1,410 research outputs found
Effects of municipal smoke-free ordinances on secondhand smoke exposure in the Republic of Korea
ObjectiveTo reduce premature deaths due to secondhand smoke (SHS) exposure among non-smokers, the Republic of Korea (ROK) adopted changes to the National Health Promotion Act, which allowed local governments to enact municipal ordinances to strengthen their authority to designate smoke-free areas and levy penalty fines. In this study, we examined national trends in SHS exposure after the introduction of these municipal ordinances at the city level in 2010.MethodsWe used interrupted time series analysis to assess whether the trends of SHS exposure in the workplace and at home, and the primary cigarette smoking rate changed following the policy adjustment in the national legislation in ROK. Population-standardized data for selected variables were retrieved from a nationally representative survey dataset and used to study the policy action’s effectiveness.ResultsFollowing the change in the legislation, SHS exposure in the workplace reversed course from an increasing (18% per year) trend prior to the introduction of these smoke-free ordinances to a decreasing (−10% per year) trend after adoption and enforcement of these laws (β2 = 0.18, p-value = 0.07; β3 = −0.10, p-value = 0.02). SHS exposure at home (β2 = 0.10, p-value = 0.09; β3 = −0.03, p-value = 0.14) and the primary cigarette smoking rate (β2 = 0.03, p-value = 0.10; β3 = 0.008, p-value = 0.15) showed no significant changes in the sampled period. Although analyses stratified by sex showed that the allowance of municipal ordinances resulted in reduced SHS exposure in the workplace for both males and females, they did not affect the primary cigarette smoking rate as much, especially among females.ConclusionStrengthening the role of local governments by giving them the authority to enact and enforce penalties on SHS exposure violation helped ROK to reduce SHS exposure in the workplace. However, smoking behaviors and related activities seemed to shift to less restrictive areas such as on the streets and in apartment hallways, negating some of the effects due to these ordinances. Future studies should investigate how smoke-free policies beyond public places can further reduce the SHS exposure in ROK
Introduction to Psychology
Introduction to Psychology is a modified version of Psychology 2e - OpenStax
Study for the scientific development of the Sardinia Radio Telescope/SDSA configured for solar observations and radio-science aimed at Space Weather and Fundamental Physics applications
The Sun produces radiation across virtually the entire electromagnetic spectrum, each frequency range helps to better understand a different aspect of our star. In the radio domain, it is an interesting celestial object to study for the richness of physical phenomena that involve not only the astrophysical area of interest, but also plasma, nuclear and fundamental physics. However, even after decades of studies, our star still presents lots of mysteries.
My PhD aims to investigate the Sun environment and its emission mechanism in the radio domain to better understand some of the complex solar phenomena, their connections and find applications in the Space Weather and Fundamental Physics fields. This work is possible thanks to new challenging development of the radio telescopes managed by the Italian National Institute of Astrophysics (INAF) and the Italian Space Agency (ASI) in a joint collaboration. SRT is an ideal instrument for this Thesis project thanks to its double configuration: Sardinia Deep Space Antenna (SDSA)/radio astronomy for radio science experiments and solar imaging. The SDSA is in the implementation phase.
We are inquiring the most stringent observation scientific requirements that would be necessary to prepare the antenna to perform interplanetary spacecraft tracking in radio-science configuration. The radio-astronomy configuration is already operative and has permitted us to monitor the Sun for the last few years in K-band (18-26 GHz). Moreover, the Medicina radio telescope is fully equipped to perform solar observation and has contributed considerably to the solar imaging studies.
Starting 2018, we obtained more than 300 maps of the entire solar disk in the K-band, filling the observational gap in the field of solar imaging at these frequencies. I performed a new calibration procedure adopting the Supernova Remnant Cas A as a flux reference, which provided typical errors <3% for the estimation of the quiet-Sun level components. My work includes a study on the active regions brightness and spectral characterization. The interpretation of the observed emission as thermal bremsstrahlung components combined with gyro-magnetic variable emission paves the way for the use of our system for long-term monitoring of the Sun. We are also starting to explore possible interesting connections between macro-features in our data and explosive Space Weather Phenomena
Applying machine learning: a multi-role perspective
Machine (and deep) learning technologies are more and more present in several fields. It is undeniable that many aspects of our society are empowered by such technologies: web searches, content filtering on social networks, recommendations on e-commerce websites, mobile applications, etc., in addition to academic research. Moreover, mobile devices and internet sites, e.g., social networks, support the collection and sharing of information in real time. The pervasive deployment of the aforementioned technological instruments, both hardware and software, has led to the production of huge amounts of data. Such data has become more and more unmanageable, posing challenges to conventional computing platforms, and paving the way to the development and widespread use of the machine and deep learning. Nevertheless, machine learning is not only a technology. Given a task, machine learning is a way of proceeding (a way of thinking), and as such can be approached from different perspectives (points of view). This, in particular, will be the focus of this research. The entire work concentrates on machine learning, starting from different sources of data, e.g., signals and images, applied to different domains, e.g., Sport Science and Social History, and analyzed from different perspectives: from a non-data scientist point of view through tools and platforms; setting a problem stage from scratch; implementing an effective application for classification tasks; improving user interface experience through Data Visualization and eXtended Reality. In essence, not only in a quantitative task, not only in a scientific environment, and not only from a data-scientist perspective, machine (and deep) learning can do the difference
Nothing To See Hear
Nothing to See/Hear is a research experiment into minimalist visual narrative via the short film Not the Boss of Me, in which the criteria for production mandated only the bare essential elements required to construct and convey a plot and its characters be used while filming within a nondescript space - in this case, a mostly empty soundstage. How does one tell a story and define its characters without direct expository dialogue? What is needed to establish and define locations and/or environments when limited to only one or two items? Can an audience engage their imagination to fill in the absences of content and come away feeling as though they have experienced a fully realized cinematic event? And will they?
