Apparent Success Research Articles

Comment on “Simultaneous density and thermal conductivity depth profile reconstructions from noised thermal-wave amplitude and phase data using a combined integral-equation and imperialist competitive algorithm method” [J. Appl. Phys. 133, 055102 (2023)

In a recent paper, Mandelis et al. [J. Appl. Phys. 133, 055102 (2023)] describe a photothermal methodology and a new inversion technique which, when applied to a heterogeneous material, is claimed to allow a simultaneous reconstruction of the depth profiles of thermal conductivity and density (assuming that the specific heat is a known constant). In this Comment we recall that, for the thermophysical configuration considered, the thermal conductivity and volumetric heat capacity profiles cannot be identified simultaneously because they are fully correlated. The exposed problem exhibits unconditional non-identifiability leading to the non-uniqueness of the solution. The apparent success of the inversion tests does not preclude the fact that, for any (apparently) optimal solution, an infinite multiplicity of equally satisfactory pairs of conjugate profiles can be built. The simultaneous identification of the density and thermal conductivity profiles is here an unsolvable inverse problem.

Management of Primary Uterine Cervix B-Cell Lymphoma Stage IE and Fertility Sparing Outcome: A Systematic Review of the Literature.

The female genital tract can be involved as a secondary manifestation of disseminated lymphomas or leukaemia but can rarely be the primary site of so-called extranodal lymphomas. Primary lymphomas of the female genital tract can affect the uterine corpus, uterine cervix, vulva, vagina, or adnexa. Only about 0.008% of all cervical tumours are primary malignant lymphomas. The most common clinical presentation of primary cervical lymphomas is a history of prolonged minor abnormal uterine bleeding, while unstoppable bleeding at presentation is rarely reported in the literature. "B" symptoms related to nodal lymphomas are usually absent. Since vaginal bleeding is a nonspecific symptom, the first diagnostic hypothesis is usually of one of the more common female genital conditions such as cervical or endometrial carcinoma or sarcoma, fibroids, adenomyosis, or endometriosis. Cervical cytology is usually negative. Preoperative diagnosis requires deep cervical biopsy. No guidelines regarding optimal treatment exists; radiotherapy, chemotherapy, and surgery are used in different combinations. Conservative treatment with the combination of surgery and chemotherapy or surgery and radiotherapy has been reported in a few cases with apparent success. With this review, we aim to understand what the best therapeutic approaches for this rare pathology in young and elderly women are. Moreover, we find favorable pregnancy outcome in patients treated with a fertility sparing approach.

The pattern of socio-economic segregation between schools in England 1989 to 2021: The pupil premium, Universal Credit, and Covid-19 eras

This paper presents an analysis of the extent to which poor pupils in England are clustered in schools with others like them. It is based on a segregation index of pupils eligible for free school meals for every year for which official national data is available. The trend over time has been published before up to 2019, and this paper extends the analysis to 2021, covering both the Covid-19 era so far and the beginning of transitional arrangements for Universal Credit, which have led to a substantial increase in the number of pupils eligible for free school meals. Results show that the segregation of poor pupils between secondary schools has continued to decline annually – a decline that started with the onset of Pupil Premium funding. This decline in segregation has not occurred for other possible indicators of disadvantage, such as pupils having a special educational need or disability, which are not addressed by Pupil Premium funding. Clustering disadvantaged pupils together in parts of a national school system has been linked to worse pupil outcomes overall, lower aspirations, less ethnic cohesion, and reduced trust in society by students. So, this ongoing reduction is encouraging, and is likely to lead to a lower poverty attainment gap in academic outcomes. However, the reduction in 2020 and 2021 is “false” to some extent, based mostly on a sudden increase in the number of pupils officially classed as poor, rather than an improvement in their distribution or evenness. It is, therefore, important to retain Pupil Premium funding or something like it for the time being to see what happens to the attainment gap. And the apparent success of this funding scheme could have implications for school systems worldwide that value fairness in the provision of national opportunities for education.

The Militarization of Emergencies: Is the Spanish Model an Example to Be Followed by the Multitasking Armies of Latin America?

