FOUNDATIONS: Rebuilding After Mental Breakdown

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Stock assessment of loggerhead and leatherback sea turtles and An assessment of the impact of the pelagic longline fishery on the loggerhead and leatherback sea turtles of the Western North Atlantic

On September 7, 2000 the National Marine Fisheries Service announced that it was reinitiating consultation under Section 7 of the Endangered Species Act on pelagic fisheries for swordfish, sharks, tunas, and billfish. 1 Bycatch of a protected sea turtle species is considered a take under the Endangered Species Act (PL93-205). On June 30, 2000 NMFS completed a Biological Opinion on an amendment to the Highly Migratory Pelagic Fisheries Management Plan that concluded that the continued operation of the pelagic longline fishery was likely to jeopardize the continued existence of loggerhead and leatherback sea turtles.2 Since that Biological Opinion was issued NMFS concluded that further analyses of observer data and additional population modeling of loggerhead sea turtles was needed to determine more precisely the impact of the pelagic longline fishery on turtles. 3,4 Hence, the reinitiation of consultation. The documents that follow constitute the scientific review and synthesis of information pertaining to the narrowly defined reinitiation of consultation: the impact of the pelagic longline fishery on loggerhead and leatherback sea turtles The document is in 3 parts, plus 5 appendices. Part I is a stock assessment of loggerhead sea turtles of the Western North Atlantic. Part II is a stock assessment of leatherback sea turtles of the Western North Atlantic. Part III is an assessment of the impact of the pelagic longline fishery on loggerhead and leatherback sea turtles of the Western North Atlantic. These documents were prepared by the NMFS Southeast Fisheries Science Center staff and academic colleagues at Duke University and Dalhousie University. Personnel involved from the SEFSC include Joanne Braun-McNeill, Lisa Csuzdi, Craig Brown, Jean Cramer, Sheryan Epperly, Steve Turner, Wendy Teas, Nancy Thompson, Wayne Witzell, Cynthia Yeung, and also Jeff Schmid under contract from the University or Miami. Our academic colleagues, Ransom Myers, Keith Bowen, and Leah Gerber from Dalhousie University and Larry Crowder and Melissa Snover from Duke University, also recipients of a Pew Charitable Trust Grant for a Comprehensive Study of the Ecological Impacts of the Worldwide Pelagic Longline Industry, made significant contributions to the quantitative analyses and we are very grateful for their collaboration. We appreciate the reviews of the stock definition sections on loggerheads and leatherbacks by Brian Bowen, University of Florida, and Peter Dutton, National Marine Fisheries Service Southwest Fisheries Science Center, respectively, and the comments of the NMFS Center of Independent Experts reviewers Robert Mohn, Ian Poiner, and YouGan Wang on the entire document. We also wish to acknowledge all the unpublished data used herein which were contributed by many researchers, especially the coordinators and volunteers of the nesting beach surveys and the sea turtle stranding and salvage network and the contributors to the Cooperative Marine Turtle Tagging Program. (PDF contains 349 pages

Taking part: a study of adolescent sexual health promotion in Peru

This study introduces a theoretical and empirical exploration of the issue of participation within the field of adolescent sexual health promotion. It contributes to, and engages in, two kinds of debates: policy and practice discussions on how to involve adolescents in promoting their sexual health, and academic debates on the relevant theory that informs policy and practice. The thesis critically reviews literature on participatory adolescent sexual health promotion arguing that the field is located at the intersection of three central conceptual vectors: adolescence, which is constructed as inevitably transiting towards adulthood from the moment childhood ends; adolescent sexual health, which is primarily dictated by the languages of biomedicine and psychology; and adolescent participation, which appears understood as a process of adult transmission of knowledge onto the participating adolescent. Challenging these coordinates, and by drawing on the works of Jürgen Habermas and Paulo Freire, a framework for understanding participatory processes is elaborated. Participation here is conceptualised as a social process of creation via which those taking part in it concurrently shape and maintain knowledge, mould and stabilise social relations, and care for themselves. A participatory adolescent sexual health promotion initiative implemented in rural and urban-marginal communities of the Andean, Coastal and Jungle regions of Peru, acts as the observational field for the empirical investigation of the conceptualisation of participation advanced in the thesis. Documentaries and dramas produced in video format by the adolescents taking part in the initiative, together with audio-visual recordings of group discussions in which the adolescents presented and problematised these videos constitute the qualitative data gathered in this study. The data was analysed to explore adolescents’ collective elaborations of sexuality in general and of sexual health in particular, and to reconstruct, from these instances of collective creation, the workings of the participation processes that underpin them

Rationality and choices in economics: behavioral and evolutionary approaches

The paper critically discusses the issue of rationality and choices in economics in both the behavioural and evolutionary approaches. Our study aims, on the one hand, to highlight the scientific contributions of psychology in economics, since psychology, and with it the theoretical approach of the behavioral economics, has made more complex and problematic the analysis of economic choices, showing the limits of rationality. On the other hand, the work offers a reinterpretation of the theory of Alfred Marshall in a biologicalevolutionary perspective. The reinterpretation of Marshall's theory in a evolutionary perspective aims to show that, historically, economics has not been a discipline aligned in a homogenous way to a single and undifferentiated thought, locked into the idea of perfect rationality, but, on the opposite, is a discipline that has enriched itself and continually is enriching by contributions and significant contaminations with other research fields.rationality; choices; behavioral economics; evolutionary theories; biology;

Privaatsust säilitava raalnägemise meetodi arendamine kehalise aktiivsuse automaatseks jälgimiseks koolis

