A mathematical model and inversion procedure for Magneto-Acousto-Electric Tomography (MAET)

Magneto-Acousto-Electric Tomography (MAET), also known as the Lorentz force or Hall effect tomography, is a novel hybrid modality designed to be a high-resolution alternative to the unstable Electrical Impedance Tomography. In the present paper we analyze existing mathematical models of this method, and propose a general procedure for solving the inverse problem associated with MAET. It consists in applying to the data one of the algorithms of Thermo-Acoustic tomography, followed by solving the Neumann problem for the Laplace equation and the Poisson equation. For the particular case when the region of interest is a cube, we present an explicit series solution resulting in a fast reconstruction algorithm. As we show, both analytically and numerically, MAET is a stable technique yilelding high-resolution images even in the presence of significant noise in the data

About the Destruction, Continuation, and Transformation of Art

In his article About the Destruction, Continuation, and Transformation of Art Maet offers an answer to the question raised by Arthur C. Danto\u27s thesis how to discern art from non-art? Maet considers art from the perspective of a technologically mediated reality and he distinguishes three different views on contemporary visual art: the destruction, the continuation, and the transformation of art. Maet considers these three artistic views as different strategies to deal with our current technological condition and evaluates the merits of each of them. He argues that our thoroughly designed reality turns the strategy of artistic destruction into a dangerous and sometimes even life-threatening strategy and that existing theories of art advocating the continuation of art fall short in taking into account popular and commercial products. According to Maet, we have to opt for a radical transformation of the concept of art and redefine art in light of the current digitalization as a specific kind of technology

Life cycle assessment of intensive striped catfish farming in the Mekong Delta for screening hotspots as input to environmental policy and research agenda

Purpose Intensive striped catfish production in the Mekong Delta has, in recent years, raised environmental concerns. We conducted a stakeholder-based screening life cycle assessment (LCA) of the intensive farming system to determine the critical environmental impact and their causative processes in producing striped catfish. Additional to the LCA, we assessed water use and flooding hazards in the Mekong Delta. Materials and methods The goal and scope of the LCA were defined in a stakeholder workshop. It was decided there to include all processes up to the exit-gate of the fish farm in the inventory and to focus life cycle impact assessment on global warming, acidification, eutrophication, human toxicity, and marine (MAET) and freshwater aquatic ecotoxicity (FWET). A survey was used to collect primary inventory data from 28 farms on fish grow-out, and from seven feed mills. Hatching and nursing of striped catfish fingerlings were not included in the assessment due to limited data availability and low estimated impact. Average feed composition for all farms had to be applied due to limitation of budget and data availability. Results and discussion Feed ingredient production, transport and milling dominated most of the impact categories in the LCA except for eutrophication and FWET. Most feed ingredients were produced outside Vietnam, and the impact of transport was important. Because of the screening character of this LCA, generic instead of specific inventory data were used for modelling feed ingredient production. However, the use of generic data is unlikely to have affected the main findings, given the dominance of feed production in all impact categories. Of the feed ingredients, rice bran contributed the most to global warming and acidification, while wheat bran contributed the most to eutrophication. The dominance of both was mainly due to the amounts used. Fishmeal production, transport and energy contributed the most to MAET. The biggest impacts of grow-out farming in Vietnam are on eutrophication and FWET. Water nutrient discharge from grow-out farming was high but negligible compared with the natural nutrient content of the Mekong River. The discharge from all grow-out farms together hardly modified river water quality compared with that before sector expansion. Conclusions Feed production, i.e. ingredient production and transport and milling, remains the main contributor to most impact categories. It contributes indirectly to eutrophication and FWET through the pond effluents. The environmental impact of Pangasius grow-out farming can be reduced by effectively managing sludge and by using feeds with lower feed conversion ratio and lower content of fishery products in the feed. To consider farm variability, a next LCA of aquaculture should enlist closer collaboration from several feed-milling companies and sample farms using their feeds. Future LCAs should also preferably collect specific instead of generic inventory data for feed ingredient production, and include biodiversity and primary production as impact categories

Modernist Shetland: MacDiarmid’s quest to unify Scotland's diversity

No abstract available

Evaluation intégrée des mesures agro-environnementales territorialisées à enjeu "qualité des eaux" sur la période 2007 à 2011 : le projet MAEVEAU

