Instances Of Use Research Articles

Intravenous push antibiotics in the emergency department: Education and implementation.

In an effort to expedite the publication of articles, AJHP is posting manuscripts online as soon as possible after acceptance. Accepted manuscripts have been peer-reviewed and copyedited, but are posted online before technical formatting and author proofing. These manuscripts are not the final version of record and will be replaced with the final article (formatted per AJHP style and proofed by the authors) at a later time. Intravenous push antibiotics can serve as an alternative to intravenous piggyback antibiotics while providing the same pharmacodynamics and adverse effect profile, easing shortage pressures and decreasing order to administration time, as well as representing a potential cost savings. The purpose of this study was to determine whether intravenous push antibiotics could decrease the time from an order to the start of administration compared to piggyback antibiotics in emergency departments. This study also measured the cost savings of antibiotic preparation and administration and assessed nursing satisfaction when using intravenous push antibiotics. Sample instances of use of intravenous push and piggyback antibiotics were identified. Patients were included if they were 18 years of age or older and received at least a single dose of intravenous push or piggyback ceftriaxone, cefepime, cefazolin, or meropenem in one of the institution's emergency departments. The primary outcome of the study was to compare the time from the order to the start of administration of intravenous push vs piggyback antibiotics. The secondary outcome was to compare the cost of antibiotic preparation for the 2 methods. The intravenous push and piggyback groups each had 43 patients. The time from the order to the start of administration decreased from 74 (interquartile range, 29-114) minutes in the piggyback group to 31 (interquartile range, 21-52) minutes in the push group (P = 0.003). When the estimated monthly cost savings for ceftriaxone, cefepime, and meropenem were added together, across the emergency departments, an estimated $227,930.88 is saved per year when using intravenous push antibiotics. Intravenous push antibiotics decrease the time from ordering to the start of administration and result in significant cost savings.

CONCEPTUALIZATION OF THE LEXEMES HEART AND SOUL IN THE NOVEL «THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD» BY COLSON WHITEHEAD

Background. The article deals with the analysis of the conceptualization of the lexemes heart and soul in the English language based on a historical fiction novel «The Underground Railroad» written by American author Colson Whitehead. Even though there is a number of research dedicated to investigation of the nature of concept and conceptualization this topic is still of paramount importance. 
 The purpose. The purpose of the investigation is to study the peculiarities of conceptualization of the lexemes heart and soul and count their conceptual meanings based on the novel «The Underground Railroad» written by Colson Whitehead. 
 Methods. To reach the aim of the research the following methods have been chosen: the descriptive method, the comparative analysis, the constructive method, the cognitive analysis.
 Results. Due to the results of the investigation, the lexeme heart which has been used 26 times in the novel as a separate lexical unit, as a component of a phrase, as a derivative and as a compound noun represents 10 conceptual meanings: 1) center; 2) complete involvement; 3) feeling of fear; 4) sincerity; 5) enthusiasm and energy; 6) unconcern; 7) kindness; 8) indifference; 9) body organ; 10) hopefulness. According to the conducted analysis, the lexeme soul used 21 times in the text of the novel conveys two main conceptual meanings: 1) a person; 2. nonphysical part of a person. 
 Discussion. Having researched all 26 examples of use of the lexeme heart and 21 instances of use of the lexeme soul in the novel «The Underground Railroad» written by Colson Whitehead, the following conclusion is formed: the number of the lexeme heart and the lexeme soul used in the novel is not significantly different, the lexeme heart is used 26 times and the lexeme soul is implemented 21 times but the number of conceptual meanings verbalized by the lexemes heart and soul is dramatically different as the lexeme heart expresses 10 conceptual ideas, whereas the lexeme soul counts 2 main conceptual meanings. This result can be explained by the use of the lexeme heart as a stem of compound nouns und as a root of derivatives which also influences the number of conceptual meanings the lexeme heart reveals, and the results can be also explained by the specificity of the genre of the novel.

