Similar Claims Research Articles

Do CNNs Solve the CT Inverse Problem?

This work examines the claim made in the literature that the inverse problem associated with image reconstruction in sparse-view computed tomography (CT) can be solved with a convolutional neural network (CNN). Training, and testing image/data pairs are generated in a dedicated breast CT simulation for sparse-view sampling, using two different object models. The trained CNN is tested to see if images can be accurately recovered from their corresponding sparse-view data. For reference, the same sparse-view CT data is reconstructed by the use of constrained total-variation (TV) minimization (TVmin), which exploits sparsity in the gradient magnitude image (GMI). There is a significant discrepancy between the image obtained with the CNN and the image that generated the data. TVmin is able to accurately reconstruct the test images. We find that the sparse-view CT inverse problem cannot be solved for the particular published CNN-based methodology that we chose, and the particular object model that we tested. The inability of the CNN to solve the inverse problem associated with sparse-view CT, for the specific conditions of the presented simulation, draws into question similar unsupported claims being made for the use of CNNs and deep-learning to solve inverse problems in medical imaging.

The Unexpectedness of Events: GDR-Born Academics on Becoming Historians after 1989–1990

Thirty years ago, on October 3, 1990, two German states became one. The academy, however, had a long way to go before it could begin to make a similar claim. The relatively swift dismantling of the “Wall on the ground” did not occasion an equally swift dismantling of the so-called “Wall in the head,” especially within the historical field in the new Federal Republic. Young scholars from the “Workers’ and Peasants’ State” launched their careers as professional historians in a profoundly different political and social context than the one into which they had been socialized. Few would describe this new academic constellation as “unified.” This forum developed, on the occasion of the thirtieth anniversary of the events of 1989–1990, as an attempt to understand the ways that having lived through a world-historical transition has impacted the work of historians from the former German Democratic Republic. It explores the ways these scholars’ experiences—lived experiences of a necessarily transnational kind of history—have shaped their appreciation of the project of history: its form, its purpose, its promises, and its limits. It considers the ways the academy in the new Federal Republic did and did not make room for these scholars and their historiographical perspectives. It reflects on the power of culture, politics, and memory on conceptualizations of the past. To engage with these themes, Central European History's editor invited Jennifer Allen (Yale University) to convene a forum. She invited Stefan-Ludwig Hoffmann (University of California, Berkeley), Christina Morina (Universität Bielefeld), and Patrice Poutrus (Universität Erfurt) to participate.

American Civil War medical practice, the post-bellum opium crisis and modern comparisons.

The American Civil War resulted in massive numbers of injured and ill soldiers. Throughout the conflict, medical doctors relied on opium to treat these conditions, giving rise to claims that the injudicious use of the narcotic caused America's post-bellum opium crisis. Similar claims of medical misuse of opioids are now made as America confronts the modern narcotic crisis. A more nuanced thesis based on a broader base of Civil War era research suggests a more complex set of interacting factors that collectively contributed to America's post-war opium crisis.

Global review of heart health claims for oat beta-glucan products.

Coronary heart disease (CHD) is the leading cause of death globally. Consumption of whole grains and cereal fiber, as part of a healthy diet, can lower the risk of CHD. Health claims on food products are effective in helping consumers select healthful diets. The US Food and Drug Administration was the first to approve a health claim, in 1997, between beta-glucan soluble fiber from whole oats, oat bran, and whole oat flour and reduced risk of CHD. Only a few countries have approved similar claims. Since 1997, a significant amount of additional evidence has been published on the relationship between oat beta-glucan and CHD. To assist other jurisdictions in potentially utilizing this claim, the full extent of data that supports this claim (ie, the evidence utilized by the US Food and Drug Administration to substantiate the claim, as well as the results of 49 clinical trials published since 1997) are reviewed here. The complexities involved in authoring evidence-based health claims, including the impact of processing on beta-glucan cholesterol-lowering efficacy in approving eligible beta-glucan products, are also discussed.

