Womb Heat versus Sperm Heat: Hippocrates against Galen and Ibn Sīnā in Ibn al- Nafīs’s Commentaries

Ibn al-Nafīs wrote lemmatic commentaries on Hippocrates’ Aphorisms and Ibn Sīnā’s entire Canon of Medicine. While he regularly challenges, critiques and refutes Ibn Sīnā’s positions in his Commentary on the Canon, Ibn al-Nafīs generally upholds the validity of each aphorism. This already suggests that he considered Hippocrates the supreme authority in medicine over Ibn Sīnā (and even Galen). Through an analysis of his commentary on Aphorisms V.42 and V.48 (on the causes and consequences of bearing male children), and how he deploys them in his commentary on the analogous chapters from the Canon, we shall see how Ibn al-Nafīs establishes the validity of these aphorisms using his own understanding of generation. This tight interweaving of the Aphorisms and his physiology allowed Ibn al-Nafīs to marshal the authority of Hippocrates to simultaneously undercut the positions of Ibn Sīnā, Galen and other adversaries, and to elevate the authority and validity of Ibn al-Nafīs’s own (novel) positions

Pembuatan Sistem Informasi Gereja Berbasis Web

Gereja ‘X’ didirikan sekitar tahun 1954. Gereja yang terletak di Surabaya ini memiliki visi ‘Menjadi gereja yang menyalurkan berkat’, tentu saja tidak hanya bagi jemaatnya melainkan juga bagi masyarakat pada umumnya. Dalam melaksanakan visinya ini, Gereja ‘X’ memiliki banyak sekali pengolahan data yang harus ditangani, seperti halnya, data kejemaatan, jadwal dan laporan ibadah, pelaksanaan kegiatan gerejawi, keuangan dan sebagainya. Pengolahan data tersebut bukan hanya dilakukan oleh majelis jemaat di gereja induk saja, tetapi juga dilakukan oleh departement dalam gereja seperti; bidang, seksi, komisi dan pos jemaat gereja. Departemen bagian ini nantinya wajib melaporkan aktivitasnya kepada gereja pusat. Sistem yang sedang berjalan saat ini memiliki beberapa kendala karena masih dilakukan secara manual. Proses pertukaran dan penyimpanan data menjadi kurang efektif. Lebih lanjut lagi ditemukan fakta bahwa cukup banyak data yang terlambat diperoleh gereja. Ini terjadi karena selama ini update laporan sering kali terlambat sehingga data terbaru dari departemen belum tersedia ketika dibutuhkan. Sering kali departemen bagian gereja terhambat oleh kendala jarak dan waktu untuk menyampaikan laporan ke gereja induk. Oleh karena itu Gereja “X” mempunyai keinginan untuk mengganti kerja sistem manual yang dimiliki dengan suatu sistem terkomputerisasi yang menggunakan teknologi internet melalui aplikasi sistem informasi berbasis web yang dapat memungkinkan penyampaian laporan secara update, akurat dan praktis. Sistem informasi yang baru ini nantinya diharapkan dapat membantu menyelesaikan segala permasalahan yang ada

Innovative behaviours and personality traits in captive kea (Nestor notabilis) as a model for the emergence of kea strike in wild populations : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Conservation Biology, at Massey University, Manawatu, New Zealand

The personality traits of seven captive kea (Nestor notabilis) were investigated in terms of neophobia, problem solving ability, and innovation. The first objective was to compare the personalities of the birds and assess these in relation to demographic factors including age and sex, as well as looking at the effect of isolated versus group housing. Kea are known to require high standards of enrichment and sociality, so this information can be used to determine the effect their captive housing may have on important wild traits. The second objective was to observe whether particular personalities or demographic factors made a kea more innovative, or in this case more likely to attack a sheep. Kea strike is a phenomenon whereby kea attack sheep, which often die as a result. This conflict has led to approximately 100,000 kea being shot by farmers in retaliation, and as a consequence there has been a dramatic decline in the wild kea population. In order to assess each individual’s relative neophobia or neophilia, novel objects were presented to the kea and their reactions observed. Problem solving ability was measured by using a Multi-Access Box, which required the birds to use one of four different access routes to retrieve a food reward. To observe levels of innovation and the likelihood of kea strike emerging, a mechanical sheep analogue was used. This was made to resemble a sheep, and contained a food reward for the kea to find. The juveniles in this study were much more neophilic and adept at problem solving than the adults, and this is thought to be because juveniles are still learning about their environment and these traits are therefore highly beneficial to them. Only one juvenile successfully completed the sheep analogue task, and she was the most neophilic and adept at problem solving. This suggests that highly neophilic and explorative kea are more likely to develop innovative behaviours such as kea strike. Understanding the drivers behind kea strike is important if tools are to be developed to minimise the conflict in the future

Corrosion Durability of a Nano-Particle Enriched Zinc-Rich Coating System For Highway Steel Bridges

