bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Análise da produtividade da política de fusão de unidades hospitalares em Portugal integradas no Serviço Nacional de Saúde
Authors: Nunes Alexandre
Published: May 2017

Objetivo: Avaliar a variação da produtividade dos hospitais sujeitos a uma política de fusão entre os anos 2005 e 2013. Métodos: Para a medição da produtividade recorreu-se ao índice de Malmquist, que considera em simultâneo a variação da eficiência e a variação da tecnologia (fronteira ou melhores práticas). A população-alvo foram os Centros Hospitalares criados entre 2003 e 2010. Os dados de custos e da produção realizada foram obtidos através da revisão crítica da literatura (relatórios de gestão do Ministério da Saúde). Foram comparados os Centros Hospitalares criados antes e depois da fusão com os hospitais que não foram submetidos a este processo. Resultados: 60% dos hospitais não apresentaram melhoria de produtividade com a reforma em estudo. A produtividade média antes da fusão era de 1,004 e após fusão desceu para 0,977. Os hospitais não sujeitos a processo de fusão apresentaram melhores resultados com produtividade média de 0,994. Conclusões: A política de fusão de unidades de saúde não gerou ganhos de produtividade no médio prazo e os resultados em média demonstraram-se menos positivos no período pós fusão.
Minimize Formation Damage in Water-Sensitive Montney Formation With Energized Fracturing Fluid
Authors: Kong Bing , Wang Shuhua , Chen Shengnan
Published: May 2017

Slickwater has been widely used for hydraulic fracturing because it is inexpensive and able to carry proppants into the fracture (Schein 2005; Palisch et al. 2010). This fluid, however, is unsuitable for water-sensitive formations, such as the Montney formation. This is because water saturation around the fractures increases, and the clay swells when water leaks into the matrix, both of which hinder the flow of natural gas from the matrix into the fractures. N2- or CO2-energized water-based fracturing fluids have been widely used in water-sensitive formations because they can minimize fluid leakoff during fracturing and help achieve higher-load fluid recovery during flowback (Burke and Nevison 2011; Barati and Liang 2014).

In this paper, multiphase numerical simulations are applied to study the formation-damage mitigation in the Montney tight reservoir with energized fracturing fluid. A simulation model is built and history-matched with flowback and early production data gathered from a typical Montney tight gas well. The behavior of the multiphase fluid leakoff and flowback is studied. Sensitivities of the foam quality of the fracturing fluid on the load fluid recovery are analyzed, as is the well productivity after stimulation. Statistical analysis to study the performance of energized fracturing in the water-sensitive Montney formation is conducted on the stimulation and production data of more than 5,000 Montney wells. We found that multiphase fracturing fluid has less dynamic fluid leakoff compared with that of a single-phase fracturing fluid (i.e., water). The major fluid leakoff occurs during the static leakoff period between the end of the stimulation processes and the start of the flowback. The gas phase penetrates deeper and faster into the reservoir matrix compared with the liquid phase, which contributes to the increased flowback volume of the fracturing fluid. Formation damage caused by fracturing-fluid leakoff can affect both early and long-term production. In addition, N2 foam leads to the highest-load fluid recovery in the Montney formation, which is 1.6 times that of CO2 foam. This work provides critical insights into understanding the performance of using energized fracturing fluid to mitigate formation damage in tight formations.
An Iterative Work Flow for History Matching by Use of Design of Experiment, Response-Surface Methodology, and Markov Chain Monte Carlo Algorithm Applied to Tight Oil Reservoirs
Authors: Wantawin Marut , Yu Wei , Sepehrnoori Kamy
Published: May 2017

Although a large amount of wells has been extensively drilled to develop unconventional reservoirs, uncertainty associated with reservoir and fracture properties can significantly affect the evaluation of an individual well's performance with simulations. From the history-matching point of view, this uncertainty causes nonuniqueness of solutions that should be obtained with a robust probabilistic method without overly exhausting simulation resources. Because of the challenge in this work, a proxy-based history-matching approach can deliver unique advantages of reducing the computational requirement and providing probabilistic interpretation. The work flow presented in this paper is designed to exploit full ranges of proxy-modeling benefits from prioritizing significant reservoir properties, estimating the variation of model responses, and searching multiple history-matching solutions for reliable probabilistic forecasts. A screening process is introduced at the initial stage of the work flow with design of experiment (DOE) and response-surface methodology (RSM), so the dimensions of proxy models can be reduced. In addition, the proxy models progress through the work flow by iterations that aim to improve their accuracy. This iterative work flow efficiently uses simulation resources by use of all the completed runs to provide more information about the model responses for the subsequent iterations. While the work flow is being iterated, multiple proxy models are explored for history-matching solutions by a Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) algorithm. Then, history-matching solutions are used to evaluate the probability distribution of the long-term estimated ultimate recovery (EUR). Finally, an application of the work flow to a horizontal well in the Middle Bakken is presented in this paper.
PROPAGAÇÃO DE GABIROBEIRAS VIA ESTAQUIA ASSOCIADA AO ÁCIDO INDOLBUTÍRICO
Authors: Pereira Laísse Danielle , Costa Maraíza Lima , Pinto Jefferson Fernando Naves , Assunção Hildeu Ferreira da , Reis Edésio Fialho dos , Silva Danielle Fabíola Pereira da
Published: May 2017

