Diagnosis of a Plague Image: A Digital Cautionary Tale

This brief study examines the genesis of the “misdiagnosis” of a fourteenth- century image that has become a frequently used representation of the Black Death on the Internet and in popular publications. The image in fact depicts another common disease in medieval Europe, leprosy, but was misinterpreted as “plague” because of a labeling error. The error was then magnified because of digital dissemination. This mistake is a reminder that interpretation of cultural products continues to demand the skills and expertise of humanists. Included is a full transcription and translation of the text which the image was originally meant to illustrate: James le Palmer, Omne bonum, cap. “De clerico debilitato ministrante sequitur videre” (On Ministration by a Disabled Cleric), London, British Library, Royal 6 E. VI, vol. 2, fols. 301rb–302ra

NMR experiment factors numbers with Gauss sums

We factor the number 157573 using an NMR implementation of Gauss sums.Comment: 4 pages 5 figure

Temporal factors in violence related injuries—An 11year trend analysis of violence-related injuries from a Swiss Emergency Department

Summary: Background: Injury from interpersonal violence is a major social and medical problem in the industrialized world. Little is known about the trends in prevalence and injury pattern or about the demographic characteristics of the patients involved. Methods: In this retrospective analysis, we screened the database of the Emergency Department of a large university hospital for all patients who were admitted for injuries due to interpersonal violence over an 11year period. For all patients identified, we gathered data on age, country of origin, quality of injury, and hospitalization or outpatient management. A trend analysis was performed using Kendall's tau-b correlation coefficients for regression analysis. Results: The overall number of patients admitted to our Emergency Department remained stable over the study period. Non-Swiss nationals were overrepresented in comparison to the demographics of the region where the study was conducted. There was a trend toward a more severe pattern of injury, such as an increase in the number of severe head injuries. Conclusions: Although the overall number of patients remained stable over the study period, there was an alarming trend toward a more severe pattern of injury, expressed by an increase in severe head trauma

Реконструкция ПВД турбогенератора №1 теплоэлектроцентрали, г. Заринска, Алтайского края

Объектом исследования является тепловая схема турбоустановки К–215–130, реконструкция ПВД. Цель работы – применение горизонтальных кожухо–трубных ПВД, включ?нных в схему регенеративного подогрева конденсата станции, с целью повышения тепловой экономичности турбоустановки и электростанции в целом, а также расчет тепловой схемы блока и вспомогательного оборудования, выбор вспомогательного оборудования.The object of study is the thermal scheme of turbine plant K–215–130, reconstruction of LDPE. Purpose – the use of horizontal shell–and-tube LDPE, vklyucheny in circuit of regenerative heating of the condensate station, with the aim of improving thermal efficiency of a turbine plant and power plants in General, as well as the calculation of the thermal scheme of the unit and auxiliary equipment selection of auxiliary equipment

Near-field heat transfer in a scanning thermal microscope

We present measurements of the near-field heat transfer between the tip of a thermal profiler and planar material surfaces under ultrahigh vacuum conditions. For tip-sample distances below 10-8 m our results differ markedly from the prediction of fluctuating electrodynamics. We argue that these differences are due to the existence of a material-dependent small length scale below which the macroscopic description of the dielectric properties fails, and discuss a corresponding model which yields fair agreement with the available data. These results are of importance for the quantitative interpretation of signals obtained by scanning thermal microscopes capable of detecting local temperature variations on surfaces

Flexible Aerodynamic Part Feeding Using High-Speed Image Processing

In modern assembly systems, manufacturers expect a high level of flexibility and efficiency. As an interface between internal logistics and the actual assembly, part feeding technology plays a decisive role in the manufacturing process. Therefore, in this work, we propose a new way of flexible part feeding based on image processing and the proven principle of aerodynamic feeding technology. With a high-speed camera, we analyze the workpiece’s movement during the orientation process and automatically adjust the system parameters to ensure reliable and efficient feeding. Based on three parameters of the workpiece’s trajectory, we develop an algorithm that can systematically find suitable parameter combinations for efficient and reliable feeding. With the proposed concept, retooling for new workpieces can be achieved quickly, using only few components for the parameter setting. At the same time, no hardware changes are required for retooling when handling new components