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2017

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Articles 28381 - 28410 of 30182

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Global Analysis Of Depletion And Recovery Of Seabed Biota After Bottom Trawling Disturbance, Jan Geert Hiddink, Simon Jennings, Marija Sciberras, Claire L. Szostek, Kathryn M. Hughes, Nick Ellis, Adriaan D. Rijnsdorp, Robert A. Mcconnaughey, Tessa Mazor, Ray Hilborn, Jeremy S. Collie, C. Roland Pitcher, Ricardo O. Amoroso, Ana M. Parma, Petri Surronen, Michel J. Kaiser Jan 2017

Global Analysis Of Depletion And Recovery Of Seabed Biota After Bottom Trawling Disturbance, Jan Geert Hiddink, Simon Jennings, Marija Sciberras, Claire L. Szostek, Kathryn M. Hughes, Nick Ellis, Adriaan D. Rijnsdorp, Robert A. Mcconnaughey, Tessa Mazor, Ray Hilborn, Jeremy S. Collie, C. Roland Pitcher, Ricardo O. Amoroso, Ana M. Parma, Petri Surronen, Michel J. Kaiser

Graduate School of Oceanography Faculty Publications

Bottom trawling is the most widespread human activity affecting seabed habitats. Here, we collate all available data for experimental and comparative studies of trawling impacts on whole communities of seabed macroinvertebrates on sedimentary habitats and develop widely applicable methods to estimate depletion and recovery rates of biota after trawling. Depletion of biota and trawl penetration into the seabed are highly correlated. Otter trawls caused the least depletion, removing 6% of biota per pass and penetrating the seabed on average down to 2.4 cm, whereas hydraulic dredges caused the most depletion, removing 41% of biota and penetrating the seabed on average …

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Numerical Investigation Of The Arctic Ice–Ocean Boundary Layer And Implications For Air–Sea Gas Fluxes, Arash Bigdeli, Brice Loose, An T. Nguyen, Sylvia T. Cole Jan 2017

Numerical Investigation Of The Arctic Ice–Ocean Boundary Layer And Implications For Air–Sea Gas Fluxes, Arash Bigdeli, Brice Loose, An T. Nguyen, Sylvia T. Cole

Graduate School of Oceanography Faculty Publications

In ice-covered regions it is challenging to determine constituent budgets – for heat and momentum, but also for biologically and climatically active gases like carbon dioxide and methane. The harsh environment and relative data scarcity make it difficult to characterize even the physical properties of the ocean surface. Here, we sought to evaluate if numerical model output helps us to better estimate the physical forcing that drives the air–sea gas exchange rate (k) in sea ice zones. We used the budget of radioactive 222Rn in the mixed layer to illustrate the effect that sea ice forcing has …

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The Florence Statement On Triclosan And Triclocarban, Rolf U. Halden, Avery E. Lindeman, Allison E. Aiello, David Andrews, William A. Arnold, Patricia Fair, Rebecca E. Fuoco, Laura A. Geer, Paula I. Johnson, Rainer Lohmann, Kristopher Mcneill, Victoria P. Sacks, Ted Schettler, Roland Weber, R. Thomas Zoeller, Arlene Blum Jan 2017

The Florence Statement On Triclosan And Triclocarban, Rolf U. Halden, Avery E. Lindeman, Allison E. Aiello, David Andrews, William A. Arnold, Patricia Fair, Rebecca E. Fuoco, Laura A. Geer, Paula I. Johnson, Rainer Lohmann, Kristopher Mcneill, Victoria P. Sacks, Ted Schettler, Roland Weber, R. Thomas Zoeller, Arlene Blum

Graduate School of Oceanography Faculty Publications

The Florence Statement on Triclosan and Triclocarban documents a consensus of more than 200 scientists and medical professionals on the hazards of and lack of demonstrated benefit from common uses of triclosan and triclocarban. These chemicals may be used in thousands of personal care and consumer products as well as in building materials. Based on extensive peer-reviewed research, this statement concludes that triclosan and triclocarban are environmentally persistent endocrine disruptors that bioaccumulate in and are toxic to aquatic and other organisms. Evidence of other hazards to humans and ecosystems from triclosan and triclocarban is presented along with recommendations intended to …

