‘Wild land’: a concept in search of space

This paper sets out the general background context surrounding the issue of wild land in Scotland. It explores definitions of wild land and related concepts, identifies key issues associated with wild land in Scotland, and explores the question of the desirability of designating areas as wild land for Scotland. There is increasing interest in the concept of ‘wild land’, ‘wildness’, or ‘wilderness’ in Scotland, other parts of the UK and Europe. Changes in agricultural policy are leading to land abandonment in several European Union member states and in some cases ‘re-wilding’ is taking place with little or no managerial input from humans. These events have led to renewed interest across Europe in setting aside land with minimal management to create ‘wild’ areas. There has been either interest or activity, not always in the public sector, in Italy, Spain, Germany, Austria and Switzerland, and the Netherlands in exploring and establishing some form of wild land area. Many of these are relatively small, with evidence of recent human activity, and, as such, are quite distinct from the concept of ‘wilderness’, which has been so influential in certain parts of the world (such as North America) in influencing the designation of areas of land for minimal management. In contrast there are the large areas of northern Scandinavia, which still contain ‘wilderness-like’ qualities, and to some extent are preserved in the wilderness areas and national parks of Finland, Sweden and Norway. Unfortunately, the terms ‘wild land’, ‘wildness’, ‘wilderness’, come with an enormous amount of associated cultural baggage, resulting in argument and conflict over definitions, purpose, and management of potential wild land or wilderness areas. The aim of this paper is to unpack some of that baggage and clarify the key issues in the current discussions on wild land taking place in Scotland

Body mass index mortality paradox in chronic kidney disease patients with suspected cardiac chest pain

Background: Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a silent clinical condition associated with adverse comorbidity and high cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk. An inverse relationship with body mass index (BMI) and mortality has been demonstrated in hemodialysis patients. However, it is unclear if this risk‐factor paradox is evident in non‐dialysis CKD patients. The aims of this study were to explore the relationship between, nutritional status, markers of inflammation, autonomic and cardiac function with BMI. Longitudinal follow‐up explored the relationship between BMI and allcause mortality. Methods: 211‐consecutive CKD patients referred for dobutamine stress echocardiography to detect or exclude myocardial ischemia were recruited. BMI, albumin, C‐reactive protein (CRP) and haemoglobin (Hb) were recorded as markers of nutritional and inflammatory status. Left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) and heart rate variability (HRV) as an indicator of cardiac function was recorded. All subjects were followed prospectively until November 2014 and study end‐point was all‐cause mortality. Results: BMI was inversely associated with CKD status. After covariate adjustment, this association remained. During a mean follow‐up period of 3.3±0.9 years there were 35 deaths (17%). BMI was inversely associated with all‐cause mortality (HR 0.81, 95% CI 0.71‐0.9). Other important independent predictors of mortality were heart rate variability (HR 0.98, 95% CI 0.97‐0.99), myocardial ischemia (HR 1.37, 95% CI 1.17‐1.81), and albumin (HR 0.86, 95% CI 0.81‐ 0.92). Conclusions: The presence of a BMI paradox exists in non‐dialysis CKD patients. This risk‐factor paradox was an independent predictor of all‐cause mortality and may have significant clinical implications relevant to screening, assessment and treatment and requires further study

