bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Optimization of district heating production with thermal storage using mixed-integer nonlinear programming with a new initialization approach
Authors: Bjørnskov Jakob , Mortensen Lasse Kappel , Filonenko Konstantin , Shaker Hamid Reza , Jradi Muhyiddine , Veje Christian
Published: September 2021

Non-convex scheduling of energy production allows for more complex models that better describe the physical nature of the energy production system. Solutions to non-convex optimization problems can only be guaranteed to be local optima. For this reason, there is a need for methodologies that consistently provide low-cost solutions to the non-convex optimal scheduling problem. In this study, a novel Monte Carlo Tree Search initialization method for branch and bound solvers is proposed for the production planning of a combined heat and power unit with thermal heat storage in a district heating system. The optimization problem is formulated as a non-convex mixed-integer program, which is incorporated in a sliding time window framework. Here, the proposed initialization method offers lower-cost production planning compared to random initialization for larger time windows. For the test case, the proposed method lowers the yearly operational cost by more than 2,000,000 DKK per year. The method is one step in the direction of more reliable non-convex optimization that allows for more complex models of energy systems.
A digital twin framework for improving energy efficiency and occupant comfort in public and commercial buildings
Authors: Clausen Anders , Arendt Krzysztof , Johansen Aslak , Sangogboye Fisayo Caleb , Kjærgaard Mikkel Baun , Veje Christian T. , Jørgensen Bo Nørregaard
Published: September 2021

Model Predictive Control (MPC) can be used in the context of building automation to improve energy efficiency and occupant comfort.

Ideally, the MPC algorithm should consider current- and planned usage of the controlled environment along with initial state and weather forecast to plan for optimal comfort and energy efficiency.

This implies the need for an MPC application which 1) considers multiple objectives, 2) can draw on multiple data sources, and 3) provides an approach to effectively integrate against heterogeneous building automation systems to make the approach reusable across different installations.

To this end, this paper presents a design and implementation of a framework for digital twins for buildings in which the controlled environments are represented as digital entities. In this framework, digital twins constitute parametrized models which are integrated into a generic control algorithm that uses data on weather forecasts, current- and planned occupancy as well as the current state of the controlled environment to perform MPC. This data is accessed through a generic data layer to enable uniform data access. This enables the framework to switch seamlessly between simulation and real-life applications and reduces the barrier towards reusing the application in a different control environment.

We demonstrate an application of the digital twin framework on a case study at the University of Southern Denmark where a digital twin has been used to control heating and ventilation.

From the case study, we observe that we can switch from rule-based control to model predictive control with no immediate adverse effects towards comfort or energy consumption. We also identify the potential for an increase in energy efficiency, as well as introduce the possibility of planning energy consumption against local electricity production or market conditions, while maintaining occupant comfort.
Joint Optimal Allocation of Electric Vehicle Charging Stations and Renewable Energy Sources Including CO2 Emissions
Authors: de Lima Tayenne Dias , Franco John F. , Lezama Fernando , Soares João , Vale Zita
Published: September 2021

In the coming years, several transformations in the transport sector are expected, associated with the increase in electric vehicles (EVs). These changes directly impact electrical distribution systems (EDSs), introducing new challenges in their planning and operation. One way to assist in the desired integration of this technology is to allocate EV charging stations (EVCSs). Efforts have been made towards the development of EVCSs, with the ability to recharge the vehicle at a similar time than conventional vehicle filling stations. Besides, EVs can bring environmental benefits by reducing greenhouse gas emissions. However, depending on the energy matrix of the country in which the EVs fleet circulates, there may be indirect emissions of polluting gases. Therefore, the development of this technology must be combined with the growth of renewable generation. Thus, this proposal aims to develop a mathematical model that includes EVs integration in the distribution system. To this end, a mixed-integer linear programming (MILP) model is proposed to solve the allocation problem of EVCSs including renewable energy sources. The model addresses the environmental impact and uncertainties associated with demand (conventional and EVs) and renewable generation. Moreover, an EV charging forecast method is proposed, subject to the uncertainties related to the driver's behavior, the energy required by these vehicles, and the state of charge of the EVs. The proposed model was implemented in the AMPL modelling language and solved via the commercial solver CPLEX. Tests with a 24-node system allow evaluating the proposed method application.
Greenhouse industry 4.0 – digital twin technology for commercial greenhouses
Authors: Howard Daniel Anthony , Ma Zheng , Veje Christian , Clausen Anders , Aaslyng Jesper Mazanti , Jørgensen Bo Nørregaard
Published: September 2021