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How Well Does Wind Speed Predict Air‐Sea Gas Transfer In The Sea Ice Zone? A Synthesis Of Radon Deficit Profiles In The Upper Water Column Of The Arctic Ocean, Brice Loose, Roger P. Kelly, A. Bigdeli, W. Williams, M. Rutgers Van Der Loeff, S. B. Moran Jan 2017

How Well Does Wind Speed Predict Air‐Sea Gas Transfer In The Sea Ice Zone? A Synthesis Of Radon Deficit Profiles In The Upper Water Column Of The Arctic Ocean, Brice Loose, Roger P. Kelly, A. Bigdeli, W. Williams, M. Rutgers Van Der Loeff, S. B. Moran

Graduate School of Oceanography Faculty Publications

We present 34 profiles of radon‐deficit from the ice‐ocean boundary layer of the Beaufort Sea. Including these 34, there are presently 58 published radon‐deficit estimates of air‐sea gas transfer velocity (k) in the Arctic Ocean; 52 of these estimates were derived from water covered by 10% sea ice or more. The average value of k collected since 2011 is 4.0 ± 1.2 m d−1. This exceeds the quadratic wind speed prediction of weighted kws = 2.85 m d−1 with mean‐weighted wind speed of 6.4 m s−1. We show how ice cover changes …

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A Global Biogeographic Classification Of The Mesopelagic Zone, Tracey T. Sutton, Malcolm R. Clark, Daniel C. Dunn, Patrick N. Halpin, Alex D. Rogers, John Guinotte, Steven J. Bograd, Martin V. Angel, Jose Angel Alvarez Perez, Karen F. Wishner, Richard L. Haedrich, Dhugal J. Lindsay, Jeffrey C. Drazen, Alexander Vereshchaka, Uwe Piatkowski, Telmo Morato, Katarzyna Błachowiak-Samołyk, Bruce H. Robinson, Kristina M. Gjerde, Annelies Pierrot-Bults, Patricio Bernal, Gabriel Reygondeau, Mikko Heino Jan 2017

A Global Biogeographic Classification Of The Mesopelagic Zone, Tracey T. Sutton, Malcolm R. Clark, Daniel C. Dunn, Patrick N. Halpin, Alex D. Rogers, John Guinotte, Steven J. Bograd, Martin V. Angel, Jose Angel Alvarez Perez, Karen F. Wishner, Richard L. Haedrich, Dhugal J. Lindsay, Jeffrey C. Drazen, Alexander Vereshchaka, Uwe Piatkowski, Telmo Morato, Katarzyna Błachowiak-Samołyk, Bruce H. Robinson, Kristina M. Gjerde, Annelies Pierrot-Bults, Patricio Bernal, Gabriel Reygondeau, Mikko Heino

Graduate School of Oceanography Faculty Publications

We have developed a global biogeographic classification of the mesopelagic zone to reflect the regional scales over which the ocean interior varies in terms of biodiversity and function. An integrated approach was necessary, as global gaps in information and variable sampling methods preclude strictly statistical approaches. A panel combining expertise in oceanography, geospatial mapping, and deep-sea biology convened to collate expert opinion on the distributional patterns of pelagic fauna relative to environmental proxies (temperature, salinity, and dissolved oxygen at mesopelagic depths). An iterative Delphi Method integrating additional biological and physical data was used to classify biogeographic ecoregions and to identify …

