The Zhamanshin impact feature: A new class of complex crater?

The record of 10-km-scale impact events of Quaternary age includes only two 'proven' impact structures: the Zhamanshin Impact Feature (ZIF) and the Bosumtwi Impact Crater (BIC). What makes these impact landforms interesting from the standpoint of recent Earth history is their almost total lack of morphologic similarity, in spite of similar absolute ages and dimensions. The BIC resembles pristine complex craters on the Moon to first order (i.e., 'U'-shaped topographic cross section with preserved rim), while the ZIF displays virtually none of the typical morphologic elements of a 13- to 14-km-diameter complex crater. Indeed, this apparent lack of a craterlike surficial topographic expression initially led Soviet geologists to conclude that the structure was only 5.5 to 6 km in diameter and at least 4.5 Ma in age. However, more recent drilling and geophysical observations at the ZIF have indicated that its pre-erosional diameter is at least 13.5 km, and that its age is most probably 0.87 Ma. Why the present topographic expression of a 13.5-km complex impact crater less than 1 m.y. old most closely resembles heavily degraded Mesozoic shield craters such as Lappajarvi is a question of considerable debate. Hypotheses for the lack of a clearly defined craterlike form at the ZIF include a highly oblique impact, a low-strength 'cometary' projectile, weak or water-saturated target materials, and anomalous erosion patterns. The problem remains unresolved because typical erosion rates within the arid sedimentary platform environment of central Kazakhstan in which the ZIF is located are typically low; it would require at least a factor of 10 greater erosion at the ZIF in order to degrade the near-rim ejecta typical of a 13.5-km complex crater by hundreds of meters in only 0.87 Ma, and to partially infill an inner cavity with 27 cu km (an equivalent uniform thickness of infill of 166 m). Our analysis of the degree of erosion and infill at the ZIF calls for rates in the 0.19 to 0.38 mm/yr range over the lifetime of the landform, which are a factor of 10 to 20 in excess of typical rates for the Kazakhstan semidesert

Measurement of head-related transfer functions : A review

A head-related transfer function (HRTF) describes an acoustic transfer function between a point sound source in the free-field and a defined position in the listener's ear canal, and plays an essential role in creating immersive virtual acoustic environments (VAEs) reproduced over headphones or loudspeakers. HRTFs are highly individual, and depend on directions and distances (near-field HRTFs). However, the measurement of high-density HRTF datasets is usually time-consuming, especially for human subjects. Over the years, various novel measurement setups and methods have been proposed for the fast acquisition of individual HRTFs while maintaining high measurement accuracy. This review paper provides an overview of various HRTF measurement systems and some insights into trends in individual HRTF measurements

Резолюция Совета экспертов от 20 мая 2023 г. «Вопросы безопасности лечения ревматологического пациента»

At the meeting of the Expert Council on May 20, the safety of treatment for patients with osteoarthritis (OA), the most common form of joint disease, was discussed. The first step in the treatment of OA should be the administration of symptomatic delayed-acting agents (SYSADOA) and nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs). However, given the current understanding of the pathogenesis of inflammation, as well as the fact that it is an active process involving multiple proinflammatory and pro-resolving mediators, it is reasonable to limit the cyclooxygenase-2 suppressive treatment and to include medications with multipurpose effects that contribute to the resolution of inflammation, in particular Zeel® T and Traumeel® S. Traumeel® S affects all stages of inflammation, mostly on the pro-resolving mediators synthesis, and Zeel® T affects chondrogenesis, inflammation, metabolic processes in cartilage tissue and prevents angiogenesis.It was found that it is advisable to use Traumeel® S when it is not possible to prescribe systemic NSAIDs for pain relief. The combination of the proven therapeutic efficacy of Zeel® T and Traumeel® S with a minimal number of adverse events and the absence of interactions with other drugs allows them to be used as an independent treatment regimen for OA.На заседании Совета экспертов 20 мая 2023 г. были рассмотрены вопросы безопасности лечения пациентов с остеоартритом (ОА) — самой распространенной формой заболеваний суставов. Первым шагом терапии ОА должно быть назначение симптоматических средств замедленного действия (SYSADOA) и нестероидных противовоспалительных препаратов (НПВП). Однако, учитывая современные представления о патогенезе воспаления, а также то, что это активный процесс с участием большого числа провоспалительных и проразрешающих медиаторов, представляется актуальной тактика ограничения терапии с подавлением циклооксигеназы 2 и включения в схемы лечения лекарственных средств с многоцелевым действием, способствующих разрешению воспаления, в частности препаратов Цель® Т и Траумель® С. Траумель® С оказывает воздействие на все этапы воспаления, в большей степени на синтез проразрешающих медиаторов, а Цель® Т влияет на хондрогенез, воспаление, метаболические процессы в хрящевой ткани и предотвращает ангиогенез.Отмечено, что при невозможности назначения системных НПВП для купирования боли целесообразно применение препарата Траумель® С. Сочетание доказанной терапевтической эффективности препаратов Цель® Т и Траумель® С с минимальным числом нежелательных явлений и отсутствием взаимодействий с другими лекарственными средствами позволяет использовать их как самостоятельную схему терапии при ОА

