Lunar lander conceptual design

This paper is a first look at the problems of building a lunar lander to support a small lunar surface base. A series of trade studies was performed to define the lander. The initial trades concerned choosing number of stages, payload mass, parking orbit altitude, and propellant type. Other important trades and issues included plane change capability, propellant loading and maintenance location, and reusability considerations. Given a rough baseline, the systems were then reviewed. A conceptual design was then produced. The process was carried through only one iteration. Many more iterations are needed. A transportation system using reusable, aerobraked orbital transfer vehicles (OTV's) is assumed. These OTV's are assumed to be based and maintained at a low Earth orbit (LEO) space station, optimized for transportation functions. Single- and two-stage OTV stacks are considered. The OTV's make the translunar injection (TLI), lunar orbit insertion (LOI), and trans-Earth injection (TEI) burns, as well as midcourse and perigee raise maneuvers

Multidimensional and population-based genetico-epidemiological research in Africa

Objective: Evidence supports that environmental factors contribute to the presentation of psychotic symptoms. Khat leaves contain amphetamine-like alkaloids, and heavy use is frequently associated with psychotic symptoms. We studied how khat use and exposure to traumatic events affect khat-induced psychotic experiences. Methods: At Gilgel Gibe Field Research Center of Jimma University, Ethiopia, we randomly selected a representative cohort of 1,100 men aged 18 to 40 years; 853 (77.5%) agreed to participate. We interviewed participants during the dry season, when khat availability is restricted, and nine months later, just after the rainy season (n = 695; 81.5% of initial sample). We assessed self-reported khat use, khat-induced psychotic experiences, and exposure to potentially traumatic experiences. Khat alkaloids were determined in urine by immunoassay. Significant outcomes: (1) In a large of males from the general population in rural Ethiopia, khat use varies according to seasonal availability and is associated with psychotic experiences. (2) The interaction of several environmental risk factors contributes to explain the prevalence of psychotic experiences, i.e. severe khat use that is more prevalent during rainy season is related to a higher level of khat-induced psychotic experiences among respondents with a severe exposure to traumatic events. (3) Not just lifetime but also recent exposure to traumatic events seems to be a factor that increases the psychotomimetic effects of severe khat use. Conclusions: Our findings support that the interaction of environmental factors might be related to the development of psychotic experiences; this needs to be replicated in larger, longer studies that assess psychotic experiences and symptoms more comprehensively. Systematic studies on long-lasting effects of khat use on mental health in the general population are needed

Multidimensional and population-based genetico-epidemiological research in Africa

Objective: Evidence supports that environmental factors contribute to the presentation of psychotic symptoms. Khat leaves contain amphetamine-like alkaloids, and heavy use is frequently associated with psychotic symptoms. We studied how khat use and exposure to traumatic events affect khat-induced psychotic experiences. Methods: At Gilgel Gibe Field Research Center of Jimma University, Ethiopia, we randomly selected a representative cohort of 1,100 men aged 18 to 40 years; 853 (77.5%) agreed to participate. We interviewed participants during the dry season, when khat availability is restricted, and nine months later, just after the rainy season (n = 695; 81.5% of initial sample). We assessed self-reported khat use, khat-induced psychotic experiences, and exposure to potentially traumatic experiences. Khat alkaloids were determined in urine by immunoassay. Significant outcomes: (1) In a large of males from the general population in rural Ethiopia, khat use varies according to seasonal availability and is associated with psychotic experiences. (2) The interaction of several environmental risk factors contributes to explain the prevalence of psychotic experiences, i.e. severe khat use that is more prevalent during rainy season is related to a higher level of khat-induced psychotic experiences among respondents with a severe exposure to traumatic events. (3) Not just lifetime but also recent exposure to traumatic events seems to be a factor that increases the psychotomimetic effects of severe khat use. Conclusions: Our findings support that the interaction of environmental factors might be related to the development of psychotic experiences; this needs to be replicated in larger, longer studies that assess psychotic experiences and symptoms more comprehensively. Systematic studies on long-lasting effects of khat use on mental health in the general population are needed

Women and Children First: American Magazine Image Depictions of Japan and the Japanese, 1951-1960

By the close of the American Occupation of Japan in 1952, Japan was a sovereign nation, a lingering World War II menace, and much needed Cold War ally of the United States. American magazine print media imagery and advertising therefore had to erase its earlier wartime propaganda depictions of the Japanese while rebranding Japan as a harmless friend to the U.S. In the hundred years after Commodore Matthew Perry’s opening of Japan in 1853, American magazines have utilized several visual trends, stereotypes, and tropes in order to cast the Japanese as peaceful, simple, and eager followers of U.S. culture and foreign policy. I seek to uncover how this idealized representation of the Japanese and America’s relationship with the Japanese was depicted in U.S. magazine imagery of the 1950s. Ending with the revised U.S.-Japan Security Treaty in 1960, this project is an in depth visual analysis of magazine pictures and reveals how a new image of Japan was sold to a war-weary and prejudiced American public

CoMMA Corporate Memory Management through Agents Corporate Memory Management through Agents: The CoMMA project final report

This document is the final report of the CoMMA project. It gives an overview of the different search activities that have been achieved through the project. First, a description of the general requirements is proposed through the definition of two scenarios. Then it shows the different technical aspects of the projects and the solution that has been proposed and implemented

‘Facebook is the Devil’: Exploring Officer Perceptions of Cyber-based Harms Facing Youth in Rural and Remote Communities