From social movements to the coproduction of the city: the renewal of the Right to the City in the contemporary making of public spaces. The case of Madrid and Brussels

The article is based on the observation of Madrid and Brussels, where we can find recent similar claims for including each of their citizens in the city-making processes. Although Madrid has no experience in participatory planning, and Brussels is considered as one of Europe’s pioneers in this matter, with more than twenty years of experience, both cities encounter analogous citizen demands and self-organized actions for creating spaces that follow an ideal model that is more in line with some citizens’ requests.These demands range from asking for more possibilities in which citizens express their opinion and ideas about their environment (a new governance), to the requests for disposing of underused spaces for creating socializing places to gather (a new production of the city). Though, these urban social movements as Castells defines (Castells 1973) are not limited to mere demands, but also and nowadays systematically, they tend to pass to action and to hand the leading to empowered citizens.Thanks to crowdfunding, some projects don’t even wait until obtaining a public funding: once the building permit is given (for a permanent or temporary project), the budget for the realization comes from anybody who wills to be a sponsor. The online crowdfunding method can be applied also to crowd-thinking, crowd-creating and crowd-debating about the relevance of the project. Indeed, thanks to online networks and to mobile applications, citizens can not only express their discontent with the poor condition of a street or street furniture, but they can also make proposals and connect to other people to bring a collective solution to the matter.This vast range of means of production of the city in which its citizens struggle to achieve their ideal of a more inclusive city-making process, supposes that the degree of citizen empowerment is also broad. Notwithstanding the fact that the means used by Madrid and Brussels’ citizens to be included in the city-making are so diverse, many of these means claim to embrace a common Henri Lefebvre’s Right to the City.The article retraces the citizen-led and citizen-organized production of public spaces in Madrid and Brussels, intended as places to gather but also as places of discussion about the city-making, during the periods before and after the global crisis of 2008. The idea is to find the ways in which not only the governance is reconsidered to include citizens, but also the urban practices are questioned about their inclination to confine citizen participation only to the preliminary inquiries to a concrete project. Through the exploration of several cases of city-making which include citizens of Madrid and Brussels in the processes, the article questions which kind of Right to the city do they constitute: which are the city models defended by these practices (whose rights to what city? Brenner et al. 2012)? Are they a revision of Lefebvre’s theories in a (global crisis) context? Or are they a reinterpretation of Lefebvre’s Urban Revolution (Harvey 2013) responding to the contemporary withdrawal of the national state of many areas of the social life?

Creativity, reuse, and regularity in music and language

AbstractA recent strand in research in historical linguistics has argued that language change often involves constructional routinization (e.g., Traugott and Trousdale 2013), while recent psycholinguistic work has also suggested parallels between alignment, routinization, and change (Garrod and Pickering 2013) — such routines have been shown to emerge in conversational flow as a product of interaction between speakers and hearers. Similar claims have been made for the development of musical routines in improvisation: much improvisational work involves the use of prefabricated routines (Torrance and Schumann 2018). This article seeks to contribute to the debate on creativity by providing an analysis of some of the similarities and differences between musical and linguistic conventions, including a comparison of creative improvisation in music and innovation in language. The discussion is couched in a cognitive linguistic framework with a particular focus on linguistic constructions (see the overview in Hoffmann and Trousdale 2013) and a reflection of how this might be extended to consider aspects of the cognitive representation of musical structures.

Collective Preclusion and Inaccessible Arbitration: Data, Non-Disclosure, and Public Knowledge

