Women and Romance

According to Laurie Langbauer, the notion of romance is vague precisely because it represents the chaotic negative space outside the novel that determines its form. Addressing questions of form, Langbauer reads novels that explore the interplay between the novel and romance: works by Charlotte Lennox, Mary Wollstonecraft, Charles Dickens, George Eliot, and George Meredith. She considers key issues in feminist debate, in particular the relations of feminist to the poststructuralist theories of Lacan, Derrida, and Foucault. In highlighting questions of gender in this way, Women and Romance contributes to a major debate between skeptical and materialist points of view among poststructuralist critics

Interactive Videos vs. Hypertext Documents – The Effect on Learning Quality and Time Effort when Acquiring Procedural Knowledge

The use of information systems and the rise of new learning concepts have changed the way individuals are acquiring knowledge in organizational, educational and private contexts. Recently, video tutorials have become a widely-used instrument for learning and successful platforms emerged, offering massive open online courses based on video content. With the existence of different learning technologies the question arises: How these media formats affect the learning performance of individuals? We introduce interactive videos as a new media format and compare this technology to hypertext documents in an educational context. Our results from an experiment with 130 participants reveal that the learning quality can be significantly increased when interactive videos are used to acquire procedural knowledge. However, we did not observe any effect on time effort

Asian elephants (Elephas maximus) reassure others in distress

Contact directed by uninvolved bystanders toward others in distress, often termed consolation, is uncommon in the animal kingdom, thus far only demonstrated in the great apes, canines, and corvids. Whereas the typical agonistic context of such contact is relatively rare within natural elephant families, other causes of distress may trigger similar, other-regarding responses. In a study carried out at an elephant camp in Thailand, we found that elephants affiliated significantly more with other individuals through directed, physical contact and vocal communication following a distress event than in control periods. In addition, bystanders affiliated with each other, and matched the behavior and emotional state of the first distressed individual, suggesting emotional contagion. The initial distress responses were overwhelmingly directed toward ambiguous stimuli, thus making it difficult to determine if bystanders reacted to the distressed individual or showed a delayed response to the same stimulus. Nonetheless, the directionality of the contacts and their nature strongly suggest attention toward the emotional states of conspecifics. The elephants’ behavior is therefore best classified with similar consolation responses by apes, possibly based on convergent evolution of empathic capacities

Seasonal selection preferences for woody plants by breeding herds of African elephants (Loxodonta africana) in a woodland savanna

Please read abstract in the articlehttp://www.hindawi.com/journals/ijecol/am2014ab201

Attitude towards prophylactic surgery and effects of genetic counselling in families with BRCAmutations

The intent of this study was to evaluate the effect that an awareness of being a BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutation carrier has on the attitude towards prophylactic surgery and on developing depression symptoms. Thirty-five families were selected on the basis of previously detected BRCA1 or 2 mutations and 90 family members were given the appropriate questionnaires. Prophylactic mastectomy (PM) was considered by 21% of the Austrian mutation carriers (29% affected and 8% non-affected carriers). The majority of affected and non-affected carriers expected PM to impair the quality of their life. Fifty per cent would undergo prophylactic oophorectomy (53% affected and 46% non-affected carriers). The self-rating depression scale indicated that following mutation result disclosure the depression scores of carriers decreased (40 baseline vs 38 after result disclosure, P = 0.3), whereas, for non-carriers, scores increased (36 baseline vs 40 after result disclosure, P = 0.05). We conclude that information about carrier status is not associated with increased depression symptoms in mutation carriers. In non-carriers, depression scores increased slightly, probably reflecting survivor guilt. The option of having PM was associated with a negative impact on the quality of life and was declined by the majority of Austrian mutation carriers. © 2000 Cancer Research Campaig

Risk and Ethical Concerns of Hunting Male Elephant: Behavioural and Physiological Assays of the Remaining Elephants

BACKGROUND: Hunting of male African elephants may pose ethical and risk concerns, particularly given their status as a charismatic species of high touristic value, yet which are capable of both killing people and damaging infrastructure. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: We quantified the effect of hunts of male elephants on (1) risk of attack or damage (11 hunts), and (2) behavioural (movement dynamics) and physiological (stress hormone metabolite concentrations) responses (4 hunts) in Pilanesberg National Park. For eleven hunts, there were no subsequent attacks on people or infrastructure, and elephants did not break out of the fenced reserve. For three focal hunts, there was an initial flight response by bulls present at the hunting site, but their movements stabilised the day after the hunt event. Animals not present at the hunt (both bulls and herds) did not show movement responses. Physiologically, hunting elephant bulls increased faecal stress hormone levels (corticosterone metabolites) in both those bulls that were present at the hunts (for up to four days post-hunt) and in the broader bull and breeding herd population (for up to one month post-hunt). CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: As all responses were relatively minor, hunting male elephants is ethically acceptable when considering effects on the remaining elephant population; however bulls should be hunted when alone. Hunting is feasible in relatively small enclosed reserves without major risk of attack, damage, or breakout. Physiological stress assays were more effective than behavioural responses in detecting effects of human intervention. Similar studies should evaluate intervention consequences, inform and improve best practice, and should be widely applied by management agencies

