Contention

Background/purpose: Persistent inflammatory response secondary to congenital or acquired biliary choleastasis plays an important role in the pathophysiology of hepatic tissue damage. The polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) have been shown to suppress the inflammatory reactions in vivo and in vitro. PUFA has been shown also to protect againts various types of experimental liver damage in animal models and isolated hepatocytes.

Zhang Yimou's Under the Hawthorn Tree (2010), an adaptation of a popular 2007 internet novel, drew polarized responses in China for its portrayal of passionate, self-sacrificing  and ultimately tragic love during the late stages of the Cultural Revolution. Media and audiences seized particularly on the invocation in the official marketing campaign of 'ganjing [de] aiqing' or 'pure love' as the film’s central topic. Concepts of purity served to publicise not only the film itself but also the off-screen story of its production, in particular Zhang Yimou’s reported difficulty in finding a sufficiently 'pure' actress to play the female lead. However, many online amateur and professional reviewers of the film rejected and mocked the film’s pretentions to ‘purity’, questioning its modes of sexual storytelling and its politics of sexual citizenship in a China increasingly tolerant of pre-marital sex. This paper analyses online comments on Hawthorn posted to the popular Douban movie review website, finding that styles of contention found more broadly on the internet in China can characterize online movie reviewing too, albeit with particular attention in this case to notions, on the one hand, of sentimental romanticism, and other the other, of a young generation’s sexual self-assertion.

La littérature scientifique et les recommandations de bonnes pratiques suggèrent que l’usage de la contention sur le sujet âgé dément devrait être réservé aux cas d’extrême nécessité et en dernier recours. L’idée générale est de n’utiliser une contention, a priori malfaisante, que lorsqu’elle évite une malfaisance encore plus grande. Alors que le cas de M. R. n’est pas un cas d’extrême nécessité, la réflexion éthique suggère que dans cette situation particulière la contention pourrait être non-malfaisante, voire même potentiellement bienfaisante. Ce cas montre l’importance d’une réflexion éthique au cas par cas plutôt que de s’en tenir aux positions de principes.

Three-dimensional configuration of nonagon mandala
Meaningful configuration engendered only by tacit aesthetic entanglement
Ninefold configuration in practice and its comprehension constraints
Speculation on potential symbolic relevance of the concordian mandala
Transformational pathways between 2D and 3D in the light of graph theory and "magic"
Defective insight transmission system?
Portals for intercourse with an imagined reality
Configuring a confusion of concepts of consequence to contention, consensus and consummation?

Signification of human meaning dwells in ethics and culture, finding expression in and through rhetorical practices. Ethics and culture consist of goods and practices that gather the meaningful and the important together, yielding urgency for rhetorical employment of those practices. The union of ethics, culture, and rhetoric offers a coherent dwelling for the protection and promotion of the consequential. Ethics and culture house actions of meaningfulness that compel rhetorical expression, announcing a stance attentive to the vital, reminding self and informing other of a particular account of the consequential. Ethics and culture adjudicate a sense of ground that nourishes rhetorical understanding and engagement with the world. Rhetoric explicates practices of import that reflect the performative reality of ethics and culture, retelling self and other about the crucial. Rhetoric permits self and other to interrogate a ground of distinctive goods and practices that structure the noteworthy. Rhetoric facilitates discovery, testing, and knowledgeable implementation. It moves ethics and culture from points of abstraction to knowing public coordinates in a communicative social world that is impactful on self and others. The interplay of ethics, culture, and rhetoric in their triconstruction and enactment engenders human meaning. Rhetoric thrusts unique versions of ethics and culture into the public domain, and such action renders practical awareness of the existence of contrasting content of import. Acknowledging dissimilarity exposes and probes contrasting goods and practices. Rhetoric enhances public knowledge of differences undergirding juxtaposed ethical and cultural stances.

The aim of the study was to analyse the use of holding, restraints, seclusion and time-out in child and adolescent psychiatric in-patient treatment in Finland. The study included 504 child and adolescent psychiatric in-patients in the year 2000. Time-out had been used for 28 %, holding for 26 %, seclusion for 8 %, and mechanical restraints for 4 % of the in-patients. In multivariate analysis, aggressive acts were the strongest factor associated with all kinds of restraint practices. Psychosis, suicidal acts and older age (13–18 years) were associated with seclusion and mechanical restraints. Younger age (

This paper formalizes and studies combinable memory-block transactions (MBTs). The idea is to encode short programs that operate on a single cache/memory block and then to specify such a program with a memory request. The code is then executed at the ...