The role of the armed forces in Latin America is characterized by their participation in multiple internal missions. These range from security functions to the provision of social, educational, and public services, among others; their role also involves providing emergency relief. However, some of the armed forces involved in this type of mission do not have specialized units or corps. This poses obvious problems not only from a technical and operational point of view, but also from the perspective of civil-military relations and the definition of the roles of armies. Some Latin American countries have looked to the Emergency Military Unit in Spain as an example to follow for the implementation of a civil defense model based on specialized military resources. The aim of this paper is therefore twofold. First, it seeks to explain that the militarization of emergencies does not involve expanding the use of force but that it can become a “wildcard” policy tool instead. Second, it intends to show how the apparent success of the Spanish Emergency Military Unit resulted from some—not always positive—lessons that can be replicated in the armed forces in Latin America.

A ‘cannibalised’ cricket event? Mediatisation, innovation and The Hundred

ABSTRACT Attending and consuming events are integral to many peoples’ leisure lives. However, as the literature attests, events represent significant sites of contestation over who does and does not belong. This paper explores such contestation in the notoriously elitist and traditionally exclusionary sport of cricket, and specifically The Hundred; the most recent attempt to democratise the sport by appealing to a more demographically diverse spectator base. It uniquely blends extensive semi-structured interviews with stakeholders (n = 33), and a synthesised theoretical framework of mediatisation, media events and digital leisure studies, to argue that the apparent success of The Hundred in attracting and including new audiences has been enabled by incorporating elements of media spectacle. We therefore, use The Hundred to further delineate the processes described in the extant literature, and extend analysis of the ‘digital turn’, by drawing attention to the tensions between the speed and trajectory of these developments and the constraints imposed by cricket’s history. We illustrate how digital and analogue leisure remain highly interdependent, and argue that the ongoing contestation of game forms championed by different cricket stakeholders makes it improbable that The Hundred can achieve its twin goals of being economically viable, while increasing the popularity and, ultimately survival, of other cricket formats.

The impact of acquiescence: a model of coping developed from children of parents with mental illness

ABSTRACT This article explores the psychological impact of growing up with a parent with a mental illness. A life course Model of Acquiescence is developed to show how coping strategies developed by children go on to have impact into adulthood. Undertaking biographical narrative interviews with 20 adults who had grown up with a parent with a mental illness produced accounts from childhood to the current day. Thematic narrative analysis was used to gain insight into how the participants made sense of their parent’s mental illness and their own role within it. Participants recalled experiences and family circumstances that were traumatic, unsafe and overwhelming. They dealt with these by attributing adversities to the mental illness and focusing solely on the vulnerabilities of their parents, thus adopting a caring role and ignoring their own needs. Most presented themselves as resilient, adaptable and resourceful, in employment and with intact relationships. However, despite this apparent success, all expressed a profound sense of lost opportunity and low self-esteem. In the Model of Acquiescence, we illustrate how and why children adapt to challenging and complex family experiences and explain how the personal and interpersonal process of parentification develops. An individual positions themselves as insignificant, powerless and silenced, only able to affect change or maintain relationships by anticipating, identifying and meeting other people’s needs. This model underlines the need to support such children’s psychological wellbeing using a whole family approach to understand the impact of parental mental illness and centre the child’s needs.

Mission Accomplished? Balancing Market Growth and Moral Legitimation in the Fair Trade Moral Market

Mission Accomplished? Balancing Market Growth and Moral Legitimation in the Fair Trade Moral Market

Circle of success—An interpretative phenomenological analysis of how Black engineering students experience success

AbstractBackgroundThough minoritized undergraduate engineering students earn less than 25% of engineering bachelor's degrees, minority‐serving institutions (MSIs) are leading the way in producing a large percentage of those underrepresented engineering bachelor's degree holders. However, much of the published research about the experiences of underrepresented engineering students occurs within the context of predominantly White institutions. Upon deeper inspection into the apparent success of some MSIs, graduation rates of specific minoritized populations (e.g., Black students) remain critically low. This suggests that there is more to be learned about how to better support Black engineering students' success.PurposeWe explored the experiences of Black undergraduate engineering students at a large public doctoral university with very high research activity.Design/MethodWe used interpretative phenomenological analysis to understand the experiences of eight participants.FindingsWe inductively developed two themes to describe how Black engineering students experience success at a Hispanic‐serving institution, which include building success networks and implementing rules of engagement.ConclusionParticipants enacted their cultural capital to construct their circles of success through the intentional engagement of others, resources, and themselves to realize success. This work sheds light on how Black students describe what it means to be successful in their engineering environment.

