled” workers and how this assessment fits into the Roman jurists’ assessment of lack of skill as a form of fault

Definition of a quality factor for single site location estimates

A technique to estimate the performance of Single Site Location (SSL) based on High Frequency (HF) direction finding (DF) for reigning ionospheric propagation conditions is described. This technique is based on classic propagation information (MUF, FOT, OWF, HPF, LPF, etc.) which can be deduced by ray-tracing through an ionospheric model such as the International Reference Ionosphere (IRI). The correlation between the elevation angle measured by an interferometric direction finder and the angles corresponding to the propagation conditions are used to assign a quality factor to the calculated SSL ground range result.This work is based on the research supported in part by the National Research Foundation of South Africa (NRF) (Grant specific unique reference number (UID) 85845).http://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/agu/journal/10.1002/(ISSN)1944-799X2016-12-31hb2016Electrical, Electronic and Computer Engineerin

The human dilemma of displacement

In this book social responsive theological research converges to provide practical theological and ecclesiological perspectives on the growing human dilemma of displacement. The book presents the research of practical theologians, a missiologist and a religious practitioner whose work pertains first and foremost to the (South) African context. The different fields of expertise of the contributors within the broader field of practical theology worked towards a unique compilation of themes, each relevant to the issue at stake. The majority of chapters are theoretically orientated, except where authors refer to empirical work conducted during previous research. The main contribution of this collaborative work is to be sought in the practical theological and ecclesiological perspectives it provides. It engages the critical questions of what kind of church we need, and what kind of care we should provide in the face of the growing predicament of human displacement. The theological and theoretical principles uncovered in the different chapters will be of use to theologians from all theological subdisciplines, as well as to religious practitioners and leaders of faith communities that are challenged with the growing realities of strangers on their doorsteps and in their pews

Prevalence of poverty and hunger at cancer diagnosis and its association with malnutrition and overall survival in South Africa

DATA AVAILABILITY STATEMENT : The data that support the findings of this study are available on request from the corresponding author, JS. The data are not publicly available due to data containing information that could compromise the privacy of research participants.Many South African children live in poverty and food insecurity; therefore, malnutrition within the context of childhood cancer should be examined. Parents/caregivers completed the Poverty-Assessment Tool (divided into poverty risk groups) and the Household Hunger Scale questionnaire in five pediatric oncology units. Height, weight, and mid-upper arm circumference assessments classified malnutrition. Regression analysis evaluated the association of poverty and food insecurity with nutritional status, abandonment of treatment, and one-year overall survival (OS). Nearly a third (27.8%) of 320 patients had a high poverty risk, associated significantly with stunting (p = 0.009), food insecurity (p < 0.001) and residential province (p < 0.001) (multinomial regression). Stunting was independently and significantly associated with one-year OS on univariate analysis. The hunger scale was significant predictor of OS, as patients living with hunger at home had an increased odds ratio for treatment abandonment (OR 4.5; 95% CI 1.0; 19.4; p = 0.045) and hazard for death (HR 3.2; 95% CI 1.02, 9.9; p = 0.046) compared to those with food security. Evaluating sociodemographic factors such as poverty and food insecurity at diagnosis is essential among South African children to identify at-risk children and implement adequate nutritional support during cancer treatment.https://www.tandfonline.com/loi/hnuc202024-05-25hj2024Paediatrics and Child HealthSDG-02:Zero HungerSDG-03:Good heatlh and well-bein

SARS-CoV-2 Omicron is an immune escape variant with an altered cell entry pathway

Vaccines based on the spike protein of SARS-CoV-2 are a cornerstone of the public health response to COVID-19. The emergence of hypermutated, increasingly transmissible variants of concern (VOCs) threaten this strategy. Omicron (B.1.1.529), the fifth VOC to be described, harbours multiple amino acid mutations in spike, half of which lie within the receptor-binding domain. Here we demonstrate substantial evasion of neutralization by Omicron BA.1 and BA.2 variants in vitro using sera from individuals vaccinated with ChAdOx1, BNT162b2 and mRNA-1273. These data were mirrored by a substantial reduction in real-world vaccine effectiveness that was partially restored by booster vaccination. The Omicron variants BA.1 and BA.2 did not induce cell syncytia in vitro and favoured a TMPRSS2-independent endosomal entry pathway, these phenotypes mapping to distinct regions of the spike protein. Impaired cell fusion was determined by the receptor-binding domain, while endosomal entry mapped to the S2 domain. Such marked changes in antigenicity and replicative biology may underlie the rapid global spread and altered pathogenicity of the Omicron variant

HIV prevention costs and program scale: data from the PANCEA project in five low and middle-income countries

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Economic theory and limited empirical data suggest that costs per unit of HIV prevention program output (unit costs) will initially decrease as small programs expand. Unit costs may then reach a nadir and start to increase if expansion continues beyond the economically optimal size. Information on the relationship between scale and unit costs is critical to project the cost of global HIV prevention efforts and to allocate prevention resources efficiently.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>The "Prevent AIDS: Network for Cost-Effectiveness Analysis" (PANCEA) project collected 2003 and 2004 cost and output data from 206 HIV prevention programs of six types in five countries. The association between scale and efficiency for each intervention type was examined for each country. Our team characterized the direction, shape, and strength of this association by fitting bivariate regression lines to scatter plots of output levels and unit costs. We chose the regression forms with the highest explanatory power (R²).</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Efficiency increased with scale, across all countries and interventions. This association varied within intervention and within country, in terms of the range in scale and efficiency, the best fitting regression form, and the slope of the regression. The fraction of variation in efficiency explained by scale ranged from 26% – 96%. Doubling in scale resulted in reductions in unit costs averaging 34.2% (ranging from 2.4% to 58.0%). Two regression trends, in India, suggested an inflection point beyond which unit costs increased.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Unit costs decrease with scale across a wide range of service types and volumes. These country and intervention-specific findings can inform projections of the global cost of scaling up HIV prevention efforts.</p