An Ontology for Grounding Vague Geographic Terms

Many geographic terms, such as “river” and “lake”, are vague, with no clear boundaries of application. In particular, the spatial extent of such features is often vaguely carved out of a continuously varying observable domain. We present a means of defining vague terms using standpoint semantics, a refinement of the philosophical idea of supervaluation semantics. Such definitions can be grounded in actual data by geometric analysis and segmentation of the data set. The issues raised by this process with regard to the nature of boundaries and domains of logical quantification are discussed. We describe a prototype implementation of a system capable of segmenting attributed polygon data into geographically significant regions and evaluating queries involving vague geographic feature terms

Parental approaches to enhancing young people's online safety

Although there is evidence that young people are tech-savvy with the know-how to keep themselves safe online, this review has demonstrated that the technological generational gap remains large. There are divergent opinions over what constitutes online risks, dangers or threats to young people online. Online environments fostering anonymity, for example, can be perceived as both a risk and benefit to young people. Conversation between young people and adults regarding online safety is imperative to parents understanding cybersafety and young people staying safe online. It remains crucial that research is conducted to explore these questions with adults and young people

I) The Air Ejector. II) Recompression Losses in The Divergent Nozzle

This paper deals with the general characteristics of the air ejector. Except for a few published results on the performance of standard units, information on the subject is very scarce, and the experimental lines followed in the investigation have been arranged to provide a systematic examination of the effect of the various dimensions on the stability and efficiency of operation. Diffuser losses are deduced by analysis from the tests, and the main questions arising in the combining of the operating and induced fluids are discussed. Using a glass-sided diffuser, several aspects of the fluid action are illustrated by the wave formation set up at the nozzle outlet

Critical Evaluation of Euler-Euler and Euler-Lagrangian Modelling Strategies in a 2-D Gas Fluidized Bed

Two-phase granular systems are commonly encountered in industry, and fluidized beds are particularly important due to their excellent heat and mass transfer characteristics. Here, we critically evaluate the differences between two modelling strategies, Euler-Euler and Euler-Lagrangian models. Euler-Euler simulations were performed using MFIX and an in-house code was used for Euler-Lagrangian simulations. A 2D bed of width, height and transverse thickness of respectively, 0.2 m, 0.5 m and 0.01 m, served as a test case. The settled bed height was H0 = 0.2 m. Particles of density ρ = 1000 kg/m³ and diameter dp = 1.2 mm were fluidized with air. The drag-law proposed by Benyahia et al. (10) was used in both models. Comparison between the simulation results was based on both instantaneous and time-averaged properties. A particular focus of this study was the influence of the coefficients of restitution and friction on the simulation results

Fix My Food: Children's Views on Transforming Food Systems

Sustainable food systems are critical to ensuring that all children and adolescents are able to access nutritious, safe, affordable, and sustainable foods. However, current food systems are failing children and adolescents. Globally, two out of three young children do not consume a diet of minimal diversity and three in four adolescents in low-income and middle-income countries do not consume enough fruit and vegetables. At the same time, in the same settings, children and adolescents often have ready access to cheap, nutrient-poor processed and ultra-processed foods. Urgent action to radically transform food systems and deliver on children’s right to good nutrition is needed. UNICEF partnered with the Young and Resilient Research Centre at Western Sydney University to bring the voices of children to the forefront through participatory food systems dialogues in 18 countries around the world. Over 700 children and adolescents aged 10-19 from significantly diverse backgrounds participated in two-and-a-half-hour workshops to share their lived experiences, insights, and perspectives on food systems. The workshops help understand children’s views and perspectives on food systems; the key challenges to attaining nutritious, safe, desirable, and sustainable food; and how children want food systems to change. Additionally, UNICEF conducted U-Report polls involving 22,561 children and youth in 23 countries who reported on their experiences of food systems and food environments. Workshop findings exposed how children are knowledgeable about the importance of food and what it means to them and their communities. They understand how food is produced and how it travels from farm to mouth. They are clear about the main barriers – physical and financial – to nutritious, safe, and sustainable diets and are concerned about the links between current food systems, environmental degradation, and climate change. U-Report data demonstrated that cost and safety of food (32%) followed by taste (25%) were the biggest influence on food choice. During workshop activities children expressed a strong desire to be engaged in dialogue and action to transform their food systems and to address food poverty, food quality, environmental degradation, and climate change. Children voiced two key recommendations to aid food system transformation 1) improve the availability, accessibility and affordability of nutritious foods; and 2) reduce the impact of food systems on environmental degradation and climate change. Children call on political leaders and public/private-sector stakeholders to work across all levels of society to strengthen food systems; from implementing effective regulation of food industries to promoting individual and community behaviour change. Doing so will support people to sustain themselves while also sustaining the environment. Children call on governments and other stakeholders to work with them during this process to create platforms for their ongoing participation in the process of food systems transformation

Late Lessons from Early Warnings: Toward Realism and Precaution with Endocrine-Disrupting Substances

The histories of selected public and environmental hazards, from the first scientifically based early warnings about potential harm to the subsequent precautionary and preventive measures, have been reviewed by the European Environment Agency. This article relates the “late lessons” from these early warnings to the current debates on the application of the precautionary principle to the hazards posed by endocrine-disrupting substances (EDSs). Here, I summarize some of the definitional and interpretative issues that arise. These issues include the contingent nature of knowledge; the definitions of precaution, prevention, risk, uncertainty, and ignorance; the use of differential levels of proof; and the nature and main direction of the methodological and cultural biases within the environmental health sciences. It is argued that scientific methods need to reflect better the realities of multicausality, mixtures, timing of dose, and system dynamics, which characterize the exposures and impacts of EDSs. This improved science could provide a more robust basis for the wider and wise use of the precautionary principle in the assessment and management of the threats posed by EDSs. The evaluation of such scientific evidence requires assessments that also account for multicausal reality. Two of the often used, and sometimes misused, Bradford Hill “criteria,” consistency and temporality, are critically reviewed in light of multicausality, thereby illustrating the need to review all of the criteria in light of 40 years of progress in science and policymaking