Presented by Chris Smith, Dave Ansell, Ginny Smith.
Chris - So Blaise, let's kick-off with you. Tell us a bit about what you actually do to try and make computers understand what we say. Why is that so difficult?
Blaise - Well, it's difficult because there are so many ways that we produce language. There are so many different accents and there are so many ways of phrasing things. More problematic actually, people keep coming up with new ways. So, when you think you've got everything sorted then people will start adding some slang that never got seen before. They rephrase what they were saying and also, they speak in ways which are not actually grammatical. So, a lot of the time, people think that we're speaking in full sentences, but of course, we're just speaking in phrases or sections of words, and people have some way of understanding that even if it doesn't really make sense.
Chris - Didn't the people of Birmingham become rather offended recently when it turned out that the speech software on the council's telephone system couldn't understand what they were saying. That is true, isn't it?
Blaise - I believe that is true actually.
Chris - But why should the system object to the population of Birmingham?
Blaise - Well, it's not a personal thing.
Chris - I should hope not.
Blaise - I mean, of course, there are some engineers who might have personal vendettas against the population of Birmingham. But in this case, it's probably because the computer hasn't seen any examples of people speaking in that particular way. And that particular way is possibly so different from what it has seen that it found it difficult to understand. So, I suppose what you need to understand is that the way these systems understand language is that they look at examples of what they've seen before and they look at examples of how people have spoken in a database that they've seen. So, they'll look through a whole collection of sounds. So for example, we have sounds like Aah, Bah, Kah, etc and each of those sounds has a different representation of a soundwave. And so, when you look at the soundwave and you do some analysis of it, each of these different sounds has a different soundwave that comes out. Effectively, what's happening is, the computer is trying to find the most likely soundwave or the most likely sounds for a soundwave that it gets shown. In the case of the people in your example, probably what happened was that the most likely soundwaves according to what it had seen from other people was actually different to what the person was saying.
Chris - So, it doesn't have a problem with scouser of people going 'eh' at the end of each line then?
Blaise - Well same principle. It wouldn't, as long as it had seen examples of it and I think that's actually true of humans as well.
Recording - Please wave your arms in the air.
Ginny - Now, I'm going to play the exact same thing I played to you before again, but hopefully this time, you should understand it.
Ginny - Did everyone understand it the second time?
Ginny - If you understood that, can you do what it says?
Ginny - Thank you very much. So, once you've had an example of sine-wave speech to use, you can understand other sine-wave speech and that, I believe is what you're trying to train your computers to do.
Blaise - Exactly. So, computers are exactly like that. The more examples they see of someone speaking, the better they are at understanding. And probably, what happened in that particular case is that they hadn't seen enough examples of people from that area. If they had done, then they'd be able to learn.
Chris - There was one bit of medical transcription I saw and the doctor had actually said into one of these speech interpretation things, "I would partially halve the narcotics" and the computer translated it as, "I would prescribe parties and halve the narcotics." So, it must be quite difficult when you've got words which some people tend to link words together, others speak with their words very clearly separated. How can you get a computer to tell those things apart because the patterns must end up looking quite similar?
Blaise - They do, but there's a process by which the computer can just try out the different alternatives and it'll essentially try every possible alternative and just look at which one is the most likely. So in your case, what's happening actually is that the computer is splitting up its analysis into two parts. So, there's one part which looks at the sound, but there's also another part which look at the sequence of words. And some sequences of words are more likely than others. In fact, that's one place where you can get a lot of context. So for example, if you type into Google or if you type into any search engine, you can just write a few words and then it'll predict another word for you. The same happens on your phone if you use something like swift key or swipe. These are systems where you type in your phone a few words and then it predicts what the next one is to help you go more quickly.
Chris - I've seen a few accidents where that's concerned though.
Blaise - Yeah, so that's exactly the same kind of accident that can happen so the speech recogniser will incorporate that and of course, that can go wrong, but for the most part, it actually helps. So, one big thing I've been looking at is how you can actually incorporate a whole dialogues context and incorporate the fact that you know what the person's been talking about and actually, use that as well as just the most recent words.
Chris - Ohthat's clever. What you're saying is that by looking at the context, in other words the conversation that a person has already had then when it sees a new word, you're narrowing down your search for what the possible words might be based on analysing a bit about the conversation. That sounds a bit spooky though. It sounds a bit like kind of the computer's eavesdropping on what you're saying.
Blaise - Well, I think it's something that we all do. So, when we're talking to someone, we know what we're talking about and what the subject is and so, if there is two possible interpretations then we'll choose the one which makes the most sense in the context.
