Representation c. 800: Arab Byzantine Carolingian

What could or should be visually represented was a contested issue across the medieval Christian and Islamic world around the year 800. This article examines how Islamic, Byzantine, Carolingian and Palestinian Christian attitudes toward representation were expressed, and differed, across the seventh and eighth centuries. Islamic prohibitions against representing human figures were not universally recognised, but were particularly – if sometimes erratically – focused on mosque decoration. Byzantine ‘iconoclasm’ – more properly called iconomachy – was far less destructive than its later offshoots in France and England, and resulted in a highly nuanced re-definition of what representation meant in the Orthodox church. Carolingian attitudes toward images were on the whole far less passionate than either Islamic or Orthodox views, but certain members of the elite had strong views, which resulted in particular visual expressions. Palestinian Christians, living under Islamic rule, modulated their attitudes toward images to conform with local social beliefs. Particularly in areas under Orthodox or Islamic control, then, representation mattered greatly around the year 800, and this article examines how and why this impacted on local production

Bailando en las calles de la Constantinopla bizantina

This article evaluates the significance of processions in Byzantine Constantinople and the role of dancing within them. Evidence is drawn from literary sources concerning imperial, church-sponsored, guild, hippodrome and more spontaneous urban processions, as well as from material culture. Medieval Constantinople saw a large number of processions, perhaps two a week, and they traversed all areas of the city. They were noisy affairs, accompanied by chanting, acclamations and, often, musical noise, so that even when they were not directly visible, they were audible more or less everywhere in the city. Dancing was incorporated in all but liturgical processions (though it may also have been part of these, on occasion). Processions could create a sense of urban unity, or become expressions of conflict: audience participation was normal and sometimes violent. Hence one key-though unofficial-the role played by processions in the Byzantine capital was to give voice to the urban population.El artículo analiza el significado de las procesiones en la Constantinopla bizantina y el papel del baile en ellas. Las evidencias están extraídas tanto de fuentes literarias relativas a procesiones imperiales, eclesiásticas, gremiales, de hipódromos, como de fuentes de cultura material. En la Constantinopla medieval se celebraba un gran número de procesiones, tal vez dos por semana, y recorrían todas las zonas de la ciudad. Eran acontecimientos ruidosos, acompañados de cánticos, aclamaciones y, a menudo, de música, de tal manera que, incluso cuando no eran directamente visibles, eran audibles más o menos en toda la ciudad. El baile se incorporaba en todas las procesiones menos en las litúrgicas (aunque ocasionalmente también podía formar parte de estas). Las procesiones podían crear una sensación de unidad urbana o convertirse en expresiones de conflicto: la participación del público era normal y, a veces, violenta. De ahí que una función clave -aunque no oficial- de las procesiones en la capital bizantina fuera la de dar voz a la población urbana

The prevention of lower urinary tract symptoms (PLUS) research consortium: A transdisciplinary approach toward promoting bladder health and preventing lower urinary tract symptoms in women across the life course

Lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS) are highly prevalent in women, and are expected to impose a growing burden to individuals and society as the population ages. The predominance of research related to LUTS has focused on underlying pathology, disease mechanisms, or the efficacy of treatments for women with LUTS. Although this research has been vital for helping to reduce or ameliorate LUTS conditions, it has done little to prevent the onset of LUTS. Health promotion and prevention require an expansion of scientific inquiry beyond the traditional paradigm of studying disease mechanisms and treatment to the creation of an evidence base to support recommendations for bladder health promotion and, in turn, prevention of LUTS. The National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) introduced the concept of prevention as an important priority for women's urologic research as a prelude to supporting the formation of the Prevention of Lower Urinary Tract Symptoms (PLUS) research consortium. In this article, we introduce the PLUS research consortium to the scientific community; share the innovative paradigms by which the consortium operates; and describe its unique research mission: to identify factors that promote bladder health across the life course and prevent the onset of LUTS in girls and women

Association of Accelerometry-Measured Physical Activity and Cardiovascular Events in Mobility-Limited Older Adults: The LIFE (Lifestyle Interventions and Independence for Elders) Study.

BACKGROUND:Data are sparse regarding the value of physical activity (PA) surveillance among older adults-particularly among those with mobility limitations. The objective of this study was to examine longitudinal associations between objectively measured daily PA and the incidence of cardiovascular events among older adults in the LIFE (Lifestyle Interventions and Independence for Elders) study. METHODS AND RESULTS:Cardiovascular events were adjudicated based on medical records review, and cardiovascular risk factors were controlled for in the analysis. Home-based activity data were collected by hip-worn accelerometers at baseline and at 6, 12, and 24 months postrandomization to either a physical activity or health education intervention. LIFE study participants (n=1590; age 78.9±5.2 [SD] years; 67.2% women) at baseline had an 11% lower incidence of experiencing a subsequent cardiovascular event per 500 steps taken per day based on activity data (hazard ratio, 0.89; 95% confidence interval, 0.84-0.96; P=0.001). At baseline, every 30 minutes spent performing activities ≥500 counts per minute (hazard ratio, 0.75; confidence interval, 0.65-0.89 [P=0.001]) were also associated with a lower incidence of cardiovascular events. Throughout follow-up (6, 12, and 24 months), both the number of steps per day (per 500 steps; hazard ratio, 0.90, confidence interval, 0.85-0.96 [P=0.001]) and duration of activity ≥500 counts per minute (per 30 minutes; hazard ratio, 0.76; confidence interval, 0.63-0.90 [P=0.002]) were significantly associated with lower cardiovascular event rates. CONCLUSIONS:Objective measurements of physical activity via accelerometry were associated with cardiovascular events among older adults with limited mobility (summary score >10 on the Short Physical Performance Battery) both using baseline and longitudinal data. CLINICAL TRIAL REGISTRATION:URL: http://www.clinicaltrials.gov. Unique identifier: NCT01072500

Dark, Beyond Deep: A Paradigm Shift to Cognitive AI with Humanlike Common Sense

Recent progress in deep learning is essentially based on a "big data for small tasks" paradigm, under which massive amounts of data are used to train a classifier for a single narrow task. In this paper, we call for a shift that flips this paradigm upside down. Specifically, we propose a "small data for big tasks" paradigm, wherein a single artificial intelligence (AI) system is challenged to develop "common sense", enabling it to solve a wide range of tasks with little training data. We illustrate the potential power of this new paradigm by reviewing models of common sense that synthesize recent breakthroughs in both machine and human vision. We identify functionality, physics, intent, causality, and utility (FPICU) as the five core domains of cognitive AI with humanlike common sense. When taken as a unified concept, FPICU is concerned with the questions of "why" and "how", beyond the dominant "what" and "where" framework for understanding vision. They are invisible in terms of pixels but nevertheless drive the creation, maintenance, and development of visual scenes. We therefore coin them the "dark matter" of vision. Just as our universe cannot be understood by merely studying observable matter, we argue that vision cannot be understood without studying FPICU. We demonstrate the power of this perspective to develop cognitive AI systems with humanlike common sense by showing how to observe and apply FPICU with little training data to solve a wide range of challenging tasks, including tool use, planning, utility inference, and social learning. In summary, we argue that the next generation of AI must embrace "dark" humanlike common sense for solving novel tasks.Comment: For high quality figures, please refer to http://wellyzhang.github.io/attach/dark.pd