bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Touch, Trust and Compliance in Early Modern Medical Practice
Authors: Klestinec Cynthia
Published: January 2018

There are references to poxes and bloodletting elsewhere in The Alchemist, but Jonson uses the ordinary experience of barbering, and the familiar relationship between barber and patient, to ponder the dangers of the razor. By way of that razor, the scene highlights the problem of trust between these tricksters. Note that Face needs a shave but that he acknowledges the potential dangers of his cohort’s touch. Can he trust Subtle? Specifically, can he trust Subtle’s touch and his use of the blade? Or, in Face’s words, ‘And not cut my throat, but trim me?’ Although the play conducts us through urban marketplaces, alchemical fantasies, the laboratory and vice, Jonson evokes a medical setting and the familiar encounter between barber and patient (client) to present a highly charged moment of estrangement and negotiation. Barbering was ordinary, a part of hygiene and a means for securing health.2 But in this newly competitive environment of the marketplace, both the relation between barber and patient and the activities of the barber are potentially transformed.
Breathing and Breathlessness in Clinic and Culture: Using Critical Medical Humanities to Bridge an Epistemic Gap
Authors: Macnaughton Jane , Carel Havi
Published: January 2018

A central tenet of critical medical humanities is the claim that biomedicine does not hold all the keys to understanding the experience of illness, how responses to treatment are mediated, or how outcomes and prognosis are revealed over time. We further suggest that biomedicine cannot wholly explain how illness may be expressed physiologically. So much that influences that expression derives from cultural context, emotional response, and how illness is interpreted and understood that this knowledge cannot be exhausted with the tools of biomedicine.
Afterword: The Body and The Senses
Authors: Winning Jo
Published: January 2018

What IS a body? What are its boundaries and its contours? Can we ever really know the body in its entirety, or only ever in its parts? How do we come to know the body through the senses? And what does it mean to be a body and to encounter the body of the Other? Such questions resonate across the divide between the domains of philosophical and critical thought and clinical medicine, as likely to be asked by a doctor as by a humanities scholar. Yet the answers either might give would be spoken in radically different locations, utilise separate vocabularies and registers, and draw on distinct paradigms and histories, suggesting that there is no way to talk across these different domains. It is one of the key tasks of the critical medical humanities to establish a transdisciplinary dialogue across this divide, offering clinical medicine new terms and concepts to strengthen its ongoing dealings with the human body. An initial entry point into the drama and complexity of the questions
Trans-Species Entanglements: Animal Assistants in Narratives About Autism
Authors: Herman David
Published: January 2018

In Rupert Isaacson’s The Horse Boy, a 2009 memoir about Isaacson’s and his spouse’s experiences raising their autistic son, Rowan, Isaacson suggests that Rowan has a special connection with animals. Similarly, in Nuala Gardner’s 2007 autism memoir, A Friend like Henry, blurbed as ‘the remarkable true story of an autistic boy and the dog that unlocked his world’, Gardner portrays her autistic son Dale as being especially attuned to animals – in this case, the family’s golden retriever, Henry.
Afterword: Health, Care, Citizens
Authors: Murray Stuart
Published: January 2018

Care’ is a shifting, plural word when used in the context of discussions of health. It suggests attention and compassion when articulated as a verb, but has overtures of regulation and control when used as a noun – to be ‘in care’ is usually not unproblematic. Two chapters in this section – those by Sarah Atkinson and Lucy Burke – speak specifically to the complexities of this idea. As Atkinson makes clear in her chapter, care invokes questions of resource just as much as it outlines interpersonal relationships; it presents what she terms ‘dilemmas, paradoxes and challenges’ when conceived of as a totality and, especially in global contexts, suggests entangled modes of time and space.
The Incurable-Image
Authors: Elhaik Tarek
Published: January 2018

From the 1990s onwards the ‘ethnographic turn in contemporary art’ has generated intense dialogues between anthropologists, artists and curators. While ethnography has been both generously and problematically re-appropriated by the art world, curation has seldom caught the conceptual attention of anthropologists. Based on two years of participant-observation in Mexico City, this book addresses this lacuna by examining the concept-work of curatorial platforms and media artists. Prompted by the ongoing critiques of Mexicanist aesthetics, and what Roger Bartra calls ‘the post-Mexican condition’, the book conceptualises curation less as an exhibition-oriented practice within a national culture, than as a figure of care and an image of thought animating a complex assemblage of inter-medial practices, from experimental cinema and installations to curatorial collaborations. Drawing on Gilles Deleuze and Paul Rabinow, the book introduces the concept of the ‘incurable-image’, an antidote to our curatorial malaise and the ethical substance for a post-social anthropology of images.
Defending Diversity in an Era of Populism: Multiculturalism and Interculturalism Compared
Authors: Kymlicka Will
Published: January 2018

