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Basic Statistics: A Primer for the Biomedical Sciences, 4th Edition
In the last decade, there have been significant changes in the way statistics is incorporated into biostatistical, medical, and public health research. Addressing the need for a modernized treatment of these statistical applications, Basic Statistics, Fourth Edition presents relevant, up-to-date coverage of research methodology using careful explanations of basic statistics and how they are used to address practical problems that arise in the medical and public health settings. Through concise and easy-to-follow presentations, readers will learn to interpret and examine data by applying common statistical tools, such as sampling, random assignment, and survival analysis.
Continuing the tradition of its predecessor, this new edition outlines a thorough discussion of different kinds of studies and guides readers through the important, related decision-making processes such as determining what information is needed and planning the collections process. The book equips readers with the knowledge to carry out these practices by explaining the various types of studies that are commonly conducted in the fields of medical and public health, and how the level of evidence varies depending on the area of research. Data screening and data entry into statistical programs is explained and accompanied by illustrations of statistical analyses and graphs. Additional features of the Fourth Edition include:
- A new chapter on data collection that outlines the initial steps in planning biomedical and public health studies
- A new chapter on nonparametric statistics that includes a discussion and application of the Sign test, the Wilcoxon Signed Rank test, and the Wilcoxon Rank Sum test and its relationship to the Mann-Whitney U test
- An updated introduction to survival analysis that includes the Kaplan Meier method for graphing the survival function and a brief introduction to tests for comparing survival functions
- Incorporation of modern statistical software, such as SAS, Stata, SPSS, and Minitab into the presented discussion of data analysis
- Updated references at the end of each chapter
Basic Statistics, Fourth Edition is an ideal book for courses on biostatistics, medicine, and public health at the upper-undergraduate and graduate levels. It is also appropriate as a reference for researchers and practitioners who would like to refresh their fundamental understanding of statistical techniques.
1 Initial Steps.
1.1 Reasons for Studying Biostatistics.
1.2 Initial Steps in Designing a Biomedical Study.
1.3 Common Types of Biomedical Studies.
2 Populations and Samples.
2.1 Basic Concepts.
2.2 Definitions of Types of Samples.
2.3 Methods of Selecting Simple Random Samples.
2.4 Application of Sampling Methods in Biomedical Studies.
3 Collecting and Entering Data.
3.1 Initial Steps.
3.2 Data Entry.
3.3 Screening the Data.
3.4 Code Book.
4 Frequency Tables and Their Graphs.
4.1 Numerical Methods of Organizing Data.
5 Measures of Location and Variability.
5.1 Measures of Location.
5.2 Measures of Variability.
5.3 Sampling Properties of the Mean and Variance.
5.4 Considerations in Selecting Appropriate Statistics.
5.5 A Common Graphical Method for Displaying Statistics.
6 The Normal Distribution.
6.1 Properties of the Normal Distribution.
6.2 Areas Under the Normal Curve.
6.3 Importance of the Normal Distribution.
6.4 Examining Data for Normality.
7 Estimation of Population Means: Confidence Intervals.
7.1 Confidence Intervals.
7.2 Sample Size Needed for a Desired Confidence Interval.
7.3 The t Distribution.
7.4 Confidence Interval for the Mean, Using the t Distribution.
7.5 Estimating the Difference Between Two Means: Unpaired Data.
7.6 Estimating the Difference Between Two Means: Paired Comparison.
8 Tests of Hypotheses on Population Means.
8.1 Tests of Hypotheses for a Single Mean.
8.2 Tests for Equality of two Means: Unpaired Data.
8.3 Testing for Equality of Means: Paired Data.
8.4 Concepts Used in Statistical Testing.
8.5 Sample Size.
8.6 Confidence Intervals Versus Tests.
8.7 Correcting for Multiple Testing.
8.8 Reporting the Results.
9 Variances: Estimation and Tests.
9.1 Point Estimates for Variances and Standard Deviations.
9.2 Testing Whether Two Variances Are Equal: F Test.
9.3 Approximate t Test.
9.4 Other Tests.
10 Categorical Data: Proportions.
10.1 Single Population Proportion.
10.2 Samples from Categorical Data.
10.3 The Normal Approximation to the Binomial.
10.4 Confidence Intervals for a Single Population Proportion.
10.5 Confidence Intervals for the Difference in Two Proportions.
10.6 Tests of Hypothesis for Population Proportions.
10.7 Sample Size for Testing Two Proportions.
10.8 Data Entry and Analysis Using Statistical Programs.
11 Categorical Data: Analysis of Two-Way Frequency Tables.
11.1 Different Types of Tables.
11.2 Relative Risk and Odds Ratio.
11.3 Chi-Square Tests for Frequency Tables: two-by-two Tables.
11.4 Chi-Square Tests for Larger Tables.
12 Regression and Correlation.
12.1 The Scatter Diagram: Single Sample.
12.2 Linear Regression: Single Sample.
12.3 The Correlation Coefficient for two Variables from a Single Sample.
12.4 Linear Regression Assuming the Fixed-X Model.
12.5 Other Topics in Linear Regression.
13 Nonparametric Statistics.
13.1 The Sign Test.
13.2 The Wilcoxon Signed Rank Test.
13.3 The Wilcoxon-Mann-Whitney Test.
13.4 Spearman's Rank Correlation.
14 Introduction to Survival Analysis.
14.1 Survival Analysis Data.
14.2 Survival Functions.
14.3 Computing Estimates of f(t), S(t), and h(t).
14.4 Comparison of Clinical Life Tables and the Kaplan-Meier Method.
14.5 Additional Analyses Using Survival Data.
Appendix A: Statistical Tables.
Appendix B: Answers to Selected Problems.
Appendix C: Computer Statistical Program Resources.
C.1 Computer Systems for Biomedical Education and Research.
C.2 A Brief Indication of Statistics Computer Program Advances and Some Relevant Publications Since 2000.
C.3 Choices of Computer Statistical Software.
- Describes major types of biomedical studies and how to design them
- Presents the samples used in different types of biomedical studies
- Emphasizes the use of confidence intervals in data analysis
- Substantiates with examples some of the major statistical theorems
- Offers a new introduction to survival analysis, including
life tables; data collection; nonparametric tests; and multiple regression
- Discusses using statistical computer programs (such as SAS, Stata, Minitab, and R) in data analysis
- Adds new graphs, figures, problem sets, and bibliographic references
"The book is ideal for courses on biostatistics, medicine, and public health at the upper-undergraduate and graduate levels. It is also appropriate as a reference for researchers and practitioners who would like to refresh their fundamental understanding of statistical techniques." (Zentralblatt MATH, 1 August 2013)"This fourth edition has retained all the appeal of its predecessors." (Journal of Tropical pediatrics, 1 March 2011)


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Observing how future primary school teachers reason and generalize: the case of number triangles and Concept Cartoons
(Vydavatel'stvo Spektrum STU, 2017)
The contribution focuses on the possibility to use an educational tool called Concept Cartoons as a diagnostic instrument in problem solving and problem posing activities of future primary school teachers. The aim of the...