Low-Complexity Steered Response Power Mapping based on Nyquist-Shannon Sampling

The steered response power (SRP) approach to acoustic source localization computes a map of the acoustic scene from the frequency-weighted output power of a beamformer steered towards a set of candidate locations. Equivalently, SRP may be expressed in terms of time-domain generalized cross-correlations (GCCs) at lags equal to the candidate locations' time-differences of arrival (TDOAs). Due to the dense grid of candidate locations, each of which requires inverse Fourier transform (IFT) evaluations, conventional SRP exhibits a high computational complexity. In this paper, we propose a low-complexity SRP approach based on Nyquist-Shannon sampling. Noting that on the one hand the range of possible TDOAs is physically bounded, while on the other hand the GCCs are bandlimited, we critically sample the GCCs around their TDOA interval and approximate the SRP map by interpolation. In usual setups, the number of sample points can be orders of magnitude less than the number of candidate locations and frequency bins, yielding a significant reduction of IFT computations at a limited interpolation cost. Simulations comparing the proposed approximation with conventional SRP indicate low approximation errors and equal localization performance. MATLAB and Python implementations are available online

Pengaruh Latihan Speed Play Terhadap Nilai Hematokrit Dan Kardiorespirasi Atlet Basket

The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of regular exercise with the speed play method in increasing cardiorespiratory capacity and blood hematocrit levels in Pinisi basketball athletes. The research method used was the one-group pre-posttest design experiment. The instruments used in this study were the Multistage Test (MFT) for cardiorespiratory and hct meter to measure blood hematocrit levels. The results of this study found that the percentage of blood hematocrit after the intervention of the speed play training method for the Pinisi basketball athletes was 44.94% higher than the average hematocrit level before being given the speed play training method for the Pinisi basketball athletes, which was 41.64%. There was a change with an average value of 3.3% in per 100 mg of blood, meanwhile the average cardiorespiratory capacity after the implementation of the speed play training program in Pinisi basketball athletes was 43.49 ml/kg/minute, which means an increase from the average capacity cardiorespiratory training before being given speed play training in phinisi basketball athletes of 40.95 ml/kg/minute experienced an average change of 2.54 ml/kg/minute. &nbsp

Large Deformation Diffeomorphic Metric Mapping Provides New Insights into the Link Between Human Ear Morphology and the Head-Related Transfer Functions

The research findings presented in this thesis is composed of four sections. In the first section of this thesis, it is shown how LDDMM can be applied to deforming head and ear shapes in the context of morphoacoustic study. Further, tools are developed to measure differences in 3D shapes using the framework of currents and also to compare and measure the differences between the acoustic responses obtained from BEM simulations for two ear shapes. Finally this section introduces the multi-scale approach for mapping ear shapes using LDDMM. The second section of the thesis estimates a template ear, head and torso shape from the shapes available in the SYMARE database. This part of the thesis explains a new procedure for developing the template ear shape. The template ear and head shapes were are verified by comparing the features in the template shapes to corresponding features in the CIPIC and SYMARE database population. The third section of the thesis examines the quality of the deformations from the template ear shape to target ears in SYMARE from both an acoustic and morphological standpoint. As a result of this investigation, it was identified that ear shapes can be studied more accurately by the use of two physical scales and that scales at which the ear shapes were studied were dependent on the parameters chosen when mapping ears in the LDDMM framework. Finally, this section concludes by noting how shape distances vary with the acoustic distances using the developed tools. In the final part of this thesis, the variations in the morphology of ears are examined using the Kernel Principle Component Analysis (KPCA) and the changes in the corresponding acoustics are studied using the standard principle component analysis (PCA). These examinations involved identifying the number of kernel principle components that are required in order to model ear shapes with an acceptable level of accuracy, both morphologically and acoustically

Combining Particle Filter and Population-based Metaheuristics for Visual Articulated Motion Tracking