When courts enforce mandates to arbitrate, jurists describe themselves as respecting the individuals’ autonomy to enter into contracts that route claimants to a process that is more user-friendly than adjudication. But those rationales are disjunctive with the practices of providers of goods and services and of employers. These companies neither offer individuals choices about dispute resolution mechanisms nor welcome the exchange of information about experiences with arbitration. Instead, companies impose obligations to arbitrate and set the terms. In addition to the increasingly commonplace bans on joint and collective actions in any forum, many providers and employers also seek to mandate a cone of silence by instructing individuals not to disclose the content of claims, the use of arbitration, or the outcomes. But as we document in this Article, during the last decade, very few individuals filed claims, single-file, in arbitration. Given the success in precluding class actions and the rarity of filings, why are market actors seeking to silence the few who do arbitrate? And are such mandates enforceable by courts? In this Article, we interrupt these silencing provisions through disseminating information about the rules of and use of arbitration. We track efforts to limit information about arbitration, outline the growing body of law on non-disclosure, and analyze the data about consumer use of arbitration. As we recount, some jurists have held non-disclosure obligations unenforceable. Yet many decisions condone their imposition despite the repeat-player advantages that accrue to the clauses’ drafters, who have access to information that one-shot participants do not have. In addition to information about efforts to silence litigants that can be gleaned from the case law, we have also mined materials posted by the American Arbitration Association (AAA), which has complied with state statutes requiring administrators of consumer arbitration to make accessible the number of claims filed and the results. The picture that emerges is that, of the millions of people using services and products, virtually none file individual arbitration claims. Because AT&T succeeded in persuading the U.S. Supreme Court to enforce bans on collective action and require claimants to use the AAA, we researched arbitration filings against AT&T. Between 2009 and 2019, when the AT&T wireless services customer base ranged from 85 to 165 million, about 90 individuals a year filed an arbitration claim. The available data also provide insight into why, given that remarkably low level of claims, providers of services seek to silence the few who are arbitration users. Law firms and other aggregators have begun a market in de facto collective actions by bundling similar claims against individual providers. And, outside of courts and arbitration, collective consumer action can seek remedies by putting information into the public realm that can affect purchasing decisions and press for changes in the behavior of service providers and employers. Episodic filings through bundlers, claims pursued by government regulators when focused on consumer protection, and networking through web posts are important avenues. But the current legal landscape does not provide systematic access for consumers who have been harmed but lack knowledge of their injuries or connections to aggregators. The privatization of process and non-disclosure mandates prevent similarly-situated individuals from learning about the potential to obtain redress and from sharing lawyers. Moreover, the development of law through cases or statutes and public debates about rights and remedies are stymied by information deficits. In short, after decades of conflicts often termed “class action wars,” we are now in the “information wars,” replete with energetic efforts to mandate silence that, we argue, law should rebuff.

Arsenicum album and corona virus disease 2019 (COVID-19): Genus Epidemicus or genius of epidemics: A review

The Corona Virus Disease 2019 or COVID-19 disease is named to be the first major pandemic attack of the century affecting millions of lives and claiming thousands of deaths, raising the need for effective therapeutics and preventive medicines to contain the disease. The system of homeopathy working under the concept of symptom similarity claims to be an effective prevention and Arsenicum album, a polycrest remedy is termed as first-line prophylactic for the condition. We in this article thus aimed to review the effectiveness of the Arsenicum album as a genus epidemicus against the condition. The medicine have effectively been in use against other pandemic and epidemic episodes as a prophylactic and therapeutic. Thus we conclude that the system of homeopathy has reliable effective action during epidemic attacks and the Arsenicum album, given its use, is considered to be the ideal genus epidemicus of homeopathy.

Implementation and perceived benefits of an after-school soccer program designed to promote social and emotional learning

Social and emotional learning (SEL) competencies such as self-awareness and relationship skills are predictors of academic success, overall well-being, and avoidance of problematic behaviors. Among school-aged children, research has demonstrated that well-implemented programs teach SEL competencies and life skills (e.g., leadership, responsible decision making) that can transfer to other settings. Similar claims have been made in the field of sport-based youth development (SBYD), however, the SEL framework has not been widely applied in sport programming. Implementation, student learning, and transfer of learning in SBYD programs designed to promote SEL require further exploration. Therefore, the current study examined the implementation and perceived benefits of an after-school soccer program designed to promote SEL. Participants were six coaches and 51 students from three different sites where this program is offered. A multiple case study design was used, integrating data from customized feedback surveys, interviews, systematic observation, and field notes. Results indicated the program reflects many SBYD best practices. Although implementation varied between sites, program culture and core values were consistent. Evidence indicated students learned and applied SEL lessons in the soccer program and that transfer beyond the program was promoted. Participants were most likely to report transfer to the school setting, therefore, future studies should examine this topic more directly. Other implications for research and program implementation are discussed.

