Resolution Options Research Articles

Sexual Harassment in the Workplace: Is the Personal Grievance Process Adequate?

Sexual harassment infiltrates many workplaces across New Zealand. In recent years, the issue has received growing media coverage and public discussion. Due to the destructive nature of sexual harassment, the New Zealand legal system needs to have strong protections in place for victims. The personal grievance process offers one avenue for an employee to seek recourse against their employer for sexual harassment they suffered during employment. This essay examines whether the current personal grievance process under the Employment Relations Act is fit for dealing with instances of sexual harassment that occur in the workplace. Significant flaws in the process are identified and reform is proposed. The current dispute resolution options available to victims of workplace sexual harassment are also problematic. Mediation may be inappropriate for resolving many cases of sexual harassment in the workplace. The investigative role of the Employment Relations Authority has the potential to provide a better dispute resolution option for employees who suffer sexual harassment. In sum, the current personal grievance process, including dispute resolution options, are inadequate for dealing with cases of workplace sexual harassment in New Zealand and reform is needed.

Use of Twitter in the Cameroon Anglophone crisis

ABSTRACTA growing body of literature shows that social media plays a key role during crises and conflicts. In addition to traditional media, social media are used to mobilise people for a common cause and to communicate vital information. Very little is known about social media use during crises in the sub-Saharan African context. This article presents how Twitter is being used in the ongoing Cameroon Anglophone Crisis by several groups including the government, Anglophone activists, media organisations, and everyday citizens. Using critical theoretical perspectives to examine tweets from 1 September 2016 to 31 December 2018, this article identifies key themes. These include: placement of the crisis in a contested, historical context; debates about naming the crisis; key concepts; depiction of several forms of violence; and potential options for resolution. Social media is being used by the government, Anglophone activists, and non-affiliated people to sway public opinions on the crisis and solicit the attention of local, Diaspora, and broader international communities. Social media use has loosened the grip of governmental control of media messaging and expanded the public narratives available in Cameroon, yet at the time of the writing, this does not appear to have lessened the impact of the crisis.

Simplified vector-based model tailored for urban-scale prediction of solar irradiance

This paper presents a simplified vector-based model on the basis of consideration of the urban context to effectively predict the solar potential of urban areas. The proposed model is based on vector-based methods without the use of ray trace and ray interception techniques, yet consists of new methods that suitably account for the nonuniform solar radiation of the sky, obstruction by urban surfaces, and reflection by urban surfaces in urban areas. The proposed model establishes three new methods to simplify the calculation in the context of urban applications: (1) a two-segment discretization model, (2) an edge angle detection obstruction model, and (3) a unified view-angle-based reflection model. The performance of the method was compared against the advanced daylight simulation program RADIANCE and measurements obtained from controlled experiments. The first comparison demonstrated the new method provided flexible setting options for different resolution and prediction accuracy requirements and generated reasonably accurate predictions. The second comparison showed that the proposed model elicited average absolute differences of 6% and 5% compared to the actual measurements from the horizontal and vertical surfaces, respectively. In comparison with ray interception approach, the results showed that the proposed method required a much lower number of calculation iterations for detecting sky and building obstructions.

Reconstructing Alliterative Verse: The Pursuit of a Medieval Meter by Ian Cornelius

