Background: The direct factor Xa inhibitor rivaroxaban is approved for the treatment of venous thromboembolism (VTE), based on the results of large phase III trials. Objectives: To confirm rivaroxaban's effectiveness and safety in routine clinical care of patients with VTE. Methods: Data were obtained from prospective, noninterventional registries: the FIRST registry (United Kingdom), DRESDEN NOAC registry (Germany), and SWIVTER (Switzerland). Baseline characteristics of these registries and effectiveness and safety outcome rates for the FIRST and DRESDEN NOAC registries were compared. Results: A total of 1841 rivaroxaban-treated patients with acute VTE (57.9% male, 76.6% deep vein thrombosis [DVT]; 23.4% pulmonary embolism ± DVT; median age, 61 years) were included: 1217 from the FIRST registry, 418 from the DRESDEN NOAC registry, and 206 from SWIVTER. Median time between VTE diagnosis and initiation of rivaroxaban was 1.4 ± 1.81 days (25th–75th percentile 1–1; range, 0–15 days). On-treatment outcome rates for the FIRST and DRESDEN NOAC registries were 0.74 per 100 patient-years (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.35–1.54) versus 0.96 per 100 patient-years (95% CI, 0.46–2.01) for VTE recurrence; 1.16 per 100 patient years (95% CI, 0.64–2.09) versus 2.51 per 100 patient-years (95% CI, 1.58–3.98) for ISTH major bleeding and 1.69 per 100 patient-years (95% CI, 1.21–2.35) versus 1.73 per 100 patient-years (95% CI, 1.27–2.36) for all-cause mortality (intention-to-treat analysis), respectively. Conclusion: Overall treatment outcomes were consistent with the results of the phase III rivaroxaban trials in VTE treatment, indicating that the use of rivaroxaban offers acceptable treatment results also in routine care. However, we observed significant differences in patient characteristics and management patterns across Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and Germany, limiting direct comparisons of unadjusted outcome event rates between registries.

Human trafficking, the cruel and inhumane crime that it is, exploits the lives of millions of people around the world. My study explores the common vulnerabilities that exist for victims of cross-national human trafficking. First, I analyze literature discussing individual and country- level victim demographics to identify characteristics that predict recruitment or abduction into human trafficking. Using the 2017 Counter Trafficking Data Collaborative, I demonstrate the applicability of Cohen and Felson's 1979 Routine Activity Theory (RAT) to explain the vulnerabilities to victimization further. More specifically, I use VIVA to assess the methods of control and types of exploitation utilized by domestic and international traffickers. A sociological study that combines the work of RAT and VIVA in relation to human trafficking victimization is yet to exist, therefore I am seeking to fill this research gap. The overarching goal of this study is to form a victim profile through cluster analysis and logistic regression in order to locate the unique patterns of victimization. My findings demonstrate that there is a significant relationship between the three clusters formed, the methods of control used by the perpetrator (physical, psychological, and economic abuse), and the types of exploitation suffered by the victim (sexual and labor exploitation). / Master of Science / Human trafficking is the abduction and exploitation of individuals, in which victims are manipulated into sex or labor trafficking in unfamiliar environments without compensation. Trafficking occurs beyond national borders, therefore I look at victims originating from all over the globe. The literature I utilize looks at individual-level demographics and national-level characteristics. I then use a database to link certain social and theoretical elements of these demographics and characteristics to the methods of control and types of exploitation traffickers enforce upon their victims. Overall, this study forms a victim profile and locates the unique patterns of trafficking victimization through multiple data applications. My thesis concludes with findings on clusters that combine age, gender, recruiter relations, literacy rates, and trafficking laws and regressions that link these clusters to physical, psychological, and economic control as well as sexual and labor exploitation.

