The Luther effect : the consequences of the Reformation in the area of printed media and communication

The aim of the article is to trace the consequences - often very distant in time - of the changes in the appearance, content and speed of circulation of publications initiated by Martin Luther. Striving to reach as many people as possible with his Reformation ideas, Luther used and creatively developed the possibilities offered to him by printing with the use of movable type that had been invented shortly before then. He made his publications more attractive in terms of graphics, made them shorter, sped up their circulation, changed their style for one that was more accessible for the reader; he abandoned the usage of Latin in favour of the commonly understood German language. All of this resulted in a real boom for the publishing market - the development of the printing sector, an enormous increase in the numbers of printed brochures and books, an improvement of their quality, the development of the book market and the education of masses of recipients of the printed word. Over time, it also accelerated the circulation of information, and led to the creation of pre-journalistic forms. It was followed by an increase in literacy and the development of education - universal and uniform for both boys and girls. This had far-reaching consequences - raising the level of education of the whole society and the level of public debate, as well as encouraging a more active participation in the culture of books

Conservation Measures in the Interim Fishery Management Plan for Atlantic Groundfish

The conservation measures used in the Interim Fishery Management Plan for Atlantic Groundfish (IFMP) were analyzed. The management techniques used include a minimum mesh size, minimum fish size and haddock spawning area closure. However the mesh regulation does not adequately address the IFMP conservation objectives. Without amendment, the IFMP cannot prevent overfishing as it is required to do by the Magnuson Fishery Conservation and Management Act (MFCMA). The use of a non-numeric Optimum Yield (OI) for groundfish is inappropriate without a definition of overfishing and without a contingency plan to prevent overfishing

Chaotic itinerancy, temporal segmentation and spatio-temporal combinatorial codes

We study a deterministic dynamics with two time scales in a continuous state attractor network. To the usual (fast) relaxation dynamics towards point attractors (``patterns'') we add a slow coupling dynamics that makes the visited patterns to loose stability leading to an itinerant behavior in the form of punctuated equilibria. One finds that the transition frequency matrix between patterns shows non-trivial statistical properties in the chaotic itinerant regime. We show that mixture input patterns can be temporally segmented by the itinerant dynamics. The viability of a combinatorial spatio-temporal neural code is also demonstrated

Post-translocation spatial ecology and survival of muskrats (Ondatra zibethicus) in lacustrine wetlands.

Master of ScienceDepartment of Horticulture and Natural ResourcesAdam A. AhlersTranslocation is a common wildlife management tool though managers often lack follow-up information regarding overall effectiveness of these efforts. Muskrats (Ondatra zibethicus) are native semi-aquatic herbivores with a rich cultural and economic history in North America. Muskrats have been positively associated with increased species richness within wetlands and can act as drivers of disturbance through intense herbivory at high population densities. Currently, muskrats are experiencing long-term and widespread population declines across their native range. Translocations may hold potential for muskrats to restore local populations and mitigate declines. However, it is unclear how translocating muskrats will affect their survival, post-translocation movements, and space use – all critical to effective translocation efforts. I live-trapped muskrats (n = 65) during the summers of 2018-2019 in Voyageurs National Park, MN, USA and assessed the effects of translocation on weekly survival rates and space use patterns. I implanted muskrats with internal VHF transmitters, moved them to treatment wetlands, and tracked space use, survival, and cause-specific mortality. On average, individuals traveled 2.2 km (0.12-10.11 km) from release sites and established a home range within 8 days post-translocation. There was no evidence of homing behavior (i.e., returning to their previous home range). Weekly survival rate was low (0.95, SE = 0.001) and my top known-fate survival model indicated that beaver lodge use and year of release (likely a function of the difference in release techniques between years) had the most influence on post-translocated muskrats. My study provides the first empirical assessment of translocation effects on muskrats and establishes a methodological technique to assess future efforts to use muskrats as a native biocontrol of T. x glauca

The influence of using forms of direct democracy and the principle of federalism on the shape of Swiss immigration and integration policy

Switzerland's migration policy today is the result of international commitments, the needs of the labor market and an aging society, as well as the fears of some Swiss people about the influx of foreigners. Despite the restrictive immigration policy, 39.5% of permanent residents of Switzerland are immigrants or descendants of immigrants in the first generation. Such a state requires measures to integrate newcomers with the host society. The aim of the article is to show to what extent Switzerland's immigration and integration policy is dependent on the political solutions characteristic of this country - often used forms of direct democracy, such as referendum or popular legislative initiative, and th

Comparative study of virulence potential, phylogenetic origin, CRISPR-Cas regions and drug resistance of Escherichia coli isolates from urine and other clinical materials

