Total Prevention: A History of Schistosomiasis in Japan

In Japan, schistosomiasis was endemic in Yamanashi Prefecture and a few other hotspot areas where the Miya’iri snail lived. The parasite’s lifecycle relied on the intermediary Miya’iri snail as well as the human host. Parasite eggs passed into the agrarian environment through untreated night soil used as fertiliser or through the culture of open defecation in rural Japan. Manmade rice fields and irrigation ditches, night soil covered paddies and highly refined growing seasons put people in flooded rice paddies to intensively work the land in the spring and summer. The disease was equally dependent on human intervention in the natural world as it was on the natural world intervening in the human body. It is important to stress the role of both the environment and culture in disease causation. This study posits that we view the pre- and post-war national mobilisation to remake the environmental and reform the culture of the rural sector to align with public health mandates and notions of hygienic modernity as a case of total prevention

Into the Field: Human Scientists of Transwar Japan. By Miriam Kingsberg Kadia. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 2020. xviii, 317 pp. ISBN: 9781503610613 (cloth, also available in paper and as e-book)

A book review of Miriam Kingsberg Kadia\u27s Into the Field: Human Scientists of Transwar Japan

Issues and perspectives of fiber optic gyroscopes application in space technology

Разработана математическая модель системы «ротор - электромагнитные подшипники» для электродвигателя-маховика системы ориентации и стабилизации космического аппарата. Модель учитывает собственные частоты изгибных колебаний ротора и коэффициенты жесткости электромагнитных подшипников. Предложен способ повышения угловой жесткости системы путем применения многополюсного осевого электромагнитного подшипника и рассмотрено влияние его коэффициента жесткости на собственные частоты системы.The paper presents the mathematical model of «rotor - active magnetic bearings» system for reaction wheel used in spacecraft attitude control system. Developed model consider the natural frequencies of rotor bending oscillations and stiffness parameters of electromagnetic bearing. Method of angular stiffness increasing by using multipolar axial magnetic bearing is suggested and the results of impact analysis of multipolar axial magnetic bearing stiffness on resonance frequencies of system is considered

Analysis of the FACTS devices impact on the transmission line protection operation

The effect of the static synchronous compensator (STATCOM) on distance protection of a high-voltage transmission line is studied in this article. To carry out the research stated in the topic of the paper, an experimental scheme was developed, equipment was selected, the operation settings of the 3 stages of distance protection were calculated and quad characteristics were built on their basis. All listed above, as well as further experiments, were carried out by the real time digital simulator. The STATCOM model was integrated in the scheme and set next. A series of experiments was carried out: two-phase and three-phase short circuits in various nodes of the scheme with and without the compensator and in various connection nodes. After all the experiments were carried out, appropriate conclusions were made about the impact of FACTS devices on the operation of distance protection. Possible ways to solve detected problems were also proposed

Non-native vascular flora of the Arctic : Taxonomic richness, distribution and pathways

We present a comprehensive list of non-native vascular plants known from the Arctic, explore their geographic distribution, analyze the extent of naturalization and invasion among 23 subregions of the Arctic, and examine pathways of introductions. The presence of 341 non-native taxa in the Arctic was confirmed, of which 188 are naturalized in at least one of the 23 regions. A small number of taxa (11) are considered invasive; these plants are known from just three regions. In several Arctic regions there are no naturalized non-native taxa recorded and the majority of Arctic regions have a low number of naturalized taxa. Analyses of the non-native vascular plant flora identified two main biogeographic clusters within the Arctic: American and Asiatic. Among all pathways, seed contamination and transport by vehicles have contributed the most to non-native plant introduction in the Arctic.Peer reviewe

Gamma Ray Burst Constraints on Ultraviolet Lorentz Invariance Violation

We present a unified general formalism for ultraviolet Lorentz invariance violation (LV) testing through electromagnetic wave propagation, based on both dispersion and rotation measure data. This allows for a direct comparison of the efficacy of different data to constrain LV. As an example we study the signature of LV on the rotation of the polarization plane of $\gamma$-rays from gamma ray bursts in a LV model. Here $\gamma$-ray polarization data can provide a strong constraint on LV, 13 orders of magnitude more restrictive than a potential constraint from the rotation of the cosmic microwave background polarization proposed by Gamboa, L\'{o}pez-Sarri\'{o}n, and Polychronakos (2006).Comment: 5 pages, references added, accepted for publication in Phys. Lett.

Stochastic Modeling of a DFIG Wind Turbine in Matpower

One of the main trends in the electric power industry is the use of green energy – renewable energy sources (RES), especially wind power generation. The penetration of large wind turbine (WT) power capacity leads to changes in the topology and characteristics of electric power systems (EPS), which can cause an increase the likelihood of emergency processes and a decrease in the steady-state and transient EPS stability. The issue arises in ensuring the EPS stability with RES units, especially in the case of large disturbances. The main way to solve this issue is mathematical modeling. However, almost all the main currently used software programs are based on deterministic methods for calculating EPS processes, which are not able to consider all possible state uncertainties. To reliably determine all possible states of the system in which it can be, it is necessary to determine in a non-deterministic form how the values in the nodes and branches will be distributed. The peculiarity of this paper is associated with the use of a set of approaches to increase the accuracy of the results obtained: the approximation method in combination with two goodness-of-fit criteria for wind; the SIBD method, which generates the required probability density without loss of density values; and the controlled discretization of input variables. This paper assumes the formation of a WT stochastic model to study the impact of RES on stability in a non-deterministic form using the example of IEEE standard bus systems in the Matpower program

Functional endemism: population connectivity, shifting baselines, and the scale of human experience

Quantifying population connectivity is important for visualizing the spatial and temporal scales that conservation measures act upon. Traditionally, migration based on genetic data has been reported in migrants per generation. However, the temporal scales over which this migration may occur do not necessarily accommodate the scales over which human perturbations occur, leaving the potential for a disconnect between population genetic data and conservation action based on those data. Here, we present a new metric called the “Rule of Memory”, which helps conservation practitioners to interpret “migrants per generation” in the context both of human modified ecosystems and the cultural memory of those doing the modification. Our rule states that clades should be considered functionally endemic regardless of their actual taxonomic designation if the migration between locations is insufficient to maintain a viable population over the timescales of one human generation (20 years). Since larger animals are more likely to be remembered, we quantify the relationship between migrants per human (N) and body mass of the organism in question (M) with the formula N = 10M−1. We then use the coral reef fish Pomacentrus moluccensis to demonstrate the taxonomic and spatial scales over which this rule can be applied. Going beyond minimum viable population literature, this metric assesses the probability that a clade's existence will be forgotten by people throughout its range during a period of extirpation. Because conservation plans are predicated on having well-established baselines, a loss of a species over the range of one human generation evokes the likelihood of that species no longer being recognized as a member of an ecosystem, and thus being excluded in restoration or conservation prioritization

Dynamical Features of Maggiore's Generalised Commutation Relations

We study the dynamical features of Maggiore's generalised commutation relations. We focus on their generality and, in particular, their dependence on the Hamiltonian H. We derive the generalisation of the Planck's law for black body spectrum, study the statistical mechanics of free particles, and study the early universe evolution which now exhibits non trivial features. We find that the dynamical features, found here and in our earlier work, are all generic and vary systematically with respect to the asymptotic growth of the Hamiltonian H.Comment: 14 pages. Version 2: Title modified and a few minor additions and deletions in the text. Section 5 shortened. To appear in Physics Letters