Aggression and Culture: A Psychoanalytic Perspective

Aggression is one of the fundamental drives which Freud took very seriously but which he never developed as carefully as he developed sexuality. A distinguished historian attempts to supply some of the historical dimensions of aggression

Personalised mobile services supporting the implementation of clinical guidelines

Telemonitoring is emerging as a compelling application of Body Area Networks (BANs). We describe two health BAN systems developed respectively by a European team and an Australian team and discuss some issues encountered relating to formalization of clinical knowledge to support real-time analysis and interpretation of BAN data. Our example application is an evidence-based telemonitoring and teletreatment application for home-based rehabilitation. The application is intended to support implementation of a clinical guideline for cardiac rehabilitation following myocardial infarction. In addition to this the proposal is to establish the patient’s individual baseline risk profile and, by real-time analysis of BAN data, continually re-assess the current risk level in order to give timely personalised feedback. Static and dynamic risk factors are derived from literature. Many sources express evidence probabilistically, suggesting a requirement for reasoning with uncertainty; elsewhere evidence requires qualitative reasoning: both familiar modes of reasoning in KBSs. However even at this knowledge acquisition stage some issues arise concerning how best to apply the clinical evidence. Furthermore, in cases where insufficient clinical evidence is currently available, telemonitoring can yield large collections of clinical data with the potential for data mining in order to furnish more statistically powerful and accurate clinical evidence

Specification of multiparty audio and video interaction based on the Reference Model of Open Distributed Processing

The Reference Model of Open Distributed Processing (RM-ODP) is an emerging ISO/ITU-T standard. It provides a framework of abstractions based on viewpoints, and it defines five viewpoint languages to model open distributed systems. This paper uses the viewpoint languages to specify multiparty audio/video exchange in distributed systems. To the designers of distributed systems, it shows how the concepts and rules of RM-ODP can be applied.\ud \ud The ODP ¿binding object¿ is an important concept to model continuous data flows in distributed systems. We take this concept as a basis for multiparty audio and video flow exchanges, and we provide five ODP viewpoint specifications, each emphasising a particular concern. To ensure overall correctness, special attention is paid to the mapping between the ODP viewpoint specifications

Discrete element model for general polyhedra

We present a version of the Discrete Element Method considering the particles as rigid polyhedra. The Principle of Virtual Work is employed as basis for a multibody dynamics model. Each particle surface is split into sub-regions, which are tracked for contact with other sub-regions of neighboring particles. Contact interactions are modeled pointwise, considering vertex-face, edge-edge, vertex-edge and vertex-vertex interactions. General polyhedra with triangular faces are considered as particles, permitting multiple pointwise interactions which are automatically detected along the model evolution. We propose a combined interface law composed of a penalty and a barrier approach, to fulfill the contact constraints. Numerical examples demonstrate that the model can handle normal and frictional contact effects in a robust manner. These include simulations of convex and non-convex particles, showing the potential of applicability to materials with complex shaped particles such as sand and railway ballast. © 2021, The Author(s)

Constructing Lagrangians from triple grid diagrams

Links in $S^3$ can be encoded by grid diagrams; a grid diagram is a collection of points on a toroidal grid such that each row and column of the grid contains exactly two points. Grid diagrams can be reinterpreted as front projections of Legendrian links in the standard contact 3-sphere. In this paper, we define and investigate triple grid diagrams, a generalization to toroidal diagrams consisting of horizontal, vertical, and diagonal grid lines. In certain cases, a triple grid diagram determines a closed Lagrangian surface in $\mathbb{CP}^2$. Specifically, each triple grid diagram determines three grid diagrams (row-column, column-diagonal and diagonal-row) and thus three Legendrian links, which we think of collectively as a Legendrian link in a disjoint union of three standard contact 3-spheres. We show that a triple grid diagram naturally determines a Lagrangian cap in the complement of three Darboux balls in $\mathbb{CP}^2$, whose negative boundary is precisely this Legendrian link. When these Legendrians are maximal Legendrian unlinks, the Lagrangian cap can be filled by Lagrangian slice disks to obtain a closed Lagrangian surface in $\mathbb{CP}^2$. We construct families of examples of triple grid diagrams and discuss potential applications to obstructing Lagrangian fillings.Comment: 25 pages, 22 figures, comments very welcome

Symptoms of Nitrogen Saturation in a Riparian Wetland

Riparian forests are in a unique position in the landscape since they form a transition between uplands and aquatic systems. These ecosystems may be highly susceptible to nitrogen (N) saturation since they may be subject to high inputs of N from upland areas. We measured potential net N mineralization and nitrification, soil inorganic N levels, microbial biomass carbon (C) and N content, and the N content of litter as indicators of N saturation in two riparian zones on the eastern and western sides of a stream. The sites had similar soils, vegetation, and hydrology, but differing upland land use. The eastern or enriched site was downgradient of a dense residential housing development (built in the 1950s) that produced high groundwater nitrate (NO3—) concentrations. The western or control site had an undeveloped upland. Our objectives were (1) to evaluate if groundwater NO3— loading had induced changes in surface soil N—cycle processes that are symptoms of N saturation in the enriched site and (2) to evaluate these changes in relation to inputs and outputs of N to the site. Soil inorganic—N levels, litter N content, and potential net N mineralization and nitrification were significantly higher on the enriched site relative to the control site, suggesting that the enriched site and N saturated. However, input—output analysis indicated that the enriched site was still a sink for upland derived NO3—. High rates of denitrification and storage of N in soil organic matter appear to moderate N saturation on the enriched site

Noninvasive mechanical ventilation in high-risk pulmonary infections: a clinical review

The aim of this article was to review the role of noninvasive ventilation (NIV) in acute pulmonary infectious diseases, such as severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), H1N1 and tuberculosis, and to assess the risk of disease transmission with the use of NIV from patients to healthcare workers. We performed a clinical review by searching Medline and EMBASE. These databases were searched for articles on "clinical trials" and "randomised controlled trials". The keywords selected were non-invasive ventilation pulmonary infections, influenza-A (H1N1), SARS and tuberculosis. These terms were cross-referenced with the following keywords: health care workers, airborne infections, complications, intensive care unit and pandemic. The members of the International NIV Network examined the major results regarding NIV applications and SARS, H1N1 and tuberculosis. Cross-referencing mechanical ventilation with SARS yielded 76 studies, of which 10 studies involved the use of NIV and five were ultimately selected for inclusion in this review. Cross-referencing with H1N1 yielded 275 studies, of which 27 involved NIV. Of these, 22 were selected for review. Cross-referencing with tuberculosis yielded 285 studies, of which 15 involved NIV and from these seven were selected. In total 34 studies were selected for this review. NIV, when applied early in selected patients with SARS, H1N1 and acute pulmonary tuberculosis infections, can reverse respiratory failure. There are only a few reports of infectious disease transmission among healthcare workers

A DECOMPOSITION APPROACH TO ASSESS ILUC RESULTS FROM GLOBAL MODELING EFFORTS

Environmental Economics and Policy, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,