Meralgia Paresthetica Review: Update on Presentation, Pathophysiology, and Treatment.

Meralgia paresthetica (MP) is a condition characterized by paresthesias, neuropathic pain, and alterations in sensorium of the anterolateral thigh secondary to impingement of the lateral femoral cutaneous nerve (LFCN). MP is generally diagnosed by clinical history and is often a diagnosis of exclusion. When diagnosis remains a challenge, diagnostic modalities such as ultrasound, MRI, electromyography, and nerve conduction studies have been utilized as an adjunct. This review summarizes the most recent medical literature regarding MP, its pathophysiology, presentation, and current treatment options. Treatment options for patients with MP range from lifestyle modifications and conservative management to surgical procedures. Initial management is often conservative with symptoms managed with medications. When conservative management fails, the next step is regional blocks followed by surgical management. The conflicting data for treatment options for MP highlight how the evidence available does not point to a single approach that's universally effective for treating all patients with MP. Despite the apparent success at treating MP with regional blocks and surgical interventions, much remains to be known about the dosing, frequency, and optimal interventions due to the inconclusive results of current studies. Further research including randomized controlled trials are needed to better understand the most optimal treatment options for MP including studies with a larger number of participants.

How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Ignore Unwelcome Epistemic Company

AbstractThe problem of unwelcome epistemic company refers to the problem of encountering agreement with your beliefs from an unwelcome source, such as someone who is known to form unreliable beliefs or have values you reject. Blanchard (2023) and Levy (2023) argue that when we encounter unwelcome agreement, we may have reason to reduce our confidence in our matching beliefs. I argue that unwelcome epistemic company rarely provides reasons to reduce our confidence, and apparent successes at improving our beliefs using unwelcome company are explained by extraneous factors. Seeing why unwelcome agents are rarely evidence our belief is false requires making a distinction between two kinds of agents who regularly form false beliefs: unreliable agents and anti-reliable agents. While unreliable agents are common, they are uninformative. While anti-reliable agents would be informative, they are incredibly rare. Unwelcome agents are also rarely evidence that we have formed our own beliefs via an unreliable process, unless we have independent evidence that we are relevantly similar to them. This is hard to obtain given that unwelcome agents, by definition, have values and methods of forming beliefs that we do not find appealing. Moreover, attempts to use unwelcome company to improve our beliefs are likely to make our beliefs worse off in a number of ways. I argue we should adopt a policy of ignoring unwelcome company, letting them have little impact on our confidence in our beliefs.

The evaluation of public policy implementation failures and possible solutions

The study examines the root causes of Public Policy implementation failures. It further explores the mechanisms that will ensure successful policy implementation within the public sector. The main objective of the study is to establish and identify the factors that impede the successful implementation of government policies and to identify possible solutions to successfully formulate and implement public policies. The study adopted a conceptual approach relying heavily on secondary data. It is understandable, that the government‘s national and local spheres should want to downplay policy failure and trumpet apparent success, but to do so risks losing an understanding of why failure is so common and how it might be eradicated or at least minimised. The study examines the robust policy design mechanisms. The study seeks to identify significant policy risks and challenges. The study examines the root causes of Public Policy implementation failures. It further explores the mechanisms that will ensure successful policy implementation within the public sector. The main objective of the study is to establish and identify the factors that impede the successful implementation of government policies and to identify possible solutions to successfully formulate and implement public policies. The study adopted a conceptual approach relying heavily on secondary data. It is understandable that the government‘s national and local spheres should want to downplay policy failure and trumpet apparent success, but to do so risks losing an understanding of why failure is so common and how it might be eradicated or at least minimised. The study examines robust policy design mechanisms. The study seeks to identify significant policy risks and challenges. It is evident, that there is an increasing awareness that policies fail on their own merits; rather their progress is dependent upon the process of implementation. To better comprehend how to refine policy support it is first instructive to appreciate the nature of policy failure, logically the reasons why things go wrong should assist to guide the search for possible solutions. Successful policy implementation consists of four determinants, which are policy design, stakeholders, and their involvement, institution, and context as well as the implementation strategy. It is very important to consider these four aspects when executing public policy because this will alleviate policy implantation failures. The study concludes with the mechanisms and solutions of successful policy implementation.

