The crossing of the jordan according to josephus

This study offers a detailed examination of Josephus’ retelling (in Ant. 5.16-21) of the account of Israel’s crossing of the Jordan and its immediate sequels found in Joshua 3-5. The investigation uncovers (limited) indications of Josephus’ use of various textforms of the biblical passage. It also calls attention to the range of rewriting techniques applied by Josephus to the source narrative (abbreviations, amplifications, rearrangements, and other modifications) which result in a version of events that is, e.g., much more compact than the biblical one, even while it nuances the portrayal of the story’s characters in a number of respects

Operationalizing risk perception and preparedness behavior research for a multi-hazard context

Increasingly, citizens are being asked to take a more active role in disaster risk reduction (DRR), as decentralization of hazard governance has shifted greater responsibility for hazard preparedness actions onto individuals. Simultaneously, the taxonomy of hazards considered for DRR has expanded to include medical and social crises alongside natural hazards. Risk perception research emerged to support decision-makers with understanding how people characterize and evaluate different hazards to anticipate behavioral response and guide risk communication. Since its inception, the risk perception concept has been incorporated into many behavioral theories, which have been applied to examine preparedness for numerous hazard types. Behavioral theories have had moderate success in predicting or explaining preparedness behaviors; however, they are typically applied to a single hazard type and there is a gap in understanding which theories (if any) are suited for examining multiple hazard types simultaneously. This paper first reviews meta-analyses of behavioral theories to better understand performance. Universal lessons learnt are summarized for survey design. Second, theoretically based preparedness studies for floods, earthquakes, epidemics, and terrorism are reviewed to assess the conceptual requirements for a ‘multi-hazard’ preparedness approach. The development of an online preparedness self-assessment and learning platform is discussed

A bioassay for cyclophosphamide in blood, lung and tumour.

A bioassay has been developed to detect and quantify the concentration of cytotoxic metabolites of cyclophosphamide (CY) in blood, tumour, and lungs of mice. Extracts were made of blood or solid tissues taken from mice given CY and these were used to treat log phase Chinese Hamster V79 cells in culture for up to 24 h. The amount of cell killing was tested by colony formation 7 days later. The effects of incubation time, CY dose, and the time of tissue sampling after CY injection were investigated. The bioassay could detect cytotoxic metabolites in blood after doses as low as 10 mg kg-1 CY given i.p. The half life of these metabolites in blood after giving 400 mg kg-1 i.p. decreased over a 2 h period from 14 to 9 min. The method was then modified to define the pharmacokinetics of CY metabolites in two different types of tumour and in lung. The half life of the cytotoxic metabolites in the lung was longer than in blood, falling from 35 to 11 min over a 2 h period. In tumours, the half lives were longer again, i.e. approximately 61 min. The maximum metabolite levels achieved were similar in the two tumour types, although these differed markedly in their therapeutic response to CY. The bioassay for CY is a relatively simple and rapid procedure, and the extension of its application from body fluids to solid tissues makes it a useful tool in experimental pharmacokinetic studies

Characterization of flow in a scroll duct

A quantitative, flow visualization study was made of a partially elliptic cross section, inward curving duct (scroll duct), with an axial outflow through a vaneless annular cutlet. The working fluid was water, with a Re(d) of 40,000 at the inlet to the scroll duct, this Reynolds number being representative of the conditions in an actual gas turbine scroll. Both still and high speed moving pictures of fluorescein dye injected into the flow and illuminated by an argon ion laser were used to document the flow. Strong secondary flow, similar to the secondary flow in a pipe bend, was found in the bottom half of the scroll within the first 180 degs of turning. The pressure field set up by the turning duct was strong enough to affect the inlet flow condition. At 90 degs downstream, the large scale secondary flow was found to be oscillatory in nature. The exit flow was nonuniform in the annular exit. By 270 degs downstream, the flow appeared unorganized with no distinctive secondary flow pattern. Large scale structures from the upstream core region appeared by 90 degs and continued through the duct to reenter at the inlet section

ROC curve regression analysis: the use of ordinal regression models for diagnostic test assessment.