The project aims to create a Greenhouse Industry 4.0 Digital Twin software platform for combining the Industry 4.0 technologies (IoT, AI, Big Data, cloud computing, and Digital Twins) as integrated parts of the greenhouse production systems. The integration provides a new disruptive approach for vertical integration and optimization of the greenhouse production processes to improve energy efficiency, production throughput, and productivity without compromising product quality or sustainability. Applying the Industry 4.0 Digital Twin concept to the Danish horticulture greenhouse industry provides digital models for simulating and evaluating the physical greenhouse facility’s performance. A Digital Twin combines modeling, AI, and Big Data analytics with IoT and traditional sensor data from the production and cloud-based enterprise data to predict how the physical twin will perform under varying operational conditions. The Digital Twins support the co-optimization of the production schedule, energy consumption, and labor cost by considering influential factors, including production deadlines, quality grading, heating, artificial lighting, energy prices (gas and electricity), and weather forecasts. The ecosystem of digital twins extends the state-of-the-art by adopting a scalable distributed approach of “system of systems” that interconnects Digital Twins in a production facility. A collection of specialized Digital Twins are linked together to describe and simulate all aspects of the production chain, such as overall production capacity, energy consumption, delivery dates, and supply processes. The contribution of this project is to develop an ecosystem of digital twins that collectively capture the behavior of an industrial greenhouse facility. The ecosystem will enable the industrial greenhouse facilities to become increasingly active participants in the electricity grid.
Local energy markets - an IT-architecture design
Authors: Richter Bent , Golla Armin , Welle Klaus , Staudt Philipp , Weinhardt Christof
Published: September 2021

In recent years, local energy markets have become an important concept in more decentralized energy systems. Implementations in pilot projects provide first insights into different hypotheses and approaches. From a technical perspective, the requirements for the IT infrastructure of a local energy market are diverse, and a holistic view of its architecture is therefore necessary. This article presents an IT-architecture, which enables all basic local energy market functionalities, processes and modules based on the available literature. The proposed IT-architecture can serve as a blueprint for future local market projects as it covers the basic processes and is at the same time extendable. Furthermore, we give a detailed description of a real-world implementation of a local energy market using the described IT-architecture and discuss the advantages and disadvantages of the utilized technologies along with this case study.
Digitalisation potentials in the electricity ecosystem: lesson learnt from the comparison between Germany and Denmark
Authors: Hack Thorsten , Ma Zheng , Jørgensen Bo Nørregaard
Published: September 2021

Digitalisation potentials in the electricity sector are frequently discussed around the world, especially in Europe which has the largest interconnected continental electricity grid in the world. The analysis and comparison of electricity ecosystems between countries can help to enhance international understanding and cooperation. It can also enable businesses to expand. However, little literature has covered the cross-national comparisons of digitalisation potentials in the electricity sector. This paper uses the business ecosystem architecture development methodology to identify commonalities and differences between two electricity ecosystems: Germany and Denmark. The result shows that there are many similarities between the two countries, but the roles of market framework provider, market supervision, and metering point operator are performed by different actors. By comparing the value chain segments, the main differences between Denmark and Germany are the share of renewable energy generation, the organisation of the transmission system, smart meter installation & operations, and the national electricity data hub. Based on the comparisons, six recommendations for the digitalisation of the electricity ecosystem are proposed: digitalisation for enabling more renewable energy resources for electricity generation, digitalisation in the electricity grids, digitalisation ib. the electricity markets, digitalisation on the demand side, especially the transport sector, and regulation-driven digitalisation of the electricity ecosystem.
Breaking at the Edges: Carolee Schneemann's Desires for Dance
Authors: Goldman Danielle
Published: September 2021

During the late 1950s and early 1960s, Carolee Schneemann primarily identified as a painter. But she was a keen and cutting observer of dance. This article considers Schneemann's audacious performance work for the Judson Dance Theater and reflects on its ongoing importance both at the time of her death and in a world forced apart by the novel coronavirus (COVID-19).
Carolee Schneemann (1939–2019): Portfolio
Authors: White Kenneth , Takahashi Tess
Published: September 2021

A portfolio of select photographs featuring significant works by Carolee Schneemann, photographs of Schneemann at work, and candid photographs of Schneemann with friends and colleagues. The portfolio complements the preceding essays and illustrations collected in the In Practice dossier dedicated to Schneemann. Several photographs in the portfolio have never before been published.
Mistresses as Masters?
Authors: Sorentino Sara-Maria
Published: September 2021

Recent texts in the historiography of slavery have focused on slave-owning women in an attempt to overturn the paradigm of the benevolent mistress. While “benevolence” has silenced and exceptionalized mistresses’ violence, newer interpretations draw from slave testimony to establish forms of equivalence between the power of the mistress and that of the master. Because this normalization of white women’s power nonetheless relies on standards of historiographical interpretation—the predominance of political economy, the imperatives of affect and agency—it does not sufficiently access how historiographical methods participate in stabilizing gender and pathologizing black rage. This article proposes that the difference between the mistress and master is a fantasy necessary to the circulation of the libidinal economy of slavery. In doing so, it pursues an inquiry into the pleasures of interpretation and speculates on the ways historiography invests in the white woman in order to extend its interlocutory life.
The Promise of Oblivion
Authors: Zechner Dominik
Published: September 2021