Political Contention and Forms of Violence in the Romanian Principalities (16th–17th Centuries)
In the 16th and 17th centuries, the Romanian Principalities lacked treatises of political theory or compendia of comments on works of classical philosophy with references to practices of political governance. For this reason, people’s perceptions of political contention and its outcomes can only be reconstructed starting from the odd allusion and comment scattered in the period’s written sources.
In the Romanian Principalities the deposition of princes through violence was not routine practice, but the extreme solution to a political deadlock. Recourse to this form of violence can be explained by the lack of a clear, immutable system of succession. At the same time, the small number of princely assassinations must be connected to a conception of the monarch’s body as having a mystical dimension, as being sacred, immortal and intangible. If we attempt to construct a typology of the protesters, the first thing we notice is that the initiators and leaders of the protest movements were always members of the noble class (boyars). On the one hand, as members of the country’s political apparatus, the boyars had all the inside information and could identify correctly the right moment for an intervention. Their uprisings invariably took place in politically unstable moments and as such they are reliable indicators of major crises. On the other hand, as wealthy property-owners, only the boyars had the resources needed for sending envoys, for travelling inside and outside the country’s borders, and for assembling and maintaining armies. The pressure groups were not formed randomly, but more often than not relied on alliances founded on kinship, intermarriage or ritual. Such a group needed a leader – an individual who took the initiative and had the means of attracting like-minded malcontents. Participation in political contention was a major risk, which the participants acknowledged and accepted. Therefore, the links between leader and associates had to rely on discretion, trust and mutual loyalty (in some cases sealed by a binding oath).
Some expressions of violence were considered legitimate and, as such, were tolerated by society; however, excessive violence – i.e. non-legitimate violence – was denounced and penalized. Violence against the ruling prince, irrespective of the causes, was not condoned and, when it happened, had to be justified and defended in the eyes of contemporaries and posterity alike through a discourse which presented the slain monarch as having departed from the model of the ideal sovereign and as having failed to fulfil his duties to the subjects. A prince’s assassination was a way of eliminating an unjust tyrant, thereby also removing the principles, norms and values he promoted. Even though most sources do not indicate the deeper causes of contention, it is likely that rather than being random acts of insubordination, such movements were the outcome of real, serious and deep-seated grievances, with solid ideological foundations.

