Methodologies for the Automatic Location of Academic and Educational Texts on the Internet

Traditionally online databases of web resources have been compiled by a human editor, or though the submissions of authors or interested parties. Considerable resources are needed to maintain a constant level of input and relevance in the face of increasing material quantity and quality, and much of what is in databases is of an ephemeral nature. These pressures dictate that many databases stagnate after an initial period of enthusiastic data entry. The solution to this problem would seem to be the automatic harvesting of resources, however, this process necessitates the automatic classification of resources as ‘appropriate’ to a given database, a problem only solved by complex text content analysis. This paper outlines the component methodologies necessary to construct such an automated harvesting system, including a number of novel approaches. In particular this paper looks at the specific problems of automatically identifying academic research work and Higher Education pedagogic materials. Where appropriate, experimental data is presented from searches in the field of Geography as well as the Earth and Environmental Sciences. In addition, appropriate software is reviewed where it exists, and future directions are outlined

Methodologies for the Automatic Location of Academic and Educational Texts on the Internet

Traditionally online databases of web resources have been compiled by a human editor, or though the submissions of authors or interested parties. Considerable resources are needed to maintain a constant level of input and relevance in the face of increasing material quantity and quality, and much of what is in databases is of an ephemeral nature. These pressures dictate that many databases stagnate after an initial period of enthusiastic data entry. The solution to this problem would seem to be the automatic harvesting of resources, however, this process necessitates the automatic classification of resources as ‘appropriate’ to a given database, a problem only solved by complex text content analysis. This paper outlines the component methodologies necessary to construct such an automated harvesting system, including a number of novel approaches. In particular this paper looks at the specific problems of automatically identifying academic research work and Higher Education pedagogic materials. Where appropriate, experimental data is presented from searches in the field of Geography as well as the Earth and Environmental Sciences. In addition, appropriate software is reviewed where it exists, and future directions are outlined

Investigating the stability of frequency-dependent locally reacting surface boundary conditions in numerical acoustic models

Numerical acoustic modeling enables simulation of sound propagation through bounded space. Recent research directed to refining Finite Difference Time Domain solutions for acoustic prediction has focused on emulating sound wave-surface interaction. Locally reacting surface properties are a popular choice for deriving boundary conditions that incorporate surface absorption properties. However, implementation of these boundary conditions, using the methods described in prevalent literature, is demonstrated here as unstable for complex room geometries. This work presents a reformulated implementation of frequency-dependent locally reacting surface boundary conditions for Finite Difference Time Domain simulations that is empirically demonstrated to be robust against simulation instabilities

Identifying acne treatment uncertainties via a James Lind Alliance Priority Setting Partnership

Objectives: The Acne Priority Setting Partnership (PSP) was set up to identify and rank treatment uncertainties by bringing together people with acne, and professionals providing care within and beyond the National Health Service (NHS). Setting: The UK with international participation. Participants: Teenagers and adults with acne, parents, partners, nurses, clinicians, pharmacists, private practitioners. Methods: Treatment uncertainties were collected via separate online harvesting surveys, embedded within the PSP website, for patients and professionals. A wide variety of approaches were used to promote the surveys to stakeholder groups with a particular emphasis on teenagers and young adults. Survey submissions were collated using keywords and verified as uncertainties by appraising existing evidence. The 30 most popular themes were ranked via weighted scores from an online vote. At a priority setting workshop, patients and professionals discussed the 18 highest-scoring questions from the vote, and reached consensus on the top 10. Results: In the harvesting survey, 2310 people, including 652 professionals and 1456 patients (58% aged 24 y or younger), made submissions containing at least one research question. After checking for relevance and rephrasing, a total of 6255 questions were collated into themes. Valid votes ranking the 30 most common themes were obtained from 2807 participants. The top 10 uncertainties prioritised at the workshop were largely focused on management strategies, optimum use of common prescription medications and the role of nondrug based interventions. More female than male patients took part in the harvesting surveys and vote. A wider range of uncertainties were provided by patients compared to professionals. Conclusions: Engaging teenagers and young adults in priority setting is achievable using a variety of promotional methods. The top 10 uncertainties reveal an extensive knowledge gap about widely used interventions and the relative merits of drug versus non-drug based treatments in acne management

