Improving methods to estimate time of death from body temperature

By protocol, ambient and body temperatures are collected at every investigated death scene. These data has been used since 1839 to estimate the time of death, a crucial factor when it comes to cases of unnatural deaths and homicides. The Glaister Equation and Henssge\u27s nomogram, commonly used to calculate estimated time of death, are inconsistent and often do not agree with each other. Therefore, my objective was to evaluate and improve them. I collected data in the field and consistently measured temperature data. Furthermore, I was granted access to a database of every death in New Jersey and published data. I found that the Glaister Equation with a cooling rate of 2 degrees/hour was the most accurate available method. Moreover, I demonstrate that it is possible to develop an equation that gives a more consistently accurate time of death estimation for this data set

Applications of memristors in conventional analogue electronics

This dissertation presents the steps employed to activate and utilise analogue memristive devices in conventional analogue circuits and beyond. TiO2 memristors are mainly utilised in this study, and their large variability in operation in between similar devices is identified. A specialised memristor characterisation instrument is designed and built to mitigate this issue and to allow access to large numbers of devices at a time. Its performance is quantified against linear resistors, crossbars of linear resistors, stand-alone memristive elements and crossbars of memristors. This platform allows for a wide range of different pulsing algorithms to be applied on individual devices, or on crossbars of memristive elements, and is used throughout this dissertation. Different ways of achieving analogue resistive switching from any device state are presented. Results of these are used to devise a state-of-art biasing parameter finder which automatically extracts pulsing parameters that induce repeatable analogue resistive switching. IV measurements taken during analogue resistive switching are then utilised to model the internal atomic structure of two devices, via fittings by the Simmons tunnelling barrier model. These reveal that voltage pulses modulate a nano-tunnelling gap along a conical shape. Further retention measurements are performed which reveal that under certain conditions, TiO2 memristors become volatile at short time scales. This volatile behaviour is then implemented into a novel SPICE volatile memristor model. These characterisation methods of solid-state devices allowed for inclusion of TiO2 memristors in practical electronic circuits. Firstly, in the context of large analogue resistive crossbars, a crosspoint reading method is analysed and improved via a 3-step technique. Its scaling performance is then quantified via SPICE simulations. Next, the observed volatile dynamics of memristors are exploited in two separate sequence detectors, with applications in neuromorphic engineering. Finally, the memristor as a programmable resistive weight is exploited to synthesise a memristive programmable gain amplifier and a practical memristive automatic gain control circuit.Open Acces

Master\u27s Project: The Green Burial Movement & Conservation Burial Grounds

This Master’s project investigates the green burial movement and its relevance as a tool for land conservation organizations. This movement has the potential to change the standard cemetery landscape in the United States by informing consumers of alternative practices and materials that support natural environmental processes and sustainable land management practices. Until a decade ago, the green burial movement had largely taken place at the community and individual level. It is now an established and growing national movement with certifying organizations, standards and practices, and strategic goals. Opportunities exist within this movement to develop partnerships between the burial grounds and land trust organizations and in doing so, create burial areas that are protected in perpetuity and sustainably managed. This project asks: What motivations and perceptions do the conservation burial grounds (CBGs) have of the Green Burial Council’s certification process? What forms do partnerships between burial grounds and land trusts take? What are the views of land trust organizations on developing partnerships or otherwise engaging with the green burial movement? What is the role of conservation burial in the green burial movement? Vermont Land Trust has expressed interest in learning more about green burial to better understand whether their organization (a state-wide land trust) is interested in a conservation burial partnership at this time. This project provides background information to contribute to decisions made by the Vermont Land Trust. In this project, information was gathered from CBG operators and land trust organizations through interviews. Interview transcripts were coded and analyzed to identify thematic trends. The results of this analysis indicate that conservation burial plays a relatively small, but key role in the green burial movement. Currently operating conservation burial grounds identified ecological and land use expertise, outreach, and operational support as benefits of having a partnership with a land trust. Partnerships came in different forms and ranged from closely interlinked management to occasional interactions. Data from individuals from land trusts indicate an interest in conservation burial as a sustainable land use tool, but a hesitancy to commit to a project that requires many resources and may result in mission creep

The Admissibility of DNA Evidence: Minnesota No Longer Stands Alone

Guiseppe Tipiloura at the Northern Territory Library.Northern Territory Library photograper 16/1/2010

En la periferia del imperio: provincias tributarias aztecas en la frontera imperial

This article deals with the arrangement of conquered provinces in the Aztec empire. It has become widely recognized that the empire employed contrasting imperial strategies resulting in tributary and strategic provinces, the latter often tending to insulate the former from potentially dangerous frontiers. Therefore, it is somewhat problematical to find several tributary provinces established on the fringes of the empire and even along hostile borderlands. Explanations for these arrangements are presented from an examination of historical, economic, and military/administrative dimensions of Aztec empire-building

