Blank Space Research Articles

AOSRV: Development and preliminary performance assessment of a new robotic system for autonomous percutaneous vertebroplasty.

Percutaneous vertebroplasty (PVP) is one of the most effective treatments for patients with vertebral fracture that need surgical treatment, and surgical robotics are promising tools to provide surgeons with improved precision, surgical efficiency and reduce radiation exposure. However, there are currently few robotics that are developed to help assist with PVP. A new spinal surgical robotic system 'AOSRV' for autonomous vertebral puncture and bone cement injection was designed and customised in this study. To investigate its practical abilities and the advantages, we performed single-segment/double-segment PVP simulation surgeries on pig spinal specimens manually and using AOSRV. By contrast with the freehand group (FG) in single-segment (SS)/double-segment (DS) surgery, the robotic group (RG) was superior in the operation time (RGSS=21.14±4.11min, FGSS=33.17±6.83min; RGDS=42.39±7.31min, FGDS=62.86±20.39min), puncture adjustments (RGSS=2.30±1.77, FGSS=14.86±5.46; RGDS=3.91±1.76, FGDS=20.00±7.76), intraoperative fluoroscopies (RGSS=4.10±1.52, FGSS=20.57±5.44; RGDS=7.82±1.40, FGDS=25.91±7.23) and bone cement leakage rate (RGSS=30%, FGSS=71.4%; RGDS=38.6%, FGDS=83.3%). AOSRV was successfully developed and had a promising preliminary performance. An innovative attempt was made for the blank space of the autonomous vertebroplasty surgical robotics, and it may shed a light on more promising applications in the future.

Robust Table Detection and Structure Recognition from Heterogeneous Document Images

We introduce a new table detection and structure recognition approach named RobusTabNet to detect the boundaries of tables and reconstruct the cellular structure of each table from heterogeneous document images. For table detection, we propose to use CornerNet as a new region proposal network to generate higher quality table proposals for Faster R-CNN, which has significantly improved the localization accuracy of Faster R-CNN for table detection. Consequently, our table detection approach achieves state-of-the-art performance on three public table detection benchmarks, namely cTDaR TrackA, PubLayNet and IIIT-AR-13K, by only using a lightweight ResNet-18 backbone network. Furthermore, we propose a new split-and-merge based table structure recognition approach, in which a novel spatial CNN based separation line prediction module is proposed to split each detected table into a grid of cells, and a Grid CNN based cell merging module is applied to recover the spanning cells. As the spatial CNN module can effectively propagate contextual information across the whole table image, our table structure recognizer can robustly recognize tables with large blank spaces and geometrically distorted (even curved) tables. Thanks to these two techniques, our table structure recognition approach achieves state-of-the-art performance on three public benchmarks, including SciTSR, PubTabNet and cTDaR TrackB2-Modern. Moreover, we have further demonstrated the advantages of our approach in recognizing tables with complex structures, large blank spaces, as well as geometrically distorted or even curved shapes on a more challenging in-house dataset.

Kajian Batik Tradisi Bayat Klaten dengan Pendekatan Estetika

This research aims to describe the aesthetic according to Dharsono’s theory from 1) the look of a batik pattern visual on the main motif and the filling (isen), and 2) philosophical guidance on the motif related to AgusSachari’s aesthetic theory of symbol, meaning, and power to analyze the traditional batik in BayatKlaten. This is a qualitative descriptive research. Desa Jarum, Desa Kebon, and DesaBanyuripan in Bayat Sub-distric, Klaten, were chosen for the research locations. The research samples were collected using purposive sampling technique. The data sources consisted of informants, objects, pictures, archives, and documents. Data triangulation technique was utilized to validate the research data. The analysis model used is the interactive analysis. The results show that the aesthetic of traditional batik according to Dharsono are: (1) The visual look of the batik’s main motif is the characteristic of the batik motif, the filling motif functions as an additional motif which has no meaning, and the filling (isen) acts as the filler on the blank space on the main and supporting motifs which are in the form of points and lines. 2) The philosophical guidance on the motif has symbol, meaning, and power related to AgusSachari’s aesthetic theory.