Corrosion is a major concern for the long-term durability and structural integrity of steel components of highway bridges when unprotected. The application of protective coatings has been widely used for corrosion mitigation of atmospherically exposed structural steel. At present, the zinc-rich primer (ZRP) based three-coat system is widely used in the United States. The metallic zinc pigment ideally would provide corrosion resistance by sacrificial as well as barrier protection. The life of these coating systems is at best only half of the bridge design life. Furthermore, premature degradation may occur if there are flaws in the system due to improper application. Different additives were considered to improve the performance of ZRP coating system and recently carbon nano-particles gathered attention due to their beneficial characteristics. The protection mechanisms of zinc-rich coatings have been well studied but the durability of zinc-rich coatings containing carbon nano-particles and their corrosion protection has not been well elucidated for bridge application. In the work presented in this dissertation, a zinc-rich epoxy coating containing carbon nano-particles (NPE-ZRP) have been investigated for possible highway steel bridge application. Coating durability, robustness, and repair considerations in aggressive environments relevant to highway bridges were investigated. The research considered material characterization and exposure to various environments such as inland, beach, salt-fog, immersion and alternate wet/dry exposure to identify the degradation mechanism as well as the durability of NPE-ZRP coating system. After exposure, the extent of coating degradation was evaluated by visual inspection, coating thickness, adhesion measurement, optical and electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction. The NPE-ZRP coating initially provides barrier performance. The porous nature of the epoxy matrix allows electrolyte penetration from the exposure environment which facilitates the activation of the zinc pigments (cathodic protection) and the associated formation of zinc oxide further enhanced barrier protection. Comparatively, improved barrier performance was observed for the NPE-ZRP coating system even with fewer coating layers as well as less thickness than the conventional ZRP coating. Similar galvanic protection as conventional ZRP with less zinc content was observed. Comparatively faster corrosion rates of NPE-ZRP also portray enhanced continuity through carbon nano-particles. Higher pull-off strength was observed for NPE-ZRP coating apparently due to carbon nano-particles in the epoxy matrix which enhanced the cohesive bond and the adhesive strength by interlocking within the pore spaces of the steel substrate. Pre-exposure to high humidity before the coating application didn’t affect the coating durability but salt contamination and remnant coating layer can hinder the bond of the NPE-ZRP primer with the steel substrate resulted in reduced bond strength. Most importantly, NPE-ZRP coating always showed zinc consumption from the bulk primer layer whereas ZRP showed along with the steel/primer interface. Eventually, NPE-ZRP maintained good bond strength whereas the primer in ZRP loses bond strength at the steel/primer interface

Movements and Activity Budgets of Caribou Near Oil Drilling Sites in the Sagavanirktok River Floodplain, Alaska

Movements and activity patterns were compared for caribou (Rangifer tarandus granti) near two active drilling sites on the periphery of the Prudhoe Bay oilfield and for caribou from a control site. Caribou on the experimental and control sites had similar movement rates and activity budgets, but many localized responses to the roads, pipelines, vehicle traffic, and other structures and activities were observed. Insect harassment had an appreciable effect on caribou movements and activity budgets. Groups harassed by insects moved approximately twice as fast and spent at least 50% less time lying and feeding than did unharassed groups. Of the 99 groups that approached a road, pipeline, and/or drill site, 70.7% crossed directly, 19.2% detoured around the drill site, and 10.1% reversed direction and left the study area. No evidence was found that caribou cows and calves were avoiding the area because of drilling operations.Key words: caribou, Rangifer tarandus granti, movements, disturbance, insect harassment, Prudhoe Bay, petroleum developmentLes mouvements et activités du caribou (Rangifer tarandus granti) sont comparés prés de deux sites de forage actif dans la périphérie du champ de pétrole de la baie Prudhoe ainsi que dans un site de contrôle. Les caribous dans les sites expérimentaux et de contrôle présentaient un taux de mouvement et un régime d'activité semblables, mais on observa un bon nombre de réactions localisées aux routes, aux pipelines, à la circulation de véhicules et à d'autres structures et activités. Les tourments infligés par les insectes ont eu un effet appréciable sur les mouvements et le régime d'activité. Les groupes tourmentés par les insectes se déplaçaient environ deux fois plus vite que les groupes non tourmentés, et passaient environ 50% moins de temps à se nourrir et à se reposer que ces derniers. Des 99 groupes ayant approché une route, un pipeline et/ou un site de forage 70.7% traversaient directement, 19.2% faisaient un détour autour du site de forage, et 10.1% faisaient demi-tour et quittaient le champ d'étude. Aucune preuve n'a indiqué que les vaches et les veaux des caribous évitaient la région à cause des travaux de forage.Mots clés: caribou, Rangifer tarandus granti, mouvements, perturbation, les tourments infligés par les insects, la baie Prudhoe, developpement de l'industrie pétrolifèr

Media, Publicity, and Fashion: The Michelle Obama Effect A Content Analysis of News Around the World

This study is a content analysis of media content in a 12-month time period in the lives of Jason Wu and Thom Browne, who were the designers of Michelle Obama’s outfit to the second presidential inauguration. In order to discover the increase in awareness and media coverage of these designers due to Michelle Obama’s fashion selection during the second inauguration, which brought about publicity, the researcher compared mentions, tone of stories, and framing of stories concerning these designers 6 months before and after the inauguration. Results indeed gave support to the hypothesis that mentions of these designers increased significantly after that pivotal event, that the mentions were more likely to include Michelle Obama, and that Wu received more mentions than Browne. However, support was not obtained for an increase in positive tone of stories after the inauguration

