Digital Palaeography

This article seeks to explore new digital ways of distinguishing between scribal hands in medieval manuscripts. An analysis of traditional palaeographical approaches to hand identification will be followed by a discussion in which attention will be paid both to the use of computer software to enhance existing methods of scribal identification, and to the benefits of "Quill", an innovative automatic writer identification tool. A case study involving a manuscript of the collected works of Christine de Pizan (London, British Library, Harley 4431) will serve to demonstrate that traditional palaeographical methods of analysing scribal hands can greatly benefit from the use of specialised computer software

Contact-free measurement of heart rate, respiration rate, and body movements during sleep

We describe a noncontact method for the ambulant measurement of basic sleep physiology parameters in humans, particularly for field studies involving sleep research and sleep disturbances. This method traces the body movements, respiration, and heart action of a person at rest or asleep on a bed, using four high-resolution force sensors installed under the bedposts. The recoil movement of the body at each heartbeat, known as the cardioballistic effect, as well as the lifting and lowering of the thorax, while breathing, causes very small shifts of the center of gravity of the bed and the subject. These shifts are reflected in the altering force distributions across the four sensors. Cardiac and respiratory parameters and the subject's movement activity can be calculated from the sensor signals. Neither electrodes nor other kinds of transducers are in direct contact with the subject, which is the main advantage of this technique over conventional methods. Laboratory experiments were carried out to estimate validity and practicability. The method has been found to be adequate, especially for automated and unattended sleep-data collection over long periods of tim

Evaluation of Policy Options to Reform the EU Emissions Trading System - Effects on Carbon Price, Emissions and the Economy

A minimum price for emission allowances offers the best opportunity for the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS) to function as a key policy instrument in reducing CO2 emissions. Such a price floor will create a steady and higher CO2 price, which will stimulate corporations to reduce their CO2 emission and invest in low-carbon technologies. When the price of CO2 is too low, it is often more efficient for companies to buy emission rights rather than to invest in emission reduction

Defining Mob Grazing in the Upper Midwestern United States

Mob grazing has emerged as an increasingly used management strategy on pasture-based farms throughout the country; however, the practice lacks clear definition among practitioners. We conducted a survey of livestock and dairy producers using some form of rotational grazing in the upper midwestern United States (N = 155) to gather producer-generated definitions, perceptions of benefits and disadvantages, and implementation strategies for mob grazing. The results describe a practice defined by variability and associated with compelling impacts. Implementation of mob grazing differed among producers, although most used it as a strategic tool and not a rigid management strategy

Coulomb interaction between a spherical and a deformed nuclei

We present analytic expressions of the Coulomb interaction between a spherical and a deformed nuclei which are valid for all separation distance. We demonstrate their significant deviations from commonly used formulae in the region inside the Coulomb radius, and show that they remove various shortcomings of the conventional formulae.Comment: 7 pages 4 figure

Residential green is associated with reduced annoyance to road traffic and railway noise but increased annoyance to aircraft noise exposure

In recent years, residential green and availability of neighbourhood green spaces came into focus as a potential means to reduce transportation noise annoyance. Literature suggests that various characteristics of residential green may play a role, namely, greenness of the residential areas as quantified by the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), visible vegetation from home, and the presence of public green spaces as identified by land use classification data (LU-green), as well as their accessibility and noise pollution (i.e., transportation noise exposure within green areas, how loud/quiet they are). So far, studies mostly focused on road traffic noise in urban areas.; We investigated the effects of residential green on noise annoyance, accounting for different transportation noise sources as well as for the degree of urbanisation.; We complemented the data set of the recent Swiss SiRENE survey on road traffic, railway and aircraft noise annoyance with a wide range of "green" metrics, and investigated their association with annoyance by means of logistic regression analysis (generalized estimating equations).; Increasing residential green was found to be associated with reduced road traffic and railway noise annoyance, but increased aircraft noise annoyance. The overall effect corresponded to equivalent level reductions of about 6 dB for road traffic and 3 dB for railway noise, but to an increase of about 10 dB for aircraft noise, when residential green increased from "not much green" (5th percentile of the study sample distribution) to "a lot of green" (95th percentile). Overall, NDVI and LU-green were particularly strongly linked to annoyance. The effects of visible vegetation from home and accessibility and/or quietness of green spaces were, overall, less strong, but depended on the degree of urbanisation. For road traffic noise, visible vegetation and accessibility of green spaces seem to particularly strongly reduce annoyance in cities, while quiet green spaces are more effective in rural areas.; Our study emphasizes that residential green should be fostered by city planners, particularly in densely populated areas