That forgetfulness constitutes a force detrimental to the ability of keeping promises is commonplace. Promises rely on a stable memory; in order to be realized they must be sheltered from the onslaught of oblivion. This article takes a closer look at the mutual exclusivity of promising and its forgetting— and discovers, at the very foundation of every promise, the unlikely expression of a promise of oblivion. Through readings of Sacher-Masoch, Nietzsche, Kafka, and others, this promise of oblivion emerges as the very condition of possibility of all promising: oblivion must be promised for promises to be. Thus, what on the surface seems mutually exclusive turns out essentially entangled: promising premised on oblivion. In a coda invoking Heidegger and Blanchot, the structure of language itself is revealed to be promissory—and, as such, forgetful.
Co-translational biogenesis of lipid droplet integral membrane proteins
Authors: Leznicki Pawel , Schneider Hayden O. , Harvey Jada V. , Shi Wei Q. , High Stephen
Published: September 2021

Membrane proteins destined for lipid droplets (LDs), a major intracellular storage site for neutral lipids, are inserted into the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) and then trafficked to LDs where they reside in a hairpin loop conformation. Here, we show that LD membrane proteins can be delivered to the ER either co- or post-translationally and that their membrane-embedded region specifies pathway selection. The co-translational route for LD membrane protein biogenesis is insensitive to a small molecule inhibitor of the Sec61 translocon, Ipomoeassin F, and instead relies on the ER membrane protein complex (EMC) for membrane insertion. This route may even result in a transient exposure of the short N termini of some LD membrane proteins to the ER lumen, followed by putative topological rearrangements that would enable their transmembrane segment to form a hairpin loop and N termini to face the cytosol. Our study reveals an unexpected complexity to LD membrane protein biogenesis and identifies a role for the EMC during their co-translational insertion into the ER.
Establishing scanning protocols for a CT lung cancer screening trial in the UK
Authors: Iball Gareth R , Darby Michael , Gabe Rhian , Crosbie Philip A. J. , Callister Matthew E. J.
Published: September 2021

Objectives:

To develop a CT scanning protocol for lung cancer screening which achieved low radiation dose and a high level of objectively assessed image quality.

Methods:

An anthropomorphic chest phantom and a commercially available lung screening image quality phantom were scanned on a series of scan protocols from a previous UK lung screening pilot and on an alternative protocol. The chest phantom scans were used to assess the CT dose metrics on community-based mobile CT scanners and comparisons were made with published recommended doses. Scans of the image quality phantom were objectively assessed against the RSNA Quantitative Imaging Biomarkers Alliance (QIBA) recommendations. Protocol adjustments were made to ensure that the recommended dose and image quality levels were both achieved.

Results:

The alternative scan protocol yielded doses up to 72% lower than on the previously used protocols with a CTDIvol of 0.6mGy for the 55 kg equivalent phantom and 1.3mGy with an additional 6 cm of tissue equivalent material in place. Scans on the existing protocols failed on two of the QIBA image quality metrics (edge enhancement and 3D resolution aspect ratio). Following adjustments to the reconstruction parameters of the resulting image quality met all six QIBA recommendations. Radiologist review of phantom images with this scan protocol deemed them suitable for a lung screening trial.

Conclusions:

Scan protocols yielding low radiation doses and high levels of objectively assessed image quality which meet published criteria can be established through the use of specific anthropomorphic and image quality phantoms, and are deliverable in community-based lung cancer screening.

Advances in knowledge:

Development of a standard methodology for establishing CT lung screening scanning protocols Use of QIBA recommendations as objective image quality metrics Standardised lung phantoms are essential tools for setting up lung screening protocols
Polymorphisms of the genes ABCG2, SLC22A12 and XDH and their relation with hyperuricemia and hypercholesterolemia in Mexican young adults
Authors: Vargas-Morales Juan Manuel , Guevara-Cruz Martha , Aradillas-García Celia , G. Noriega Lilia , Tovar Armando , Alegría-Torres Jorge Alejandro
Published: September 2021

Background: Hyperuricemia is a pathological condition associated with risk factors of cardiovascular disease. In this study, three genetic polymorphisms were genotyped as predisposing factors of hyperuricemia.

Methods: A total of 860 Mexicans (129 cases and 731 controls) between 18 and 25 years of age were genotyped for the ABCG2 (Q191K), SLC22A12 (517G>A), and XDH (518T>C) polymorphisms, as predisposing factors of hyperuricemia. Biochemical parameters were measured by spectrophotometry, while genetic polymorphisms were analyzed by real-time PCR. An analysis of the risk of hyperuricemia in relation to the variables studied was carried out using a logistic regression.

Results: Male sex, being overweight or obese, having hypercholesterolemia or having hypertriglyceridemia were factors associated with hyperuricemia ( p ≤ 0.05). The ABCG2 polymorphism was associated with hyperuricemia (OR = 2.43, 95% CI: 1.41-4.17, p = 0.001) and hypercholesterolemia (OR = 4.89, 95% CI: 1.54-15.48, p = 0.003), employing a dominant model, but only in male participants.