source: openbmb/Ultra-FineWeb


Concise Summary and Critical Analysis of Jose Rizal's Noli Me Tangere: Chapter Thirty-four
A complete analysis and study guide of Chapter 34: The Dinner (Ang Pananghalian)
Ibarra returns to the schoolhouse. He and the mayor are seated on either side of the long table at dinner. Also in attendance are Captain Tiago, the alferez, and the town captain. Captain Tiago receives a telegram, informing him that the captain general will be visiting his house. Tiago excuses himself right away.
The guests observe that Friar Damaso is not in attendance. Talk eventually centers on the priest's sermon during the mass. Only Friar Salvi remains silent and motionless in his seat. When Damaso finally arrives, the dinner is just about finished. The priest starts declaring insults with the intention of enraging and provoking Ibarra, but the youth remains prudent the entire time. However, when Damaso starts mocking the name of Don Rafael, Ibarra loses his composure and lunges at the priest, holding a knife to his throat. Maria Clara stops Ibarra before he could do further harm to the friar, causing the youth to drop the knife and leave the room in haste.
Points of Note:
The captain general is liberal, and based on the way Rizal introduces him in this chapter, it can be said that he is an honorable man.
Frequently Asked Questions:
Question: Why does the captain general choose to stay in Captain Tiago's house?
Answer: This will be discussed in the next chapter.
Question: Did Ibarra intentionally neglect to invite Friar Damaso to dinner?
Answer: Yes, it was intentional. Ibarra was avoiding the priest.
Question: Although he is not invited, why does Friar Damaso show up at the dinner?
Answer: This is further proof of the disrespectful character of the priest. He feels that there is nothing he cannot do, or that anyone can stop him from doing.
Question: What can be said about the fact that of the many people in attendance that night, it was only Maria Clara who succeeded to stop the vengeful hand of Ibarra from harming the priest?
Answer: This is proof that Maria Clara, contrary to others' perception of her as shy and timid, is strong-willed and possesses great strength of mind and heart.
Return to Index
To find comprehensive chapter summaries of Noli Me Tangere, as well as other study resources for Rizal, click here.
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Health care workers face growing dangers, says ICRC | Environment| All topics from climate change to conservation | DW | 10.08.2011
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Health care workers face growing dangers, says ICRC
From Colombia to Libya, doctors and other health care professionals are confronted with violence that makes doing their jobs risky, if not impossible. A new Red Cross report says the situation is getting worse.
A health worker cares for children at an ICRC mobile clinic
Ongoing conflicts keep medical workers from treating people
Attacks on health care workers are increasing in conflict zones around the world, according to a report published Wednesday by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).
The report, which surveyed 16 countries and took more than two years to research, warned that the very foundations of the Geneva Conventions - the right of those wounded in war to receive medical attention, and the right of those treating them to work unimpeded - are under threat.
The report cited several examples as evidence that attacks on health care workers are increasing, from the murder of medical students in Somalia, to the invasion of an Afghan hospital by militia groups, to the shelling of hospitals in Sri Lanka. All of these incidents took place in 2009.
One year later the picture was, if anything, even bleaker, with doctors in Libya attacked, and ambulances fired upon. In Bahrain, patients were reportedly snatched from their beds, and hospital staff intimidated.
The ICRC said the violence is driving thousands of medical professionals from their jobs, and putting millions of lives at risk.
"The most shocking revelation is that people die in large numbers - not because they are direct victims of a roadside bomb or a shooting, but because the ambulance does not get there in time, because health care workers are prevented from doing their work, or because hospitals themselves are targets of attacks," said Dr. Robin Coupland, who conducted the study.
The ICRC described the situation as one of the most serious, but also the most overlooked, humanitarian challenges of today.
Attacks and intimidation
The ICRC symbol on a flag in Caguan
A new ICRC report illustrated the dangers medical workers face
The report pointed to the health care situation in Colombia, where conflict between government forces and rebel groups is now in its fifth decade.
Attacks on and intimidation of medical professionals along Colombia's Caguan River, a region long fought over by all sides, has meant that local communities there have had no regular access to health care for years.
Four years ago, local doctor Alexander Reyes got a first-hand lesson in what can happen to medical teams that attempt to enter the region.
"When we arrived at Puerto Camelias, we saw the patients, but at the end of the day, a group appeared - all armed - and said we had no permission to be there," he said.
Reyes said they stopped his team from leaving and took their luggage, personal belongings, identity papers and medical equipment. He said he and his colleagues were worried that they might be held for a long time.
"We were scared, not of death actually, but that they would keep us, take us into the jungle," Reyes said. "I was afraid I would spend years without being able to see my family."
Like other Colombian health workers, Reyes has never been back down the 600-kilometer (373 mile) river, a region that is home to thousands of people. The medical professionals care about residents there, but they said they believe they are risking their lives by offering medical care in the area.
Filling the gap
The ICRC has sent medical teams down the Caguán River
The Caguan River in Colombia has been a conflict zone for years
In the absence of any national health care workers, the ICRC has begun sending medical teams down the Caguan.
"We try to go once every four months with a team of two doctors, nurses and a dentist," ICRC delegate Abdi Ismail said. "But this is a conflict area, and our access is dependant on the approval of the armed groups here."
To get that approval, the ICRC has to negotiate with both the Colombian army and the FARC rebels. It is a long and painstaking process, and each trip risks being canceled if either side raises an objection.
When approval is finally granted, the long boat journey down the river begins - and the dereliction of the region becomes clear. Along the riverbank people are seen waiting and some, like 17-year-old Juan, cry out for help.
He sliced open his foot on an old oil can. The two huge cuts require 30 stitches, and he will be unable to walk for some time. But he was fortunate that the accident happened the same day the ICRC team was in his area.
Makeshift clinics
An ICRC boat on the Caguán River
The ICRC has to get approval to begin its mission on the Caguán River
In villages along the Caguan, the ICRC team set up makeshift clinics in abandoned buildings - most with no running water or electricity. Hundreds of people stand in line. Some have walked for hours through the jungle for treatment.
Many are suffering from conditions that, with proper access to health care, should be easily treatable but can be life-threatening without proper medical attention.
A seven-month-old baby was brought in with pneumonia. Her parents said she had been unwell for 15 days. By the time the ICRC doctors see her, she is seriously ill.
"I really worry a lot about the people here," Dr. Francisco Ortiz said. "It's so difficult for them to see a doctor; they only see one when we come. And so many of them have conditions which are preventable, or which we could treat if we saw them in time."
Another example is Mercedes, a mother of four children. The last time the Red Cross team visited, she was given a routine test for cervical cancer. Now, months later, she is told it is positive.
The ICRC offers her money for the long boat trip up the river so can get the hospital treatment she urgently needs, but time is of the essence.
No access
An ICRC medical worker in Colombia
ICRC doctors in Colombia treat patients who haven't had access to medical care
"Frankly the communities in this part of the Caguan are living in a desperate situation," Ismail said. "They do not have access to a doctor, to a nurse. They do not have access to medications, and the smallest hazard, the smallest risk could actually become a big thing, medically speaking."
Ismail said people have told him they feel as if they have no right to get sick, because they have no access to health services - but they've tried to stay strong.
"People are still living here, and still smiling at you, and offering you a cup of tea when you visit them," Ismail said.
When the Red Cross boat leaves again, residents know they will be unable to see a doctor for many months. Until then, anyone who is ill will simply have to wait, and hope that all those fighting in the region will allow medical professionals to do their work.
Author: Imogen Foulkes
Editor: Anke Rasper
DW recommends
WWW links


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It sounds like science fiction, but the possibility of protecting buildings and other structures from damaging earthquakes via "invisibility cloaks" could be very real. The idea is to surround the structure with a series of rubber cylinders that act as a barrier or cloak against seismic waves.
In a paper published last week, a team from the University of Manchester's School of Mathematics suggested specially treated rubber cylinders of synthetic metamateral, could be placed in the ground surrounding critical structures. This material would absorb and convert the seismic waves into different kinds of waves that would then dissipate quickly before crippling a building.
The cloaking effect is similar to the techniques used to make objects invisible by scattering the waves of light around them. In practice, the building isn't exactly invisible, but is protected by the barrier that absorbs the seismic waves and converts them into sound and heat energy.
According to a statement, professor William Parnell noted, "Five or six years ago scientists started with light waves, and in the last few years we have started to consider other wave-types, most importantly perhaps sound and elastic waves. The real problem with the latter is that it is normally impossible to use naturally available materials as cloaks We showed theoretically that pre-stressing a naturally available material — rubber — leads to a cloaking effect from a specific type of elastic wave."
Fortunately rubber is fairly readily available, though it doesn't appear that entire cities or towns could be protected by a giant cloak. At least not yet. The team suggests that the technology would be best used for isolated or strategically important buildings — it's not clear whether this is because it is not cost effective or whether the technology isn't as successful on a large scale.
Should the theory be put into practice knowing that critical buildings such as dams, or nuclear and power plants could be protected should give people a marginal sigh of relief.
With these kinds of structures, a miss is as good as a mile.

source: HuggingFaceFW/fineweb-edu


text:
More musings from my fevered brain!
I remembered a discussion on Hyperlipid about FIRKO mice.
Note: FIRKO stands for Fat Insulin Receptor Knock Out and it results in White Adipose Tissue (WAT) having vastly reduced uptake of nutrients, thus inhibiting gain of WAT. Brown Adipose Tissue (BAT) has up-regulated uncoupling proteins i.e. BAT produces more heat.
What was also interesting was that, in a study where mice's VMH (VentroMedial Hypothalamus) was also deliberately damaged, mice ate more food but didn't gain any weight. What? The Energy Balance Equation doesn't apply?
Mice weigh very little (~30g), so they can't burn off significant amounts of energy through exercise the way that humans can. So, how on Earth can mice eat more without gaining any weight?
Peter Dobromylskyj gave me the answer. As a veterinary surgeon, he works on rodents so he knows about this. Rodents under anaesthesia easily get hypothermia. The penny dropped! Mice have a very high surface area:mass ratio (see the above graph) compared to adult humans. As heat is lost through the skin, small animals like mice are at a disadvantage when it comes to heat conservation. They have behaviours for conserving heat e.g. covering themselves in bedding (which reduces heat loss) or huddling together in groups (which reduces surface area:mass ratio). Anaesthesia prevents these behaviours.
Any excess energy intake that cannot be stored due to FIRKOisation is disposed of by increased heat production in BAT and increased heat loss by reduced heat conservation behaviour. Simples!
Most adult humans have little BAT, so are unable to perform the same trick. You could try sitting in a bath of cold water. ;-p That would make me really cold and hungry (and wet!), so I would eat ravenously afterwards. But that's me. Your Mileage May Vary.


text:
Write down a unit vector in XYplane, making an angle of 30∘ in anticlockwise direction with the positive direction of X-axis.
Let OP make 30∘ with X-aixs, 60∘ with Y-axis and 90∘ with Z-axis and it lies in XY-plane.
∴ Direction cosines of OP are cos 30∘, cos 60∘ and co 90∘ i.e.,√2,12,0. Thus,OP is √2 ^i+12 ^j,
which is required unit vector in XY-plane.


