Book review: the authoritarian public sphere: legitimation and autocratic power in North Korea, Burma and China by Alexander Dukalskis

In The Authoritarian Public Sphere: Legitimation and Autocratic Power in North Korea, Burma and China, Alexander Dukalskis offers insight into the meticulous efforts of three of Asia’s longest standing authoritarian regimes to legitimise and maintain their rule. Utilising a comparative lens while also drawing on extensive interview data, this is a valuable contribution to understanding the myriad tools utilised to construct and control ‘authoritarian public spheres’, writes Sam Swash

Book review: The authoritarian public sphere: legitimation and autocratic power in North Korea, Burma and China, Alexander Dukalskis

In The Authoritarian Public Sphere: Legitimation and Autocratic Power in North Korea, Burma and China, Alexander Dukalskis offers insight into the meticulous efforts of three of Asia’s longest standing authoritarian regimes to legitimise and maintain their rule. Utilising a comparative lens while also drawing on extensive interview data, this is a valuable contribution to understanding the myriad tools utilised to construct and control ‘authoritarian public spheres’, writes Sam Swash

Adopting multiview pixel mapping for enhancing quality of holoscopic 3D scene in parallax barriers based holoscopic 3D displays

The Autostereoscopic multiview 3D Display is robustly developed and widely available in commercial markets. Excellent improvements are made using pixel mapping techniques and achieved an acceptable 3D resolution with balanced pixel aspect ratio in lens array technology. This paper proposes adopting multiview pixel mapping for enhancing quality constructed holoscopic 3D scene in parallax barriers based holoscopic 3D displays achieving great results. The Holoscopic imaging technology mimics the imaging system of insects, such as the fly, utilizing a single camera, equipped with a large number of micro-lenses, to capture a scene, offering rich parallax information and enhanced 3D feeling without the need of wearing specific eyewear. In addition pixel mapping and holoscopic 3D rendering tools are developed including a custom built holoscopic 3D displays to test the proposed method and carry out a like-to-like comparison.This work has been supported by European Commission under Grant FP7-ICT-2009-4 (3DVIVANT). The authors wish to ex-press their gratitude and thanks for the support given throughout the project

Holoscopic 3D imaging and display technology: Camera/ processing/ display

This thesis was submitted for the award of Doctor of Philosophy and was awarded by Brunel University LondonHoloscopic 3D imaging “Integral imaging” was first proposed by Lippmann in 1908. It has become an attractive technique for creating full colour 3D scene that exists in space. It promotes a single camera aperture for recording spatial information of a real scene and it uses a regularly spaced microlens arrays to simulate the principle of Fly’s eye technique, which creates physical duplicates of light field “true 3D-imaging technique”. While stereoscopic and multiview 3D imaging systems which simulate human eye technique are widely available in the commercial market, holoscopic 3D imaging technology is still in the research phase. The aim of this research is to investigate spatial resolution of holoscopic 3D imaging and display technology, which includes holoscopic 3D camera, processing and display. Smart microlens array architecture is proposed that doubles spatial resolution of holoscopic 3D camera horizontally by trading horizontal and vertical resolutions. In particular, it overcomes unbalanced pixel aspect ratio of unidirectional holoscopic 3D images. In addition, omnidirectional holoscopic 3D computer graphics rendering techniques are proposed that simplify the rendering complexity and facilitate holoscopic 3D content generation. Holoscopic 3D image stitching algorithm is proposed that widens overall viewing angle of holoscopic 3D camera aperture and pre-processing of holoscopic 3D image filters are proposed for spatial data alignment and 3D image data processing. In addition, Dynamic hyperlinker tool is developed that offers interactive holoscopic 3D video content search-ability and browse-ability. Novel pixel mapping techniques are proposed that improves spatial resolution and visual definition in space. For instance, 4D-DSPM enhances 3D pixels per inch from 44 3D-PPIs to 176 3D-PPIs horizontally and achieves spatial resolution of 1365 × 384 3D-Pixels whereas the traditional spatial resolution is 341 × 1536 3D-Pixels. In addition distributed pixel mapping is proposed that improves quality of holoscopic 3D scene in space by creating RGB-colour channel elemental images

The hydrothermal precipitation of arsenical solids in the Ca-Fe-AsO4-SO4 system at elevated temperatures