Conclusions: The ABCG2 (Q191K) polymorphism increases the risk of hyperuricemia and hypercholesterolemia in young Mexican males.
Correlation between anti-hypertensive drugs and disease progression among moderate, severe, and critically ill COVID-19 patients in the second referral hospital in Surbaya: A retrospective cohort study
Authors: Suryantoro Satriyo Dwi , Thaha Mochammad , Hayati Mutiara Rizky , Yusuf Mochammad , Pikir Budi Susetyo , Susilo Hendri
Published: September 2021

Background: Hypertension, as the comorbidity accompanying COVID-19, is related to angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 receptor (ACE-2R) and endothelial dysregulation which have an important role in blood pressure regulation. Other anti-hypertensive agents are believed to trigger the hyperinflammation process. We aimed to figure out the association between the use of anti-hypertensive drugs and the disease progression of COVID-19 patients.  

Methods: This study is an observational cohort study among COVID-19 adult patients from moderate to critically ill admitted to Universitas Airlangga Hospital (UAH) Surabaya with history of hypertension and receiving anti-hypertensive drugs.  

Results: Patients receiving beta blockers only had a longer length of stay than angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors (ACEIs) and angiotensin receptor blockers (ACEI/ARB) or calcium channel blockers alone (17, 13.36, and 13.73 respectively), had the higher rate of intensive care unit (ICU) admission than ACEi/ARB (p 0.04), and had the highest mortality rate (54.55%). There were no significant differences in length of stay, ICU admission, mortality rate, and days of death among the single, double, and triple anti-hypertensive groups. The mortality rate in groups taking ACEi/ARB was lower than other combination.  

Conclusions: Hypertension can increase the severity of COVID-19. The use of ACEI/ARBs in ACE-2 receptor regulation which is thought to aggravate the condition of COVID-19 patients has not yet been proven. This is consistent with findings in other anti-hypertensive groups.
Entre el romance por el espacio público y el fetichismo por el placer, emerge una necesaria demanda por sanar la ciudad.
Authors: Zamler Daiana
Published: September 2021

El presente artículo pretende interrogar las ideas románticas y fetichistas derramadas sobre los espacios públicos urbanos a partir de la década de los ochenta. Para ello se relacionan tales ideologías con los postulados de Lefebvre respecto de la arquitectura del placer y los de Koolhaas sobre la ciudad genérica, enmarcados ambos por los efectos de la globalización sobre la arquitectura y la planificación urbana. A su vez, se intenta cuestionar estas correspondencias en relación a las lecciones emergentes de la pandemia mundial, asociadas a la vida citadina, enfocándose en el rol del espacio público. Se insinúa entonces que la enfermedad urbana se propagó varias décadas previas a la pandemia, y por tanto, sanar la ciudad se torna inminente en el siglo XXI. Esto implica reconstruir –o bien deconstruir– el paradigma fetichista de las ciudades posmodernas y de sus espacios públicos. De aquí que será necesario, por un lado, concebir proyectos espaciales que satisfagan necesidades comunes y reales basados en la experiencia de la vida cotidiana; y por el otro, enfrentar las contingencias que la pandemia pudo revelar. Por lo tanto, tales demandas exigen reflexionar sobre el rol del arquitecto, ya no como diseñador romántico, sino como mediador entre el proyecto, las necesidades y la técnica, orientados al bien común.
Lo global y lo local en las ciudades enfermas en tiempos de COVID-19.
Authors: Sánchez Sandra
Published: September 2021

Las epidemias, han impactado desde siempre de manera explosiva e imprevisible. Pero estos procesos de transformación no se producen aislados, ya que esferas enteras de la cultura también pueden realizar sus propias transformaciones o movimientos bajo la forma de cambios graduales, coexistiendo ambos a la vez y creando nuevas sinergias. Se analizará el escenario actual de pandemia en la Ciudad de Buenos Aires en el que se reforzaron las políticas urbanas neoliberales sobre la base de la violación a todo tipo de derechos, fundamentalmente, de los sectores vulnerables. Con el ASPO, DISPO y la mediatización, la pobreza urbana (que significa inequidades: en los servicios de infraestructura y transporte público, en la calidad de los espacios verdes, en la accesibilidad y disfrute de la ciudad), se fue constituyendo en síntoma de procesos de transformación social y urbana atravesados por lo local y lo global.
Apagando ciudades. Toque de queda, emergencia sanitaria y las tácticas de los nuevos autoritarismos.
Authors: Carrasco Purull Gonzalo
Published: September 2021