Reviewed by: Reconstructing Alliterative Verse: The Pursuit of a Medieval Meter by Ian Cornelius Andrew Galloway ian cornelius, Reconstructing Alliterative Verse: The Pursuit of a Medieval Meter. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2017. Pp. x, 219. isbn: 1–10715–410–3. $99. Ian Cornelius offers the ‘pursuit’ of a meter that, he claims, we can no longer properly hear, so completely did its elusive and complicated rules vanish beneath the influence of poetry driven by the patterns of stressed and unstressed syllables qua syllables, which had become (and remain) the only familiar building blocks of English meter. By the late sixteenth century, the venerable alliterative tradition had entirely dissolved into impersonations and reinterpretations, as if alliterative verse were merely an ornamentally distinct variety of iambic pentameter or anapests (Spenser’s ‘Some gan to gape for greedie gouernaunce’ or his ‘lovers of lordship and troublers of states’). Such an approach to metrical history may remind us of Virginia Woolf’s ‘On Not Knowing Greek,’ where ‘not knowing’ refers not to Woolf’s personal exile from the privileged world of male scholars but an insistence that neither she nor the scholars can actually capture a lost poetics, whose later echoes and reinterpretations pose as much hindrance as help. ‘We can never hope to get the whole fling of a sentence in Greek as we now do in English,’ Woolf observes—though she doesn’t hesitate to describe some features she discerns as that poetics’ original elements. Cornelius’ compressed and meticulous pursuit is equally cautious but ultimately extraordinarily ambitious: in finely argued chapters, it seeks to recover comprehensive rules of this terminally medieval meter, whose often dramatically changing phases are patchily preserved through half a millennium. Cornelius’ overarching point is not just that we mishear, but also that the meter itself changed by reinterpretations— mishearings—of its own traditions, some drastic. This adopts and builds on Geoffrey Russom’s important proposals for how late-medieval alliterative meter might be explained as ‘normalizing’ certain exceptional elements in Old English meter, as the language developed into a fundamentally different form; Cornelius manages the contiguous stages of this through the ‘new paradigm’ formulated by Nicolay Yakovlev in his (unpublished) 2008 dissertation, already applied by a few other scholars (notably Cornelius’ own student, Eric Weiskott). For all of his scholarly modesty, Cornelius is more Yakovlevian than Yakovlev: he intently tests and takes further the view that Old English metrics began not from ‘accentual’ principles but ‘morphological’ ones—that is, not syllable counts but classes of words that take or resist stress, with specific options for metrical resolution and stretches of unstressed syllables, a legacy shaping post-Conquest and later alliterative meter as it accommodated, with gradually [End Page 76] expanding consequences, the growing number of small function words required by English’s shift to an analytic language. This grants metrics itself a central role in metrical history, positing underlying poetic continuities in spite of the drastic changes and major gaps in the documented data. Cornelius shows both an unwavering commitment to this assumption and a vigorous interest in the exceptions and variations, while frequently chipping away at the long scholarly history that has led both toward and away from the claims Cornelius endorses. Lawman’s Brut remains, as usual, a hard case. One could choose almost any line from The Brut to retest and debate Cornelius’ multiple explanations for what amounts to that poet’s creative destruction of earlier alliterative verse along with its germination of features that would dominate later. But the alternatives to Cornelius’ view of a continuous ‘tradition’ briefly exposed by The Brut would be either viewing the looser prose rhythms of Ælfrician homily as bridging the general gap in written alliterative verse from 900 to 1350, leaving later alliterative verse a self-created thing (a view Cornelius demolishes), or—Russom’s easier stratagem—setting Lawman and his peculiarities aside, and conjecturing widespread orally sustained poetry marching steadily from the meter of Beowulf to that of William of Palerne. Like Yakovlev and Weiskott, Cornelius goes through not around Lawman, giving even more attention than either of those to the elements in The Brut that violate the norms of both Old and later Middle English alliterative...

Strategizing Kashmiri Freedom Struggle Through Nonviolent Means

Since 1947, Kashmiris are demanding freedom from Indian occupation. They have adopted numerous approaches to gain independence from Indian subjugation, including nonviolent resistance, election boycotts and international arbitration. Various new trends in the Kashmiri freedom struggle have been observed since 2008 including a signature campaign ‘Safr-e-Azadi’ (journey for freedom) in 2008, ‘Muzaffarabad Chalo’ (Got to Muzaffarabad) march of 2008 and sit-ins of 2010 which have significantly changed the nature of Kashmir struggle. This paper explores emerging trends of strategic nonviolent Kashmiri struggle and practical future options to strategize the former through the prism of Gene Sharp's Theory of Nonviolence. This study assumes that strategic nonviolent movement in IOJ&K has highlighted the Kashmir cause across the world. It has challenged the Indian occupation through staging mass protests and employing new forms of strategic methods, which will likely put India under pressure in the future. If organized, well-coordinated and strategically planned, this struggle can be successful. In the wake of the Indian government's abrogation of Articles 370 and 35A and illegal annexation of IOJ&K on August 5, 2019, the need for devising a well-calibrated, inclusive and comprehensive strategy and employing all viable options for peaceful resolution of the Kashmir dispute further increases.

