1,371 research outputs found
Information transfer in complex systems, with applications to regulation Interim scientific report
Information theory and relevance to study of complex system
Reclaiming human machine nature
Extending and modifying his domain of life by artifact production is one of
the main characteristics of humankind. From the first hominid, who used a wood
stick or a stone for extending his upper limbs and augmenting his gesture
strength, to current systems engineers who used technologies for augmenting
human cognition, perception and action, extending human body capabilities
remains a big issue. From more than fifty years cybernetics, computer and
cognitive sciences have imposed only one reductionist model of human machine
systems: cognitive systems. Inspired by philosophy, behaviorist psychology and
the information treatment metaphor, the cognitive system paradigm requires a
function view and a functional analysis in human systems design process.
According that design approach, human have been reduced to his metaphysical and
functional properties in a new dualism. Human body requirements have been left
to physical ergonomics or "physiology". With multidisciplinary convergence, the
issues of "human-machine" systems and "human artifacts" evolve. The loss of
biological and social boundaries between human organisms and interactive and
informational physical artifact questions the current engineering methods and
ergonomic design of cognitive systems. New developpment of human machine
systems for intensive care, human space activities or bio-engineering sytems
requires grounding human systems design on a renewed epistemological framework
for future human systems model and evidence based "bio-engineering". In that
context, reclaiming human factors, augmented human and human machine nature is
a necessityComment: Published in HCI International 2014, Heraklion : Greece (2014
N2O emissions due to nitrogen fertilizer applications in two regions of sugarcane cultivation in Brazil.
Among the main greenhouse gases (CO2, CH4 and N2O), N2O has the highest global warming potential. N2O emission is mainly connected to agricultural activities, increasing as nitrogen concentrations increase in the soil with nitrogen fertilizer application. We evaluated N2O emissions due to application of increasing doses of ammonium nitrate and urea in two sugarcane fields in the mid-southern region of Brazil: Piracicaba (São Paulo state) and Goianésia (Goiås state). In Piracicaba, N2O emissions exponentially increased with increasing N doses and were similar for urea and ammonium nitrate up to a dose of 107.9 kg ha-1 of N. From there on, emissions nexponentially increased for ammonium nitrate, whereas for urea they stabilized. In Goianésia, N2O emissions nwere lower, although the behavior was similar to that at the Piracicaba site. Ammonium nitrate emissions increased linearly with N dose and urea emissions were adjusted to a quadratic equation with a maximum amount of 113.9 kg N ha-1. This first effort to measure fertilizer induced emissions in Brazilian sugarcane production not only helps to elucidate the behavior of N2O emissions promoted by different N sources frequently used in Brazilian sugarcane fields but also can be useful for future Brazilian ethanol carbon footprint studies
A super-analogue of Kontsevich's theorem on graph homology
In this paper we will prove a super-analogue of a well-known result by
Kontsevich which states that the homology of a certain complex which is
generated by isomorphism classes of oriented graphs can be calculated as the
Lie algebra homology of an infinite-dimensional Lie algebra of symplectic
vector fields.Comment: 15 page
Aerosolâcloud drop concentration closure in warm cumulus
Our understanding of the activation of aerosol particles into cloud drops during the formation of warm cumulus clouds presently has a limited observational foundation. Detailed observations of aerosol size and composition, cloud microphysics and dynamics, and atmospheric thermodynamic state were collected in a systematic study of 21 cumulus clouds by the Center for Interdisciplinary Remotely-Piloted Aircraft Studies (CIRPAS) Twin Otter aircraft during NASA's Cirrus Regional Study of Tropical Anvils and Cirrus LayersâFlorida Area Cirrus Experiment (CRYSTAL-FACE). An âaerosol-cloudâ closure study was carried out in which a detailed cloud activation parcel model, which predicts cloud drop concentration using observed aerosol concentration, size distribution, cloud updraft velocity, and thermodynamic state, is evaluated against observations. On average, measured droplet concentration in adiabatic cloud regions is within 15% of the predictions. This agreement is corroborated by independent measurements of aerosol activation carried out by two cloud condensation nucleus (CCN) counters on the aircraft. Variations in aerosol concentration, which ranged from 300 to 3300 cm^(â3), drives large microphysical differences (250â2300 cm^(â3)) observed among continental and maritime clouds in the South Florida region. This is the first known study in which a cloud parcel model is evaluated in a closure study using a constraining set of data collected from a single platform. Likewise, this is the first known study in which relationships among aerosol size distribution, CCN spectrum, and cloud droplet concentration are all found to be consistent with theory within experimental uncertainties much less than 50%. Vertical profiles of cloud microphysical properties (effective radius, droplet concentration, dispersion) clearly demonstrate the boundary layer aerosol's effect on cloud microphysics throughout the lowest 1 km of cloud depth. Onboard measurements of aerosol hygroscopic growth and the organic to sulfate mass ratio are related to CCN properties. These chemical data are used to quantify the range of uncertainty associated with the simplified treatment of aerosol composition assumed in the closure study