Tubular surface generated by a curve lying on a regular surface and its characterizations

<abstract><p>In this research, we have constructed and studied special tubular surfaces in Euclidean 3-space $ \mathbb{R}^{3} $. We examined the singularities and geometrical properties of these surfaces. We achieved some significant results for these surfaces via Darboux frame. Also, we have proposed a few geometric invariants that illustrate the geometric characteristics of these surfaces, such as tubular Weingarten surfaces, using the traditional methods of differential geometry. Additionally, taking advantage of the singularity theory, we have given the classification of generic singularities of these surfaces. At last, we have presented some computational examples as an instance of use to validate our theoretical findings.</p></abstract>

Discursive formulas of response in Modern Greek

The article is dedicated to the study of discursive formulas of response in Modern Greek. Discursive formulas of response, i.e. idioms which are used in speech as a reaction to what was previously said by the interlocutor and which reproduce some of the phonetic properties of the previous utterance, constitute one of the most language-specific layers of phraseology and pose a difficulty for a correct decoding and translation. The aim of the article is to describe the little-studied material of Modern Greek formulas of response, to determine their types and specific properties and to identify typical communicative situations in which they are used. The study is based on the instances of use of such structures in literary works, internet texts, movies and series in Modern Greek, along with data from dictionaries. Methods of structural, semantic, contextual and comparative analysis are used. The findings of the study provide evidence that in Modern Greek there exist structures corresponding to the definition of discursive formulas of response. Eight types of such structures can be distinguished based on the type of the initiating utterance: reactions to a question; reactions to an address; reactions to an expression of agreement or disagreement; reactions to an expression of opinion or an evaluation; reactions to a factual statement; reactions to a greeting, a farewell or a well-wish; reactions to an expression of gratitude; reactions to a directive. It is shown, however, that the key role in every case is played by the actual lexical make-up of the initiating utterances. From the authors’ point of view, what is particularly interesting for the comparative analysis of discursive formulas of response in different languages is the fact that some Modern Greek formulas of response have the form of a curse or of an ill-wish.

Treatment Options for Renal Cell Carcinoma: Mechanisms and Outcomes

Renal Cell Carcinoma (RCC), cancer of the tubules of the kidneys, has historically been one of the most difficult cancers to treat due to its ability to remain hidden in the body for longer than other cancers and its tendency to resist traditional forms of chemotherapy and radiation therapy. However, both traditional and nontraditional treatments of RCC have seen both significant biomedical advancements and clinical instances of use in recent years. In this review, we analyze five treatments of RCC: Nephrectomy, Immunotherapy, Anti-Angiogenesis, Chemotherapy, and Radiation Therapy, providing background on their mechanisms and clinical outcomes. Through our review of studies of clinical outcomes, we reaffirm the existing thought that nephrectomy remains the most effective treatment for RCC, while radiation therapy and chemotherapy are generally less effective and not recommended for treatment on their own. Immunotherapy and anti-angiogenic therapy have been shown to be effective treatments in the modern healthcare landscape and show great potential for the future as the techniques are better developed and optimized.

Budgeted Edge Service Selection in Mobile Edge Computing Environment

Mobile edge computing allows end-users to retrieve required services from edge servers with low network latency. However, when massive service instances with the same or interchangeable functionalities are available at the network edge, how to select appropriate service instances for use to minimize the overall latency perceived is a critical problem. This is not trivial due to that: 1) usually multiple service instances are involved to collectively fulfil an end-user's ever-increasing complicated need; 2) the overall cost incurred should not exceed end-user's service recruiting budget. In this article, we formally define the budgeted edge service selection (BESS) problem. Then, we model the BESS problem as a constrained optimization problem and theoretically prove its <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\mathcal {NP}$</tex-math></inline-formula> -hardness. Next, to solve the BESS problem effectively, we propose two approaches named BESS-O and BESS-A, respectively. Specifically, BESS-O is an optimal approach based on nonlinear integer programming. It can find out optimal solutions to BESS problems. Moreover, BESS-A is a greedy approach. It can find out approximate BESS solutions with higher efficiency, which is more useful for dealing with large-scale BESS problems. Finally, we conduct comprehensive experiments to evaluate our approaches against five representative approaches. Experimental results demonstrate that given a specific service usage budget, our approaches proposed in this article can achieve the highest completion ratio and the lowest service delay.

