Examining resilience and vulnerability as concepts conditional upon human values: a review

Whilst there has been progress in understanding the role that values play in determinations of vulnerability and resilience, I suggest some key points continue to be overlooked. I offer three propositions to describe how values underpin such concepts, summarised as ‘no fixed characterization’, ‘no fixed relationships’ and ‘no fixed trends’. These propositions are not new and have been made in other contexts. Based on a literature review of vulnerability and resilience in the global environmental change area, I elaborate on how these propositions are not adequately accommodated, in particular in relation to ideas of biophysical and social vulnerability, specified versus general resilience, and assignments of desired trend direction (increasing resilience or decreasing vulnerability). I conclude that irrespective of the concept label, characterisations and assessments of ecosystems and their attendant change are inescapably dependent on values.Environmental Economics and Policy,

Persistence stability for geometric complexes

In this paper we study the properties of the homology of different geometric filtered complexes (such as Vietoris-Rips, Cech and witness complexes) built on top of precompact spaces. Using recent developments in the theory of topological persistence we provide simple and natural proofs of the stability of the persistent homology of such complexes with respect to the Gromov--Hausdorff distance. We also exhibit a few noteworthy properties of the homology of the Rips and Cech complexes built on top of compact spaces.Comment: We include a discussion of ambient Cech complexes and a new class of examples called Dowker complexe

Semi-Automated Nasal PAP Mask Sizing using Facial Photographs

We present a semi-automated system for sizing nasal Positive Airway Pressure (PAP) masks based upon a neural network model that was trained with facial photographs of both PAP mask users and non-users. It demonstrated an accuracy of 72% in correctly sizing a mask and 96% accuracy sizing to within 1 mask size group. The semi-automated system performed comparably to sizing from manual measurements taken from the same images which produced 89% and 100% accuracy respectively.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, 4 tables, IEEE Engineering Medicine and Biology Conference 201

The observable structure of persistence modules

In persistent topology, q-tame modules appear as a natural and large class of persistence modules indexed over the real line for which a persistence diagram is definable. However, unlike persistence modules indexed over a totally ordered finite set or the natural numbers, such diagrams do not provide a complete invariant of q-tame modules. The purpose of this paper is to show that the category of persistence modules can be adjusted to overcome this issue. We introduce the observable category of persistence modules: a localization of the usual category, in which the classical properties of q-tame modules still hold but where the persistence diagram is a complete isomorphism invariant and all q-tame modules admit an interval decomposition

An evaluation of the mechanisms by which the human placenta acquires cholesterol for steroid and membrane synthesis

Imperial Users onl

The structure and stability of persistence modules

We give a self-contained treatment of the theory of persistence modules indexed over the real line. We give new proofs of the standard results. Persistence diagrams are constructed using measure theory. Linear algebra lemmas are simplified using a new notation for calculations on quiver representations. We show that the stringent finiteness conditions required by traditional methods are not necessary to prove the existence and stability of the persistence diagram. We introduce weaker hypotheses for taming persistence modules, which are met in practice and are strong enough for the theory still to work. The constructions and proofs enabled by our framework are, we claim, cleaner and simpler.Comment: New version. We discuss in greater depth the interpolation lemma for persistence module

THE GENERAL – SPECIFIC DEBATE IN EAP: WHICH CASE IS THE MOST CONVINCING FOR MOST CONTEXTS?

This article is based on the presentation Integrating reading and writing in EAP: Citation, Criticality, Creativity, given at the 2012 Bilkent University biennial conference on EAP (English for Academic Purposes). The focus of the article is the EGAP / ESAP debate: respectively English for General, and Specific, Academic Purposes. This important distinction can be traced back to the 1990s and the work of EAP practitioners such as Jordan (1997). Through a critical review of the literature and a discussion of the key issues arising, illustrated by practical examples where appropriate, the article aims to demonstrate that for a number of pedagogical and practical reasons an EGAP rather than an ESAP approach is the most appropriate approach in most EAP contexts. This paper will also feature in our special edition of the proceedings for the 2012 Bilkent University biennial conference on EAP (English for Academic Purposes