Proceedings of the ECCS 2005 satellite workshop: embracing complexity in design - Paris 17 November 2005

Embracing complexity in design is one of the critical issues and challenges of the 21st century. As the realization grows that design activities and artefacts display properties associated with complex adaptive systems, so grows the need to use complexity concepts and methods to understand these properties and inform the design of better artifacts. It is a great challenge because complexity science represents an epistemological and methodological swift that promises a holistic approach in the understanding and operational support of design. But design is also a major contributor in complexity research. Design science is concerned with problems that are fundamental in the sciences in general and complexity sciences in particular. For instance, design has been perceived and studied as a ubiquitous activity inherent in every human activity, as the art of generating hypotheses, as a type of experiment, or as a creative co-evolutionary process. Design science and its established approaches and practices can be a great source for advancement and innovation in complexity science. These proceedings are the result of a workshop organized as part of the activities of a UK government AHRB/EPSRC funded research cluster called Embracing Complexity in Design (www.complexityanddesign.net) and the European Conference in Complex Systems (complexsystems.lri.fr). Embracing complexity in design is one of the critical issues and challenges of the 21st century. As the realization grows that design activities and artefacts display properties associated with complex adaptive systems, so grows the need to use complexity concepts and methods to understand these properties and inform the design of better artifacts. It is a great challenge because complexity science represents an epistemological and methodological swift that promises a holistic approach in the understanding and operational support of design. But design is also a major contributor in complexity research. Design science is concerned with problems that are fundamental in the sciences in general and complexity sciences in particular. For instance, design has been perceived and studied as a ubiquitous activity inherent in every human activity, as the art of generating hypotheses, as a type of experiment, or as a creative co-evolutionary process. Design science and its established approaches and practices can be a great source for advancement and innovation in complexity science. These proceedings are the result of a workshop organized as part of the activities of a UK government AHRB/EPSRC funded research cluster called Embracing Complexity in Design (www.complexityanddesign.net) and the European Conference in Complex Systems (complexsystems.lri.fr)

PROSPECTS FOR EXPANDED EGG PRODUCTION IN WESTERN CANADA

This research project is an assessment of potential competitiveness of the egg industry in Manitoba compared to other western provinces, eastern Canada and the US.Livestock Production/Industries, Production Economics,

COST COMPETITIVENESS OF THE CANADIAN PORK PROCESSING INDUSTRY

Agribusiness,

Banking sector depth and economic growth nexus: a comparative study between the natural resource-based and the rest of the world’s economies

This paper investigates the relationship between banking sector depth and long-term economic growth in the natural resource based economies vis-à-vis economies that are not dependent on natural resources. For the empirical investigation, a Generalised Method of Moments (GMM) estimator for dynamic panel-data models is adopted for 194 countries spanning the period 1964 to 2013. By using different measures of banking sector depth and economic growth, the investigation yields three key findings. First, the banking-growth relationship is non-linear and positive within certain levels of banking sector depth in both country groups. Second, the time lag between the change in the level of banking sector depth and the effect on economic growth is shorter in the natural resource-based countries than in the other countries. Finally, the total effect of banking sector deepening on long-term economic growth is weaker in economies with abundant natural resources than in the rest of the world

Appearance-based indoor localization: a comparison of patch descriptor performance

Vision is one of the most important of the senses, and humans use it extensively during navigation. We evaluated different types of image and video frame descriptors that could be used to determine distinctive visual landmarks for localizing a person based on what is seen by a camera that they carry. To do this, we created a database containing over 3 km of video-sequences with ground-truth in the form of distance travelled along different corridors. Using this database, the accuracy of localization - both in terms of knowing which route a user is on - and in terms of position along a certain route, can be evaluated. For each type of descriptor, we also tested different techniques to encode visual structure and to search between journeys to estimate a user's position. The techniques include single-frame descriptors, those using sequences of frames, and both colour and achromatic descriptors. We found that single-frame indexing worked better within this particular dataset. This might be because the motion of the person holding the camera makes the video too dependent on individual steps and motions of one particular journey. Our results suggest that appearance-based information could be an additional source of navigational data indoors, augmenting that provided by, say, radio signal strength indicators (RSSIs). Such visual information could be collected by crowdsourcing low-resolution video feeds, allowing journeys made by different users to be associated with each other, and location to be inferred without requiring explicit mapping. This offers a complementary approach to methods based on simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) algorithms.Comment: Accepted for publication on Pattern Recognition Letter

Quantum-mechanical calculation of Stark widths of Ne VII n=3, Δn=0\Delta n=0 transitions

The Stark widths of the Ne VII 2s3s-2s3p singlet and triplet lines are calculated in the impact approximation using quantum-mechanical Convergent Close-Coupling and Coulomb-Born-Exchange approximations. It is shown that the contribution from inelastic collisions to the line widths exceeds the elastic width contribution by about an order of magnitude. Comparison with the line widths measured in a hot dense plasma of a gas-liner pinch indicates a significant difference which may be naturally explained by non-thermal Doppler effects from persistent implosion velocities or turbulence developed during the pinch implosion. Contributions to the line width from different partial waves and types of interactions are discussed as well.Comment: 8 pages, 3 figures; accepted by Phys. Rev.

Modern therapies in atopic dermatitis: biologics and small molecule drugs

Atopic dermatitis (AD) is a frequent, chronic remittent skin disease. The pathophysiology of AD has been increasingly understood within the last years, which may help to identify different endotypes suitable for defined therapies in the future. A patient-oriented therapy considers phenotypical features in addition to genetic and biological markers. The most recent developments in biologics and small-molecule drugs for AD treatment are presented in this article. These molecules, if approved, could change the perspectives for future therapies. Dupilumab is the first approved biologic for the treatment of moderate to severe atopic dermatitis in adolescence and adulthood and has led to a significant improvement in the treatment of this chronic disease. In the present article we present real-life data on the efficacy of dupilumab in adult dermatitis patients. We also discuss other data relevant to the use of dupilumab, and address open questions important for the standard care of atopic dermatitis patients

Magnetization of polydisperse colloidal ferrofluids: Effect of magnetostriction

We exploit magnetostriction in polydisperse ferrofluids in order to generate nonlinear responses, and apply a thermodynamical method to derive the desired nonlinear magnetic susceptibility. For an ideal gas, this method has been demonstrated to be in excellent agreement with a statistical method. In the presence of a sinusoidal ac magnetic field, the magnetization of the polydisperse ferrofluid contains higher-order harmonics, which can be extracted analytically by using a perturbation approach. We find that the harmonics are sensitive to the particle distribution and the degree of field-induced anisotropy of the system. In addition, we find that the magnetization is higher in the polydisperse system than in the monodisperse one, as also found by a recent Monte Carlo simulation. Thus, it seems possible to detect the size distribution in a polydisperse ferrofluid by measuring the harmonics of the magnetization under the influence of magnetostriction.Comment: 23 pages, 4 figures. To be accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.

Stark Broadening of the B III 2s-2p Lines

We present a quantum-mechanical calculation of Stark line widths from electron-ion collisions for the $2s_{1/2}-2p_{1/2,3/2}$, lambda = 2066 and 2067 A, resonance transitions in B III. The results confirm the previous quantum-mechanical R-matrix calculations but contradict recent measurements and semi-classical and some semi-empirical calculations. The differences between the calculations can be attributed to the dominance of small L partial waves in the electron-atom scattering, while the large Stark widths inferred from the measurements would be substantially reduced if allowance is made for hydrodynamic turbulence from high Reynolds number flows and the associated Doppler broadening.Comment: 21 pages, 4 figures; to be published in Phys. Rev.