A Model of Three-Dimensional Lattice Gravity

A model is proposed which generates all oriented $3d$ simplicial complexes weighted with an invariant associated with a topological lattice gauge theory. When the gauge group is $SU_q(2)$, $q^n=1,$ it is the Turaev-Viro invariant and the model may be regarded as a non-perturbative definition of $3d$ simplicial quantum gravity. If one takes a finite abelian group $G$, the corresponding invariant gives the rank of the first cohomology group of a complex \nolinebreak $C$: $I_G(C) = rank(H^1(C,G))$, which means a topological expansion in the Betti number $b^1$. In general, it is a theory of the Dijkgraaf-Witten type, $i.e.$ determined completely by the fundamental group of a manifold.Comment: 20 page

Hr. Kopenhagen

Mr. KopenhagenAbraham Kopenhagen gives an account of his eventful life with special focus on his extraordinary surname, which is all the more interesting because he also lives in Copenhagen.Abraham was born in 1941 in the city of Ordzonikidze (North Ossetia). During World War II, his family suffered great deprivation, for example having to escape to Russia, Siberia and Afghanistan, experiencing starvation, and not being reunited until 1946 in Poland.Abraham attended a Jewish kindergarten but later entered a Catholic school where he experienced bodily what it means to be bullied because of one’s religion! The family only saw other Jews, but generally he remembers life in Poland as fairly good. However, when Gomulka seized power, the family felt somewhat threatened and, in 1957, they were given permission to immigrate to Israel.Abraham trained to become an air force aircraft mechanic, and even though Abraham only lived in Israel for 7 years, this period was of great importance to him. In May 1964, Abraham received an invitation to a wedding from his relatives in Copenhagen. At the same time, he wanted to make some money, see the world, and then return to Israel. He quickly found work in SAS where he was an employee for 40 years, and his plans for going abroad where soon altered, because he met his Hanna “in Heaven” on a plane to Israel, where they were both going on holiday. They were married in 1966, had their first-born, Uri, in 1967 and later on a daughter, Sanni, and another son, Boaz.The name Kopenhagen derives from Abraham’s paternal family. In the book Gedalia og hans forfædre (Gedalia and his ancestors) from 1933, written by Johannes Werner, it says that Chief Rabbi Gedalia Levin of Copenhagen had two sons, Lazarus and Abraham. Lazarus became the rabbi of Kolo (Poland) close to the city where Abraham’s father was born, and one of Lazarus’ sons, a well-known rabbi and author of a book on the use of tefillin, assumed the name Kopenhagen. Abraham and his family visited his parent’s native towns several times without obtaining definite confirmation of the story of his name, and, furthermore, he is in touch with other people bearing the same surname in South America and in countries such as Israel, the USA, and Germany.Being called Kopenhagen often gives rise to curious episodes: When Abraham was on his way to Copenhagen for the first time, the passport official asked: Where are you going? Copenhagen, he replied. To which the inspector said: Yes, yes – I know what your name is, but where are you going

Cold War : a Transnational Approach to a Global Heritage

Although within living memory, many countries now consider their surviving Cold War architecture as part of their heritage. It can even be a priority for heritage managers given that significant buildings are often suitable for reuse while extensive ‘brownfield’ sites such as airfields can be used for large-scale redevelopment. In a number of countries whose work we refer to here (notably the United Kingdom and elsewhere in Europe), agencies responsible for managing their country’s heritage have approached this priority by creating national inventories of sites and buildings with a view to taking informed decisions on their future. This paper presents the argument that the wider international context of the Cold War provides a more appropriate (or additional, higher-level) framework for such decision making. Such a ‘transnational’ approach would allow the comparison of similar (e.g. European) sites not merely within national borders but across the full extent of their western NATO1 deployment in Europe and North America. Taking this approach would also allow comparison with related sites in countries that formed part of the eastern-bloc Warsaw Pact.2 After outlining some examples of how national agencies have approached their Cold War heritage, this paper presents the four stages of this transnational approach making provision for an improved understanding and management of Cold War heritage sites wherever they occur. With a specific focus on the direct comparison between England and Russia, and also referring to sites surviving elsewhere within the former NATO and Warsaw Pact regions, as well as the United States, we argue that this four-stage approach: provides new understandings of a complex archaeological and architectural record; gives fresh perspectives on significance; and (importantly in a time of geopolitical instability) does so in a spirit of cooperation and friendship