Visual tracking of articulated motion is a complex task with high computational costs. Because of the fact that articulated objects are usually represented as a set of linked limbs, tracking is performed with the support of a model. Model-based tracking allows determining object pose in an effortless way and handling occlusions. However, the use of articulated models generates a multidimensional state-space and, therefore, the tracking becomes computationally very expensive or even infeasible. Due to the dynamic nature of the problem, some sequential estimation algorithms like particle filters are usually applied to visual tracking. Unfortunately, particle filter fails in high dimensional estimation problems such as articulated objects or multiple object tracking. These problems are called \emph{dynamic optimization problems}. Metaheuristics, which are high level general strategies for designing heuristics procedures, have emerged for solving many real world combinatorial problems as a way to efficiently and effectively exploring the problem search space. Path relinking (PR) and scatter search (SS) are evolutionary metaheuristics successfully applied to several hard optimization problems. PRPF and SSPF algorithms respectively hybridize both, particle filter and these two population-based metaheuristic schemes. In this paper, We present and compare two different hybrid algorithms called Path Relinking Particle Filter (PRPF) and Scatter Search Particle Filter (SSPF), applied to 2D human motion tracking. Experimental results show that the proposed algorithms increase the performance of standard particle filters

\u201cSulle ali di una risata belante\u2026\u201d Il Vangelo secondo Venedikt Erofeev e altri scritti

Il presente lavoro intende indagare il laboratorio creativo di Venedikt Vasil\u2019evi\u10d Erofeev (1938-1990), uno dei maggiori autori del secondo Novecento russo noto in tutto il mondo per il suo romanzo Moskva-Petu\u161ki. Nella prima parte della tesi viene tracciato un profilo biografico dello scrittore e ricostruito il contesto storico e culturale di cui egli \ue8 parte. Vagabondo senza fissa dimora, vissuto ai margini dell\u2019ufficialit\ue0 negli anni della stagnazione bre\u17eneviana, Erofeev incarna nella sua persona tratti di figure tipiche della tradizione nazionale, dallo jurodivyj (il folle in Cristo della cultura cristiano-ortodossa) allo strannik (il pellegrino alla ricerca di s\ue9), sorta di \u201carchetipi\u201d della storia russa che egli attualizza in un originale percorso di \u17eiznetvor\u10destvo, di creazione esistenziale nel quale finzione e realt\ue0, arte e vita risultano indistinguibili. Oggetto d\u2019attenzione della seconda parte del lavoro sono le letture attraverso le quali lo scrittore (eclettico lettore) recupera fonti e modelli a lui congeniali; di tutte queste molteplici suggestioni si trova traccia nei zapisnye kni\u17eki, i quaderni d\u2019appunti che Erofeev compil\uf2 quasi quotidianamente e che costituiscono una raccolta all\u2019apparenza confusa di frammenti e idee sugli argomenti pi\uf9 disparati. Questa tendenza quasi maniacale alla catalogazione ricorda l\u2019approccio all\u2019organizzazione del sapere tipico della cultura barocca. Nella terza sezione della tesi vengono analizzati tre testi ancora oggi poco noti a pubblico e critica: Blagaja vest\u2019 (La buona novella, 1962), narrazione in prosa ritmica rimasta incompleta, il racconto Vasilij Rozanov glazami \u117kscentrika (Vasilij Rozanov visto da un eccentrico, 1973) e Moja malen\u2019kaja leniniana (La mia piccola leniniana, 1988), un collage di citazioni leniniane. In queste opere Erofeev recupera modelli di riferimento che si diverte a sovvertire: l\u2019analisi delle tecniche stilistiche, delle soluzioni compositive e delle immagini adottate consente di individuare i procedimenti che ricorrono con pi\uf9 frequenza nella scrittura dell\u2019autore, basata sul capovolgimento delle fonti, l\u2019abbattimento di miti e tab\uf9 e il rovesciamento insieme giocoso e serio di logiche ordinarie e stereotipi

Acoustic inter- and intra-room similarity based on room acoustic parameters

This paper shows various approaches for determining acoustic (dis-)similarity based on room acoustic parameter values derived from real measurements. The similarity is calculated across different room configurations and/or between different microphone-loudspeaker positions within the same room configuration. We compare supervised (LDA, Random Forrest) and unsupervised techniques (PCA, SPPA) and pre-selected visualizations in terms of their ability to exhibit inter- and intra-room (dis-)similarities. The data set generated comprises spatially high-resolution room impulse responses obtained from multiple source-receiver positions within a room configuration. The room acoustics are varied by introducing active walls and geometries accounting for specific room configurations. The results show that the separation of room configurations primarily relies on specific acoustic parameters, with the reverberation time playing an important role. Within a given room configuration, the acoustic parameters excluding the reverberation time mainly capture the orientation and distance between the source and receiver