Evaluation of an entraining droplet activation parameterization using in situ cloud data
This study investigates the ability of a droplet activation parameterization (which considers the effects of entrainment and mixing) to reproduce observed cloud droplet
number concentration (CDNC) in ambient clouds. Predictions of the parameterization are compared against cloud averages of CDNC from ambient cumulus and stratocumulus clouds sampled during CRYSTALâFACE (Key West, Florida, July 2002) and CSTRIPE (Monterey, California, July 2003), respectively. The entrainment parameters required by the
parameterization are derived from the observed liquid water content profiles. For the cumulus clouds considered in the study, CDNC is overpredicted by 45% with the adiabatic
parameterization. When entrainment is accounted for, the predicted CDNC agrees within 3.5%. Cloudâaveraged CDNC for stratocumulus clouds is well captured when entrainment is
not considered. In all cases considered, the entraining parameterization compared favorably against a statistical correlation developed from observations to treat entrainment effects on droplet number. These results suggest that including entrainment effects in the calculation of CDNC, as presented here, could address important overprediction biases associated with using adiabatic CDNC to represent cloudâscale average values
'Sexercise': Working out heterosexuality in Jane Fondaâs fitness books
This is an Author's Accepted Manuscript of an article published in Leisure Studies, 30(2), 237 - 255, 2011, copyright Taylor & Francis, available online at: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/02614367.2010.523837.This paper explores the connection between the promotion of heterosexual norms in womenâs fitness books written by or in the name of Jane Fonda during the 1980s and the commodification of womenâs fitness space in both the public and private spheres. The paper is set in the absence of overt discussions of normative heterosexuality in leisure studies and draws on critical heterosexual scholarship as well as the growing body of work theorising geographies of corporeality and heterosexuality. Using the principles of media discourse analysis, the paper identifies three overlapping characteristics of heterosexuality represented in Jane Fondaâs fitness books, and embodied through the exercise regimes: respectable heterosexual desire, monogamous procreation and domesticity. The paper concludes that the promotion and prescription of exercise for women in the Jane Fonda workout books centred on the reproduction and embodiment of heterosexual corporeality. Set within an emerging commercial landscape of womenâs fitness in the 1980s, such exercise practices were significant in the legitimation and institutionalisation of heteronormativity
Genotyping Validates the Efficacy of Photographic Identification in a Capture-Mark-Recapture Study Based on the Head Scale Patterns of the Prairie Lizard (\u3ci\u3eSceloporus consobrinus\u3c/i\u3e)
Population studies often incorporate captureâmarkârecapture (CMR) techniques to gather information on longâterm biological and demographic characteristics. A fundamental requirement for CMR studies is that an individual must be uniquely and permanently marked to ensure reliable reidentification throughout its lifespan. Photographic identification involving automated photographic identification software has become a popular and efficient noninvasive method for identifying individuals based on natural markings. However, few studies have (a) robustly assessed the performance of automated programs by using a doubleâmarking system or (b) determined their efficacy for longâterm studies by incorporating multiâyear data. Here, we evaluated the performance of the program Interactive Individual Identification System (I3S) by crossâvalidating photographic identifications based on the head scale pattern of the prairie lizard (Sceloporus consobrinus) with individual microsatellite genotyping (N = 863). Further, we assessed the efficacy of the program to identify individuals over time by comparing error rates between withinâyear and betweenâyear recaptures. Recaptured lizards were correctly identified by I3S in 94.1% of cases. We estimated a false rejection rate (FRR) of 5.9% and a false acceptance rate (FAR) of 0%. By using I3S, we correctly identified 97.8% of withinâyear recaptures (FRR = 2.2%; FAR = 0%) and 91.1% of betweenâyear recaptures (FRR = 8.9%; FAR = 0%). Misidentifications were primarily due to poor photograph quality (N = 4). However, two misidentifications were caused by indistinct scale configuration due to scale damage (N = 1) and ontogenetic changes in head scalation between capture events (N = 1). We conclude that automated photographic identification based on head scale patterns is a reliable and accurate method for identifying individuals over time. Because many lizard or reptilian species possess variable head squamation, this method has potential for successful application in many species
- âŠ