This chapter contends that interculturalists may think they are defending diversity, but their crude anti multiculturalist rhetoric may play into the hands of xenophobes who reject both multiculturalism and interculturalism. It focuses on the intercultural strategy to build a new political narrative in which interculturalism emerges from the alleged failed extremes of multiculturalism. The chapter also asks whether this new narrative can work to energize pro-diversity forces and to undercut support for populism. The answer is uncertain, for interculturalist narratives have too often left untouched exclusionary accounts of nationhood, and unintentionally legitimised populist narratives about the untrustworthy nature of mainstream elites on issues of diversity.
Diverging Ways: On the Trajectories of Ontology in Parmenides, Aristotle, and Deleuze
Authors: Greenstine Abraham Jacob
Published: January 2018

Abraham Jacob Greenstine’s “Diverging Ways: On the Trajectories of Ontology in Parmenides, Aristotle, and Deleuze” asks what is ontology – how do we speak being? Starting from Deleuze’s claim that there is only one ontology, Greenstine successively interrogates the projects of Parmenides, Aristotle, and Deleuze. These three, in dialogue with one another, agree that there is some discourse on being, but disagree about its scope, method, and content. For Parmenides, ontology is a path to the truth, a narrative that leads us to attributes of being itself. For Aristotle, ontology is a knowledge of the first principles, an account that clarifies the many senses of being in order to recognize the divine cause of being itself. For Deleuze, ontology expresses only a single proposition, and being has but a single attribute: being is univocal. By contrasting these projects, Greenstine seeks to outline ontology as such.
Getting to a Wealthier and Fairer Scotland
Authors: Keating Michael , Liñeira Robert
Published: January 2018

Scotland has some of the prerequisites for a social investment state. Yet the division of powers between the Scottish and UK levels in relation to taxation and welfare is not optimal. The Scottish Government has reformed its policy-making structures but still has shortcomings in planning for the long term. While public opinion in Scotland supports spending on public services from which citiziens benefit, it is only slightly more favourable to redistribution than in England. The experience of other counrties shows that citizens will support public spending and the resultant taxes if they know that they will get good services.
Reimagining Grand Strategy
Authors: Löfflmann Georg
Published: January 2018

This chapter provides an introduction into the concepts of grand strategy and geopolitics, and their conventional conceptualization in the International Relations (IR) literature. This is juxtaposed with the main theoretical and methodological perspectives developed by the literature in critical security studies and critical geopolitics that have informed the theoretical-methodological framework guiding the book’s critical discourse analysis. The chapter provides a detailed exploration of the key concepts of power/knowledge, discourse, intertextuality, and identity that are applied to the study of American grand strategy under Obama and detailed in the subsequent chapters. The chapter introduces the three basic discourse of American grand strategy under Obama (hegemony, engagement, and restraint) and the concept of hybrid discourses: hegemonic engagement and hegemonic restraint that juxtapose identity and practice.
Modern Arabic Literature
Authors: Snir Reuven
Published: January 2018

This book provides a comprehensive theoretical framework for the study of the literary history of the diverse production of contemporary Arabic literary texts and the reasons for their canonization. Based on the achievements of historical poetics, the book offers flexible, transparent, and unbiased tools for understanding these texts and their contexts. The aim is to enhance understanding of Arabic literature, throw light on areas of literary production that traditionally have been neglected, and stimulate others to take up the challenge of mapping out and exploring them. Three categories are used: The first is the investigation of the literary dynamics in synchronic cross-section ― potential inventories of canonized and non-canonized texts in both the standard language, fuṣḥā, and the vernacular, ‘āmmiyya, in three subsystems: texts for adults, children’s literature, and translated texts for adults and children. The internal and external interrelations and interactions between the various subsystems need to be studied if we wish to arrive at a comprehensive understanding of Arabic literature. The second category consists of the study of the historical outlines of the literary system’s diachronic development, that is, the interactions with other extra-literary systems that have determined the historical course of Arabic literature since the nineteenth century. The third category is intended to concentrate on the historical diachronic development that each genre underwent and on the relationships between the various genres. Since literary genres do not emerge in a vacuum, the issue of generic development cannot be confined to certain time spans; emphasis must be laid on the relationship between modern literature and classical and postclassical literature.
The Politics of Arabic in Israel
Authors: Suleiman Camelia
Published: January 2018

Arabic became a minority language in Israel in 1948, as a result of the Palestinian exodus from their land that year. Although it remains an official language, along with Hebrew, Israel has made continued attempts to marginalise Arabic on the one hand, and secutise it on the other. The book delves into these tensions and contradictions, exploring how language policy and language choice both reflect and challenge political identities of Arabs and Israelis. It combines qualitative methods not commonly used together in the study of Arabic in Israel, including ethnography, interviews with journalists and students, media discussions, and analysis of the production of knowledge on Arabic in Israeli academia.
The Oedipal Animal? Companion Species and Becoming
Authors: Bednarek Joanna
Published: January 2018