Revising Mary Astell: Anna Howe’s Reflections on Marriage in Samuel Richardson’s Clarissa

In Samuel Richardson’s Clarissa (1747–48), Anna Howe’s criticisms of the power inequities in courtship and marriage echo Mary Astell’s arguments in Some Reflections upon Marriage (1700), occasionally replicating the author’s language. While scholars often associate Anna with feminist arguments for women’s autonomy, I argue that Anna acts as a surrogate voice for Astell, revealing Richardson’s concerns about the implications of female autonomy represented in Anna’s similar claims to prefer the single life to marriage. Over the course of the novel, Richardson revises Anna’s opinions about marriage, especially her scepticism about the likelihood she can be happy once married to Mr Hickman. In the same way, Richardson’s revisions to the 1730 edition of Astell’s Reflections demonstrate his attempt to bring Astell’s opinions closer to his own. Placing Anna’s thoughts on marriage alongside Astell’s Reflections illustrates Richardson’s engagement with her ideas throughout his career as an author and printer.

Her Father's Daughter: Gender, Power, and Religion in the Early Spanish Kingdoms by Lucy K. Pick

Reviewed by: Her Father's Daughter: Gender, Power, and Religion in the Early Spanish Kingdoms by Lucy K. Pick Miriam Shadis Her Father's Daughter: Gender, Power, and Religion in the Early Spanish Kingdoms. By Lucy K. Pick. (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press. 2017. Pp. xvi, 274. $65.00. ISBN 978-1-5017-1432.0.) With the publication of Her Father's Daughter, scholars of history and of religion can no longer ignore the crucial role of royal women in shaping the political worlds of the Middle Ages. In her study of the formation of the Christian realms of northern Iberia, Lucy Pick joins a growing group of scholars rethinking the notion that any medieval woman with power—and particularly political authority—was "exceptional." Pick has mastered a significant historiography pertaining to medieval gender, monarchy, and religion, and a chastening array of feminist and cultural theory to reinterpret the roles of some inarguably powerful women. Religious roles were their sources of power as women participated in political systems and kinship networks. In 1071, Urraca Fernández, the oldest child of Fernando I and Sancha of León re-founded the see of Túy, which had suffered Viking depredations. Why and how did Urraca, a consecrated virgin, have the power and authority to accomplish this? Urraca's action, recorded in an extraordinary charter, serves as a touchstone in Pick's study about the gendered features of political and religious power and authority in tenth and eleventh-century Iberia. Four lengthy chapters, as well as an introduction and epilogue make a strong case. Pick begins by examining matrilineal inheritance and the inheritance principles of Visigothic law. Royal daughters were reserved for the help and status they could supply their male relatives. These consecrated virgins were neither nuns nor abbesses: neither cloistered nor poor, they moved freely and effectively in the political world, controlling numerous monastic communities. Women's appearances in tenth- and eleventh-century charters prove their significant networks. Pick walks the reader through the structure and meaning of these remarkable charters: the protocols, the invocations, the probable singing and performance of these texts—and the networks revealed by the confirmants and witnesses, providing a veritable clinic in how to read a charter. A brilliant reading of Urraca Fernández's 1071 charter restoring the see of Túy demonstrates its extremely special relationship to liturgy, to performance, and to Christian texts such as Paul Albar's carmina. The charter expressed Urraca's power within her family and within Galicia, where she controlled significant property. Urraca and [End Page 142] her sister Elvira exercised their spiritual power as women, collaborated with their brother, Alfonso VI of León-Castilla, and built the networks which they carefully displayed and exploited, and they were not alone. Elite women such as Elvira Ramírez, Abbess Guntroda Gutiérrez, and Countess Muniadomna prefigure the activity of Urraca and Elvira, even a century and a half earlier (p. 123), as they competed over the relics of the virgin martyr Pelayo and the introduction of and control of his cult in northwestern Iberia. Finally, "Gift-giving and memory" were "always allied to power" (p. 19). Pick's fluent engagement with material culture is couched in a sophisticated analysis of scholarship on the medieval gift and counter-gift. Royal daughters were "at the nexus of memory, gift, and death" (p. 175), as a kind of gift themselves, but also charged with giving, preserving memory, and caring for the dead. In possibly the most enjoyable section of the book, Pick carefully reads a variety of artifacts, from the bronze candelabra of Abbess Mathilda of Essen to the reliquary of Saints Adrian and Natalia, now at the Art Institute of Chicago, which Pick persuasively identifies as Urraca's gift to Eslonza (pp. 186–188.) The theme of virginity is pursued as an analytical tool—these reliquary boxes and other containers physically represented donors' virginity. Similar claims are developed throughout the book: from Ambrose, to Leander, to Urraca's charter, to the foundation of San Martiño de Pazó, the aula regis puderis, the "royal hall of chastity" repeatedly frames and articulates the connection between virginity, gender, and royalty (pp...