really meant to say:
"Hey, you know today I went to the basement because I was looking for a some sugared almonds that my uncle had given me. I really felt like eating those and I wanted to check if they were still there and I was disappointed because I didn't find them."
So remember: Words are unreliable. When you hear an Italian native speaker repeatedly using an English word in a strange or incorrect way, it's likely because of a false cognate. Use this knowledge to bridge understanding and further enrich your own vocabulary.
5) Prepositions
Prepositions are a tough nut to crack in any language. English has quite a lot of them, and often two prepositions share similar roles. Italian prepositions are no exception here either, and whether you're learning English or Italian for the first time, ironing out the idiosyncrasies can often lead to mistakes.
For example, Italian learners of English have lots of difficulty with the preposition "by, which is often used in passive constructions, and generally corresponds to "da" in Italian.
This pie was made by me.
Questa torta è stata fatta da me
That is, of course, until it doesn't:
It depends by the situation
It depends on the situation
Prepositions are fickle in this way, as they attempt to relate two words together in ways that are sometimes completely arbitrary (across languages), particularly when we're not talking about the spatial relationships between objects.
Take, for example, the sentence:
She spends a lot of money on shoes.
If you're a native English speaker, you probably didn't waste your time thinking that money was literally on top of the shoes, right?
Mentally, you just know that:
a. She spends a lot of money
b. This money is used to purchase shoes.
So really, "on" in a physical sense has nothing to do with it. If you ask an Italian who is learning English to translate the same sentence as above, you'll likely get this:
Spende un sacco di soldi in scarpe
It's nearly a word-for-word translation, but instead of "on", we now have "in".
And technically, the preposition still has no physical meaning in the sentence, as no money is going into the shoes, either.
So, in short, when listening to Italian speakers speak English, take mental note of when they consistently use the "wrong prepositions." More often than not, they're directly translating the preposition that would be used in the Italian version of whatever they're saying, but not accounting for the fact that prepositions are nearly always unreliable in translation.
Using this knowledge, you should be able to figure out which Italian prepositions you need to use when saying those equivalent phrases in Italian.
So when you hear an Italian saying:
I have been learning English since two months
instead of the proper:
I have been learning English for two months
You'll be able to infer that, all things being equal, the Italian version of the same sentence would likely be:
Imparo l'inglese da due mesi
and not the Italian equivalent of "for," namely "per"
By observing Italian speakers' errors in English prepositions, and re-translating them back into an Italian context, you can reveal important details about the languages that will help you better use prepositions when you speak Italian.
Now you've seen a brief roundup of several common errors and misunderstandings that Italian native speakers often make when speaking English.
Since you're aware at this point that many of the most common errors in foreign language use come from the attempt to transfer words, sentences, and sentence structures from our native language to the new one, you can now use the above mistakes to "reverse-engineer" the internal mechanics of native Italian's thought processes, in order to think more like Italians, when actually speaking Italian.
So, despite the inevitable nature of errors, and the fact that we're all bound to commit them, you now have a way to learn not only from your own errors in speaking Italian, but in the errors of Italians when speaking English.
We've turned what is generally perceived as a negative part of the learning process into something that can be of benefit to everyone.
Now, of course, you might be asking me:
"Okay, Luca, I now know what I have to do to learn from the mistakes of others, but how do I make fewer Italian errors myself?
Where can I find explanations of key differences between Italian and English, so I don't try to unwittingly impose English words and structures onto Italian?"
Well, you're in luck. Below, I've included a list of the common errors and "false friends" between Italian and English.
One last thing.
If you're a native speaker of English who speaks Italian, are you aware of any other common errors made by Italian learners of English? What mistakes have you made?
If you have any interesting or funny stories about a time when you said something in Italian that meant not at all what you thought it meant, I'd love to hear it!
Just leave a comment below and share your tale of linguistic adventure!
Written by Luca Lampariello and Kevin Morehouse
List of "False Friends"
English word Italian "false friend" Actual meaning of Italian word, translated to English
Boss Boss Mafia leader
Canteen Cantina Basement
Concussion Concussione Abuse of political office
Confetti Confetti Sugar-coated almonds
Confidence Confidenza Secret
Consistent Consistente Considerable
Control Controllare To check
Delude Deludere To disappoint
Eventually Eventualmente Possibly
Fabric Fabbrica Factory
Morbid Morbido Soft
Parents Parenti Relatives
How to Translate False Cognates:
 - Eventually: not "eventualmente" but "alla fine"
 - Incident: not "incidente", but "evento"
 - Library: not "libreria" but "biblioteca"
 - Sympathy: not "simpatia", but "compassione"
 - Parents: not "parenti", but "genitori"
 - Stamp: not "stampa", but "francobollo"
 - To abuse: not "abusare", but "approfittare"
 - Chest: not "cesto", but "petto"
 - Cold: not "caldo", but "freddo"
 - Comics: not "comici", but "fumetti"
 - Dependant: not "dipendente di lavoro", but "familiare a carico"
 - Lame: not "lame", but "zoppo"
Related posts
10 Wonderful Things that Happened to Me Because I Speak Foreign Languages – Stefano Suigo
How Many Languages Can One Speak? (A Sneak Peek Into The Polyglot World)
4 Steps to Smash Your Fear of Speaking a Foreign Language


Superimpose means laying one thing on top of another. It's often use to describe images in a photo collage — like the superimposed image of a skyscraper on the surface of the moon.
The verb superimpose is typically used in graphics or photography to describe how images can be put on top of one another for dramatic effect. Use it also to show adding your own take on something, or when you try to have an impact on someone's behavior: "She tried to superimpose her ideas of perfection onto the lazy habits of her children."
Definitions of superimpose
v place on top of
"can you superimpose the two images?"
lay over, superpose
Type of:
lay, place, pose, position, put, set
put into a certain place or abstract location
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|Home||American Libraries | Canadian Libraries | Universal Library | Community Texts | Project Gutenberg | Children's Library | Biodiversity Heritage Library | Additional Collections|
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This collection contains items from the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco.
Founded in 1853 to survey and study the vast resources of California and beyond, the California Academy of Sciences is the oldest scientific institution in the West. Over the past 154 years, the Academy has grown to become the fourth largest natural history museum in the country. Home to Steinhart Aquarium, Morrison Planetarium, and the Kimball Natural History Museum, as well as world class research and education departments, the Academy's mission is to explore, explain, and protect the natural world.


Advances In Clothing Technology
Advances in technology can be seen everywhere and the pace in the development and improvement of products can seem almost immediate in this technology hungry age. It will therefore be of little surprise to learn that technology is now even making it into the clothes that we wear.
cc licensed ( BY NC ) flickr photo shared by Pro-Zak
This type of technological advancement is intriguing as many of us don't usually associate our clothes with technology. However, there are some current clothing products on the market that are already using new innovative technology either in the clothes design or directly in the clothes materials to make our lives more comfortable, let's take a look at what clothing technology is currently out there…
Omni-Freeze Zero Clothing Technology
Columbia the active sportswear retailer who are renowned for innovative clothing products has recently launched their new "Omni-Freeze Zero" technology that aims to cool you down when you are hot and sweaty during exercise.
The technology which took four-years to develop embeds special cooling polymers within unique blue rings that feature throughout the clothing. Once you become hot, your sweat is designed to cause a mechanical reaction to expand the rings and this expansion caused by the rings picking up your body heat creates a cooling sensation and therefore cools you down.
Compression Level Clothing Technology
Another company called SKINS has uniquely looked at compression levels within its clothing to ensure increased oxygen delivery to muscles while they are under use. The company worked with a scientific and industrial research organisation to understand the effects on different muscles during exercise. They specifically looked to deduce where oxygen delivery was most important to reduce lactic acid build-up when exercising. Through this knowledge they developed a warp knit fabric that was designed to allow enhanced circulation when someone exercised therefore ensuring the muscles in the body got vital oxygen when working and under stress.
Air-Conditioning and Heating Clothes Technology
A company called ClimaWare have designed a range of clothing that aims to keep your body temperature comfortable whatever the temperature. This type of clothing uses actual technology within the clothing so you can select whether you want your clothing to become a personal air conditioning unit or a warm heater. The clothing is designed using thermoelectric material that is located on body parts where body temperature can be efficiently regulated. Behind this type of clothing technology is the idea of the Peltier Effect. This effect is when electricity flows through two connected metals – one will get cooled while the other one heated up. The ClimaWare clothing is specifically designed to have touch spots that touch areas of the body where blood vessels are dense because these are the best place to control body temperature.
These advances in clothing technology and specifically the ClimaWare technology appear to have a connection to nanotechnology. Nanotechnology and especially nano-textiles is a science that looks at how fibres at an atomic and molecular level can be manipulated – and in this case it is being used to improve the clothes. This improvement in clothing no only looks at how clothes can cool you down and warm you up but can look at enhancing other clothing areas such as water-resistance and odour reduction ability.
Work is already underway by clothing manufacturers into developments on a fabric called Aerogel which is also known as "frozen smoke". This fabric has been used by NASA for many years in the insulation of space suits and is the lightest solid material known to man. The aim of many clothes designers is to use this material to make a jacket that is as thin as a t-shirt but will keep you warm whatever the temperature – even when you experience freezing conditions.
When you look into it, the pace of technological advances in the clothing industry is astonishing and it is also interesting to note that developments are not always based on new technology but also enhancing existing material. Formation clothing technology is just one example where different fabrics are being looked to be combined to enhance the performance of athletes. The aim of the clothing is to compress fabrics in such a way that they will sculpt to an athlete's movement as well as regulating their body temperature while performing.
It is amazing to think that we could start choosing our clothes based on the weather condition or the type of sporting activity we were doing. In the past we have been limited by the amount of clothes we can wear and the type, such as shorts on a hot day rather than trousers; but in the future we could have clothes that minimises perspiration and cools us down automatically through the material by sensing our body's temperature.
All these advancements make you wonder what clothing will be designed in the future. Rumour has it that some clothing manufacturers are already developing clothes that can help prevent sunburn, absorb harmful UV rays and also repel mosquitoes in humid weather conditions. The future of clothing technology really is fascinating.
Featured images:
 - License: Creative Commons image source
Marie Flanders has a background in electrical engineering. She works for Fluke United Kingdom and specialises in Electrical and Temperature control devices and infrared thermometers. She enjoys blogging about electronics and its advancements in the modern world.
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JYTOP Quantum resonance magnetic analyzer 4th generation palm touch hand version
The advantage of quantum body health analyzer:
1. Dual octa-core processing chip
2. High sensitivity: no direct contact with the equipment, so the operation is very safe. The system runs faster,more smoothly and more efficiently. The detection sensitivity of modern infrared detectors to infrared radiation is high and the resolution of temperature is very high,which can be used to monitor and diagnose subtle changes.
3. Operational safety
4. High diagnostic efficiency: since the response speed of the infrared detector is as high as nanosecond, the infrared radiation of the equipment can be quickly collected, processed and displayed, and the efficiency of monitoring and diagnosis of the equipment can be greatly improved.


text:
With the content you want to save displayed on your screen:
- Click the Print Screen button. (This button is located in different places. On many computers you'll find it in the upper right corner.)
- Open Microsoft Paint: Select Start > All Programs > Accessories > Paint.
- Click anywhere on the white part of the screen.
- In the Edit menu at the top of your screen, select Paste.
- Select File > Save As.
- From the Save As menu in the pop-up box, select JPG.
- Type in a filename for your image, choose a location on your hard drive to save to — many people choose the Desktop — and click Save.
On a MAC
With the content you want to save is displayed on your screen:
- Simultaneously hold down the three keys: ⌘ Shift and 4.
- Press the spacebar. A camera icon will appear.
- Tap the touchpad to take the picture. It should appear on your desktop as a file named Picture 1.