Hand and foot pressures in the aye-aye (Daubentonia madagascariensis) reveal novel biomechanical trade-offs required for walking on gracile digits

Arboreal animals with prehensile hands must balance the complex demands of bone strength, grasping and manipulation. An informative example of this problem is that of the aye-aye (Daubentonia madagascariensis), a rare lemuriform primate that is unusual in having exceptionally long, gracile fingers specialized for foraging. In addition, they are among the largest primates to engage in head-first descent on arboreal supports, a posture that should increase loads on their gracile digits. We test the hypothesis that aye-ayes will reduce pressure on their digits during locomotion by curling their fingers off the substrate. This hypothesis was tested using simultaneous videographic and pressure analysis of the hand, foot and digits for five adult aye-ayes during horizontal locomotion and during ascent and descent on a 30 degrees instrumented runway. Aye-ayes consistently curled their fingers during locomotion on all slopes. When the digits were in contact with the substrate, pressures were negligible and significantly less than those experienced by the palm or pedal digits. In addition, aye-ayes lifted their hands vertically off the substrate instead of 'toeing-off' and descended head-first at significantly slower speeds than on other slopes. Pressure on the hand increased during head-first descent relative to horizontal locomotion but not as much as the pressure increased on the foot during ascent. This distribution of pressure suggests that aye-ayes shift their weight posteriorly during head-first descent to reduce loads on their gracile fingers. This research demonstrates several novel biomechanical trade-offs to deal with complex functional demands on the mammalian skeleton

Biomechanical evolution of solid bones in large animals: a microanatomical investigation

International audienc

Tending

your words Abstract. Tending, a Masters of Fine Art Exhibition, is a exhibition that highlights the importance of trees and plants in the art and craft of my everyday life. The manifestation of this idea became an installation of a sculptural landscape that evoked in the audience a sense of awe and confusion, followed by clarity, and tranquility. The exhibition is comprised of sod-grass, bamboo, plants in pots, bonsai trees, a repurposed compressor tank, a shoddily put together table and a stucco alcove. The intention for this show is to reconnect with nature through the growing and nurturing of plants and trees. In expressing my passion for growing these plants, I hope to communicate to my audience the importance of nurturing the relationship we have with nature and the significance of self-reflection in art and in life

Editor’s Note

In honor of our twenty-fifth anniversary, we have assembled this special Anniversary Issue to chronicle the Journal’s evolving zeitgeist. The first essay in this Issue, written by our co-founder Caroline Fredrickson, recounts the Journal’s aspirational beginnings and the ever-changing role of women in the law, and urges us to remember how much work we still must do to achieve gender justice. The second essay, by Professor Patricia Williams, considers emerging medical technologies and the difficult questions and deep concerns they pose for gender norms, reproductive practices, and bodily autonomy. Finally, this Issue showcases three papers and an accompanying introductory piece arising out of a panel on abortion and travel. The papers highlight a critical gender issue facing this generation on a global scale—the literal lengths to which women often must go in order to vindicate critical reproductive rights. These papers are authored by Joanna N. Erdman, Yasmine Ergas, and Madeline M. Gomez, and are introduced by the panel organizers, Lisa Kelly and Nicole Tuszynski. A heartfelt thank you to all the CJGL staffers, editors, authors, and readers—past and present—who have made the Journal such a success over the past quarter century. You have made this world a wiser and more just place. Here’s to the next twenty-five years and beyond! Sincerely, Andrea M. KozakEditor-in-Chief, 2016–2017Columbia Journal of Gender and La

A comparison of the characteristics of gardeners, their motivations for gardening and management practices of Blackacre Community Garden and Limerick Community Garden in Jefferson County, Kentucky.

