Początki kina. Rozważania filozoficzne

This article centres on the beginnings of the art of cinematography as viewed from a philosophical perspective. Every art form has its beginnings, and cinema is no exeption. Nevertheless, some film theorists, as Jean Louis Baundry, have challenged this view: cinema has no genesis and no single discovery from which it sprung. The purpose of this article is to analyse these arguments in the light of the theories found in Greek philosophy

De facto state-patron state relations in two-level game theory: a case study on de facto states in Croatia and Bosnia during the Yugoslav wars

De facto states are political entities that control territory and maintain all the requirements expected of a state except one, they lack international recognition. What they do have, in many cases, is the patronage of a recognized state that will help them to survive in a hostile world. So close is the relationship between patron and de facto states, that many dismiss de facto states as simply being puppets under the total control of the patron state. In this thesis I show how a genuine de facto state can be identified and differentiated from a puppet state; a true de facto state will be able to come to its own decisions rather than simply following dictates from their patron. To do this I examined the cases of the two Serbian-backed de facto states that emerged from the collapse of Yugoslavia in the 1990s and, through the use of two-level game theory, determine whether they accepted or rejected specific peace plans favored by their patron state based on internal political decisions or were simply carrying out the orders of the patron state.https://www.ester.ee/record=b5243212*es

A whole new world of healing:exploring medical hypnotherapy for pediatric patients: A review

This narrative review aims to unravel the potential of medical hypnotherapy for the treatment of children with a variety of diseases and symptoms. Going beyond its history and assumed neurophysiology, the chances of success for hypnotherapy will be outlined per pediatric speciality, accentuated by clinical research and experiences. Future implications and recommendations are given on extracting the positive effects of medical hypnotherapy for all pediatricians. Conclusion: Medical hypnotherapy is an effective treatment for children with specified conditions such as abdominal pain or headache. Studies suggest effectiveness for other pediatric disciplines, from the first line up to third line of care. In a time in which health is defined as 'a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being’, hypnotherapy stays an underrated treatment option for children. It is a unique mind–body treatment, which true potential still needs to be unraveled. What is Known: • Mind–body health techniques become a more relevant and accepted part of treatment in pediatric patients. • Medical hypnotherapy is an effective treatment for children with specified conditions such as functional abdominal pain. What is New: • Studies suggest the effectiveness of hypnotherapy in a high variety of pediatric symptoms and disease. • Hypnotherapy is a unique mind–body treatment which potential goes far beyond its current utilization.</p

Physics-Informed Neural Networks for Shell Structures

The numerical modeling of thin shell structures is a challenge, which has been met by a variety of finite element (FE) and other formulations -- many of which give rise to new challenges, from complex implementations to artificial locking. As a potential alternative, we use machine learning and present a Physics-Informed Neural Network (PINN) to predict the small-strain response of arbitrarily curved shells. To this end, the shell midsurface is described by a chart, from which the mechanical fields are derived in a curvilinear coordinate frame by adopting Naghdi's shell theory. Unlike in typical PINN applications, the corresponding strong or weak form must therefore be solved in a non-Euclidean domain. We investigate the performance of the proposed PINN in three distinct scenarios, including the well-known Scordelis-Lo roof setting widely used to test FE shell elements against locking. Results show that the PINN can accurately identify the solution field in all three benchmarks if the equations are presented in their weak form, while it may fail to do so when using the strong form. In the thin-thickness limit, where classical methods are susceptible to locking, training time notably increases as the differences in scaling of the membrane, shear, and bending energies lead to adverse numerical stiffness in the gradient flow dynamics. Nevertheless, the PINN can accurately match the ground truth and performs well in the Scordelis-Lo roof benchmark, highlighting its potential for a drastically simplified alternative to designing locking-free shell FE formulations.Comment: 24 pages, 16 figure

Inverse-design of nonlinear mechanical metamaterials via video denoising diffusion models

The accelerated inverse design of complex material properties - such as identifying a material with a given stress-strain response over a nonlinear deformation path - holds great potential for addressing challenges from soft robotics to biomedical implants and impact mitigation. While machine learning models have provided such inverse mappings, they are typically restricted to linear target properties such as stiffness. To tailor the nonlinear response, we here show that video diffusion generative models trained on full-field data of periodic stochastic cellular structures can successfully predict and tune their nonlinear deformation and stress response under compression in the large-strain regime, including buckling and contact. Unlike commonly encountered black-box models, our framework intrinsically provides an estimate of the expected deformation path, including the full-field internal stress distribution closely agreeing with finite element simulations. This work has thus the potential to simplify and accelerate the identification of materials with complex target performance.Comment: 21 pages, 3 figure

The Mill River Greenway Initiative: Community-Based, Long-Term Greenway Planning and Design In Williamsburg and Northampton, Massachusetts