478 Enhancing Technology Interface in the Dissection Room (DR)

Abstract Aim Anatomy teaching increasingly utilises technology alongside dissection to improve anatomy teaching. Student use of the touchscreen computers in dissection sessions at the University of St. Andrews was infrequent, with students lacking confidence in touchscreen use. The aim of this QI project was to improve medical student confidence and increase the use of touchscreen computers in the DR during dissection sessions. Method A data-collection tool was designed and tested. It included 4 Likert-style and one blank space question. 111 baseline responses from 3rd-year medical students were collected over 1 week in November 2021. Documentation was optimised for touchscreen usage. Cycle 2 was collected from the same cohort, with 83 responses. The second intervention introduced styluses. Cycle 3, with 85 responses, was collected. Results Question 1 examined awareness of touchscreen function. Positive responses (agree and strongly agree) increased from 76.5% to 95.2%, then 97.7% after interventions 1 and 2 respectively. Positive responses for question 2, examining confidence, improved from 53.2% to 88.0%, then 96.5%. Positive responses to question 3, examining the frequency of touchscreen use, improved from 49.6% to 91.6% then 92.9%. Positive responses for question 4, examining how useful touchscreens were for student learning, improved from 70.3% to 94.0%, then 97.7%. Blank space questions demonstrated positive opinions of changes made in the dissection room. Conclusions The significant and sustained increase in positive responses regarding student confidence, touchscreen use and the usefulness of touchscreens as an adjunct to dissection in the DR demonstrated significant improvement in the use of the facilities and student educational experience.

Play Time: Gender, Anti-Semitism and Temporality in Medieval Biblical Drama

Play Time: Gender, Anti-Semitism and Temporality in Medieval Biblical Drama

Concealed Fragmentariness: On the Compositional Process of Bartók's String Quartets

Abstract The present paper is a preliminary study to a deeper understanding of Bartók's compositional process: how he filled the music paper even if the notation appears continuous. He did not always write the draft from the top-left corner to the bottom-right corner but occasionally skipped some measures or phrases that he intended to write down later. Thus, the continuity draft is not necessarily regarded as a continuity; it might have consisted of fragments but they have been eventually concealed in the final form of the draft. This may directly affect our interpretation of Bartók's creative process. The present research takes the visual appearance of a draft as a clue to examine its hypothetical fragmentariness. Beginning with the examination of some actual blank spaces that were never filled, the paper deals with cases where the original existence of fragments is suggested by the extraordinary appearance of the draft, such as a blank space at the end of a system, notations in the margin, re-organization of bar-lines, etc. Besides systematic approaches to fragmentariness, the author offers some interpretation concerning the reasons why Bartók did not write the draft in an ordinary way. There might have been different explanations for the interruption of the linear compositional process. One of the important findings of this paper is that Bartók's bar-lines do not always mark metric accents but sometimes simply facilitate the performers' orientation. Even though the occasional special function of some of his bar-lines as mere markers of orientation is explained by Bartók in a letter to Rudolf Kolisch, the existence of philological evidence to this effect may further underline its validity and importance.

Writing assessment strategies for online learning during pandemic era

Online learning is a new challenge for educators who must master the use of digital media to support learning to run smoothly. Similar to offline learning, online learning still requires various assessment activities to evaluates students' mastery of English subject. Therefore, the English teachers at SMK Bhakti Husada PGRI Blora uses various assessment models in online learning, especially in students' writing skills. This is done for the reason that the teacher wants to improve students' writing skills, especially in English. Teachers use several assessment models during online learning, including handwriting, completing blank space, picture description, grammatical tasks, scrambled words, and short answer question tasks. Teachers use various models of writing assessment so that the assessment given to students will have more variety. The purpose of this study was to describe the assessment strategy used by the English teacher at SMK Bhakti Husada PGRI Blora for online learning during pandemic era, especially in writing skills. This study also indicates the appropriateness of those assessment strategies with four principles of language assessment.