Diagnostic tests commonly are characterized by their true positive (sensitivity) and true negative (specificity) classification rates, which rely on a single decision threshold to classify a test result as positive. A more complete description of test accuracy is given by the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve, a graph of the false positive and true positive rates obtained as the decision threshold is varied. A generalized regression methodology, which uses a class of ordinal regression models to estimate smoothed ROC curves has been described. Data from a multi-institutional study comparing the accuracy of magnetic resonance (MR) imaging with computed tomography (CT) in detecting liver metastases, which are ideally suited for ROC regression analysis, are described. The general regression model is introduced and an estimate for the area under the ROC curve and its standard error using parameters of the ordinal regression model is given. An analysis of the liver data that highlights the utility of the methodology in parsimoniously adjusting comparisons for covariates is presented

What is the contribution of physician associates in hospital care in England? A mixed methods, multiple case study.

OBJECTIVES: To investigate the deployment of physician associates (PAs); the factors supporting and inhibiting their employment and their contribution and impact on patients' experience and outcomes and the organisation of services. DESIGN: Mixed methods within a case study design, using interviews, observations, work diaries and documentary analysis. SETTING: Six acute care hospitals in three regions of England in 2016-2017. PARTICIPANTS: 43 PAs, 77 other health professionals, 28 managers, 28 patients and relatives. RESULTS: A key influencing factor supporting the employment of PAs in all settings was a shortage of doctors. PAs were found to be acceptable, appropriate and safe members of the medical/surgical teams by the majority of doctors, managers and nurses. They were mainly deployed to undertake inpatient ward work in the medical/surgical team during core weekday hours. They were reported to positively contribute to: continuity within their medical/surgical team, patient experience and flow, inducting new junior doctors, supporting the medical/surgical teams' workload, which released doctors for more complex patients and their training. The lack of regulation and attendant lack of authority to prescribe was seen as a problem in many but not all specialties. The contribution of PAs to productivity and patient outcomes was not quantifiable separately from other members of the team and wider service organisation. Patients and relatives described PAs positively but most did not understand who and what a PA was, often mistaking them for doctors. CONCLUSIONS: This study offers new insights concerning the deployment and contribution of PAs in medical and surgical specialties in English hospitals. PAs provided a flexible addition to the secondary care workforce without drawing from existing professions. Their utility in the hospital setting is unlikely to be completely realised without the appropriate level of regulation and authority to prescribe medicines and order ionising radiation within their scope of practice

Can the Severity of Normal Tissue Damage after Radiation Therapy Be Predicted?

Begg discusses a new study by Svensson and colleagues in which the researchers attempted to elucidate genetic factors involved in late radiation toxicity

Cell kinetic analysis of murine squamous cell carcinomas: a comparison of single versus double labelling using flow cytometry and immunohistochemistry.

The study was originally set up to measure accurate cell kinetic parameters in two murine squamous cell carcinomas (scc) for comparison with radiobiological data on proliferation during radiotherapy. The tumours, AT84 and AT478, were both moderately well differentiated aneuploid scc. In the course of the study, several comparisons of techniques were made in two different centres. This paper reports on the results of those comparisons involving two different detection methods (flow cytometry and immunohistochemistry), single vs double labelling, and in vivo and in vitro labelling, the latter using tissue slices incubated under high pressure oxygen. Pulse labelling studies with bromodeoxyuridine (BrdUrd) showed that the labelling indices (LI) were not significantly different after in vitro or in vivo labelling. In addition, the flow cytometry (FCM) and immunohistochemistry (IHC) methods also gave labelling indices which were not significantly different. Only tumour cells were analysed in these studies by selecting cells on the basis of aneuploidy (FCM) or morphology (IHC). The DNA synthesis time of the tumour cells were analysed by both techniques. For FCM, the Relative Movement method was used (Begg et al., 1985). For IHC, a double labelling method was used, employing BrdUrd and triated thymidine (3H-TdR) administered several hours apart, detected simultaneously using immunoperoxidase and autoradiography, respectively. When both labels were administered in vivo, there was good agreement for Ts between the FCM and IHC methods. Attempts were also made to measure Ts in vitro using both techniques. With double labelling, it was found that cells did not take up the second label, implying a failure of cycle progression. This was confirmed by FCM results, showing no movement of labelled cells through the S-phase, despite an initially high uptake. This could not be influenced by lowering the DNA precursor concentration or by adding foetal calf serum. This indicates that DNA synthesis times are difficult or impossible to measure in vitro in fresh tumour explants. Finally, the double labelling IHC method allowed intratumoural variations of both LI and Ts to be studied. Both parameters were found to vary markedly throughout the tumour volume, particularly for larger tumours (600 mg), giving calculated local potential doubling time values (Tpot) ranging from 1-7 days