Great Expectations Research Articles

Great Expectations: Semaglutide as Antidiabetic Weight Management in a Psychiatric Hospital.

This report explores the potential role of glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1) receptor agonists in minimizing the metabolic side effects of psychotropic medications in patients with underlying type 2 diabetes (T2D) in inpatient psychiatric settings. The introduction of novel antidiabetic medications such as GLP-1 receptor agonists has broadened the options for managing metabolic disorders, particularly T2D. These medications not only offer effective glycemic control but also provide cardiovascular and renal benefits and help with weight management. Given the tendency of psychotropic medications to cause weight gain and metabolic complications, this report presents 2 cases where weekly doses of semaglutide improved blood glucose levels and prevented weight gain in patients receiving chronic psychotropic medications. Integrating GLP-1 receptor agonists into inpatient psychiatric care can help mitigate the metabolic adverse effects of psychotropic medications. However, considerations such as cost, accessibility, and institutional formulary restrictions are essential to ensure comprehensive patient care.

A comparative study of different deep learning methods for time-series probabilistic residential load power forecasting

The widespread adoption of nonlinear power electronic devices in residential settings has significantly increased the stochasticity and uncertainty of power systems. The original load power data, characterized by numerous irregular, random, and probabilistic components, adversely impacts the predictive performance of deep learning techniques, particularly neural networks. To address this challenge, this paper proposes a time-series probabilistic load power prediction technique based on the mature neural network point prediction technique, i.e., decomposing the load power data into deterministic and stochastic components. The deterministic component is predicted using deep learning neural network technology, the stochastic component is fitted with Gaussian mixture distribution model and the parameters are fitted using great expectation algorithm, after which the stochastic component prediction data is obtained using the stochastic component generation method. Using a mature neural network point prediction technique, the study evaluates six different deep learning methods to forecast residential load power. By comparing the prediction errors of these methods, the optimal model is identified, leading to a substantial improvement in prediction accuracy.

NAVIGATING NEW CHALLENGES: WESTERN BALKANS AT THE CROSSROADS OF EU INTEGRATIONS

For several years now, European integration has been recognized as a key strategy to achieve dual goals in the Western Balkans: peace and stability. The European perspective is a commitment not only to the foreign policy of this region but also a great expectation of the citizens of these countries. The Western Balkans, as the European Union calls it after the integration of Bulgaria and Romania in 2007, is a political notion with more than a geographical definition. The Western Balkans, a region which includes: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, and Kosovo, throughout the Cold War period was the area where East and West were divided. After the fall of the communist regimes in Eastern and Southeastern Europe, which followed the signing of the Maastricht Treaty and the establishment of the European Union, euphoria and enthusiasm for joining a united Europe grew. Thus, the prospect of a common future of the Western Balkans in a democratic and prosperous Europe now seemed more than feasible. Today, the countries of the Western Balkans that have passed the transition period, still encounter the difficulties of their consolidation or the stability of bilateral agreements. Although they are located in the European continent with cultural diversity in a narrow space, they continue to remain out of place in the Euro-integration process. Economic development, commercial exchanges, investments, unemployment, etc., are another dimension of the countries of the Western Balkans, but also the initiatives of some countries for an opening within the area called a mini-Schengen, and then turned into “Open Balkan” which was specifically replaced by the “Berlin Process”, which began in 2014, as a proposal by the German Chancellor Angela Merkel to accelerate the European integration of the Western Balkan countries. The difficult economic situation combined with inherited political problems has created large discrepancies between countries of this region in relation to the benefits that come from the EU. The created situation has contributed to some states expanding and increasing their influencing power in this region, such as the influence of Russia. These issues represent some of the main points of view of the conference, which aims to bring together researches from the countries of the region to present their studies and views on the issues of the integration of Western Balkans into the EU and to exchange experiences, ideas and discuss other relevant issues related to the topics of the conference.

Changing direction for health in Africa.

Current developments augurs well for sexual and reproductive health in Africa. With the African Union joining the G20 group, it is expected that its regional health priorities will be given special consideration. Social protection and empowerment of youth and women were prominent at the recent Summit of the Future. The impending change in leadership at the African regional office of the World Health Organization brings great expectations for sound policy formulation and surveillance for detecting outbreaks of epidemics. At the United Nations, Africa will benefit from reform of the Security Council besides intensified activities pertaining to the Sustainable Development Goals.

Conductive Polymer Hydrogel-Derived 3D Nanostructures for Energy and Environmental Electrocatalysis.