FFP3 Feelings and Clinical Experience (FaCE). Facial pressure injuries in healthcare workers from FFP3 masks during the COVID-19 pandemic

AimsProlonged wear of filtering facepiece 3 (FFP3) masks during the COVID-19 pandemic has led to dermatoses, including pressure sores. This study aimed to better understand the local scale and nature of the problem, coping strategies, and impact on those affected.MethodsA survey was designed by plastic surgeons, tissue viability nurses, and critical care doctors. Key elements were demographics, mask-wearing behaviours, facial injuries, coping mechanisms, and impacts, such as time off work or redeployment. Question types were multiple-choice questions, visual analogue scales, and blank space. It was distributed for voluntary completion at a London NHS Trust via staff update emails and posters.ResultsBetween 24th April–15th May 2020, 178 surveys were completed in full. Participants were 84% female, 55% worked in ITU, and 48% were nurses. Grade 1 facial pressure injuries were reported by 79% of respondents (n=124). Other significant occupational dermatoses included pain (70%), dry skin (50%), and acne (41%). The cheeks and bridge of nose were most affected. Staff used barrier creams (17%), dressings (17%), and analgesia (10%) to manage facial injuries. Half of those who modified their mask were not re-fit tested. A total of 33% required redeployment to a non-FFP3 area or time off.ConclusionsFFP3 masks worn beyond the recommended 1 h are associated with facial injuries. When advanced PPE (i.e., powered airflow masks) is unavailable, we must provide targeted skincare support (prevent and manage), modify shift patterns to reduce mask wear intensity, and amend fit test protocols to optimise protection against COVID-19.

“Thy Words Do Finde Me Out”: Aaron Kunin’s Love Three

“Thy Words Do Finde Me Out”: Aaron Kunin’s <i>Love Three</i>

Reading blank space from an ecopoetic perspective in selected poems by E.E. Cummings and William Carlos Williams

Sorrow is perhaps the usual response to the disappearance of things into ‘nowhere’. The use of blank space in the poetry of E. E. Cummings and William Carlos Williams indicates an alternative response: to accept and even celebrate this. With a view to exploring this alternative response to disappearance, appearance, and nowhere, the article reads blank space in the little man poem and air poem (Cummings), as well as the obsolete rose poem and red wheelbarrow poem (Williams) – I use these labels because the poems are untitled. The article closely examines the tensions that these poems create between their printed black fragments and the blank space within which these are located. It finds that the former mimes being, existence, and ‘something’, whilst the latter mimes unbeing, nowhere, and nothing. The poems present the latter condition as vibrant, embodying the place from where being emerges, ablaze with itself. The blank space embodies this vibrancy in the poems examined; the poets use various devices to heighten the perception of this. For instance, Cummings’ little man poem signifies the reconnection of a modern subject, a little man, and the huge and dynamic earth by rejuvenating an acute sense of now-here in terms of nowhere, as mimed by breaking a phrase across the poem’s final two stanzas, inviting blank space into the poem on an accentuated level. A similar textual event occurs in the tracing of a rose petal’s paradoxical line between something and nothing within Williams’ obsolete rose poem, where the determiner ‘the’ is followed abruptly by the fecund nothingness of blank space. At its conclusion, the piece synthesises these and other findings to argue that the use of blank space in these poems boils down to a node of modern ecopoetic maturation: the poems orient themselves to and within the dynamic earth anew, marking radical acceptance of being on the earth in terms of unbeing.

Differences in Practice in Alveolar Bone Grafting Among American Cleft Palate-Craniofacial Association Members.

The purpose of this study is to determine areas of agreement and disagreement among American Cleft Palate-Craniofacial Association (ACPA)members in the clinical practice of alveolar bone grafting (ABG), to guide further research to optimize ABG practices. A cross-sectional survey was conducted. The respondents were in an academic, combination, or private practice. The respondents were either plastic or oral and maxillofacial surgeons (OMFS) from various countries. A de-identified 24-question online survey was distributed to ACPA surgeon members utilizing the Research Electronic Data Capture (REDCap) tool. Data collected included surgeon specialty, use of various alveolar bone graft surgical techniques, as well as protocols. There was more variability than consensus between specialties with regards to the preoperative workup, timing of surgery, materials used for bone graft, surgical techniques, perioperative management, and postoperative evaluation. There was consensus on grafting during mixed dentition, not staging soft and hard tissue closure, and using iliac crest for primary and secondary grafting. Disagreements involved factors used to time the procedure and type of imaging used to assess viability. Technical differences involved incision type, part of bone grafted, use of minimally invasive technique, and material used for revisions. Aside from areas of consensus among surgeons on ABG, several areas, including use of bone substitutes in revision grafting, incision and type of iliac crest graft used during initial grafting, and postoperative protocols, had no consensus. These areas should be targets of further research to determine if there truly is an optimal method to perform ABG. The study was approved by the University of Illinois at Chicago Institutional Review Board. A de-identified 24-question online survey was distributed to surgeon members of the ACPA utilizing the REDCap tool on August 7, 2020. The survey questions consisted of multiple choice and multiple selection questions including an option to select “other” and specify the information in a blank space. Data collected included surgeon specialty, use of various alveolar bone graft surgical techniques, as well as pre and postoperative protocols. The full survey is included in online Supplemental material. Data analysis was performed in SPSS Statistics 27 (IBM Corp.). Descriptive statistics were performed, and chi-square was used to test for significant differences in survey responses between groups.