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Obtaining Phytoplankton Diversity From Ocean Color: A Scientific Roadmap For Future Development, Astrid Bracher, Heather A. Bouman, Robert J.W. Brewin, Annick Bricaud, Vanda Brotas, Aurea M. Ciotti, Lesley Clementson, Emmanuel Devred, Annalisa Di Cicco, Stephanie Dutkiewicz, Nick J. Hardman-Mountford, Anna E. Hickman, Martin Hieronymi, Takafumi Hirata, Svetlana N. Losa, Colleen B. Mouw, Emanuele Organelli, Dionysios E. Raitsos, Julia Uitz, Meike Vogt, Aleksandra Wolanin Jan 2017

Obtaining Phytoplankton Diversity From Ocean Color: A Scientific Roadmap For Future Development, Astrid Bracher, Heather A. Bouman, Robert J.W. Brewin, Annick Bricaud, Vanda Brotas, Aurea M. Ciotti, Lesley Clementson, Emmanuel Devred, Annalisa Di Cicco, Stephanie Dutkiewicz, Nick J. Hardman-Mountford, Anna E. Hickman, Martin Hieronymi, Takafumi Hirata, Svetlana N. Losa, Colleen B. Mouw, Emanuele Organelli, Dionysios E. Raitsos, Julia Uitz, Meike Vogt, Aleksandra Wolanin

Graduate School of Oceanography Faculty Publications

To improve our understanding of the role of phytoplankton for marine ecosystems and global biogeochemical cycles, information on the global distribution of major phytoplankton groups is essential. Although algorithms have been developed to assess phytoplankton diversity from space for over two decades, so far the application of these data sets has been limited. This scientific roadmap identifies user needs, summarizes the current state of the art, and pinpoints major gaps in long-term objectives to deliver space-derived phytoplankton diversity data that meets the user requirements. These major gaps in using ocean color to estimate phytoplankton community structure were identified as: (a) …

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Global Evaluation Of Particulate Organic Carbon Flux Parameterizations And Implications For Atmospheric Pco2, Lucas Gloege, Galen A. Mckinley, Colleen B. Mouw, Audrey B. Ciochetto Jan 2017

Global Evaluation Of Particulate Organic Carbon Flux Parameterizations And Implications For Atmospheric Pco2, Lucas Gloege, Galen A. Mckinley, Colleen B. Mouw, Audrey B. Ciochetto

Graduate School of Oceanography Faculty Publications

The shunt of photosynthetically derived particulate organic carbon (POC) from the euphotic zone and deep remineralization comprises the basic mechanism of the “biological carbon pump.” POC raining through the “twilight zone” (euphotic depth to 1 km) and “midnight zone” (1 km to 4 km) is remineralized back to inorganic form through respiration. Accurately modeling POC flux is critical for understanding the “biological pump” and its impacts on air‐sea CO2 exchange and, ultimately, long‐term ocean carbon sequestration. Yet commonly used parameterizations have not been tested quantitatively against global data sets using identical modeling frameworks. Here we use a single one‐dimensional …

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Quantification Of Rotavirus Diarrheal Risk Due To Hydroclimatic Extremes Over South Asia: Prospects Of Satellite‐Based Observations In Detecting Outbreaks, M. Alfi Hasan, Colleen B. Mouw, Antarpreet Jutla, Ali S. Akanda Jan 2017

Quantification Of Rotavirus Diarrheal Risk Due To Hydroclimatic Extremes Over South Asia: Prospects Of Satellite‐Based Observations In Detecting Outbreaks, M. Alfi Hasan, Colleen B. Mouw, Antarpreet Jutla, Ali S. Akanda

Graduate School of Oceanography Faculty Publications

Rotavirus is the most common cause of diarrheal disease among children under 5. Especially in South Asia, rotavirus remains the leading cause of mortality in children due to diarrhea. As climatic extremes and safe water availability significantly influence diarrheal disease impacts in human populations, hydroclimatic information can be a potential tool for disease preparedness. In this study, we conducted a multivariate temporal and spatial assessment of 34 climate indices calculated from ground and satellite Earth observations to examine the role of temperature and rainfall extremes on the seasonality of rotavirus transmission in Bangladesh. We extracted rainfall data from the Global …