Natural Resources and Natural Law Part II: The Public Trust Doctrine

Natural Resources and Natural Law Part I: Prior Appropriation analyzed claims by some western ranchers, grounded in natural law, that they have property rights in grazing resources on federal public lands through prior appropriation. Those advocates asserted their position in part through civil disobedience, sometimes including armed standoffs with federal officials. They also asserted that their duty to obey theistic natural law overrode any duty to obey the Nation’s positive law. Similar claims that individual religious beliefs override positive law have been made recently regarding a range of other controversial issues, such as same-sex marriage, public insurance for birth control, and the right to bear arms. Prior appropriation doctrine is consistent with secular natural law theory. Existing positive law, however, accepts prior appropriation for western water rights but rejects its application to grazing rights on federal public lands, for reasons consistent with secular natural law. Natural law doctrine allows citizens advocate for change but requires them to respect the positive law of the societies in which they live. Separation of church and state also bars natural law claims based on religious doctrine unless those principles are also adopted in secular positive law. This sequel addresses claims from the opposite side of the political-environmental spectrum that natural law provides one justification for the public trust doctrine, and that courts should enforce an atmospheric public trust to redress catastrophic global climate change. Although some religious groups have embraced environmental agendas supported by religious doctrine, public trust claims are secular in origin. Just as natural law provides support for prior appropriation, it supports the idea that some resources, such as water, wildlife, and air, should be held in common rather than made available for private ownership. From this perspective, the two doctrines merge into a single issue of resource allocation. Which resources are best made available for appropriation as private property, and which are best left in common? Natural law theory helps to explain the liberty and welfare goals that inform those choices. Positive law embraces the public trust doctrine with respect to some natural resources and does not preclude its applicability to the atmosphere or other common resources.

Nutrient profiling of ready to eat breakfast cereals reveals substantial differences in macronutrient composition despite similar nutrition claim usage

AbstractUnder Regulation (EC) No 1924/2006 the usage of nutrition and health claims are permitted, however foods that are high in fat, sugars and salt are advised not to use such claims as foods promoted with these claims may influence consumer food choice. The use of nutrient profiles has been proposed as a means of avoiding the potential of such claims masking the overall nutritional status of a product. Ready to eat breakfast cereals (RTEBC) often display nutrition claims whilst also contributing significantly to total sugar and energy intake. The aim of this study was to profile a variety of RTEBC and compare nutrient composition and claim information between nutrient profile categories.The Irish National Food Ingredient database (INFID) is a record of brand specific information from food labels collected during the Irish national food surveys. A convenience sub-sample of RTEBC as eaten by Irish children during the National Children's Food Survey 2 (2017/2018) were selected (n = 102). Nutrient profile (NP) scores were calculated using the UK Nutrient Profiling Model (FSA). NP scores were calculated based on a set of negative macronutrient indicators (energy, saturated fat, total sugars and sodium) minus positive indicators (protein, fibre, “fruit, vegetables and nuts”) present per 100 g. Foods scoring four points or more were classified as “less healthy”.More than half of RTEBC were classed “less healthy” (53%) with a median NP score of 8.0 with “healthy” RTEBC scoring significantly lower at -0.0 (p < 0.001). “Healthy” RTEBC had a median sugar content of 13.4g/100 g compared to 24g/100 g in the “less healthy” (p < 0.001). “Healthy” RTEBC had a higher fibre content of 8.8g/100 g compared to 5.72g/100 g in the “less healthy” (p = 0.001), with 35% of healthy and 28% of less healthy RTEBC making a substantiated “high in fibre” claim. Micronutrient contents of all RTEBC were similar, with only iron significantly higher in “healthy” (13.3mg/100g) compared to “less healthy” (9.5mg/100g) (p = 0.02). The prevalence of substantiated micronutrient related claims was the same between “healthy” and “less healthy” RTEBC.“Healthy” and “less healthy” RTEBC display similar micronutrient profiles, with most of the nutrition claims on both pertaining to the micronutrient and fibre content, potentially overshadowing the macronutrient contribution of the cereals. This analysis shows the ability of nutrient profiling to distinguish products by macronutrient profiles however it identifies the complexity of application with respect to micronutrient content. Further research is required to investigate the contribution of the profiled RTEBC to total nutrient intakes.