Study on South Korea's Recent Low Fertility Resolution Option

Background/Objectives: This paper attempts to analyze the situation of the Korean government’s response to recovering the birthrate and the contents of the Third Basic Plan for the Aging Society and Population, which have been implemented, to determine any changes and draw implications. Methods/Statistical analysis: Based on the theories of low fertility, various documents were collected and analyzed to confirm changing viewpoints of men and women regarding having children. The subjects of this study are the measures to address low fertility pursued by the Ministry of Health and Welfare for the last decade in South Korea. Findings: The study found that the Korean government seems to be trying to change its perspective in order to solve problems through new options as follows: 1] It suggested a long-term roadmap to ensure consistent implementation of tasks that cannot be completed during the third basic plan period in terms of time. 2] It focuses on the transition towards maturity in which institutions are implemented and cultures for implementation are built. 3] It demonstrates willingness to actively promote social structural reform to solve fundamental problems. However, the third plan was not found to fundamentally differ from the strategies of the existing plans. Improvements/Applications: The paradigm shift regarding measures to alleviate the low birthrate must be further strengthened and focus on the root causes of the low rate. Subsequent studies are needed.

ARBITRATION UNDER THE AFRICA CONTINENTAL FREE TRADE AGREEMENT: STRENGTHENING TRADE DISPUTE RESOLUTION IN AFRICA

The Africa Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) represents a groundbreaking effort to promote regional economic integration and trade facilitation within the African continent. The agreement was adopted by African Union member States in March 2018, and after the ratification process was completed by the required number of countries, it entered into force on May 30, 2019. With the operationalization of the AfCFTA, disputes among member States and other parties are inevitable. To ensure effective resolution of these disputes, the AfCFTA – Dispute Settlement Mechanism Protocol offers three broad dispute resolution options. This article explores the arbitration provisions under the AfCFTA, evaluates their potential strengths, challenges, and offers recommendations for strengthening the arbitration framework within the trade agreement. Capacity-building initiatives will empower stakeholders to engage effectively in arbitration proceedings, while promoting diversity and inclusivity in arbitrator appointments will instill confidence in the fairness of the process. Increased transparency and public awareness will foster trust and wider utilization of arbitration, while collaboration with established arbitration institutions will enrich the AfCFTA dispute resolution practices.

Fatwa DSN MUI In Managing The Dispute Settlement Of Sharia Economic In Indonesia Through Basyarnas

Sharia Council is an institution that plays a role in securing the standard of Sharia in every Islamic Financial institution in the world. In Indonesia, the role is conducted by the National Sharia Council (DSN) established by the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) in 1998, strengthened by the Decree of the MUI Leadership Board. Kep-754/MUI/II/1999 dated February 10, 1999. The existence of MUI DSN in managing the settlement of sharia banking disputes has not been fully recognized by the people of Indonesia. It can be seen in the implementation of sharia contracting in sharia banking has not yet decided dispute resolution option through National Syariah Arbitration Board (BASYARNAS). The purpose of writing a paper is to know the legal basis of the binding force of the Fatwa DSN in arranging the settlement of dispute Sharia Economy in Indonesia through BASYARNAS and its consequences for the Islamic financial institutions (LKS) who disobey the fatwa DSN. This research is a normative research with the philosophical, juridical and sociological approach. Data analysis with qualitative descriptive. The results of this study indicate that the legal basis of the power of the DSN Fatwa in regulating the settlement of Sharia Banking disputes is Article 26 of Law No. 21 Th. 2008 and Article 31 of Decree of the Board of Managing Directors of Bank Indonesia Number 32/34/1999. There will a negative impact for LKS do not comply with the content of the DSN Fatwa, such as the difficulty in carry out its activities, aside of negatively influencing the performance and level of credibility of DPS in LKS.