The construction of legitimacy: a critical discourse analysis of the rhetoric of educational technology in post-pandemic higher education

ABSTRACT Whilst technology may have been the ‘saviour’ of HE from the immediate challenges of the pandemic, the opportunistic dialogue emerging in response is imbued with notions of the pandemic as a catalyst for change. Empowered by the apparent success of technology’s deliverance, the door has been opened to unprecedented investment into a pervasive and data-driven paradigm of technology. Utilising a Critical Discourse Analysis of sector-orientated literature published in response to the pandemic, this paper examines the emergent rhetoric of technology and problematises taken for granted assumptions concerning its adoption in the imagined future of HE. This paper argues that such rhetoric is mediatory of neoliberal and consumerist ideologies, and that the portrayal of technology as a wholly beneficial enterprise obscures other issues and inequalities. By positioning educational technology in a uniquely political light, this paper offers a critical lens through which to view this new era of technological pervasion.

Effect of resin cement elastic modulus on the biaxial flexural strength and structural reliability of an ultra-thin lithium disilicate glass–ceramic material

Photo- and dual-polymerized resin-based luting agent was evaluated for elastic moduli effects on ultra-thin lithium disilicate (LD) glass-ceramic strengthening, structural reliability, and stress distribution. One hundred-sixty LD discs (IPS e.max CAD, Ivoclar/Vivadent) were produced in ultra-thin thicknesses (half with 0.3mm and the other half with 0.5mm). The ultra-thin ceramic disks were coated with two different cement types (Variolink Veneer - V and Panavia F 2.0 - P). Two positive control groups were tested following hydrofluoric (HF) acid etching (LDt3, LDt5) and two negative control groups were tested for untreated ceramic (LD 3, LD 5). Biaxial flexural strength (BFS), characteristic strength (σ0) and Weibull modulus (m) were the response variables (n = 20) at the ceramic/resin cement interface (z = 0). Finite element analysis (FEA) was used to calculate maximum principal stress. Data were analyzed using two-way ANOVA, and Tukey's test. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) was used to analyze the failed specimens using fractography and surface morphology. The BFS of LD at either thickness was not affected by cement types, as also demonstrated by FEA. Structural reliability significantly improved in the positive control group (LDt5). The cementation of ultra-thin LD with a resin-cement of varying elastic moduli did not influence BFS. LD surface modification by HF acid-etching increased the reliability. Ultra-thin anterior veneer designs made from lithium disilicate have been widely proposed and the apparent success of LD ultra-thin veneers was not influenced by the cement choice in the current studies albeit the elastic moduli luting agents used were of similar values.

Tōjisha Research and Narrative Medicine: Contribution of a Japanese Experiment in the Investigation of Patients' Personal Experience.

Tōjisha research is a methodology intended to help psychiatric patients through dialogue. It was introduced in the context of community care in Bethel House (Hokkaido, Japan) in the early 2000s and later spread to other parts of Japan as well as abroad because of its originality and apparent therapeutic success. It offers patients a framework to investigate their own problems, symptoms, and delusions and to build a discourse around them. In this paper, I present a short account of tōjisha research and I put it in the context of current debates over the benefits and drawbacks of narrative medicine. I argue that there is an original conception of the self and of empowerment of patients in tōjisha research compared to other models of narrative medicine. Finally, I mobilize these original aspects to address some rebuttals of narrative medicine.