The screenplay - not written to be minimalistic by nature, but rather produced through minimalistic techniques - went through a process of rigorous drafts, actor table readings, feedback sessions and further revisions. Said process resulted in a script which streamlined plot points, eliminated extraneous dialogue and converted exposition into actions. By analyzing environments via a process of sensory elimination, a method of reconstructing spaces one sense element at a time, a basis was established for designing a floor plan for any location needed. If you can’t see a location, how do you hear it? Through audio field recordings mixed with soundstage captures, the atmosphere and scope of environments would be established. If you can only see one thing, what will provide context to define everything unseen surrounding it? Light and shadow, along with strategically placed set items, would create a sense of time, location and tone.
Examples: The sound of a lawn mower might elicit a mental picture of a house and neighborhood. Someone wearing a hardhat could conjure the scene of a construction site. Warm yellow side light creates a sense of morning. A cold wash of blue overhead light evokes an isolating night.
It was determined that doors embody the character of the buildings they inhabit and serve as the single best representation of any location structure. The remaining majority of the world-building, not practically visible or aided by sound, would rely on the actor’s physical engagement - seeing how they put the space into their bodies through behavior - and the audience’s natural tendency to solve the missing visual puzzle.
The finished film, equipped with the bare minimum of visual and narrative elements, presented a layered and detailed character-driven storyline which hinted at a much larger world beyond what was actively seen and heard. This resulted in a cinematic experience that functioned in the audience’s peripheral vision, engaging their minds\u27 eyes to fill in the voids, operating off fragments of sight, sound, gestures and inflection. Based on audience reactions, the project was a resounding success, with feedback affirming that despite the minimalistic approach to the work nothing felt missing, solidifying their investment in the work and leaving them with a desire to see and hear more. In conclusion, less is more
A Process for the Restoration of Performances from Musical Errors on Live Progressive Rock Albums
In the course of my practice of producing live progressive rock albums, a significant
challenge has emerged: how to repair performance errors while retaining the intended
expressive performance. Using a practice as research methodology, I develop a novel process,
Error Analysis and Performance Restoration (EAPR), to restore a performer’s intention where
an error was assessed to have been made. In developing this process, within the context of
my practice, I investigate: the nature of live albums and the groups to which I am
accountable, a definition of performance errors, an examination of their causes, and the
existing literature on these topics. In presenting EAPR, I demonstrate, drawing from existing
research, a mechanism by which originally intended performances can be extracted from
recorded errors. The EAPR process exists as a conceptual model; each album has a specific
implementation to address the needs of that album, and the currently available technology.
Restoration techniques are developed as part of this implementation. EAPR is developed and
demonstrated through my work restoring performances on a front-line commercial live
release, the Creative Submission Album. The specific EAPR implementation I design for it is
laid out, and detailed examples of its techniques demonstrated
The cultural significance of Shakespeare on screen in the Twenty-First Century
The thesis explores twenty-first-century adaptations and appropriations of Shakespeare on screen, spanning cinema, television and online productions. It considers how a range of screen productions, spanning different mediums, aesthetics, languages and intended audiences, create cultural artefacts of the times in which they were made.
The opening three chapters explore representations of British national identity, and how adaptations of different Shakespeare plays have reflected, interrogated and unpicked ‘Britishness’ in the opening decades of the 2000s. These chapters consider in turn: the BBC series The Hollow Crown: The Wars of the Roses (dir. Cooke, 2016) and its existence within the cultural moment of Britain’s vote to leave the EU; the different approaches to adapting Coriolanus in Ralph Fiennes’s 2011 Hollywood-style action film and Ben Wheatley’s disorienting anti-Hollywood deconstruction of the play in Happy New Year, Colin Burstead (2018), set in post-Brexit Britain; and the ways in which British culture, heritage and nostalgia are woven into adaptations of Romeo and Juliet in Kelly Asbury’s 2011 computer-animated film Gnomeo & Juliet and Carlo Carlei’s 2013 film, scripted by Julian Fellowes.
The closing three chapters analyse screen adaptations through the lens of metamodernism, a structure of feeling proposed as the twenty-first-century successor to late twentieth-century postmodernism, which oscillates between sensibilities characterised by postmodern irony and detachment and a return to sincerity and affective connection. These chapters consider in turn: adaptations of King Lear in The King is Alive (dir. Levring, 2000) and Lear’s Shadow (dir. Elerding, 2018), and how they reclaim the play from its position of bleakness and nihilism during the closing decades of the twentieth century; the intersections of documentary authenticity and cinematic artifice in two non-Anglophone films, Makibefo (dir. Abela, 2000) and Caesar Must Die (dirs. Taviani and Taviani, 2012), which adapt Macbeth and Julius Caesar respectively; and the ways in which A Midsummer Night’s Dream was adapted in four different online productions created in 2020 under lockdown restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic, which blend postmodern pop culture referentiality with affective sincerity.
Throughout all six chapters, the thesis analyses the ways in which screen adaptations of Shakespeare – within the related but distinct media of film, television and digital theatre – have responded to the cultural and historical moment surrounding their production. It also explores what Shakespeare is doing within these mediums, and the ways in which the adaptive potential and cultural capital of Shakespeare on screen has developed from its position at the end of the twentieth century
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