How does orientalism and racism relate
Academic level: College (1-2 years: Freshmen, Sophomore)
Subject or discipline: Political science
Title: ____
Number of sources: 2
Provide digital sources used: No
Paper format: MLA
# of pages: 4
Spacing: Double spaced
# of words: 1100
# of slides: ppt icon 0
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Paper details:
What does Said mean when he says that for Europe the Orient has been among the "deepest and most recurring images of the Other"? What does "Other" mean when used in this way? And how does orientalism and racism relate?
Comments from Support Team: Discipline: Humanities
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text:
3F8 is an antibody that attaches to neuroblastoma cells and helps focus a patient's own immune system - especially white blood cells - to attack neuroblastoma cells. Conventional 3F8 is made from mouse cells.
In this study, investigators want to find the optimal dose of humanized 3F8 (Hu3F8) that can be given with the drug interleukin-2 (IL-2) in patients with neuroblastoma and GD2-positive tumors that have continued to grow or have not responded to standard therapy. Hu3F8 is made to be more like the human immune system than a mouse's immune system, so it may be associated with fewer side effects in patients than standard mouse-derived 3F8.
Il-2 is a drug approved for treating melanoma and kidney cancer, but its use in this study is considered investigational. It works by activating the immune system.


text:
An online database of classes of algebraic structures
Chapman University, CA
ASL 2003 Annual Meeting, June 1-4, 2003
A currently ongoing research project
is the construction of a web
database of classes of mathematical structures
The aim of this project is to make basic information
mathematical structures available in a uniform and extendible way
with direct connections to computational tools and decision
for these structures.
- Two examples that influenced this project
- A look at the current version of the database
classes of mathematical structures have
been investigated in the last century.
Even if we restrict to
classes related to algebraic logic
there are still over 100 classes
that have been defined and analyzed
in some detail.
, model theory
and category theory
have been developed to express general properties and analyze relations
between classes of mathematical structures.
But the information known about individual classes
of structures is
still much greater
than what is covered by general results
in universal algebra, logic
or category theory
Classes of mathematical structures
can be defined in several
different ways, e.g. by
1) specifying a list of properties
that they must satisfy, often
expressed as formulas of (first-order) logic, or
2) specifying a generating class of algebras
closure operator (e.g. HSP)
It can be nontrivial
to determine whether a general result
applies to a specific class
Especially for researchers who are working in other areas
, it is
often difficult to assess whether a particular class of structures
(or a closely related one) has already been examined
in detail in a
The aim of this online database of mathematical structures
address the problem by providing broad coverage
of the many
classes of structures that have been investigated in the literature.
The aim is not to concentrate
only on the major classes, but to
include basic information also on specialized less well-known
How can such a database be constructed?
Two examples that influenced this project
Exhibit A: _URL_
- three years in the making (so far)
- over 100000 up-to-date entries, including reliable information about general mathematical research topics
- designed collaboratively on a Wiki server platform
- no copyright; material can be freely copied
- very low development cost; surprisingly high quality
Neil Sloane's Encylopedia of integer sequences
- sequences collected by N. Sloane over the past few decades
- over 60000 sequences (mostly initial segments) related to mathematical structures
- some computational tools and search tools for finding related sequences
- used by many researchers on a daily basis
- new entries submitted by email (moderated)
There are several other databases, e.g. Wolfram's Mathworld,
These resources are designed for humans to read. They are extensive, high
quality, up-to-date, freely available, and getting better all the time.
The current mathematical structures database project
somewhere between Sloane's integer sequences (which give some invariants for
classes of mathematical structures) and Mathworld or Wikipedia.
An emphasis is on making data easily available to software
computes further mathematical information about the classes.
Several researchers have used computers for calculations on finite algebras,
e.g. C. Bergman, J. Berman, S. Burris, S. Comer, R. Freese, E. Kiss, E.
Lukacs, R. Maddux, M. Maroti, J.B. Nation, S. Tschantz, M. Valeriote,...
This database aims to make the results of such calculations easily
Initially, each class of structures has a webpage in the database containing
(some of) the following items:
- Definition (usually several equivalent ones)
- Description of the morphisms
- Standard examples
- Basic results (or references to the literature)
- List of relevant properties (with values and references)
- Information on free objects, injective, projectives, etc.
- List of some (finite) members of the class, possibly with some graphical representations
- List of subclasses (or subcategories)
- List of superclasses (or supercategories)
A format for specifying axioms (to be extended
to theorems and proofs)
Currently based on TeX+XML, to be converted to MathML
An XML definition for finite
structures (to be extended to automatic structures and finitely presented
Linking algebraic and logical viewpoints.
But first: What is XML
A (tree) structured
, human and
, platform independent
to understand; e.g. many students know it
because HTML is
a relaxed form of XML.
Well suited for mathematical expressions
(e.g. MathML is a developing XML standard)
E.g. here is an XML description of a 3-element poset:
 1 2

Design guidelines for the database:
- Natural syntax (modelled on mathematical practice)
- Collaborative development style
- Accessible algorithms (open architecture)
- Interactive diagrams
- Interactive diagrams
- Platform independent
- Useable as a teaching/learning tool
For this presentation we will briefly consider the following algebraic
- Kleene algebras
- action algebras
- residuated lattices
- Boolean semigroups
So how does it look at the moment?
Go to _URL_
(or search for Mathematical Structures Homepage
Standardize the XML format for finite structures, write a DTD.
Design an XML format for declarative mathematical proofs based on the
defacto syntax of mathematics (e.g. set theory + TeX).
tools for proof checking and proof generation.
A format for finitely presented algebras, partial algebras, multi-sorted
Better webdesign, MathML support, TeX output.
More graphical representations of algebras (e.g. Cayley graphs).
Add more classes, references and results to the database
(without duplicating efforts of other webdatabases).
The database project is still developing
, but it is already useful.
There are a number of new ideas implemented in it that are not found in
other online resources:
- platform independent format for mathematical structures
- direct support for simple algorithms
- interactive graphical support
- collaborative development style.
It represents a form of instant peer-reviewed anonymous publishing
Every class of mathematical structures that has been
investigated (has some publications) deserves a presence on the web.
As the database becomes more complete, the interesting gaps
will be more obvious.
This project will not be finished at some stage. If it succeeds, it will
continue to evolve and remain up to date.
. --- Some things are surprisingly
Storage space is not a problems. It's like the wild west all over again.
If you are happily farming on a little plot in New Jersey, watch out, there
are other subjects that a claiming the huge midwestern storage plains, and
they gain intrinsic status by being able to manage big databases.
I'm not advocating that we produce huge amounts of worthless
data --- mathematics has many legitimate reasons for generating lots of
useful data. E.g. lists of finite structures can be a good source of
conjectures and counterexamples.
I hope you are upset
that your favorite category or class of
is not mentioned or has very little information in the database
This makes it more likely
that someone will add it.
It only takes half an hour
to make a significant contribution
So encourage your students
to do it.
How often do we find annoying little errors
in papers or on webpages?
Here you can fix them immediately
The database will remain freely accessible
. Anyone can get a
(or search for Mathematical Structures Homepage
, or my homepage on the web)


Wobenzym Doctor Wobenzym
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Wobenzym is an enzyme preparation originally designed in Germany in the 1960s and is a natural anti-inflammatory with many additional health benefits.
Although its original use was primarily to treat osteoarthritis, studies have revealed that Wobenzym lowers C-reactive protein levels (a marker of chronic infection in the body) on average by 30%!
The latest research, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, has documented that individuals with high levels of C-reactive protein have up to 6 times the likelihood of a heart attack or strokes as individuals with lower levels.
In addition, Wobenzym acts as a natural and safe alternative to anti-inflammatory drugs such as Ibuprofen.
Furthermore, some Olympic teams have used Wobenzym to reduce injuries by as much as 50% and to enhance healing after injury. This is partly due to the bioflavonoids ability to prevent the discoloration and local pain associated with traumatic injuries. For these same reasons, leading surgeons now routinely prescribe Wobenzym to prevent bruising and edema and the associated pain for their post-surgical patients.
As more and more uses of Wobenzym are discovered, the list of health problems benefiting from Wobenzym continues to grow and include:
* Reducing the incidence of blood clots, known to be induced by the sudden breakdown of vulnerable plaque.
* Improving feelings of well-being due to its antioxidant effects.
* Reducing the incidence of heart attacks and strokes because of its anti-thrombotic, anti-spasmodic, anti-arrhythmic and cholesterol lowering abilities.
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* Benefiting viral injection treatments for herpes, cancer and Hepatitis C.
* Lowering inflammation involved in allergies and alleviates the symptoms for the sufferer.
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text: [Show abstract][Hide abstract] ABSTRACT: We studied the effects of cannabinoids on contextual conditioned fear responses. CB1 knockout and wild-type (CD1) mice were exposed to a brief session of electric shocks, and their behavior was studied in the same context 24 h later. In wild-type mice, shock exposure increased freezing and resting, and decreased locomotion and exploration. The genetic disruption of the CB1 receptor abolished the conditioned fear response. The CB1 antagonist AM-251 reduced the peak of the conditioned fear response when applied 30 min before behavioral testing (i.e. 24 h after shocks) in CD1 (wild-type) mice. The cannabinoid agonist WIN-55,212-2 markedly increased the conditioned fear response in CD1 mice, the effect of which was potently antagonized by AM-251. Thus, cannabinoid receptor activation appears to strongly promote the expression of contextual conditioned fear. In earlier experiments, cannabinoids did not interfere with the expression of cue-induced conditioned fear but strongly promoted its extinction. Considering the primordial role of the amygdala in simple associative learning (e.g. in cue-induced fear) and the role of the hippocampus in learning more complex stimulus relationships (e.g. in contextual fear), the present and earlier findings are not necessarily contradictory, but suggest that cannabinoid signaling plays different roles in the two structures. Data are interpreted in terms of the potential involvement of cannabinoids in trauma-induced behavioral changes.