The Novel Is a Theory of Allegory

: This essay approaches the eighteenth-century novel via debates in twentieth century theories of representationalism. At the core of these debates is a critical genealogy stemming from Michael Fried's "Art and Objecthood" (1967), one whose commitments are most powerfully on display in Steven Knapp's neglected Personification and the Sublime and its transformation of the anxiety about literalist art into an anxiety about allegory. What made eighteenth-century writers uncomfortable about Miltonic allegory, says Knapp, was its literalism; and thus the category of "literature" came to be defined by its power to defeat allegorical personhood. Angus Fletcher had made a similar claim about the realist novel in Allegory: Theory of a Symbolic Mode (1964). For Robbe-Grillet, however—whose Pour un nouveau roman precedes "Art and Objecthood" by four years, anticipating Fried's claims but on behalf of objecthood—the realist novel's attention to detail is the apotheosis of allegorical literalism. This is how and why Kafka is a realist. It is also, I argue, the realism of Jane Austen. Zadie Smith influentially sketches out two paths for the novel, with Robbe-Grillet and Austen moving along vectors that will never meet. But there is only one path for the novel.

Graded rings of modular forms of rational weights

In a previous paper, for any odd integer $$N\ge 5$$ we constructed $$(N-1)/2$$ modular forms of $$\varGamma (N)$$ of rational weight $$(N-3)/2N$$ and proved that the graded rings of modular forms of weight $$\ell (N-3)/2N$$ ($$\ell \in {\mathbb {Z}}_{\ge 0}$$) are generated by our forms for $$N=5$$, 7, 9. The proof was given by a direct calculation of the structure of the ring. In this paper, we generalize the result to cases when $$N=11$$ and 13 by using Castelnuovo–Mumford criterion on normal generation and Fujita criterion on relations of sections of invertible sheaves. For this purpose, it is needed to handle modular forms of small weight where Riemann Roch theorem has cohomological obstruction. Both rings for $$N=11$$ and 13 are generated by 5 and 6 generators with 15 and 35 concrete fundamental relations, respectively. These relations also give equations of the corresponding modular varieties. We will show that the similar claim does not hold for $$N=15$$ and $$N=23$$. We also give remarks on relations of some theta constants and further problems.

Kaitiakitanga and the Conservation Estate: Protecting Māori Guarantees Under the Treaty of Waitangi Through the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990

Māori are tangata whenua (people of the land) of Aotearoa New Zealand. The development, sustenance and transmission of mātauranga Māori (Māori knowledge) requires a relationship between tangata whenua and their taonga (everything that is held precious). Since the arrival of Europeans, this relationship has been compromised by environmental degradation, the alienation of tangata whenua from traditionally owned lands and urbanization. The conservation estate is one of the few remaining avenues through which Māori can fulfil their cultural obligations as kaitiaki (guardians) over their taonga. Since the creation of the conservation estate, the Crown has assumed near-absolute management. As the Waitangi Tribunal’s Ko Aotearoa Tēnei report identified, the exclusion of Māori from participation in the management of the estate renders the Crown in breach of both the governing legislation, the Conservation Act 1987, and the Treaty of Waitangi. This paper considers whether the exclusion of Māori from the governance of the conservation estate, frustrating their ability to act as kaitiaki over their taonga, breaches two rights under the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990. The paper asks whether the Crown’s exclusion violates s 15, the right to manifest religion or belief, or s 20, the right to culture. This paper concludes that the scope of both rights can incorporate, and protect, the exercise of kaitiaki obligations, with s 20 being the most appropriately tailored to protecting this practice. The analysis explores the parameters of both rights and considers whether similar claims taken in comparative jurisdiction can provide guidance for the inclusion of this practice under New Zealand Bill of Rights Act. Recognising kaitiaki obligations as protected under the Act provides that in acting as a gatekeeper between Māori and their ability to sustain a relationship with their taonga, the Crown is breaching human rights.