This chapter raises the issue of Deleuze and Guattari’s tendency to perpetuate the anthropocentric limitations of philosophy. Does Capitalism and Schizophrenia provides us with tools for dismantling anthropocentrism or is it another majoritarian philosophical work centering on the human being? What is the position of empirical, ‘molar’ nonhuman animals in Deleuze and Guattari’s philosophy? When answering these questions, the chapter focuses on the category of becoming-animal, and juxtaposes it with Donna Haraway’s concepts of ‘co-evolution’, ‘becoming-with’ and ‘companion species.’ Haraway’s critique of the wolf-dog opposition in A Thousand Plateaus shows that its authors do little more there than employ conventional imagery of domestic and wild animals. Using Haraway’s term, becoming could be modified into becoming-with in order to stress the reality of a molar dimension of the minor term of becoming as well as the connection between molecular transformations occurring in the process of becoming and their effect on the molar being of the minor term. From this perspective, the history of humans’ and dogs’ co-evolution may be viewed as a space in which becoming-with can take place.
Music-Becoming-Animal in Works by Grisey, Aperghis and Levinas
Authors: Campbell Edward
Published: January 2018

The concept of ‘becoming-animal’ has rich potential for a discussion of a number of recent musical artworks. It links Deleuze and Guattari not only with Olivier Messiaen, the bird-lover par excellence, but also with composers Gérard Grisey, Michaël Levinas and Georges Aperghis. With Levinas's sonic hybridisations in the Ouverture pour une fête étrange (1979) sound is amplified to the point that it becomes ‘an almost animal living mob’. In the experimental music theatre piece Avis de tempête (2004) Georges Aperghis produces a ‘fetish reading' of Moby Dick in which 'Melville's universe impregnates the entire spectacle'. While the great whale does not appear anywhere in the libretto, the theme of fragmented subjectivity is prominent throughout. Finally, the temporalities at play in late works by Gérard Grisey embody aspects of animality. In Le Temps et l'écume (1989), three times – 'normal', extremely compressed and extremely slow, indicate the temporal frames of humans, birds and whales, and follow one another successively in the formal unfolding of the work. Beyond the representational or imitative qualities of earlier musics, the chapter argues that in each of these works, a Deleuze-Guattarian diagram is drawn in which music no longer evokes animality but rather itself becomes animal.
Deleuze and Roxy: The Time of the Intolerable and Godard’s Adieu au langage
Authors: Bogue Ronald
Published: January 2018

Focusing specifically on Jean-Luc Godard’s experimental 3-D outing, Adieu au langage (2014), this chapter equates becoming-animal (manifested through Godard’s dog, Roxy) with the time of the intolerable, a crisis in the action-image which precludes any absorption of affect within the sensory-motor schema. In this sense, Roxy becomes an immanent, animistic force that remakes the world (and by extension, as in all of Godard’s films, cinema itself) into a protean force of becoming, where even 3-D bifurcates and deterritorialises as a new form of machinic fabulation. In the case of the intolerable, where our sensory-motor schema is allowed to jam or break, a different type of image appears, what Deleuze calls a pure optical-sound image: ‘opsigns’ and ‘sonsigns’, images where the seen and heard no longer extend into action. In Adieu au langage, Godard’s use of 3D also offers a new kind of time-image, a lectosign (a visual image which must be ‘read’ as much as seen) that requires the eye’s negotiation of conflicting points of attention within the shot, thereby inducing crisis and the intolerable within the image itself.
Introduction: Interpassivity Today
Authors: Pfaller Robert
Published: January 2018

The Introduction explains the notion of interpassivity as the pleasure in letting others consume (instead of work) in one’s place. It illustrates the relevance and topicality of the concept. Crucial aspects of current "cultural capitalism" that sells not so much just goods but instead feelings and lifestyles, rely on a dimension of interpassivity: For example, the current popularity of off-road cars and so-called SUVs can be explained by the fact that these cars give people a feeling of being in the countryside without actually having to go there.
Little Gestures of Disappearance: Interpassivity and the Theory of Ritual
Authors: Pfaller Robert
Published: January 2018

There is a recurrent remark in many anthropological studies concerning ritual: the more people believe (for instance in their religion), the less they appear willing to follow this very religion’s rituals. This hostility reveals a question proper to the theory of interpassivity: Is it possible that people suspect ritual not to express their inner beliefs, but rather to replace them? Is ritual a vicarious agent that renders inner conviction superfluous? Do we have to conclude for cultural history in general that which Freud did for fetishism, namely: that the colourful materiality of the ritual and its objects is, in fact, the symptom of an abandoned belief?
What Reveals the Taste of the City: The Ethics of Urbanity
Authors: Pfaller Robert
Published: January 2018

Urbanity, a notion that originates in the discourses on rhetoric, designates an ethics proper to the city: a witty, distanced behaviour that replaces the authentic person by the playful enactment of a role. This involves - as every theatre - the presence of an illusion; a certain ‘as if’; a deception, yet one that does not deceive anybody. The belief in the illusion becomes interpassively delegated to a kind of virtual, naive observer. Postmodernity, with its obsession with questions of true identity, can be seen as the key enemy of this urban role-play. It thus contributes to the neoliberal privatization and destruction of urban, public space.
“Making” Americans from Foreigners
Authors: Hudson Dale
Published: January 2018