Fatwa DSN MUI In Managing The Dispute Settlement Of Sharia Economic In Indonesia Through Basyarnas

Sharia Council is an institution that plays a role in securing the standard of Sharia in every Islamic Financial institution in the world. In Indonesia, the role is conducted by the National Sharia Council (DSN) established by the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) in 1998, strengthened by the Decree of the MUI Leadership Board. Kep-754/MUI/II/1999 dated February 10, 1999. The existence of MUI DSN in managing the settlement of sharia banking disputes has not been fully recognized by the people of Indonesia. It can be seen in the implementation of sharia contracting in sharia banking has not yet decided dispute resolution option through National Syariah Arbitration Board (BASYARNAS). The purpose of writing a paper is to know the legal basis of the binding force of the Fatwa DSN in arranging the settlement of dispute Sharia Economy in Indonesia through BASYARNAS and its consequences for the Islamic financial institutions (LKS) who disobey the fatwa DSN. This research is a normative research with the philosophical, juridical and sociological approach. Data analysis with qualitative descriptive. The results of this study indicate that the legal basis of the power of the DSN Fatwa in regulating the settlement of Sharia Banking disputes is Article 26 of Law No. 21 Th. 2008 and Article 31 of Decree of the Board of Managing Directors of Bank Indonesia Number 32/34/1999. There will a negative impact for LKS do not comply with the content of the DSN Fatwa, such as the difficulty in carry out its activities, aside of negatively influencing the performance and level of credibility of DPS in LKS.

Alternative Options for Resolution of Property and Casualty Claims Arising out of Natural Disasters

At the time of this Article, at least twelve large wildfires are burn- ing in California across more than 1,000 square miles, having damaged or destroyed over 2,000 structures, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CAL FIRE). At least eight people have lost their lives. The Kilauea volcano continues to erupt in Hawaii, having destroyed 600 homes. The 2018 hurricane season is in full swing, and while there have been no catastrophic events to date, residents in Houston, Florida, Puerto Rico, and elsewhere are still recovering from the devastating winds and rains wrought by Har- vey, Maria, and Irma last year. Those hurricanes are estimated to have caused more than $200 billion in damages, making the 2017 hurricane season the costliest in U.S. history. Around the world, natural disasters such as deadly heat waves, flooding, mudslides, hurricanes, and tornadoes will cause untold losses as temperatures across the globe are rising. After the smoke clears, the ash settles, the waters subside, and initial recovery efforts restore basic functions like the delivery of food, water, and electricity, survivors face the task of rebuilding. Inevitably, property and business owners either look to their insurance carriers for relief or initiate tort actions against alleged wrongdoers. In 2007, more than 2,000 law suits were filed against San Diego Gas & Electric following a series of wildfires that engulfed San Diego County in California, where faulty power lines were blamed for some of the fires. Dozens of cases have been filed in Ventura and Santa Barbara counties in California relating to the deadly Thomas Fire and related devastating mudslides that killed twenty people and destroyed hundreds of homes late last year. Traditional litigation used to resolve these disputes has the potential to overwhelm the courts, consume limited resources of insurance carriers and others, and be unduly burdensome to survivors. Alternative dispute resolution (“ADR”) mechanisms such as mediation can offer significant relief to the parties, permitting them to negotiate a resolution in a less formal setting than the courthouse, and usually within a shorter time frame than typical litigation would require. In situations where a mass disaster does not easily lend itself to individual mediations, however, providers can customize the process to ensure that all parties—those parties that have suffered losses, insurance carriers, and potentially responsible parties—experience a fair, economic, and efficient resolution. National ADR providers such as JAMS and the American Arbitration Association offer comprehensive, customized processes that can be tailored to meet the needs of the parties and the unique requirements of each case. Individual mediators around the country routinely provide assistance with ADR process design for complex, multi-party matters. Some examples follow.