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A Consumer's Guide To Satellite Remote Sensing Of Multiple Phytoplankton Groups In The Global Ocean, Colleen B. Mouw, Nick J. Hardman-Mountford, Séverine Alvain, Astrid Bracher, Robert J.W. Brewin, Annick Bricaud, Aurea M. Ciotti, Emmanuel Devred, Amane Fujiwara, Takafumi Hirata, Toru Hirawake, Tihomir S. Kostadinov, Shovonlal Roy, Julia Uitz Jan 2017

A Consumer's Guide To Satellite Remote Sensing Of Multiple Phytoplankton Groups In The Global Ocean, Colleen B. Mouw, Nick J. Hardman-Mountford, Séverine Alvain, Astrid Bracher, Robert J.W. Brewin, Annick Bricaud, Aurea M. Ciotti, Emmanuel Devred, Amane Fujiwara, Takafumi Hirata, Toru Hirawake, Tihomir S. Kostadinov, Shovonlal Roy, Julia Uitz

Graduate School of Oceanography Faculty Publications

Phytoplankton are composed of diverse taxonomical groups, which are manifested as distinct morphology, size, and pigment composition. These characteristics, modulated by their physiological state, impact their light absorption and scattering, allowing them to be detected with ocean color satellite radiometry. There is a growing volume of literature describing satellite algorithms to retrieve information on phytoplankton composition in the ocean. This synthesis provides a review of current methods and a simplified comparison of approaches. The aim is to provide an easily comprehensible resource for non-algorithm developers, who desire to use these products, thereby raising the level of awareness and use of …

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Satellite Observation Of Particulate Organic Carbon Dynamics On The Louisiana Continental Shelf, Chengfeng Le, John C. Lehrter, Chuanmin Hu, Hugh Macintyre, Marcus W. Beck Jan 2017

Satellite Observation Of Particulate Organic Carbon Dynamics On The Louisiana Continental Shelf, Chengfeng Le, John C. Lehrter, Chuanmin Hu, Hugh Macintyre, Marcus W. Beck

Marine Science Faculty Publications

Particulate organic carbon (POC) plays an important role in coastal carbon cycling and the formation of hypoxia. Yet, coastal POC dynamics are often poorly understood due to a lack of long-term POC observations and the complexity of coastal hydrodynamic and biogeochemical processes that influence POC sources and sinks. Using field observations and satellite ocean color products, we developed a new multiple regression algorithm to estimate POC on the Louisiana Continental Shelf (LCS) from satellite observations. The algorithm had reliable performance with mean relative error (MRE) of ∼40% and root mean square error (RMSE) of ∼50% for MODIS and SeaWiFS images …

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Land Adjacency Effects On Modis Aqua Top-Of-Atmosphere Radiance In The Shortwave Infrared: Statistical Assessment And Correction, Lian Feng, Chuanmin Hu Jan 2017

Land Adjacency Effects On Modis Aqua Top-Of-Atmosphere Radiance In The Shortwave Infrared: Statistical Assessment And Correction, Lian Feng, Chuanmin Hu

Marine Science Faculty Publications

Satellite measurements of coastal or inland waters near land/water interfaces suffer from land adjacency effects (LAEs), particularly in the short-wave infrared (SWIR) wavelengths. Here a statistical method was developed to quantify the LAEs as the ratio of top-of-atmosphere (TOA) total radiance (Lt, W m−2 µm−1 sr−1) between near-shore pixels and LAE-free offshore pixels (>12 pixels away from land). The calculations were conducted using MODIS Aqua images between 2003 and 2012 over the Madagascar Island, with results showing the dependency of LAEs on different environmental and observational factors. The LAEs decrease dramatically with increasing …

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The Italian Enlightenment And The American Revolution: Cesare Beccaria's Forgotten Influence On American Law, John Bessler Jan 2017

