Search

In 1970 Giovanni Sartori articulated what he saw as the greatest challenge to political science in an increasingly globalized worldconceptual stretching. Sartori was referring to the traveling of western concepts eastward and proposed the use of a conceptual ladder to help inform the decisions political scientists make regarding the concepts they wish to travel. This paper seeks to push the boundaries of Sartori’s critique beyond academia to include policy; a subject where a dynamic and informative relationship between academia and policy should exist, but are instead faced with a one-dimensional arrangement. In that vein, this paper consists of three main parts. The first employs a brief historiography of the conceptual debate between, largely, Schumpeterian and Dahlian definitions of democracy where two main schools of thought will be sketched. The second evokes Venezuela's recent political history to illustrate how the United States Government has, at different times, employed various definitions, and standards, of democracy to describe the Venezuelan regime. The third seeks to establish how American oscillation between standards erodes the value reference point of democracy and draw out the implications of this. In particular, the third part unpacks what this erosion should mean moving forward for academics engaged in the conceptual politics of democracy. In sum, the instrumentalizing of the ambiguity of the concept—democracy—by oscillating between Schumpeterian and Dahlian standards devalues the concept. And unless the academic debate regarding democratic theory begins to account for this devaluation, democracy may well be emptied of its substance.

The advanced design of a 10 × 1 linear antenna array system with the capa-bility of frequency tunability using GT3-23001 liquid crystal (LC) is pro-posed. The design for this reconfigurable wideband antenna array for 5G ap-plications at Ka-band millimeter-wave (mmw) consists of a double layer of stacked patch antenna with aperture coupled feeding. The bias voltage over LC varies from 0 V to 10.6 V to achieve a frequency tunability of 1.18 GHz. The array operates from 25.3 GHz to 33.8 GHz with a peak gain of 19.2 dB and a beamwidth of 5.2&#176 at 30 GHz. The proposed reconfigurable antenna ar-ray represents a real and efficient solution for the recent and future mmw 5G networks. The proposed antenna is suitable for 5G base stations in stadiums, malls and convention centers. It is proper for satellite communications and radars at mmw.

Background Emergency department thoracotomy (EDT) is done to control life threatening hemorrhage and injuries. Literature examining this topic is limited to relatively small studies from single trauma centers. Objective This study identifies factors associated with survival to hospital discharge of patients undergoing EDT using the largest U.S. national trauma database. Methods This retrospective cohort study used the U.S. National Trauma Data Bank 2015. We conducted univariate and bivariate analyses followed by a multivariate analysis that adjusted for confounders to identify factors associated with survival. Results Two thousand four hundred eighty-six patients who underwent EDT were included. Most patients were 16 to 64 years of age (92.3%) with a male predominance (84.9%) and without any previous comorbidities (62.8%). Penetrating injury was most common (60.2%), mainly as a result of assault (51.0%) by firearm (45.1%). Overall survival to hospital discharge was 38.2%. After adjusting for confounders, factors associated with increased survival were cut/piece injuries, presenting with signs of life, Glasgow Coma Scale score ≥8, systolic blood pressure >90 mm Hg, and transportation to the ED through helicopter/fixed-wing ambulance or public/private vehicle (reference, ground ambulance). Conclusions Factors associated with survival in patients undergoing EDT were identified. The clinical indication of presence of appropriate resources to continue and repair EDT was validated, along with the contraindications of lack of signs of life and presence of major nonsurvivable injuries. Future studies should focus on validation of all criteria of EDT, namely hemodynamic instability despite appropriate fluid resuscitation, duration of time of cardiopulmonary resuscitation and pulselessness, cardiac rhythm on arrival, and the presence of pericardial tamponade.

The current landmine clearance methods mostly rely on the manual use of metal detectors (MDs) and on the deminer’s experience in differentiating between the sounds emitted due to the presence of a ...

Introduction: The electrocardiogram (ECG) plays an important role in the diagnosis of heart diseases. However, most patterns of diseases are based on old datasets and stepwise algorithms that provide limited accuracy. Improving diagnostic accuracy of the ECG can be done by applying machine learning algorithms. This requires taking existing scanned or printed ECGs of old cohorts and transforming the ECG signal to the raw digital (time (milliseconds), voltage (millivolts)) form. Objectives: We present a MATLAB-based tool and algorithm that converts a printed or scanned format of the ECG into a digitized ECG signal. Methods: 30 ECG scanned curves are utilized in our study. An image processing method is first implemented for detecting the ECG regions of interest and extracting the ECG signals. It is followed by serial steps that digitize and validate the results. Results: The validation demonstrates very high correlation values of several standard ECG parameters: PR interval 0.984 +/−0.021 (p-value < 0.001), QRS interval 1+/− SD (p-value < 0.001), QT interval 0.981 +/− 0.023 p-value < 0.001, and RR interval 1 +/− 0.001 p-value < 0.001. Conclusion: Digitized ECG signals from existing paper or scanned ECGs can be obtained with more than 95% of precision. This makes it possible to utilize historic ECG signals in machine learning algorithms to identify patterns of heart diseases and aid in the diagnostic and prognostic evaluation of patients with cardiovascular disease., We present a MATLAB-based tool and algorithm that converts a printed or scanned ECG into a digitized ECG signal. Validation on 30 ECG scanned curves more than 95% precision. This makes it possible to utilize historic ECG signals in machine learning algorithms to identify patterns of heart diseases and aid in the diagnosis and evaluation of patients with cardiovascular disease.

Improving the ethical thinking and analysis of university students is becoming an essential goal of modern curricula and program designers in various disciplines. To support ethics learning...