Sarcopenic Obesity and Depression: A Systematic Review

BACKGROUND: Sarcopenic obesity (SO) is a condition combining two important public health issues commonly seen amongst older individuals, obesity and sarcopenia. Depressive symptoms are common among older people, whose population is increasing worldwide. Obesity and sarcopenia alone, are clearly associated with depression while the coexistence of these two conditions (SO) upon depressive disorders is currently unclear. We aimed to systematically review the association between primary SO and depressive disorders. METHODS: Searches were run on MEDLINE, EMBASE, PsycINFO, and CINAHL (inception to June 2019). One reviewer screened titles, abstracts, and full-texts, with 10% checked independently by a second reviewer. Cohort and cross-sectional studies were included. Two reviewers independently assessed risk of bias using the Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool. Results were narratively synthesised. RESULTS: Out of the 7 studies eligible for inclusion, evidence of sarcopenic obesity as a predictor of depressive symptoms was found in two studies. The main observed trend was that diagnosing sarcopenia using muscle strength led to significant associations between sarcopenic obesity and depressive symptoms. Two cross-sectional studies found a significant association between SO and depressive symptoms, whilst three others found no statistically significant associations. All possessed some methodological limitations. DISCUSSION: This is the first review to systematically examine a potential relationship between sarcopenic obesity and depressive disorders. Currently, the results are heterogeneous due to the large variability in assessment methods and outcome measurements. Future longitudinal studies would achieve greater confidence in the provisional conclusion that sarcopenic obesity, when measured using muscle strength, is associated with depressive symptoms

The VLA Low-frequency Sky Survey

The Very Large Array (VLA) Low-frequency Sky Survey (VLSS) has imaged 95% of the 3*pi sr of sky north of declination = -30 degrees at a frequency of 74 MHz (4 meter wavelength). The resolution is 80" (FWHM) throughout, and the typical RMS noise level is ~0.1 Jy/beam. The typical point-source detection limit is 0.7 Jy/beam and so far nearly 70,000 sources have been catalogued. This survey used the 74 MHz system added to the VLA in 1998. It required new imaging algorithms to remove the large ionospheric distortions at this very low frequency throughout the entire ~11.9 degree field of view. This paper describes the observation and data reduction methods used for the VLSS and presents the survey images and source catalog. All of the calibrated images and the source catalog are available online (http://lwa.nrl.navy.mil/VLSS) for use by the astronomical community.Comment: 53 pages, including 3 tables and 15 figures. Has been accepted for publication in the Astronomical Journa

GraphSE2^2: An Encrypted Graph Database for Privacy-Preserving Social Search

In this paper, we propose GraphSE$^2$, an encrypted graph database for online social network services to address massive data breaches. GraphSE$^2$ preserves the functionality of social search, a key enabler for quality social network services, where social search queries are conducted on a large-scale social graph and meanwhile perform set and computational operations on user-generated contents. To enable efficient privacy-preserving social search, GraphSE$^2$ provides an encrypted structural data model to facilitate parallel and encrypted graph data access. It is also designed to decompose complex social search queries into atomic operations and realise them via interchangeable protocols in a fast and scalable manner. We build GraphSE$^2$ with various queries supported in the Facebook graph search engine and implement a full-fledged prototype. Extensive evaluations on Azure Cloud demonstrate that GraphSE$^2$ is practical for querying a social graph with a million of users.Comment: This is the full version of our AsiaCCS paper "GraphSE$^2$: An Encrypted Graph Database for Privacy-Preserving Social Search". It includes the security proof of the proposed scheme. If you want to cite our work, please cite the conference version of i

Emergency Department Pain Management Following Implementation of a Geriatric Hip Fracture Program

Introduction: Over 300,000 patients in the United States sustain low-trauma fragility hip fractures annually. Multidisciplinary geriatric fracture programs (GFP) including early, multimodal pain management reduce morbidity and mortality. Our overall goal was to determine the effects of a GFP on the emergency department (ED) pain management of geriatric fragility hip fractures. Methods: We performed a retrospective study including patients age ≥65 years with fragility hip fractures two years before and two years after the implementation of the GFP. Outcomes were time to (any) first analgesic, use of acetaminophen and fascia iliaca compartment block (FICB) in the ED, and amount of opioid medication administered in the first 24 hours. We used permutation tests to evaluate differences in ED pain management following GFP implementation. Results: We studied 131 patients in the pre-GFP period and 177 patients in the post-GFP period. In the post-GFP period, more patients received FICB (6% vs. 60%; difference 54%, 95% confidence interval [CI] 45–63%; p<0.001) and acetaminophen (10% vs. 51%; difference 41%, 95% CI 32–51%; p<0.001) in the ED. Patients in the post-GFP period also had a shorter time to first analgesic (103 vs. 93 minutes; p=0.04) and received fewer morphine equivalents in the first 24 hours (15mg vs. 10mg, p<0.001) than patients in the pre-GFP period. Conclusion: Implementation of a GFP was associated with improved ED pain management for geriatric patients with fragility hip fractures. Future studies should evaluate the effects of these changes in pain management on longer-term outcomes