Although conventional studies look to the earliest surviving vampire film, Prana-Films’ Nosferatu (1922) as source for visual codes and narrative conventions in Hollywood vampire media, this chapter locates them in segregation comedies, immigration romances, and miscegenation melodramas. These films establish conventions that facilitate or inhibit foreigners being americanized. Since citizenship for women was derivative from fathers or husbands, foreign women were considered less threatening. Consequently, male immigrants in Edison Company shorts (1895–1896), industrial and state recruitment films, and commercial entertainments, such as Alice Guy-Blaché’s Making an American Citizen (1912), Cecil B. DeMille’s The Cheat (1915), D.W. Griffith’s Broken Blossoms (1919), and George Melford’s The Sheik (1921), serve as cinematic prototypes for classical Hollywood’s vampires. Within these narratives of americanizing foreigners, the afterlives of race emerge in relation to sex and nativity around issues of universal citizenship and sovereign territory.
International Hollywood Vampires: Cosmopolitanisms of “Foreign Movies”
Authors: Hudson Dale
Published: January 2018

After belated awareness of racism, specifically anti-Semitism within European fascism, not only did postwar US immigration policies change but so too did Hollywood’s vampire films. This chapter probes Hollywood’s international financing of films in the United Kingdom, runaway productions in Europe and the Philippines, and Mexican and Philippine films that were re-edited and dubbed for US markets. Deterritorialized from Los Angeles, Hollywood produces categories of foreign movies alongside domestically shot studio and independent films, evident in Horror of Dracula (1958), Samson Versus the Vampire Women (1962/1963) and Horror of the Blood Monsters (1970). Other films within this analytic parody in imperial-inflected cosmopolitanism of foreign movies, notably The Fearless Vampire Killers, or Pardon Me, Your Teeth Are in My Neck (1967) and Blood for Dracula (1974). Since film circulation operates according to ethnic/racial and national hierarchies in immigration and naturalization law, postwar films unsettle assumptions.
Arrested Development: Utopian Desires, Designs and Deferrals in Man and Superman and John Bull’s Other Island
Authors: Cannon Harris Susan
Published: January 2018

This chapter draws on queer theories of futurity and the history of British socialism to explore Shaw’s radical ambivalence about Irishness and about utopian desire – which were, for him, intimately linked. Shaw’s repudiation of socialist praxis in favor of reproductive futurism in Man and Superman masks his shame about the anti-productivity associated with Irishness. Shaw’s treatment of Ireland and Irishness in Man and Superman, nevertheless, becomes an outlet for his deep discomfort with the developmental logic undergirding both evolutionary theory and capitalism. Shaw recognised the Ireland depicted by the Irish Players during their London visits in 1903 and 1904 as a place outside of developmental logic, in which Shaw might re-present the utopian desires he had rejected after the Avenue Theatre catastrophe. By excavating the role that Ebenezer Howard’s Garden City project once played in John Bull’s construction, this chapter shows how deeply bound up Shaw’s first Irish play was with the socialist dream of land nationalization and with William Morris’s faith in design. Through a reading of Father Keegan, this chapter argues that the play’s failure to develop a coherent plot helps preserve the hope that Ireland might yet become the site of radical change.
Envoi
Authors: Plock Vike Martina
Published: January 2018

It is 1956, the height of the Cold War. The year will end in the Suez Crisis and the Hungarian Uprising. Edith Wharton and Virginia Woolf have both been dead for a while, Jean Rhys is all but forgotten and Rosamond Lehmann’s career as a novelist is on the wane....
Agile Attitude Control and Singularity Avoidance/Escape by the SDRE Method Using a Biased State-Dependent Weighting Matrix
Authors: Ozawa Ryotaro , Takahashi Masaki
Published: January 2018

In recent years there has been an increasing need to improve satellite attitude control performance in terms of agility and attitude accuracy in large-angle attitude maneuvers. To achieve such control performance, single-gimbal control moment gyros (SGCMGs) should be mounted as modern-type actuators. Conventionally, based on the torque command calculated by the attitude control system of the satellite, SGCMGs were controlled by solving inverse kinematics through a pseudo inverse matrix steering law. However, in such a control system structure, it may be difficult to obtain the desired torque required by the attitude control system because of the singularity problem of SGCMGs. Furthermore, with respect to implementation, since the condition number of the Jacobian matrix of SGCMG becomes extremely large in the singularity, the numerical calculation error of the pseudo inverse matrix increases greatly. Therefore, we propose an overall control system that can solve above-described problems and the state-dependent Riccati equation (SDRE) control system that integrates the satellite and SGCMG system. The proposed optimal control system, which does not solve the pseudo inverse matrix, can realize gimbal angle guidance by gimbal angle feedback and singularity avoidance/escape using the biased weighting matrix. In the numerical simulation, the usefulness of proposed system is shown in comparison with the conventional system.
Genetically Fused T4L Acts as a Shield in Covalent Enzyme Immobilisation Enhancing the Rescued Activity
Authors: Planchestainer Matteo , Roura Padrosa David , Contente Martina , Paradisi Francesca
Published: January 2018