Possessive interpretation at the semantics-pragmatics interface

AbstractThis paper discusses semantic and pragmatic aspects of possessive interpretation (PI), the process whereby semantically underspecified possessive noun phrases (NPs) such asJohn Smith’s houseandthe house of John Smithreceive concrete referential interpretations (e.g. ‘the house owned by John Smith’) in context. By observing what is common to the interpretation of both constructions, I lay out the ingredients for a uniform pragmatic account of PI whilst rehashing the contextualist notion ofsaturation. As defined by Recanati (2004,2010) and many others, saturation is a linguistically mandated and obligatory pragmatic process, operating to enrich the incomplete logical forms of referring expressions, including possessive NPs. I argue that present proposals which assume that saturating the possessive relation is crucial to determining the possessive referent fail to do justice to the many ways in which possessive NPs may be understood in concrete communicative situations. Supporting similar claims byKorta and Perry (2017), this suggests that saturation is more adequately defined as a communicatively optional pragmatic process. The discussion simultaneously contributes to the growing literature on pragmatic aspects of constructions as form-meaning pairings, by outlining some of the theoretical issues that arise from the division of labour between semantic and pragmatic meaning in PI.

Transmission of Coxiella burnetii to Calves from Infected Cows

Background:Coxiella burnetii is the causative agent of a very important disease with zoonotic potential. Infected cows represent risk for spreading of infection to humans and to other animals on farm and also to their offspring. There is possibility for calves from infected cows to be infected nearly after parturition or during intrauterine life. Studies have shown that Coxiella burnetii initially infects the placenta and subsequent spread to the fetus may occur either by haematogenous or by the amniotic-oral route providing congenital infection. The main objective of the present study is to determine the presence of Coxiella burnetii genome in milk serum of infected cows and blood serum of calves. Materials, Methods & Results: A total of 200 blood serums from dairy cows were tested for presence of antibodies to Coxiella burnetii and nine of those were found positive. These animals compiled experimental group. From animals in experimental group milk samples during lactation, pregnancy and the postpartum period were collected. Samples were used for performing PCR test for determination of Coxiella burnetii presence in milk serum. On calving of each cow blood samples were taken from calves during first 24 hours after calving, from jugular vein. These blood samples were also used for PCR test to determine the presence of Coxiella burnetii. Milk serum analysis showed presence of Coxiella burnetii genome in serum, indicating on intermittent excretion. During lactation, the excretion of bacteria was greatest in the second stage when 80% of milk serum samples were positive for Coxiella burnetii. In the colostrums stage, there was a high percentage of Coxiella burnetii excretion through milk (50% of positive milk serum samples). The lowest percentage of excretion through milk was in the first stage of lactation. Analyzing blood serum samples from calves, taken on first day at calving using PCR method, all serums were positive for presence of Coxiella burnetii genome. Discussion:In animals, Coxiella burnetii is found in the reproductive system, both uterus and mammary glands, and may cause abortion or infertility. The high prevalence of Coxiella burnetii infection in dairy cattle with reproductive problems showed that these infected cattle play an important role in maintaining the infection and in disseminating of pathogenic agent to environment. The lowest percentage of excretion of Coxiella burnetii was in the first stage of lactation, amounting to 16.6%. With the transition to the next stage of lactation, a striking increase in the percentage of excretion was noticed. In the second stage it was 80%. In the third stage there was decrease to 40.6%. In colostrums stage percentage of excretion through milk was 50%. Similar results claims that excretion of Coxiella burnetii through milk starts after eight to twelve weeks of lactation in most cows. This period coincides with second stage of lactation as we divide it. Blood serums taken from calves were proven positive on Coxiella burnetii which indicates on intrauterine infection as described in the literature. Intrauterine infection takes place after placenta infection when bacteria penetrate the placenta and contaminate the amniotic fluid and gets aspirated or swallowed by fetus. Besides this,haematogenous spread can also occur.