Using four surveys, two created by this researcher, another created by Walizcek, Mattson, and Zajicek, and a fourth created by Herbach, the researcher compared the characteristics of community gardeners, their motivations for gardening, and the management practices of the inner-city Limerick Community Garden and the suburban Blackacre Community Garden in Jefferson County, Kentucky. 33 Blackacre gardeners, 16 Limerick gardeners, two garden managers, and two garden administrators participated in the study. The researcher hypothesized that the location of the garden could be influential in determining who the gardeners are and what their motivations for gardening are. The inner-city garden was expected to have a more diverse gardener population than the suburban garden based on census tract data for the two garden locations. In addition, the researcher expected to find marked differences in management of the two gardens based on their location and the fact that one was administered through the city government and the other through the county government. Results indicated that the gardeners who participated in the study are more similar than different. The majority of the gardeners surveyed are white, over age 61, have more than 15 years of gardening experience, and work between one and three days a week in the garden for one to five hours. Additionally, the majority of the gardeners surveyed grow vegetables only and use their food for familial purposes of canning or freezing, giving to family and friends, and feeding their family. Results indicated that the community gardens provide a number of quality-of-life benefits to the gardeners. Physiological aspects of gardening, such as working in the soil, working outside, enjoying the garden colors and smells, and needing the physical exercise, were rated slightly more important for Limerick gardeners than Blackacre gardeners. Social aspects of gardening were rated slightly more important for Blackacre gardeners than Limerick gardeners. Safety in the garden was a more important issue for the inner-city Limerick gardeners than the Blackacre gardeners. Self-esteem aspects of gardening, such as being able to produce one\u27s own food, being proud of one\u27s garden, and being able to create something of beauty, were rated more important for the Limerick gardeners than Blackacre gardeners for both the mean and mode. Gardening for food security was not important for the majority of gardeners surveyed. Gaining a feeling of peace from the garden was important for both Blackacre and Limerick gardeners. Teaching one\u27s children and family to garden received significantly lower ratings than the physiological, safety, social, and esteem categories. It was considered only somewhat important by both Blackacre and Limerick gardeners. Results indicated that the city community gardening program is more of a grass-roots effort, with responsibilities for starting and maintaining gardens coming from the city residents, compared with the county community gardening program, which is more of top-down approach, with responsibilities for starting and managing gardens coming from the county. The two community gardening programs provide similar resources (for example, water, mulch, tilling) to the gardeners, have similar rules and regulations which gardeners must agree to, and fulfill a number of planning-like functions. Results indicated that the land use policies of the two community gardening programs do not provide community garden security

Craniodental variation among Macaques (Macaca), nonhuman primates

BACKGROUND: In terms of structure and function, the skull is one of the most complicated organs in the body. It is also one of the most important parts in terms of developmental and evolutionary origins. This complexity makes it difficult to obtain evolutionary assessments if, as is usually the case with fossils, only part of the skull is available. For this reason this study involves a set of comparisons whereby the smallest functional units are studied first, and these built up, through a triple-nested hierarchical design, into more complex anatomical regions and eventually into the skull-as-a-whole. This design has been applied to macaques (Macaca) in order to reveal patterns of variation at the different levels. The profiles of such variation have been obtained both within and between species. This has lead to a search for the skull parts that have undergone similar selection pressures during evolution and comparable development patterns in both ontogeny and phylogeny. RESULTS: Morphometric analysis (Principal Components) was used to obtain these profiles of species and sex separations based on 77 cranial variables from 11 species of macaques. The results showed that 7 functional units could be aggregated into three functionally reasonable anatomical regions on the basis of similarities in profiles. These were: the masticatory apparatus containing mandible, lower teeth and upper teeth, the face as a whole combining maxilla (actually lower face) and upper face, and the cranium as a whole involving cranium and calvaria. Twenty-six variables were finally selected for analyzing the morphology of the whole skull. This last showed an overall profile similar to that revealed in the masticatory apparatus but also contained additional information pertaining to individual species and species-groups separations. CONCLUSIONS: The study provides a model for carrying out analysis of species separations and sex variation simultaneously. Through this design it seems possible to see cranio-dental elements that may result from similar developmental processes, have similar functional adaptations, and show an appropriately integrated structure morphologically. This study also implies that the biological information drawn from part of skull alone, e.g. as in studies of incomplete fossils may provide misleading information