Impact of high technology on esthetics - the aerospeace influence

A more or less subliminal impact of the aerospace technology over the general art of design is revealed. Some of the most visible trends are related to the implicit perception of the best geometrical shapes and their esthetical perception and exploitation in arts of design. Examples are driven along a century-long time period of arts history

Representativeness and Diversity in Photos via Crowd-Sourced Media Analysis

In this paper we present a hybrid three steps mechanism for automated-human media analysis employed for selecting a small number of representative and diverse images in the context of a noisy set of images. The first step consists in the automatic retrieval from web of a large database of candidate images. In the second step, a proposed image analysis method is employed with the goal of diminishing the time, pay and cognitive load and implicitly people’s work. This is done by automatically selecting a set of potentially relevant and diverse images. Considering the semantic gap between low-level features and high-level semantics in images, the last step is necessary and consists in images being annotated and assessed by the crowd. The aim is to evaluate the level of representativeness and diversity of the selected set of images and providing images of highest quality. The method was validated in the context of the retrieval of images with monuments and using more than 30,000 images retrieved from various social image search platforms

REFORMING PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION IN THE CONTEXT OF THE EU SERVICES DIRECTIVE IMPLEMENTATION. A CASE STUDY ON THE BUSINESS REGISTRATION PROCESS IN ROMANIA

Romania is currently facing a lot of challanges in the public administration (PA) field. In this context probably one of the most pressing factors is the European Union integration process. Thus, starting with 2007, when Romania joined the European Union, it has become a necessity to build an European dimension of the PA reform process. In this paper, we are going to show how the European Union Services Directive implementation impacts on the PA reform process and also we are going to check if the outputs of the reform match the goals set by the Services Directive. Our whole approach is based on finding out the progresses and drawbacks associated with the business opening process, within the Romanian Trade Register Office.EU Services Directive, public administration reform, administrative procedures, administrative simplification, administrative modernisation, Point of Single Contact

Generalized parity measurements

Measurements play an important role in quantum computing (QC), by either providing the nonlinearity required for two-qubit gates (linear optics QC), or by implementing a quantum algorithm using single-qubit measurements on a highly entangled initial state (cluster state QC). Parity measurements can be used as building blocks for preparing arbitrary stabilizer states, and, together with 1-qubit gates are universal for quantum computing. Here we generalize parity gates by using a higher dimensional (qudit) ancilla. This enables us to go beyond the stabilizer/graph state formalism and prepare other types of multi-particle entangled states. The generalized parity module introduced here can prepare in one-shot, heralded by the outcome of the ancilla, a large class of entangled states, including GHZ_n, W_n, Dicke states D_{n,k}, and, more generally, certain sums of Dicke states, like G_n states used in secret sharing. For W_n states it provides an exponential gain compared to linear optics based methods.Comment: 7 pages, 1 fig; updated to the published versio

Flat connections and resonance varieties: from rank one to higher ranks

Given a finitely-generated group $\pi$ and a linear algebraic group $G$, the representation variety Hom$(\pi,G)$ has a natural filtration by the characteristic varieties associated to a rational representation of $G$. Its algebraic counterpart, the space of $\mathfrak{g}$-valued flat connections on a commutative, differential graded algebra $(A,d)$ admits a filtration by the resonance varieties associated to a representation of $\mathfrak{g}$. We establish here a number of results concerning the structure and qualitative properties of these embedded resonance varieties, with particular attention to the case when the rank 1 resonance variety decomposes as a finite union of linear subspaces. The general theory is illustrated in detail in the case when $\pi$ is either an Artin group, or the fundamental group of a smooth, quasi-projective variety.Comment: 33 pages; accepted for publication in the Transactions of the American Mathematical Societ