The Italian Enlightenment And The American Revolution: Cesare Beccaria's Forgotten Influence On American Law, John Bessler

All Faculty Scholarship

The influence of the Italian Enlightenment—the Illuminismo—on the American Revolution has long been neglected. While historians regularly acknowledge the influence of European thinkers such as William Blackstone, John Locke and Montesquieu, Cesare Beccaria’s contributions to the origins and development of American law have largely been forgotten by twenty-first century Americans. In fact, Beccaria’s book, Dei delitti e delle pene (1764), translated into English as On Crimes and Punishments (1767), significantly shaped the views of American revolutionaries and lawmakers. The first four U.S. Presidents—George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison—were inspired by Beccaria’s treatise and, in some cases, read …

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Solomonic Judgments And The International Court Of Justice, Nienke Grossman Jan 2017

Solomonic Judgments And The International Court Of Justice, Nienke Grossman

All Faculty Scholarship

This chapter, in a forthcoming book on legitimacy and international courts, analyzes the impact of Solomonic or "split the baby" judgments on the normative and sociological legitimacy of the International Court of Justice.

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Reproducing Gender And Race Inequality In The Blawgosphere, Jane C. Murphy, Solangel Maldonado Jan 2017

Reproducing Gender And Race Inequality In The Blawgosphere, Jane C. Murphy, Solangel Maldonado

All Faculty Scholarship

The use of the Internet and other digital media to disseminate scholarship has great potential for expanding the range of voices in legal scholarship. Legal blogging, in particular, with its shorter, more informal form, seems ideal for encouraging commentary from a diverse group of scholars. This Chapter tests this idea by exploring the role of blogging in legal scholarship and the level of participation of women and scholars of color on the most visible academic legal blogs. After noting the predominance of white male scholars as regular contributors on these blogs, we analyze the relative lack of diversity in this …

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Obesity And Dental Caries In Children In Plymouth, Martha Paisi Jan 2017

Obesity And Dental Caries In Children In Plymouth, Martha Paisi

Other Faculty of Health Theses

Background: Obesity and dental caries are two of the most common conditions affecting children and both have significant implications on children’s wellbeing and future health. Even though research into the relationship between the two conditions has been conducted for many years, results to date remain equivocal. Furthermore, the majority of the studies only examined individual-level determinants of the two conditions. Aim: The current work aimed to examine the nature, direction and effect size of the relationship between obesity and caries in children in Plymouth, United Kingdom. It also aimed to better understand the individual and the broader environmental determinants of …

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Controlled And Automatic Processes In Pavlovian-Instrumental Transfer, Tina Seabrooke Jan 2017

Controlled And Automatic Processes In Pavlovian-Instrumental Transfer, Tina Seabrooke

Other Faculty of Health Theses

The current research aimed to further current knowledge on the psychological processes that underpin human outcome-selective Pavlovian-instrumental transfer (PIT) effects. PIT reflects the capacity of a Pavlovian stimulus to selectively potentiate an instrumental response that predicts a common rewarding outcome. PIT effects are often suggested to reflect a relatively automatic S-O-R mechanism, where the stimulus activates the sensory properties of the outcome, which then automatically triggers associated instrumental responses. The current research tested this S-O-R account of PIT against a propositional expected utility theory, which suggests that PIT effects reflect verbalizable inferences about the probability and value of each outcome. …

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The Things You Do: Implicit Person Models Guide Online Action Observation., Kimberley Caroline Schenke Jan 2017

The Things You Do: Implicit Person Models Guide Online Action Observation., Kimberley Caroline Schenke

Other Faculty of Health Theses

Social perception is dynamic and ambiguous. Whilst previous research favoured bottom-up views where observed actions are matched to higher level (or motor) representations, recent accounts suggest top-down processes where prior knowledge guides perception of others’ actions, in a predictive manner. This thesis investigated how person-specific models of others’ typical behaviour in different situations are reactivated when they are re-encountered and predict their actions, using strictly controlled computer-based action identification tasks, event-related potentials (ERPs), as well as recording participants’ actions via motion tracking (using the Microsoft Kinect Sensor). The findings provided evidence that knowledge about seen actor’s typical behaviour is used …

