Violence as Violation: An Enquiry into the Normative Significance of Violence

The term violence is imbued with a great deal of moral and normative force. While this may generally be agreed upon, the question as to what violence consists in is one with very disparate answers. This Paper aims to assess the different ways in which violence may be understood, with the hope of coming to a broad understanding of violence that captures the full normative significance of the term. Whereas some may regard violence as something which exists purely in the realm of the physical, other understandings take a more nuanced view. According to such views, violence may be psychological, latent or structural as well as physical. Such modes of violence will be discussed in turn, and their various strengths and shortcomings evaluated. This will, so far as possible, be situated in a wider philosophical context, with relevant conceptual parallels being noted. Continuities shared among all normatively significant modes of violence will then be identified, with the hope of arriving at an understanding that captures the force of what each meaningfully articulates. It will be argued that the central continuity shared among meaningful modes of violence is violation of means to human flourishing, a rounded understanding will thus define violence in terms of violation

Simplified analytical "m-θ" curves for predicting nonlinear lateral pile response

The relationship between the distributed moment acting on a pile segment due to vertical shear tractions at the pile-soil interface and the corresponding pile rotation (known as an “m-θ” curve) is important when determining the response of offshore monopiles with low slenderness ratios. Two simplified approaches to derive nonlinear “m-θ” curves (for clay under undrained conditions) are considered. Firstly, the vertical shear tractions can be derived in closed-form using known “t-z” curves (power-law and quadratic forms are considered) and integrating with respect to the pile circumference. Secondly, similarity in shape between an “m-θ” and a “t-z” curve is investigated which would enable a linear-transformation between the abscissas of the two normalised curves. This paper derives analytical linear-transformation factors using power-law and quadratic “t-z” curves and compares these with solutions available for a linear-elastic soil material. Finally, the effect of slip at the pile-soil interface on the “m-θ” curve is considered

Indoor Air Pollution and Delayed Measles Vaccination Increase the Risk of Severe Pneumonia in Children: Results from a Case-Control Study in Mwanza, Tanzania.

BACKGROUND: Mortality due to severe pneumonia during childhood in resource-constrained settings is high, but data to provide basis for interventions to improve survival are limited. The objective of this study was to determine the risk factors for severe pneumonia in children aged under five years old in Mwanza, Tanzania. METHODS: We conducted a case-control study of children aged 2 to 59 months at Sekou-Toure regional hospital in Mwanza City, north-western, Tanzania from May 2013 to March 2014. Cases were children with severe pneumonia and controls were children with other illnesses. Data on demography, social-economical status, nutritional status, environmental factors, vaccination status, vitamin A supplementation and deworming, and nasopharyngeal carriage were collected and analysed using logistic regression. RESULTS: 117 patients were included in the study. Of these, 45 were cases and 72 controls. Cases were younger than controls, but there were no differences in social-economic or nutritional status between the two groups. In multiple regression, we found that an increased risk of severe pneumonia was associated with cooking indoors (OR 5.5, 95% CI: 1.4, 22.1), and delayed measles vaccination (OR 3.9, 95% CI: 1.1, 14.8). The lack of vitamin A supplementation in the preceding six month and Enterobacter spp nasopharyngeal carriage were not associated with higher risk of severe pneumonia. Age ≥24 months (OR 0.2, 95% CI: 0.04, 0.8) and not receiving antibiotics before referral (OR 0.3, 95% CI 0.1, 0.9) were associated with lower risk for severe pneumonia. CONCLUSIONS: Indoor air pollution and delayed measles vaccination increase the risk for severe pneumonia among children aged below five years. Interventions to reduce indoor air pollution and to promote timely administration of measles vaccination are urgently needed to reduce the burden of severe pneumonia in children in Tanzania

MSD applied to the construction of the British Library basement:a multistage excavation in London Clay

This note presents the application of the mobilisable strength design (MSD) method to the monitoring results of the multi-propped excavation in the south area of the British Library Euston, constructed in a highly overconsolidated stiff clay deposit. The MSD method is an energy-based approach (a nonlinear finite-element method for a single-degree-of-freedom soil-wall system) introduced to develop a simplified design methodology that satisfies both ultimate and serviceability limit states. Wall displacement predictions based on the MSD method are compared with considerable field monitoring data. The sensitivity of the method to reasonable variations in input parameters is considered. A spreadsheet and python code demonstrating the MSD analysis from this paper are provided in the online supplement alongside details of the mathematical formulation