Using Hidden Markov Models for Accelerometer-Based Biometric Gait Recognition

Abstract—Biometric gait recognition based on accelerometer data is still a new field of research. It has the merit of offering an unobtrusive and hence user-friendly method for authentication on mobile phones. Most publications in this area are based on extracting cycles (two steps) from the gait data which are later used as features in the authentication process. In this paper the application of Hidden Markov Models is proposed instead. These have already been successfully implemented in speaker recognition systems. The advantage is that no error-prone cycle extraction has to be performed, but the accelerometer data can be directly used to construct the model and thus form the basis for successful recognition. Testing this method with accelerometer data of 48 subjects recorded using a commercial of the shelve mobile phone a false non match rate (FNMR) of 10.42 % at a false match rate (FMR) of 10.29 % was obtained. This is half of the error rate obtained when applying an advanced cycle extraction method to the same data set in previous work. Keywords-biometrics; gait recognition; hidden markov models; accelerometers; authentication on mobile devices I

Streptococcus pneumoniae Affects Endothelial Cell Migration in Microfluidic Circulation

Bloodstream infections caused by Streptococcus pneumoniae induce strong inflammatory and procoagulant cellular responses and affect the endothelial barrier of the vascular system. Bacterial virulence determinants, such as the cytotoxic pore-forming pneumolysin, increase the endothelial barrier permeability by inducing cell apoptosis and cell damage. As life-threatening consequences, disseminated intravascular coagulation followed by consumption coagulopathy and low blood pressure is described. With the aim to decipher the role of pneumolysin in endothelial damage and leakage of the vascular barrier in more detail, we established a chamber-separation cell migration assay (CSMA) used to illustrate endothelial wound healing upon bacterial infections. We used chambered inlets for cell cultivation, which, after removal, provide a cell-free area of 500 μm in diameter as a defined gap in primary endothelial cell layers. During the process of wound healing, the size of the cell-free area is decreasing due to cell migration and proliferation, which we quantitatively determined by microscopic live cell monitoring. In addition, differential immunofluorescence staining combined with confocal microscopy was used to morphologically characterize the effect of bacterial attachment on cell migration and the velocity of gap closure. In all assays, the presence of wild-type pneumococci significantly inhibited endothelial gap closure. Remarkably, even in the presence of pneumolysin-deficient pneumococci, cell migration was significantly retarded. Moreover, the inhibitory effect of pneumococci on the proportion of cell proliferation versus cell migration within the process of endothelial gap closure was assessed by implementation of a fluorescence-conjugated nucleoside analogon. We further combined the endothelial CSMA with a microfluidic pump system, which for the first time enabled the microscopic visualization and monitoring of endothelial gap closure in the presence of circulating bacteria at defined vascular shear stress values for up to 48 h. In accordance with our CSMA results under static conditions, the gap remained cell free in the presence of circulating pneumococci in flow. Hence, our combined endothelial cultivation technique represents a complex in vitro system, which mimics the vascular physiology as close as possible by providing essential parameters of the blood flow to gain new insights into the effect of pneumococcal infection on endothelial barrier integrity in flow

der Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität zu Frankfurt am Main

Coping with emergent hearing loss Expectations and experiences of adult, new hearing aid users An anthropological study in DenmarkCoping with emergent hearing loss Expectations and experiences of adult, new hearing aid users An anthropological study in Denmar

Cum adnotationihus nonnullis Joannes Christianus Kallius.

Arataun philosophia populari edidit.OPLADEN-RUG0