Breaking the Bottleneck: Conflicts Metamorphosis of Chure Landscape Management in Federal Nepal

Chure forests, which is one of the youngest and most fragile landscapes of Nepal, continue to be degraded due to resource exploitation and conflict over its management. This region is considered to be the lifeline to down-stream communities - mainly for water - while inhabiting millions of poor and rural people that depend on natural resources - especially forests commons. Government initiatives to manage Chure have escalated contestations in the recent years. Its decision to declare Chure landscape as ‘Environmental Protection Area’ manifests a protection-centric management approach. This research scrutinises the genesis of contestation on Chure management utilising three–elements of conflicts described by Brown et al. (2017). It analyses power–relation to demonstrate potential implications on Chure landscape management as well as conflict resolution options, in the changed political context of federal Nepal. Our research reveals that all stakeholders are well aware of the continuous degradation of Chure landscape and have agreed on discovering the common locus of sustainable management. However, the state-community contestation still persists due to divergent understandings of degradation. Despite multiple strands of management options, contextualised community-based approach still appears to be an appropriate option to solve this persistent contestation, building on the practices of community forestry and historic failures of top-down, protection-centric management practice. The newly elected provincial and local governments could further facilitate a more effective management of Chure landscape through resolving the contentious state-community conflict.

Preparing Pre-Service Special Education Teachers to Facilitate Parent Involvement, Knowledge, and Advocacy: Considerations for Curriculum

More than 40 years after passage of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), some special education teacher preparation programs offer limited coursework on parent involvement, advocacy, or home–school collaboration. For pre-service special education teachers and/or novice special education teachers working with students with disabilities and their parents in practice, prior parent involvement coursework often enhances knowledge and abilities to provide resources, advocacy support, and insight. Yet, for this to occur in practice, special education teacher preparation program faculty should continue to consider how curriculum that instructs and provides resources regarding home–school collaboration, advocacy, conflict resolution, and federal legislation and programmatic support can enhance parent involvement. Therefore, this article examines IDEA parent involvement provisions, IDEA-mandated and federally funded conflict resolution options, and Parent Training and Information Centers that provide parents resources and support. Also, this article offers suggestions for teacher preparation faculty developing or refining parent involvement curricula.

India’s role during the 1956 Suez Crisis: Between peacemaking and postcolonial solidarity

ABSTRACTThe 1956 Suez conflict was not inevitable. The involvement of an impartial third party had offered an exit ramp for the main protagonists. Largely forgotten today, India strove to reconcile the interests of the Westerns powers with Arab nationalism. Displaying creativity and perseverance in attempting to arrest the sudden deterioration in security in its extended neighborhood, India’s unceasing but responsible support for a weaker Arab state in the backdrop of determined Western coercion is a useful illustration for contemporary policymakers who are attempting to craft a sustainable approach towards a tumultuous West Asia. Using previously unused archival documents, this paper adds to the small literature on India’s involvement in this crisis by offering the first detailed account of India’s attempt to prevent the outbreak of hostilities in those fateful months of 1956. By doing so, this article also reveals interesting facets of India’s approach to conflict management and regional stability in the 1950s, a role that was predicated on not just promoting strategic restraint between antagonistic states but also enabling conflict resolution options that preserved the vital interests of competing actors.

International Investment Protection in Deep Seabed Mining Beyond National Jurisdiction

Abstract The deep seabed beyond national jurisdiction comprises almost three-quarters of the entire surface area of our oceans. It boasts an array of mineral resources, including valuable metals and rare earth elements. Acting under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, the International Seabed Authority is responsible for regulating this area and granting mining contracts to allow investors to explore for and exploit deep seabed minerals. As yet, deep seabed mining activities have been confined to the exploratory stage. However, recently, there has been a marked growth in deep seabed investment by private corporate actors. As technology advances and commercial appetite increases, extraction of deep seabed minerals may soon commence. In this context, this article seeks to address crucial legal issues facing pioneers of deep seabed mining. What is the extent of investment protection within the existing regime? And are there dispute resolution options to enforce such protection?

White Matter Anisotropy for Impact Simulation and Response Sampling in Traumatic Brain Injury.