Health effects and wind turbines: A review of the literature

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Wind power has been harnessed as a source of power around the world. Debate is ongoing with respect to the relationship between reported health effects and wind turbines, specifically in terms of audible and inaudible noise. As a result, minimum setback distances have been established world-wide to reduce or avoid potential complaints from, or potential effects to, people living in proximity to wind turbines. People interested in this debate turn to two sources of information to make informed decisions: scientific peer-reviewed studies published in scientific journals and the popular literature and internet.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>The purpose of this paper is to review the peer-reviewed scientific literature, government agency reports, and the most prominent information found in the popular literature. Combinations of key words were entered into the Thomson Reuters Web of Knowledge^SMand the internet search engine Google. The review was conducted in the spirit of the evaluation process outlined in the Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Conclusions of the peer reviewed literature differ in some ways from those in the popular literature. In peer reviewed studies, wind turbine annoyance has been statistically associated with wind turbine noise, but found to be more strongly related to visual impact, attitude to wind turbines and sensitivity to noise. To date, no peer reviewed articles demonstrate a direct causal link between people living in proximity to modern wind turbines, the noise they emit and resulting physiological health effects. If anything, reported health effects are likely attributed to a number of environmental stressors that result in an annoyed/stressed state in a segment of the population. In the popular literature, self-reported health outcomes are related to distance from turbines and the claim is made that infrasound is the causative factor for the reported effects, even though sound pressure levels are not measured.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>What both types of studies have in common is the conclusion that wind turbines can be a source of annoyance for some people. The difference between both types is the reason for annoyance. While it is acknowledged that noise from wind turbines can be annoying to some and associated with some reported health effects (e.g., sleep disturbance), especially when found at sound pressure levels greater than 40 db(A), given that annoyance appears to be more strongly related to visual cues and attitude than to noise itself, self reported health effects of people living near wind turbines are more likely attributed to physical manifestation from an annoyed state than from wind turbines themselves. In other words, it appears that it is the change in the environment that is associated with reported health effects and not a turbine-specific variable like audible noise or infrasound. Regardless of its cause, a certain level of annoyance in a population can be expected (as with any number of projects that change the local environment) and the acceptable level is a policy decision to be made by elected officials and their government representatives where the benefits of wind power are weighted against their cons. Assessing the effects of wind turbines on human health is an emerging field and conducting further research into the effects of wind turbines (and environmental changes) on human health, emotional and physical, is warranted.</p

Listening geographies: Landscape, affect and geotechnologies

This paper argues for expanded listening in geography. Expanded listening addresses how bodies of all kinds, human and more-than-human, respond to sound. We show how listening can contribute to research on a wide range of topics, beyond enquiry where sound itself is the primary substantive interest. This is demonstrated through close discussion of what an amplified sonic sensibility can bring to three areas of contemporary geographical interest: geographies of landscape, of affect, and of geotechnologies

Path-finding algorithm for autonomous robot-car

Diese Masterarbeit befasst sich mit einem Roboterauto, das auf einem ZYNQ System-on-Chip Ger\ue4t basiert. Der Roboter ist mit einer Kamera, WiFi Verbindung zum Computer, einer inertialen Messeinrichtung (IMU) und vier individuell ansteuerbaren Motoren mit HALL Sensoren f\ufcr ein Feedback ausgestattet. Diese Motoren steuern sogenannte Mecanum R\ue4der an. Das Mecanum Rad erm\uf6glicht es dem Fahrzeug, sich in alle Richtungen zu bewegen, ohne mechanische Steuerung. Ziel ist es, aufbauend auf diesem Roboterauto, eine Demonstrationsplattform zu entwickeln, um Algorithmen zur Wegfindung in der Praxis testen zu k\uf6nnen und Konzepte des autonomen Fahrens zu erkunden. Die Algorithmen m\ufcssen dabei so einfach wie m\uf6glich auszutauschen sein. Um einen Pfad unter Laborbedingungen simulieren zu k\uf6nnen, wurde mit Klebeband ein Labyrinth auf dem Fu fboden aufgeklebt. Dieses Labyrinth wird mit einer Webkamera detektiert, welche an die Decke oder einer erh\uf6hten Position montiert wird. cber eine USB-Schnittstelle wird die Bildinformation an den Rechner \ufcbergeben, auf dem die Wegberechnung und Verbindung zum Roboterauto stattfindet. Damit der Roboter durch das Labyrinth gef\ufchrt werden kann, wurde ein PID-Regler implementiert. Die gesamte Software wurde in Python in der Version 3.8 programmiert. Ebenfalls zur Verf\ufcgung steht eine Grafische Benutzeroberfl\ue4che, welche mit dem Qt Designer in Python erstellt wurde. Diese erm\uf6glicht die einfache Bedienung des gesamten Programmes und ebenso Daten aus den Registern des Zynq Boards auszulesen.This master thesis deals with a robot car based on a Zynq system-on-chip device. The robot is equipped with a camera, Wi-Fi connection to the computer, an inertial measurement unit (IMU) and four individually controllable motors with HALL sensors for feedback. These motors drive so-called Mecanum wheels. The Mecanum wheel allows the vehicle to move in all directions without mechanical steering. The goal is to develop a demonstration platform based on this robot car to test algorithms for path finding and explore concepts of autonomous driving. The algorithms must be as easy to exchange as possible.To be able to simulate a path under laboratory conditions, a maze was taped to the floor. This labyrinth is detected with a webcam, which is mounted on the ceiling or an elevated position. A USB interface is used to transfer the image information to the computer where the path calculation and connection to the robot car takes place. In order for the robot to be guided through the maze, a PID controller was implemented. The entire software was programmed in Python version 3.8. Also available is a graphical user interface, which was created with the Qt Designer in Python. This allows easier operation of the entire program and to read data from the registers of the Zynq Board.written by Dominic LangbauerMasterarbeit FH JOANNEUM 202