Enzyme immobilisation is a common strategy to increase enzymes resistance and reusability in a variety of excellent ‘green’ applications. However, the interaction with the solid support often leads to diminished specific activity, especially when non-specific covalent binding to the carrier takes place which affects the delicate architecture of the enzyme. Here we developed a broadly applicable strategy where the T4-lysozyme (T4L) is genetically fused at the N-terminus of different enzymes and used as inert protein spacer which directly attaches to the carrier preventing shape distortion of the catalyst. Halomonas elongata aminotransferase (HEWT), Bacillus subtilis engineered esterase (BS2m), and horse liver alcohol dehydrogenase (HLADH) were used as model enzymes to elucidate the benefits of the spacer. While HEWT and HLADH activity and expression were diminished by the fused T4L, both enzymes retained almost quantitative activity after immobilisation. In the case of BS2m, the protective effect of the T4L effectively was important and led to up to 10-fold improvement in the rescued activity.
Constructal Optimizations for Heat and Mass Transfers Based on the Entransy Dissipation Extremum Principle, Performed at the Naval University of Engineering: A Review
Authors: Chen Lingen , Xiao Qinghua , Feng Huijun
Published: January 2018

Combining entransy theory with constructal theory, this mini-review paper summarizes the constructal optimization work of heat conduction, convective heat transfer, and mass transfer problems during the authors’ working time in the Naval University of Engineering. The entransy dissipation extremum principle (EDEP) is applied in constructal optimizations, and this paper is divided into three parts. The first part is constructal entransy dissipation rate minimizations of heat conduction and finned cooling problems. It includes constructal optimization for a “volume-to-point” heat-conduction assembly with a tapered element, constructal optimizations for “disc-to-point” heat-conduction assemblies with the premise of an optimized last-order construct and without this premise, and constructal optimizations for four kinds of fin assemblies: T-, Y-, umbrella-, and tree-shaped fins. The second part is constructal entransy dissipation rate minimizations of cooling channel and steam generator problems. It includes constructal optimizations for heat generating volumes with tree-shaped and parallel channels, constructal optimization for heat generating volume cooled by forced convection, and constructal optimization for a steam generator. The third part is constructal entransy dissipation rate minimizations of mass transfer problems. It includes constructal optimizations for “volume-to-point” rectangular assemblies with constant and tapered channels, and constructal optimizations for “disc-to-point” assemblies with the premise of an optimized last-order construct and without this premise. The results of the three parts show that the mean heat transfer temperature differences of the heat conduction assemblies are not always decreased when their internal complexity increases. The average heat transfer rate of the steam generator obtained by entransy dissipation rate maximization is increased by 58.7% compared with that obtained by heat transfer rate maximization. Compared with the rectangular mass transfer assembly with a constant high permeability pathway (HPP), the maximum pressure drops of the element and first-order assembly with tapered HPPs are decreased by 6% and 11%, respectively. The global transfer performances of the transfer bodies are improved after optimizations, and new design guidelines derived by EDEP, which are different from the conventional optimization objectives, are provided.
The Innovative Concept of Cold District Heating Networks: A Literature Review
Authors: Pellegrini Marco , Bianchini Augusto
Published: January 2018

The development of sustainable and innovative solutions for the production and supply of energy at district level is nowadays one of the main technical challenges. In the past, district heating and cooling networks aimed to achieve greater energy efficiency through the centralization of the energy production process but with relevant losses related to heat transport. Moving towards a higher share of renewables and lower demand of primary energy requires redesign of the energy district networks. The novel concept of cold district heating networks aims to combine the advantages of a centralized energy distribution system with low heat losses in energy supply. This combined effect is achieved through the centralized supply of water at relatively low temperatures (in the range 10–25 °C), which is then heated up by decentralized heat pumps. Moreover, cold district heating networks are also very suitable for cooling delivery, since cold water supplying can be directly used for cooling purposes (i.e., free cooling) or to feed decentralized chillers with very high energy efficiency ratio. This paper provides a preliminary literature review of existing cold district heating networks and then qualitatively analyses benefits and drawbacks in comparison with the alternatives currently used to produce heat and cold at district level, including the evaluation of major barriers to its further development.
Multi-Time Scale Model Order Reduction and Stability Consistency Certification of Inverter-Interfaced DG System in AC Microgrid
Authors: Meng Xiaoxiao , Wang Qianggang , Zhou Niancheng , Xiao Shuyan , Chi Yuan
Published: January 2018

AC microgrid mainly comprise inverter-interfaced distributed generators (IIDGs), which are nonlinear complex systems with multiple time scales, including frequency control, time delay measurements, and electromagnetic transients. The droop control-based IIDG in an AC microgrid is selected as the research object in this study, which comprises power droop controller, voltage- and current-loop controllers, and filter and line. The multi-time scale characteristics of the detailed IIDG model are divided based on singular perturbation theory. In addition, the IIDG model order is reduced by neglecting the system fast dynamics. The static and transient stability consistency of the IIDG model order reduction are demonstrated by extracting features of the IIDG small signal model and using the quadratic approximation method of the stability region boundary, respectively. The dynamic response consistencies of the IIDG model order reduction are evaluated using the frequency, damping and amplitude features extracted by the Prony transformation. Results are applicable to provide a simplified model for the dynamic characteristic analysis of IIDG systems in AC microgrid. The accuracy of the proposed method is verified by using the eigenvalue comparison, the transient stability index comparison and the dynamic time-domain simulation.
A Hybrid Approach Combining the Multi-Temporal Scale Spatio-Temporal Network with the Continuous Triangular Model for Exploring Dynamic Interactions in Movement Data: A Case Study of Football
Authors: Zhang Pengdong , Beernaerts Jasper , Van de Weghe Nico
Published: January 2018