Uma das ameaças ao cerrado é a exploração de certas espécies nativas, que tem sido feita de forma extrativista e muitas vezes predatória, tornando-se imprescindíveis ações no sentido de se fazer o cultivoe domesticação destas espécies. Dentre as inúmeras frutíferas nativas que possuem alto potencial para exploração comercial, destaca-se a gabirobeira, que se encontra sob forte pressão devido ao impacto causado pela fragmentação das suas populações, seja pelo extrativismo inadequado, ou pela expansão das fronteiras agrícolas. O objetivodeste trabalho foi avaliar o uso de ácido indolbutírico na sobrevivência, brotação e enraizamento de estacas de gabirobeira. Foram coletadas estacas lenhosas de gabirobeiras da coleção do banco de germoplasma de Campomanesia spp. da UFG-Regional Jataí. Utilizaram-se estacas das espécies Campomanesia adamantium e Campomanesiapubescens segmentadas em ramos de 15 cm de comprimento contendo um par de folhas na parte apical e selecionadas as estacas que apresentavam diâmetro médio de 2,8 6 ± 1,29 cm. O experimento foi conduzido em delineamento inteiramente casualizado para cada espécie em estudo com 5 tratamentos e 4 repetições com 8 estacas/parcela. Os tratamentos foram compostos por 0, 800, 1600, 2400 e 3200 mg/L de Ácido indolbutírico (AIB). As estacas foram tratadas nas doses de Ácido indolbutírico (AIB), com 15 segundos de imersão. Após tratamento com AIB as estacas foram plantadas em bandejas de isopor com as bases perfuradas contendo como substrato areia lavada. Durante todo o período experimental foi utilizado o sistema de nebulização intermitente.Sessenta dias após a instalação do experimento as estacas foram avaliadas, quanto a Brotação, sobrevivência das estacas, porcentagem de enraizamento e porcentagem de calejamento. O uso de AIB em estacas de gabirobeiras proporcionou maior percentagem de brotação bem como maior sobrevivência das estacas, porém não proveuenraizamento.
EXTRATOS VEGETAIS, FORMULAÇÕES A BASE DE EXTRATO VEGETAL E PRODUTOS QUÍMICOS NO CONTROLE DA MANCHA BACTERIANA DO MARACUJAZEIRO
Authors: Costa Rosemary Corrêa , Ishida Alessandra Keiko Nakasone , Miranda Vicente Savonitti , Damasceno Filho Antonio Saraiva , Silva Clenilda Tolentino Bento , Resende Mário Lúcio Vilela , Oliveira Luana Cardoso
Published: May 2017

mancha bacteriana é uma importante doença na cultura do maracujazeiro, responsável por perdas econômicas e pela redução da frutificação e do período de exploração comercial das plantas afetadas. O presente trabalho teve como objetivo avaliar o efeito dos produtos químicos oxitetraciclina, fluazinam, mancozeb, oxicloreto de cobre e Acibenzolar-S-Metil (ASM), das formulações Fitoforce Cobre, Fitoforce Plus e dos extratos de folhas de Artocarpus heterophyllus e Morinda citrifolia sobre o crescimento in vitro de Xanthomonas axonopodis pv. passiflorae e sobre a severidade da mancha bacteriana do maracujazeiro em casa-de-vegetação. Nos ensaios in vitro, os tratamentos foram incorporados ao meio de cultura 523, em suas respectivas dosagense as avaliações foram realizadas pela contagem do número de colônias do patógeno. Nos ensaios em casade-vegetação a aplicação dos tratamentos foi realizada 7 dias antes da inoculação de X. axonopodis pv. passiflorae para as formulações e extratos e 2 dias antes da inoculação para os produtos químicos. As avaliações de severidade da doença foram realizadas em intervalos de 48 horas. Os produtos oxitetraciclina, fluazinam, mancozeb, oxicloreto de cobre, Fitoforce Cobre e Fitoforce Plus inibiram totalmente o crescimento in vitro da bactéria. Em casa-de-vegetação, todos os tratamentos reduziram significativamente a severidade da mancha bacteriana com reduções entre 54 e 62%, com exceção do Fitoforce Plus que apresentou porcentagem de controle abaixo de 50%.
Evil Dragon, Golden Rodent, Sleek Hound: The Evolution of Soushan Tu Paintings in the Northern Song Period
Authors: Hinton Carmelita
Published: May 2017

