Direct Encounter Research Articles

Kenozė ir kūrimas: Antano Maceinos religijos filosofija

The article examines the relationship between creation and kenosis in the philosophy of religion of Antanas Maceina. The article attempts to show that divine creation is possible only when God limits His omnipotence and greatness. When God limits Himself, there is an opportunity to exist for a contingent being that is free and independent. Maceina considers any action of God in relation to the world to be a kenotic action, and therefore the divine creation itself is a kenotic one. In creating the world, God limits Himself by establishing Nothing next to Himself, and this Nothing becomes the “substance” of creation. If God does not limit Himself, He cannot enter into a relationship with creation, for a direct encounter with the Creator would be disastrous for man. When God revealsHimself to a creature at the time of revelation, this action is also kenotic, thus increasing the mystery of God’s essence.

A Simple Fight Decision Support System for BVR Air Combat Using Fuzzy Logic Algorithm

Beyond Visual Range (BVR) air combat is a future trend of war tactic. In this situation, a fighter can attack the opponent before direct encounter. Its complexity arises due to the necessity to take into account the information of target’s maneuver, the specification of the missile, and the advantage of fighter position. In this paper, a simple BVR air combat system has been developed to give a fight strategy for pilot. Some important parameters are considered, such as the distance and the azimuth position of the target’s as well as the range and the energy of missile to reach the target. The information is processed to determine the fighter supremacy and the opponent’s threat factor. The result of the processing is used as an input of fuzzy logic algorithm to determine the optimal fighting strategy. The feasibility of the model and validity of the algorithm are verified by simulation under two typical situations

Increasing access to care for rural veterans through intensive hands‐on‐training of advanced practice pharmacists

AbstractIntroductionThe “Increasing Access to Care for Rural Veterans by leveraging Clinical Pharmacy Specialist (CPS) Providers,” known as the CPS Rural Veteran Access Initiative (CRVA), focused on providing access to comprehensive medication management (CMM) for rural Veterans in the areas of primary care, mental health, and pain management. Clinical pharmacy boot camps trained CPS to accomplish this goal.ObjectivesThe objectives of the boot camps were to address training needs ensuring consistency and quality for the provision of CMM for the CRVA CPS to increase access to care.MethodsA needs assessment survey was administered to determine curriculum content. Participants completed pre‐ and post‐boot camp knowledge assessments for the topics taught in the curriculum. An analysis was performed comparing the results before and after the training program for participants completing one pre‐ and one post‐boot camp survey.ResultsThere were 87 primary care boot camp attendees and 52 mental health and pain attendees included in the analysis. For primary care, 13 courses (59%) saw ≥50% growth in the number of participants deeming themselves to have a working knowledge or better from pre to post boot camp. For mental health/pain, seven courses (29%) saw ≥50% growth in the number of participants deeming themselves to have a working knowledge or better from pre to post. Direct patient care encounter tracking 6 months pre‐ and post‐training showed an average monthly mean encounter total increase for the primary care group from 134.4 pre‐training to 146.1 post‐training (P = .08) and for the mental health/pain group from 124.5 pre‐training to 136.1 post‐training (P = .32).ConclusionBased on the results, this program was successful in accomplishing its goals of improving the participants' knowledge, especially in areas lacking practice experience. These results were found across participants in both programs. Successes seen in these programs are now serving as models for CPS training in the VA for the future.

Diversity of scorpions (Arachnida: Scorpiones) in Polonnaruwa Archaeological Reserve, Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka harbours 20 scorpion species belonging to four families, of which 15 are endemic. The distribution and ecology of scorpion fauna in Sri Lanka is poorly known. In this study, we surveyed the diversity of scorpions in the Polonnaruwa Archaeological Reserve in the dry zone of Sri Lanka. Microhabitats were thoroughly observed using the direct visual encounter method and UV lights from July to November 2018 for about seven hours (19.00–02.00 h) by two to three observers. Species, abundance, age/sex, and microhabitat features were recorded. Diversity indices, including α-diversity and β-diversity, were calculated. Heterometrus swammerdami was the most abundant species recorded, while Isometrus thwaitesi was the rarest. Reddyanus loebli and R. besucheti were common in both open and forest habitat types. Charmus laneus was recorded for the first time in Polonnaruwa. The highest Shannon Index and Margalef Diversity Index values were recorded in open habitats, but species evenness was low compared to forest habitats. Sørensen index values showed a 58% species similarity between two habitats. The results presented here contribute to the knowledge of the diversity of scorpions in these historically significant sites. This can serve as a basis for future research on the impact of habitat modification and fragmentation on populations, distribution and ecology of scorpions.

Displaying the Driving State of Automated Vehicles to Other Road Users: An International, Virtual Reality-Based Study as a First Step for the Harmonized Regulations of Novel Signaling Devices

Additional signaling devices for highly automated vehicles (AVs) that can communicate their driving state to other road users can simplify the integration process in existing road traffic. This paper presents the results of an international, virtual reality-based study conducted in China, South Korea and the USA in which subjects assume the role of a pedestrian and are placed in direct encounter situations with an AV in a parking lot. A novel communication interface consisting of three displays is attached to the AV’s front and used to show additional information about its driving state. In total, three encounter scenarios are investigated: the AV approaches from the left, front and right outside of the pedestrian’s line of sight. The influence of different symbol types on the subject’s moving behavior, recognition of intention and perceived safety is investigated. The results show that additional signals ensure a better perception of the AV’s intention and increase the perceived safety. The moving behavior of subjects is significantly changed when additional signals are used during driving tasks compared to the same tasks without such signals. The change of moving behaviour is similar in encounter situations where the AV approaches from the left and front but differs in encounter situations from the right. These results could equally be proven for all nationalities, which shows that a uniform, international solution for additional signaling devices of highly automated vehicles is possible.

Redox regulation in host-pathogen interactions: thiol switches and beyond

Our organism is exposed to pathogens on a daily basis. Owing to this age-old interaction, both pathogen and host evolved strategies to cope with these encounters. Here, we focus on the consequences of the direct encounter of cells of the innate immune system with bacteria. First, we will discuss the bacterial strategies to counteract powerful reactive species. Our emphasis lies on the effects of hypochlorous acid (HOCl), arguably the most powerful oxidant produced inside the phagolysosome of professional phagocytes. We will highlight individual examples of proteins in gram-negative bacteria activated by HOCl via thiol-disulfide switches, methionine sulfoxidation, and N-chlorination of basic amino acid side chains. Second, we will discuss the effects of HOCl on proteins of the host. Recent studies have shown that both host and bacteria address failing protein homeostasis by activation of chaperone-like holdases through N-chlorination. After discussing the role of individual proteins in the HOCl-defense, we will turn our attention to the examination of effects on host and pathogen on a systemic level. Recent studies using genetically encoded redox probes and redox proteomics highlight differences in redox homeostasis in host and pathogen and give first hints at potential cellular HOCl signaling beyond thiol-disulfide switch mechanisms.

Dynamically Transient Social Community Detection for Mobile Social Networks

In mobile social networks (MSNs), mobile users communicate with each other via mobile devices, such as smartphones and tablets, transmitting data through intermittent connections. Mobile users have high mobility, which creates higher requirements for efficient data forwarding in MSNs. Therefore, forwarding data efficiently and quickly becomes a key problem. To tackle this problem, this article proposes a routing method based on a dynamic transient social community (DTSC) to optimize the routing and forwarding performance in MSNs. In this process, combined with the duration of intensive contact between nodes and the social relations of mobile users, the similarity of each pair of contact nodes is calculated, and community detection is carried out. Then, by analyzing the emergence mode of the DTSC, the measurement value and corresponding routing algorithm of the community’s ability to deliver messages are designed. Our algorithm fully considers the duration of the node’s direct encounter and the social connection of the indirect contact to ensure that the node can deliver successfully in a short time. The experimental results show that the DTSC has an excellent performance in data forwarding.

The Nature and Limits of the Duty of Rescue

Virtually everyone believes that we have a duty to rescue fellow human-beings from serious danger when we can do so at small cost to ourselves – and this often forms the starting point for arguments in moral and political philosophy on topics such as global poverty, state legitimacy, refugees, and the donation of body parts. But how are we to explain this duty, and within what limits does it apply? It cannot be subsumed under a wider consequentialist requirement to prevent harm. Nor can it be understood as a duty of social justice that citizens owe to one another under a social contract for mutual protection. Instead it is a sui generis duty of justice that arises from the direct physical encounter between rescuer and victim, and is accordingly limited in scope. However the simplicity of the duty evaporates when multiple potential rescuers are present. Here responsibility lies with the collective as a whole until it is assigned by a fair procedure to individual members. Each individual is required as a matter of justice to discharge that share, but not more, though in the case that others do not comply, he will have a reason, and sometimes a humanitarian duty, to take up the slack.

Review: Da Gerusalemme a Pechino da Roma a Vienna: Sul Saggio di architettura storica di J. B. Fischer von Erlach, by Marco Folin and Monica Preti

Review: <i>Da Gerusalemme a Pechino da Roma a Vienna: Sul Saggio di architettura storica di J. B. Fischer von Erlach</i>, by Marco Folin and Monica Preti

Alveolar macrophages are epigenetically altered after inflammation, leading to long-term lung immunoparalysis

Sepsis and trauma cause inflammation and elevated susceptibility to hospital-acquired pneumonia. As phagocytosis by macrophages plays a critical role in the control of bacteria, we investigated the phagocytic activity of macrophages after resolution of inflammation. After resolution of primary pneumonia, murine alveolar macrophages (AMs) exhibited poor phagocytic capacity for several weeks. These paralyzed AMs developed from resident AMs that underwent an epigenetic program of tolerogenic training. Such adaptation was not induced by direct encounter of the pathogen but by secondary immunosuppressive signals established locally upon resolution of primary infection. Signal-regulatory protein α (SIRPα) played a critical role in the establishment of the microenvironment that induced tolerogenic training. In humans with systemic inflammation, AMs and also circulating monocytes still displayed alterations consistent with reprogramming six months after resolution of inflammation. Antibody blockade of SIRPα restored phagocytosis in monocytes of critically ill patients in vitro, which suggests a potential strategy to prevent hospital-acquired pneumonia.

Reduced brain cell proliferation following somatic injury is buffered by social interaction in electric fish, Apteronotus leptorhynchus.

In many species, the negative effects of aversive stimuli are mitigated by social interactions, a phenomenon termed social buffering. In one form of social buffering, social interactions reduce the inhibition of brain cell proliferation during stress. Indirect predator stimuli (e.g., olfactory or visual cues) are known to decrease brain cell proliferation, but little is known about how somatic injury, as might occur from direct predator encounter, affects brain cell proliferation and whether this response is influenced by conspecific interactions. Here, we assessed the social buffering of brain cell proliferation in an electric fish, Apteronotus leptorhynchus, by examining the separate and combined effects of tail injury and social interactions. We mimicked a predator-induced injury by amputating the caudal tail tip, exposed fish to paired interactions that varied in timing, duration and recovery period, and measured brain cell proliferation and the degree of social affiliation. Paired social interaction mitigated the negative effects of tail amputation on cell proliferation in the forebrain but not the midbrain. Social interaction either before or after tail amputation reduced the effect of tail injury and continuous interaction both before and after caused an even greater buffering effect. Social interaction buffered the proliferation response after short-term (1 d) or long-term recovery (7 d) from tail amputation. This is the first report of social buffering of brain cell proliferation in a non-mammalian model. Despite the positive association between social stimuli and brain cell proliferation, we found no evidence that fish affiliate more closely following tail injury.

Futurist Suggestions in the War Poems by Josip (Sibe) Miličić

With the opening of the twentieth century, the beneficial river of the avant-gardes seemed to flood the entire European continent in a happy contamination of national cultures, giving life to an authentic supranational koine of artists: it was sometimes fusion of forms, styles, environments, cultures, a salutary effort to rejuvenate languages. The particular attention of the Italian Futurists to the new national realities was among the factors of particular attraction to the movement for South Slavs whose representative was Josip (Sibe) Miličić, who called for cultural and political renewal of his country. His direct encounter with Marinetti and Boccioni seems to leave its mark on his poetry both structurally and thematically: in the collection from 1914, Miličić reveals a new sensibility and a new rhythm: in one of his war lyrics, the futurist suggestions materialize in his first onomatopoeic attempt, suitable to undermine the lyricism of the verse by intensifying the link between the phonic aspect and the meaning. Despite their common interventionism, the Great War found the Croat and the Italian Futurists on opposite political positions concerning the Dalmatian islands and the Italian expansionism on the Adriatic. The poet’s war experience lead him to a “mature” phase starting in the twenties with his first article-manifesto. At this time he was able to reprocess his own critical identity: affirming his deeply anti-materialist and anti-industrial spiritualism, his standpoints by then had become very distant from Marinetti’s insights.

Moving Labor Heroes Center Stage: (Labor) Heroism and the Reconfiguration of Social Relations in the Yan'an Period

AbstractLabor heroes are an important phenomenon in the history of socialist China, but they have received only little attention in Western scholarship. This article investigates the labor heroes of the Yan'an period as the pivot in the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) attempt at reconceptualizing society, establishing new social relations and creating a socialist subjectivity. It reveals the new symbolic order constructed in the official media, primarilyJiefang Ribao(Liberation Daily), and highlights the relation between labor heroes (as representatives of the “masses”), intellectuals, and Mao Zedong in the construction of new hierarchies. In particular, it shows how the CCP chose work as the fundament of socialist society and the core of a new concept of “collective heroism”; how the stage of the first labor hero assembly was used to orchestrate Mao Zedong as a charismatic leader; and how labor heroes and writers, through direct encounter, redefined their respective place in society.

Realization (&lt;em&gt;Taḥqīq&lt;/em&gt;) in Sufism: An Assessment of Robert K.C. Forman's Pure Consciousness Event (PCE) and Dual Mystical State (DMS)

As a generally accepted "textbook" definition in Sufism, spiritual realization (taḥqīq) from an epistemological perspective is conceived as the process of obtaining knowledge from the Real (al-ḥaqīqa) through God's guidance in order to apprehend the Truth (al-Ḥaqq) through the self without an intermediary. The "realizer" (muḥaqqiq) is the person who has come to realize the Truth through a direct encounter. From an ontological perspective, however, taḥqīq can also be defined as the station of direct contact with the Real, in which the mystic attains to all the possibilities of human existence through divine solicitude. To explore these two contexts, this article will investigate the wide range of definitions of taḥqīq in major Sufi works and explore the meaning of this term in the context of Ibn ʿArabī's (d. 1240 CE) thought. Through a review of important Sufi texts, this article will also bring the concept of taḥqīq into conversation with contemporary philosophical theories of mystical knowledge, particularly that of Robert Forman, and explore Forman's concepts of the Pure Consciousness Event (PCE) and the Dualistic Mystical State (DMS) to assess whether the Sufi concept of taḥqīq is compatible with the states of experience he describes.

The River Goddess and Melody-Makers in Nigeria: A Cultural View on Majek Fashek and Victor Uwaifo

The art of music-making is a mental/creative activity. However, spiritual influence cannot be ruled out in the process of constructing music. The mental activity is akin to the deployment of the intellect, while the spiritual influence could be as a result of a direct encounter or impartation by a spirit being through dream/vision as typified by two Nigerian performing artists, Majek Fashek and Victor Uwaifo, who are the foci of this study. Exploring the concept of esotericism with emphasis on music performance, this article contends that although music-making is a mental/creative activity, spiritual or extra-mental influences supervene, with particular reference to the lives and performance careers of the two selected African musicians/media celebrities from Benin City in Nigeria. In doing this, it uses historical-analytic, key informant interview (KII), and direct observation methods to critically reflect on how the supernatural influences their music-making activities.

The Nature and Limits of the Duty of Rescue

Virtually everyone believes that we have a duty to rescue fellow human-beings from serious danger when we can do so at small cost to ourselves – and this often forms the starting point for arguments in moral and political philosophy on topics such as global poverty, state legitimacy, refugees, and the donation of body parts. But how are we to explain this duty, and within what limits does it apply? It cannot be subsumed under a wider consequentialist requirement to prevent harm. Nor can it be understood as a duty of social justice that citizens owe to one another under a social contract for mutual protection. Instead it is a sui generis duty of justice that arises from the direct physical encounter between rescuer and victim, and is accordingly limited in scope. However the simplicity of the duty evaporates when multiple potential rescuers are present. Here responsibility lies with the collective as a whole until it is assigned by a fair procedure to individual members. Each individual is required as a matter of justice to discharge that share, but not more, though in the case that others do not comply, he will have a reason, and sometimes a humanitarian duty, to take up the slack.

Differential antipredatory responses in the tuco-tuco (Ctenomys talarum) in relation to endogenous and exogenous changes in glucocorticoids.

Glucocorticoids participate in the behavioral and physiological responses generated under stressful circumstances coming from different sources-physical and/or psychological. In mammals, the increases of these hormones are mediated by the activation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis. This response occurs after exposure to novel and unpredictable situations that lead to the loss of homeostasis, for example, a direct encounter with predators or their cues. However, the relationship between the physiological and behavioral responses is still a complex issue in vertebrates. We evaluate the effects of an experimental manipulation of glucocorticoid levels on the generation of the behavioral and physiological response to stress by predation in the subterranean rodent C. talarum. We found that when tuco-tucos encountered predator cues-fur odor, and largely, immobilization-they responded physiologically by secreting cortisol. This response was accompanied by an associated behavioral response. However, when the increase in plasma cortisol originated exogenously by the injection of cortisol, a behavioral response was not observed. Finally, inhibition of glucocorticoids' synthesis was effective in weakening the behavioral effects produced by immobilization. In conclusion, in tuco-tucos, predator cues act as stress factors that trigger differential increases in plasma cortisol and a behavioral response associated with the appearance of anxiety states.

Visual encounters on line transect surveys under-detect carnivore species: Implications for assessing distribution and conservation status.

We compared the distribution and occurrence of 15 carnivore species with data collected monthly over three years by trained native trackers using both sign surveys and an encounter-based, visual-distance method in a well-preserved region of southern Guyana (Amazon / Guiana Shield). We found that a rigorously applied sign-based method was sufficient to describe the status of most carnivore species populations, including rare species such as jaguar and bush dog. We also found that even when accumulation curves for direct visual encounter data reached an asymptote, customarily an indication that sufficient sampling has occurred to describe populations, animal occurrence and distribution were grossly underestimated relative to the results of sign data. While other researchers have also found that sign are better than encounters or camera traps for large felids, our results are important in documenting the failure of even intensive levels of effort to raise encounter rates sufficiently to enable statistical analysis, and in describing the relationship between encounter and sign data for an entire community of carnivores including felids, canids, procyonids, and mustelids.

P2884Complications of cardiac implantable electronic device intervention in patients with left ventricular assist devices

Abstract Background There are limited data on management of cardiac implantable electronic devices (CIED) in patients with left ventricular assist devices (LVADs). These patients may be at elevated risk of complications after undergoing CIED procedures. Purpose In order to better understand these risks, we set out to describe and quantify the complications associated with CIED procedures among patients with LVADs. Methods We retrospectively evaluated all patients with LVADs at our institution (n=235) from August 2007 to November 2017 who had any subsequent CIED procedure (initial implant, generator exchange, lead revision or extraction). We identified device-related complications at 30 days and one year from the time of the CIED procedure. Complications were defined as death, stroke, cardiac perforation, pericardial effusion, pneumothorax, lead dislodgment, infection, and any hematoma requiring a direct physician encounter. Results Forty-eight CIED interventions were performed on 42 patients after LVAD implant. Mean age was 49.4±15.1 years and 64% were male. Mean duration of LVAD therapy prior to procedure was 396 days. All patients were on warfarin therapy (mean INR 2.33±0.68); in 83% of procedures patients were on at least one anti-platelet agent. All interventions involved placement or revision of an ICD system. Fourteen procedures (29%) were initial implants and 34 (71%) were secondary procedures (19 generator exchanges, 13 lead revisions ± generator exchange and 2 extractions). Seven procedures (14.5%) were complicated by pocket hematoma; all of these were in secondary procedures. Patients with hematomas trended toward higher INR (2.51±0.26 vs 2.31±0.72); this was not statistically significant. Two patients with hematoma developed CIED infection, resulting in a total infection rate of 4.2%. Of those, one developed systemic infection requiring extraction of the system and the other developed a pocket infection managed with pocket washout and prolonged antibiotics. All complications occurred within 30 days of the procedure (Figure 1). Figure 1. Complication free survival Conclusion In this single center study, CIED procedures on patients with preexisting LVAD was associated with a low rate of complications requiring intervention. Acknowledgement/Funding Emory University

Wandering in and out of Place: Modes of Searching for the Past in Paris, Moscow, and St Petersburg

Wandering in and out of Place: Modes of Searching for the Past in Paris, Moscow, and St Petersburg