Advanced neuroimaging provides new opportunities to enhance head injury models, including the incorporation of white matter (WM) structural anisotropy. Information from high-resolution neuroimaging, however, usually has to be "down-sampled" to match a typically coarse brain mesh. To understand how this mesh-image resolution mismatch affects impact simulation and subsequent response sampling, we compared three competing anisotropy implementations (using either voxels, tractography, or a multiscale submodeling) and two response sampling strategies (element-wise or tractography-based, using brain mesh or neuroimaging for region segmentation, respectively). Using the combination of high resolution options as a baseline, we studied how the choice in each individual category affected the resulting injury metrics. By simulating a recorded loss of consciousness head impact, we found that injury metrics including peak strain and injury susceptibility in the deep WM regions based on fiber strain, but not on maximum principal strain, were sensitive to the anisotropy implementation, response sampling, and region segmentation. Overall, it was recommended to use tractography for anisotropy implementation and response sampling, and to employ neuroimaging for region segmentation, because they led to more accurate injury metrics. Further refining mesh locally via submodeling was unnecessary. Brain strain responses were also parametrically found to be closer to that from minimum fiber reinforcement, consistent with the fact that the majority of WM had a rather high degree of fiber dispersion. Finally, the upgraded Worcester Head Injury Model incorporating WM anisotropy was successfully re-validated against cadaveric impacts and an in vivo head rotation ("good" to "excellent" validation with an average Correlation Analysis score of 0.437 and 0.509, respectively). These investigations may facilitate further continual development of head injury models to better study traumatic brain injury.

Alternative dispute resolution and mediation of complaints against police in Australia and New Zealand

ABSTRACTThis study assessed the role of alternative dispute resolution options in the complaints management systems of the eight policing jurisdictions in Australia and the single jurisdiction of New Zealand. The available literature shows that a large proportion of complainants would like to participate in mediation, and that both complainants and police who experience mediation report much higher rates of satisfaction than those experiencing traditional adversarial investigative and adjudicative processes. Experiences with informal dispute resolution or ‘conciliation’ options are more mixed, and they are susceptible to tokenism and misuse as a convenient administrative means of disposing of complaints. Despite this situation, the data obtained from police and oversight agency sources in this study showed that options were limited to informal resolution conducted by senior officers, with an ostensible focus on behavioral improvement but with no meaningful publicly available data on outcomes. The paper concludes by advocating for a best practice complaints management system that includes mediation within a consultative framework focused on behavioral improvement.

THE EXPANSION OF ONLINE DISPUTE RESOLUTION IN BRAZIL

This article examines Online Dispute Resolution (ODR) by analyzing its primary components (i.e., e-mediation and e-negotiation) and then applying that analysis to the implementation of ODR systems in Brazil. The authors believe that the implementation of ODR in Brazil will be challenging due to legislative constraints and a prevailing pro-litigation sentiment, which is widely perceived as the default resolution option. However, the authors contend that by systematically demonstrating the benefits of ODR and sharing best practices gleaned from other countries, ODR will slowly take root in Brazil, eventually becoming the preferred option for resolving low value civil disputes.

Assessing Vegetation Response to Soil Moisture Fluctuation under Extreme Drought Using Sentinel-2

The aim of this study was to determine the extent to which Sentinel-2 Normalised Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) reflects soil moisture conditions, and whether this product offers an improvement over Landsat-8. Based on drought exposure, cloud-free imagery availability, and measured soil moisture, five sites in the Southwestern United States were selected. These sites, normally dry to arid, were in various states of drought. A secondary focus was therefore the performance of the NDVI under extreme conditions. Following supervised classification, the NDVI values for one-kilometre radius areas were calculated. Sentinel-2 NDVI variants using Spectral Bands 8 (10 m spatial resolution), 5, 6, 7, and 8A (20 m spatial resolution) were calculated. Landsat-8 NDVI was calculated at 30 m spatial resolution. Pearson correlation analysis was undertaken for NDVI against moisture at various depths. To assess the difference in correlation strength, a principal component analysis was performed on the combination of all bands and the combination of the new red-edge bands. Performance of the red-edge NDVI against the standard near infrared (NIR) was then evaluated using a Steiger comparison. No significant correlations between Landsat-8 NDVI and soil moisture were found. Significant correlations at depths of less than 30 cm were present between Sentinel-2 NDVI and soil moisture at three sites. The remaining two sites were characterised by low vegetation cover, suggesting a cover threshold of approximately 30–40% is required for a correlation to be present. At all sites of significant positive moisture to NDVI correlation, the linear combination of the red-edge bands produced stronger correlations than the poorer spectral but higher spatial resolution band. NDVI calculated using the higher spectral resolution bands may therefore be of greater use in this context than the higher spatial resolution option. Results suggest potential for the application of Sentinel-2 NDVI in soil moisture monitoring, even in extreme environments. To the best of our knowledge, this paper represents the first study of this kind using Sentinel-2.