In soushan tu paintings, a seated deity commands ferocious soldiers who search wooded mountains to expel demons in animal forms. It is commonly believed that soushan tu originated from legends of Erlang, a river deity from Guankou, Sichuan who appears as the seated commander in some post Northern Song examples. Earlier textual and pictorial evidence, however, contradicts this assumption. This essay traces the changing identities of the commander during the tenth and eleventh centuries and how certain animals associated with them became part of the pictorial repertoire. Rather than illustrating a pre-existing story with fixed characters, the mountain searches depict a symbolic conflict. The deity stands as the figure of authority, while the demonic animals represent the disruptive forces of dissent and chaos that threaten his control. Characters once considered demons come to occupy the role of commander, reflecting the contested nature of the categories of “demon” and “deity.”
Weird Science: European Origins of the Fantastic Creatures in the Qing Court Painting, the Manual of Sea Oddities
Authors: Greenberg Daniel
Published: May 2017

In this chapter, Greenberg examines a remarkable, unusual, and previously unpublished painting album produced for the Qing court entitled The Manual of Sea Oddities (Haiguai tu海怪圖記‎). The strange sea creatures depicted in this work are unlike anything seen in Chinese art, but are directly related to images from sixteenth-and seventeenth-century European encyclopedias. After a close consideration of the most relevant European models, this painting is placed within a broader context of Jesuit scientific enterprise and cartography at the Qing court. Together, these works demonstrate a pattern of engagement and curiosity, as the Qing explored how foreign visual modes could be adopted to advance a Chinese imperial agenda.
Negotiating Categories and Transgressing (Mixed-) Race Identities
Authors: Takezawa Yasuko
Published: May 2017

A rapidly growing population of multiracial Japanese Americans are often portrayed either as a visual symbol of the disappearing of race or the romanticized “Happy Hapa.” Are there alternative ways that individuals are transcending binary options and resisting stereotypes? In what context, the collective categories of “Japanese American,” “Asian American,” and “hapa” can be mobilized for what purposes? Based on anthropological in-depth interviews, this chapter addresses these questions by examining the works and narratives of three artists with Japanese American background, two of whom have mixed roots: Roger Shimomura, Laura Kina, and Shizu Saldamando. This chapter will illuminate these artists’ individual ways of struggles expressed in artworks to fight against “stereotypes”, including one of rejecting social categories while at the same time resisting racism and white-centered norms.
Vernacular Representations of Race and the Making of a Japanese Ethnoracial Community in Los Angeles
Authors: Minamikawa Fuminori
Published: May 2017

This chapter examines how Japanese immigrants in the early 20th century Los Angeles interpreted race and racism in their vernacular narratives. They used two Japanese terms, minzoku and jinshu to express their experiences of racism in the United States. The discourses of race, ethnicity, and nation were intertwined in minzoku and jinshu, which enabled them to produce counter-discourses to racism as well as helped to adjust themselves to the existing racial formations. The vernacular discourses also functioned as devices to discipline ordinary immigrants in terms of class, gender, and sexuality in modernization of the community. Thus, the study of vernacular representation enriches a transpacific dialogue through the contextualization of Japanese immigrants’ experiences in a particular time and space.
Negotiating the Boundaries of Race, Caste, and Mibun
Authors: Geiger Andrea
Published: May 2017

Cultural attitudes rooted in the Tokugawa-era status system (mibunsei) provided an interpretive framework for the race-based hostility Meiji-era Japanese encountered in the United States and Canada, informing the discursive strategies of Meiji diplomats who sought to refute the claims of anti-Japanese exclusionists by distinguishing Japanese labor migrants from themselves, aiding in the reproduction of Japanese as an excludable category when anti-Japanese elements turned their arguments against all Japanese. Concerns about social hierarchy and the significance of historical status categories (mibun), including cultural taboos associated with outcaste status, also mediated the responses of Meiji immigrants to conditions they encountered on both sides of the Canada-U.S. border, including white racism and job opportunities. Japanese immigrant negotiations of race and identity in the North American West can be fully understood only by also considering mibun, in addition to more the familiar paradigms of race, class, and gender, in analyzing Meiji-era Japanese immigration history.
Americanization and Beika
Authors: Matsumoto Yuko
Published: May 2017

The Americanization movement in the early twentieth century tried to redefine the qualifications for full membership within the nation. In the same period, the anti-Asian movement flourished. Responding actively to the discourses of anti-Japanese (and Asian) movements, Japanese immigrants tried to prove their eligibility for full membership in the U.S. nation by following their own interpretation of Americanization, or Beika (米化‎) in Japanese. The ideas of Beika were based on idealized Japanese virtues, as well as on what was required by the Americanization movement. Even though they used the parallel terms in ideas of Beika, however, the gender discourses such as virtues of Yamatonadeshiko and the definition of family highlighted the difference between the views of Americanization and those of Beika despite their similar intention. This gap in perception might have reinforced the racialized and gendered stereotypes on both sides and hindered mutual understanding before World War II.
Notes from Shinagawa, July 28–29, 2012
Authors: Okihiro Gary Y.
Published: May 2017

Listening to my Japanese colleagues and reading their analyses and comparing them with what I understand to be Japanese American studies in the United States suggests to me several implications.

First, Japan-based scholars seem attentive to the notion of men and women as historical agents, an internal as opposed to external perspective. Whether as migrants, men or women, linguistic communities, commercial actors, Japanese scholars can understand the contexts of racism and sexism, but they appear more keenly attentive to the internal and individual voices and workings of Japanese America. Perhaps this arises from frames; scholars in Japan see Japanese America as extensions of self and Japan, while those in the United States are more focused, at present, on the (wider) contexts of Japanese America, perhaps beginning with the anti-Japanese movement to anchor that experience within U.S. history and society....
Thoughts on Positionality
Authors: Ishii Noriko K.
Published: May 2017

The question of positionality is a crucial one in academic pursuits. As a Japan-based historian of U.S. social and women’s history with a PhD from a U.S. university, I was struck by Professor Gary Okihiro’s question on our subject-positions and our stakes in Japanese American studies. His query reminded me of a life-changing incident during my first year of graduate school. Although this experience first turned me away from the field of Japanese American studies, it was an important learning experience and a critical turning point in my academic career. In short, it made me think about the meaning of my positionality as a Japanese person in relation to my academic research in U.S. history and American studies....
Location, Positionality, and Community
Authors: Tsukuda Yoko
Published: May 2017

Issues surrounding the differences between U.S.-based and Japan-based Japanese American studies have been important to me as a person who has pursued degrees at graduate schools in both countries. I first became interested in the history of Japanese Americans in my junior year of college when a visiting white professor from Seattle told me the story of how her father helped his Japanese American friends during World War II. Because I was unaware of what the “camps” meant, I was shocked to learn about the internment experience of Japanese Americans. After writing my senior thesis based on a month of fieldwork in Los Angeles’s Japanese American community, I enrolled in an ethnic studies master’s course at San Francisco State University. Later, I returned to Japan and completed an American studies PhD in the Area Studies Department at the University of Tokyo. Presently, I teach at a Japanese university. My experiences in both the United States and Japan have often led me to questions surrounding my positionality as a Japan-based scholar who engages in Japanese American studies....
Positions In-Between
Authors: Williams Duncan Ryûken
Published: May 2017

In reflecting on my positionality vis-à-vis Japanese American studies, one of the first things that come to mind is the multiplicity of positions that make up my identity. I am neither fully Japanese nor American nor Japanese American. Given that my father is British and my mother Japanese, my heritage is at least dual. Given that I was born and brought up in Japan initially as a British citizen with an alien registration card and then as a dual citizen from fifteen to twenty years old, and since twenty, as solely a Japanese citizen, it is sometimes hard to know how to define my position to Japanese America. Yes, I have lived and worked in the United States on various visas, and more recently, with a green card for the past twenty-five years. So I suppose that as a person with a Japanese passport who has permanent residency in the United States, I am technically an Issei, a first-generation Japanese immigrant to the United States....
Toward More Equal Dialogue
Authors: Takezawa Yasuko
Published: May 2017

For the benefit of young scholars in both countries, I would like to present one more story following Professor Noriko Ishii, about the experience of a Japanese student studying Japanese Americans in the United States during the 1980s.

First, I have to confess that when I embarked on my path as a scholar in the United States, I was rather naïve, with my approach to Japanese American studies being shaped by the cultural baggage I had carried from Japan. After spending my undergraduate years there majoring in comparative culture and cultural anthropology, I had hoped to continue and deepen my studies by focusing on Japanese American acculturation and ethnic identity in an American graduate program. Through the fieldwork, however, I came to realize that such an approach positioned Japanese Americans on a continuum linking the two poles of “American” and “Japanese” culture—precisely the framework critiqued in the introduction to this volume....
The Ryukyu Kingdom’s Tribute Trade
Authors: Akamine Mamoru
Published: May 2017

This chapter details Ryukyu’s tribute trade with China, starting from the rituals involved with departure, then describing trading activities in Fuzhou, then the trip to Beijing to pay formal respects to the Emperor. At any given time, there were three teams of envoys in play: one on its way from Fuzhou to Beijing, one set to return on the ship that brought them, and one to remain in Fuzhou for three years. A “mission retrieval ship” also was allowed every year to pick up any envoys headed home, and this ship also carried cargo. The chapter features step-by-step descriptions of trade transactions, as well as rituals related to the journey.
Samādhi in the Yoga Sūtras
Authors: Bryant Edwin F.
Published: May 2017

The Indic Traditions have a rich two and a half millennia long variegated history of meditational and contemplative practices. Patañjali’s systematization of these techniques, as expressed in the Yoga Sūtras, eventually emerged as the recognized and generic model of meditative praxis for the Yoga traditions, and it was accommodated within the theologies and metaphysics of the heterogeneous sects. The basic principle of yoga practice lies in stilling the mind. From there, the yogī goes through various states of consciousness that lie beyond everyday experience. Patañjali presents a highly schematized version of this development, gradually moving from gross to subtle awareness, and eventually to a state in which consciousness is detached from all objects, including the mind itself, and becomes purely self-aware. This essay examines the seven ultimate states of consciousness that culminate from progressive stages of meditative focus outlined in this text.
“Quiet Sitting” in Neo-Confucianism
Authors: Mabuchi Masaya
Published: May 2017

In China, meditation is primarily associated with Buddhism and Daoism, but also played a significant role in Neo-Confucianism. Often referred to as “quiet sitting”, such practice was seen as a means to achieve an intuitive comprehension of the “original nature” or “universal principle” that lay at the bottom of Neo-Confucian thought. However, the attitude toward such practice was ambivalent, since it could undermine traditional teachings and norms. “Quiet sitting” was one of the factors behind the emergence of syncretist trends. When Confucian scholars began to write meditation manuals, the techniques described were mostly inspired by Buddhist and Daoist models, including regulated breathing, the circulation of qì, concentration on the “cinnabar field” (dāntián), as well as complete silence and lotus posture. However, late Ming scholar Gāo Pānlóng tried to make up a manual of strictly Confucian meditation, such as that of “recovering [the original state of mind] in seven days”.
Right Thoughts at the Last Moment
Authors: Stone Jacqueline I.
Published: May 2017

Buddhists across Asia have often sought to die, as the Buddha himself is said to have done, with a clear and focused mind. This study explores the reception and development in early medieval Japan (roughly, tenth through fourteenth centuries) of the ideal of “dying with right mindfulness” (rinjū shōnen) and the discourses and practices in which it was embedded. By concentrating one’s thoughts on the Buddha at the moment of death, it was said, even the most evil person could escape the round of deluded rebirth and achieve birth in the Pure Land; conversely, even the slightest mental distraction at that juncture could send the most devout practitioner tumbling down into the evil realms. The ideal of mindful death thus generated both hope and anxiety and created a demand for ritual specialists who could help the dying to negotiate this crucial juncture. Examination of hagiographies, ritual manuals, doctrinal writings, didactic tales, diaries, and historical records uncovers the multiple, sometimes contradictory logics by which medieval Japanese approached death. Deathbed practices also illuminate broader issues in medieval Japanese religion that crossed social levels and sectarian lines, including intellectual developments, devotional practices, pollution concerns, ritual performance, and divisions of labor among religious professionals.
Customary Connection to Land and Practices of Resilience
Authors: Stead Victoria C.
Published: May 2017

An ethnography of Cacavei, a rural subsistence community in eastern Timor-Leste, provides a case study for theorizing customary connection to land. When the community was displaced during the period of Indonesian occupation, forms of customary connection to land—including ritual practice, gardening, burial, and story-telling—were a source of resilience in the face of enormous change and suffering. In Cacavei, and in other communities where customary forms of sociality endure, people and land are mutually constitutive. Customary sociality privileges embodied, face-to-face encounters, but in the emphasis placed on genealogical continuity across time it also accords importance to relationships with the dead, with spirits, and with the yet-unborn. Connection to land plays a key role in mediating the abstraction of physical death, with relations to ancestors and other disembodied kin embedded in the land itself, and thus given material form. The capacity to negotiate abstraction underpins the resilience and negotiability of customary systems.
Epilogue
Authors: Kimura Aya Hirata , Suryanata Krisnawati
Published: May 2017

The chapter provides a synthesis and highlights important themes that emerge from the collection, including the class and race biases in food localization projects; the need to integrate the socio-cultural dimension in food debates; the controversies surrounding the development of GM crops; and the place of local food in tourism-dependent places. Each chapter in the volume critically analyzes the different initiatives within the political economy context, identifying the pitfalls and contradictions that might threaten the effectiveness of the initiatives, while highlighting the diverse potential to engage citizens in food democracy.
Tracing the Itinerant Path
Authors: Griffiths Caitilin J.
Published: May 2017

This study introduces the jishū nuns who participated alongside monks as fellow practitioners—not as wives, daughters, or mothers. They were partners in a Pure Land religious school devoted to encompassing the world with the name Amida Buddha through their continuous chanting of the nembutsu. The popularity of the jishū rose in Japan during the late thirteenth century and continues to operate today, now as the Ji-sect. This book focuses on the activities of the nuns from the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, before the various jishū groups were united into a single sect. During this time, female members were entrusted to run local practice halls which were mixed gender. They offered memorial services and other rituals to local lay believers and participated in itinerant missions, traveling across the provinces reaching out to as many people as possible. The prominent roles and history of these nuns and jishū’s mixed-gender past have been largely forgotten. This book is a step forward in bringing back the lost voices of the women, demonstrating how they held decisive roles in the formation, spread, and popularity of this religious movement.
Introduction
Authors: Griffiths Caitilin J.
Published: May 2017

The jishū, both the individuals and the groups, cannot be understood without considering the surrounding historical setting of the medieval world. The mixed-gender nature of the jishū is unsurprising when we recognize the society they addressed were already accustomed to religiously inspired men and women traveling and conducting spiritual rituals for local communities.
Writing Pregnancy in Low-Fertility Japan
Authors: Seaman Amanda C.
Published: May 2017

Writing Pregnancy in Low Fertility Japan analyzes the literary representations of pregnancy and childbirth by Japanese women in the late twentieth and early twenty-first century—work notable not simply for the diversity of views it encompasses, but for the wide range of genres in which it has taken shape. These texts reveal complex political, personal, and social concerns, ranging from the role and nature of the woman’s body, to her place in the family, to the meaning of motherhood for individuals and for society. Their authors engage with these issues, drawing on a range of literary techniques and frameworks to talk about the role of motherhood and the impact that it has on their lives and their work. This "pregnancy literature" serves as an important yet rarely considered forum for exploring and debating not only the particular experiences of the pregnant mother-to-be, but the broader concerns of Japanese women about their bodies, their families, their life choices, and their aspirations.
Afterword
Authors: Seaman Amanda C.
Published: May 2017

This chapter explores the role of women in late twentieth and twenty-first century Japan and explores how young women look at marriage and the family. Young women, often the focus of the Japanese media, are refusing to get married or have children in larger and larger numbers. This refusal is cataloged in a number of humorous books and essays by female cultural critics such as Sakai Junko, famous for her book Howl of a Loser Dog, Kusunoki Potosu who comes from the field of organic farming, and Haishi Kaori, a journalist. Using all the same demographic data, they make the case that fewer children are better for women and for Japan as a whole.
Numinous Awareness Is Never Dark
Authors: Buswell Jr. Robert E.
Published: May 2017

Numinous Awareness is Never Dark examines the issue of whether enlightenment in Zen Buddhism is sudden or gradual: that is, something achieved in a sudden flash of insight, or through the gradual development of a sequential series of practices. In Excerpts, the Korean Zen master Chinul (1158-1210) offers one of the most thorough treatments of this “sudden/gradual issue” in all of premodern East Asian Buddhist literature, including extensive quotations from a wide range of his predecessors in Chinese and Korean Buddhism on the sudden/gradual issue. In Chinul’s analysis, enlightenment is actually both sudden and gradual: an initial sudden awakening to the numinous awareness, the buddha-nature, that is inherent in all sentient beings, followed by gradual cultivation that removes the deep-seated habitual proclivities of thought and conduct that continue to appear even after awakening. Chinul’s preferred approach of “sudden awakening/gradual cultivation” becomes emblematic of the subsequent Korean Buddhist tradition. In addition to an extensive study of the contours of the sudden/gradual debate in Buddhist thought and practice, the book also includes a complete, copiously annotated translation of Chinul’s magnum opus. In Buswell’s treatment, Chinul’s Excerpts emerges as the single most influential work ever written by a Korean Buddhist author.
Usability evaluation of an interactive decision support system for user-guided design of scenarios of watershed conservation practices
Authors: Piemonti Adriana D. , Macuga Kristen L. , Babbar-Sebens Meghna
Published: May 2017

This paper evaluated user interaction with the graphical user interface of WRESTORE, an environmental decision support system (EDSS) for watershed planning that utilizes user ratings of design alternatives to guide optimization. The following usability metrics were collected for stakeholders as well as surrogates (who are often used for DSS development due to time or cost constraints): task times across sequential sessions, percentage of time spent and of mouse clicking in different areas of interest, and trends in self-reported user confidence levels. Task times conformed to theoretical models of learning curves. Stakeholders, however, spent 15% more time and made 14% more mouse clicks in information gathering areas than surrogates. Confidence levels increased over time in 67% of stakeholders, but only in 29% of surrogates. Relationships between time spent or mouse clicking events and confidence level trends indicated that confidence ratings increased over time for users who conducted more information gathering. This study highlights the importance of increasing user interactions within information gathering areas of an interface to improve user-guided search, and suggests that developers should exercise caution when using surrogates as proxies for stakeholders. It also demonstrates a quantitative way to evaluate EDSS that could assist others developing similar tools.
Projections of runoff in the Vistula and the Odra river basins with the help of the SWAT model
Authors: Piniewski Mikołaj , Szcześniak Mateusz , Huang Shaochun , Kundzewicz Zbigniew W.
Published: May 2017

The objective of this paper is to assess climate change impacts on spatiotemporal changes in annual and seasonal runoff and its components in the basins of two large European rivers, the Vistula and the Odra, for future horizons. This study makes use of the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) model, set up at high resolution, and driven by a multi-model ensemble (MME) of nine bias-corrected EURO-CORDEX simulations under two representative concentration pathways (RCPs), 4.5 and 8.5. This paper presents a wealth of illustrative material referring to the annual and seasonal runoff (R) in the reference period as well as projections for the future (MME mean change), with explicit illustration of the multi-model spread based on the agreement between models and statistical significance of change according to each model. Annual R increases are dominating, regardless of RCP and future horizon. The magnitude of the MME mean of spatially averaged increase varies between 15.8% (RCP 4.5, near future) and 41.6% (RCP 8.5, far future). The seasonal patterns show the highest increase in winter and the lowest in spring, whereas the spatial patterns show the highest increase in the inner, lowland part, and the lowest in the southern mountainous part of the basin.
A novel system of indicators for evaluating system resilience of regional agricultural water resources
Authors: Liu Dong , Ding Yang , Fu Qiang , Zhao Dan , Khan Muhammad Imran , Li Tianxiao , Faiz Muhammad Abrar
Published: May 2017

Constructing a reasonable evaluation index system is important for characterizing water and land resources and for ecological restoration. To solve random and incomplete problems using a traditional evaluation index system, a novel model for evaluating regional agricultural water resources using a resilience index system was proposed. In addition, a new method for an evaluation index system and the filtering of key indicators were investigated. Based on the structural characteristics of a regional agricultural water resource system (AWRS), the model for an evaluation index system was built by constructing a hierarchical indicator architecture using a hierarchical framework model. The index weight was calculated using criteria importance through intercriteria correlation (CRITIC). Then, index completeness was ensured using principal component analysis, and the reliability of the results was tested using the analytic hierarchy process. The model was applied to the Jiansanjiang Administration of Agricultural Reclamation in Heilongjiang, China. The main results included the following: (1) the index was optimized from 46 to 32, which identified the key indicators that affect the resilience of the Jiansanjiang Administration AWRS, and (2) an evaluation index system was constructed with a completeness of 85.6%. The results of this study provide an important and practical model for studying the resilience of related resources and environmental fields.
Effect of cycle run time of backwash and relaxation on membrane fouling removal in submerged membrane bioreactor treating sewage at higher flux
Authors: Tabraiz Shamas , Haydar Sajjad , Sallis Paul , Nasreen Sadia , Mahmood Qaisar , Awais Muhammad , Acharya Kishor
Published: May 2017

Intermittent backwashing and relaxation are mandatory in the membrane bioreactor (MBR) for its effective operation. The objective of the current study was to evaluate the effects of run-relaxation and run-backwash cycle time on fouling rates. Furthermore, comparison of the effects of backwashing and relaxation on the fouling behavior of membrane in high rate submerged MBR. The study was carried out on a laboratory scale MBR at high flux (30 L/m2·h), treating sewage. The MBR was operated at three relaxation operational scenarios by keeping the run time to relaxation time ratio constant. Similarly, the MBR was operated at three backwashing operational scenarios by keeping the run time to backwashing time ratio constant. The results revealed that the provision of relaxation or backwashing at small intervals prolonged the MBR operation by reducing fouling rates. The cake and pores fouling rates in backwashing scenarios were far less as compared to the relaxation scenarios, which proved backwashing a better option as compared to relaxation. The operation time of backwashing scenario (lowest cycle time) was 64.6% and 21.1% more as compared to continuous scenario and relaxation scenario (lowest cycle time), respectively. Increase in cycle time increased removal efficiencies insignificantly, in both scenarios of relaxation and backwashing.
Sediment transport modeling in deposited bed sewers: unified form of May's equations using the particle swarm optimization algorithm
Authors: Safari Mir Jafar Sadegh , Shirzad Akbar , Mohammadi Mirali
Published: May 2017

May proposed two dimensionless parameters of transport (η) and mobility (Fs) for self-cleansing design of sewers with deposited bed condition. The relationships between those two parameters were introduced in conditional form for specific ranges of Fs, which makes it difficult to use as a practical tool for sewer design. In this study, using the same experimental data used by May and employing the particle swarm optimization algorithm, a unified equation is recommended based on η and Fs. The developed model is compared with original May relationships as well as corresponding models available in the literature. A large amount of data taken from the literature is used for the models' evaluation. The results demonstrate that the developed model in this study is superior to May and other existing models in the literature. Due to the fact that in May's dimensionless parameters more effective variables in the sediment transport process in sewers with deposited bed condition are considered, it is concluded that the revised May equation proposed in this study is a reliable model for sewer design.
Experimental power of laboratory-scale results and transferability to full-scale anaerobic digestion
Authors: Lüdtke Maximilian , Nordberg Åke , Baresel Christian
Published: May 2017

Anaerobic digestion is today internationally acknowledged as an environmentally sound process for energy and nutrient recovery from organic wastes, and it is the dominant sludge treatment technology in most countries’ wastewater treatment plants. Laboratory- or pilot-scale experiments are commonly used as a first step to investigate the potential of new ideas or to confirm research hypothesis before confirmation in full-scale. The objectives of this study were to investigate transferability of methane yield assessments between laboratory- and full-scale, and to compare the influence of experimental uncertainties on experimental power in parallel continuous digester experiments for the two scales. Both batch experiment data (used in a simple equation), as well as continuous laboratory experiments, could be used to predict full-scale methane yield with a high accuracy (<5% difference). Full-scale digesters significantly outperformed hand-fed laboratory digesters in terms of experimental power regarding relative differences in methane yield between two digesters operated in parallel. However, to justify costly long-term continuous laboratory-scale experiments with sufficient experimental power and potentially high transferability, resources also have to be allocated to measures that ensure a high data quality from full-scale reference facilities.
Molecular Systematics, Taxonomy and Distribution of the Pyrrhura Picta–Leucotis Complex
Authors: Arndt Thomas , Wink Michael
Published: May 2017

Introduction:

The relationships within the Pyrrhura species complex are partly unresolved. In this study, a comprehensive phylogenetic analysis of the Pyrrhura picta-leucotis complex was carried out, covering all species except P. subandina.