Policing research, still largely concentrated on urban contexts, is increasingly recognizing the unique features of police work in rural regions. Beyond notable differences such as lower overall levels crime and fewer (though more sporadically distributed) people, little is also known regarding rural police understandings and responses to online mediated harms, including relatively serious forms of cyberbullying, non-consensual ‘sexting’, and other forms of crime mediated online. Interviews with police officers (N = 42) here focus on their views regarding police work in response to cyber-mediated harm facing youth in rural and remote Atlantic Canada. Responses center on how rural regions play a role in mediating the nature of online conflict and police respond to such conflict. Officers highlight several related challenges, such as lack of parental support, and how some youth ‘define deviancy down’, referring to a lack of recognition regarding the harm caused by cyberbullying and non-consensual sexting (including issues related to the distribution of child pornography). Implications are discussed for research on rural policing where evidence-based practices remain lacking

‘Brown’ is the New ‘Green’: Post-industrial Sites as Potential in the Development of the Green Infrastructure on the Riverfront of Budapest, Hungary

In Budapest, Hungary and all-around Europe in the capital cities, the sight of degraded, industrial landscapes in urban areas became usual during the last decades, due to the unexpected growth of cities. In the last 30 years, many sites have gained new functions and have been reused for different purposes, but still, huge areas remained unused and presumably polluted. According to my hypothesis the unutilized areas – especially in the riverside area - could potentially become the part of a new green infrastructure element, which could make the green infrastructure system of Budapest more complete, usable and ecologically valuable. For this paper we will analyze the existing research data, maps, concepts and plans for the Budapest riverside area from the past years, and among these especially the actual and planning state of the postindustrial brownfield areas. The research goal is to find out if these documents and plans adequately support the indicated goals and professional proposals of the concepts. Thereafter, the paper presents international examples and best practices, which may shape the green infrastructure development in Budapest in the future. In the second part, we will analyze and compare a post-industrial renewal residential area which is important for green infrastructure development, and the regulatory plan and design competition of an unused brownfield of Budapest, both in the riverside area and with lots of similarities, with the aim of developing a typology of different approaches, goals, and design means that have been applied, and distilling a set of guidelines for the design of future projects. This means not only comparing potentials and limitations of the site and of the future program but also investigating the different long-term strategies, for instance, a choice for a master plan. One of the conclusions from the analysis of the Hungarian capital and the international examples is that an integrated approach of the development documents and regulatory plans is needed to ensure the longterm development of the green-infrastructure of Budapest. From the second part, the case studies show the realization of the plans, and help to conclude the successful and failed acts on the riverside for the future real estate developments, and exact actions which would be able to promote the development of the riverside in the hope that future real estate development will deliver the new green infrastructure element of Budapest to adapt the city for the 21th century

Fandom and Coercive Empowerment: The commissioned production of Chinese online literature

This article examines how the relationship between consumers and producers of cultural products is shaped by the proprietary nature of digital platforms. Drawing on 4 years of online observation and analysis, we examine the relationship between the producers of online Chinese fiction, amateur writers, and their consumers, that is, the fan communities of readers who respond to their work. Enabled by Chinese literary websites, readers act like sponsors who provide emotional and financial incentives for writers to produce online fictions by commenting, voting, and sending money. Readers become actively involved not just because of the content of the stories but because they form strong commitments to stories and their writers, and gain reciprocity and a sense of self-determination during the interactional process. We argue that although writers are freer from state control online, they are still beholden to the whims of their fans because of what we call the commissioned production of fictions. We contribute to fan community studies by analyzing how commercialized website settings structure the strategies available to participants, how these settings affect the content of the cultural products, and how the Chinese historical and cultural contexts impact the dynamics of the online community.postprin

News from somewhere: youth crime, emotions contests and news reflexivity

Regular Session - CSA084 –Youth and SocietyCompeting emotional ideologies within three Canadian newspapers during the 1990s are analyzed with respect to youth crime debates. Comparing and contrasting representational tactics between regional and national, as well as ‘tabloid’ versus ‘broadsheet’ newspapers, this paper seeks to explicate ‘emotions contests’ which are closely related to ‘victim contests’ over young offender culpability and identity. Emotions contests are underscored where emotional reactions to social problems become, themselves, the source of contention. Drawing upon constructionist theory, particular attention is paid to the ‘discursive architecture’ of news articles, including the arrangement of claims in dialogue with each other. News reflexivity is argued to be a central feature of these articles, whereby references to ‘the media’s’ representational strategies are often espoused through the media itself. The aim of the paper is to suggest areas for advancement of constructionist analyses of emotions discourses in relation to social problems debates.The 2010 Annual Meeting and Conference of the Canadian Sociological Association (CSA), Concordia University, Montreal, Canada, 31 May-4 June 2010

A Novel Method for Curating Quanti-Qualitative Content

This paper proposes a Researcher-in-the-Loop (RITL) guided content curation approach for quanti-qualitative research methods that uses a version control system based on consensus. The paper introduces a workflow for quanti-qualitative research processes that produces and consumes content versions through collaborative phases validated through consensus protocols performed by research teams. We argue that content versioning is a critical component that supports the research process's reproducibility, traceability, and rationale. We propose a curation framework that provides methods, protocols, and tools for supporting the RITL approach to managing the content produced by quanti-qualitative methods. The paper reports a validation experiment using a use case about the study on disseminating political statements in graffiti