Puritans first settled Northampton, Massachusetts in the mid-17th century with a vision in mind – that of a well-ordered community in which the Mill River would play an integral part in their lives. So long as the community hewed to the right path, the river would accommodate the community’s needs. Primary among those needs was waterpower, so the anchor sites for development along the river were the falls. Over the next 200 years, as the Puritan mind metamorphosed into an American industrial mentality, the Mill River’s residents created an industrial necklace with mills and factories decorating a ribbon of water. By the mid-19th century, more than 70 mills and factories were established along 15 miles of river from Northampton’s Lower Mills up to Devil’s Den near the headwaters of the river in Goshen. By the mid-20th century, with the Mill River Valley’s industrial base in rapid decline, the necklace deteriorated into a sad scattering of empty factory buildings with little connection to one another. The vision perished and the river escaped the minds of most residents, especially in Northampton where the Corps of Engineers relocated its flow away from the town center. Industry along the river is all but gone. Relic industrial sites now dot the Mill River’s banks, separated by flat stretches of the river that were never appealing for water-powered manufacturing. Though more prone to flooding, many of those stretches have been developed as recreational destinations. The Daughters of the American Revolution (D.A.R.) State Forest in Goshen and Look Park in Florence are just such places, but substantial inaccessible gaps remain between the old factory sites. The factories turned their backs to the river, severing any remaining connection to residents and visitors. There cannot be a true, continuous greenway if these key spots are not renewed and connected. The industrial sites themselves, called “anchor sites,” can serve as gateways and destination points along one continuous greenway, providing access to the stretches of river between them. A few anchor sites have been resuscitated or renovated, such as Meekins Library in Williamsburg Center and old mill buildings in Florence. People are returning, but the ways in which people and these sites relate to the river need to be addressed so that people can come back and reconnect to the river at historically and geographically significant locations. The Mill River Greenway Initiative is the story of a renewed vision, which, like the original, is being pieced together by individuals and small groups -- the creation of a new kind of necklace composed of those same sites at falls and bridges, which, when linked, will provide fulfillment for walkers, naturalists, and anglers, history buffs, artists, and tourists. The river will, once again, play an integral role in the lives of residents

GNN-Assisted Phase Space Integration with Application to Atomistics

Overcoming the time scale limitations of atomistics can be achieved by switching from the state-space representation of Molecular Dynamics (MD) to a statistical-mechanics-based representation in phase space, where approximations such as maximum-entropy or Gaussian phase packets (GPP) evolve the atomistic ensemble in a time-coarsened fashion. In practice, this requires the computation of expensive high-dimensional integrals over all of phase space of an atomistic ensemble. This, in turn, is commonly accomplished efficiently by low-order numerical quadrature. We show that numerical quadrature in this context, unfortunately, comes with a set of inherent problems, which corrupt the accuracy of simulations -- especially when dealing with crystal lattices with imperfections. As a remedy, we demonstrate that Graph Neural Networks, trained on Monte-Carlo data, can serve as a replacement for commonly used numerical quadrature rules, overcoming their deficiencies and significantly improving the accuracy. This is showcased by three benchmarks: the thermal expansion of copper, the martensitic phase transition of iron, and the energy of grain boundaries. We illustrate the benefits of the proposed technique over classically used third- and fifth-order Gaussian quadrature, we highlight the impact on time-coarsened atomistic predictions, and we discuss the computational efficiency. The latter is of general importance when performing frequent evaluation of phase space or other high-dimensional integrals, which is why the proposed framework promises applications beyond the scope of atomistics

Oxytocin regulates the expression of aquaporin 5 in the late-pregnant rat uterus

Aquaporins (AQPs) are integral membrane channels responsible for the transport of water across a cell membrane. Based on reports that AQPs are present and accumulate in the female reproductive tract late in pregnancy, our aim was to study the expression of AQP isoforms (AQP1, 2, 3, 5, 8, and 9) at the end of pregnancy in rat in order to determine if they play a role in parturition. Reverse-transcriptase PCR revealed that specific Aqp mRNAs were detectable in the myometrium of nonpregnant and late-pregnancy (Days 18, 20, 21, and 22 of pregnancy) rat uteri. The expression of Aqp5 mRNA and protein were most pronounced on Days 18-21, and were dramatically decreased on Day 22 of pregnancy. In contrast, a significant increase was found in the level of Aqp5 transcript in whole-blood samples on the last day of pregnancy. The effect of oxytocin on myometrial Aqp5 expression in an organ bath was also investigated. The level of Aqp5 mRNA significantly decreased 5 min after oxytocin (10-8 M) administration, similarly to its profile on the day of delivery; this effect was sensitive to the oxytocin antagonist atosiban. The vasopressin analog desmopressin (3.7x10-8 M), on the other hand, did not alter the expression of Aqp5, but did increased the amount of Aqp2 mRNA, an effect that was atosiban-resistant. These results lead us to propose that oxytocin selectively influences the expression of Aqp5 at the end of pregnancy, and may participate in events that lead to parturition in the rat. The sudden increase of AQP5 in the blood on the last dayof pregnancymayserve as a marker that indicates the initiation of delivery

Is Fetal Growth Restriction Associated with a More Severe Maternal Phenotype in the Setting of Early Onset Pre-Eclampsia? A Retrospective Study

BACKGROUND: Both pre-eclampsia and fetal growth restriction are thought to result from abnormal placental implantation in early pregnancy. Consistent with this shared pathophysiology, it is not uncommon to see growth restriction further confound the course of pre-eclampsia and vice versa. It has been previously suggested that superimposed growth restriction is associated with a more severe pre-eclamptic phenotype, however this has not been a consistent finding. Therefore, we set out to determine whether the presence of fetal growth restriction among women with severe early-onset pre-eclampsia was associated with more severe maternal disease compared to those without a growth-restricted fetus. METHODS AND FINDINGS: We undertook a retrospective cohort study of women presenting to a tertiary hospital with severe early-onset pre-eclampsia (<34 weeks' gestation) between 2005-2009. We collected clinical data, including severity of pre-eclampsia, maternal and neonatal outcomes. Of 176 cases of severe pre-eclampsia, 39% (n = 68) were further complicated by fetal growth restriction. However, no significant difference was seen in relation to the severity of pre-eclampsia between those with or without a growth-restricted baby. The presence of concomitant growth restriction was however associated with a significantly increased risk of stillbirth (p = 0.003) and total perinatal mortality (p = 0.02). CONCLUSIONS: The presence of fetal growth restriction among women with severe early-onset pre-eclampsia is not associated with increased severity of maternal disease. However the incidence of stillbirth and perinatal death is significantly increased in this sub-population