Reading John 7:53–8:11 as a narrative against male violence against women

Male violence against women is at shocking levels in South Africa. According to Faul, ‘A woman is killed by an intimate partner every eight hours, a probable underestimate because no perpetrator is identified in 20 percent of killings’, whilst ‘More than 30 percent of girls have been raped by the time they are 18’. Reeva Steenkamp’s killing by her partner, Oscar Pistorius, came ‘the day before she planned to wear black in a “Black Friday” protest against the country’s excruciatingly high number of rapes’ (Faul). The purpose of this article is to reread a key biblical text regarding male violence against women in order to highlight how Jesus would want us to respond to such violence. The text is John 7:53–8:11. The NRSV: Catholic Edition entitles the story ‘The woman caught in adultery’. However, this title is problematic as it can lead to misleading readings of the text, as I will show, and so I have given it a different title, namely ‘The woman threatened with stoning’

International Service Learning: Decolonizing Possibilities?

International Service Learning (ISL) programs are now ubiquitous, and the concept seems immutable: well-meaning young people from the North visiting "host" communities in the South in order to provide "service" and "to learn."  The adulatory literature is replete with the purported benefits of these programs, both to those participating from the North, and to the communities in the South. By comparison, more critical follow-up of participants from the North suggest otherwise – that they serve mainly to reinforce values of charity for the "other" and do little to aid in understanding the reasons for the unequal relations of "underdevelopment."  Similarly, a number of more recent studies have raised questions about the impact of these programs on communities in the South, and the extent to which they may serve to (re)instill neo-colonial economic and/or cultural relations.This paper presents and discusses findings from a multi-year study in a number of rural communities in Nicaragua which have hosted ISL programs, undertaken with the express purpose of exploring the modes and effects of the interactions between the visitors and the community residents. Through field observation, interviews and focus groups, a complex picture emerges of community engagement with, and reaction to, these Northern visitors, and the impact they effect on their Southern hosts. Of particular interest, we examine the possibilities these programs may have for interrupting traditional knowledge-power relations and understandings on both sides

A Framework for Measuring the Performance and Power Consumption of Storage Components under Typical Workload

Although the cost of storage components are reportedaccurately by the vendors, it is not clear whether the performance (IOps,MiBps) and power consumption (W) specifications they provide are accurateunder ‘typical’ workloads. Accurately measuring this informationis a vital step in providing input for optimal storage systems design. Thispaper measures storage disk performance and power consumption using‘typical’ workloads. The workloads are generated using an open sourceversion of the (industry standard) SPC-1 benchmark. This benchmarkcreates a realistic synthetic workload that aggregates multiple usersutilizing data storage simultaneously. A flexible current sensor board hasalso been developed to measure various storage devices simultaneously.This work represents a significant contribution to data storage benchmarkingresources (both performance and power consumption) as wehave embedded the open source SPC-1 benchmark spc1 within an opensource workload generator fio, in addition to our flexible current sensordevelopment. The integration provides an easily available benchmark forresearchers developing new storage technologies. This benchmark shouldgive a reasonable estimation of performance with the official SPC-1benchmark for systems that do not yet fulfill all the requirements for anofficial SPC-1 benchmark. With accurate information, our frameworkshows promise in alleviating much of the complexity in future storagesystems design

Evaluation of Skin-mounted Sensor for Head Impact Measurement

Background: The requirement to measure the number and severity of head impacts in sports has led to the development of wearable sensors. Aim: The objective of this study was to determine the reliability and accuracy of a wearable head impact sensor: xPatch, X2Biosystems Inc. Methods: The skin mounted sensor, xPatch, was fixed onto a Hybrid III headform, and dropped using an impact test rig. Four hundred impacts were performed, ranging from 20 to 200g linear acceleration, and impact velocities of 1.2m/s to 3.9m/s. During each impact, the peak linear acceleration, angular velocity and angular acceleration, were recorded and compared to reference calibrated data. Impacts were also recorded using a high-speed video camera. Results: The linear acceleration recorded by the xPatch during frontal and side impacts had errors of up to 24% when compared to the referenced data. The angular velocity and angular acceleration had substantially larger errors of up to 47.5% and 57% respectively. The location of the impact had a significant effect on the results: if the impact was to the side of the head, the device on that side may have an error of up to 71%, thus highlighting the importance of device location. All impacts were recorded using two separate xPatches and, in certain cases, the difference in angular velocity between the devices was 43%. Conclusion: The xPatch can be useful for identifying impacts and recording linear accelerations during front and side impacts, but the rotational velocity and acceleration data needs to be interpreted with caution

Oral flucloxacillin and phenoxymethylpenicillin versus flucloxacillin alone for the emergency department outpatient treatment of cellulitis: study protocol for a randomised controlled trial