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Presymptomatic Testing For Familial Cancer Syndromes In Young Adults: Considerations, Decision Making And Impact, Lea Godino Jan 2017

Presymptomatic Testing For Familial Cancer Syndromes In Young Adults: Considerations, Decision Making And Impact, Lea Godino

Other Faculty of Health Theses

Background: Presymptomatic genetic testing should always involve a considered choice. Young adults are at a key life stage as they may be developing a career, forming partnerships and potentially becoming parents. Presymptomatic testing may therefore affect the future lives of consultands significantly when testing is undertaken in early adulthood. Aim: To explore presymptomatic testing for hereditary cancer in consultands aged 18-30 years with particular reference to psychosocial impact, the decision-making process and the consequent counselling needs. Methods: A mixed-methods sequential exploratory design was used, comprising a systematic review, a qualitative study and a quantitative study. Results of all phases were …

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Risk Edecisions: Online Behaviour And Decision Making From The Igeneration To The Silver Surfer, Claire May White Jan 2017

Risk Edecisions: Online Behaviour And Decision Making From The Igeneration To The Silver Surfer, Claire May White

Other Faculty of Health Theses

Since the inception of the Internet there has been immense growth in the number of internet users worldwide, and the integration of social media in our daily lives has become commonplace for many. Yet, alongside the many benefits of this global connectivity come numerous risks. Research shows that individuals of all ages are exposed to, and engage in, risky activities online, despite numerous campaigns to highlight the perils of risky online behaviour. Although the rates of victimisation increase year-on-year, surprisingly little is known about the psychological mechanisms underlying online risk-taking. The work in this thesis aimed to address this gap …

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Characterisation Of Pharmacological Mechanisms And Potential Therapeutic Uses Of Fk866, Niketa Ferguson Jan 2017

Characterisation Of Pharmacological Mechanisms And Potential Therapeutic Uses Of Fk866, Niketa Ferguson

Other Faculty of Health Theses

The finding that NAD+ plays a role in a variety of signalling pathways, including gene expression, Ca2+ signalling and DNA repair mechanisms, has sparked interest in the proteins involved in these pathways as potential pharmacological targets for drug development. Recently, FK866, a potent inhibitor of nicotinamide phosphoribosyltransferase (Nampt) an important enzyme in the NAD+ rescue pathway, has been evaluated in clinical trials against cancer. The aim of this study is to further investigate the mechanisms and therapeutic characteristics of FK866 in different cancer cell lines and to determine if decreasing intracellular NAD+ levels can be used as a co-therapy strategy …

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Preparing For Offshore Renewable Energy Development In The Mediterranean, Laura Bray Jan 2017

Preparing For Offshore Renewable Energy Development In The Mediterranean, Laura Bray

Other Faculty of Science and Engineering Theses

The development of offshore wind farms and marine renewable energy devices in the Mediterranean is central to both national, and international, energy strategies for countries bordering the Mediterranean Sea. The ecological impacts of marine renewable energy development in the Mediterranean region, although essential for policy makers, are as yet unknown. The Northern Adriatic is identified as a plausible site for offshore wind farm development. Using the wider region (Adriatic and Northern Ionian) as a case study, this thesis examines the likely impact to the marine environment if an offshore wind farm is established. Site suitability, based on wind speed, bathymetry, …

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Numerical Modelling Of Turbulence And Sediment Concentrations Under Breaking Waves Using Openfoam®, Scott Brown Jan 2017

Numerical Modelling Of Turbulence And Sediment Concentrations Under Breaking Waves Using Openfoam®, Scott Brown

