983 research outputs found

    PICES Press, Vol. 17, No. 1, January 2009

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    Major Outcomes from the 2008 PICES Annual Meeting: A Note from the Chairman (pdf, 0.1 Mb) PICES Science – 2008 (pdf, 0.1 Mb) 2008 PICES Awards (pdf, 0.3 Mb) Charles B. Miller – A Selective Biography (pdf, 0.4 Mb) Latest and Upcoming PICES Publications (pdf, 0.1 Mb) 2008 OECOS Workshop in Dalian (pdf, 0.2 Mb) PICES Calendar (pdf, 0.1 Mb) 2008 PICES Workshop on “Climate Scenarios for Ecosystem Modeling (II)” (pdf, 0.1 Mb) PICES/ESSAS Workshop on “Marine Ecosystem Model Inter-Comparisons” (pdf, 0.2 Mb) Highlights of the PICES Seventeenth Annual Meeting (pdf, 0.5 Mb) 2008 PICES Summer School on “Ecosystem-Based Management” (pdf, 0.3 Mb) 4th PICES Workshop on “The Okhotsk Sea and Adjacent Areas” (pdf, 0.2 Mb) PICES WG 21 Rapid Assessment Surveys (pdf, 0.4 Mb) PICES Interns (pdf, 0.3 Mb) PICES @ Oceans in a High CO2 World (pdf, 0.1 Mb) Coping with Global Change in Marine Social–Ecological Systems: An International Symposium (pdf, 0.1 Mb) The State of the Western North Pacific in the First Half of 2008 (pdf, 1.3 Mb) State of the Northeast Pacific through 2008 (pdf, 0.3 Mb) The Bering Sea: Current Status and Recent Events (pdf, 0.2 Mb) An Opinion Born of Years of Observing Timeseries Observations (pdf, 0.1 Mb) New Chairman for the PICES Fishery Science Committee (pdf, 0.1 Mb

    Revisiting the Binary Linearization Technique for Surface Realization

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    International audienceEnd-to-end neural approaches have achieved state-of-the-art performance in many natural language processing (NLP) tasks. Yet, they often lack transparency of the underlying decision-making process, hindering error analysis and certain model improvements. In this work, we revisit the binary linearization approach to surface realization, which exhibits more interpretable behavior, but was falling short in terms of prediction accuracy. We show how enriching the training data to better capture word order constraints almost doubles the performance of the system. We further demonstrate that encoding both local and global prediction contexts yields another considerable performance boost. With the proposed modifications , the system which ranked low in the latest shared task on multilingual surface realization now achieves best results in five out of ten languages, while being on par with the state-of-the-art approaches in others

    The Catholic Church and governance: an exploration of the relevance of the Ohacracy indigenous model of participatory governance in Igboland of South-Eastern Nigeria.

