Did the Kulinas become the Marubos? A Linguistic and Ethnohistorical Investigation

This paper presents the results of a study designed to clear up confusion surrounding the ethnic and linguistic identity of several indigenous groups from western Amazonia that have been denominated “Kulina,” “Marubo,” or variants of these terms. Linguistic analysis revealed unequivocally that the term Kulina has been used to refer to three different languages, two in the Panoan family and one in the Arawan family, and that the term Marubo has been used to refer to two different languages in the Panoan family. To elucidate the ethnohistory of each of these five groups, the usage of the terms Kulina and Marubo is chronicled from their earliest occurrences in historical sources (the 17th century for Kulina and the 19th for Marubo) up through their current-day use as denominations for ethnic groups living in the Javari basin. The unexpectedly high level of lexical similarity between two of the languages under study suggested the possibility that members of a supposedly extinct Panoan group denominated Kulina may be the ancestors of the people currently denominated Marubo. Therefore, a second theme in the present paper is the examination of linguistic and historical clues that help determine whether in fact the historical Kulinas became the modern-day Marubos. Este trabajo presenta los resultados de un estudio diseñado para aclarar la confusión que rodea la identidad étnica y lingüística de varios grupos indígenas de la Amazonia occidental que han sido denominados “Kulina,” “Marubo,” o variantes de estos términos. El análisis lingüístico reveló sin duda que el término Kulina se ha utilizado para referirse a tres idiomas diferentes, dos de la familia lingüística Pano y uno en la familia lingüística Arawá, y que el término Marubo se ha utilizado para referirse a dos idiomas diferentes de la familia Pano. Para elucidar la etno-historia de cada uno de estos cinco grupos, los términos Kulina y Marubo son documentados cronológicamente desde sus usos más antiguos en las fuentes históricas (el siglo XVII para Kulina y el siglo XIX para Marubo) hasta sus usos actuales como denominaciones para etnias que viven en la cuenca del río Javari. El nivel inesperadamente alto de semejanza léxica entre dos de los idiomas estudiados sugirió la posibilidad de que miembros de una etnia Pano supuestamente extinta denominada Kulina, podrían ser los antepasados de la gente actualmente denominada Marubo. Por lo tanto, un segundo tema de este trabajo es la investigación de las pistas lingüísticas e históricas que ayudan a determinar si verdaderamente los Kulinas de la historia se convirtieron en los Marubos de hoy día

Phase Behavior of Polyelectrolyte-Surfactant Complexes at Planar Surfaces

We investigate theoretically the phase diagram of an insoluble charged surfactant monolayer in contact with a semi-dilute polyelectrolyte solution (of opposite charge). The polyelectrolytes are assumed to have long-range and attractive (electrostatic) interaction with the surfactant molecules. In addition, we introduce a short-range (chemical) interaction which is either attractive or repulsive. The surfactant monolayer can have a lateral phase separation between dilute and condensed phases. Three different regimes of the coupled system are investigated depending on system parameters. A regime where the polyelectrolyte is depleted due to short range repulsion from the surface, and two adsorption regimes, one being dominated by electrostatics, whereas the other by short range chemical attraction (similar to neutral polymers). When the polyelectrolyte is more attracted (or at least less repelled) by the surfactant molecules as compared with the bare water/air interface, it will shift upwards the surfactant critical temperature. For repulsive short-range interactions the effect is opposite. Finally, the addition of salt to the solution is found to increase the critical temperature for attractive surfaces, but does not show any significant effect for repulsive surfaces.Comment: 23 pages, 10 figure

Channeling 5-min photospheric oscillations into the solar outer atmosphere through small-scale vertical magnetic flux tubes

We report two-dimensional MHD simulations which demonstrate that photospheric 5-min oscillations can leak into the chromosphere inside small-scale vertical magnetic flux tubes. The results of our numerical experiments are compatible with those inferred from simultaneous spectropolarimetric observations of the photosphere and chromosphere obtained with the Tenerife Infrared Polarimeter (TIP) at 10830 A. We conclude that the efficiency of energy exchange by radiation in the solar photosphere can lead to a significant reduction of the cut-off frequency and may allow for the propagation of the 5 minutes waves vertically into the chromosphere.Comment: accepted by ApJ

Smart Content Recognition from Images Using a Mixture of Convolutional Neural Networks