AbstractParticipation is a popular buzzword in contemporary urban studies. For some, it implies a deepening of democratic deliberation; for others, it represents grassroots resistance to powerful elites and neoliberalization. Rather than seeing participation as either consensus-building or conflicts of interest, as either a top-down or bottom-up process, the evidence suggests that it can be all of these. By adopting a more dynamic, pragmatic, and empirically informed perspective, seemingly opposite normative conceptions of democratic participation may be theorized as different ‘moments’ in the democratic process. Bottom-up mobilization may coincide with and complement top-down initiatives, each dominating different political phases of policymaking, implementation and monitoring. Case studies from Belfast, Berlin, Durban, Philadelphia and São Paulo illustrate the approach and provide insight into the urban as a social laboratory in which other scales of social life and multiple ways to perform democracy are constructed.Participation is a popular buzzword in contemporary urban studies. For some, it implies a deepening of democratic deliberation; for others, it represents grassroots resistance to powerful elites and neoliberalization. Rather than seeing participation as either consensus-building or conflicts of interest, as either a top-down or bottom-up process, the evidence suggests that it can be all of these. By adopting a more dynamic, pragmatic, and empirically informed perspective, seemingly opposite normative conceptions of democratic participation may be theorized as different ‘moments’ in the democratic process. Bottom-up mobilization may coincide with and complement top-down initiatives, each dominating different political phases of policymaking, implementation and monitoring. Case studies from Belfast, Berlin, Durban, Philadelphia and São Paulo illustrate the approach and provide insight into the urban as a social laboratory in which other scales of social life and multiple ways to perform democracy are constructed.RésuméLa participation est un terme qui revient très souvent dans les études urbaines contemporaines. Pour certains, elle implique une réflexion démocratique approfondie, pour d'autres, une résistance des citoyens face à la puissance des élites et au néolibéralisme. Si la participation peut être vue comme un moyen de bâtir des consensus ou l'expression de conflits d'intérêts, ou comme un processus imposé par le haut ou bien par la base, les faits suggèrent qu'elle peut être tout cela. En adoptant une perspective pragmatique plus dynamique reposant sur des éléments empiriques, des concepts normatifs de la participation apparemment opposés sont susceptibles d'être formulés en tant que “moments” différents du processus démocratique. La mobilisation par la base peut venir en coïncidence et complément d'initiatives imposées par le haut, chaque forme dominant des phases politiques distinctes dans la prise de décision, la mise en œuvre et le suivi. Des études de cas portant sur Belfast, Berlin, Durban, Philadelphie et São Paulo illustrent la démarche et font apparaître l'urbain comme un laboratoire où s'élaborent d'autres dimensions de la vie sociale et de multiples modalités d'exercice de la démocratie.La participation est un terme qui revient très souvent dans les études urbaines contemporaines. Pour certains, elle implique une réflexion démocratique approfondie, pour d'autres, une résistance des citoyens face à la puissance des élites et au néolibéralisme. Si la participation peut être vue comme un moyen de bâtir des consensus ou l'expression de conflits d'intérêts, ou comme un processus imposé par le haut ou bien par la base, les faits suggèrent qu'elle peut être tout cela. En adoptant une perspective pragmatique plus dynamique reposant sur des éléments empiriques, des concepts normatifs de la participation apparemment opposés sont susceptibles d'être formulés en tant que “moments” différents du processus démocratique. La mobilisation par la base peut venir en coïncidence et complément d'initiatives imposées par le haut, chaque forme dominant des phases politiques distinctes dans la prise de décision, la mise en œuvre et le suivi. Des études de cas portant sur Belfast, Berlin, Durban, Philadelphie et São Paulo illustrent la démarche et font apparaître l'urbain comme un laboratoire où s'élaborent d'autres dimensions de la vie sociale et de multiples modalités d'exercice de la démocratie.

ABSTRACT This article explores the relationship between Europeanization and EU integration in the field of judicial politics. It claims that the process of Europeanization engenders contention which creates demands for increased supranational governance. To illustrate this duality, the article draws on the waves of reforms aiming to consolidate the independence of the judiciary in the new Member States of the EU. What is at stake from a political and normative point of view is the post-conditionality debate, the discussion around the Copenhagen dilemma and — conversely — the need to define at the EU level a set of effective mechanisms and instruments of compliance. Empirically, the article discloses the dead angles of Europeanization and reveals that policy implementation in the Copenhagen framework creates functional and political pressures for further integration. In the field of judicial politics, the power of the EU oscillates between spill-over and spill-back.

As scholarship engaging with Chinese digital media confronts the blunted edges of its well-rehearsed arguments about grassroots democratization and civil society, it becomes increasingly clear that the Chinese Internet is a ground of tension and contention. Rongbin Han’s monograph focuses on the apparently paradoxical coexistence of variegated online expression and the unexpected resilience that communication technologies afford Chinese authorities. Han, currently assistant professor in the Department of International Affairs at the University of Georgia, opens his monograph with a very personal perspective: the author’s own experience as a Peking University student in the early 2000s, his discovery of campus-based Bulletin Board Systems (BBS), and his resulting transformation into a self-declared “BBS addict” which allowed him to observe and chart the authorities’ attempts at controlling online debate on these platforms at a close range.

AimTo compare the clinical management of typical scenarios by using three case vignettes in a substantial number of European countries.MethodThree case vignettes and an associated questionnaire, filled in and finalised by at least two experts from each country.ResultsLegislation and clinical practice varies widely across the 16 included countries. No specific pattern emerged. Certain practices (intravenous medication, mechanical restraint, net beds and forensic transfers, respectively) only exist in few countries. Legislation for involuntary medication is most restrictive in the Netherlands.ConclusionsThere is little harmonisation and a lack of consistent standards within and across European countries regarding treatment and management of violent patients.