Renewable energy and advanced water treatment technologies hold profound significance for driving sustainable development in modern society. Given the environmental friendliness and high efficiency of electrocatalysis processes, great expectations are placed on their applications in energy and water-related fields. However, the electrocatalysis is limited by the selectivity, activity, and durability of the electrocatalytic reactions. Hydrogels, with their hierarchical porous structure, compositional and structural tunability, and ease of functionalization, are bringing surprising advances in advanced energy and environment. Hydrogel catalysts, inheriting the advantages of hydrogel materials, hold promise for achieving significant breakthroughs in electrochemical performance. Here, the latest advancements in energy and environmental electrocatalytic fields are summarized based on the 3D nanostructured hydrogel catalysts. In addition, future potentials and challenges of continuing research on hydrogel materials for energy and environment are discussed.

Great Expectations: The Moderating Effects of Supplier Service Model and Market Dynamics on Relational Contract Performance

Under a relational contract, the value placed on expected future business must outweigh the short-term temptations to deviate for the buyer–supplier relationship to persist. Operational and relational factors that influence this trade-off have been explored, however, there is a considerable lack of research on the moderating effects of supplier and market characteristics. We offer insights into how supplier service models and market dynamics impact suppliers’ decisions to renege on the relational contract. Limited access to transactional and contractual data has restricted previous exploration. We overcome this limitation with a detailed dataset in the for-hire truckload transportation sector. We find that a third-party brokerage service model is better able to overcome operational demand challenges and maintain service due to lower capacity constraints and pooling effects as compared to asset-based providers. Furthermore, when the overall market is capacity-constrained, long-term relationships become less of a deterrent for suppliers to reject business. In addition, during tightly constrained markets, suppliers respond with higher rejection rates to short-term demand surges but not to historical demand variability.

Mudfog: Crabbe and Dickens, and the View from the Marshes

Abstract: This paper asks about the relationship of Crabbe's poetry (and his life) to Dickens, and pursues an interest in the marshy and muddy landscapes of David Copperfield, Bleak House , and Great Expectations , with attention also to Little Dorrit . I am interested in Dickens's neologism "mudfog," and how this extends through his fiction; in this specific case looking at Orlick in Great Expectations . I read him as deriving from Crabbe's Peter Grimes, and as an incarnation of the oozy stagnancy of the marshes in the novel. Here I draw on Julia Kristeva and Georges Bataille on the abject and the formless as a way of conceptualizing what Orlick, one of Dickens's more surprising characters, might represent. The whole paper is a continuation of interests discussed in an earlier paper on "Mudfog" ( Dickens Quarterly , June 2024).

Human-Social Robot Interaction in the Light of ToM and Metacognitive Functions

Theory of Mind (ToM) and Metacognition constitute two superior mental mechanisms that promote the smooth integration and adaptation of the individual in society. In particular, the ability to read minds introduces the individual into the social world, contributing to understanding oneself and others. Metacognition focuses on individual knowledge, control, regulation, and readjustment regarding the cognitive mechanism and its influence on cognitive performance and the mental and social development of the individual. At the basis of the development of the two mechanisms is the activation of social interaction, which determines their levels of development. The innovative approaches and great expectations of technology and Artificial Intelligence for improving the artificial mind brought social robots to the fore. Robots with social action are gradually entering human life. Their interaction with the human factor is anticipated to become more and more frequent, expanded, and specialized. Hence, the investigation of equipping artificial systems with integrated social-cognitive and metacognitive capabilities was necessary, constituting the subject of study of the current narrative review. Research findings show that intelligent systems with introspection, self-evaluation, and perception-understanding of emotions, intentions, and beliefs can develop safe and satisfactory communication with humans as long as their design and operation conform to the code of ethics.

Great expectations: A multisite, randomized controlled open-label trial of a novel patient expectations communication tool.

In emergency medicine (EM), discerning patient expectations to inform patient-centered care poses unique challenges. We devised a novel questionnaire to facilitate clinicians' understanding of patients' expectations for their visit. We conducted a multisite, randomized controlled trial. A brief questionnaire soliciting patient expectations was developed through feedback from clinicians and patients. At the beginning of their visit, the intervention group patients completed the questionnaire and provided it to their treating clinician. The control group patients received standard care. Participants in both groups completed a survey at time of disposition assessing five satisfaction domains. The primary ordinal logistic regression analysis modeled the extent to which the intervention led to patient-reported improvement in clinician understanding of expectations with adjustment for demographic factors and site. Among the 308 participants, 141 intervention and 123 control exit surveys were collected. In the primary analysis, the intervention group had 2.1 times greater odds of strongly agreeing that their clinician understood their expectations (odds ratio: 2.1, 95% confidence interval: 1.2, 3.7, p-value: 0.01), roughly equivalent to a net number needed to treat of 11 for one more improved satisfaction rating. Although the secondary outcome results were not significantly different between groups, all results tended toward the intervention group having more favorable answers. While more patients reported that their expectations were addressed when the novel tool was used, no significant difference was found for conventional satisfaction measures. Future studies may examine whether a tool to elicit patient expectations can lead to other improved outcomes.

Rough Excision: a poetic response to Great Expectations (1861) and Jack Maggs (1997)

ABSTRACT Read together or as stand-alone pieces, the thirteen poems offered below are conceived as a creative-critical response to two novels, a Victorian one, Charles Dickens’s Great Expectations (1861), and its neo-Victorian counterpart, Peter Carey’s Jack Maggs (1997). Rather than simply inspired by these novels, the poems are the result of a critical reading of both Carey’s reimagining of Dickens’s great English novel and the source text itself. As such they implicitly engage with Carey’s critics, who have almost unanimously analysed Jack Maggs from a postcolonial perspective, thereby largely ignoring the rewriting of the women characters. Scholars have systematically pointed out how Dickens’s orphan Pip is rewritten by Carey as Henry Phipps, the Australian convict Abel Magwitch as Jack Maggs and Dickens himself as the great Victorian author Tobias Oates. Together with the annotations in part II, the poems offer a creative contribution to the critical engagement with Carey’s novel, by arguing that Carey’s Mercy, servant and mistress of would-be gentleman Percy Buckle in Jack Maggs, can be fruitfully read as a re-imagining of Dickens’s Molly, biological mother of Estella and housekeeper of unscrupulous lawyer Jaggers in Great Expectations. The poems raise questions concerning neo-Victorianism, patriarchal discourse and trauma theory from a feminist perspective.

Sitting in the mess: Miss Havisham, a representation of frozen trauma

ABSTRACT In this case study, the character of Miss Havisham, from Dickens’ novel Great Expectations, is explored as a representation of frozen trauma. Support is offered for the usefulness of fictional case study to therapeutic understanding and practice, and some of its limitations noted. The frozen nature of traumatic experiencing is elucidated and defined from a person-centered perspective. A brief synopsis of the story and character of Miss Havisham is offered, and the relevance of her early life considered together with her environment and her social context as a Victorian woman. A case is made for a body response to working with trauma which draws upon Gendlin’s focusing approach and Prouty’s model of Pre-Therapy. Limitations of both are noted. Using fictional case study as a creative method of inquiry, its potential for offering real world understanding around trauma theory is established. The primacy of the body in experiencing trauma, and healing from it, is affirmed. A resonance is illuminated between current thinking around traumatic wounding and healing, and a relational therapeutic approach which has the organism at its heart. Insights have arisen from the therapist’s exploration of ‘tidy[ing] up’ the mess and real change has been experienced in practice with clients.

Study of the microRNA fraction in food waste and other biomasses. Assessment of its antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activity

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are short non-coding RNAs with important biological functions. Their presence in food and their potential role as new bioactive molecules is generating great expectations. For the first time, the miRNA fraction within food waste and algae has been studied, highlighting their bioactivity and its potential upcycling. MiRNAs from barley malt rootles, brewer’s spent grains, Spirulina, Chlorella, orange peels, pomegranate and apricot seeds, and watermelon waste were extracted using two kits, one with chloroform and a more sustainable alternative. Higher extraction yields were obtained with the chloroform-containing kit. Purity of extracts was confirmed by UV spectroscopy and reversed-phase high performance liquid chromatography (RP-HPLC) with UV detection. Further analysis by RP-HPLC and high-resolution mass spectrometry (MS) demonstrated the potential and feasibility of this technique for the analysis of miRNA although there are still some limitations to overcome before its routine application. Apricot seed miRNAs demonstrated remarkable anti-inflammatory and antioxidant capacity.

Great Expectations: Change and Continuity in Academic Roles and Tasks

Great Expectations: Change and Continuity in Academic Roles and Tasks

Interfacial modification strategies to secure phase-stability for inorganic perovskite solar cells

The rapid success achieved from perovskite solar cell has drawn great expectations for commercialization of next-generation photovoltaics. Among the various perovskite materials, the inorganic perovskite derivatives have been of particular interest, ascribed to its superior thermal and chemical stability, which is a crucial criterion for reliable long-term operation. Nonetheless, the development of the efficient inorganic perovskite solar cells has been lagged from its organic–inorganic hybrid counterparts owing to the notorious phase-stability challenges associated with the formation of non-photoactive phases. The early progress of the inorganic perovskite solar cells has been centered on the stable perovskite phase-preparation and leads to the effective bulk management through intermediate engineering and compositional engineering strategies. Yet, challenges remain in securing the as-formed perovskite phase throughout the long-term operation. Accordingly, recent studies find interfacial modification strategies successful by constricting the phase-transformation channels in various perspectives such as defect propagation, strain, component segregation, charge accumulation, and external stresses. In this review, we start with the brief description on the inorganic perovskite solar cells and the associated advantages including chemical and optoelectronic properties. We then provide a review on the challenges of inorganic perovskite solar cells associated with the phase instabilities. We elaborate on the origins of the phase instabilities in terms of thermodynamics and the recently proposed channels including intrinsic factors and extrinsic factors that facilitate the detrimental phase transformation. Finally, we survey the recent successful approaches to stabilize the inorganic perovskite solar cells through interface managements and provide outlook on further progress.

BT12 Great expectations: implementing artificial intelligence software into a regional skin cancer teledermatology service

BT12 Great expectations: implementing artificial intelligence software into a regional skin cancer teledermatology service

Artificial intelligence in cardiovascular radiology : Image acquisition, image reconstruction and workflow optimization

Artificial intelligence (AI) has the potential to fundamentally change radiology workflow. This review article provides an overview of AI applications in cardiovascular radiology with afocus on image acquisition, image reconstruction, and workflow optimization. First, established applications of AI are presented for cardiovascular computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Building on this, we describe the range of applications that are currently being developed and evaluated. The practical benefits, opportunities, and potential risks of artificial intelligence in cardiovascular imaging are critically discussed. The presentation is based on the relevant specialist literature and our own clinical and scientific experience. AI-based techniques for image reconstruction are already commercially available and enable dose reduction in cardiovascular CT and accelerated image acquisition in cardiac MRI. Postprocessing of cardiovascular CT and MRI examinations can already be considerably simplified using established AI-based segmentation algorithms. In contrast, the practical benefits of many AI applications aimed at the diagnosis of cardiovascular diseases are less evident. Potential risks such as automation bias and considerations regarding cost efficiency should also be taken into account. In amarket characterized by great expectations and rapid technical development, it is important to realistically assess the practical benefits of AI applications for your own hospital or practice.

The Gendered Politics of Postmodern Parody in Acker’s Great Expectations

This paper critically explores the gendered politics of Kathy Acker’s use of postmodern parody in her novel Great Expectations (1982). By using the textual codes and paradigms of postmodern parody, as theorized by Linda Hutcheon, Acker seeks to initiate a parodic appropriation of the Dickensian text in order to interrogate the culturally privileged gender norms encoded in this male text. Acker’s parodic rewriting of Dickens’ Great Expectations(1862) is really one of textual appropriation as it seeks to re-write the male text from a totally different, notably gendered, perspective. The aim of such an appropriation is to create a textual space to negotiate issues of gender and female agency. Acker seeks to challenge culturally established canonical narratives of male dominance. She does this by creating feminist counter narratives that bring to the fore issues of gender identity and difference. Keywords: Gender Politics, Postmodern Parody, Textual Appropriation, Intertextuality, Linda Hutcheon

Dickens's Mudfog

Abstract: This article has three intentions. It starts with the name "Mudfog" as this appears in Dickens, and as the combination of mud and fog – why these? – runs throughout Dickens's prose and his settings, and his interests. It gives particular attention here to Bleak House and Little Dorrit and Great Expectations . Second, it is interested in thinking of mud and fog not as "symbols," but as modes of thinking (definable as allegorical), and here it pursues Dickens's reading of Shakespeare by looking at the uses of mud and fog as they accumulate from Shakespeare's plays. It attempts to read Dickens not as merely drawing on Shakespeare but as enabling a reading of Shakespeare in turn – here discussion of Hamlet becomes crucial for a reading of Bleak House .

Dismantling of European environmental policy: how great expectations in Brussels are dashed by Italian subnational implementation

ABSTRACT Environmental policy has experienced significant expansion, with debates often centred around concerns of environmental overregulation. In response to the perceived burden of administrative requirements imposed by European regulations, the EU Commission initiated an Action Programme for dismantling environmental policy in 2007. Consequently, the Italian national government adopted a single environmental authorization provision in 2013. The effect of this simplification action at the subnational levels was a piecemeal implementation among Italian regions. The empirical contribution of the paper involves assessing the effectiveness of environmental policy dismantling at the regional level in Italy and identifying the capacities that influence this process. Through a comparative analysis of various dimensions (coordinating, regulatory, and delivery capacities), the study will show that the top-down approach for reducing red tape does not necessarily align with the administrative and implementing capacities of Italian regions, which are often affected by endemic problems.

Childhood vs Adulthood: A Study of the Characters in Charles Dicken’s Great Expectations

In Great Expectations, Pip travels the path of self-discovery, self-enhancement, and gentlemanly behavior. But differently, the story explores the aspirations of obtaining wealth, education, and social refinement. Victorian civilization instilled morality and etiquette in its readers, as demonstrated by Charles Dickens’ “Great Expectations". The lead character's journey from childhood to adulthood is followed by the reader, who gains insight into the reader's ability to discern morality even in the non-fictional world through the protagonist's interactions with other people, values, and behaviors. Because it acts as a bridge connecting social norms and the development of a fictional character, this is what draws interest to the educational romance genre.