This thesis seeks to examine and analyze the manifestations of the ontological security and self-identity anxiety of the Thai states through its rhetoric in relation to Thai and Malayu Muslims. The main question being posed in this thesis is how the Thai state justified the use of force during the Tak Bai Incident in 2004 and the Ratchaprasong bombing in 2015. This thesis examines the rhetoric of the Thai state through speeches and media before, during, and after in the selected cases. Such rhetoric involves the framing and constructions of "Thainess" or Thai identity in relation to the "other" or Thai and Malayu Muslims during the events. This framing is related to ethno, religious, and cultural nationalism and draws on those narratives. The theory that this research draws from is the Ontological Security theory by Jennifer Mitzen and Brent Steele which allows us to analyze the Thai state's actions and identity construction during the events. Ontological security is the security of the self, which all states strive for since it is linked to self-identity constructions. States will take actions that are at times detrimental to the physical self in order to protect ontological security because it is crucial to its survival. The methodological approach draws from Roxanne Lynn Doty's Discursive Practices Approach which allows us to examine how power and roles are constructed from rhetoric. The key results show that both the Tak Bai Incident and Ratchaprasong bombing disrupted the Thai state's ontological security and self-identity construction. In response, the Thai state engages in security-seeking behavior by reconstructing its self-identity in relation to the Thai and Malayu Muslims in order to regain its sense of ontological security. In doing so, the Thai state and media use rhetoric such as "Farang" and "Khaek" to define the Thai and Malayu Muslims as different and inferior subjects to the Buddhist majority. This enables the Thai state to justify its use of force in order to regain control over its compromised ontological security by way of military actions and violence. We see that the Thai state's perception of ontological security derived from its attachment to routines which had now been associated with the attachment to the conflict. This attachment had allowed the Thai state a sense of certainty since it knew how to act in the face of challenges. Attachment to routines thus allows the Thai state to dispel uncertainty which causes disruptions to its self-identity by creating anxiety. In analyzing the Thai state's rhetoric during these events, various identities of who is and is not Thai can be noted. These are then used to justify and legitimate the use of force by the Thai state as it seeks to protect and safeguard its ontological security. / Master of Arts / This thesis aims to understand how the construction of self-identity of the Thai state manifested in rhetoric. In particular, the Thai state's relationship towards the "other" or in this case the Thai and Muslim Malayu population in the three southern provinces of Thailand. This research attempts to understand how the rhetorics involving "Thainess," "Farang," and "Khaek" play a role in the conception of Thai identity. In particular, the way these rhetoric manifest themselves in both the media and the official channels. This research utilizes the Ontological Security Theory and the Discursive Practices Approach to analyze the rhetoric found in the two cases of the Tak Bai incident in 2004 and the Ratchaprasong bombing in 2015. This analyzed rhetoric allows us to understand the way ontological security manifests itself in the Thai state when its self-identity is challenged by the "other." The research results show that both cases present a challenge to the Thai state's self-identity construction and ontological security routines. Once disrupted the Thai state uses force to subdue the source of the challenge, which was the presence of the Thai and Malayu Muslims. We see that this examined rhetoric by the Thai state created an environment and conditions, which enables the justification of force to protect its sense of self-identity and ontological security. Lastly, this research is important since it allows us to understand how states, such as the Thai state, behave and justify force against minority groups. It further enables us to see a state's behavior from a physical security standpoint and an ontological security one. It shows that language can be the window to the behavior of a state and regime that feels insecure by its encounter with the "other."

Ubiquitous and Pervasive computing put forth a vision where environments are enriched with devices that provide users with services to serve them in their everyday lives. The building of such environments has the final objective of automating tedious routine tasks that users must perform every day. This automation is a very desirable challenge because it can considerably reduce resource consumption and improve users' quality of life by 1) making users' lives more comfortable, eficient, and productive, and 2) helping them to stop worrying and wasting time in performing tasks that need to be done and that they do not enjoy. However, the automation of user tasks is a complicated and delicate matter because it may bother users, interfere in their goals, or even be dangerous. To avoid this, tasks must be automated in a non-intrusive way by attending to users' desires and demands. This is the main goal of this thesis, that is, to automate the routine tasks that users want the way they want them. To achieve this, we propose two models of a high level of abstraction to specify the routines to be automated. These models provide abstract concepts that facilitate the participation of end-users in the model specification. In addition, these models are designed to be machine-processable and precise-enough to be executable models. Thus, we provide a software infrastructure that is capable of automating the specified routines by directly interpreting the models at runtime. Therefore, the routines to be automated are only represented in the models. This makes the models the primary means to understand, interact with, and modify the automated routines. This considerably facilitates the evolution of the routines over time to adapt them to changes in user behaviour. Without this adaptation, the automation of the routines may not only become useless for end-users but may also become a burden on them instead of being a help in their daily life. / Serral Asensio, E. (2011). Automating Routine Tasks in Smart Environments. A Context-aware Model-driven Approach [Tesis doctoral]. Universitat Politècnica de València. https://doi.org/10.4995/Thesis/10251/11550

I explore the relationships between hate group activity, community factors, and the likelihood of hate crime occurrence within a county area. I integrate considerations raised by Routine Activity and Social Control theorists as well as current hate crime literature to frame my concept of the hate manager, an agent of social control that utilizes hate crimes as a means of enacting extralegal self-help for hate groups. I explore the relationship between hate managers and hate crime by testing a model relating hate group activity and hate crime occurrences by location. Next, I correlate hate crime occurrences with hate group activity at the county level for the state of Virginia using public data. I find that a hate group's presence holds greater predictive power than nearly any other factor for hate crime likelihood. My findings illustrate the nature of hate crime as a means of social control; whereby hate groups act as a parochial order and maintain hierarchical relations between offenders and victims through means of disciplinary crimes. I conclude by outlining suggestions for future research into the role of the hate manager. / Master of Science / In my thesis, I ask the question of how hate groups methodically encourage where hate crimes occur. I do this by creating the concept of the hate manager. Hate managers are figures which influence would-be criminals into their illegal acts. They do this by stoking the fears necessary for them to act outside legal boundaries in reaction to some feeling of threat, an act known as self-help. Hate crimes, I argue, are a form of self-help where the feeling of threat is directed towards individuals belonging to some marginalized group. By looking at data collected by various agencies in the state of Virginia, I discover that the presence of a hate group in a county is a stronger predictor for such acts than any other factor for hate crime likelihood. By doing so, I demonstrate that hate crimes are a form of social control. That is, I argue that hate groups maintain a sense of order or ranking by means of illegal and disciplinary self-help in the form of hate crimes. I conclude my thesis by outlining suggestions for future exploration of the hate manager’s role.

No / Robust techniques are developed to put the H and Ca K line full-disk images taken at the Meudon Observatory into a standardised form of a `virtual solar image'. The techniques include limb fitting, removal of geometrical distortion, centre position and size standardisation and intensity normalisation. The limb fitting starts with an initial estimate of the solar centre using raw 12-bit image data and then applies a Canny edge-detection routine. Candidate edge points for the limb are selected using a histogram based method and the chosen points fitted to a quadratic function by minimising the algebraic distance using SVD. The five parameters of the ellipse fitting the limb are extracted from the quadratic function. These parameters are used to define an affine transformation that transforms the image shape into a circle. Transformed images are generated using the nearest neighbour, bilinear or bicubic interpolation. Intensity renormalisation is also required because of a limb darkening and other non-radial intensity variations. It is achieved by fitting a background function in polar coordinates to a set of sample points having the median intensities and by standardising the average brightness. Representative examples of intermediate and final processed results are presented in addition to the algorithms developed. The research was done for the European Grid of Solar Observations (EGSO) project.

In 1996, the U.S. Congress initiated a change to the Department of Defense (DOD) military family housing program. Applying organizational learning and change theories, this study of the Department of the Air Force (AF) reveals how the AF used $617 million of federal funds and $8.3 billion of matching private investment to significantly upgrade or construct and manage 53,323 AF family housing units. Using an outcome-oriented process tracing methodology, I examine the process changes, organizational structure modifications, and strategy adjustments the AF instituted to implement this latest attempt at providing military family housing. To understand how those adjustments occurred, this research uses organizational routine theory to help explain how organizations generate change by performing their day-to-day activities. This single-case historical study of AF family housing privatization, used process tracing to identify five primary organizational routines that determine know when there is a minimally sufficient explanation of how the AF learned and changed while privatizing the existing military family housing stock. These organizational routines help to clarify the organizational strategy, implementation process, and structure changes that emerged during privatization to address the quality, quantity, affordability, and timeliness of AF military family housing. The AF approach to transforming military family housing might be applicable to other publicly funded housing programs. / Ph. D.