Las políticas sanitarias implementadas para el control de la pandemia han incorporado medidas que han incrementado los niveles de control y vigilancia de la población, como son los estados de excepción y los toque de queda. El presente artículo pretende discutir acerca de los desafíos urbanos que sobre la concepción del espacio público post-pandemia tienen estas medidas, sobre todo en sociedades en donde se han aplicado como táctica para sofocar la protesta y los movimientos de disidencia, como es el caso de Chile con posteridad a las revueltas urbanas del 2019. A través de una revisión del toque de queda en la historia urbana, su utilización dentro de las estrategias del llamado urbanismo militarizado y las amenazas que ofrece para una concepción democrática de la ciudad basada en los derechos y una política del cuidado.
Freski fundacji Władysława II Jagiełły w kolegiacie wiślickiej
Authors: Grotowski Piotr Ł.
Published: September 2021

Orthodox frescoes founded by King Ladislaus II Jagiello (1386–1434) in the collegiate church in Wiślica have come down to us in a very poor condition. Covered by plaster as early as at the turn of the 17th century, they remained unknown until World War I, when, after a heavy bombardment, fragments of paintings reappeared from beneath white paint. A careless restoration brought about further damages, mostly on the surface of the paintings, and presently only about forty percent of the original murals is still visible in the presbytery of the church. Nevertheless, the general layout of the iconographic programme can be reconstructed based on the preserved fragments. Although the ceiling had to be rebuilt after the war, on the basis of its restorers’ testimonies it is possible to reconstruct the themes connected with Christ’s eternal glory in Heaven. Side walls were originally divided into five (or six) zones, while the semi-octagonal gothic apse into two zones. The upper parts of the side walls were covered with the images of the Church Fathers. Only the images of John Chrysostom and Basil of Caesarea survived on the S wall. Below, a row of prophets surrounded the whole presbytery. Their images are much better preserved. The figures of Isaiah, Solomon, Zechariah the Younger, Abdias (?), Micah, Amos, Elijah, Elisha, Habakkuk and Jonah are identifiable, mostly thanks to the scrolls with the texts of their prophecies. Their images were supplemented with the busts of Old Testament patriarchs shown in a clypei on the inner side of the triumphal arch; only four of them have survived (Melchizedek, Job?, Aaron and Hur).
A Boost for Urban Sustainability: Optimizing Electric Transit Bus Networks in Rotterdam
Authors: Abdelwahed Ayman , van den Berg Pieter L. , Brandt Tobias , Ketter Wolfgang , Mulder Judith
Published: September 2021

In 2016, the Dutch government, in pursuit of the UN’s sustainable development goals, set a target that all its diesel transit bus networks should be fully electrified between 2025 and 2030. A research team from Rotterdam School of Management has since worked in close collaboration with Rotterdamse Elektrische Tram, the public transport operator in the city of Rotterdam, to accomplish this complex transition. This paper presents essential lessons learned and key practical implications derived from the project. As part of the transition process, we developed a discrete-event simulation model that can simulate the network using different settings and under uncertainty. We also formulated a mixed-integer linear programming problem to optimize the charging schedule. To mitigate the critical impact of uncertainty regarding traffic delays and energy consumption on the electrified transit bus network operation, we developed a real-time decision support system that adjusts and reoptimizes the charging schedule during the day according to the realizations of this uncertainty. We use this system to achieve better coordination between the charging schedule of the electric buses and electricity generation from renewable energy sources with the latter involving high levels of uncertainty. Our study shows the benefits of real-time optimization compared with off-line planning and other greedy strategies. We also show that even highly conservative off-line planning might not be sufficient to maintain reliability levels under extreme operational uncertainty conditions. Additionally, our results and insights have substantially contributed to the success of the first phase of the project, which involved electrifying seven essential bus lines in the city, in realizing a robust and reliable operational plan. Finally, our study shows the potential substantial positive impact of installing renewable energy generators and coordinating the electric buses’ charging schedule with their output power profile. Based on our recommendations, RET developed a real-time monitoring system and is working on incorporating our charging schedule optimizer into its planning process.
Case Article—Swirltubs After-Market Product Inventory and Service Case
Authors: Gorman Michael F.
Published: September 2021

In the Swirltubs case, students apply expected value decision making to a knapsack problem for appliance repairmen. The case is based on a published research paper on work that was actually implemented for a major appliance manufacturer. The case features three parts: (1) problem understanding and definition; (2) optimization results for a small, test problem; and (3) creation and testing of a heuristic for a large-scale implementation that exceeds the limits of Microsoft Excel®. Optionally, an instructor can add risk-analysis simulation and reoptimization under uncertainty in subsequent parts of the project, making it a total of five parts. The case is highly interactive, owing to the relatively unstructured nature of the problem. I have implemented the case over a two- and three-week period format, with upper-level master’s in business administration or master’s in analytics students who have been exposed previously to optimization methods. It has been administered to dozens of students with generally positive feedback.

History: This paper has been accepted for the INFORMS Transactions on Education Special Section on Cases Based on Real-World Projects from the INFORMS Journal on Applied Analytics.

