Dr. T.C. Rhee to Instruct Current World Affairs

News release announcing Dr. T.C. Rhee will serve as the instructor for the University\u27s Special Sessions course, Current World Affairs

Overview geotechnical model tests on dike safety at Deltares

Three on-going dike safety studies (on: macro stability, piping and flow slides) in the Netherlands make use of geotechnical physical models. A short outline of these projects is presented; the physical models chosen are described and discussed. The three studies use different physical models, depending on the research questions at the beginning of the model test series, the heterogeneity that is anticipated in the field, the scaling laws and the knowledge level. The paper describes why a certain model was chosen

Prevalence, underlying causes, and preventability of sepsis-associated mortality in US acute care hospitals

Importance: Sepsis is present in many hospitalizations that culminate in death. The contribution of sepsis to these deaths, and the extent to which they are preventable, is unknown. Objective: To estimate the prevalence, underlying causes, and preventability of sepsis-associated mortality in acute care hospitals. Design, Setting, and Participants: Cohort study in which a retrospective medical record review was conducted of 568 randomly selected adults admitted to 6 US academic and community hospitals from January 1, 2014, to December 31, 2015, who died in the hospital or were discharged to hospice and not readmitted. Medical records were reviewed from January 1, 2017, to March 31, 2018. Main Outcomes and Measures: Clinicians reviewed cases for sepsis during hospitalization using Sepsis-3 criteria, hospice-qualifying criteria on admission, immediate and underlying causes of death, and suboptimal sepsis-related care such as inappropriate or delayed antibiotics, inadequate source control, or other medical errors. The preventability of each sepsis-associated death was rated on a 6-point Likert scale. Results: The study cohort included 568 patients (289 [50.9%] men; mean [SD] age, 70.5 [16.1] years) who died in the hospital or were discharged to hospice. Sepsis was present in 300 hospitalizations (52.8%; 95% CI, 48.6%-57.0%) and was the immediate cause of death in 198 cases (34.9%; 95% CI, 30.9%-38.9%). The next most common immediate causes of death were progressive cancer (92 [16.2%]) and heart failure (39 [6.9%]). The most common underlying causes of death in patients with sepsis were solid cancer (63 of 300 [21.0%]), chronic heart disease (46 of 300 [15.3%]), hematologic cancer (31 of 300 [10.3%]), dementia (29 of 300 [9.7%]), and chronic lung disease (27 of 300 [9.0%]). Hospice-qualifying conditions were present on admission in 121 of 300 sepsis-associated deaths (40.3%; 95% CI 34.7%-46.1%), most commonly end-stage cancer. Suboptimal care, most commonly delays in antibiotics, was identified in 68 of 300 sepsis-associated deaths (22.7%). However, only 11 sepsis-associated deaths (3.7%) were judged definitely or moderately likely preventable; another 25 sepsis-associated deaths (8.3%) were considered possibly preventable. Conclusions and Relevance: In this cohort from 6 US hospitals, sepsis was the most common immediate cause of death. However, most underlying causes of death were related to severe chronic comorbidities and most sepsis-associated deaths were unlikely to be preventable through better hospital-based care. Further innovations in the prevention and care of underlying conditions may be necessary before a major reduction in sepsis-associated deaths can be achieved

Introduction. The Uncanny Aesthetics of Repairing, Reshaping, and Replacing Human Bodies

We would like to propose the concept of “uncanny aesthetics” to think through the ways in which we are remaking the human in the contemporary moment. The “uncanny valley” is a popular concept in robotics and graphic animation, which describes the feeling of unease caused by robots or digital creations that resemble humans too closely, startling us when they reveal their n onhuman nature to us. Masahiro Mori (2012), an authority within the fi eld of robotics, posits that this feeling of eeriness is probably instinctual, developing from our need to fear unhealthy humans and corpses, of which nonliving robots remind us. Jennifer Rhee critiques Mori for this assumption and points out the unstable nature of the human in the fi rst place, against which nonhuman others are supposed to be measured. The uncanny valley, Rhee (2013) argues, is the product of a long history that orients us toward specifi c defi nitions and demarcations of the human, and thus the discomfort that we feel toward the almost human reveals not our instincts but rather our entanglement with what lies beyond the human. Our emphasis in this volume on uncanny aesthetics is a call to deploy our productive unease as scholars regarding the permeable limits of the human. In a similar way to how Evija Laivina’s art denaturalizes the bodily modifi cation products available online, our work seeks to render the familiar strange and the strange familiar and analyze the power dynamics behind our global rush to repair bodies, reshape bodies, and replace body parts.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Blessed Are the Poor (in Spirit): Wealth and Poverty in the Writings of the Greek Christian Fathers of the Second Century

This paper examines how Greek Christian authors engaged with the topics of poverty and wealth during the second and third centuries CE - a period of major transition for the Christian Church. Beginning with the latest documents in the Greek New Testament (c. 90 - 120), this study traces these themes through the works of the Apostolic Fathers, including Clement of Rome (c. 35 - 99), Ignatius of Antioch (c. 34 - 108), and Polycarp of Smyrna (c. 69 - 155). It then addresses to the apologetic authors Justin Martyr (c. 100 - 165) and Irenaeus (c. 130 - 202). In the works of all these authors, “the poor” were considered to be a privileged class in the eyes of God. However, this status came to be questioned by Clement of Alexandria (c. 150 - 215), whose work The Rich Man’s Salvation is demonstrated to have fundamentally deviated from the traditional understanding of wealth and poverty. Clement eschewed the notion of an inherently “blessed” class of the poor in order to make Christian doctrine welcoming to more wealthy individuals. Clement’s work altered part of the character of Christian theology, but in doing so, he helped the movement expand throughout the Roman Empire

The Korean armistice of 1953 and its consequences - part I

Hoare: Both North and South Korea claim victory in the Korean War. Yet neither makes much of the ending of the war in July 1953, and both have had problems coming to terms with the reality of the war. The reality is that both suffered so much in a conflict that achieved little that formal celebrations seem inappropriate. Daniels: The outbreak of the Korean war in 1950 and the ferocious fighting which took place affected Britain, whose army took part in the war. This essay records the different shades of opinion expressed in its various newspapers/journals

Hispanic college students’ health and lifestyle

The purpose of this study is to further expand the understanding of how Hispanic college students’ life styles influence their health. The research design employed a cross-sectional survey approach utilizing the purposive sample of 116 Hispanic undergraduate students (62 men, 54 women, all lived in the dormitory during the semester) at a university in Texas. The results indicated that there is a significant difference between Hispanic male and female college students in their life styles. In addition there is a significant relationship between health and life styles of Hispanic male and female students. It is necessary to have amacro-level of public awareness providing healthy life style in college life

The Korean Armistice of 1953 and its Consequences - Part I

Hoare: Both North and South Korea claim victory in the Korean War. Yet neither makes much of the ending of the war in July 1953, and both have had problems coming to terms with the reality of the war. The reality is that both suffered so much in a conflict that achieved little that formal celebrations seem inappropriate.Daniels: The outbreak of the Korean war in 1950 and the ferocious fighting which took place affected Britain, whose army took part in the war. This essay records the different shades of opinion expressed in its various newspapers/journals.Korea, Korean war, 1950, Korean armistice, commemoration, Britain, Japan, China, newspapers, museums, monuments.