Seeking to Understand the Definition of Slavery

Examines the concept of ownership invoked by Article 1 of the 1926 Slavery Convention. Argues the definition of slavery must be understood substantively, not formally, and that ideas of property and ownership continue to have important theoretical and practical relevance in identifying modern slavery.

CoWiSMoN: A Framework for Cognitive Wireless Sensor Mobile Network System for Emergency Rescue Management

One of the crucial aspects of disaster management of emergency situations is the early assessment of needs and damages. In most disaster situations, higher fatality and increased casualty results from lack of access to timely available emergency services rather than the initial disaster itself. This is usually caused by lack of access to the affected area in order to properly assess the situation for relevant and urgent measures. Cognitive wireless sensor networks provide an opportunity to overcome this situation especially through interconnection via mobile systems. This paper presents a cognitive wireless sensor mobile networks-based framework (CoWiSMoN), designed to offer real-time emergency services to victims and rescue personnel in event of disasters. Critical issues underlying the implementation of such a system are discussed and analyzed.

A latent feature analysis of the neural representation of conceptual knowledge

Bayesian probabilistic analysis offers a new approach to characterize semantic representations by inferring the most likely feature structure directly from the patterns of brain activity. In this study, infinite latent feature models [1] are used to recover the semantic features that give rise to the brain activation vectors when people think about properties associated with 60 concrete concepts. The semantic features recovered by ILFM are consistent with the human ratings of the shelter, manipulation, and eating factors that were recovered by a previous factor analysis. Furthermore, different areas of the brain encode different perceptual and conceptual features. This neurally-inspired semantic representation is consistent with some existing conjectures regarding the role of different brain areas in processing different semantic and perceptual properties. © 2012 Springer-Verlag.

The effect of endothelin 1 on the retinal microvascular pericyte

The effect of the highly vasoactive peptide endothelin 1 (ET1) was tested on bovine retinal microvascular pericytes propagated in vitro. Specific binding of 125I-ET1 to retinal pericytes was documented by autoradiography. ET1 caused contraction of pericytes at a concentration of 0.1 nM which was accompanied by increases in inositol phosphates. Exposure of pericytes to 10 nM ET1 resulted in the aggregation and realignment of muscle-specific actins into bundles which were oriented parallel to the long axis of the cell, and ET1 was also mitogenic to pericytes in the presence of low levels of fetal calf serum. These observations suggest that ET1 may play an important role in endothelial cell-pericyte interactions within the microvasculature of the retina and that it may be involved in the autoregulation of retinal blood flow.

New Perspectives on the Role of Cultural Intermediaries in Social Inclusion in the UK

Based on interviews with arts administrators responsible for addressing targeted groups labelled “socially excluded,” this paper highlights new understandings of the term “cultural intermediary” (Featherstone 1991; Bourdieu 2000) within art galleries and art centres. It considers the unique role of such figures in crossing the exclusion/inclusion boundary within the arts and developing more personal approaches to marketing activities in their institutions through relationship building. While it is acknowledged here that such workers find themselves in a privileged position in being able to shape questions of taste and particular consumerist dispositions to understanding the art world, little, if not no, effort has been made to understand this process. As such, there remains a void between the cultural policy‐oriented conception of social inclusion, which implies a version of repairing the “flawed consumer” (Bauman 2005), and the way in which such policy is played out on the ground.

Fracture strength of machined ceramic crowns as a function of tooth preparation design and the elastic modulus of the cement

Objectives: To determine, by means of static fracture testing the effect of the tooth preparation design and the elastic modulus of the cement on the structural integrity of the cemented machined ceramic crown-tooth complex. 
Methods: Human maxillary extracted premolar teeth were prepared for all-ceramic crowns using two preparation designs; a standard preparation in accordance with established protocols and a novel design with a flat occlusal design. All-ceramic feldspathic (Vita MK II) crowns were milled for all the preparations using a CAD/CAM system (CEREC-3). The machined all-ceramic crowns were resin bonded to the tooth structure using one of three cements with different elastic moduli: Super-Bond C&B, Rely X Unicem and Panavia F 2.0. The specimens were subjected to compressive force through a 4 mm diameter steel ball at a crosshead speed of 1 mm/min using a universal test machine (Loyds Instrument Model LRX.). The load at the fracture point was recorded for each specimen in Newtons (N). These values were compared to a control group of unprepared/unrestored teeth. 
Results: There was a significant difference between the control group, with higher fracture strength, and the cemented samples regardless of the occlusal design and the type of resin cement. There was no significant difference in mean fracture load between the two designs of occlusal preparation using Super-Bond C&B. For the Rely X Unicem and Panavia F 2.0 cements, the proposed preparation design with a flat occlusal morphology provides a system with increased fracture strength. 
Significance: The proposed novel flat design showed less dependency on the resin cement selection in relation to the fracture strength of the restored tooth. The choice of the cement resin, with respect to its modulus of elasticity, is more important in the anatomic design than in the flat design. © 2013 Academy of Dental Materials.

Tools for Finding Inconsistencies in Real-world Logic-based Systems

Currently there is extensive theoretical work on inconsistencies in logic-based systems. Recently, algorithms for identifying inconsistent clauses in a single conjunctive formula have demonstrated that practical application of this work is possible. However, these algorithms have not been extended for full knowledge base systems and have not been applied to real-world knowledge. To address these issues, we propose a new algorithm for finding the inconsistencies in a knowledge base using existing algorithms for finding inconsistent clauses in a formula. An implementation of this algorithm is then presented as an automated tool for finding inconsistencies in a knowledge base and measuring the inconsistency of formulae. Finally, we look at a case study of a network security rule set for exploit detection (QRadar) and suggest how these automated tools can be applied.

Common infection-related conditions and risk of lymphoid malignancies in older individuals

Background: Chronic antigenic stimulation may initiate non-Hodgkin (NHL) and Hodgkin lymphoma (HL) development. Antecedent, infection-related conditions have been associated, but evidence by lymphoproliferative subtype is limited. Methods: From the US SEER-Medicare database, 44 191 NHL, 1832 HL and 200 000 population-based controls, frequency-matched to all SEER cancer cases, were selected. Logistic regression models, adjusted for potential confounders, compared infection-related conditions in controls with HL and NHL patients and by the NHL subtypes diffuse large B-cell, T-cell, follicular and marginal zone lymphoma (MZL). Stratification by race was undertaken. Results: Respiratory tract infections were broadly associated with NHL, particularly MZL. Skin infections were associated with a 15–28% increased risk of NHL and with most NHL subtypes, particularly cellulitis with T-cell lymphoma (OR 1.36, 95%CI 1.24–1.49). Only herpes zoster remained associated with HL following Bonferroni correction (OR 1.55, 95% CI 1.28–1.87). Gastrointestinal and urinary tract infections were not strongly associated with NHL or HL. In stratified analyses by race, sinusitis, pharyngitis, bronchitis and cellulitis showed stronger associations with total NHL in blacks than whites (P<0.001). Conclusions: Infections may contribute to the aetiologic pathway and/or be markers of underlying immune modulation. Precise elucidation of these mechanisms may provide important clues for understanding how immune disturbance contributes to lymphoma.

Experiences of youth justice: Youth justice discourses and their multiple effects

Interventions within youth justice systems draw on a range of rationales and philosophies. Traditionally demarcated by a welfare/justice binary, the complex array of contemporary rationales meld different philosophies and practices, suggesting a mutability that gives this sphere a continued (re)productive and felt effect. While it may be increasingly difficult to ascertain which of these discourses is dominant in different jurisdictions in the UK, particular models of justice are perceived to be more prominent (Muncie, 2006). Traditionally it is assumed that Northern Ireland prioritises restoration, Wales prioritises rights, England priorities risk and Scotland welfare (McVie, 2011; Muncie, 2008, 2011). However, how these discourses are enacted in practice, how multiple and competing rationales circulate within them and most fundamentally how they are experienced by young people is less clear. This paper, based on research with young people who have experienced the full range of interventions in the youth justice system in Northern Ireland examines their narratives of ‘justice’. It considers how different discourses might influence the same intervention and how the deployment of multiple rationalities gives the experience of ‘justice’ its effect.