Supplemental Matertial: Teaching Notes and Excel spreadsheet of solutions are available at https://www.informs.org/Publications/Subscribe/Access-Restricted-Materials .
Case—Swirltubs After-Market Product Inventory and Service
Authors: Gorman Michael F.
Published: September 2021

History: This paper has been accepted for the INFORMS Transactions on Education Special Section on Cases Based on Real-World Projects from the INFORMS Journal on Applied Analytics.
Uso de colágeno y terapia de presión negativa en una úlcera de pie diabético: caso de estudio
Authors: Cifuentes Marcela Pacheco
Published: September 2021

Summary

Resumen: El siguiente caso de estudio describe el uso de una capa de colágeno en combinación con terapia de presión negativa en una úlcera de pie diabético, tratada en un hospital de Chile. La herida redujo su tamaño 58% en las primeras 10 semanas, y alcanzó la cicatrización completa en las siguientes 14 semanas. El tratamiento realizado evitó la amputación del pie del paciente que, a sus 64 años, mantuvo su independencia y calidad de vida.
The Walls Come Down
Authors: Dickson David
Published: September 2021

This chapter discusses John Ferrar's history of Limerick which reflected on the ending of the city's final siege in 1691. It notes that the achievement of a hundred years of peace from the 1690s to the 1790s was one of the defining characteristics of eighteenth-century Ireland. The chapter then looks at the disappearance of defensive walls from most of the larger urban centers. These walls were old and by Continental standards quite tame structures, both in height and in mass. It also analyzes how both entry gates and much of the connected walling had vanished from Irish cities by 1800. In their prime, city walls had defined the intangibles of civic identity and corporate prestige. The chapter argues that the disappearance of city walls was a deliberate and often controversial process that reflected the progressive subjugation of city communities to the princely state and its military priorities. The chapter then shifts focus on to how urban defences had continued to shape military outcomes in the course of the seventeenth century — particularly the case in the northernmost city of Derry.
An Old and Distinguished Family
Authors: Van Young Eric
Published: September 2021

This chapter begins by introducing Alamán’s unpublished fragment of a personal memoir (1834), a key document in this biographical study. The social structure of the Guanajuato of his childhood is described. His family history in Spain and France going back to the15th century is traced, including the nobility on his mother’s side going back to her great-grandfather, a silver baron. In an elegiac tone the memoir recalls the titled silver aristocracy of Alamán’s youth and the fading of the family fortune over several generations, evoking the status loss that drove so many of his actions as an entrepreneur and public figure. The career of his father, who arrived in Mexico and married a wealthy young widow, is narrated, and the intra-family struggles over inheritance that followed his death.
The Spanish Cortes and a Final Sojourn in Paris (1821–1822)
Authors: Van Young Eric
Published: September 2021

Alamán was installed as a delegate to the Spanish Cortes in Madrid in May 1821, and would participate actively in its debates through the beginning of the following year, forming positive or conflictual relationships with a number of Mexicans he would encounter in his later political career. He successfully proposed reforms in the laws regulating the silver mining industry and backed an unsuccessful proposal to restructure the colonies in the direction of granting greater autonomy to New Spain and other kingdoms within the Empire. Meanwhile, New Spain was irrevocably headed toward a break with Spain and the Spanish deputies simply chose to ignore the situation there. Returning to Paris for a number of months Alamán attempted without success to form a mining company with French capital, and returned to what was now an independent Mexico in the fall of 1822, never to visit Europe again.
Domestic Tranquility
Authors: Van Young Eric
Published: September 2021

The chapter continues the discussion of Alamán’s 1823-1825 ministry, his departure from the presidential cabinet and return, his efforts to establish domestic political stability in the country, and the establishment of a national museum, botanical gardens, and archive. Much attention is paid to his family life and the lives of his children, and to his purchase of a hacienda in 1836 from which he hoped to realize a substantial steady income, but which in the end proved more a drain than a gain.
City, Congress, Wealth, Health
Authors: Van Young Eric
Published: September 2021

Despite his increasingly fragile health (respiratory problems for which he sought relief in long stays at the Hacienda de Atlacomulco in the lower, warmer climate of the Cuernavaca area), the years after the war were frenetic ones for Alamán. He assumed the leadership of the Mexico City ayuntamiento (city council) for a time, founded the Conservative Party in 1848, established a second conservative daily in 1849, served a single term in Congress, and was nominated for president in 1851 (this did not prosper for lack of widespread support). The chapter devotes considerable discussion to the state of his health and to his wealth, with an analysis of his testament of about 1850.
Introduction
Authors: Howard Thomas Albert
Published: September 2021

This chapter begins with discussion of the three organizations drawn from numerous comparable ones established in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries: the interfaith center of New York, the Interreligious Council of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz International Centre for Interreligious and Intercultural Dialogue (KAICIID). The chapter seeks to understand where interreligious dialogue came from and where is it headed. It also evaluates its broader historical, social, and ethical significance. The chapter hazards answers to these questions through an inquiry into several major turning points in the history of interreligious dialogue, for even as many today extol, practice, theorize, and/or theologize about interreligious dialogue, few have attended carefully to its genesis and past. The chapter takes the premodern world as a starting point, where it examines several harbingers of interreligious dialogue. Canvassing the premodern world for harbingers helps us to see that while contemporary interfaith dialogue is in some respects a novelty, it is nonetheless not altogether discontinuous with the past. Ultimately, the chapter recognizes the distinction between interfaith dialogue and interfaith social action.
Introduction
Authors: Rosato Sebastian
Published: September 2021