Väitekirja elektrooniline versioon ei sisalda publikatsiooneKuidas vaadelda inimesi ilma neid nägemata? Öeldakse, et ei ole viisakas jõllitada. Õigus privaatsusele on lausa inimõigus. Siiski on inimkäitumises palju sellist, mida teadlased tahaksid uurida inimesi vaadeldes. Näiteks tahame teada, kas lapsed hakkavad vahetunnis rohkem liikuma, kui koolis keelatakse nutitelefonid? Selle välja selgitamiseks peaks teadlane küsima lapsevanematelt nõusolekut võsukeste vaatlemiseks. Eeldusel, et lapsevanemad annavad loa, oleks klassikaliseks vaatluseks vaja tohutult palju tööjõudu – mitu vaatlejat koolimajas iga päev piisavalt pikal perioodil enne ja pärast nutitelefoni keelu kehtestamist. Doktoritööga püüdsin lahendada korraga privaatsuse probleemi ja tööjõu probleemi, asendades inimvaatleja tehisaruga. Kaasaegsed masinõppe meetodid võimaldavad luua mudeleid, mis tuvastavad automaatselt pildil või videos kujutatud objekte ja nende omadusi. Kui tahame tehisaru, mis tunneb pildil ära inimese, tuleb moodustada masinõppe andmestik, kus on pilte inimestest ja pilte ilma inimesteta. Kui tahame tehisaru, mis eristaks videos madalat ja kõrget kehalist aktiivsust, on vaja vastavat videoandmestikku. Doktoritöös kogusingi andmestiku, kus video laste liikumisest on sünkroniseeritud puusal kantavate aktseleromeetritega, et treenida mudel, mis eristaks videopikslites madalamat ja kõrgemat liikumise intensiivsust. Koostöös Tehonoloogiainstituudi iCV laboriga arendasime välja videoanalüüsi sensori prototüübi, mis suudab reaalaja kiirusel hinnata kaamera vaateväljas olevate inimeste kehalise aktiivsuse taset. Just see, et tehisaru suudab tuletada videost kehalise aktiivsuse informatsiooni ilma neid videokaadreid salvestamata ega inimestele üldsegi näitamata, võimaldab vaadelda inimesi ilma neid nägemata. Väljatöötatud meetod on mõeldud kehalise aktiivsuse mõõtmiseks koolipõhistes teadusuuringutes ning seetõttu on arenduses rõhutatud privaatsuse kaitsmist ja teaduseetikat. Laiemalt vaadates illustreerib doktoritöö aga raalnägemistehnoloogiate potentsiaali töötlemaks visuaalset infot linnaruumis ja töökohtadel ning mitte ainult kehalise aktiivsuse mõõtmiseks kõrgete teaduseetika kriteerimitega. Siin ongi koht avalikuks aruteluks – millistel tingimustel või kas üldse on OK, kui sind jõllitab robot?  How to observe people without seeing them? They say it's not polite to stare. The right to privacy is considered a human right. However, there is much in human behavior that scientists would like to study via observation. For example, we want to know whether children will start moving more during recess if smartphones are banned at school? To figure this out, scientists would have to ask parental consent to carry out the observation. Assuming parents grant permission, a huge amount of labour would be needed for classical observation - several observers in the schoolhouse every day for a sufficiently long period before and after the smartphone ban. With my doctoral thesis, I tried to solve both the problem of privacy and of labor by replacing the human observer with artificial intelligence (AI). Modern machine learning methods allow training models that automatically detect objects and their properties in images or video. If we want an AI that recognizes people in images, we need to form a machine learning dataset with pictures of people and pictures without people. If we want an AI that differentiates between low and high physical activity in video, we need a corresponding video dataset. In my doctoral thesis, I collected a dataset where video of children's movement is synchronized with hip-worn accelerometers to train a model that could differentiate between lower and higher levels of physical activity in video. In collaboration with the ICV lab at the Institute of Technology, we developed a prototype video analysis sensor that can estimate the level of physical activity of people in the camera's field of view at real-time speed. The fact that AI can derive information about physical activity from the video without recording the footage or showing it to anyone at all, makes it possible to observe without seeing. The method is designed for measuring physical activity in school-based research and therefore highly prioritizes privacy protection and research ethics. But more broadly, the thesis illustrates the potential of computer vision technologies for processing visual information in urban spaces and workplaces, and not only for measuring physical activity or adhering to high ethical standards. This warrants wider public discussion – under what conditions or whether at all is it OK to have a robot staring at you?https://www.ester.ee/record=b555972

Aerospace Medicine and Biology. A continuing bibliography with indexes

This bibliography lists 244 reports, articles, and other documents introduced into the NASA scientific and technical information system in February 1981. Aerospace medicine and aerobiology topics are included. Listings for physiological factors, astronaut performance, control theory, artificial intelligence, and cybernetics are included

The Reckless Pursuit of Dominion: A Situational Analysis of the NBA and Diminishing Player Autonomy

This Article examines required genetic testing of NBA players from a situational vantage point, integrating socio-psychological, legal, and ethical analyses. The core argument may be expressed as follows: required genetic testing of NBA players appears consistent with a broader and largely deleterious agenda by the NBA to control players. Since implementation of the rookie wage scale in 1995 through the recent imposition of a paternalistic player dress code, the NBA has increasingly usurped player autonomy. The NBA\u27s capacity to do so largely rests in its adroit manipulation of the situational influences that influence fans and media. For instance, because of unappreciated cognitive biases, fans and media often embrace distorted views of player\u27s maturity, arrest propensity, and collegiate experiences. As a result, NBA players tend to be wrongly identified as immature, out-of-control, and hopelessly uneducated. In turn, the NBA has designed policies that ostensibly remedy these feigned problems while less-detectably transferring autonomy from player to league. In short, the league sees that others often fail to see, and that enables it to surreptitiously control players