The early medieval origin of Perth, Scotland

The radiocarbon results (and Bayesian modeling) of 15 samples of carbonized food residues removed from the external surface of rim sherds of cooking pots indicate that shellyware pottery first appeared in Perth, Scotland, around cal AD 9101020 (95% probability) and that it had disappeared by cal AD 10201140 (95% probability). Previously, it had been suggested that this pottery could not date to before AD 1150. These data, together with 14C analyses carried out on leather artifacts and a sample of wattle from a ditch lining, also demonstrate that there was occupation in Perth about 100 yr or more prior to the granting of royal burgh status to Perth in the 1120s

Enterovirus and Bacterial Evaluation of Mississippi Oysters

The numbers of enteric viruses and fecal coliform bacteria in oysters and water samples collected along the Mississippi Gulf coast during 1979 were determined. Ten viral isolates, representing members of the poliovirus group, were identified from an approved oyster harvesting site. The number of virus isolations increased to 51 when oysters were collected from a prohibited harvesting location. The majority of isolates were identified as poliovirus type 1 or 2, coxsackievirus B3 and B4, and echovirus type 24. Fecal coliforms in water samples collected at approved and prohibited locations confirmed the classification assigned to each area by the Mississippi State Board of Health. The numbers of fecal coliforms in oyster samples collected at the identical sites did not reflect the levels observed in water samples. There was no positive correlation between indicator bacteria in the water column and the number of viruses in the shellfish examined. These results imply that viral analyses of shellfish may be needed as an adjunct to bacteriological analyses so that shellfish safety is verified

Enterovirus and Bacterial Evaluation of Mississippi Oysters

The numbers of enteric viruses and fecal coliform bacteria in oysters and water samples collected along the Mississippi Gulf coast during 1979 were determined. Ten viral isolates, representing members of the poliovirus group, were identified from an approved oyster harvesting site. The number of virus isolations increased to 51 when oysters were collected from a prohibited harvesting location. The majority of isolates were identified as poliovirus type 1 or 2, coxsackievirus B3 and B4, and echovirus type 24. Fecal coliforms in water samples collected at approved and prohibited locations confirmed the classification assigned to each area by the Mississippi State Board of Health. The numbers of fecal coliforms in oyster samples collected at the identical sites did not reflect the levels observed in water samples. There was no positive correlation between indicator bacteria in the water column and the number of viruses in the shellfish examined. These results imply that viral analyses of shellfish may be needed as an adjunct to bacteriological analyses so that shellfish safety is verified

TeleMed: A distributed virtual patient record system

TeleMed is a distributed diagnosis and analysis system, which permits physicians who are not collocated to consult on the status of a patient. The patient`s record is dynamically constructed from data that may reside at several sites but which can be quickly assembled for viewing by pointing to the patient`s name. Then, a graphical patient record appears, through which consulting physicians can retrieve textual and radiographic data with a single mouse click. TeleMed uses modern distributed object technology and emerging telecollaboration tools. The authors describe in this paper some of the motivation for this change, what they mean by a virtual patient record, and some results of some early implementations of a virtual patient record

