Big Green Data: Herbals, Science, and Art

With environmental concerns looming large, the question of how we count and account for biodiversity is an urgent one, but we are not the first people to wrestle with it. Earlier cultures developed tools of categorization that set templates for those of today. By drawing connections between discrete things -- whether those be individual organisms, or parts of an organism, or particular qualities like color and size – both premodern and modern peoples use(d) categories as conceptual tools for studying the world and understanding their place in it. This exhibit shows some of the ways in which plant life was understood and conceptually organized in Antiquity and the Middle Ages, particularly in medieval herbals. Herbals, which usually took the form of substantial illustrated books, are not field guides to plants or botanic encyclopedias, though they have elements in common with those kinds of works. Instead, herbals are “pharmacopeia,” lists of medicines that could be made from single kinds of plants. But their approach to identifying plant species is worth noting, not just as an important part of botanical history, but also for its interest in the language of naming. Herbals’ emphasis on etymology, translation, and the multiplicity of synonyms demands that their readers think extensively about the relation between bio-matter and the language we use to “analyze” it or divide it for the purpose of study (see OED, s.v. “analysis” 2a)

Voluntary control of wearable robotic exoskeletons by patients with paresis via neuromechanical modeling.

BACKGROUND: Research efforts in neurorehabilitation technologies have been directed towards creating robotic exoskeletons to restore motor function in impaired individuals. However, despite advances in mechatronics and bioelectrical signal processing, current robotic exoskeletons have had only modest clinical impact. A major limitation is the inability to enable exoskeleton voluntary control in neurologically impaired individuals. This hinders the possibility of optimally inducing the activity-driven neuroplastic changes that are required for recovery. METHODS: We have developed a patient-specific computational model of the human musculoskeletal system controlled via neural surrogates, i.e., electromyography-derived neural activations to muscles. The electromyography-driven musculoskeletal model was synthesized into a human-machine interface (HMI) that enabled poststroke and incomplete spinal cord injury patients to voluntarily control multiple joints in a multifunctional robotic exoskeleton in real time. RESULTS: We demonstrated patients' control accuracy across a wide range of lower-extremity motor tasks. Remarkably, an increased level of exoskeleton assistance always resulted in a reduction in both amplitude and variability in muscle activations as well as in the mechanical moments required to perform a motor task. Since small discrepancies in onset time between human limb movement and that of the parallel exoskeleton would potentially increase human neuromuscular effort, these results demonstrate that the developed HMI precisely synchronizes the device actuation with residual voluntary muscle contraction capacity in neurologically impaired patients. CONCLUSIONS: Continuous voluntary control of robotic exoskeletons (i.e. event-free and task-independent) has never been demonstrated before in populations with paretic and spastic-like muscle activity, such as those investigated in this study. Our proposed methodology may open new avenues for harnessing residual neuromuscular function in neurologically impaired individuals via symbiotic wearable robots

FATORES DE RELACIONAMENTO INTERORGANIZACIONAL NA MANUTENÇÃO DE REDES DE COOPERAÇÃO

O objetivo desta pesquisa foi identificar os fatores que influenciam, dificultam e facilitam os relacionamentos interorganizacionais na manutenção de uma rede de cooperação. Este é um estudo descritivo-qualitativo, efetuado a partir de dados primários e secundários. O universo foi composto por 41 empresas conveniadas à rede analisada, sendo que a amostra restringiu-se  às onze empresas mais representativas. A análise documental foi submetida à técnica de análise de conteúdo. O principal fator dos relacionamentos interorganizacionais que influencia as empresas a cooperarem entre si volta-se à ampliação de sua competitividade no setor farmacêutico. Os fatores que dificultam estão pautados na falta de interação e ausência dos associados às reunições. Já os fatores que facilitam a manutenção da rede baseiam-se na experiência do seu atual presidente, bem como na flexibilidade proporcionada pela rede

Abschlussbericht des Forschungsprojekts "Flucht als Sicherheitsproblem"

Das Forschungsprojekt "Flucht als Sicherheitsproblem" hat die Veränderungen der Kriminalität im Zusammenhang mit der gestiegenen Aufnahme von Geflüchteten im Jahr 2015 untersucht und den Projekttitel dabei in einem umfassenden Sinne verstanden: Zum einen wurde die registrierte Kriminalität von Geflüchteten anhand von polizeilichen Hellfelddaten analysiert. Zum anderen wurde untersucht, inwiefern Geflüchtete selbst Opfer von Straftaten - auf der Fluchtroute und im Aufnahmeland Deutschland - werden. Dabei standen Ursachen, Formen und Auswirkungen der möglichen Opfererfahrungen im Fokus. Ein dritter Forschungsstrang widmete sich der Frage, inwiefern die Kriminalitätsveränderungen und die damit einhergehende öffentliche und mediale Debatte Einfluss auf das subjektive Sicherheitsempfinden in der Aufnahmegesellschaft haben. Die Untersuchung konzentriert sich dabei in allen drei Schwerpunkten auf Nordrhein-Westfalen, auch weil in diesem Bundesland die meisten Asylsuchenden aufgenommen wurden