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    Doctoral Degree. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg.More than half a century ago, the Vatican II ecumenical Council took place to redefine the influence of the Roman Catholic Church in the modern world. Ecumenical as the Council is known; the Vatican II theology re-established the Church anew as to be relevant in the contemporary world, thereby opening doors for lay participation in the Catholic Church governance. Despite the Council and its leaning towards lay participation in the universal Catholic Church, the Catholic communities in the Igbo Ohacracy of the South-eastern Nigeria and the larger Nigerian communities continue to battle towards the determination and realization of the roles or duties of the laity. A Church identified to be communal, consultative; and collegial in its ecclesiological understanding applies the image of a Family of God’s People envisions a participatory Church which the Vatican II had proposed. This is yet to be fully achieved especially among the Igbo Ohacracy people. This study is located between two opposing ideologies of governance: It therefore investigates the centralized system of governance of the Roman Catholic Church and the decentralized Igbo Ohacracy order. The study also analyses the collective lay participation in the common governance of the Catholic Church as recommended by Vatican II council. It also examines authority, the laity, participation of women and inculturation to interrogate governance in both the Catholic Church and Igbo Ohacracy systems of governance. Indeed, this study reveals that in order for the Catholic Church tradition to continue to make sense and meaning, the values of dialogue, listening and consensus decision making should guide its style of governance in dealing with the Igbo Ohacracy people of South-eastern Nigeria. The Igbo Ohacracy form of indigenous governance is the inspiration behind the study. The study focuses on the Roman Catholic Church among the Owerri-Okigwe Igbo of Southeastern Nigerian communities. As a theological project, this study is located within the field of ecclesiology under the discipline of Practical Theology. Church as home for millions of Roman Catholic adherents around the world can no longer remain isolated and less concerned in matters related to governance which the Church in general has inspired all around the world; not just among the Igbo Ohacracy people of South-eastern Nigeria. Each day, human beings experience governance in various ways as it affects them; whether in the family, the community, place of work, in the Church or society at large. This study has applied both “Large Ears” and “Inculturation” theoretical frameworks. The former refers to the ‘Manja Metaphor’ used in the Central African Republic. It signifies the eldest brother as the one who has developed the greatest capacity for ‘listening’ to the will of the ancestors and to the conversations going on in the family community Uzukwu (1996:143). As a major theory for this study, it represents dialogue, consensus and communal participation in the common ownership of community activities and decision making. The latter, inculturation remains a term used to signify the movement which takes local cultures and their values as basic instruments and powerful means for presenting, reformulating and living; Christianity Waliggo, (1991:506). It describes the contextual or cultural application in understanding and practising the Christian values. This study investigates how both the centralized model of the Roman Catholic Church governance and the decentralized Igbo Ohacracy indigenous orders affect the Igbo people who are caught up in between these two influential systems. It is therefore meaningful to note that this study shows the Vatican II Council’s recommendation and opens doors for lay participation in the governance of the Catholic Church. The Igbo Catholic communities are yet to realize this vision fully for its Catholic adherents. Surprisingly though, through the Ohacracy institutions as analysed, this study has demonstrated a high level of individual and group participation among the Igbo governance order. From all indications of the analysis of both the centralized Catholic Church and the decentralized Igbo Ohacracy orders, it reveals that though these two systems are directly opposed to each other, the receptive nature of the Igbo culture has rather encouraged coexistence of the two. Moreover, the aggressive, dynamic and vibrant developmental pursuit nature of the Catholic Church (for example, Western education and medicine) has also propelled the Igbo Ohacracy communities’ receptivity of the ways and activities of the Roman Catholic Church among them. Finally, the study concludes that true and meaningful co-existence is highly probable between two traditions. With the aid and application of listening, dialogue and consensus in decision making (“Large Ear Theory”) between these two systems, peaceful co-existence and progress/development will continue to be achieved. The respect of both traditions among the Igbo communities through the utilization of the values of inculturation in the Catholic Church as fully described in this study will go further to propagate the realization of value and cultural insights that have emerged in this study

    Power Generation for Wearable Electronics: Designing Electrochemical Storage on Fabrics

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    We report a new class of textiles with electrochemical functions which, when moistened by a conductive liquid (saline solution, sweat, wound fluid, etc.), generate DC voltage and current levels capable of powering wearable electronics on the go. Contrary to previously reported power generation techniques, the proposed fabrics are fully flexible, feel and behave like regular clothing, do not include any rigid components, and provide DC power via moistening by readily available liquids. Our approach is inspired by the commercially available ProcelleraÂź wound dressing, and entails printed battery cells that are composed of silver and zinc electrodes deposited onto a fabric to generate power in the microwatt range. Proof-of-concept results using the ProcelleraÂź dressing show feasibility and reproducibility. Scalable DC power may also be achieved by connecting multiple battery cells in series via flexible and conductive E-threads. Indeed, a series connection of two ProcelleraÂź dressings was demonstrated to boost the generated voltage from 0.9 V to 1.2 V. Notably, this in-series printed battery arrangement was further shown to successfully power a digital thermometer using 0.5 M NaCl solution (mimicking human sweat) as the electrolyte. Furthermore, customized fabric creation, which optimizes the ProcelleraÂź dressing for power generation, is discussed. Overall, the proposed technology is expected to be of utmost significance for healthcare, sports, military, and consumer applications, among others.A one-year embargo was granted for this item.Academic Major: Electrical and Computer Engineerin