Introduction:AI, inclusion, and ‘everyone learning everything’

This chapter provides an introduction to the book—Artificial Intelligence and Inclusive Education: speculative futures and emerging practices. It examines the potential intersections, correspondences, divergences, and contestations between the discourses that typically accompany, on the one hand, calls for artificial intelligence technology to disrupt and enhance educational practice and, on the other, appeals for greater inclusion in teaching and learning. Both these areas of discourse are shown to envision a future of ‘education for all’: artificial intelligence in education (AIEd) tends to promote the idea of an automated, and personalised, one-to-one tutor for every learner, while inclusive education often appears concerned with methods of involving marginalised and excluded individuals and organising the communal dimensions of education. However, these approaches are also shown to imply important distinctions: between the attempts at collective educational work through inclusive pedagogies and the drive for personalised learning through AIEd. This chapter presents a critical view of the quest for personalisation found in AIEd, suggesting a problematic grounding in the myth of the one-to-one tutor and questionable associations with simplistic views of ‘learner-centred’ education. In contrast, inclusive pedagogy is suggested to be more concerned with developing a ‘common ground’ for educational activity, rather than developing a one-on-one relationship between the teacher and the student. Inclusive education is therefore portrayed as political, involving the promotion of active, collective, and democratic forms of citizen participation. The chapter concludes with an outline of the subsequent contributions to the book

Correction: Product diversity and spectrum of choice in hospital eprescribing systems in England.

There are two errors in the author byline in the XML version of the article. The sixth author’s name is spelled incorrectly. The correct name is: Aziz Sheikh. Jamie Coleman should not be listed as an author. The correct author byline is: Hajar Mozaffar, Robin Williams, Kathrin Cresswell, Zoe Morison, Ann Slee, Aziz Sheikh on behalf of the ePrescribing Programme Team

Radio morphology and spectral analysis of cD galaxies in rich and poor galaxy clusters

We present a radio morphological study and spectral analysis for a sample of 13 cD galaxies in rich and poor clusters of galaxies.} Our study is based on new high sensitivity Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (GMRT) observations at 1.28 GHz, 610 MHz and 235 MHz, and on archival data. From a statistical sample of cluster cD galaxies we selected those sources with little information available in the literature and promising for the detection of aged radio emission. Beyond the high sensitivity images for all 13 radio galaxies, we present also a detailed spectral analysis for 7 of them. We found a variety of morphologies and linear sizes, as typical for radio galaxies in the radio power range sampled here (low to intermediate power radio galaxies). The spectral analysis shows that 10/13 radio galaxies have steep radio spectrum, with spectral index $\alpha \ge 1$. In general, the radiative ages and growth velocities are consistent with previous findings that the evolution of radio galaxies at the cluster centres is affected by the dense external medium (i.e. low growth velocities and old ages. We suggest that the dominant galaxies in A 2622 and MKW 03s are dying radio sources, which at present are not fed by nuclear activity. On the other hand, the spectacular source at the centre of A 2372 might be a very interesting example of restarted radio galaxy. For this source we estimated a life cycle of the order of 10$^6$ yr.Comment: Accepted by A&A, 25 pages, 28 figures, 6 tables and appendix Full version including high quality images available at http://www.ira.inaf.it/~tventuri/pap/Venturi.pd