The Roman army in Syria, Judaea and Arabia

I have attempted to answer three questions in this thesis. Firstly, what was the identity of the garrisons of Syria, Judaea and Arabia from the reign of Augustus to the end of the fourth century? Secondly, what were the dispositions of these troops and the implications of these dispositions? In the first two chapters I discuss the evidence for the units in garrison in Syria and trace their changing role as Syria was pacified and Roman power expanded eastwards, gradually but relentlessly until the mid-third century, recovering under Diocletian but relapsing into a defensive posture by c. AD 400. ‘In chapters four, five and seven I examine the best-attested armies of the client-kings who ruled Judaea and its environs and those of the Roman provinces of Judaea, later Syria-Palaestine, and Arabia and trace their changing role from armies of pacification to forces of frontier defence. I have thirdly, in chapters three, six and eight, examined recruitment to the auxilia of the provincial armies during the same period. Most commanders in Syria under the Julio-Claudian emperors came from Italy or Augustan colonies. By the later first century they are coming from the more civilised provinces of the empire and by the third century from Syria itself. Our slight evidence for Judaea and Arabia suggests similar trends, with evidence for local commanders in Arabia in the fourth century. A not inconsiderable proportion of the soldiers these officers commanded were during the early first century drawn from the west and, despite increasing local recruitment, recruits from outside Syria continued to be sent during the second century. Severus recruited on a vast scale from the east but local forces continued in the fourth century to be supplemented by units from the west. In my concluding chapter nine I outline the development of the frontier in the light of my work and present my findings on recruitment against the background of evidence for legionary recruitment in the east and for auxiliary recruitment in the rest of the empire

A robustified modeling approach to analyze pediatric length of stay

PurposeLength of stay (LOS) is an important measure of the cost of pediatric hospitalizations, but the guidelines developed so far are not rigorously evidence-based. This study demonstrates a robust gamma mixed regression approach to analyze the positively skewed LOS variable, which has implications for future studies of pediatric health care management.MethodsThe robustified approach is applied to analyze hospital discharge data on childhood gastroenteritis in Western Australia (n = 514). The model accounts for demographic characteristics and co-morbidities of the patients, as well as the dependency of LOS outcomes nested within the 58 hospitals in the State. The method is compared with the standard linear mixed regression with trimming of extreme observations.ResultsFor the empirical application, the linear mixed regression results are sensitive to the magnitude of trimming. The identified significant factors from the robust regression model, namely infection, failure to thrive, and iron deficiency anemia are resistant to high-LOS outliers.ConclusionsRobust gamma mixed regression appears to be a suitable alternative to analyze the clustered and positively skewed pediatric LOS, without transforming and trimming the data arbitrarily

Under-nutrition Affects Time to Recurrence of Gastroenteritis Among Aboriginal and Non-Aboriginal Children

This study investigated whether under-nutrition affected time to hospitalization for recurrence of gastroenteritis in Australian children. Linked hospitalization records of all infants, born in 1995 and 1996 in Western Australia, who were admitted for gastroenteritis during their first year of life (n=1,001), were retrieved. A survival frailty model was used for determining the factors influencing the recurrent times over the subsequent seven years. Aboriginality and under-nutrition were significantly associated with an increased risk of recurrence (hazard ratios of 2.59 and 1.28). Hospitalizations due to gastroenteritis were common among Aboriginal children who had a higher mean re-admission rate and much shorter intervals between re-admissions than other patients. The proportion of patients with recurrence was also significantly higher for Aboriginals (38.5%) than for other patients (14.2%). Gastroenteritis remains a serious problem in Aboriginal children. This presents a complex challenge to be addressed with public-health principles, political determination and commitment, and adequate resources

Swedish Farm SafetyPracticeand E.U. Influences

End of project reportAn All Island Farm Safety Conference took place on Wednesday, 18 June 2008 at the Hillgrove Hotel, Old Armagh Road, Monaghan. The presentations from this conference will be of interest to farmers, agricultural contractors, and anyone with an interest in safety and health in agriculture. The presentations from this conference will be of interest to farmers, agricultural contractors, and anyone with an interest in safety and health in agriculture. Each of the talk titles below is a link to the Microsoft PowerPoint presentation in PDF forma

Fractionalized quantum criticality in spin-orbital liquids from field theory beyond the leading order

Two-dimensional spin-orbital magnets with strong exchange frustration have recently been predicted to facilitate the realization of a quantum critical point in the Gross-Neveu-SO(3) universality class. In contrast to previously known Gross-Neveu-type universality classes, this quantum critical point separates a Dirac semimetal and a long-range-ordered phase, in which the fermion spectrum is only partially gapped out. Here, we characterize the quantum critical behavior of the Gross-Neveu-SO(3) universality class by employing three complementary field-theoretical techniques beyond their leading orders. We compute the correlation-length exponent nu, the order-parameter anomalous dimension eta(phi), and the fermion anomalous dimension eta(psi) using a three-loop epsilon expansion around the upper critical space-time dimension of four, a second-order large-N expansion (with the fermion anomalous dimension obtained even at the third order), as well as a functional renormalization group approach in the improved local potential approximation. For the physically relevant case of N = 3 flavors of two-component Dirac fermions in 2 + 1 space-time dimensions, we obtain the estimates 1/nu = 1.03(15), eta(phi) = 0.42(7), and eta(psi) = 0.180(10) from averaging over the results of the different techniques, with the displayed uncertainty representing the degree of consistency among the three methods