Benefiting from recent advantages in location-aware technologies, movement data are becoming ubiquitous. Hence, numerous research topics with respect to movement data have been undertaken. Yet, the research of dynamic interactions in movement data is still in its infancy. In this paper, we propose a hybrid approach combining the multi-temporal scale spatio-temporal network (MTSSTN) and the continuous triangular model (CTM) for exploring dynamic interactions in movement data. The approach mainly includes four steps: first, the relative trajectory calculus (RTC) is used to derive three types of interaction patterns; second, for each interaction pattern, a corresponding MTSSTN is generated; third, for each MTSSTN, the interaction intensity measures and three centrality measures (i.e., degree, betweenness and closeness) are calculated; finally, the results are visualized at multiple temporal scales using the CTM and analyzed based on the generated CTM diagrams. Based on the proposed approach, three distinctive aims can be achieved for each interaction pattern at multiple temporal scales: (1) exploring the interaction intensities between any two individuals; (2) exploring the interaction intensities among multiple individuals, and (3) exploring the importance of each individual and identifying the most important individuals. The movement data obtained from a real football match are used as a case study to validate the effectiveness of the proposed approach. The results demonstrate that the proposed approach is useful in exploring dynamic interactions in football movement data and discovering insightful information.
Real-Time Location-Based Rendering of Urban Underground Pipelines
Authors: Li Wei , Han Yong , Liu Yu , Zhu Chenrong , Ren Yibin , Wang Yanjie , Chen Ge
Published: January 2018

The concealment and complex spatial relationships of urban underground pipelines present challenges in managing them. Recently, augmented reality (AR) has been a hot topic around the world, because it can enhance our perception of reality by overlaying information about the environment and its objects onto the real world. Using AR, underground pipelines can be displayed accurately, intuitively, and in real time. We analyzed the characteristics of AR and their application in underground pipeline management. We mainly focused on the AR pipeline rendering procedure based on the BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS) and simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) technology. First, in aiming to improve the spatial accuracy of pipeline rendering, we used differential corrections received from the Ground-Based Augmentation System to compute the precise coordinates of users in real time, which helped us accurately retrieve and draw pipelines near the users, and by scene recognition the accuracy can be further improved. Second, in terms of pipeline rendering, we used Visual-Inertial Odometry (VIO) to track the rendered objects and made some improvements to visual effects, which can provide steady dynamic tracking of pipelines even in relatively markerless environments and outdoors. Finally, we used the occlusion method based on real-time 3D reconstruction to realistically express the immersion effect of underground pipelines. We compared our methods to the existing methods and concluded that the method proposed in this research improves the spatial accuracy of pipeline rendering and the portability of the equipment. Moreover, the updating of our rendering procedure corresponded with the moving of the user’s location, thus we achieved a dynamic rendering of pipelines in the real environment.
Framework for Virtual Cognitive Experiment in Virtual Geographic Environments
Authors: Zhang Fan , Hu Mingyuan , Che Weitao , Lin Hui , Fang Chaoyang
Published: January 2018

Virtual Geographic Environment Cognition is the attempt to understand the human cognition of surface features, geographic processes, and human behaviour, as well as their relationships in the real world. From the perspective of human cognition behaviour analysis and simulation, previous work in Virtual Geographic Environments (VGEs) has focused mostly on representing and simulating the real world to create an ‘interpretive’ virtual world and improve an individual’s active cognition. In terms of reactive cognition, building a user ‘evaluative’ environment in a complex virtual experiment is a necessary yet challenging task. This paper discusses the outlook of VGEs and proposes a framework for virtual cognitive experiments. The framework not only employs immersive virtual environment technology to create a realistic virtual world but also involves a responsive mechanism to record the user’s cognitive activities during the experiment. Based on the framework, this paper presents two potential implementation methods: first, training a deep learning model with several hundred thousand street view images scored by online volunteers, with further analysis of which visual factors produce a sense of safety for the individual, and second, creating an immersive virtual environment and Electroencephalogram (EEG)-based experimental paradigm to both record and analyse the brain activity of a user and explore what type of virtual environment is more suitable and comfortable. Finally, we present some preliminary findings based on the first method.
Comparing the Structure and Mechanical Properties of Welds on Ductile Cast Iron (700 MPa) under Different Heat Treatment Conditions
Authors: Gouveia Ronny , Silva Francisco , Paiva Olga , De Fátima Andrade Maria , Pereira Lucas , Moselli Paulo , Papis Konrad
Published: January 2018