text:
Here is a fun and easy little craft I devised, so I could use up some of the sheets and sheets of scrapbook paper I bought when I was semi-obsessed with that pasttime (passtime? How do you spell that?). I am partially committed to Use What You Have although with my current semi-obsession with the dollhouse redo, there's no way I could keep myself from scrounging up any materials needed for that. But at least maybe for Easter decorations, I can limit myself to what I have on hand. How does that sound? Okay I hear you all muttering out there, so I'll get back to the craft. They're what you might call pinwheels, but since I rassled with the basic concept and came up with some variations of my own, I am calling them pinspinners. I am pretty bad at giving tutorials, but I'll do my best to explain how to make them, and patterns can be found at the end of this post, which at this rate will be around next Tuesday.
The one above is the basic four-petal pinspinner, and here is the scallop-edged wingspinner:
Here's what you need to make a pinspinner:
- Two sheets of patterned paper (at least one needs to fit in your printer)
- Spray adhesive
- Detail Scissors
- A longish pin and a thickish needle
- A couple of beads
- A pencil with an eraser (or a pencil-width dowel and one of those erasers you buy to stick on the end of a pencil)
- A flower shaped punch (optional)
- Download the pattern, print it onto the patterned side of one of your pieces of paper (choose the lightest one, the lines are very faint and won't show well on a dark color).
- Don't cut on the lines yet, just trim it down so its easier to manage.
- Spray back with adhesive and affix to the back of your other sheet of paper.
- Poke your needle through the dots, (tip - place the paper over a pincushion, this helps keep the paper from bending).
- Cut out the spinner along the printed lines.
- Cut out a flower shape, either by drawing your own, or using a punch, and poke a hole in the center with the needle.
- Now for the fun part. Take your pin, and slide one of the beads onto it.
- Slide the flower shape on next.
- Then one by one, slide the wings of the spinner onto the pin, then poke the pin through the hole in the center of the spinner (note - there should be space between the back of the spinner and all the petals, that is what allows it to catch the wind and spin!).
- Add one more bead, then push the pin into the pencil eraser, make sure it doesn't poke out the other side and stick you.
Tada! A pinspinner!
The fun thing is that by varying the papers, you can create a whole garden of spinners! Like this one:
And not satisfied with four-petal spinners, I worked out a pattern for a five-petal spinner! I also added a larger flower shape in the middle as well as a few more beads to hold it out from the other parts. It spins like crazy on its own! However, this one is a bit more challenging to assemble. Be prepared for beads flipping and flying off as the whole thing has a tendency to want to unassemble until you get it stuck into the eraser. Here is the one five-petal spinner I managed to make:
The five-petal spinner takes up most of a sheet of 8.5 X 11 paper, but the four-petaled ones can be doubled up on one sheet if you fiddle with them in Photoshop, and create two of the same combo like these. Its interesting how different they look turned one way or the other:
So here are the patterns. Click to open the full size version and download them to your computer for printing. If I could make one teensy request, please feel free to use these patterns for your personal use, but respect my ownership of the pattern design and do not use for resale. I didn't want to put my copyright on there since you will be printing the pattern on the paper and it would show.
Four-petal pinspinner and wingspinner patterns:
So there ya go! I hope you enjoy them! My plan is to use some on my patio tables for Easter, arranging them in ice cream sundae glasses filled with colored buttons! Hopefully I'll remember to take some pics!
ps - Since this involves pins and stuff, I would suggest if you have little kids play with these you watch them so they don't stick themselves. Also if you make these with kids, you might do the pin part, just to be safe.


both premisses to Jenny Bailey).
Hence we do not have to accept any fundamental distinction between definite descriptions and proper names. Rather, it is easier to read definite descriptions in an ambiguous way. When we say 'The UK Prime Minister used to be a woman', we can read it either as saying that the present PM used to be a woman, or that some former PM used to be a woman. And this ambiguity is not fundamentally different from the one we find here.
William Pitt was the youngest Prime Minister
William Pitt was not the youngest Prime Minister
the youngest Prime Minister was not the youngest Prime Minister
For there was more than one person called 'William Pitt', just as there was more than one person called 'Prime Minister of the UK'.
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Wednesday, August 17, 2011
Sentence negation, predicate negation and direct reference
There is a good post here by Vallicella, about a comment I made to an earlier post of his. My claim, in essence, is that if we cannot distinguish between sentence negation and predicate negation of a singular sentence, then we have to accept 'direct reference'. Let me explain. Predicate negation – e.g. 'a is non-F' is such that its truth requires that the object denoted by 'a' exist, and that this object is not F. Sentence negation, by contrast, is when we simply deny whatever is asserted by 'a is F'.
In modern predicate logic, we do not distinguish between these two forms of negation, at least for singular sentences. The negation '~Fa' is true whenever some thing is referred to by the singular term 'a', and when that thing is not F. Thus it is predicate negation. But it is also the contradictory of 'Fa'. If it is not true that ~Fa, then it is true that Fa, and conversely. Thus it is sentence negation.
By contrast, in traditional logic (or at least in standard forms of it) we do distinguish between these forms of negation. 'Socrates is a non-runner' is true when there is some such person as Socrates, and that person is not running. Thus 'Socrates runs' and 'Socrates is a non-runner' are contraries. Both can be false when Socrates does not exist. This is predicate negation (or 'indefinite negation' as the scholastics called it). This was considered distinct from propositional or 'extinctive' or 'destructive' negation, where everything asserted by 'Socrates runs' is denied, and which can be true even when there is no such person as Socrates. Thus 'Socrates runs' and the destructive negation 'It is not the case that Socrates runs' are contradictories. Both cannot be false, for one denies everything the other asserts.
Now I claim that in systems where there is no distinction between predicate and sentence negation, we have 'direct reference'. This is easily shown. Direct reference in a singular sentence is when the sentence is meaningless when the singular subject fails to refer. Assume that 'a is F' is not meaningless. If it is true, then there is a referent for 'a'. If it is not true, the sentential negation 'It is not the case that a is F' is true. If sentential negation is equivalent to predicate negation, it follows that 'a is non-F' is true, and so a exists, and so, there is a referent for 'a'. But (by excluded middle) either 'a is F' is true, or its contradictory (the sentential negation) is true. In either case, 'a' has a referent. Thus if 'a is F' is not meaningless, 'a' has a referent. Conversely if 'a' does not have a referent, 'a is F' is meaningless. But that is Direct Reference, as I have defined it.
In systems where we can make a distinction between the two forms of negation, we do not have to accept Direct Reference. If 'a is F' is meaningful but false, this could either be because the predicate negation is true, or because there is no referent for 'a'.
Both Peter Lupu and David Brightly challenged this idea in their comments to the post.
Peter argued that we do not have to accept Direct Reference if we accept the distinction between meaning and reference (or 'sense' and reference or whatever you call it). I reply: in accepting this distinction we have (tacitly) accepted the distinction between the two forms of negation. If we are happy that 'a is F' may not be true in the case that 'a' has a sense but not a reference, and assuming that (in this system) we can say that this is so, i.e. state that a does not exist, then we can state the disjunction 'a does not exist or a exists but is non-F'. But that disjunction is equivalent to the sentential negation of 'a is F', and is therefore distinct from the predicate negation 'a does exist and is non-F'.
David argued that we can suppose a singular term has a referent, and prove a contradiction in order to show that it does not have a referent. For example, let 'a' denote the largest ordinal number. That supposition leads to a contradiction, therefore 'a' cannot denote that. Yet (according to David) it is meaningful to make assertions using the singular term 'a'. I reply: what is meant by 'denotes' here? If it means 'signifies' or 'means', then the supposition that it has a meaning leads to a contradiction, and so it does not have a meaning. This is Direct Reference. On the other hand, if it does not mean 'signifies', but rather that a exists, then my reply is the same as to Peter. To accept the possibility that 'a' is meaningful but fails to correspond to any existing number, is tacitly to accept the distinction between the two forms of negation.
Tuesday, August 16, 2011
On simple explanations
Clever Connolley caught me out with a comment here on simple explanations. Mencken says that the reason for the 'inferior man' hating knowledge is because it is complex. All superstition is a short cut to make the unintelligible simple. Connolley, apparently agreeing with Mencken, chides me for wanting a simple explanation for global warming.
But is Mencken right? The appeal of true scientific explanation generally does lie in its simplicity. There are obvious exceptions - the proof of the four colour theorem for example. But consider the explanation of an eclipse. That is pretty simple. The moon goes round the earth, the earth goes round the sun. The sun lights up the earth. Occasionally the moon gets in the way and casts a shadow. How simpler could it get? The theory that the eclipse is caused by a dragon crossing the sun, by contrast, requires a theory of dragons, and no theory of dragons - at least not one that gives a comprehensive treatment of them, including their metabolism, genetic structure etc - could be simple at all.
Or consider Augustine's explanation of why evil exists:
The explanation - that Adam and Eve offended God, and that these evils are a punishment - appears simple at first sight, just like the dragon explanation. But it is not, for it requires a theory of God, and also a theory of Paradise, which is problematic. Sociobiology could probably provide a simpler one (although I'm not sure it has, yet).
Superstition is not necessarily a simpler theory. So, what distinguishes superstition from science?
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Hello again
Apologies for the absence of posts recently. The manuscript of the Scotus translation (plus extensive commentary) is to be submitted to the publishers soon and work on that takes precedence. I shall be posting sporadically, however.