In this paper we introduce a simple extension to IEEE 802.11 that supports broadcasting in ad hoc networks. Ad hoc random access MAC protocols often treat unicast and broadcast packets differently. Unicast packets are preceded with MAC layer control frames, such as RTS, CTS and ACK, to ensure that the destination receives the unicast packets. Broadcast packets, on the other hand, are sent blindly without any control frames to assure the availability of the destinations. Therefore, the performance of the network degrades as contention increases. Our proposed extension to the broadcast mechanism of 802.11 helps alleviate such degradation when contention exists

To examine changes in total, flexible and rigid restraint, hunger, and disinhibition in obese individuals with Binge-Eating Disorder (BED), and assess whether these variables are associated with binge abstinence at post-treatment and during two-year follow-up. A total of 116 obese individuals with BED were randomized to a 20-week treatment trial plus two-year follow-up. Using the Eating Inventory (EI), we assessed these factors at pretreatment, post-treatment, and follow-up time-points and examined their relationship to binge abstinence at post-treatment, 12- and 24-month follow-up. Low disinhibition and high-total restraint are associated with post-treatment binge abstinence. There are no significant relationships between post-treatment EI variables and binge abstinence at 12- and 24-month follow-up. Reducing disinhibition as well as increasing EI dietary restraint during BED treatment may be important for short-term success.

Emerging multimedia applications for sensor networks require the co-existence of different types of traffic with different QoS provisions in terms of latency and throughput. Prioritization-based service differentiation mechanisms are applied in all layers of communication to satisfy the QoS requirements of each traffic class. The prioritization in the contention is one of these differentiation methods applied in the medium access layer. In this article, we propose an analytical model for the contention latencies and energy expenditures of different classes in a prioritized contention structure with uniform backoff scheme. The contention window is divided into three partitions which are allocated for the use of only high-priority, both priorities, and only low-priority classes. We further generalize the model for binary exponential backoff schemes and for more than two priority classes. In the analysis, we explore the optimum sizes of these partitions in terms of contention latency and the total energy expenditure for each priority class. Our model is also useful for the evaluation of various recent contention prioritization schemes in WSNs.

To assess the long-term effects of the EXBELT intervention program, which was designed to reduce belt restraint use and was found to be effective immediately after implementation, after 24 months. Quasi-experimental longitudinal design. Thirteen nursing homes: seven assigned to control group and six to intervention group. A panel group (n = 225) of residents present at baseline and 24 months after baseline and a survey group (n = 689) of all residents present 24 months after baseline. The survey group included the panel group. EXBELT included four components: a policy change, an educational program, consultation, and availability of alternative interventions. The use of belt restraints 24 months after baseline was the primary outcome measure. Secondary outcomes included other types of physical restraints. An independent observer collected data four times during a 24-hour period. EXBELT resulted in a 65% decrease in belt use between baseline and 24 months after baseline in the panel group (odds ratio 0.35, 95% confidence interval = 0.13-0.93; P = .04). In the survey group, the proportion of residents using belts was 13% in the control and 3% in the intervention group (P < .001) 24 months after baseline. The use of the most restrictive types of restraints was significantly lower in the intervention group than the control group in the panel and survey groups. The EXBELT intervention was associated with long-term minimization of belt restraint usage in older nursing home residents. A multicomponent intervention including institutional policy change, education, consultation, and the availability of alternative interventions had an enduring effect on successful restraint reduction.

Past studies revealed only the different sustainability practices of foreign direct investors in developing countries, while the motives that influenced their sustainability practices remain underexplored. This study investigates how civil society organizations (CSOs) influence the sustainability practices of foreign investors in the Cambodian agricultural sector. It focuses in particular on interactions between civil society and government, drawing new links between existing theoretical debates concerning influencing strategies of civil society on companies, government strategies of regulatory enforcement and the political nexus between the government and corporations. Two cases of foreign joint venture investments (one rubber and one sugar plantation) in the agro-industry were selected for observation. Both qualitative and quantitative data were collected and analysed. This study used a process tracing method to analyse observable causes and outcomes within case causal mechanism p...