The Changing Paradigm of Drug-Resistant Tuberculosis Treatment: Successes, Pitfalls, and Future Perspectives.

Drug-resistant tuberculosis (DR-TB) remains a global crisis due to the increasing incidence of drug-resistant forms of the disease, gaps in detection and prevention, models of care, and limited treatment options. The DR-TB treatment landscape has evolved over the last 10 years. Recent developments include the remarkable activity demonstrated by the newly approved anti-TB drugs bedaquiline and pretomanid against Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Hence, treatment of DR-TB has drastically evolved with the introduction of the short-course regimen for multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB), transitioning to injection-free regimens and the approval of the 6-month short regimens for rifampin-resistant TB and MDR-TB. Moreover, numerous clinical trials are under way with the aim to reduce pill burden and shorten the DR-TB treatment duration. While there have been apparent successes in the field, some challenges remain. These include the ongoing inclusion of high-dose isoniazid in DR-TB regimens despite a lack of evidence for its efficacy and the inclusion of ethambutol and pyrazinamide in the standard short regimen despite known high levels of background resistance to both drugs. Furthermore, antimicrobial heteroresistance, extensive cavitary disease and intracavitary gradients, the emergence of bedaquiline resistance, and the lack of biomarkers to monitor DR-TB treatment response remain serious challenges to the sustained successes. In this review, we outline the impact of the new drugs and regimens on patient treatment outcomes, explore evidence underpinning current practices on regimen selection and duration, reflect on the disappointments and pitfalls in the field, and highlight key areas that require continued efforts toward improving treatment approaches and rapid biomarkers for monitoring treatment response.

A criminological analysis of proceeds of crime legislation in three Australian states

In recent decades, Australian states and territories have introduced a raft of legislation aimed at stripping those involved in criminal activity of their ill-gotten gains. This contribution reports on a study into proceeds of crime legislation in three Australian jurisdictions: New South Wales, Western Australia and Queensland. Based on a document analysis and 40 interviews, we focus on the broader criminological aspects of how and why proceeds of crime legislation was introduced and how the legislation is experienced by those who work with it / are impacted by it. We then discuss the political attractiveness of such legislation in a broader law and order framework, despite its apparent limited success in achieving its stated goals.

Syntax-Enhanced Neural Machine Translation with Graph Encoder

Neural Machine Translation (NMT) is a new paradigm in machine translation (MT) powered by recent advances in sequence to sequence learning frameworks. With the advance of Neural Networks, NMT has become the most promising MT approach in recent years. Despite the apparent success, NMT still suffers from one significant drawback in integrating syntactic knowledge into neural networks. This paper proposes an extension of the NMT model to incorporate additional syntactic information from constituency trees. We represent the constituency trees under graph forms encoded by a graph encoder to enhance the attention layer, which allows the decoder to focus on both sequential and graph representation at each decoding step. The experiments show promising results of the proposed method on English-Vietnamese datasets, proving the effectiveness of our syntax-enhanced NMT method.

Conservation of the endangered Arctic fox in Norway - are successful reintroductions enough?

Translocation of captive-bred animals has become a widespread conservation practice to counteract species extinctions. We analyse and discuss the apparent success and shortcomings of Arctic fox (Vulpes lagopus) reintroductions in alpine tundra areas of Norway. We followed the fate of 915 foxes between 2007 and 2020 and estimated the apparent survival and reproductive success of captive-bred and released Arctic foxes, compared to wild-born descendants. Relationship to abundance of small rodents, population size, and age were explored. Overall, apparent survival and probability of breeding were similar between captive-bred and wild-born foxes, positively linked to rodent abundance. For wild-born foxes, both breeding propensity and litter size declined with increasing fox population size. This could be a first sign of the limited capacity of single tundra patches to house self-subsistent populations. Thus, facilitating and maintaining connectivity among remnant and re-established Arctic fox populations, creating functional metapopulations, is essential for further improvement and long-term survival. Relying on the combined measures of supplementary feeding and red-fox (Vulpes vulpes) control, the Arctic fox captive-breeding and reintroduction programme has so far been highly successful. However, anthropogenic drivers facilitating red fox invasion into the Arctic fox habitat, along with climate driven irregularities and dampened small rodent cycles, could inhibit the establishment of a self-sustained population. A more holistic ecosystem approach and conservation measures to restore alpine fauna should be considered.

