Genetic aspects of conservation and management of the Eurasian Curlew Numenius arquata

Decades of decline have triggered an AEWA action plan and numerous conservation and management projects across the range of Eurasian Curlew Numenius arquata. Several projects include DNA studies, but more have an untapped potential to collect and analyse DNA. This document intends to promote DNA studies in Eurasian Curlew projects, in particular through pointing out the broad array of useful DNA samples that projects can collect for current and future use, often at low costs and without negatively affecting the birds. The document also provides an overview of DNA analysis methods, and advice on how to fit DNA studies sustainably into socio-economical and ethical frameworks. Additionally, the document contains numerous hands-on practical advice and an extensive reference list. The result is a long text, but we hope its structure helps you to navigate smoothly to the parts of your interest, whatever role you have or plan to play in Eurasian Curlew conservation and management projects

Towards structured sharing of raw and derived neuroimaging data across existing resources

Data sharing efforts increasingly contribute to the acceleration of scientific discovery. Neuroimaging data is accumulating in distributed domain-specific databases and there is currently no integrated access mechanism nor an accepted format for the critically important meta-data that is necessary for making use of the combined, available neuroimaging data. In this manuscript, we present work from the Derived Data Working Group, an open-access group sponsored by the Biomedical Informatics Research Network (BIRN) and the International Neuroimaging Coordinating Facility (INCF) focused on practical tools for distributed access to neuroimaging data. The working group develops models and tools facilitating the structured interchange of neuroimaging meta-data and is making progress towards a unified set of tools for such data and meta-data exchange. We report on the key components required for integrated access to raw and derived neuroimaging data as well as associated meta-data and provenance across neuroimaging resources. The components include (1) a structured terminology that provides semantic context to data, (2) a formal data model for neuroimaging with robust tracking of data provenance, (3) a web service-based application programming interface (API) that provides a consistent mechanism to access and query the data model, and (4) a provenance library that can be used for the extraction of provenance data by image analysts and imaging software developers. We believe that the framework and set of tools outlined in this manuscript have great potential for solving many of the issues the neuroimaging community faces when sharing raw and derived neuroimaging data across the various existing database systems for the purpose of accelerating scientific discovery

Arabic Type Classification System - Qualitative Classification of Historic Arabic Writing Scripts in the Contemporary Typographic Context

The emergence of typography shifted written language into a mechanical tool of transmitting meaning, thereby further reducing the connection of representation of language with the language itself which began with the development of writing systems. Developed from various writing systems and languages, typography is the primary mode of visual communication of language. It has become even more important in the digital world we are living in today. This research examines the relationship of Arabic script conventions and classifications in the context of typographic representation, and how typographic representations of the Arabic language have been distorted due to the influence of Latin typographic guidelines in the development of Arabic typefaces. This history has failed to produce Arabic typefaces that accord with the unique cultural, linguistic and contextual character of the Arabic writing system. To address this, an investigation was carried out, through multiple design research methods and methodologies incorporating typographic studies and theories of embodiment applied to the evolution of the Arabic writing system, calligraphy and typography in the Arab region. The investigation aims to better understand, and respond to problems in the use of typefaces at the intersection of languages and cultures. Through the generation of a typeface classificatory system, linking the ground rules of calligraphic scripts, structural influences of Arabic letterforms, and adapting them into existing typefaces used today, this research proposes a tool to assist designers in the making of typographic decisions in the setting of Arabic language, and in its relationship to roman typography. Key words : Typography, classificatory attributes, Arabic language, culture, linguistics, embodimen

PROTOTYPING PLATEAU GEHRY_CONNECTIVES : Reading Frank Gehry’s experiments through Deleuze and Guattari

This thesis attempts to describe and interpret the design practice of an American architect, Frank O. Gehry through concepts developed by French philosopher Gilles Deleuze and his collaborator, French psychotherapist, philosopher and activist, Félix Guattari. At the same time, prototyping a website-based interactive project called PLATEAU GEHRY_CONNECTIVES, it explores an alternative form for the Doctoral thesis. In addition to connections with visual arts, such as painting and cinema, the experimental project PLATEAU GEHRY_CONNECTIVES includes references to concepts and phenomena from various areas of knowledge revealing distinctive, unusual qualities of Gehry’s creative approach in the production of design artefacts. The thesis documents and discusses means of representation in architectural design fused into the specific creative culture of Frank O. Gehry. It notices that the discourse in architectural theory and practice, often neglects what occurs on a particular molecular level of the architectural design process. It shows that elements of micro-level of design procedures render Gehry’s idiosyncratic design phenomena intelligible and perceptible in a new way. It claims that it has been possible because Deleuze and Guattari’s concepts become perceptibly operational in the interpretation of such phenomena, at the level of elementary units of Gehry’s design procedures. Moreover, through this close-up perspective, the thesis’ investigations identify certain similarities in the operational modes of the architect and the painter. It demonstrates how Gehry, who has anchored his interest in painting, and specifically in what he defined as ‘immediacy in painting,’ was able to transform the practice of architectural drawing from projective to a cognitive one. It also shows, how the architect re-defines the commonly applied projective geometries from passive, arbitrary role to an active agent, and how the architect links drawing practice with the construction process on a new, almost palpable level. While stressing its the manual character, the thesis demonstrates that Gehry’s explorative culture of challenging means of representation employed in architectural design production facilitates the re-disciplining of architecture culminating in the integration of the CATIA system in the design procedures. This study of Gehry’s design actions and strategies can help the reader to understand the significance of experimental and intuitive design practices. The thesis proposes the Deleuzian interpretation of Gehry’s experiments in the aesthetics of design thinking and acting. It renders perceptions of patterns, according to which, other design practices can operate