Introduction: Telling the Untold Story of Random Political Recruitment

Abstract Introducing part 2 of the Common Knowledge symposium “Antipolitics,” this essay summarizes the “untold story” of the random recruitment of citizens for political office in Western Europe. Although sortition was used extensively in ancient Athens and in late medieval Europe, it is now (except for the randomly selected jury) a largely discontinued practice. While a good deal is known about when and where this procedure was used, there is little surviving documentation of exactly why it was used and of what it was thought to contribute to the political systems in which it was deployed. This untold story, therefore, is not simply about historical instances of use but must also be an analysis and critique of its use. Key points that emerge are that (1) a lottery takes the decision to appoint or elect away from partisan protagonists, so it therefore acts as a mechanism that can break up and disperse power; and (2) a lottery can serve as a trusted mediation or agreement between parties, because the resultant decision is anonymous.

Right‐Wing Eurosceptic Parties and the Strategic Use of Law

AbstractEurosceptic actors often mobilize legal concepts and institutions against European integration. This article makes three contributions to the understanding of this phenomenon. First, it proposes a conceptual definition of the Eurosceptic use of law as part of political strategies, with the aim to make a theoretical contribution to literature in the field. Second, to anchor this idea in the empirical reality, the article exhaustively analyses instances of use of law in the manifestos of medium to large size Eurosceptic parties in national elections, focusing on right wing Eurosceptic parties in the period 2010 to 2021. Third, the article presents some core features of how law is used by the Eurosceptic parties covered by this research at the strategic, conceptual, empirical and political levels, evidencing its widespread utilization and discussing its risks for the process of European integration.

Effects of pH and aging on the texture and physicochemical properties of extruded pea protein isolate

Pea protein isolate (PPI) matrices were extruded at a water content of 50%w/w with the pH of the hydrated PPI adjusted to values between 5 and 9. The impact of the pH on the microstructure, mechanical and swelling of the extrudates was investigated by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), texture analysis and water imbibition experiments. We find that the hardness of the extruded PPI matrices as determined by texture profile analysis (TPA) decreases by ∼50% when the pH is increased from 5 to 9, while the water holding capacity (WHC) is observed to increase linearly from 126% ± 6% w/w on dry basis at pH = 5–442% ± 10% w/w on dry basis at pH = 9. The hardness of the extruded matrices at their WHC is observed to linearly decrease with the WHC. This is explained by a gradual loosening of the matrix as the balance of intermolecular forces shifts from hydrophobic to electrostatic with increasing pH. The extruded PPI matrices are swelling in an anisotropic manner when exposed to pH-adjusted water, with the longitudinal swelling strain being significantly larger than the transversal swelling strain, in particular towards lower values of the pH. Significant aging of the extruded matrices was observed for the first two days following extrusion. Owing to aging, the hardness of the matrices was observed to increase by between 18% (pH = 9) and 23% (pH = 7). Thus, the pH as well as aging are two novel parameters that can be exploited in optimizing the mechanical properties and water holding capacity of extruded PPI matrices, for instance for use in meat analogues.

Assessing Area under the Curve as an Alternative to Latent Growth Curve Modeling for Repeated Measures Zero-Inflated Poisson Data: A Simulation Study

Researchers interested in the assessment of substance use trajectories, and predictors of change, have several data analysis options. These include, among others, generalized estimating equations and latent growth curve modeling. One difficulty in the assessment of substance use, however, is the nature of the variables studied. Although counting instances of use (e.g., the number of cigarettes smoked per day) would seem to be the best option, such data present difficulties in that the distribution of these variables is not likely normal. Count variables often follow a Poisson distribution, and when dealing with substance use in the general population, there is a preponderance of zeros (representing not using). As such, substance use counts may approximate a zero-inflated Poisson distribution. Unfortunately, analyses with zero-inflated Poisson random variables are not easily accommodated in many types of software and may be beyond access to most researchers. As such, an easier method would benefit researchers interested in assessing substance use change. The purpose of this study is to assess the area under the curve as an option when dealing with repeated measures data and contrast it to one popular method of longitudinal data analysis, latent growth curve modeling. Using a Monte Carlo simulation study with varying sample sizes, we found that the area under the curve performed well with different sample sizes and compared favorably to the performance of latent growth curve modeling, particularly when dealing with smaller sample sizes. The area under the curve may be a simpler alternative for researchers, especially when dealing with smaller sample sizes.