BACKGROUND: Oral flucloxacillin, either alone or in combination with phenoxymethylpenicillin, is a commonly prescribed antibiotic for the treatment of cellulitis, particularly in Ireland and the United Kingdom. This study aims to establish the non-inferiority of oral monotherapy (flucloxacillin alone) to dual therapy (flucloxacillin and phenoxymethylpenicillin) for the outpatient treatment of cellulitis in adults. METHODS/DESIGN: This study is a multicentre, randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial of adults who present to the emergency department (ED) with cellulitis that is deemed treatable on an outpatient basis with oral antibiotics. After fulfilling specified inclusion and exclusion criteria, informed consent will be taken. Patients will be given a treatment pack containing 7 days of treatment with flucloxacillin 500 mg four times daily and placebo or flucloxacillin 500 mg four times daily and phenoxymethylpenicillin 500 mg four times daily. The primary outcome measure under study is the proportion of patients in each group in which there is greater than or equal to a 50% reduction in the area of diameter of infection from the area measured at enrolment at the end-of-treatment visit (7 to 10 days). Secondary endpoints include a health-related quality of life measurement as rated by the SF-36 score and the Extremity Soft Tissue Infection Score (not validated), compliance and adverse events. Patients will be followed up by telephone call at 3 days, end-of-treatment visit (EOT) at 7 to 10 days and test-of-cure (TOC) visit at 30 days. To achieve 90% power, a sample size of 172 patients per treatment arm is needed. This assumes a treatment success rate of 85% with oral flucloxacillin and phenoxymethylpenicillin, an equivalence threshold Δ = 12.5% and an α = 0.025. Non-inferiority will be assessed using a one-sided confidence interval on the difference of proportions between the two groups. Standard analysis including per-protocol and intention-to-treat will be performed. DISCUSSION: This trial aims to establish the non-inferiority of flucloxacillin monotherapy to dual therapy in the treatment of uncomplicated cellulitis among ED patients. In doing so, this trial will bridge a knowledge gap in this understudied and common condition and will be relevant to clinicians across several different disciplines. TRIAL REGISTRATION: EudraCT Number 2008-006151-4

Agribusiness supply chain risk management: A review of quantitative decision models

Supply chain risk management is a large and growing field of research. However, within this field, mathematical models for agricultural products have received relatively little attention. This is somewhat surprising as risk management is even more important for agricultural supply chains due to challenges associated with seasonality, supply spikes, long supply lead-times, and perishability. This paper carries out a thorough review of the relatively limited literature on quantitative risk management models for agricultural supply chains. Specifically, we identify robustness and resilience as two key techniques for managing risk. Since these terms are not used consistently in the literature, we propose clear definitions and metrics for these terms; we then use these definitions to classify the agricultural supply chain risk management literature. Implications are given for both practice and future research on agricultural supply chain risk management

A Key Role for Subiculum-Fornix Connectivity in Recollection in Older Age

Individual differences in memory during aging are associated with the microstructure of the fornix, a bidirectional tract connecting the hippocampus with the diencephalon, basal forebrain and cortex. To investigate the origin of alterations in fornix microstructure, measurement of hippocampal subfield volumes was combined with diffusion MRI and cognitive evaluation in a new sample of 31 healthy human participants aged 50–89 years. The fornix, uncinate and parahippocampal cingulum were reconstructed using diffusion MRI tractography. Episodic memory was assessed with free and cued verbal recall, visual recognition and paired associate learning tests. Recall performance was associated with fornix microstructure and hippocampal subfield volumes. Subiculum and CA1 volumes remained positively associated with fornix microstructure when controlling for other volumes. Subiculum volume was also associated with fornix microstructure independent of age. Regression analyses showed that subiculum-fornix associations explained more variation in recall than that of CA1-fornix associations. In a multivariable regression model, age and subiculum volume were independent predictors of free recall whilst fornix microstructure and CA1 volume were not. These results suggest that age-related changes in a network that includes the subiculum and fornix are important in cognitive change in healthy aging. These results match anatomical predictions concerning the importance of hippocampal – diencephalic projections for memory

Recognizing professional development of mathematics and statistics learning support staff

Tutors play an important role in effective Mathematics Learning Support, and ensuring good initial training and development is key. Typically, in the UK and Ireland, tutors do not gain any formal recognition for the training they receive. This paper details a four competences model of training for tutors and presents the analysis of feedback from 11 tutors and two staff involved in piloting the model at two institutions. The model, which is informed by professional development guidelines, consultation across the mathematical sciences community, and enabled by a national Mathematics Learning Support Network, provides immediate recognition of the professional development undertaken and is amenable to formal accreditation. A structure of four digital badges is used to assign immediate value to the training and development of tutors. To add further value for tutors, a capstone tutor badge has been established for those completing all four competences. Thematic analysis of feedback from the piloting of the model identifies three overarching themes: the importance of community, developing as a professional, and motivating and enabling professional development. Although primarily of interest to those involved in Mathematics Learning Support, the innovative structure of the model and the insights gained from its piloting are such that it offers potential for genuine transferability across other subject disciplines