“Whose Utopia?” Kimsooja & Bottari Utopia

This thesis will explore the progressive evolution of utopia and utopianism in order to answer the question: “Whose utopia? in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic and its disproportionate impact on people who were already marginalized, disadvantaged, and discriminated against. I will first review the writings of Sir Thomas More, Ernst Bloch, Michel Foucault, Edward Said, Owkui Enwezor, and Jose Estaban Muñoz tracing the progressive evolution of utopian ideals. I will then introduce and survey the artist, Kimsooja’s oeuvre in relation to salient features from my review of utopia\u27s progression, and gradually revealing her aesthetics of making as revealing utopian hope and creating what I have named “Bottari utopia” based on the metaphoric extension of her artistic vocabulary. As chronicled in her numerous performances and videos, her concern is for persons not included, outcast, enduring violence... Bottari utopia bundles all: persons, places, things and time, in time, and is particularly inspiring, uplifting, and instructional today, as we (the world) find ourselves navigating isolation, and displacement, and face the fragility of life and uncertain future caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. I will then turn my attention to artist-activists and their import in transforming society for a better future, whether digital, virtual, or real

Automated Vascular Smooth Muscle Segmentation, Reconstruction, Classification and Simulation on Whole-Slide Histology

Histology of the microvasculature depicts detailed characteristics relevant to tissue perfusion. One important histologic feature is the smooth muscle component of the microvessel wall, which is responsible for controlling vessel caliber. Abnormalities can cause disease and organ failure, as seen in hypertensive retinopathy, diabetic ischemia, Alzheimer’s disease and improper cardiovascular development. However, assessments of smooth muscle cell content are conventionally performed on selected fields of view on 2D sections, which may lead to measurement bias. We have developed a software platform for automated (1) 3D vascular reconstruction, (2) detection and segmentation of muscularized microvessels, (3) classification of vascular subtypes, and (4) simulation of function through blood flow modeling. Vessels were stained for α-actin using 3,3\u27-Diaminobenzidine, assessing both normal (n=9 mice) and regenerated vasculature (n=5 at day 14, n=4 at day 28). 2D locally adaptive segmentation involved vessel detection, skeletonization, and fragment connection. 3D reconstruction was performed using our novel nucleus landmark-based registration. Arterioles and venules were categorized using supervised machine learning based on texture and morphometry. Simulation of blood flow for the normal and regenerated vasculature was performed at baseline and during demand based on the structural measures obtained from the above tools. Vessel medial area and vessel wall thickness were found to be greater in the normal vasculature as compared to the regenerated vasculature (p\u3c0.001) and a higher density of arterioles was found in the regenerated tissue (p\u3c0.05). Validation showed: a Dice coefficient of 0.88 (compared to manual) for the segmentations, a 3D reconstruction target registration error of 4 μm, and area under the receiver operator curve of 0.89 for vessel classification. We found 89% and 67% decreases in the blood flow through the network for the regenerated vasculature during increased oxygen demand as compared to the normal vasculature, respectively for 14 and 28 days post-ischemia. We developed a software platform for automated vasculature histology analysis involving 3D reconstruction, segmentation, and arteriole vs. venule classification. This advanced the knowledge of conventional histology sampling compared to whole slide analysis, the morphological and density differences in the regenerated vasculature, and the effect of the differences on blood flow and function

Universal Mobile Service Execution Framework for Device-To-Device Collaborations

There are high demands of effective and high-performance of collaborations between mobile devices in the places where traditional Internet connections are unavailable, unreliable, or significantly overburdened, such as on a battlefield, disaster zones, isolated rural areas, or crowded public venues. To enable collaboration among the devices in opportunistic networks, code offloading and Remote Method Invocation are the two major mechanisms to ensure code portions of applications are successfully transmitted to and executed on the remote platforms. Although these domains are highly enjoyed in research for a decade, the limitations of multi-device connectivity, system error handling or cross platform compatibility prohibit these technologies from being broadly applied in the mobile industry. To address the above problems, we designed and developed UMSEF - an Universal Mobile Service Execution Framework, which is an innovative and radical approach for mobile computing in opportunistic networks. Our solution is built as a component-based mobile middleware architecture that is flexible and adaptive with multiple network topologies, tolerant for network errors and compatible for multiple platforms. We provided an effective algorithm to estimate the resource availability of a device for higher performance and energy consumption and a novel platform for mobile remote method invocation based on declarative annotations over multi-group device networks. The experiments in reality exposes our approach not only achieve the better performance and energy consumption, but can be extended to large-scaled ubiquitous or IoT systems