Linguistic status of Spanish fussions of verbs and personal pronouns

The aim of this article is to describe and classify fusions of Spanish verbs with pronominal enclitics as simple words. Such a classification of fusions of Spanish verbs with pronominal enclitics is based on the analyses of prosodic properties of the verb-orginated and pronominaorginated constituents. Moreover, the prosodic properties influence the semantic properties of the verb-orginated and pronomina-orginated constituents. The aim of this article is to describe and classify fusions of Spanish verbs with pronominal enclitics as simple words. Such a classification of fusions of Spanish verbs with pronominal enclitics is based on the analyses of prosodic properties of the verb-orginated and pronominaorginated constituents. Moreover, the prosodic properties influence the semantic properties of the verb-orginated and pronomina-orginated constituents.

Impact of 20-day strike in Polokwane Hospital (18 August - 6 September 2010)

Background. Doctors’ strikes have a negative effect on hospital performance indicators. Hospital mortality during such strikes is the most important indicator.Objective. To determine the effects of the 2010 strike on Polokwane Hospital.Methods. Information was collected from the Hospital Information System, Polokwane Hospital Casualty Department, wards and theatres.Results. During the 20-day strike, a total of 262 patients were  admitted to Polokwane Hospital, with 40 patients to the surgical department; 96 operations were performed in the hospital and 40 in the surgical department; and 50 deaths were reported in the hospital (8 deaths in the surgical department). During 20 days of a non-striking period in May 2010, there were 975 admissions to the hospital, with 125 to the surgical department. In the entire hospita l, 340 operations were performed, and 79 in the surgical department. For this period, 61 deaths were reported in the hospital and 12 in the surgical department.Conclusions. The total number of patients admitted to the hospital and the surgical department during the strike was significantly lower than during a non-striking situation. Total mortality during the strike in Polokwane Hospital decreased, compared with the normal situation, but it increased when judged against emergency cases. However, when mortality was qualified by the number of admissions, it showed a significant increase. Strikes seriously and significantly affect service delivery

Nodular thyroid disease and thyroid malignancy: Experience at Polokwane Mankweng Hospital Complex, Limpopo Province, South Africa

Background. Nodular thyroid disease is common throughout the world. Numbers of patients with goitre are increasing worldwide, as also noted in Limpopo Province, South Africa (SA). Globally, thyroid nodules have been reported in 4 - 7% of the population on neck palpation and in 30 - 50% by ultrasonography.Objectives. To review the profile of thyroid disease in patients with goitre presenting to the Department of Surgery at Polokwane Mankweng Hospital Complex (PMHC), Limpopo, SA, to characterise the pattern of malignancy in patients with goitre, and to determine the most common thyroid cancer.Method. A 6-year retrospective study (2003 - 2008) of all patients with thyroid nodules who underwent thyroid surgery at PMHC.Results. The study group included 90 patients (mean age 45 years, range 4 - 80). The male-to-female ratio was 1:17 (5 men, 85 women). Of these patients, 80 (89.9%) had benign lesions, of which 52 (57.8% of the total) were adenomas, 25 (27.8%) multinodular goitres (MNGs), 2 (2.2%) hyperplastic nodules and 1 (1.1%) Hashimoto’s thyroiditis. Ten patients (11.1%) had malignant lesions (7 follicular carcinomas and 3 papillary carcinomas), of which 2 were found in MNGs.Conclusions. Adenoma and MNG were the predominant non-malignant conditions (85.6%). The prevalence of thyroid cancer in our study was 11.1%, and of all 90 patients, 7.8% had follicular carcinoma. The risk of malignancy in MNG was 8.9%. Rates of thyroid nodules and carcinoma were highest in women aged 41 - 60 years. We advocate that total thyroidectomy be considered for MNG, because MNG can harbour incidental carcinoma

Using Images to create a Hierarchical Grid Spatial Index

This paper presents a hybrid approach to spatial indexing of two dimensional data. It sheds new light on the age old problem by thinking of the traditional algorithms as working with images. Inspiration is drawn from an analogous situation that is found in machine and human vision. Image processing techniques are used to assist in the spatial indexing of the data. A fixed grid approach is used and bins with too many records are sub-divided hierarchically. Search queries are pre-computed for bins that do not contain any data records. This has the effect of dividing the search space up into non rectangular regions which are based on the spatial properties of the data. The bucketing quad tree can be considered as an image with a resolution of two by two for each layer. The results show that this method performs better than the quad tree if there are more divisions per layer. This confirms our suspicions that the algorithm works better if it gets to look at the data with higher resolution images. An elegant class structure is developed where the implementation of concrete spatial indexes for a particular data type merely relies on rendering the data onto an image.Comment: In Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Systems, Man and Cybernetics, Taiwan, 2006, pp. 1974-197

CRM\u27s of the alpha toxin of Staphyloccoccus aureus.

Dept. of Biological Sciences. Paper copy at Leddy Library: Theses & Major Papers - Basement, West Bldg. / Call Number: Thesis1980 .M227. Source: Masters Abstracts International, Volume: 40-07, page: . Thesis (M.Sc.)--University of Windsor (Canada), 1980

Perceptions of Fairness and Trustworthiness Based on Explanations in Human vs. Automated Decision-Making

Automated decision systems (ADS) have become ubiquitous in many high-stakes domains. Those systems typically involve sophisticated yet opaque artificial intelligence (AI) techniques that seldom allow for full comprehension of their inner workings, particularly for affected individuals. As a result, ADS are prone to deficient oversight and calibration, which can lead to undesirable (e.g., unfair) outcomes. In this work, we conduct an online study with 200 participants to examine people’s perceptions of fairness and trustworthiness towards ADS in comparison to a scenario where a human instead of an ADS makes a high-stakes decision—and we provide thorough identical explanations regarding decisions in both cases. Surprisingly, we find that people perceive ADS as fairer than human decision-makers. Our analyses also suggest that people’s AI literacy affects their perceptions, indicating that people with higher AI literacy favor ADS more strongly over human decision-makers, whereas low-AI-literacy people exhibit no significant differences in their perceptions

Impedance Method Used To Calculate Initial Switching Currents in Transmission Networks and Generator Real Power

Switching-on of transmission network elements can bring about high inrush currents in the network elements (lines and transformers) as well as sudden changes in real power of generating units. In order to reduce those disadvantageous effects in modern power systems switching operations are controlled by protection devices referred to as synchro-check. Optimal setting of the synchro-check parameters requires the application of adequate criteria and an efficient method for calculating current changes in lines and generators that result from switching operations. This article proposes a new calculation method based on a nodal impedance matrix. Such a matrix is commonly used for short-circuit analyses. The advantage of the proposed method is that a short-circuit software with an adequate extension can be also applied to the analysis of switching operations

A Study on Fairness and Trust Perceptions in Automated Decision Making

Automated decision systems are increasingly used for consequential decision making---for a variety of reasons. These systems often rely on sophisticated yet opaque models, which do not (or hardly) allow for understanding how or why a given decision was arrived at. This is not only problematic from a legal perspective, but non-transparent systems are also prone to yield undesirable (e.g., unfair) outcomes because their sanity is difficult to assess and calibrate in the first place. In this work, we conduct a study to evaluate different attempts of explaining such systems with respect to their effect on people\u27s perceptions of fairness and trustworthiness towards the underlying mechanisms. A pilot study revealed surprising qualitative insights as well as preliminary significant effects, which will have to be verified, extended and thoroughly discussed in the larger main study