Disparate relationships between pH and goethite-water 18O/16O and D/H fractionation factors

For goethites synthesized at low (∼1–2) and high (∼13–14) extremes of pH, the values of 1000ln18αgt-w at ca. 25 °C are, respectively, +6.2(±0.6) and + 0.9(±0.6). Note that 18αgt-w = (18O/16O)gt/(18O/16O)w and gt = goethite (α-FeOOH); w = liquid water. A steady-state, flux-balance model indicates that this pH-related difference in values of 1000ln18αgt-w arises because of an effectively irreversible oxygen flux associated with aqueous Fe(III) hydroxide adsorption on, and incorporation in, goethite during growth at crystal surfaces. The model predicts that the transition from a low-pH to a high-pH value of 1000ln18αgt-w is relatively abrupt. At 22 to 25 °C, extant data indicate that the transition occurs in the interval of pH from about 6 to 8. Consequently, uncertainty about the pH of ancient waters could be a factor in interpretations of goethite δ18O values. However, an experimentally determined equation for the temperature dependence of 1000ln18α(LpH) has been applied with apparent success to natural goethites that formed in the presence of meteoric waters (18α(LpH) = low-pH 18αgt-w). This suggests that those ancient waters may have been acidic (pH < 6) in the immediate environments of goethite crystallization.Published values of D/H fractionation between synthetic goethite and water (Dαgt-w) show no systematic effect of either pH or temperature (T) over a range of pH from 1 to 14 and a range of T from 22 °C to 62 °C. Within these ranges, the average value of Dαgt-w is 0.905(±0.005) – a value which seems to characterize the D/H fractionation observed in natural goethites. If hydrogen in transitional, chemisorbed Fe(III) hydroxides – represented here as Fe(OH)3A – rapidly exchanges D/H with ambient water during crystal growth, there is a model-based expectation that Dαgt-w will not be affected by pH. This postulated D/H exchange would cease when Fe(OH)3A irreversibly transitions to FeOOH during crystallization – i.e., when Fe, O, and H are incorporated in the structure of the growing crystal.Thus, the flux balance model suggests that the observed dichotomy in the effects of pH on 18αgt-w and Dαgt-w is a result of distinctly different exchangeabilities of 18O/16O and D/H in transitional Fe(III) hydroxides that are chemisorbed on growing surfaces of goethite crystals. Observed values of 18αgt-w and Dαgt-w may represent steady-state – but not necessarily thermodynamic equilibrium – distributions of isotopes between H2O and the oxygen or hydrogen in the interiors of crystallizing goethites. Nevertheless, these steady-state values of Dαgt-w and 18αgt-w are generally reproducible and systematically relate δ18O and δD values of goethite to environmental variables.

Exploring Players’ in-Game Purchase Intention in Freemium Open-World Games: The Role of Cognitive Absorption and Motivational Affordances

Freemium open-world games have become one of the most profitable game genres through the sale of in-game items. However, despite the apparent commercial success of the freemium approach to open-world games, the antecedents of players’ in-game purchase intention have been understudied. In this study, we built a theoretical framework based on cognitive absorption (CA) theory to understand the mechanism underlying players’ in-game purchase intention in open-world games. Several hypotheses were proposed regarding how CA was formed and how CA’s influence on in-game purchase intention might be moderated by motivational affordances (i.e., autonomy, competence, and relatedness). These hypotheses were tested by partial least-squares structural equation modeling, using a sample of 490 valid responses among open-world game players. The results suggest that CA significantly increased players’ in-game purchase intention, which is strengthened by two motivational affordances (i.e., autonomy and competence). In addition, personal innovativeness, playfulness, and perceived affective quality are verified as important determinants of CA in open-world games. We discuss the related theoretical and practical implications of these findings.