With rapid development of the Internet, web contents become huge. Most of the websites are publicly available, and anyone can access the contents from anywhere such as workplace, home and even schools. Nevertheless, not all the web contents are appropriate for all users, especially children. An example of these contents is pornography images which should be restricted to certain age group. Besides, these images are not safe for work (NSFW) in which employees should not be seen accessing such contents during work. Recently, convolutional neural networks have been successfully applied to many computer vision problems. Inspired by these successes, we propose a mixture of convolutional neural networks for adult content recognition. Unlike other works, our method is formulated on a weighted sum of multiple deep neural network models. The weights of each CNN models are expressed as a linear regression problem learned using Ordinary Least Squares (OLS). Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed model outperforms both single CNN model and the average sum of CNN models in adult content recognition.Comment: To be published in LNEE, Code: github.com/mundher/NSF

The tensile ductility of cellular Solids: The role of imperfections

© 2016 Metallic and polymeric foams typically possess a low tensile failure strain of a few percent despite the fact that the parent solid can have high ductility (10% or more). This is remarkable as foams are bending-dominated in their structural response, and it is widely accepted that beams have a high ductility in bending compared to a bar in uniaxial tension. Possible reasons for this paradox are explored for a 2D hexagonal honeycomb, and for a so-called ‘lotus cellular material’, made from an elastic-plastic parent solid. Finite element simulations reveal that there is only a small drop in tensile ductility due to the presence of Plateau borders or due to the random misalignment of nodes; a much greater drop in ductility results from missing cell walls (equivalent to misshapen cells) or to the presence of stiff inclusions. The drop in ductility due to inclusions is associated with the multi-axial stress state that exists in their vicinity. This study emphasises the need for a uniform microstructure in order for foams to possess a high macroscopic ductility

Single acting translational/rotational brake

A brake system is provided that applies braking forces on surfaces in both the translational and rotational directions using a single acting self-contained actuator that travels with the translational mechanism. The brake engages a mechanical lock and creates a frictional force on the translational structure preventing translation while simultaneously creating a frictional torque that prevents rotation of the vertical support. The system may include serrations on the braking surfaces to provide increased braking forces

The Inconvenient Truth About Coronal Dimmings

We investigate the occurrence of a CME-driven coronal dimming using unique high resolution spectral images of the corona from the Hinode spacecraft. Over the course of the dimming event we observe the dynamic increase of non-thermal line broadening in the 195.12Angstrom emission line of Fe XII as the corona opens. As the corona begins to close, refill and brighten, we see a reduction of the non-thermal broadening towards the pre-eruption level. We propose that the dynamic evolution of non-thermal broadening is the result of the growth of Alfven wave amplitudes in the magnetically open rarefied dimming region, compared to the dense closed corona prior to the CME. We suggest, based on this proposition, that, as open magnetic regions, coronal dimmings must act just as coronal holes and be sources of the fast solar wind, but only temporarily. Further, we propose that such a rapid transition in the thermodynamics of the corona to a solar wind state may have an impulsive effect on the CME that initiates the observed dimming. This last point, if correct, poses a significant physical challenge to the sophistication of CME modeling and capturing the essence of the source region thermodynamics necessary to correctly ascertain CME propagation speeds, etc.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, submitted to ApJ - rerouted to ApJ

Is the partial pressure of carbon dioxide in the blood related to the development of retinopathy of prematurity?

AIMS—To determine the role of carbon dioxide in the development of retinopathy of prematurity (ROP).
METHODS—This was a retrospective cohort study of 25 consecutive infants admitted to the neonatal unit with continuously recorded physiological data. The daily mean and standard deviation (SD) of transcutaneous carbon dioxide partial pressure (tcPCO(2)) was compared between infants who had stage 1 or 2 ROP and stage 3 ROP. The time spent hypocarbic (<3 kPa) and/or hypercarbic (>10 kPa and >12 kPa) was also compared between these groups. Intermittent arterial carbon dioxide tension was also measured and compared with the simultaneous tcPCO(2) data.
RESULTS—There were no significant differences in carbon dioxide variability or time spent hypocarbic and/or hypercarbic between the ROP groups on any day. 86% of transcutaneous values were within 1.5 kPa of the simultaneous arterial value.
CONCLUSION—TcPCO(2) measurement can be a very useful management technique. However, in this cohort neither variable blood carbon dioxide tension nor duration of hypercarbia or hypocarbia in the first 2 weeks of life was associated with the development or severity of ROP.