text:
Differential catalytic action of Brevibacillus laterosporus on two dissimilar azo dyes Remazol red and Rubine GFL.J Basic Microbiol. 2013 Feb; 53(2):136-46.JB
This comparative study disclosed the diverse catalytic activities of Brevibacillus laterosporus on two different azo dyes. It decolorized 100% of Remazol red and 95% of Rubine GFL within 30 and 48 h respectively, under static condition at 50 mg l⁻¹ dye concentration. Significant increase was observed in azo reductase, NADH-DCIP reductase, veratryl alcohol oxidase and tyrosinase in cells obtained after decolorization of Remazol red; whereas these values were much different with complete inhibition of azo reductase during decolorization of Rubine GFL. The plausible pathway of dye degradation obtained from Gas chromatography-Mass spectroscopy (GC-MS) data confirmed the different metabolic fate of these structurally unidentical dyes. FTIR and HPTLC analysis of extracted metabolites confirmed the biodegradation, while phytotoxicity study assured the detoxification of both the dyes studied. The results obtained in this study suggests, i) sulpho and hydroxyl group present at ortho position to azo group stimulated reduction of azo bond by azo reductase in Remazol red, ii) the same reduction was totally hampered due to presence of ethyl-amino propanenitrile group at para position to azo group in Rubine GFL.


text:
Giovanni Antonio Scopoli (June 3, 1723 - May 8, 1788) was an Italian-Austrian physician and naturalist.
Scopoli was born at Cavalese in the Val di Fiemme, the son of a lawyer. He obtained a degree in medicine at University of Innsbruck, and practiced as a doctor in Cavalese and Venice. Much of his time was spent collecting plants and insects in the Alps. He spent two years as private secretary to the Count of Seckan, and then was appointed as physician of the mines in Idrija, a small village in Slovenia, remaining there for sixteen years. In 1761 he published De Hydroargyro Idriensi Tentamina on the symptoms of mercury poisoning among miners.
Scopoli spent time studying the local natural history, publishing Flora Carniolica (1760) as well as a major work on entomology. He also published Anni Historico-Naturales (1769-72), which included descriptions of new birds from various collections.
In 1769 Scopoli was appointed a senior lecturer at Mining Academy at Chemnitz, and in 1777 transferred to the University of Pavia. His last work was Deliciae Flora et Fauna Insubricae (1786-88), which included scientific names for birds and mammals described by Pierre Sonnerat in the accounts of his voyages.
The drug Scopolamine is named after him. The standard botanical author abbreviation Scop. is applied to species he described.


Most Influential Political, Economic, Social and Religious Theorists in Recorded World History
by Jonathan Hobratsch
The following are list of influential thinkers from world history in the areas of sociology, economics, political science, theology and philosophy. Everyone listed is a candidate for inclusion for my eventual list of top 100 most influential people of all time. Others could be added to this list at some point.
This list was much more difficult to create than the political leader's list, since theories are often harder to judge than political accomplishments. As with the politicians, the leading thinkers in this category are predominately Western, and are predominately figures that have impacted the most current influential countries and academic institutions.
Moses (c. 1390bc-c.1270bc) the most important prophet in Judaism. He is also important in Christianity and in Islam.
Thales (c.624bc-c.546bc) is considered the founder of Western philosophy. He is also the first known person to use deductive reasoning in geometry. He is the first known person to predict a solar eclipse, an event that is sometimes regarded as the traditional start of Western philosophy; although, philosophy undoubtedly started as soon as humans could reason.
Sun Tzu (c.544bc-c.496bc) wrote the Art of War, arguably the most influential and popular military strategy manual of all time. Today, his books is also used in business and in sports.
Confucius (551bc-479bc) his ideas were developed into a system known as Confucianism, which form the basis of Chinese tradition and belief. He came up with the "Golden Rule" about 500 years before Jesus did.
Laozi (c.550bc-c.450bc) is the founder of Taoism. He's also a central figure in Chinese culture.
Zeno of Elea (c.490bc-c.430bc) invented the dialectic, which is the attempt by multiple people to find truth and reasoning in two drastically opposing view points. He's also known for his paradoxes.
Gautama Buddha (c.480bc-c.400bc) is the founder of Buddhism.
Socrates (c.470bc-399bc) originator the Socratic method, which was an original and crucial development in the art of critical thinking. Socrates was the primary influence of Plato's ideas.
Democritus (c.460bc-c.370bc) formulated the first major atomic theory of the universe.
Plato (c.425bc-c.347bc) founded the Academy of Athens, which was the first Western institution of higher education. His philosophy laid the groundwork for Western philosophy, political theory, science, religion and spirituality. He taught Aristotle.
Aristotle (384bc-322bc) created the first comprehensive system of Western philosophy, which also encompassed the fields of political theory, science, logic, linguistics, the arts, ethics and metaphysics. Some consider him to be the first true scientist. He influenced Christian, Islamic, and Jewish religious theory and was arguably the primary inspiration for the Renaissance. He was the tutor of Alexander the Great.
Philo of Alexandria (c.25bc-c.50ad) his attempt to harmonize Hellenistic and Jewish philosophy, while ignored by rabbinical Judaism, influenced early Christianity.
Mary (c.18bc-c.43ad) is considered the mother of Jesus. She is venerated in Christianity, especially in Catholicism.
Jesus (c.4bc-c.30ad) the central figure of Christianity, which is currently the world's largest religion.
Paul of Tarsus (c.5-c.67) developed the ideas of Jesus into what is now called Pauline Christianity, which is the near unanimous interpretation of the concept of Jesus Christ by most Christians. He is also considered the primary figure in spreading the religion outside Palestine and presenting what was a Jewish Christianity in a way that would make it palatable to the Hellenistic world of the early Roman Empire.
Johanan ben Zakai (??-90) is the primary architect of rabbinical Judaism.
Augustine of Hippo (354-430) the primary influence on the theories of original sin and the concept of the just war theory.
Muhammad (c.570-632) founder of Islam, which quickly spread throughout Arabia in his lifetime. Islam is currently the second largest religion.
Ali (601-661) is considered the first Imam by Shia Muslims.
Pope Urban II (c._PHONE_) initiated the Crusades.
Ibn Rushd ("Averroes") (_PHONE_) is the founding father of secular thought for his embrace of both Aristotelian philosophy and Islamic law. Unlike the Islamic theologians of his time, he believed that God did not will every action on earth, but allowed actions to occur by natural laws that God had already created.
Thomas Aquinas (_PHONE_) The foremost proponent of natural theology.
Niccolo Machiavelli (_PHONE_) the founder of modern political science. He described immoral behavior by political leaders as something that was normal and effective in politics, and at times, justified for the good of a country.
Martin Luther (_PHONE_) is the theologian that most influenced the Protestant Reformation by his aggressive critique of the failings of the Catholic Church. He is also considered the founder of the Lutheran Church; although, he died believing he was still a Catholic. He translated the Bible from Latin to the vernacular, so that ordinary literate people could read the Bible for themselves.
John Calvin (_PHONE_) is the founder of Calvinism, which is the chief philosophy of numerous protestant churches, such as Presbyterians, Congregational, Reformed.
Francis Bacon (_PHONE_) the philosophical advocate and practitioner of the scientific method. He is also considered the founder of empiricism, the idea that knowledge comes from sensory experience.
Hugo Grotius (_PHONE_) The father of international law.
Thomas Hobbes (_PHONE_) established social contract theory, which influenced later political theory.
Rene Descartes (_PHONE_) is the Father of Modern Western Philosophy and the father of analytical geometry. His contributions to critical thinking have made all universities, more or less, Cartesian institutions.
John Locke (_PHONE_) is the father of liberalism. He may be the key philosopher in influencing the American Revolution, including the language of the Declaration of Independence.
Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab (_PHONE_) is the leader of the Wahhabi movement in Islam, known as Wahhabism, which has occasionally inspired the ideology of extremist fundamentalist Islamic organizations, such as ISIS and Al-Qaeda.
Adam Smith (_PHONE_) is the father of modern economics. He laid the foundation for the classical free market economic theory.
Immanuel Kant (_PHONE_) is considered the central figure of modern philosophy. He believed reality must conform to the human mind's active concepts to be conceivable and at all possible for people to be able to experience it. He is known for the categorical imperative.
Jeremy Bentham (_PHONE_) is the founder of modern utilitarianism.
Auguste Comte (_PHONE_) the founder of sociology. He set the tone for early social theorists such as Max Weber, Karl Marx and others.
Pierre-Joseph Proudhon (_PHONE_) is the father of anarchism.
Karl Marx (_PHONE_) founder of Marxism, the most influential variant of Socialism. He was also arguably the most influential critic of capitalism. His writings on class struggles, labor and inequality make him a principle architect in the field of sociology. Much of his work was buttressed by Friedrich Engels. He is considered the father of Socialism, even though the principal ideas of Socialism were expressed by thinkers who are now known as Utopian Socialists, such as Robert Owen.
Ferdinand Lassalle (_PHONE_) was the initiator of an international-style Socialism, which later evolved into Democratic Socialism or Social Democracy.
Charles Sanders Peirce (_PHONE_) is the founder of pragmatism and abductive reasoning.
Gottlob Frege (_PHONE_) is the father of analytic philosophy and is considered as the key developer of modern logic.
Emmeline Pankhurst (_PHONE_) arguably the lead activist in fighting for women's suffrage. Her efforts helped achieve suffrage in her own country of Great Britain, and inspired similar efforts in other countries, including in the United States.
Swami Vivekananda (_PHONE_) led the revival of Hinduism in India, which made it one of the major world religions. He's also credited with bringing yoga to the Western world.
Mahatma Gandhi (_PHONE_) was the predominant leader of the Indian independence movement. He is probably the most recognized practitioner of nonviolent civil disobedience in history.
John Maynard Keynes (_PHONE_) the originator of Keynesian economics. He is considered the founder of macroeconomics.
Karl Popper (_PHONE_) his rejection of the scientific method in favor of falsifiability, the idea that a theory can never be proven, but that it can be falsified, makes him arguably the most important philosopher of the 20th century.
Norman Borlaug (1914-190