Supporting learning with 3D interactive applications in early years

Early years education is an key element for the introduction of children in the education system. In order to improve this process, the aim of this study was to explore how guided interaction with 3D apps can fit into a preschool setting, how it can help children learn through playing and how it can improve their learning outcomes. A study was conducted with six classes of 87 students aged between 3 years to 6 years, over a 12-week period. Children used 10 inch Android tablets with a series of apps developed by our research team, about houses of the world, the skeleton & five senses and, animals. A quasi-experimental design based on a nonequivalent groups pretest and posttest de-sign revealed that an active behavior and better learning outcomes are obtained by children participating in the experimental groupCascales Martínez, A.; Martínez Segura, MJ.; Laguna- Segobia, M.; Pérez Lopez, DC.; Contero, M. (2014). Supporting learning with 3D interactive applications in early years. Lecture Notes in Computer Science. 8524:11-22. doi:10.1007/978-3-319-07485-6_2S11228524Plowman, L., Stephen, C.: Children, Play and Computers in Preschool Education. British Journal of Educational Technology 36(2), 145–157 (2005)Tootell, H., Plumb, M., Hadfield, C., Dawson, L.: Gestural Interface Technology in early childhood education: A framework for fully-engaged communication. In: Proceedings of the Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, art. no. 6479836, pp. 13–20 (2013)Marco, J., Cerezo, E.: Bringing Tabletop Technologies to Kindergarten Children. In: HCI 2009 International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction–Celebrating People and Technology, pp. 103–111. Springer, Heidelberg (2009)Heft, T.M., Swaminathan, S.: Using Computers in Early Childhood Classrooms: Teachers’ Attitudes, Skills and Practices. Journal of Early Childhood Research 6(4), 169–188 (2006)Wang, X.C., Ching, C.C.: Social Construction of Computer Experience in a First-Grade Classroom: Social Processes and Mediating Artifacts. Early Education and Development 14(3), 335–361 (2003)Couse, L.J., Chen, D.W.: A Tablet Computer for Young Children? Exploring Its Viability for Early Childhood Education. Journal of Research on Technology in Education 43(1), 75–98 (2012)Kearney, J.: Educating Young Children - Learning and Teaching in the Early Childhood Years. Early Childhood Teachers’ Association (ECTA Inc.) 3(18) (2012)Rankothge, W.H., Sendanayake, S.V., Sudarshana, R.G.P., Balasooriya, B.G.G.H., Alahapperuma, D.R., Mallawarachchi, Y.: Technology Assisted Tool for Learning Skills Development in Early Childhood. In: Proc. of 2012 International Conference on Advances in ICT for Emerging Regions (ICTer), pp. 165–168 (2012)Sandvik, M., Smørdal, O., Østerud, S.: Exploring iPads in Practitioners’ Repertoires for Language Learning and Literacy Practices In Kindergarten. Nordic Journal of Digital Literacy 3(7), 204–221 (2012)Priyankara, K.W.T.G.T., Mahawaththa, D.C., Nawinna, D.P., Jayasundara, J.M.A., Tharuka, K.D.N., Rajapaksha, S.K.: Android Based e-Learning Solution for Early Childhood Education in Sri Lanka. In: Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Computer Science & Education (ICCSE), pp. 715–718 (2013)Zanchi, C., Presser, A.L., Vahey, P.: Next Generation Preschool Math Demo: Tablet Games for Preschool Classrooms. In: Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Interaction Design and Children, IDC 2013, pp. 527–530 (2013)Meyer, B.: Game-based Language Learning for Pre-School Children: A Design Perspective. Electronic Journal of e-Learning 11(1), 39–48 (2013)Straub, D.W.: Validating Instruments in MIS Research. MIS Quarterly 13(2), 147–169 (1989)Cook, T.D., Campbell, D.T., Day, A.: Quasi-experimentation: Design and Analysis Issues for Field Settings, pp. 19–21. Houghton Mifflin, Boston (1979)Buendía, L., Y Berrocal, E.: La Ética de la Investigación Educativa. Ágora Digital 1 (2011)Tojar, J., Serrano, J.: Ética e Investigación Educativa. RELIEVE 6(2) (2000)Cascales, A., Laguna, I., Pérez-López, D., Perona, P., Contero, M.: 3D Interactive Applications on Tablets for Preschoolers: Exploring the Human Skeleton and the Senses. In: Hernández-Leo, D., Ley, T., Klamma, R., Harrer, A. (eds.) EC-TEL 2013. LNCS, vol. 8095, pp. 71–83. Springer, Heidelberg (2013

Search for Small Trans-Neptunian Objects by the TAOS Project

The Taiwan-America Occultation Survey (TAOS) aims to determine the number of small icy bodies in the outer reach of the Solar System by means of stellar occultation. An array of 4 robotic small (D=0.5 m), wide-field (f/1.9) telescopes have been installed at Lulin Observatory in Taiwan to simultaneously monitor some thousand of stars for such rare occultation events. Because a typical occultation event by a TNO a few km across will last for only a fraction of a second, fast photometry is necessary. A special CCD readout scheme has been devised to allow for stellar photometry taken a few times per second. Effective analysis pipelines have been developed to process stellar light curves and to correlate any possible flux changes among all telescopes. A few billion photometric measurements have been collected since the routine survey began in early 2005. Our preliminary result of a very low detection rate suggests a deficit of small TNOs down to a few km size, consistent with the extrapolation of some recent studies of larger (30--100 km) TNOs.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, IAU Symposium 23

Carbon based prosthetic devices

This is the final report of a one-year, Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) project at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL). The project objective was to evaluate the use of carbon/carbon-fiber-reinforced composites for use in endoprosthetic devices. The application of these materials for the metacarpophalangeal (MP) joints of the hand was investigated. Issues concerning mechanical properties, bone fixation, biocompatibility, and wear are discussed. A system consisting of fiber reinforced materials with a pyrolytic carbon matrix and diamond-like, carbon-coated wear surfaces was developed. Processes were developed for the chemical vapor infiltration (CVI) of pyrolytic carbon into porous fiber preforms with the ability to tailor the outer porosity of the device to provide a surface for bone in-growth. A method for coating diamond-like carbon (DLC) on the articulating surface by plasma-assisted chemical vapor deposition (CVD) was developed. Preliminary results on mechanical properties of the composite system are discussed and initial biocompatibility studies were performed

Spontaneous decay in the presence of dispersing and absorbing bodies: general theory and application to a spherical cavity

A formalism for studying spontaneous decay of an excited two-level atom in the presence of dispersing and absorbing dielectric bodies is developed. An integral equation, which is suitable for numerical solution, is derived for the atomic upper-state-probability amplitude. The emission pattern and the power spectrum of the emitted light are expressed in terms of the Green tensor of the dielectric-matter formation including absorption and dispersion. The theory is applied to the spontaneous decay of an excited atom at the center of a three-layered spherical cavity, with the cavity wall being modeled by a band-gap dielectric of Lorentz type. Both weak coupling and strong coupling are studied, the latter with special emphasis on the cases where the atomic transition is (i) in the normal-dispersion zone near the medium resonance and (ii) in the anomalous-dispersion zone associated with the band gap. In a single-resonance approximation, conditions of the appearance of Rabi oscillations and closed solutions to the evolution of the atomic state population are derived, which are in good agreement with the exact numerical results.Comment: 12 pages, 6 figures, typos fixed, 1 figure adde