Fractionalized quantum criticality in spin-orbital liquids from field theory beyond the leading order

Two-dimensional spin-orbital magnets with strong exchange frustration have recently been predicted to facilitate the realization of a quantum critical point in the Gross-Neveu-SO(3) universality class. In contrast to previously known Gross-Neveu-type universality classes, this quantum critical point separates a Dirac semimetal and a long-range-ordered phase, in which the fermion spectrum is only partially gapped out. Here, we characterize the quantum critical behavior of the Gross-Neveu-SO(3) universality class by employing three complementary field-theoretical techniques beyond their leading orders. We compute the correlation-length exponent $\nu$, the order-parameter anomalous dimension $\eta_\phi$, and the fermion anomalous dimension $\eta_\psi$ using a three-loop $\epsilon$ expansion around the upper critical space-time dimension of four, a second-order large-$N$ expansion (with the fermion anomalous dimension obtained even at the third order), as well as a functional renormalization group approach in the improved local potential approximation. For the physically relevant case of $N=3$ flavors of two-component Dirac fermions in 2+1 space-time dimensions, we obtain the estimates $1/\nu = 1.03(15)$, $\eta_\phi = 0.42(7)$, and $\eta_\psi = 0.180(10)$ from averaging over the results of the different techniques, with the displayed uncertainty representing the degree of consistency among the three methods

The one loop MSbar static potential in the Gribov-Zwanziger Lagrangian

We compute the static potential in the Gribov-Zwanziger Lagrangian as a function of the Gribov mass, gamma, in the MSbar scheme in the Landau gauge at one loop. The usual gauge independent one loop perturbative static potential is recovered in the limit as gamma -> 0. By contrast the Gribov-Zwanziger static potential contains the term gamma^2/(p^2)^2. However, the linearly rising potential in coordinate space as a function of the radial variable r does not emerge due to a compensating behaviour as r -> infty. Though in the short distance limit a dipole behaviour is present. We also demonstrate enhancement in the propagator of the bosonic localizing Zwanziger ghost field when the one loop Gribov gap equation is satisfied. The explicit form of the one loop gap equation for the Gribov mass parameter is also computed in the MOM scheme and the zero momentum value of the renormalization group invariant effective coupling constant is shown to be the same value as that in the MSbar scheme.Comment: 54 latex pages, 6 figures, flaw in original Feynman rules corrected with updated two loop gap equation; new details added on derivation of propagators and their one loop corrections as well as bosonic ghost enhancemen

Disparities in Healthcare Utilisation Rates for Aboriginal and Non-Aboriginal Albertan Residents, 1997-2006: A Population Database Study

Background: It is widely recognised that significant discrepancies exist between the health of indigenous and nonindigenous populations. Whilst the reasons are incompletely defined, one potential cause is that indigenous communities do not access healthcare to the same extent. We investigated healthcare utilisation rates in the Canadian Aboriginal population to elucidate the contribution of this fundamental social determinant for health to such disparities. Methods: Healthcare utilisation data over a nine-year period were analysed for a cohort of nearly two million individuals to determine the rates at which Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal populations utilised two specialties (Cardiology and Ophthalmology) in Alberta, Canada. Unadjusted and adjusted healthcare utilisation rates obtained by mixed linear and Poisson regressions, respectively, were compared amongst three population groups - federally registered Aboriginals, individuals receiving welfare, and other Albertans. Results: Healthcare utilisation rates for Aboriginals were substantially lower than those of non-Aboriginals and welfare recipients at each time point and subspecialty studied [e.g. During 2005/06, unadjusted Cardiology utilisation rates were 0.28% (Aboriginal, n = 97,080), 0.93% (non-Aboriginal, n = 1,720,041) and 1.37% (Welfare, n = 52,514), p = ,0.001]. The age distribution of the Aboriginal population was markedly different [2.7%$65 years of age, non-Aboriginal 10.7%], and comparable utilisation rates were obtained after adjustment for fiscal year and estimated life expectancy [Cardiology: Incidence Rate Ratio 0.66, Ophthalmology: IRR 0.85]. Discussion: The analysis revealed that Aboriginal people utilised subspecialty healthcare at a consistently lower rate than either comparatively economically disadvantaged groups or the general population. Notably, the differences were relatively invariant between the major provincial centres and over a nine year period. Addressing the causes of these discrepancies is essential for reducing marked health disparities, and so improving the health of Aboriginal people