KAJIAN INTERTEKSTUALITAS PUISI NA>ZIK AL-MALA>`IKAH ‘ANA>’ DAN CHAIRIL ANWAR ‘AKU’ (Analisis Satra Bandingan)

Abstrak Penelitian ini bertujuan mendeskripsikan tentang kajian intertekstualitas puisi Na>zik Al Mala>`ikah ‘Ana>’ dan Chairil Anwar ‘Aku’ menggunakan teori Satra Bandinga. Intertekstualitas terhadap kedua puisi di atas memiliki persamaan bedasarkan pencarian hakikat manusia yang ada dalam puisi ini adalah sebuah pencarian secara filsafati. Kajian intertekstualitas kedua puisi tersebut memiliki perbandingan dari segi persamaan dan perbedaan yang meliputi isi atau struktur batin dan struktur fisik. Perbandingan intertektualitas persamaaan dan perbedaan puisi kedua puisi tersebut dari segi isi atau struktur batin mencakup beberapa hal seperti: tema, nada, amanat, dan suasana. Sedangkan perbandingan intertektualitas persamaaan dan perbedaan puisi kedua puisi tersebut dari segi struktur fisik meliputi: kata konkret, bahasa figuratif (majas), dan tipografi. Dari segi budaya dan sejarah kedua puisi tersebut yang melatarinya dapat disimpulakan bahwa, pertama puisi Ana> ditulis oleh seorang satrawan kotemporer perempuan berkebangsaan Arab dari Irak sedangkan puisi Aku ditulis oleh sastrawan bekembangsaan Indonesia. Walaupun dari segi tema sama-sama berbicara mengenai perjuangan namun keduanya memiliki makna yang berbeda. Puisi Ana> karya Na>zik Al-Mala>`ikah memiliki makna perjuangan terhadap diri sendiri sebagai bukti jelas nampak pada lirik yang berbunyi ‘Aku tetap kontributor di sini’, sedangkan puisi Aku karya Chairil Anwar lebih berbicara kepada perjuangan membela negara melawan penjajahan, dan itu nampak pada lirik yang berbunyi ‘Biar peluru menembus kulitku’ ‘Aku tetap meradang menerjang’

Emulating long-term synaptic dynamics with memristive devices

The potential of memristive devices is often seeing in implementing neuromorphic architectures for achieving brain-like computation. However, the designing procedures do not allow for extended manipulation of the material, unlike CMOS technology, the properties of the memristive material should be harnessed in the context of such computation, under the view that biological synapses are memristors. Here we demonstrate that single solid-state TiO2 memristors can exhibit associative plasticity phenomena observed in biological cortical synapses, and are captured by a phenomenological plasticity model called triplet rule. This rule comprises of a spike-timing dependent plasticity regime and a classical hebbian associative regime, and is compatible with a large amount of electrophysiology data. Via a set of experiments with our artificial, memristive, synapses we show that, contrary to conventional uses of solid-state memory, the co-existence of field- and thermally-driven switching mechanisms that could render bipolar and/or unipolar programming modes is a salient feature for capturing long-term potentiation and depression synaptic dynamics. We further demonstrate that the non-linear accumulating nature of memristors promotes long-term potentiating or depressing memory transitions

KONFLIK BATIN TOKOH UTAMA DALAM NOVEL AHBABTUKA AKTSAR MIMMÂ YANBAGHÎ KARYA ATHEER ‘ABDULLAH AN-NASYMÎ (SEBUAH KAJIAN PSIKOLOGI SASTRA)

Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mendeskripsikan dan menjelaskan konflik batin tokoh utama yang terkandunga dalam novel “Ahbabtuka Aktsar Mimmâ Yanbaghî” karya Atheer ‘Abdullah An-Nasymî.Metode yang digunakan dalam penelitian ini adalah metode deskriptif kualitatif. Data primer dalam penelitian ini adalah novel Ahbabtuka Aktsar Mimmâ Yanbaghî karya Atheer ‘Abdullah An-Nasymî. Data dan informasi pentinga yang dikumpulkan dan dikaji dalam penelitian ini berupa kata, frase dan kalimat yang memuat unsur-unsur konflik batin. Teknik yang digunakan untuk mengaumpulkan data adalah dengan pembacaan, pencatatan, serta analisis dokumendengan pendekatan psikologi sastra sebagi kerangaka berpikir. Adapun hasil yang diperoleh bahwa penelitian ini menunjukkan bentuk- bentuk konflik batin yang di alami oleh tokoh utama dalam novel ini berupa perasaan marah, perasaan gelisah dan takut, perasaan tulus dan teguh pendirian, perasaan stress dan berlebihan, perasaan sedih serta perasaan rindu