Hydrothermal precipitation experiments were carried out in sealed test tubes to investigate the characteristics of solids precipitated from Ca-Fe-As04-S04 solutions at temperatures up to 225°C. The solids precipitated from solutions were examined by studying the individual Fe-AsC>4, Ca-AsCTj and Fe-Ca- As04 systems at low (3). Precipitation of solids in the Fe-AsC>4-SC)4 system at pH1:1. The family of Type-2 compounds show close similarities and are usually produced from starting solutions with Fe:As >1:1 at temperatures >175°C. These compounds are light brown in colour and are composed of crystals up to 50(j.m, they easily accommodate sulphate into their lattice and have compositions which approximate to:- Fe3(As04)2(0H)x(S04)y (where x and y = 0 to 1). The formation of the Type-1 compound is common in the temperature range 150 - 225°C from solutions with ratios of Fe:As of 95% of the contained arsenic from solution. High temperatures are preferable (>175°C) as this promotes the growth of crystalline arsenical compounds. For optimum conditions the Fe:As ratio in the solution must be around 1:1 to satisfy the Fe:As requirements of the precipitated compound (scorodite or the Type-2 compound, 1:1 or ~1.5:1 respectively) and most of the arsenic is removed within 30 minutes. When higher Fe:As ratios are used, the rate at which the compounds are precipitated is reduced. In the Fe-AsC>4 system at pH5 using an Fe:As ratio of ~1:1, a crystalline compound; designated Type-3 (approximating to Fe2(FIAs04)x(As04)y), is precipitated from arsenical-ferrihydrite sludges at temperatures above 125°C. Only at elevated pHs (>3) do calcium arsenate compounds begin to precipitate, and during neutralisation of iron-rich solutions arsenic preferentially combines with iron rather than calcium. In sulphate-rich solutions calcium will precipitate as gypsum rather than combine with arsenate to produce calcium arsenate compounds. From precipitation work carried out in the calcium-arsenate system, it was found that at temperatures below 100°C, the solids are partly hydrated and are usually composed of one of the following:- pharmacolite, haidingerite, or guerinite (CaHAsC>4.2H20, CaHAs04.H20 and CasH2(As04)4.9H20, respectively). In the temperature range 100 - 200°C at pH's4). Solids precipitated at pH's above 8 and at temperatures above 100°C precipitated johnbaumite (Cas(As04)30H). Above 200°C, the predominant solid approaches a Ca3(AsC>4)2 composition which contains only minor amounts of constitutional water. This work has examined a wide range of solution compositions and it has been found that all the hydrothermally prepared calcium arsenate-type compounds have very high apparent solubilities (>1000mg/L). Through experimental observation and consideration of some theoretical concepts a preliminary assessment of the long term behaviour of crystalline arsenic bearing metallurgical wastes in the environment has been made. Through empirical solubility testing and comparison with natural analogues it can be predicted that crystalline scorodite should have a low solubility for prolonged periods of time. Since scorodite is commonly found in many weathering zones and in most climatic regions of the world it is considered to be the most stable arsenate compound formed in nature and may be suitable for arsenic disposal purposes

THE SCORODITE PROCESS: A TECHNOLOGY FOR THE DISPOSAL OF ARSENIC IN THE 21ST CENTURY.

IN . (CASTRO S.H., F. AND SANCHE

Levosimendan for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis

© 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.Levosimendan is a drug developed and approved in the EU to treat severe heart failure by intravenous administration. Its principal pharmacological effect is to increase cardiac contractility by calcium sensitisation of troponin C. Because of the positive action of the drug on the neuromechanical efficiency and contractile function of the diaphragm in healthy controls, levosimendan was considered potentially useful for treating amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, a disease characterised by progressive upper and lower motor neuron deficits. This hypothesis was tested in the phase LEVALS 2 trial, in which the drug was given orally.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

The Cutaneous Silent Period in Motor Neuron Disease

Objective: To investigate the cutaneous silent period (CSP) by measuring its onset latency, duration and amount signal suppression in patients with motor neuron disease (MND) grouped according to the intensity of upper motor neuron involvement (UMN), and to test the effect of contralateral hand contraction. Methods: Painful stimulation was applied at the V finger, and contraction recorded from the abductor digiti minimi (ADM) muscle (baseline condition). Afterwards, CSP was studied during strong contralateral ADM contraction (test condition). 10-15 consecutive traces were recorded for each condition, signals were rectified, averaged, and analyzed offline. Results: 46 patients were investigated, 15 with progressive muscular atrophy (PMA), 16 with typical amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), 15 with primary lateral sclerosis/predominant UMN-ALS (PLS+UMN-ALS), and 28 controls. In the baseline condition, all MND groups showed delayed onset latencies (p = 0.001). There was no significant difference in the CSP duration. Suppression was lower in the PLS + UMN-ALS group (p = 0.004). In the control group, contralateral contraction did not change CSP, but onset latency shortened significantly in the PMA group. Conclusions: CSP onset latency is delayed in all investigated groups of MND, including in PMA, indicating subclinical UMN involvement. Changes in CSP can indicate UMN lesion in MND. Significance: CSP should be explored to identify UMN involvement in MND.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio