VaxiMap: optimal delivery of vaccinations for housebound patients

Background. Throughout the UK's Covid-19 vaccination campaign, responsibility for vaccinating housebound patients has rested with individual GP surgeries, posing them a difficult logistical challenge (the travelling salesman problem). In response to demand from GPs, and a lack of existing solutions tailored specifically to vaccination, VaxiMap was created. This tool provides optimal routes for vaccine delivery and has been free to all users since its inception in January 2021. Methods. VaxiMap generates optimal routes subject to the constraint that the number of patients per route should be fixed. This ensures that a known quantity of vaccine can be set aside for each route and minimises wastage. The user need only upload an Excel spreadsheet of patient postcodes to be visited. A divide-and-conquer approach of iterative k-means clustering followed by within-cluster route optimisation is used to generate the routes. Findings. We find substantial savings in the time taken to plan vaccinations, as well as savings in the time taken to visit housebound patients. We estimate total savings to date of 4,700 hours of practitioner time, equivalent to 2.5 work-years, or approximately GBP 91k at typical practitioner salaries. Interpretation. The adoption of VaxiMap yielded both time and cost savings for GP surgeries and accelerated the UK's Covid-19 vaccination campaign at a critical moment. Funding. Financial support was provided by Magdalen College, Oxford, Oxford University Innovation, and JHubMed, part of UK Strategic Command. These parties were not involved in the preparation of this manuscript.

Lateral-Torsional Buckling Analysis for Doubly Symmetric Tubular Flange Composite Beams with Lateral Bracing under Concentrated Load

Tubular flange composite beams are increasingly applied in modern bridge structures. In order to investigate the overall stability behavior of doubly symmetric tubular flange composite beams with lateral bracing under concentrated load, the analysis of elastic lateral-torsional buckling is conducted by the energy variation method. The analytical solution of critical moment of doubly symmetric tubular flange composite beams with lateral bracing is obtained. Meanwhile, the simplified calculation formula of critical moment is fitted by 1stOpt software based on 26,000 groups of data, and the accuracy is verified by the finite element method. It is found that, the critical moment rises obviously with increasing lateral bracing stiffness, and adding lateral bracing to doubly symmetric tubular flange composite beams is beneficial to improve the overall stability in engineering practice. Finally, the influence of several parameters including concrete strength, span, steel ratio of flange and height-thickness ratio of web are studied. The results show that the concrete strength and the web height-thickness ratio have a weak influence on critical moment of elastic lateral-torsional buckling, while the influence of span-depth ratio and flange steel ratio is very significant.

Cultural heroism: Mihail Manoilescu. On the work of Pantelimon, Cristi, Mihail Manoilescu. Corporate doctrine. Oscar Print, Bucharest, 2021

Dr. Pantelimon's book is a witness to our times: it refers to an essential work at a critical moment. Dr. Pantelimon provides us with an almost complete synthesis of the omnia work of the great economist, sociologist, publicist, engineer, and politician, finally, the great Romanian, Mihail Manoilescu. Why is the work in question so important? Because it is a reality management technique, without which we will not be able to make the leap from the orbit of underdevelopment to that of development. The study is focused on the chapter structure as well the metastructure of the book – the main ideas and concepts of the overall Manoilescu’s work. We shall discuss on protectionism, corporatism, autarchy, orthodoxy and corporatism etc.

Labour in Turkey during the 1960s: The Long Hot Decade of the Working Class

The 1960s were unique and sui generis years for the labour movement in Turkey. This decade not only witnessed the emergence of industrial capitalism, but also was a critical and intense period of class struggle in which the formation of the country’s working class accelerated. As the working class gained momentum, it proved itself to be a new social class after being dismissed in previous decades. At the beginning of the period, trade unions gained constitutional guarantees, thereby increasing the momentum of the labour movement, even as traditional trade unionism eroded somewhat following a period of dominance in the previous two decades. Ultimately, class-based and independent unionism grew in strength in the 1960s, while the decade also represents a critical moment in the process of working-class politicisation.

Introduction: The Twenty-First Century Vittoria Colonna

Although—unusually, for an early modern woman writer—Vittoria Colonna has long been considered part of the canon, several factors have inhibited a true appreciation of her importance as a literary innovator and model. The current critical moment is conducive to a re-examination of her significance, in the light of recent research on the early modern Italian tradition of women’s writing, on the Catholic Reform movement and its literary expression, and on developments in Italian literature in the last four decades of the sixteenth century. Consideration of these factors reveal Colonna as a figure of wide-reaching influence in her time and a powerful shaping influence on later traditions of Italian literature, in the late Renaissance and beyond.

Under Suspicion: Christine Brooke-Rose, Intelligence Work, and the Theory Wars

This article looks at Christine Brooke-Rose's late work of life-writing, Remake (1996) and its depiction of Brooke-Rose's wartime experience working in the Allied code-breaking centre at Bletchley Park. I situate Remake's recall of Bletchley Park within a textual matrix that includes Brooke-Rose's own academic writing of the 1980s–90s, as well as texts that emerged out of the so-called ‘Theory Wars’ of the same period – especially relating to the revelation of Paul de Man's collaborationist journalism. In this range of writing, I trace a set of common concerns regarding personal history, suspicion, secrecy, disclosure, and mastery that herald a turn towards other forms of knowing. In doing so, I locate Remake at a crucial juncture in the emergence of our present post-critical moment.

Writing as a critical moment in professional discourse

Written texts mediate action and serve as accounts of action in most contemporary professional domains. Echoing Candlin’s call for applied and social linguists to explore ‘critical moments’ in discourse, I argue that ‘writing’ constitutes just such a critical moment, because of its contested position in professional domains and the dominant ideology underpinning writing evident both in ‘intellectual’ (academic) and ‘expert’ (professional) orientations. A key challenge is to find ways of understanding writing which are not constrained by existing ‘intellectual’ and ‘expert’ orientations and which can contribute to useable knowledge for professional practice. I draw on specific examples from ethnographically oriented research projects with professionals in two domains (academia and social work) to illustrate how a dominant ideology of writing is enacted. This enactment is explored further by focusing on ICT-mediated ‘expert systems’ in social work, illustrating how an increasingly used, specific technology of writing is impacting professional practice. I conclude by considering the difficulties and possibilities of collaboratively building usable knowledge about writing for professional practice.

Exhibiting Faith against an Imperial Background: Angola and the Spiritans at the Vatican Missionary Exhibition (1925)

In 1925 the Vatican Missionary Exhibition took place, presenting thousands of objects sent by Catholic missions around the world. Resulting from substantial efforts by the Church, the exhibition had a significant public impact, with an estimated one million visitors. It marked a critical moment in the international affirmation of the Church, as well as the reformulation and expansion of its missionary policy in the aftermath of the Great War. Catholic missions and congregations in the Portuguese colonial empire participated in the exhibition. This article focuses on the Angolan case, where the Congregation of the Holy Spirit was the main protagonist of Catholic missionisation. I examine the organisation process, the circulation of norms and objects across imperial borders, and their exhibition at the Vatican. I discuss the tensions between the pontifical message and Portuguese missionary politics, as well as the intermediary position that the Spiritans occupied.