Other Faculty of Science and Engineering Theses

This thesis presents the development of a novel numerical model capable of evaluating suspended sediment dynamics under breaking waves, and is based in the open source Computational Fluid Dynamics software, OpenFOAM®. The hydrodynamics were determined by solving the incompressible, Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes equations for a two-phase fluid using the Finite Volume method, along with a Volume of Fluid scheme that modelled the interface between the air and water phases. A new library of five turbulence models was developed to include weakly compressible effects through the introduction of density variations in the conservation equations. This library was thoroughly evaluated against existing physical …

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Developing An Integrated Strategy For The Assessment Of Hazardous Substances In Kuwait’S Marine Environment, Hanan Ahmad Alsarawi Jan 2017

Developing An Integrated Strategy For The Assessment Of Hazardous Substances In Kuwait’S Marine Environment, Hanan Ahmad Alsarawi

Other Faculty of Science and Engineering Theses

Kuwait is undergoing rapid economic growth involving substantial developments along its coastal shores and the marine environment. Many of the activities in the region are associated with oil industry, which can pollute the shores leading to contamination from oil residues, tar balls and trace metals. About 2 million barrels of oil are spilled annually from routine discharges into the Gulf, which derives mainly from dirty ballast waters and tank washing. The comprehensive literature review of hazardous substances in Kuwait’s marine environment has concluded that for the majority of these pollutants, contamination is localized around industrialised areas, and elsewhere is generally …

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An Investigation Into The Usefulness Of The British Equestrian Federation Futurity Programme, Lauren Brown Jan 2017

An Investigation Into The Usefulness Of The British Equestrian Federation Futurity Programme, Lauren Brown

Other Faculty of Science and Engineering Theses

Sport horse genetic evaluations are used throughout Europe to inform breeding practices. In England specifically, British Equestrian Federation Futurity evaluations are used to assess horse potential and to inform British breeding. Futurity premium scores are allocated to represent performance potential based on horse’s component traits (primarily conformation and locomotion). This study demonstrated that over half (61/106) questionnaire respondents believe that Futurity premium scores influence horse training decisions and monetary value. This is highly relevant to the industry as premium scores can therefore have economic and welfare implications. Therefore horse premiums must be reliable and indicative of future competition performance. Retrospective …

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Unconventional Computing And Music: An Investigation Into Harnessing Physarum Polycephalum, Edward Braund Jan 2017

Unconventional Computing And Music: An Investigation Into Harnessing Physarum Polycephalum, Edward Braund

Other Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Business Theses

This thesis presents an investigation into developing musical systems with an Unconventional Computing substrate. Computer musicians have found it difficult to access the field of Unconventional Computing, which is likely due to its resource-intensive and complex nature. However, ongoing research is establishing the myxomycete Physarum polycephalum as a universally-accessible and versatile biological computing substrate. As such, the organism is a potential gateway for computer musicians to begin experimenting with aspects of Unconventional Computing. Physarum polycephalum, in its vegetative plasmodium form, is an amorphous unicellular organism that can respond with natural parallelism to the environmental conditions that surround it. This thesis …

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Enhancing Civil Military Integration For Strategic Sealift, George Dimitri Pateras Jan 2017

Enhancing Civil Military Integration For Strategic Sealift, George Dimitri Pateras

Other Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Business Theses

Our political and military leaders consider the efficient deployment and maintenance of personnel and hardware to be of equal importance to the task of planning the military operation. However, inasmuch as today’s military budgets are under great financial strain the military needs to rely on the civilian merchant navy for the provision of additional sealift capability. NATO acknowledges that member countries' ability to meet the politically desired levels of strategic sealift could be inadequate. Without a basic knowledge of the workings of the merchant navy, the military transportation desk officer cannot make an informed decision concerning the sealift capabilities required …

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'The Proust Of Painting': Jacques-Émile Blanche, The Neurasthenic Portrait And The Nervous Elite Of Paris 1900, Siobhan Sexton Jan 2017

'The Proust Of Painting': Jacques-Émile Blanche, The Neurasthenic Portrait And The Nervous Elite Of Paris 1900, Siobhan Sexton