An improved Gaussian Mixture Model with post-processing for multiple object detection in surveillance video analytics

Gaussian Mixture Model (GMM) is an effective method for extracting foreground objects from video sequences. However, GMM fails to detect the object in challenging scenarios like the presence of shadow, occlusion, complex backgrounds, etc. To handle these challenges, intrinsic and extrinsic enhancement is required in traditional GMM. This paper presents a novel framework that combines improved GMM with postprocessing for multiple object detection. In the proposed system, GMM with parameter initialization is considered an intrinsic improvement. Video preprocessing and postprocessing are considered extrinsic improvements. Integration of morphological operation with GMM helps for better segmentation than traditional GMM, and it also helps to increase detection performance by reducing false positives. Video preprocessing is the process of noise removal that prepares input video ready for further processing. In the final step gradient of morphological operations is used for postprocessing. The proposed approach was tested on challenging surveillance video sequences from benchmark datasets such as PETS 2009 and CD 2014(Change Detection). The experimental results are compared using ground truth and performance evaluation metrics. The results show that the proposed approach performs better than GMM, and the method can detect the object effectively even in illumination variation and partial occlusion

Traffic-aware adaptive server load balancing for software defined networks

Servers in data center networks handle heterogenous bulk loads. Load balancing, therefore, plays an important role in optimizing network bandwidth and minimizing response time. A complete knowledge of the current network status is needed to provide a stable load in the network. The process of network status catalog in a traditional network needs additional processing which increases complexity, whereas, in software defined networking, the control plane monitors the overall working of the network continuously. Hence it is decided to propose an efficient load balancing algorithm that adapts SDN. This paper proposes an efficient algorithm TA-ASLB-traffic-aware adaptive server load balancing to balance the flows to the servers in a data center network. It works based on two parameters, residual bandwidth, and server capacity. It detects the elephant flows and forwards them towards the optimal server where it can be processed quickly. It has been tested with the Mininet simulator and gave considerably better results compared to the existing server load balancing algorithms in the floodlight controller. After experimentation and analysis, it is understood that the method provides comparatively better results than the existing load balancing algorithms

Plague and the Fall of Baghdad (1258)

The recent suggestion that the late medieval Eurasian plague pandemic, the Black Death, had its origins in the thirteenth century rather than the fourteenth century has brought new scrutiny to texts reporting ‘epidemics’ in the earlier period. Evidence both from Song China and Iran suggests that plague was involved in major sieges laid by the Mongols between the 1210s and the 1250s, including the siege of Baghdad in 1258 which resulted in the fall of the Abbasid caliphate. In fact, re-examination of multiple historical accounts in the two centuries after the siege of Baghdad shows that the role of epidemic disease in the Mongol attacks was commonly known among chroniclers in Syria and Egypt, raising the question why these outbreaks have been overlooked in modern historiography of plague. The present study looks in detail at the evidence in Arabic sources for disease outbreaks after the siege of Baghdad in Iraq and its surrounding regions. We find subtle factors in the documentary record to explain why, even though plague received new scrutiny from physicians in the period, it remained a minor feature in stories about the Mongol invasion of western Asia. In contemporary understandings of the genesis of epidemics, the Mongols were not seen to have brought plague to Baghdad; they caused plague to arise by their rampant destruction. When an even bigger wave of plague struck the Islamic world in the fourteenth century, no association was made with the thirteenth-century episode. Rather, plague was now associated with the Mongol world as a whole

Life

This project is about offering a solution to nationally displaced populations. Our group has created a system that will not only provide people with housing but a piece of mind. Nexus Maximus IV The Challenge: Innovation for Refugees and Displaced Populations One of the great challenges of our time is how to help refugees and displaced populations, and how to prevent the causes in the first place. Every minute, 24 people around the world are forced to flee their homes. That’s 34,000 people a day who leave everything behind in the hope of finding safety and a better tomorrow. The impact of war, political, racial and religious conflict, and environmental crises of famine and climate change, have caused great suffering and there is a great opportunity to do better. The issues these populations and the countries who receive them face are diverse and complex. They include public health, housing/built environment, cultural integration, public safety, employment/economic and more. How can innovation address these challenges? How do we create the social systems and products to support a healthy, safe and integrated program for refugees? How do we address the physical, emotional, and social needs of refugees to restore hope and opportunity? The solutions may be as far ranging as the challenges, exploring the acute needs during a crisis, as well as the chronic needs of the permanently displaced; looking at immigration and adjustments to new cultures. We encourage participants to draw upon all disciplines, from health professions to architecture, engineering to design, ethics, communication and every way of thinking we have, to find better ways to innovate on physical solutions, processes, policies, systems, and more. Recap of poster presentations.https://jdc.jefferson.edu/nexusmaximus/1021/thumbnail.jp