Social Media, Gender and the Mediatisation of War: Exploring the German Armed Forces’ Visual Representation of the Afghanistan Operation on Facebook

Studies on the mediatisation of war point to attempts of governments to regulate the visual perspective of their involvements in armed conflict – the most notable example being the practice of ‘embedded reporting’ in Iraq and Afghanistan. This paper focuses on a different strategy of visual meaning-making, namely, the publication of images on social media by armed forces themselves. Specifically, we argue that the mediatisation of war literature could profit from an increased engagement with feminist research, both within Critical Security/Critical Military Studies and within Science and Technology Studies that highlight the close connection between masculinity, technology and control. The article examines the German military mission in Afghanistan as represented on the German armed forces’ official Facebook page. Germany constitutes an interesting, and largely neglected, case for the growing literature on the mediatisation of war: its strong antimilitarist political culture makes the representation of war particularly delicate. The paper examines specific representational patterns of Germany’s involvement in Afghanistan and discusses the implications which arise from what is placed inside the frame of visibility and what remains out of its view

Nurses' perceptions of aids and obstacles to the provision of optimal end of life care in ICU

Contains fulltext : 172380.pdf (publisher's version ) (Open Access

Association between sonographic features of thyroid nodules and cellular examination obtained by fine needle aspiration

Background: As we know, thyroid nodules are common, but many of them are benign, and this shows that sampling of nodules is not necessary to diagnose benignity.The aim of this article was to determine the diagnostic accuracy of ultrasound features for diagnosing malignant thyroid nodules in patients referred to Fajr infirmary in Ilam. Methods: This descriptive-cross-sectional study was conducted on 122 patients referred to Fajr Ilam Clinic in October 2015 to January 2018.Clinical characteristics such as age, gender, BMI and history of underlying thyroid diseases and Hashimoto's thyroiditis were collected with the help of a questionnaire.The dependence of ultrasound characteristics with thyroid malignancy was determined using a multivariate analysis test. This ultrasound feature was compared with the results of fine needle aspiration cytology and the diagnostic accuracy indices were calculated for each ultrasound feature.This article was conducted using statistical tests, chi-square, independent t-test, Mann-Whitney test, and bivariate logistic regression using Spss software. Results: The study sample included of 30(24.6) malignant and 92(75.4) benign nodules. Hypoechogenicity and microcalcification showed statistically significant positive associations with thyroid malignancy (P0.05). Hypoechogenicity had 63.3 sensitivity and 67.04 specificity, microcalcification had 60 sensitivity and 65.93 specificity. Having at least one good sonographic feature resulted in the highest sensitivity (86.67), while the presence of both features had almost perfect specificity (91.3) and the highest positive likelihood ratio (4.21). Conclusion: According to the results of this article, the presence of Microcalcification variables and Hypoechogenicity are the most important criteria in predicting thyroid malignancy, and they are Locate in the TI-RADS grading. Therefore, nodules larger than 1 cm in size with the characteristics of microcalcification and homogeneity ultrasound should be the main focus of diagnostic evaluations. Copyright © 2022 Hamedi et al.Tehran University of Medical Sciences. Published by Tehran University of Medical Sciences

Materials Science Measurement of of Amalgam Mixes to Condensation

A method was designed to evaluate the resistance of amalgam mixes to condensation forces. For the purpose of classification with respect to the plasticity of amalgam, the optimum test conditon was to apply 40 or 50 lb of static load at 30 sec after trituration.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/67745/2/10.1177_00220345830620081701.pd

Scheduling decisions and their dynamic consequences on construction performance

Construction practitioners often experience unexpected results of their scheduling-related decisions. This is mainly due to lack of understanding of the dynamic nature of construction system. However, very little attention has been given to its significant importance and few empirical studies have been undertaken on this issue. This paper, therefore, analyzes the effect of aggressive scheduling, overtime, resource adding, and schedule slippage on construction performance, focusing on workers’ reactions to those scheduling decisions. Survey data from 102 construction practitioners in 38 construction sites are used for the analysis. The results indicate that efforts to increase work rate by working overtime, resource adding, and aggressive scheduling can be offset due to losses in productivity and quality. Based on the research findings, practical guidelines are then discussed to help site managers to effectively deal with the dynamics of scheduling and improve construction performance