The weldability of ductile iron, as widely known, is relatively poor, essentially due to its typical carbon equivalent value. The present study was developed surrounding the heat treatability of welded joints made with a high strength ductile cast iron detaining an ultimate tensile strength of 700 MPa, and aims to determine which heat treatment procedures promote the best results, in terms of microstructure and mechanical properties. These types of alloys are suitable for the automotive industry, as they allow engineers to reduce the thickness of parts while maintaining mechanical strength, decreasing the global weight of vehicles and providing a path for more sustainable development. The results allow us to conclude that heat treatment methodology has a large impact on the mechanical properties of welded joints created from the study material. However, the thermal cycles suffered during welding promote the formation of ledeburite areas near the weld joint. This situation could possibly be dealt through the implementation of post-welding heat treatments (PWHT) with specific parameters. In contrast to a ductile cast iron tested in a previous work, the bull-eye ductile cast iron with 700 MPa ultimate tensile strength presented better results during the post-welding heat treatment than during preheating.
A Review of the As-Built SLM Ti-6Al-4V Mechanical Properties towards Achieving Fatigue Resistant Designs
Authors: Agius Dylan , Kourousis Kyriakos I. , Wallbrink Chris
Published: January 2018

Ti-6Al-4V has been widely used in both the biomedical and aerospace industry, due to its high strength, corrosion resistance, high fracture toughness and light weight. Additive manufacturing (AM) is an attractive method of Ti-6Al-4V parts’ fabrication, as it provides a low waste alternative for complex geometries. With continued progress being made in SLM technology, the influence of build layers, grain boundaries and defects can be combined to improve further the design process and allow the fabrication of components with improved static and fatigue strength in critical loading directions. To initiate this possibility, the mechanical properties, including monotonic, low and high cycle fatigue and fracture mechanical behaviour, of machined as-built SLM Ti-6Al-4V, have been critically reviewed in order to inform the research community. The corresponding crystallographic phases, defects and layer orientations have been analysed to determine the influence of these features on the mechanical behaviour. This review paper intends to enhance our understanding of how these features can be manipulated and utilised to improve the fatigue resistance of components fabricated from Ti-6Al-4V using the SLM technology.
Numerical Study on Flow, Temperature, and Concentration Distribution Features of Combined Gas and Bottom-Electromagnetic Stirring in a Ladle
Authors: Li Yang , Deng Anyuan , Li Huan , Yang Bin , Wang Engang
Published: January 2018

A novel method of combined argon gas stirring and bottom-rotating electromagnetic stirring in a ladle refining process is presented in this report. A three-dimensional numerical model was adopted to investigate its effect on improving flow field, eliminating temperature stratification, and homogenizing concentration distribution. The results show that the electromagnetic force has a tendency to spiral by spinning clockwise on the horizontal section and straight up along the vertical section, respectively. When the electromagnetic force is applied to the gas-liquid two phase flow, the gas-liquid plume is shifted and the gas-liquid two phase region is extended. The rotated flow driven by the electromagnetic force promotes the scatter of bubbles. The temperature stratification tends to be alleviated due to the effect of heat compensation and the improved flow. The temperature stratification tends to disappear when the current reaches 1200 A. The improved flow field has a positive influence on decreasing concentration stratification and shortening the mixing time when the combined method is imposed. However, the alloy depositing site needs to be optimized according to the whole circulatory flow and the region of bubbles to escape.
Intensification Behavior of Mercury Ions on Gold Cyanide Leaching
Authors: Zhong Qiang , Yang Yongbin , Chen Lijuan , Li Qian , Xu Bin , Jiang Tao
Published: January 2018

Cyanidation is the main method used to extract gold from gold raw materials; however, a serious problem with this method is the low leaching rate. In order to improve gold leaching, the intensification behavior of mercury ions on gold cyanide leaching, for two types of materials, sulphide gold concentrate and oxide gold ore, was investigated. The results showed that mercury ions, with only a 10−5 M dosage, could significantly intensify leaching and gold recovery. The dissolution behavior of gold plate was also intensified by 10−5 M mercury ions. Microstructure analysis showed that mercury ions intensified the cyanidation corrosion of the gold surface, resulting in a loose structure, where a large number of deep ravines and raised particles were evident across the whole gold surface. The loose structure added contact surface between the gold and cyanide, and accelerated gold dissolution. Moreover, mercury ions obstructed the formation of insoluble products, such as AuCN, Au(OHCN), and Au(OH)x, that lead to a passivation membrane on the gold surface, reducing contact between the gold and cyanide. These effects, brought about by mercury ions, change the structure and product of the gold surface during gold cyanidation and promote gold leaching.
Chemical Composition, Antimicrobial and Antioxidant Activities of the Flower Volatile Oils of Fagopyrum esculentum, Fagopyrum tataricum and Fagopyrum Cymosum
Authors: Zhao Jianglin , Jiang Lan , Tang Xiaohui , Peng Lianxin , Li Xing , Zhao Gang , Zhong Lingyun
Published: January 2018