Unmodifiable variables related to thyroid cancer incidence

The incidence of thyroid cancer is significantly different between male and female patients. Thyroid cancer is also the only form of cancer where age can be considered a staging variable. Identifying biological prognostic factors such as age or sex is important as it helps select an optimal personalized therapy. The present analysis is an observational, prospective study that enrolled all patients with thyroid disease who were operated upon at a single center. The study aimed to determine the most frequent age at presentation, the predominance of one sex over the other, the incidence of malignant thyroid disease, and the relative risk for each sex to develop thyroid carcinoma. The incidence of thyroid carcinoma was higher for women than for men, with a higher relative risk in the female subgroup. Incidence was also highest in the 50-60-year-old group. Given that studies show better survival for women and for younger patients, even when presenting with advanced disease, compared with older, male patients, such prognostic indicators should be a factor in the treatment decision

Functional radical cervical dissection for differentiated thyroid cancer: the experience of a single center

There is ongoing debate regarding the role of neck dissection in differentiated thyroid cancer, about its usefulness in elective settings, and the increased costs regarding morbidity and operative time. This retrospective study aimed to determine the rate of metastases in cervical lymph nodes, to examine the morbidity of this surgery, and to assess whether a pattern of distribution of tumor cells concerning neck lymphatic compartments exists. The most frequent type of cancer to metastasize was papillary cancer, the majority of patients were young with a median of 30 years, predominantly females. Differentiated thyroid cancer frequently metastasizes to the central and lateral compartments of the neck. The morbidity is minimal in a high-volume center. Radical neck dissection is safe and feasible in selected patients with confirmed invaded or enlarged lymph nodes due to differentiated thyroid cancer, and postoperative complications are minimal if the anatomy is correctly identified and the cases strictly selected

Fathers and Other Clowns: Representations of Masculinity in Alice Munro’s Dance of the Happy Shades

This essay is an analysis of selected stories from Alice Munro’s first volume of fiction, Dance of the Happy Shades (1968) focusing on her representation of masculinity. It investigates the way in which the men in Munro’s stories participate in and relate to the discourse of “hegemonic masculinity” and how the stories outline moments of male crisis resulting from this. The essay pays heed to Munro’s careful location of her stories in a historical and geographical context, catering to masculinity studies’ insistence on the necessity of such contextualization. The present analysis understands itself as complementary to the already existing body of gender-based critical literature which focuses mainly on Munro’s rendition of women, suggesting that Munro understands gender as a process and a continual negotiation, and that she de-essentializes received definitions of masculinity and femininity. While concentrating on the depiction of the father figure in “Walker Brothers Cowboy” and “Boys and Girls” and on the parody of the “manly modern” in “The Office,” the analysis also includes references to the re-appearance of certain kinds of male characters in Munro’s later stories, suggesting that the various embodiments of masculinity in Dance can be seen as part of what Robert Thacker calls “Munro’s reoccurrences.”Cet article analyse le thème de la représentation de la masculinité dans plusieurs nouvelles du volume Dance of the Happy Shades publié par Alice Munro en 1968. Nous nous intéressons à la manière dont les hommes représentés dans ces nouvelles, participent et sont liés au discours « hégémonique de la masculinité » tel que décrit par Connell. Ce faisant nous prendrons en compte la manière dont Munro place précisément ces histoires dans un contexte géographique et historique qui semble définitivement lié à l’inscription de ces discours de la masculinité, dans ce type d’environnement. Cette recherche est le pendant d’une série d’articles sur le sujet des figures féminines et de l’écriture de la féminité dans les nouvelles de Munro, sur lesquelles les chercheurs ont beaucoup glosé

Insights into the pathogenesis of nicotine addiction. Could a salivary biosensor be useful in Nicotine Replacement Therapy (NRT)?

Nicotine has gained the attention of the medical community due to its insidious addictive mechanisms which lead to chronic consumption. The multitude of compounds derived from tobacco smoke have local and systemic negative impacts, resulting in a large number of smoking-related pathologies. The present review offers insights into nicotine addiction physiopathology, as well as social and medical implications, with emphasis on its correlation with Advanced Glycation End Products (AGEs). Therapeutic strategies and new approaches to nicotine assessment and cessation treatment are discussed, noting that such strategies could take into account the possibility of slow and gradual nicotine release from a device attached to a prosthetic piece, based on salivary nicotine-concentration feedback. This approach could offer real-time and home-based self-therapy monitoring by the physician and the patient for follow-up and improve long-term cessation treatment success- Graphical abstract