Different assessment systems fail to agree on the evaluation of dairy cattle welfare at farm level

As different animal welfare assessment schemes are based on different assumptions but all have similar welfare claims, we studied the degree of agreement among three systems, two mainly based on resource-based measures: Animal Needs Index (ANI) and Lombardy Extension Service Index (IBS) and one mainly based on animal based-measures (i.e. Welfare Quality®). Thirty-three dairy cattle farms were assessed by one trained assessor. In order to make the welfare categories of the different welfare assessment systems comparable with one another the first three welfare categories of the ANI scheme were merged into a not acceptable category so that a score scale with 4 welfare categories was obtained. Then, we calculated the Cohen's weighted kappa (k) to assess the degree of agreement between the three welfare assessment systems in terms of welfare categories. In addition, the correlation between pair of systems in terms of total scores (the mean of the four principles of the Welfare Quality® was used for this calculation) was calculated using the Spearman correlation coefficient (rs). Our results showed that only few farms were scored in the same welfare category of different welfare assessment systems as only 12.1% of the farms were scored as enhanced and 3% of the farms were scored as acceptable according to all three welfare assessment systems. Based on k statistics, the degree of agreement in terms of welfare categories was not significant for the pairs IBS – ANI (k = 0.128; P = 0.130) and WQ – ANI (k = 0.014; P = 0.850), whereas it tended to be significant for the pair WQ - IBS (k = 0.256; P = 0.070). The Spearman correlation coefficient of the total scores confirmed the low agreement among the three systems. In particular, the correlation coefficients between ANI-IBS, IBS-WQ and ANI-WQ were rs = 0.022, 0.208 and −0,068, respectively, and none of them was significant (P = 0.905, P = 0.246 and P = 0.707, respectively). Significant correlations were only observed between the Welfare Quality® principle “Good health” and the somatic cell counts (rs = −0.500; P = 0.003), the number of lactating animals (rs = −0.360; P = 0.040), the total number of cows per herd (rs = −0.339; P = 0.053), whereas the correlation of the same principle with mortality (rs = −0.315; P = 0.074) and calving interval ((rs = −0.330; P = 0.070) tended to be significant. We conclude that different schemes based on different assessment criteria yield different results albeit making similar welfare claims.

Re-aligning scientific and lay narratives of Alzheimer's disease

It is unsettling to realise that Amazon's best-selling books on Alzheimer's disease claim that scientists have so far got it all wrong, and that the disease can be reversed with appropriate nutrients and lifestyle changes. In March 2019, the number one hit of a Google image search for “top world Alzheimer's physicians“ was the cover of a book with similar claims. Others go even further and suggest that Alzheimer's disease is a medical construct artfully devised to expand the drug market. With evident disregard for the many clinical trials of symptomatic treatments, the French national health agency has withdrawn reimbursement of dementia drugs and forbidden producers of amyloid positron emission tomography (PET) tracers to sell their regulatory approved products in the country. Some practitioners claim that the diagnostic workup of academic memory clinics, consisting of imaging and CSF biomarkers, is but an expensive intellectual exercise, as it is not actionable (ie, followed by effective interventions). In these circumstances, we argue that the disease narratives of scientists and society are increasingly divergent and that the scientific community should become aware of the divide, try to align the two narratives, and progress in synergy with society towards finding a cure. Preclinical Alzheimer's disease: a valid conceptIn The Lancet Neurology, Frisoni and colleagues1 present a thoughtful and topical Insight, but I disagree with their recommendations. They point out that, although the National Institute on Aging–Alzheimer's Association (NIA-AA) research framework2 recommends defining the disease biologically (by abnormal biomarkers denoting both amyloid and tau deposits) independent from symptomatic presentation, most in the lay community understand the term Alzheimer's disease to mean a progressive cognitive impairment that leads to dementia. Full-Text PDF