Chris - Has anyone got any questions for Blaise? We need some questions now on anything to do with electronic technology, speech recognition, your funniest word prediction moment. Anyone got any howlers that they've seen when they've texted something to somebody and something they didn't expect to come up? Yes, who's this gentleman here?
Rhys - Hello. I'm Rhys Edmunds from Comberton. What is the highest wavelength and the lowest wavelength the computer can transmit?
Chris - Can you just clarify what you mean by transmit? Do you mean as in sounds that the computer can make?
Blaise - To be honest, I'm not really sure what the answer to that question is. I believe it's several kilohertz. So, that's the frequency rather than the wavelength, but there is a range. Actually, the computer can both record and transmit higher and lower frequencies than our ear can hear.
Chris - Yeah, I mean your ear is sensitive to about 50 hertz which is 50 cycles a second. That's the lowest sound-ish that you can hear, about 50. Some people, down to 20 and it's as high as 20,000 hertz when you're very young and most people in this room who are a bit older will stop hearing sounds above 15,000 hertz. In fact, people know that young people can hear some of these sounds better than older people and they're using them as a form of repellent for young people. There is in fact a shop. Is it in Wales Ginny? Do you remember this? They actually had a problem with youths loitering outside so they installed this buzzing system that bleeps at about 18,000 to 20,000 hertz and they can hear it and it's enormously annoying, but the adults don't get deterred from going in and buying their paper because they can't hear it.
Ginny - But then the teenagers got their own back because they started using it as their ringtone because when their phone went off in class, the teacher couldn't hear it going off, but they knew it was. So, they got their own back.
Chris - How is that for ingenuity? Next question. Who else has got a question?
Mark - Hello. I'm Mark from Cambridge. I was just wondering what's the limiting factor at the moment on the sort of processing of speech? Is it our understanding of how speech works or are we waiting for process of power to increase?
Blaise - I'd say it's more of an understanding thing. So, we already have quite a lot of processing power. So actually, I'd say there are two big things. One is collecting examples of people speaking so that we call that data - a big data source. A big reason for big companies being much better at speech recognition is because they have a lot more of this data. The actual processing power is not such a big problem at the moment. It's very easy for us to get a large collection of servers together, computers together to do the processing. So, there is quite a lot more to do on that understanding of how to build better speech recognisers. And even that's been developing quite dramatically in the last few years. In the last 10 years or so, these systems have become really a lot more useable.
Chris - I've been quite impressed though because I've rung up a number of industries that have automatic telephone answering systems and whilst I find them infuriating, they do work really rather well. And they say, "Tell me in a few words what your call is about" and you might say "My broadband doesn't work" and then it says, "Are you calling me about your broadband?" and you say, "Yes." Well it's very tempting is be incredibly sarcastic, isn't it? Does it understand sarcasm? Does that wash, if you go, "No, I'm not." Will it nonetheless still put you through to the broadband person?
Blaise - I think it probably depends on how the persons designed it, but in most cases, not. So actually, this is another thing we've been looking at, is trying to get computers to learn as well as the analysis of the words, the meanings of sentences. And a big thing for that is trying to work out whether you've done something right or wrong. What we're doing is getting the computer to try out different strategies of what it might do. So, for example, in your case, you might try out and say, "I think you want a broadband" and then see if the person did. And then get the computer to learn by itself what these things mean. And for that, it's very important to see if you did the right thing or if you did the wrong thing because that can inform you about how you should change your strategy in the future. Actually, a pretty good signal for that for example is whether people swear at the system. And generally, that means that you've done something wrong. But actually, to check if you've done something right is a lot more difficult actually.
Chris - Do you remember that Microsoft paper clip that used to pop up? Do you remember that Microsoft paper clip? Who here found that bloody annoying? I saw a gag someone had done once and they were so fed up with it. They'd written this sort of thing saying, "I've decided to kill myself and whatever" and then the paper clip pops up and said, "This looks like you're writing a suicide note. Would you like some help with that?" Are you able to do emotion?
Blaise - It's not something that I've looked at and in fact, generally, people have started looking at this, but it's actually very difficult. Partly because it's very difficult even for humans to decide what the emotion is, just from listening to someone. So, if you get 2 or 3 people and all of them listen to the same segment of audio, some will say that the person is very angry. Others will say they have no emotion and others will say that they're happy. Actually, the agreement amongst humans is very low, around 60%. So, it makes it very difficult for computers then to learn and of course, their agreement is even lower.
Chris - Any other questions coming in so far? There's one gentleman at the back.
Carlo - Good evening. I'm Carlo for Cambridge. I would like to knowledge whether there is any language which is easier to be understood through computers or they are more or less all the same.