Arabidopsis thaliana
It's constructed differently from an animal one.
Summary and Abstract:
Animals require rapid, long-range molecular signaling networks to integrate sensing and response throughout their bodies. The amino acid glutamate acts as an excitatory neurotransmitter in the vertebrate central nervous system, facilitating long-range information exchange via activation of glutamate receptor channels. Similarly, plants sense local signals, such as herbivore attack, and transmit this information throughout the plant body to rapidly activate defense responses in undamaged parts. Here we show that glutamate is a wound signal in plants. Ion channels of the GLUTAMATE RECEPTOR-LIKE family act as sensors that convert this signal into an increase in intracellular calcium ion concentration that propagates to distant organs, where defense responses are then induced. --Masatsugu Toyota, Dirk Spencer, Satoe Sawai-Toyota, Wang Jiaqi, Tong Zhang, Abraham J. Koo, Gregg A. Howe..., "Glutamate triggers long-distance, calcium-based plant defense signaling" at Science (paywall)
How long ago did plants and animals diverge?
According to a piece in ScienceDaily (2006), "In 1998 scientists discovered that fungi split from animals about 1.538 billion years ago, whereas plants split from animals about 1.547 billion years ago." If animals and plants developed these very detailed information-gathering systems independently (convergent evolution), it seems like the unrolling of a project rather than natural selection acting on random mutation (Darwinism). Darwinism doesn't think ahead like that.


text:
Two Clemson University researchers seek to make diners mindful of mindless eating.
Psychology professor Eric Muth and electrical and computer engineering professor Adam Hoover have created the Bite Counter, a measurement device that will make it easier for people to monitor how much they eat. Worn like a watch, the Bite Counter device tracks a pattern of wrist-roll motion to identify when the wearer has taken a bite of food. Think of it as a pedometer for eating.
"At the societal level, current weight-loss and maintenance programs are failing to make a significant impact. Studies have shown that people tend to underestimate what they eat by large margins, mostly because traditional methods rely upon selfobservation and reporting," said Muth. "Our preliminary data suggest that bite count can be used as a proxy for caloric count."
The advantage of the Bite Counter is that it is automated so that user bias is removed. The device can be used anywhere, such as at restaurants or while working, where people find it difficult to manually track and remember calories.
The device is not based on what happens in a single bite (i.e. exact grams or specific food nutrients), but in how it simplifies long-term monitoring. For commercialization, Bite Counters eventually will be sold as simple consumer electronics alongside such familiar devices as activity monitors, heart-rate monitors, GPS watches and pedometers. A device is available from Bite Technologies now for professional and research use at _URL_.
"The device only requires that the user press a button to turn it on before eating and press the button again after the meal or snack is done. In between, the device automatically counts how many bites have been eaten," Hoover said.
In laboratory studies, the device has been shown to be more than 90 percent accurate in counting bites, regardless of the user, food, utensil or container, according to Hoover. However, there are few existing data on how bite count relates to calorie count or how a bite-counting device could be used for weight loss. The device will allow for such data to be more easily collected.
With prototypes completed and manufacturing under way, devices are being tested in 20 subjects for one month. The devices will store logs of bite-count activities, which will provide researchers baseline data for developing guidelines for completely new and innovative weight-loss studies.


text:
luser definition jargon, abuse
/loo'zr/ A user
; especially one who is also a loser
are pronounced identically.) This word was coined around 1975 at MIT
, when you first walked up to a terminal at MIT and typed Control-Z to get the computer's attention, it printed out some status information, including how many people were already using the computer; it might print "14 users", for example. Someone thought it would be a great joke to patch the system to print "14 losers" instead. There ensued a great controversy, as some of the users didn't particularly want to be called losers to their faces every time they used the computer. For a while several hackers struggled covertly, each changing the message behind the back of the others; any time you logged into the computer it was even money whether it would say "users" or "losers". Finally, someone tried the compromise "lusers", and it stuck.
Later one of the ITS machines supported "luser" as a request-for-help command. ITS died the death in mid-1990, except as a museum piece; the usage lives on, however, and the term "luser" is often seen in program comments.
See: also LART
. Compare: tourist


text:
FRIDAY, Aug. 12 (HealthDay News) -- Dogs can teach children about responsibility, shower them with love and maybe even help them maintain their reading skills.
Researchers found that reading aloud to canine companions over the summer slightly improved some second-graders' ability to read and their attitude about reading. On the other hand, children who read to adults experienced declines in both areas, the study found.
The study, published online by the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University in North Grafton, Mass., involved second-grade students with different reading abilities and attitudes about reading. Last summer, the children were paired with either dogs or people and asked to read aloud to them once a week for 30 minutes for five weeks.
The therapy dogs used for the study were trained for the Reading Education Assistance Dogs (R.E.A.D.) Program, which runs programs at the public library near the school.
The study authors were surprised to see no significant improvement in below-average readers who were paired with dogs.
"As with all academic studies exploring a new area, this small study raises more questions than creates answers," said study co-author Dr. Lisa Freeman. She said she hopes answers will emerge as the reading program continues at the local library.
But in terms of persistence, the dogs paid off. Whereas one-third of the children who were asked to read to people dropped out, all of the dog readers completed the project.
Experts note that research is considered preliminary if it has not been subjected to the rigorous scrutiny required for publication in a peer-reviewed journal.
The U.S. National Institute of Child Health & Human Development provides more information on human-animal interaction.
SOURCE: Tufts University, news release, Aug. 10, 2011
Copyright © 2011 HealthDay. All rights reserved.
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text:
Okakura Tenshin (Kakuzo)Educator / Critic
Died: 2 September 1913
Birthplace: Yokohama, Japan
Best known as: Author of The Book of Tea
Okakura Tenshin, also known as Kakuzo Okakura, was a Japanese writer and art curator whose most famous work is The Book of Tea (1906). Okakura grew up in Yokohama, and his family's prosperity allowed him to study at the Tokyo Imperial University and to eventually earn a Masters in Arts degree in 1880. For years he worked collecting and writing about Japanese art and culture with Ernest Fenollosa, becoming a well-known critic of the trend toward westernization. In 1898 he was dismissed from his position at the Tokyo School of Fine Arts and lost government support, but he went on to found Nihon Bijutsuin (the Japan Art Institute). For financial support he travelled to the United States to sell artifacts and found an appreciative audience in Boston. He became a friend and advisor to art collector Isabella S. Gardner, and in 1904 began working at Boston's Museum of Fine Arts, later becoming curator of their Japanese and Chinese collections. An art expert who wrote his best known books in English, Okakura is credited with "explaining" Asian art to American intellectuals. His most famous works are The Ideals of the East (1903) and The Book of Tea.
Extra credit: Some sources list his birth year as 1863, but the City of Yokohama and the Tenshin Memorial of Art, Ibaraki say 1862.
Copyright © _PHONE_ by Who2?, LLC. All rights reserved.
More on Okakura Tenshin Kakuzo from Fact Monster:
Information Please® Database, © 2007 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.


text:
fall monotonically. For greater θ, the curve will pass through a minimum and rise to the destination. If Y = 0, then θ = 2π, and we will have a complete loop of the cycloid. The diameter of the rolling wheel is k.
In another article (Curves), I show that the brachistochrone is also the tautochrone. That is, the time taken to reach the bottom from any point on the curve is the same. The time is calculated in that article by straightforward integration, with the result that the time from cusp to cusp is (2π)√(k/2g). The period of a cycloidal pendulum is the same as the period of a small-amplitude pendulum of length 2k.
In mechanics, the variable x is the time t. The function F(t,y,y') is the Lagrangian, L = T - V, where T is the kinetic energy my'2/2 and V is the potential energy V(y). The motion must be such that the action, ∫Ldt, is an extremum (usually a minimum). The Euler-Lagrange equations are then (d/dt)(∂L/∂v) - ∂L/∂y = 0, where the velocity v = y'. With our Langrangian, this becomes (d/dt)(mv) + dV/dy = 0, or dp/dt = -dV/dy, which is just Newton's second law, with the force derived from the potential energy V. The momentum is p = ∂L/∂v. These relations can be generalized to provide a firm foundation for mechanics.
The BTC is actively soliciting government support, so necessary for the progress of free enterprise, and states that if it is successful, construction can begin as soon as the problems of friction and tunnelling to about 9 miles depth are overcome, which it is confident can be done. Lawyers and accountants are currently working on the problems. Tickets are available for the first journey for $100 standard, $200 first class. First class passengers will receive a complimentary T-shirt. The trip is not recommended for those with dicky tickers. Small, unmarked bills, please.
The term brachistochrone comes directly from Greek: brachistos, shortest, and chronos, time.
R. Courant, Differential and Integral Calculus, Vol. II (London: Blackie and Son, 1936). Chapter VII.
C. Lanczos, The Variational Principles of Mechanics (Toronto: The University of Toronto Press, 1949). A more complete treatment of the calculus of variations, especially as applied to Hamiltonian mechanics. The brachistochrone is mentioned, but not solved.
Composed by J. B. Calvert
Created 14 December 2004
Last revised 18 December 2004