Automated Fake News Detection by LSTM Enabled with Optimal Feature Selection

Fake news plays a major role by broadcasting misinformation, which influences people’s knowledge or perceptions and distorts their decision-making and awareness. Online forums and social media have stimulated the broadcast of fake news by embedding it with truthful information. Thus, fake news has evolved into the main challenge of better impact in the information-driven community for intense fakesters. The detection of fake news articles that is generally found by considering the quality of the information in their news feeds under uncertain authenticity calls for automated tools. However, designing such tools is a major problem because of the multiple faces of fakesters. This paper offers a new text-analytics-driven method for detecting fake news to reduce the risks impacted by the consumption of fake news. The methodology for improved fake news detection focusses on four phases: (a) pre-processing, (b) feature extraction, (c) optimal feature selection and (d) classification. The pre-processing of the text data will be initially done by stop word removal, blank space removal and stemming. Further, the feature extraction is performed by term frequency-inverse document frequency, and grammatical analysis is done using mean, Q25, Q50, Q75, Max, Min and standard deviation. Then, the optimal feature selection is developed, which minimises the number of input variables. It is intended to reduce the number of input variables to improve the model’s performance by minimising the computational cost of modelling. An improved meta-heuristic algorithm called successive position-based barnacles mating optimisation is used for optimal feature selection and classification. As the main contribution, the influence of deep learning is employed, which employs optimised long short-term memory. Finally, the result shows the superiority in terms of different significant measures by the proposed model over other methods for fake news detection experimentally done on a publicly available benchmark dataset.

Spaces in between: using the Zwischenraum to explore the archiving practices of young expats in Berlin

This article draws on Warburg's Zwischenraum to explore the archiving practices of young expats living in short-term accommodations in Berlin. The image of the Zwischenraum is employed as a visual tool to juxtapose the gaps created by Berlin's characteristic missing houses with the blank spaces between pictures within photographic albums. Furthermore, the Zwischenraum is used as theoretical instrument to illustrate the importance of empty spaces within urban development and archiving practices. In this article, the relationship between homes and archives is considered through the non-traditional and precarious living conditions caused by Berlin's rapid gentrification. This study inquires whether living in temporary accommodations affects the management of personal photographs and, vice versa, to which extent archiving practices have impact on the perception of precarious environments. This research employed visual ethnography to examine the practices of eight young adults living in Berlin in the spring of 2019. The results gained from photo-elicitation and semi-structured interviews displayed a mutual yet not dramatic influence between the living conditions and the way personal photographs are managed. This research contributes to studies on domestic photography and uncovers some of the effects of gentrification. Ultimately, it presents the Zwischenraum as a valuable conceptual framework within visual studies.

Alternative Analytical Approaches to Creative Economy

The aim of the article is to propose alternative and critical analytical perspectives to study creative economy and its correlated issues, such as creative city and creative class. A neo-marxist perspective indicates that creative economy reinforced the gap among innovators, investors, and those who work for them. According to a post-structural perspective, the formulas for the development of creative economy or creative city are homogenizing and contribute to the marginalization of differences. A postcolonial perspective indicates that marginalized societies in the capitalist system were conceived as blank spaces in which socioeconomic governance recommendations applied for creative sectors in North Atlantic societies could be replicated. Feminist approaches and queer theory highlight hierarchies related to gender, sexual orientation, race, and ethnicity in creative industries, despite the supposedly inclusive notions of creative economy and creative class.