Material and Methods:

We made a morphological analysis of 745 preserved specimens of all the taxa in different museums. Nucleotide sequences of the mitochondrial cytochrome gene were generated and used to reconstruct a molecular phylogeny of Pyrrhura.

Results and Discussion:

Our results show that the complex is divided into 6 main groups comprising 15 species. P. dilutissima, regarded up to now as a subspecies of P. peruviana, acquires species status and three new subspecies are described. We also provide evidence that P. roseifrons is a paraphyletic group, indicating the existence of probably 3 lineages of which 2 deserve species status.
Sonifying the Solar System
Authors: Quinton Michael , McGregor Iain , Benyon David
Published: May 2017

Sound is potentially an effective way of analysing data and it is possible to simultaneously interpret layers of sounds and identify changes. Multiple attempts to use sound with scientific data have been made, with varying levels of success. On many occasions this was done without including the end user during the development. In this study a sonified model of the 8 planets of our solar system was built and tested using an end user approach. The sonification was created for the Esplora Planetarium, which is currently being constructed in Malta. The data requirements were gathered from a member of the planetarium staff, and 12 end users, as well as the planetarium representative tested the sonification. The results suggest that listeners were able to discern various planetary characteristics without requiring any additional information. Three out of eight sound design parameters did not represent characteristics successfully. These issues have been identified and further development will be conducted in order to improve the model.
3D Time-Based Aural Data Representation Using D4 Library’s Layer Based Amplitude Panning Algorithm
Authors: Bukvic Ivica Ivo
Published: May 2017

The following paper introduces a new Layer Based Amplitude Panning algorithm and supporting D4 library of rapid prototyping tools for the 3D time-based data representation using sound. The algorithm is designed to scale and support a broad array of conﬁgurations, with particular focus on High Density Loudspeaker Arrays (HDLAs). The supporting rapid prototyping tools are designed to leverage oculocentric strategies to importing, editing, and rendering data, offering an array of innovative approaches to spatial data editing and representation through the use of sound in HDLA scenarios. The ensuing D4 ecosystem aims to address the shortcomings of existing approaches to spatial aural representation of data, offers unique opportunities for furthering research in the spatial data audiﬁcation and soniﬁcation, as well as transportable and scalable spatial media creation and production.
Investigation of ITD Symmetry in Measured HRIRs
Authors: Genovese Andrea F. , Juras Jordan , Miller Chris , Roginska Agnieszka
Published: May 2017

The Interaural Time Difference is one of the primary localiza- tion cues for 3D sound. However, due to differences in head and ear anthropometry across the population, ITDs related to a sound source at a given location around the head will differ from sub- ject to subject. Furthermore, most individuals do not possess sym- metrical traits between the left and right pinnae. This fact may cause an angle-dependent ITD asymmetry between locations mir- rored across the left and right hemispheres. This paper describes an exploratory analysis performed on publicly available databases of individually measured HRIRs. The analysis was first performed separately for each dataset in order to explore the impact of dif- ferent formats and measurement techniques, and then on pooled sets of repositories, in order to obtain statistical information closer to the population values. Asymmetry in ITDs was found to be consistently more prominent in the rear-lateral angles (approxi- mately between 90° and 130° azimuth) across all databases inves- tigated, suggesting the presence of a sensitive region. A signifi- cant difference between the peak asymmetry values and the aver- age asymmetry across all angles was found on three out of four examined datasets. These results were further explored by pooling the datasets together, which revealed an asymmetry peak at 110° that also showed significance. Moreover, it was found that within the region of sensitivity the difference between specular ITDs ex- ceeds the just noticeable difference values for perceptual discrim- ination at all frequency bands. These findings validate the sta- tistical presence of ITD asymmetry in public datasets of individ- ual HRIRs and identify a significant, perceptually-relevant, region of increased asymmetry. Details of these results are of interest for HRIR modeling and personalization techniques, which should consider implementing compensation for asymmetric ITDs when aiming for perceptually accurate binaural displays. This work is part of a larger study aimed at binaural-audio personalization and user-characterization through non-invasive techniques.
Binaural Spatialisation Over a Bone Conduction Headset: Elevation Perception
Authors: Barde Amit , Lee Gun , Helton William S. , Billinghurst Mark
Published: May 2017

Preliminary results from an on-going experiment exploring the localisation accuracy of a binaurally processed source displayed via a bone conduction headset are described. These results appear to point to decreased localisation accuracy in the horizontal plane when the vertical component is introduced. There also appears to be a significant compression in the area directly in front of the observer ± 15° in elevation from 0°. This suggests that participants tended to localise stimuli presented at elevations greater than and less than ± 30° within a 30° ‘window’ extending 15° vertically either above or below the horizontal plane defined by the 0° azimuth. The results gathered until now suggest that binaural spatialisation over a bone conduction headset can also reproduce the perception of an elevated source to an acceptable degree of accuracy.