The purpose of this study was to investigate the chemical composition and biological activity of the volatile oils (VOs) from the flowers of three buckwheat species, Fagopyrum esculentum, Fagopyrum tataricum and Fagopyrum cymosum. The VOs were obtained from the fresh buckwheat flowers by hydrodistillation, and were analyzed for their chemical composition by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). Nonanoic acid (7.58%), (E)-3-hexen-1-ol (6.52%), and benzothiazole (5.08%) were the major constituents among the 28 identified components which accounted for 92.89% of the total oil of F. esculentum. 2-Pentadecanone (18.61%), eugenol (17.18%), 1,2-benzenedicarboxylic acid, bis(2-methylpropyl) ester (13.19%), and (E,E)-farnesylacetone (7.15%) were the major compounds among the 14 identified components which accounted for 88.48% of the total oil of F. tataricum. Eugenol (12.22%), (E)-3-hexen-1-yl acetate (8.03%), linalool oxide (7.47%), 1-hexanol (7.07%), and benzothiazole (6.72%) were the main compounds of the 20 identified components which accounted for 90.23% of the total oil of F. cymosum. The three VOs were screened to have broad spectrum antibacterial activity with minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) values ranged from 100.0 μg/mL to 800.0 μg/mL against the tested bacteria, and their median inhibitory concentration (IC50) values were from 68.32 μg/mL to 452.32 μg/mL. Xanthomonas vesicatoria was the most sensitive bacterium. Moreover, the flower VOs of F. esculentum, F. tataricum and F. cymosum also exhibited noteworthy antioxidant capacity with the IC50 value of 354.15 μg/mL, 210.63 μg/mL, and 264.92 μg/mL for the 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) free radical scavenging assay, and the value of 242.06 μg/mL, 184.13 μg/mL, and 206.11 μg/mL respectively for the β-carotene-linoleic bleaching test. These results suggested the volatile oils of buckwheat flowers could be potential resource of natural antimicrobial and antioxidant agents.
Comparison of Antioxidative Effects of Insect Tea and Its Raw Tea (Kuding Tea) Polyphenols in Kunming Mice
Authors: Zhao Xin , Song Jia-Le , Yi Ruokun , Li Guijie , Sun Peng , Park Kun-Young , Suo Huayi
Published: January 2018

Kudingcha is a traditional Chinese tea, and insect tea is a special drink produced by the metabolism of insect larvae using the raw Kuding tea. Insect tea polyphenols (ITP) and its raw tea (Kuding tea) polyphenols (KTP) are high-purity polyphenols extracted by centrifuge precipitation. The present study was designed to compare the antioxidative effects of insect tea polyphenols (ITP) and its raw tea (Kuding tea) polyphenols (KTP) on d-galactose-induced oxidation in Kunming (KM) mice. KM mice were treated with ITP (200 mg/kg) and KTP (200 mg/kg) by gavage, and vitamin C (VC, 200 mg/kg) was also used as a positive control by gavage. After determination in serum, liver and spleen, ITP-treated mice showed higher superoxide dismutase (SOD), glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px), and glutathione (GSH) activities and lower nitric oxide (NO), malonaldehyde (MDA) activities than VC-treated mice, KTP-treated mice and untreated oxidation mice (control group). By H&E section observation, the mice induced by d-galactose-induced oxidation showed more changes than normal mice, and oxidative damage appeared in liver and spleen tissues; ITP, VC and KTP improved oxidative damage of liver and spleen tissues, and the effects of ITP were better than VC and KTP. Using quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) and western blot experiments, it was observed that ITP could increase the mRNA and protein expression of neuronal nitric oxide synthase (nNOS), endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS), manganese superoxide dismutase (Mn-SOD), cupro/zinc superoxide dismutase (Cu/Zn-SOD), catalase (CAT), heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1), nuclear factor erythroid 2 related factor 2 (Nrf2), gamma glutamylcysteine synthetase (γ-GCS), and NAD(P)H:quinone oxidoreductase 1 (NQO1) and reduce inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) expression in liver and spleen tissues compared to the control group. These effects were stronger than for VC and KTP. Both ITP and KTP had good antioxidative effects, and after the transformation of insects, the effects of ITP were better than that of KTP and even better than VC. Thus, ITP can be used as an antioxidant and anti-ageing functional food.
Contribution of the Ratio of Tocopherol Homologs to the Oxidative Stability of Commercial Vegetable Oils
Authors: Zaunschirm Mathias , Pignitter Marc , Kienesberger Julia , Hernler Natalie , Riegger Christoph , Eggersdorfer Manfred , Somoza Veronika
Published: January 2018

The antioxidant activity of tocopherols in vegetable oils was shown to chiefly depend on the amount and the tocopherol homolog present. However, the most effective ratio of tocopherol homologs with regard to the antioxidant capacity has not been elucidated so far. The present study analyzed the effect of different tocopherol concentrations, homologs and ratios of homologs on markers of lipid oxidation in the most commonly consumed vegetable oils (canola, sunflower, soybean oil) stored in a 12 h light/dark cycle at 22 ± 2 °C for 56 days under retail/household conditions. After 56 days of storage, the α-tocopherol-rich canola and sunflower oil showed the strongest rise in lipid peroxides, yielding 25.1 ± 0.03 meq O2/kg (+25.3-fold) and 24.7 ± 0.05 meq O2/kg (+25.0-fold), respectively. ESR experiments, excluding effects of the oils’ matrices and other minor constituents, confirmed that a food representative tocopherol ratio of (γ + δ)/α = 4.77, as represented in soybean oil, led to a more pronounced delay of lipid oxidation than a lower ratio in canola (1.39) and sunflower oil (0.06). An optimum (γ + δ)/α -tocopherol ratio contributing to the oxidative quality of vegetable oils extending their shelf life has to be investigated.