Yes / Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of insider trading on subsequent stock returns in the UK, with a specific focus on the impact of the global financial crisis of 2007-2008 on the relation between CEO and CFO stock purchases and returns. Design/methodology/approach – The empirical analysis uses 10,230 purchases executed in 679 UK firms by 1,477 directors during the period from 2000 to 2010. Subsequent market-adjusted stock returns are regressed on a set of firm-specific accounting, market and corporate governance variables as well as the characteristics of CEOs and CFOs. Additionally, the analysis distinguishes between the opportunistic and routine trades. Findings – The findings reveal that the position of the trading director and the nature of their trades are important in determining the impact on returns of insider trades. In particular, CEO purchases are on the whole more informative than CFO purchases and opportunistic purchases. The trades in the post-crisis period have a greater impact on subsequent stock returns. Research limitations/implications – The empirical analysis is limited to the trades made by two executives. Future research should consider inside trades by all directors and distinguish between executive and non-executive directors. Also, a behavioral measure should be developed to test if the financial crisis affected the trading behavior of directors and whether directors use insider trading strategically to signal information to the market. Practical implications – The impact of directors’ dealings on stock returns is not homogeneous. Financial analysts and investors should pay more attention to different types of trades and the identity of trading director. Originality/value – This paper, to the authors’ knowledge, provides the first attempt that combines in the same framework the identity and personal attributes of trading executive directors, firm-level corporate governance features, the nature of purchase transactions and the trading period characteristics. Furthermore the empirical analysis is carried out during a period that also covers the recent global financial crisis period and its immediate aftermath.

No / Aim To determine the impact on clinical outcomes of specialist diabetes clinics compared with routine primary care clinics. Methods Observational study measuring clinical performance (process/outcome measures) in the primary care sector. A cohort of patients attending specialist diabetes clinics was compared with a control cohort of patients attending routine primary care clinics. Results Patients seen in specialist diabetes clinics had a significantly higher HbA1c than patients in routine primary care clinics (mean difference 0.58%; P < 0.001) but there was no significant difference in rate of improvement with visits compared with primary care clinics. In contrast, patients seen in the routine primary care clinics had significantly higher cholesterol levels (mean difference 0.24 mmol/l; P < 0.001) compared with patients in specialist diabetes clinics and their improvement was significantly greater over time (mean difference 0.14 mmol/l per visit compared with 0.10 mmol/l; P < 0.006). Patients in routine primary care clinics also had significantly higher diastolic blood pressure (mean difference 1.6 mmHg; P < 0.007) but there was no difference in improvement with time compared with specialist diabetes clinics. Uptake of podiatry and retinal screening was significantly lower in patients attending routine primary care clinics, but this difference disappeared with time, with significant increases in uptake in the primary care clinic group. Weight increased in both groups significantly with time, but more so in the specialist clinic patients (mean increase 0.18 kg per visit more compared with routine clinic primary care patients; P < 0.001). Conclusions This study provides evidence that the provision of primary care services for patients with diabetes, whether traditional general practitioner clinics or diabetes clinics run by general practitioners with special interests, is effective in reducing HbA1c, cholesterol and blood pressure. However, the same provision of care was unable to prevent increasing weight or creatinine over time. No evidence was found that patients in specialist clinics do better than patients in routine primary care clinics.

This Report replaces IPEM Report 77 and provides essential guidance for anyone responsible for diagnostic X-Ray equipment. This document gives clear advice on which routine performance tests are essential and which are desirable, where to get information on how to do them, who should be doing them and how often they should be done. For many tests it also gives guidance as to when the results indicate further action should be taken. This second edition takes into account the introduction of new technologies in medical imaging including CR, DDR and image display devices.