    Status of the SIRGAS reference frame: recent developments and new challenges

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    In accordance with recent developments of the International Association of Geodesy (IAG) and the policies promoted by the Subcommittee on Geodesy of the United Nations Committee of Experts on Global Geospatial Information Management (UN-GGIM), a main goal of the Geodetic Reference System for the Americas (SIRGAS) is the procurement of an integrated regional reference frame. This frame should support the precise determination of geocentric coordinates and also provide a unified physical reference frame for gravimetry, physical heights, and a geoid. The geometric reference frame is determined by a network of about 500 continuously operating GNSS stations, which are routinely processed by ten analysis centers. The GNSS solutions from the analysis centers are used to generate weekly station positions aligned to the International Terrestrial Reference Frame (ITRF) and multi-year (cumulative) reference frame solutions. This processing is also the basis for the generation of precise tropospheric zenith path delays with an hourly sampling rate over the Americas. The reference frame for the determination of physical heights is a regional densification of the International Height Reference Frame (IHRF). Current efforts focus on the estimation and evaluation of potential values obtained from high resolution gravity field modelling, an activity tightly coupled with geoid determination. The gravity reference frame aims to be a regional densification of the International Terrestrial Gravity Reference Frame (ITGRF). Thus, SIRGAS activities are focused on evaluating the quality of existing absolute gravity stations and to identify regional gaps where additional absolute gravity stations are needed. Another main goal of SIRGAS is to promote the use of its geodetic reference frame at the national level and to support capacity building activities in the region. This paper summarizes key milestones in the establishment and maintenance of the SIRGAS reference frame and discusses current efforts and future challenges.Fil: Alves Costa, Sonia M.. Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia E EstatĂ­stica; BrasilFil: Sanchez, Laura. Technische UniversitĂ€t MĂŒnchen; AlemaniaFil: Piñon, Diego. Ministerio de Defensa. Instituto Geografico Nacional; ArgentinaFil: Tarrio Mosquera, Jose A.. Universidad de Santiago de Chile; ChileFil: Guimaraes, Gabriel. Universidade Federal de Uberlandia; BrasilFil: Demian Gomez. Ohio University; Estados UnidosFil: Drewes, Hermann. Deutsches GeodĂ€tisches Forschungsinstitut; AlemaniaFil: Mackern Oberti, MarĂ­a Virginia. Universidad Nacional de Cuyo. Facultad de IngenierĂ­a; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones CientĂ­ficas y TĂ©cnicas; ArgentinaFil: Antokoletz, Ezequiel DarĂ­o. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias AstronĂłmicas y GeofĂ­sicas; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones CientĂ­ficas y TĂ©cnicas. Centro CientĂ­fico TecnolĂłgico Conicet - La Plata; ArgentinaFil: de Matos, Ana C. O.C. Universidade de Sao Paulo; BrasilFil: Blitzkow, Denizar. Universidade de Sao Paulo; Brasi

    A future for intelligent autonomous ocean observing systems

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    Ocean scientists have dreamed of and recently started to realize an ocean observing revolution with autonomous observing platforms and sensors. Critical questions to be answered by such autonomous systems are where, when, and what to sample for optimal information, and how to optimally reach the sampling locations. Definitions, concepts, and progress towards answering these questions using quantitative predictions and fundamental principles are presented. Results in reachability and path planning, adaptive sampling, machine learning, and teaming machines with scientists are overviewed. The integrated use of differential equations and theory from varied disciplines is emphasized. The results provide an inference engine and knowledge base for expert autonomous observing systems. They are showcased using a set of recent at-sea campaigns and realistic simulations. Real-time experiments with identical autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) in the Buzzards Bay and Vineyard Sound region first show that our predicted time-optimal paths were faster than shortest distance paths. Deterministic and probabilistic reachability and path forecasts issued and validated for gliders and floats in the northern Arabian Sea are then presented. Novel Bayesian adaptive sampling for hypothesis testing and optimal learning are finally shown to forecast the observations most informative to estimate the accuracy of model formulations, the values of ecosystem parameters and dynamic fields, and the presence of Lagrangian Coherent Structures

    PICES Press, Vol. 22, No. 1, Winter 2014

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    2013 PICES Science: A Note from the Science Board Chairman (pp. 1-5); 2013 PICES Awards (pp. 6-8); Workshop on “Comparison of Size-based and Species-based Ecosystem Models” (pp.9-11); Workshop on “Identifying Mechanisms Linking Physical Climate and Ecosystem Change” (pp. 12-14); Navigating Change: Well-being, Values and the Management of Marine Social-Ecological Systems (pp. 15-19); 8th International Conference on Marine Bioinvasions (pp. 20-21); Second Regional Climate Modeling Workshop (pp. 22-23); PICES Summer School on “Ocean Observing Systems and Ecosystem Monitoring” (pp. 24-27); NOWPAP–PICES Joint Training Course on “Remote Sensing Data Analysis” (pp. 28-29); 6th SOLAS Summer School (pp. 30-32); News of the Northeast Pacific Ocean (pp. 33-35); The Bering Sea: Current Status and Recent Trends (pp. 36-39); The State of the Western North Pacific in the First Half of 2013 (pp. 40-42); New Chairmen in PICES (pp. 43-48); News from the PICES Secretariat (pp. 49-52
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