The MAEVEAU project has developed an approach for an integrated assessment of effectiveness of regionalized Agro-Environmental Measures (MAET) intended to preserve water quality in relation to pesticides. This approach investigates the concept of efficiency through a triple analysis: the impact (net effects), the environmental cost-effectiveness and the role of organizational factors in the contracting process. The impact is assessed by a quasi-experimental approach by counterfactuals and examines adaptation of the matching method to the regionalized MAET. Cost-effectiveness analysis is based on integrated modeling spatially distributed coupling the agro-hydrological SWAT model, pesticides pressure indicators and a bio-economic model optimizing gross margin. The effectiveness of organizational factors focuses on transaction costs, the role of collective action and preferences for alternative contracts.La recherche conduite dans le projet MAEVEAU a développé une démarche d'évaluation intégrée de l'efficacité des Mesures Agro-Environnementales Territorialisées (MAET) à enjeu préservation de la qualité de l'eau vis-à-vis des pesticides sur la période 2007 à 2011. La question scientifique traite le concept d'efficacité de la politique en s'appuyant sur une triangulation des approches: une évaluation de l'impact (c'est-à-dire des effets propres de la politique), une évaluation coût-efficacité environnementale et une évaluation du rôle des facteurs organisationnels dans le processus d'adhésion. L'impact est évalué par une approche quasi-expérimentale par contrefactuel et questionne l'adaptation de la méthode du matching à la territorialisation des MAET. L'analyse coût-efficacité s'appuie sur une modélisation intégrée spatialisée couplant modèle agro-hydrologique, indicateurs pesticides spatialisés et optimisation économique des marges brutes. L'efficacité des facteurs organisationnels s'est intéressée aux coûts de transaction, au rôle de l'action collective et aux préférences pour des contrats alternatifs

Nonlinear observation in fuel cell systems: a comparison between disturbance estimation and High-Order Sliding-Mode techniques

© . This manuscript version is made available under the CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 license http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/This paper compares two Nonlinear Distributed Parameter Observers (NDPO) for the observation of a Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell (PEMFC). Both NDPOs are based on the discretisation of distributed parameters models and they are used to estimate the state profile of gas concentrations in the anode and cathode gas channels of the PEMFC, giving detailed information about the internal conditions of the system. The reaction and water transport flow rates from the membrane to the channels are uncertainties of the observation problem and they are estimated throughout all the length of the PEMFC without the use of additional sensors. The first observation approach is a Nonlinear Disturbance Observer (NDOB) for the estimation of the disturbances in the NDPO. In the second approach, a novel implementation of a High-Order Sliding-Mode (HOSM) observer is developed to estimate the true value of the states as well as the reaction terms. The proposed observers are tested and compared through a simulation example at different operating points and their performance and robustness is analysed over a given case study, the New European Driving Cycle.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Letter from a New York Supporter to Geraldine Ferraro

Letter from a New York supporter to Geraldine Ferraro. Contains data entry sheet.https://ir.lawnet.fordham.edu/vice_presidential_campaign_correspondence_1984_new_york/1012/thumbnail.jp

Towards reduction of type II theories on SU(3) structure manifolds

We revisit the reduction of type II supergravity on SU(3) structure manifolds, conjectured to lead to gauged N=2 supergravity in 4 dimensions. The reduction proceeds by expanding the invariant 2- and 3-forms of the SU(3) structure as well as the gauge potentials of the type II theory in the same set of forms, the analogues of harmonic forms in the case of Calabi-Yau reductions. By focussing on the metric sector, we arrive at a list of constraints these expansion forms should satisfy to yield a base point independent reduction. Identifying these constraints is a first step towards a first-principles reduction of type II on SU(3) structure manifolds.Comment: 20 pages; v2: condition (2.13old) on expansion forms weakened, replaced by (2.13new), (2.14new

Letter from a New York Supporter to Geraldine Ferraro

Letter from a New York supporter to Geraldine Ferraro. Includes data entry sheet.https://ir.lawnet.fordham.edu/vice_presidential_campaign_correspondence_1984_new_york/1140/thumbnail.jp

Design and analysis of algorithms for similarity search based on intrinsic dimension

One of the most fundamental operations employed in data mining tasks such as classification, cluster analysis, and anomaly detection, is that of similarity search. It has been used in numerous fields of application such as multimedia, information retrieval, recommender systems and pattern recognition. Specifically, a similarity query aims to retrieve from the database the most similar objects to a query object, where the underlying similarity measure is usually expressed as a distance function. The cost of processing similarity queries has been typically assessed in terms of the representational dimension of the data involved, that is, the number of features used to represent individual data objects. It is generally the case that high representational dimension would result in a significant increase in the processing cost of similarity queries. This relation is often attributed to an amalgamation of phenomena, collectively referred to as the curse of dimensionality. However, the observed effects of dimensionality in practice may not be as severe as expected. This has led to the development of models quantifying the complexity of data in terms of some measure of the intrinsic dimensionality. The generalized expansion dimension (GED) is one of such models, which estimates the intrinsic dimension in the vicinity of a query point q through the observation of the ranks and distances of pairs of neighbors with respect to q. This dissertation is mainly concerned with the design and analysis of search algorithms, based on the GED model. In particular, three variants of similarity search problem are considered, including adaptive similarity search, flexible aggregate similarity search, and subspace similarity search. The good practical performance of the proposed algorithms demonstrates the effectiveness of dimensionality-driven design of search algorithms