Other Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Business Theses

Jacques-Émile Blanche (1861-1942) is rarely included in histories of late nineteenth-century French art, despite his prolific career as an artist who produced over 2,000 paintings. A portraitist, Blanche’s upbringing as the son of an eminent psychiatrist provided him with a wealth of sitters connected to his father’s fashionable clinic and, I argue, a distinctive approach to their representation. These relatively unstudied portraits of famous Parisian intellectuals and socialites deserve our attention as works of ‘psychological impressionism’. Combining penetrating observation with painterly execution, Blanche’s methods emphasised the ‘nervous’ disposition of his sitters. Blanche’s practice as a portraitist is one of the …

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Catch | Bounce: Towards A Relational Ontology Of The Digital In Art Practice, James Charlton Jan 2017

Catch | Bounce: Towards A Relational Ontology Of The Digital In Art Practice, James Charlton

Other Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Business Theses

How might ‘the digital’ be conceived of in an ‘expanded field’ of art practice, where ontology is flattened such that it is not defined by a particular media? This text, together with an installation of art work at the Exhibition Research Lab, Liverpool John Moores University (13-24 March), constitutes the thesis submission as a whole, such that in the practice of ‘reading’ the thesis, each element remains differentiated from the other and makes no attempt to ‘represent’ the other. In negating representation, such practices present a ‘radical’ rethinking of the digital as a differentiated in-itself, one that is not defined …

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An Exploration Of How Agency And Socio-Cultural Milieu Support Greater Or Lesser Controlled Gambling And Recovery From Gambling Addiction, Edward Iain Pyle Jan 2017

An Exploration Of How Agency And Socio-Cultural Milieu Support Greater Or Lesser Controlled Gambling And Recovery From Gambling Addiction, Edward Iain Pyle

Other Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Business Theses

Most gamblers never experience addiction and the majority of those who do eventually recover. This thesis investigates how most maintain control over their gambling and how the majority of those who do experience gambling addiction regain control. Findings are based on 25 qualitative semi-structured interviews with participants who fit one of three ideal-type groups: (i) gamblers who have never experienced addiction; (ii) gamblers who have regained control after experience of gambling addiction; and (iii) gamblers experiencing addiction at time of interview. Participants were recruited who had never engaged in formal treatment because existing research suggests most who experience gambling addiction …

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Detection Theory For Accurate And Non-Invasive Skin Cancer Diagnosis Using Dynamic Thermal Imaging, Sebastian E. Godoy, Majeed M. Hayat, David A. Ramirez, Stephen A. Myers, R. Steven Padilla, Sanjay Krishna Jan 2017

Detection Theory For Accurate And Non-Invasive Skin Cancer Diagnosis Using Dynamic Thermal Imaging, Sebastian E. Godoy, Majeed M. Hayat, David A. Ramirez, Stephen A. Myers, R. Steven Padilla, Sanjay Krishna

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

Skin cancer is the most common cancer in the United States with over 3.5M annual cases. Presently, visual inspection by a dermatologist has good sensitivity (> 90%) but poor specificity (< 10%), especially for melanoma, which leads to a high number of unnecessary biopsies. Here we use dynamic thermal imaging (DTI) to demonstrate a rapid, accurate and non-invasive imaging system for detection of skin cancer. In DTI, the lesion is cooled down and the thermal recovery is recorded using infrared imaging. The thermal recovery curves of the suspected lesions are then utilized in the context of continuous-time detection theory in order to define an optimal statistical decision rule such that the sensitivity of the algorithm is guaranteed to be at a maximum for every prescribed false-alarm probability. The proposed methodology was tested in a pilot study including 140 human subjects demonstrating a sensitivity in excess of 99% for a prescribed specificity in excess of 99% for detection of skin cancer. To the best of our knowledge, this is the highest reported accuracy for any non-invasive skin cancer diagnosis method.

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