Surgical Treatment Outcomes of Vocal Process Granuloma After Endotracheal Intubation

The objective of this study was to review the clinical characteristics and surgical treatment outcomes of the vocal process granuloma after the endotracheal intubation. A retrospective chart review was performed at Chonnam National University Hwasun Hospital from January 2008 to December 2015. Twenty-one vocal process granulomas after endotracheal intubation were diagnosed in 13 patients. The most common symptom was hoarseness. Among 13 patients, bilateral vocal process granulomas were in 8 patients. For the remaining 5 patients, their unilateral vocal process granulomas were all left-sided. All the cases of vocal process granulomas after the endotracheal intubation were treated by laryngoscope microsurgery under general anesthesia. Recurrence of vocal process granulomas was identified in 1 lesion. This study suggests that surgery for vocal process granuloma after endotracheal intubation is a good treatment option for a rapid resolution of lesions and the associated symptoms, along with having low recurrence rates.

F180. The effectiveness of high-density EEG visual analysis and electrical source imaging in detecting the epileptogenic zone in focal epilepsy

Introduction For patients who are not seizure-free despite adequate therapy with antiepileptic drugs, surgery is an important option for seizure resolution or significant improvement. Electrical source localization (ESI) of the Interictal Epileptiform Discharges (IEDs) based on high density EEG (HD-ESI) is considered a good estimator of the epileptogenic zone and its resection is associated to post-operative seizure control. With the help of sophisticated algorithms results are displayed as 3D images; however, not all centers have access to manpower or programs to carry out these algorithms. In this study, we were interested to determine the yield of localizing the epileptogenic area by visual analysis of the 256 EEG channels, and to compare the results with the 3D solution. Methods We analysed HD-EEG long term recordings of 20 operated patients suffering from drug-resistant, unifocal epilepsy (11 temporal lobe epilepsy, 13 women, age mean 29.1 ± 2.62 years). We compared the performance of ESI and visual HD-EEG analysis in terms of correctness with respect to the resected structures. In the visual analysis condition, we identified the 5 contacts with largest spikes. Furthermore, the population was divided in 3 groups: seizure-free patients (Engel IA), almost seizure-free patients (Engel IB-IID), no seizure-free (all other Engel classes). In a second part of the analysis, we correlated the outcome of patients with results of HD-ESI of two different parts of IEDs (50% of the rising phase of the IED, peak of the IED). Results Both ESI and visual analysis provided correct results for the detection of the epileptogenic area in the majority of cases (ESI accuracy = 80% versus HD-EEG analysis accuracy = 65%). In one case (left fronto-parietal dysplasia), ESI indicates a wrong localization while visual-inspection localizes correctly the IZ. In 12/20 patients the same source was found at the 50% of the rising phase of the IED and at the peak (75% of the seizure-free patients; 50% of almost seizure-free patients; 25% of no seizure-free patients). Conclusion Visual HD-EEG analysis provided correct localization on sublobar level in 65% of the patients, which is superior to localization with 19–32 electrodes, but inferior to ESI. Visual identification of the 5 most active channels is an easy localization tool, if technical support or specific computer skills are not available. Findings of visual HD-EEG represent a very good surrogate marker of the epileptogenic region. If available, ESI should be obtained, possibly after a first visual analysis. Moreover, we noted that different sources at the 50% of the rising phase of the spike and at its peak could be a negative predictor of the outcome of the surgery.