IntroductionUrinary tract infections (UTI), among which the main etiological factor is uropathogenic Escherichia coli (UPEC, E. coli), remain an important issue for clinicians. The aim of the study was to demonstrate clear differences in the pathogenic properties of urine-derived E. coli compared to other extraintestinal E. coli clinical isolates (derived from: blood, lower respiratory tracts, sputum, reproductive tract, body fluids, perianal pus, other pus, wound, postoperative wound and other sources).MethodsThe collection of 784 E. coli isolates was collected from various materials of hospitalized patients. They were analyzed in terms of virulence-associated genes (papC, sfaD/sfaE, cnf1, usp., fimG/H, hlyA), belonging to phylogenetic groups and the presence of CRISPR-Cas regions using PCR. In addition, the epidemiological data and the antibiotic resistance profiles provided by the hospital’s microbiology department were included for statistical analyses.ResultsUrine-derived E. coli showed significantly greater virulence potential compared to other isolates, but they were generally unremarkable in terms of drug resistance. The isolates most often belonged to phylogenetic group B2. Drug resistance was negatively correlated with CRISPR 2 presence and high average virulence score, but positively correlated with CRISPR 4 presence. To the best of our knowledge, we are the first to report significant differences in sputum-derived isolates—they revealed the lowest virulence potential and, at the same time, the highest drug resistance.DiscussionIn conclusion, we demonstrated significant differences of urinary-derived E. coli compared to other clinical E. coli isolates. We would like to suggest excluding penicillins from use in E. coli infection at this time and monitoring strains with a high pathogenicity potential

Colour Coded Emotion Classification in Mental Health Social Media

This research applies emotion detection to messages from online mental health social media. In particular, this focusses on specialised social media for users to report health or mental health problems. Automatically detecting the emotion in social media can help to rapidly identify any concerning problems which could benefit from intervention aiming to prevent self-harming or suicide. Detecting emotions enables messages to be colour coordinated according to the emotion to enhance the human-computer interaction. A supervised classification method is applied to a labelled dataset and results presented. A prototype user interface system is developed based on detecting emotion, colour coding the message to display detected emotions to users in real-time

Towards Comprehensive Foundations of Computational Intelligence

Abstract. Although computational intelligence (CI) covers a vast variety of different methods it still lacks an integrative theory. Several proposals for CI foundations are discussed: computing and cognition as compression, meta-learning as search in the space of data models, (dis)similarity based methods providing a framework for such meta-learning, and a more general approach based on chains of transformations. Many useful transformations that extract information from features are discussed. Heterogeneous adaptive systems are presented as particular example of transformation-based systems, and the goal of learning is redefined to facilitate creation of simpler data models. The need to understand data structures leads to techniques for logical and prototype-based rule extraction, and to generation of multiple alternative models, while the need to increase predictive power of adaptive models leads to committees of competent models. Learning from partial observations is a natural extension towards reasoning based on perceptions, and an approach to intuitive solving of such problems is presented. Throughout the paper neurocognitive inspirations are frequently used and are especially important in modeling of the higher cognitive functions. Promising directions such as liquid and laminar computing are identified and many open problems presented.

Constituting Modern Matron: exploring role, identity and action in an English NHS Trust

The English National Health Service (NHS) is a contested organisational terrain where what it means to be ‘professional’ is under threat from a dominant ‘new managerialism’ discourse. Sustained organisational change and reform during the past thirty years has impacted on the nature of professional work and role relationships between health care practitioners, managers, patients and the public. Identity is a useful analytic frame for exploring professional role dynamics and has pertinence for studies of health care professionals as they negotiate these changes. This study considers professional identity as constructed through the enactment of a nursing role, Modern Matron, in an English NHS Trust. The role has been introduced into the nursing hierarchy in response to public and political demand for an authoritative clinical leader to take responsibility for managing standards of care within nursing; it is a hybrid management role, performed across professional and managerial boundaries, and across different organisational levels. The research has been conducted within an interpretive paradigm of social constructivism; qualitative data from semi-structured interviews is the primary source from which findings are drawn. The findings illustrate the contradictory nature of the Modern Matron role as performed across occupational and organisational boundaries and within competing discourses of professionalism, managerialism and holistic patient-centred care. The empirical contribution of this research is to suggest that the Modern Matron role is constituted of multiple and different identities which are mediated through ‘syncretic action’ whereby individuals act singularly and collectively upon elements of competing discourses to create uniqueness in role and identity reflective of the specific structural, socio-political and historical circumstances in which Modern Matron is performed; this is epitomised in the collective presentation of Corporate Matron. The concept of syncretic action offers an alternative perspective through which to consider and understand the processes of identification in organisational role reconfiguration within health care; the concept has broader application to identity studies in general