Revisiting 1177 BCE and the Late Bronze Age Collapse

Revisiting 1177 BCE and the Late Bronze Age Collapse

Black Arts of Erasure

Black Arts of Erasure Kinohi Nishikawa (bio) In 2018, Black artist Hank Willis Thomas created a cover for New York Magazine’s fiftieth anniversary. His submission stood out from among the fifty commissioned. Against a black background, the following words are printed in white: ALLLI ES MATTER1 The slogan “All Lives Matter” sprung up as a reaction to the political messaging of the Black Lives Matter movement. Its use sidestepped the explicit antagonism of the pro-police phrase “Blue Lives Matter” and instead sought to cast the idea of Black lives mattering as a kind of chauvinism, the opposite of an inclusive understanding of the issues at hand. Willis turns this use of the phrase on its head. In his work, “All Lives Matter” is shown broadcasting racist sentiment through an appeal to universal humanity. By ignoring actually existing inequalities, the phrase misconstrues advocating for Black life as a special interest rather than as a strategy for survival. This “lie,” or evasion, sits at the crux of “All Lives Matter,” which is what makes Thomas’s act of erasure so brilliant: the removed “V” exposes the racism that would deny the validity of Black Lives Matter in the language of enlightened inclusion. The way Thomas achieves this aesthetic effect bears further comment. It is not that the “V” is removed and the typography rearranged to read “LIES.” Crucial to the design is the blank space left by the removed “V.” Appearing as it does against the black background of New York’s cover, this space might be thought of as filled in with and by blackness. The visual priority we usually assign to white text appearing against a black background is overturned in Thomas’s work, such that the focal point of the piece looks as if it were written over by blackness. In this way, what appears to be an act of erasure could be equally characterized as an act of inscription: the subtraction of one element from the visual field is at one and the same time an addition of another element to the visual field. Thomas makes this point more apparent in the 2019 limited edition screenprint All Li es Matter.2 In this piece, the background of black wove paper is lighter than the digitally enhanced background of the magazine cover. As such, the “V” can be seen in an even darker shade of black, creating a three-way contrast between canvas, white text, and the “V.” Here, the letter is notably void and presence at the same time. Thomas’s art is one example of recent work by Black artists who have explored erasure as a resource for writing. Writing not in the usual way we think of it: an inscription on a blank page, new lines of text in a blank document. That is, writing as the transmission of thoughts or feelings to a medium that would faithfully record them. Thomas and other artists approach writing differently. They do [End Page 296] not take for granted the blankness of the surface or the fit of the medium to record their words. Instead, they reckon with the racism structured into our very writing technologies, epitomized by the associations we bring to the whiteness of the page. For these artists, the right to inscribe is unevenly distributed among people and populations. To address this disparity, erasure becomes a mode of media reflexivity in their art, where writing emerges not as inscription of our mental processes and affective states but as deconstruction of our socialized habits of reading. In this way, erasure becomes erasureture, or mode of Black writing (écriture) whose expression is the constitutive difference of all expression and thus can only be read in adjustments or supplements to the text itself.3 These minor subtractions serve a critical function vis-à-vis whiteness, but they also create space for Black plenitude, an overflow of meaning that comes with being able to see language differently. For instance, Thomas’s reversal of the usual optics of print—black ink on white paper—affords a situation where the iterability of Black lives is protected from the lies of a false universalism. To be sure, elements of erasureture...