Saussure on synonymy

Saussure’s observations on synonymie in De la double essence du langage (Saussure 2011) cast an interesting light on his general account of linguistic meaning. Synonymie covers three distinct concepts for Saussure: 1) semantic similarity of words in a particular language, based on the contrasts between (and mutual demarcation of) meanings in the lexicon, 2) semantic identity of different words in a particular language, by definition impossible in natural language, and 3) multifunctionality of a word in a particular language, to be understood in terms of a hierarchical relationship between a word’s encoded language-particular meaning and its instances of use (including figurative uses). As well as tracing the connections between these three concepts, this article calls attention to the internal consistency of Saussure’s explanations and underscores their importance for a coherent and unified approach to the linguistic sign in accordance with Saussure’s basic theoretical assumptions.

Interrogating paradata

The concept of paradata has received increasing attention in recent information scholarship. The literature however shows considerable disagreement about what paradata is and how it can be purposive. The aim of this paper is to facilitate the use of the resources and analytical impetuses offered by the concept of paradata by providing an explanation to what paradata is in operational terms.The examination of paradata is based on a scoping review of 53 scholarly texts that varyingly engage with the concept.The reviewed texts were analysed using a concept-analysis framework focusing principally on discerning the main descriptive features of paradata and prevalent instances of use and usefulness.The paper shows what the key elements, relationships, use-cases and uncertainties of paradata are.The paper offers a paradata proto-definition: paradata is information about processes that operate a network of means, mental and physical actions and intellectual regimen in the creation or shaping of a(n information) product. The paper also outlines interconnections between paradata, metadata and provenance data, and suggests why it might make analytical sense to continue exploring the concept of paradata in information research and what the objectives of such explorations might be.

The Social Media, Human Dignity and Linguistic Violence in Cameroon: A Socio-Pragmatic Perception

Conflicts, violence, human rights abuses, and the influence of the social media are the most serious challenges the modern world and emerging democracies face today, and Cameroon, in which verbal and nonverbal violence, has become a daily social fact, is no exception. The language that we speak or write influences our cultural identities, and perception of our social realities. The aim of the present study is to collect and examine specimens of speech acts specific to acts of violence used by the social media practitioners as sociolinguistic facts in Cameroon, in order to analyse the different expressions that typify instances of use depicting verbal or linguistic violence in their discourse. The types of words, phrases and linguistic forms identified and analysed characteristically describe these texts as authentic lexicon specific to discourse of conflict and violence within Cameroon in the context of social tension and the Anglophone crisis. The objective being to create more public awareness on the devastating consequences of violence to unity, human dignity, insecurity, peace and living together in Cameroon. To handle complex sociolinguistic data of this sort, the mixed quantitative and qualitative methodology was used to collect online reports from content creators, trained and untrained media practitioners and to analyse these from a sociopragmatic perspective in order to describe its impact on the readers and Cameroonians in situ. The qualitative discourse analysis used was based on a combination of different theoretical frameworks including the Critical Discourse Analysis, Speech Act Theory, Semantic theories, communicative acts, and sociopragmatics relevant to pragmatically explain some of the vocabulary, frequently occurring in the corpus and characteristic of the lexemes of violence, referred to as linguistic violence. Note that words carry and transmit powerful vibrations and emotional energy discharges capable of igniting feelings of hatred, anger, insecurity, intolerance, bitterness, and consequently gruesomely unacceptable acts of human rights abuses. Equally, after the analysis, findings reveal that the different discourse types employ different performative speech acts and stylistic devices including connotation, imagery, symbolism, synonymy, polysemy, and neologism in the forms of verbal abuses, insults, minimisation, and stigmatisation that characterise the contemporary Cameroon society, which suffers from verbal abuses and indecent language use that communicates specific hate-filled and hurtful messages characteristic of linguistic violence in Cameroon, with an urgent need to be addressed. After the analysis, several findings reveal an unprecedented increase in violence and atrocities committed by both separatists and government military on the Anglophone population in particular and on Cameroonians as a result of the Anglophone crisis in violation of human rights and dignity. While suggesting the need to seek for a genuine and an inclusive dialogue, tolerance, the use of polite and decent speech acts, for peace to return is imperative, findings equally reveal that conflict and acts of violence has greatly enriched the Cameroon English language vocabulary, compounding old words to take on new meanings and introducing new words with connotative meanings from other languages like French, local and Pidgin English languages.