This chapter begins by explaining that the question of whether or not great powers can be confident that their peers have benign intentions is of enormous importance in both the real world and in international relations theory. In a nutshell, confidence causes peace and uncertainty causes security competition with the potential for war. The chapter then addresses the intentions question in three ways. First, it briefly describes a theory—intentions pessimism—that says great powers can rarely if ever be confident that their peers have benign intentions, because it is extraordinarily difficult for them to obtain the requisite information. Second, it argues that intentions pessimism matches up well with the historical record, and specifically, that it offers a compelling explanation of how great powers have actually thought about each other’s intentions over the past 150 years. Third, it applies intentions pessimism to the future of great power politics, predicting that the United States and China will each be uncertain about the other’s intentions, which will, in turn, cause them to compete for security and perhaps go to war.
Party, Peace, and Caciquismo
Authors: Gillingham Paul
Published: September 2021

This chapter identifies the processes by which Veracruz moved from violent political and social fragmentation to comparative stability and central discipline. It charts a new level of control by civilian politicians over the networks of soldiers and pistoleros who had previously taken over much of the state, and the emergence of a modus vivendi between weary peasant communities and landowners. Competitive elections declined precipitously, peasants were cut out of political posts at all levels and unions consolidated their control over the work force. Caciquismo endured, and remained as in the rest of Mexico key to political bargaining and central control. Yet while the state government remained incapable of efficient tax collection, this was compensated by dramatic economic growth, police professionalization and federal support for infrastructure and other public goods from the veracruzano camarilla in the national government.
The Christ Commodity
Authors: Quigley Jennifer A.
Published: September 2021

This chapter evaluates Philippians 2–3, focusing on the language of gain and loss in Phil 3:7–11. In this passage, Paul offers a divine-human accounting sheet in which his statuses are counted as losses so that he might gain the profit Christ (Phil 3:8). The chapter contextualizes this passage by reading Lucian's Lives for Sale, a text in which gods and humans participate in a human–divine slave market. That is, persons in antiquity sometimes considered the gods to be the source of their financial profits and losses, and sometimes they understood the gods to be dependent on humanity for divine gains and losses. Most importantly, persons in antiquity sometimes discussed the gods as commodities that could be bought, sold, or traded. The chapter then maps where the complex theo-economic logics at work in Phil 3:7–11 fit within a variety of literary sources that use similar language of profit and loss to imagine human–divine interdependence. Paul sets up a commodities exchange in which suffering gives him the proper status currency to acquire Christ. The Letter to the Philippians thus represents an early data point in what will emerge as a divine-human economy of suffering in early Christianity.
Detection and utility of cell-free and circulating tumour DNA in bone and soft-tissue sarcomas
Authors: Tsoi Kim M. , Gokgoz Nalan , Darville-O'Quinn Paige , Prochazka Patrick , Malekoltojari Ainaz , Griffin Anthony M. , Ferguson Peter C. , Wunder Jay S. , Andrulis Irene L.
Published: September 2021

Aims

Cell-free DNA (cfDNA) and circulating tumour DNA (ctDNA) are used for prognostication and monitoring in patients with carcinomas, but their utility is unclear in sarcomas. The objectives of this pilot study were to explore the prognostic significance of cfDNA and investigate whether tumour-specific alterations can be detected in the circulation of sarcoma patients.

Methods

Matched tumour and blood were collected from 64 sarcoma patients (n = 70 samples) prior to resection of the primary tumour (n = 57) or disease recurrence (n = 7). DNA was isolated from plasma, quantified, and analyzed for cfDNA. A subset of cases (n = 6) underwent whole exome sequencing to identify tumour-specific alterations used to detect ctDNA using digital droplet polymerase chain reaction (ddPCR).

Results

Cell-free was present in 69 of 70 samples above 0.5 ng/ml. Improved disease-free survival was found for patients with lower cfDNA levels (90% vs 48% at one-year for ≤ 6 ng/ml and > 6 ng/ml, respectively; p = 0.005). Digital droplet PCR was performed as a pilot study and mutant alleles were detectable at 0.5% to 2.5% of the wild type genome, and at a level of 0.25 ng tumour DNA. Tumour-specific alterations (ctDNA) were found in five of six cases.