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I can't seem to find a good explanation of what the differences are between the words location and locality. Are they interchangeable, or are there certain contexts in which one or the other must be used?
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closed as general reference by FumbleFingers, Gnawme, kiamlaluno, Hugo, jwpat7 Feb 16 '12 at 6:00
I'd have thought any dictionary would make this clear. The location of something means exactly where it is, whereas the locality means the general region around where it is. – FumbleFingers Feb 11 '12 at 19:47
I think that e.g. in the sense of computer science terms like "locality of reference", locality also has a meaning like "property of remaining localized", i.e. unmoving. – Karl Knechtel Feb 11 '12 at 21:31
_USER_ Actually, "locality" and "localized" in that context don't mean "unmoving" but "within a specific region". For example, "locality of reference" means many references in a small region. – David Schwartz Feb 12 '12 at 8:57
3 Answers 3
It's all about knowing that location refers to a specific position on the map (the degree of certainty of the location can vary enormously depending on the context, from a specific coordinate in the map (What's your location? 38° 41' 7.8351", longitude: -96° 30' 14.0625")) to an entire continent What's your location? Europe) while locality will almost always refer to a specific town, village or area.
In general terms location is to position as locality is to village/town/area.
They are usually not interchangeable but since location is more general than locality, locality could be replaced by location in the right context.
Besides, since localities refer to predefined areas, they usually have names.
What is your (current) location?
My (current) location is latitude: 38° 41' 7.8351", longitude: -96° 30' 14.0625".
There is no need to be so specific, you could also say:
I'm near the river.
I'm almost there.
Regarding locality:
On what village/locality are you in?
I'm in Springfield.
If it was common for the operator to travel from village to village in a short period of time, village/locality would turn redundant and location could also be used.
What's your location?
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Location indicates the exact location, a position of something and locality indicates a small area of a country, city etc.
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Location is a place - a particular place, especially in relation to other areas - where something exists or happens.
His apartment is in a really good location
A locality denotes the fact or condition of having a location in space or time.
... weather reports from several different localities
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G$ contains a set $S$ of at most $k$ vertices such that $G\setminus S$ belongs to ${\cal G}.$ We denote by ${\cal A}_k ({\cal G})$ the graph class containining the graphs that are $k$-apices of ${\cal G}.$ We prove that every graph in the obstruction set of ${\cal A}_k ({\cal G}), $i.e., the minor-minimal set of graphs not belonging to ${\cal A}_k ({\cal G}),$ has size at most $2^{2^{2^{2^{poly(k)}}}},$ where ${poly}$ is a polynomial function whose degree depends on the size of the minor-obstructions of ${\cal G}.$
Joint work with Ignasi Sau and Giannos Stamoulis
01 avril 2021
Stéphane Bessy (Équipe AlGCo)
Exponential Independence in Subcubic Graphs
A set $S$ of vertices of a graph $G$ is exponentially independent if, for every vertex $u$ in $S$, $\sum_{v∈S\setminus \{u\}}(1/2)^{{\rm dist}(G,S) (u,v)−1} < 1$, where ${\rm dist}(G,S)(u, v)$ is the distance between $u$ and $v$ in the graph $G − (S \setminus \{u, v\})$. The exponential independence number $αe(G)$ of $G$ is the maximum order of an exponentially independent set in $G$. In this work we present several bounds on this parameter and highlight some of the many related open problems. In particular, we prove that subcubic graphs of order n have exponentially independent sets of order $Ω(n/\log^2 (n))$, that the infinite cubic tree has no exponentially independent set of positive density, and that subcubic trees of order n have exponentially independent sets of order $(n + 3)/4$.
Joint work with D. Rautenbach and J. Pardey, Ulm University
25 mars 2021
Ignasi Sau (Équipe AlGCo, LIRMM)
Kernelization of Maximum Minimal Vertex Cover
In the Maximum Minimal Vertex Cover (MMVC) problem, we are given a graph $G$ and a positive integer $k$, and the objective is to decide whether $G$ contains a minimal vertex cover of size at least $k$. This problem has been considered in several articles in the last years. In this talk we focus on its kernelization, which had been almost unexplored so far. We prove that MMVC does not admit polynomial kernels parameterized by the size of a minimum vertex cover or of a maximum matching, unless NP⊆coNP/poly. Motivated by a question of Boria et al. (Discret. Appl. Math. 2015) about the existence of subquadratic kernels for MMVC parameterized by $k$, we rule out their existence unless P=NP, if we restrict the kernelization algorithms to apply only a type of natural reduction rules that we call large optimal preserving rules. In particular, these rules contain the typical reduction rules to obtain linear kernels for Vertex Cover. On the positive side, we provide subquadratic kernels on $H$-free graphs for several graphs $H$, such as the bull, the paw, or the cliques, by making use of the Erdős-Hajnal property in order to find an appropriate decomposition.
Joint work with Júlio Araújo, Marin Bougeret, and Victor A. Campos.
18 mars 2021
Marin Bougeret (Équipe AlGCo, LIRMM)
On the complexity of computing Maximum Minimal Blocking Sets
A blocking set in a graph $G$ is a subset of vertices that intersects every maximum independent set of $G$. Let 𝗆𝗆𝖻𝗌($G$) be the size of a maximum (inclusion-wise) minimal blocking set of $G$. This parameter has recently played an important role in the kernelization of Vertex Cover parameterized by the distance to a graph class ${\cal F}$. Indeed, it turns out that the existence of a polynomial kernel for this problem is closely related to the property that 𝗆𝗆𝖻𝗌$({\cal F})=sup_{G∈F}$𝗆𝗆𝖻𝗌$(G)$ is bounded by a constant, and thus several recent results focused on determining 𝗆𝗆𝖻𝗌$(F)$ for different classes $F$. We consider the parameterized complexity of computing 𝗆𝗆𝖻𝗌 under various parameterizations, such as the size of a maximum independent set of the input graph and the natural parameter. We provide a panorama of the complexity of computing both 𝗆𝗆𝖻𝗌 and 𝗆𝗆𝗁𝗌, which is the size of a maximum minimal hitting set of a hypergraph, a closely related parameter. Finally, we consider the problem of computing 𝗆𝗆𝖻𝗌 parameterized by treewidth, especially relevant
in the context of kernelization. Given the "counting" nature of 𝗆𝗆𝖻𝗌, it does not seem to be expressible in monadic second-order logic, hence its tractability does not follow from Courcelle's theorem. Our main technical contribution is a fixed-parameter tractable algorithm for this problem.
11 mars 2021
Daniel Gonçalves (Équipe AlGCo)
On the colorability of rectangle intersection graphs
Chalermsook and Walczak proved that rectangle intersection graphs with clique number $w$, are $O(w\cdot\log w)$-colorable. This improves on the $O(w^2)$ bound dating from 1960. They also designed a deterministic polynomial-time $O(\log \log n)$-approximation algorithm for the same problem. This improves on previous known algorithms. This talk will be devoted to the description of these results.
04 mars 2021
Sebastian Wiederrecht (TU Berlin)
A matching theoretic approach to structural digraph theory
The theory of butterfly minors in digraphs which is closelinked to the notion of directed treewidth has become an active field of research in the past years. Many great advancements have been made such as a directed version of the famous Grid Theorem and several other generalisations of great results from the Graph Minors Series of Robterson and Seymour.
However, many of these results appear flawd when first encountered: The Erdős-Pósa property of butterfly minors does not appear to be linked to a topological property, and the directed version of the Flat Wall is not actually flat.
In this talk we identify two possible reasons for these flaws and show how recent advancements in the area of structural matching theory can be used, by rethinking the way we handle butterfly minors and unavoidable infinite anti-chains of them, to achieve much nicer results.
18 février 2021
François Pirot (G-SCOP, Grenoble)
Complexity thresholds for fractional distributed colouring
In the domain of distributed algorithms, the complexity is considered in terms of rounds, during which the nodes of a graph can exchange data with their neighbours. Moreover, in the LOCAL model, the nodes are assumed to have infinite computational power, so any problem can be solved within D rounds, if D is the diameter of the graph. When considering distributed colourings of graphs of fixed maximum degree Δ on n vertices, an interesting complexity threshold appears. There exists a deterministic distributed algorithm for finding a colouring with Δ+1 colours within O(log* n) rounds. If the graph is neither complete nor an odd cycle, Brooks' Theorem tells us that there exists a colouring with Δ colours. It turns out that any distributed algorithm constructing such a colouring requires Ω(log n) rounds if it is deterministic, or Ω(log log n) rounds if it is probabilistic.
In this talk, I will present a similar sharp threshold for the complexity of distributed fractional colourings of graphs of fixed maximum degree, and of d-dimensional grids. Finally, I will present a distributed algorithm for constructing a fractional colouring of weight 2+ε of graphs of maximum average degree 2+ε' and sufficiently large girth, within O(log n) rounds.
Joint work with Nicolas Bousquet and Louis Esperet.
11 février 2021
Alexandre Vigny (University of Bremen)
Query enumeration and nowhere dense classes of graphs
Given a query q and a graph G the enumeration of q over G consists in computing, one element at a time, the set q(G) of all solutions to q on G. The delay is the maximal time between two consecutive output and the preprocessing time is the time needed to produce the first solution. Ideally, we would like to have constant delay enumeration after linear preprocessing. Since this it is not always possible to achieve, we need to add restriction to the classes of graphs and/or queries we consider.
In this talk I will talk about some restrictions for which such algorithms exist: graphs with bounded degree, tree-like structures, conjunctive queries...
We will more specifically consider nowhere dense classes of graphs: What are they? Why is this notion relevant? How to make algorithms from these graph properties?
04 février 2021
Thomas Bellitto (Faculty of Mathematics, Informatics and Mechanics, University