Acquisition of cumulative conditioning effects on words: Spanish-speaking children’s [subject pronoun + verb] usage

Child language acquisition research has provided ample evidence of lexical frequency effects. This corpus-based analysis introduces a novel frequency measure shown to significantly constrain adult language variation, but heretofore unexplored in child language acquisition research. Among adults, frequent occurrence of a form in a particular discourse context that conditions usage accumulates in memory over time and shapes the lexical representation of that form. This study contributes to the body of research on frequency effects in child language acquisition by testing whether such cumulative conditioning effects are also found among children, and, if so, at what age such effects appear. Specifically, the study investigates the influence of a distributional frequency measure (each verb form’s likelihood of use in a switch vs same-reference discourse context) on variable subject personal pronoun (SPP) expression ( N = 2227) in Spanish (e.g. yo voy ~ voy, both meaning ‘I go’) in the speech of 65 monolingual children in two age cohorts. Results reveal sensitivity to the contextual conditioning of discourse continuity (switch reference) among both the younger (6- and 7-year-olds) and older (8- and 9-year-olds) children in support of previous research. In addition, each verb’s likelihood of use in a switch-reference context significantly predicted the SPP use among the older children, but not the younger ones, suggesting that the cumulative effect of a probabilistic pattern takes time to emerge during childhood. The lexically specific accumulation in memory of contextual conditioning effects supports exemplar models of child language acquisition: each instance of use in discourse contributes to the lexical representation of that form and, over time, plays a role in the creation of morphosyntactic patterns during language development.

O ochronie przed maltretowaniem na podstawie VIII Poprawki do Konstytucji Stanów Zjednoczonych w odniesieniu do art. 3 Europejskiej konwencji praw człowieka

The article focuses on the protection against ill-treatment, as stipulated in the Amendment VIII to the United States Constitution in relation to the similar guarantee provided by Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights. Using the case-law of the U.S. courts, the author analyses the meaning of words used in the Amendment VIII („cruel and unusual punishment”) in relation to their counterpart in the Convention („torture” and „inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment”). The use of particular words in the Amendment VIII causes a limitation of the protection against ill-treatment in the U.S. to criminal proceedings. In the subsequent part the author discusses two typical instances of use of the Amendment VIII: disproportional punishment and overstepping limits of criminalisation. The problem of compensation for ill-treatment is also described. The analysis of the aforementioned issues leads to the conclusion that the U.S. legal system offers a lower standard of protection against ill-treatment than its European counterpart.

Coronavirus Detection Using Two Step-AS Clustering and Ensemble Neural Network Model

This study presents a model of computer-aided intelligence capable of automatically detecting positive COVID-19 instances for use in regular medical applications. The proposed model is based on an Ensemble boosting Neural Network architecture and can automatically detect discriminatory features on chest X-ray images through Two Step-As clustering algorithm with rich filter families, abstraction and weight-sharing properties. In contrast to the generally used transformational learning approach, the proposed model was trained before and after clustering. The compilation procedure divides the datasets samples and categories into numerous sub-samples and subcategories and then assigns new group labels to each new group, with each subject group displayed as a distinct category. The retrieved characteristics discriminant cases were used to feed the Multiple Neural Network method, which was then utilised to classify the instances. The Two Step-AS clustering method has been modified by pre-aggregating the dataset before applying Multiple Neural Network algorithm to detect COVID-19 cases from chest X-ray findings. Models for Multiple Neural Network and Two Step-As clustering algorithms were optimised by utilising Ensemble Bootstrap Aggregating algorithm to reduce the number of hyper parameters they include. The tests were carried out using the COVID-19 public radiology database, and a cross-validation method ensured accuracy. The proposed classifier with an accuracy of 98.02% percent was found to provide the most efficient outcomes possible. The result is a low-cost, quick and reliable intelligence tool for detecting COVID-19 infection.

Application of an Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning Model for Estimating Potential US Prevalence of WHIM Syndrome, a Rare Immunodeficiency, from Insurance Claims Data

Introduction: WHIM (Warts, Hypogammaglobulinemia, Infections, and Myelokathexis) syndrome is an inborn error of immunity characterized as a primary immunodeficiency with neutropenia-but the acronym does not reflect the broad spectrum of disease manifestations that patients may experience. A WHIM syndrome diagnosis may be confirmed clinically by the presence of myelokathexis, the retention of white blood cells in the bone marrow, or by identification of a known pathogenic gain-of-function mutation in the CXCR4 gene coding for the CXCR4 receptor. Diagnosis of WHIM syndrome is thought to be frequently missed because of low disease awareness, missed identification of myelokathexis, and lack of routine genetic testing (Al Ustwani O, et al. Br J Haematol. 2014:164;15-23; Dotta L, et al. Curr Mol Med. 2011;11:317-325; Heusinkveld L, et al. Exp Opin Orphan Drugs. 2017;5(10):813-825). The prevalence of WHIM syndrome has never been systematically studied and is unknown. Determination of prevalence via insurance claims data is hindered by the absence of an International Classification of Diseases (ICD)-10 code for WHIM syndrome as well as inconsistent coding for key symptoms of WHIM syndrome, which are variably penetrant. This study applied an artificial intelligence (AI)/machine learning (ML) model to estimate the potential prevalence of WHIM syndrome using a large US insurance claims database.Methods: A deidentified, longitudinal, patient-level US claims database of >300 million lives was used for this study. Thirty-two patients with genetically confirmed WHIM syndrome were identified from the claims database by linking deidentified patients to known physicians and matching clinical and demographic features. Using this group as a positive training class, an AI/ML model was deployed to identify patients with WHIM look-alike clinical phenotypes in the database. Patients were further filtered based on clinical features to generate low (presence of warts, history of infections, and hypogammaglobulinemia) and high (presence of warts, history of infections, and coding associated with immunodeficiency) prevalence estimates; a final prevalence number for the US was projected to account for incomplete coverage of the US population in the claims database. Finally, insurance codes for disease symptoms, treatments, and management were analyzed to investigate the burden of disease in patients identified by the model.Results: The model showed a high predictive value for distinguishing patients with known WHIM syndrome from a random sample of age-matched patients in the database (area under the curve [AUC] of receiver operating characteristic [ROC] plot, >0.99) as well as a control group of patients with ICD-10 codes defining immunodeficiency conditions (AUC of ROC plot, 0.99). The model generated estimates ranging from 1803 (low) to 3718 (high) patients with WHIM look-alike phenotype in the US. Analysis of medical history in the high-estimate WHIM look-alike group revealed symptomatic and severe disease, as evidenced by ≥1 instance of use of granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (41%) or intravenous immunoglobulin (46%) therapy (both <1% in control group), need for respiratory services (82% vs 8% in control group), presence of hearing loss (18% vs 1% in control group), and high annual utilization of emergency (51%) and hospital (44%) services (vs 8% and 1%, respectively, in control group).Conclusions: The methodology used here provides an approach to explore the prevalence of rare diseases that are often mis- or under-diagnosed and are not captured with a unique ICD-10 code. This study estimates a prevalence of 1803 to 3718 WHIM look-alike patients in the US, supporting the possibility that there may be ≤~3700 patients with either diagnosed or undiagnosed WHIM syndrome in the US. An analysis of the medical history of the WHIM look-alike patients revealed a history of symptomatic and severe disease and a high unmet medical need. Since it is not feasible to definitively confirm a WHIM diagnosis in the look-alike group, it is possible that some of these look-alike patients may have diagnosed or undiagnosed WHIM syndrome, while others may have a clinical phenotype consistent with WHIM syndrome without meeting its classic diagnostic criteria. DisclosuresGarabedian: X4 Pharmaceuticals: Current Employment, Current equity holder in publicly-traded company. Neri: X4 Pharmaceuticals: Current Employment. Seng: X4 Pharmaceuticals: Current Employment. Jones: Real Chemistry (Formerly Swoop/IPM): Current Employment, Other: I was paid salary to perform secondary research project work for client “X4” which resulted in this publication.

Concepts as Tools of Legal Reasoning – How Pragmatics May Promote the Rationality of International Legal Discourse and the Work of Legal Scholars

Abstract Concepts are an important element of the way international lawyers think and talk about international law. They materialise as conceptual terms, such as ‘jurisdiction’, ‘self-defence’ and ‘abuse of rights’. To enable a critical evaluation of international law and legal discourse, it is important that single instances of use of such terms be fully understood. This task presupposes a full recognition of the social meaning of legal utterances. Conceptual terms are uttered not only to describe the law, but also to affect the beliefs, attitudes and behaviour of readers and listeners. International lawyers are acquainted with this social side of legal meaning but lack a theory firmly grounded in pragmatic research that can help them systematically describe and investigate it. This article provides precisely such a theory. Crucially, it also explains how the suggested theory of meaning may promote the rationality of international legal discourse and the work of legal scholars.

Hardness and contact angle of thermo-treated poplar plywood for bio-building

Abstract: The interest towards poplar cultivation and its wood has recently been growing in Italy, where the use of timber and wood-based materials in construction is increasing as well. Poplar plywood, with a national production of around 270.000 m3 in 2017, is a key product for the Italian wood sector, and currently is destined for several applications as component for furniture and motorhomes. Previous research has shown that thermal treatment can be effectively applied to poplar plywood in order to make it suitable to the requirements of new end-uses. The present study aims to widen the knowledge of the effects of thermal treatment on poplar plywood. With this purpose, 7-layered, 12-mm thick plywood bonded with urea-melamine-formaldehyde (UMF) resin was thermally treated for 2 h at 170, 190 and 210 °C through the Termovuoto® process. The treatment aimed to improve the dimensional stability and durability against fungal decay. The process was set at lower temperature and shorter time than those of many thermal treatments commonly used in practice in order to limit the reduction in mechanical properties and to maintain an adequate bonding quality. The above properties were already verified by previous research, whereas in this study Brinell hardness and contact angle of treated panels were investigated as relevant for several end-uses that can be prospected in building and in outdoor environments. Brinell hardness decreased from 10.8 to 8.3 N mm-2 and contact angle increased from 75.8° to 103.6°. Overall, treatment at 190 °C seems the most suitable to induce balanced modifications in the panels. From a technical point of view, these appear ready to enter the market, for instance for use in exterior claddings, partitions and outdoor flooring.

Handcuff use on forensic psychiatry wards

AimsThis project aimed to assess the use of handcuffs in a secure forensic mental health hospital.BackgroundHandcuffs are used by secure forensic psychiatric wards where patients need to leave the ward and require added restrictive measures for their own or other's safety. The decision to use handcuffs is made by the multi-disciplinary team, with the input of the unit's clinical security team and is assessed based on individual risk and need. This study investigated the frequency, duration and purpose of handcuff use in one secure forensic mental health unit, encompassing 8 male medium secure wards, 5 male low secure wards, 1 adolescent secure ward,1 female low secure ward and 5 female medium secure wards.MethodHandcuff use was recorded contemporaneously by ward staff in a specialised handcuff proforma. This data were then compiled to assess the number of instances of use, the mental health section applicable to the patient, the reason the patient needed to leave the unit, and the duration of use (including the time period for which the handcuffs were removed during the visit, if applicable.) Data from these forms over an 18 month period were analysed.ResultOver the 18 months, there were a total of 347 uses of handcuffs, with an average of 18.3 occurrences per month. In 55 cases, the patients were detained under a civil section, with the remaining instances occurring in patients detained under forensic section. 47% were unsentenced prisoners.The most common destination for patients was the general medical hospital, which accounted for 49% of all visits. Court was the second most common destination, with 39% of uses.The average duration spent in handcuffs was 3.3 hours. The average time that the handcuffs were taken off during the transfer was 1.2 hours.ConclusionThrough ongoing education and supervision by the clinical security team, handcuff use in this forensic service was limited to essential situations, most often to allow treatment of physical health issues off-site. A large proportion of instances involved unsentenced prisoners and court attendances, where the risk of absconsion might be particularly high. Duration spent in handcuffs was kept to a minimum, with cuffs being removed where possible. The service strives to continue such good practices and to identify further ways to reduce handcuff use, such as using video-conferencing as an alternative court attendance.