Concept of Asaya, Kostha and Kosthanga (Splanchnology) in Ayurveda

The basic knowledge of an organ system is necessary to know the etio-pathogenesis, management and maintenance of health of an individual. Splanchnology is the study of visceral organs, which includes digestive, urinary, reproductive and respiratory systems, situated in the thoraco-abdominal-pelvic cavity. Concept of organs systems are highlighted in Ayurveda with three terminologies viz. Asaya, Kostha, Kothanga. Asaya is mentioned as Aadhisthana and Riktasthana which means cavities and blank spaces for lodging certain anato-physiological elements. They are 7 in numbers viz. Vatasaya, Pittasaya, Shlesmasaya, Raktasaya, Amasya, Pakwasaya, Mutrasaya and the Garbhasaya which are present in the thoracico-abdominal-pelvic cavity. Mahasrota, Sariramadhya and Mahanimna are the words mentioned in relation with Kostha which can be understood as gastro intestinal tract, middle part of the body and the pelvic cavity. Nabhi, Hridaya, Kloma, Yakrita, Pleeha, Vrikka, Vasti, Purishadhara, Amasaya, Pakwasaya, Uttaraguda, Adharaguda, Kshudranata, Sthulantara and Vapavahana are the Kosthangas which are interrelated organs of gastrointestinal tract and cardiovascular system, present in cavities of the middle part of the body. The hollow muscular organs and the structures present in thoraco-abdominal-pelvic cavity are collectively considered as Asaya, Kostha and Kosthangas. Therefore these 3 terminologies can be incorporated with splanchnology in modern science. In this work we tried to analyse the concept of splanchnology in Ayurveda in terms of Asaya, Kostha, Kosthanga. This will be helpful for better understanding and study of the topic in a single platform, and gives the glimpse of the morpho-physiological aspect of visceral organs mentioned in Ayurveda in a nutshell.

Une « Triple Enceinte » Et L’inscription Funéraire De Agate Filia Comites Gattilanis À Milan

Abstract The funerary slab of Agate, daughter of an Ostrogoth comes, dated to 512 AD, shows a hitherto unnoticed tabula lusoria or symbolic representation in the blank space below the inscription. The pattern, used for the game of Nine men’s morris, is accurately incised, and not hastily scratched, in a central and visible position. Interesting questions arise: is the pattern a game board? Is it precedent, coeval or posterior to the funerary inscription? How could the presence of the design be explained in such a context? Could the Nine men’s morris pattern have had a symbolic overtone, or is it just connected to a secondary utilization of the slab? These questions will be evaluated mainly through the reconstruction of the conservation history of the slab.

Medieval scribal procedures for writing the Tetragrammaton

Some medieval scribes left blank spaces for the Tetragrammaton in Torah scrolls, to be filled in during a second stage of writing. Medieval rabbinic literature gives various reasons for delaying the writing of the divine name: the scribe was distracted or needed ritual immersion, or the absence of a prayer quorum. An early antecedent to this practice is found in the Dead Sea Scrolls. The practice is then anticipated in a baraita , which refers to writing multiple divine names. The Jerusalem Talmud, or an interpolation therein, interprets the baraita as referring to writing multiple divine appellations in a row . However, the Tosefta and Babylonian version of Soperim interpret the baraita as referring to the filling in of God’s name in noncontiguous blank spaces during a second stage of writing, attesting to this procedure during the silent years between the Dead Sea Scrolls and medieval Torah scrolls.

Delayed Surgical Management of the Patients with Chronic Dacryocystitis: A Cross Sectional Survey

Purpose: To determine the factors that cause delay in Dacryocystorhinostomy in patients with chronic dacryocystitis. Study Design: Cross sectional survey. Place and Duration of Study: Ophthalmology Department DHQ Teaching Hospital Gujranwala from February 2021 to May 2021 Methods: Sixty five ophthalmologists were included in this study. Questionnaire was designed on Google Forms and it composed of four parts. First part included the title and purpose of this study. Second part included professional information regarding qualification and place of practice. Third part included 18 questions that were divided in three sub-sections in terms of factors related to the patient (5 questions), ophthalmologist (9 questions), and health resources provided (4 questions). Responses were recorded in yes/no answers. Last part comprised of blank space for remarks. The electronic link of questionnaire was shared with the participants of ophthalmology educational groups on WhatsApp, Facebook and E-mail. Data was analyzed using SPSS 23.00 software and results were derived based on questionnaire. Results: Out of 65 ophthalmologists, 48 (72.7%) agreed that patients suffered from delay in surgical management. Among the hospital related factors, 45 (69.23%) ophthalmologists believe that busy Out patient department accounted for most of the delay. Among patient related factors, 51 (78.46%) ophthalmologists were of the view that patients took the disease lightly as it was not vision-threating. Forty one ophthalmologists (63.07%) reported that there was lack of surgical exposure during training years to learn DCR. Conclusion: There are various patient related, surgeon related and hospital related factors which play a significant role in delay of surgical management of chronic dacryocystitis. Key Words: Dacryocystitis, Dacryocystorhinostomy, Epiphora.