Conclusion

This work demonstrates the feasibility and potential utility of cfDNA and ctDNA as biomarkers for bone and soft-tissue sarcomas, despite the lack of recurrent genomic alterations. A larger study is required to validate these findings. Cite this article: Bone Joint Res 2021;10(9):602–610.
Success Story of Ilizarov in Chronic Non-union of Tibia with 18 Years of Morbidity: A Case Report
Authors: Sunder S Shyam , Sunder S Shyam
Published: September 2021

Introduction: When the fracture fails to heal for more than 12 months, it is called chronic non-union. Surgical intervention becomes mandatory to get this type of fracture healed. We are reporting our results in a case of congenital pseudoarthrosis of the tibia (CPT) having chronic non-union of 18 years duration with superadded infection following attempted surgery, using Ilizarov technology. We shall highlight the problems found during the course of treatment and different strategies to tackle them.
Case Presentation: An 18-year-old female, born with CPT of the right tibia with neurofibromatosis, presented as Type 1 infected non-union following three unsuccessful surgeries. She had neurofibromatic nodules all over the body including the face. The leg had multiple active draining sinuses, with evidence of healed sinuses and operating scars, adherent to underlying bone. She had 20 cm of limb shortening. Prolonged morbidity made her socially isolated. Being poor, they could not manage her medical expenses. They started believing that amputation would be a viable option and with that feeling in mind, they approached us. After few sittings of counseling, they somehow agreed to give it a try. After preparing the patient, a radical excision of the infected and dead tissue was done. A 3 ring Ilizarov assembly was mounted as the distal fragment was very small. A corticotomy was done to fill up 10 cm of gap following excision and subsequent limb lengthening. She developed hyporegenerate, pin-tract infections (PTIs) during the course of treatment which were tackled accordingly. She also developed psychological problems due to nature of treatment that was taken care of too. The fracture united and she could start walking unaided. There was no recurrence of infection. The ring was kept in situ for about 700 days.
Conclusion: Chronic non-union associated with neurofibromatosis and infection is a very challenging situation. Radical debridement is the key to prevent recurrence of
Valued places
Authors: Watt Paul
Published: September 2021

This chapter examines pre-regeneration estates as valued places with reference to residents’ place attachment. Social tenants and owner-occupiers were attached to their homes as domestic spaces, to their blocks of flats/rows of houses, and to their estates as neighbourhoods – not ‘sink estates’. These were valued and valuable places where long-term residents developed traditional place belonging and a sense of community. Ontological security was rooted at the home scale in solid buildings and domestic self-provisioning (Pahl), and at the block and neighbourhood spatial scales in residential longevity and accumulated local social capital (McKenzie). Residents, especially working-class women, had built up trusting and caring relationships with their neighbours over years of co-residence. Neighbourliness was enhanced by estates’ design features, such as balconies, courtyards, and green space. By purchasing their homes under the Right-to-Buy (RTB), owners deepened their spatial roots, and hence the RTB operated as a buy-to-stay mechanism. Incoming middle-class market-homeowners (gentrifiers) expressed elective belonging, rather than traditional belonging, although they also began to develop local social ties. Despite neighbourhood conviviality, London estates do not form cohesive urban villages as identified during the early post-war period (Young and Willmott), but instead are complex socio-demographic places in terms of ethnicity, age, tenure, etc.
Aftermaths
Authors: Watt Paul
Published: September 2021

This chapter examines the provisional regeneration aftermaths at three estates – West Hendon (Barnet), Woodberry Down (Hackney) and Carpenters (Newham) – in relation to what kind of new places are being created. West Hendon and Woodberry Down form hybrid places consisting of the remaining old estate which is undergoing degeneration, displacement and demolition, and the redeveloped section which is receiving new residents. At the intermediate spatial scale, although some interviewees appreciated the enhanced security features in the new gated blocks, the latter were routinely described as soulless, hotel-like non-places (Auge). One major aim at both West Hendon and Woodberry Down was to create mixed-tenure communities. However, at neither estate had this been achieved as far as social tenants were concerned. Despite the attempts made to enhance community development, there was a common lament at both redeveloped estates – that their previous sense of community had been lost. There was also little evidence of class/tenure mixing, and these hybrid neighbourhoods constitute fragmented rather than mixed communities. The final section focuses on the Carpenters estate where no redevelopment has occurred despite its being nominally under regeneration for fifteen years. By 2019 it was a half-empty shell of a previously functioning multi-ethnic, working-class east London community.
Conclusion: what can we learn?
Authors: Thompson Paul , Plummer Ken , Demireva Neli
Published: September 2021

This chapter recalls the intriguing set of interviews with twentieth-century social researchers that are available for further reading, listening to and scrutiny. It examines how empirical social research was conducted and given shape in mid-twentieth-century Britain. The chapter aims to put on record the fascinating stories of some earlier creative researchers working in intriguing new ways before they become forgotten. The chapter also seeks to understand better how research happens in practice and to bring together a wider account of how social research was starting to emerge, the puzzles it faced, the institutions it was building. History, and even more sociology, always speaks to a wider story than a single life can hope to achieve. In that sense, the chapter demonstrates some of the very problems our researchers discuss. Ultimately, the chapter analyzes the emergence of a very grounded theory and account of the creative research practice. It then demonstrates the research methods and the elements of the research's fuller account.