Blaise - Yeah, that's an interesting question. So, there is a difference in the ease of understanding. In some respects, English is actually the easiest of all and that's partly because we have a lot of what I call data, a lot of examples because most of the internet is in English. The other languages which are more difficult for various reasons, so one is Chinese and that's more difficult in some ways because of two reasons. One is that there's tonal variations in the understanding of the language. There are examples for example of words which to you or me might sound the same, but one might mean horse and the other mother. If you say the wrong one, you can get into deep trouble.
Chris - In some supermarkets, horse and beef ends up being confused, doesn't it?
Blaise - That's true, but I believe that's not because of the change in tone. So, that's one interesting reason for the difficulty. Another in the case of Chinese is because the writing doesn't actually really segment words in the same way that we do with English. So, there's a different idea of the meaning of a word. The other languages which are difficult for other reasons - so one is Turkish and that's because of the way the words are structured. So in English, we have prefixes and suffixes and that's quite easy to deal with. But in other languages you get what are called infixes, so the words can change because of a change in the middle of the word. That makes things a lot more difficult for various technical reasons because you get these huge explosion in the number of words that are possible.
Chris - Presumably, the system can learn though. Can it not teach itself and slowly get better?
Blaise - Yes. So, that's what we do in all of these cases with Chinese, Turkish, Arabic, etc. All of them have the best systems now, being a system that's been learned automatically. But it becomes more difficult when you have a very large explosion in the number of words or when you start having to add extra things that affect the meaning.
Chris - It's obvious that if you want to make someone understand, you just speak loudly and clearly in English, don't you? Any other questions?
Fergal - Hi, this is Fergal from Cambridge. I'm wondering how the speech recognition works in general. Is it more by pattern matching or does it break all sounds down into basic elements, wavelength, frequency, amplitude, and what are similar parameters make for different sounds and different accents and tones?
Chris - Say that again.
Blaise - Malfrequency cepstral coefficient. Also conceptual linear prediction coefficients.
Chris - How it is like going down at parties?
Blaise - It usually kills off all conversation to be honest which is why I usually try to leave it for as long as possible before bringing that in.
Chris - Any other questions?
Jenny - Hi, Jenny from Cambridge. I was just wondering if the video phones were developed more, would that help, especially with emotion? So, would you be able to match image with sound and you'd be able to tell by someone's face, their emotion more?
Blaise - Yes, so video gives a lot of help for emotion detection. It actually helps a few other things as well. So, you wouldn't think it's a problem, but actually, one of the most difficult things to decide is when a computer should talk and when it thinks you're talking. Because if there's noise in the environment, then it's very difficult to know when the person's stopped talking or when they're carrying on talking. And people pause and it's never quite clear whether the computer should start talking now or not. And even people struggle with this because people will interject and fight about who's talking. So if you have a video, it's much easier because you can actually - as well as listening to the audio, you can look at their lips and see whether they're still planning to speak. You can look at their face and that gives some indication also of whether they're planning to speak. So, a video does help for more things than just the emotion. It also helps for other things, for what we called turn-taking.
Chris - Can you also use facial expression to work out what someone might be trying to say because there's this famous McGurk effect, isn't there Ginny, where actually, if you show someone mouthing a word one way, but play them a different sound, the person who's listening can get confused and hear a very different thing?
Ginny - Yeah, exactly. We very much use the shapes being made by the face to help us workout what someone is saying, particularly in noisy environments. So, if you see someone going bah and making the kind of face they make when they make a bah sound, and you hear something that's a bit kind of - it could be a bah, it could be a mah, you'd assume that it's a bah because of what you can see them doing. So, we definitely use that. So, I would've thought that that would be helpful of the computer as well. At least for some of those sounds.
How do robots help scientists with their work every day in the lab?
Chris - Neil, you make robots to work in the laboratory. So, tell us about them. What do you actually do?
Neil - Our systems do all kinds of different processes in laboratories. We've been making systems for about 20 years doing processing bottles or flasks like these. These are called T-flasks. They hold about 600 ml of liquid. It's about a pint.
Chris - Do you put beer in them then? Is that what you're doing?
Neil - We've had ideas of such things.
Chris - You do fermentation.
Neil - Yes, we do. These are used to grow cells in, all kinds of cells - animal cells, maybe insect cells and the reason that that's done is to help with pharmaceutical research. Now all around the world, there are thousands of biologists and part of their job is to look after their cells. So, once every few days, they'll need to get a collection of these flasks, take them out of an incubator, unscrew the caps, empty the contents of the liquid in there. Basically, give their cells some more food. The cells grow in the flask and eventually, the cells run out of space. So then, you have to take the cells out to the flask, put them into a new flask to give them some more space to grow and keep them happy. Now, the cells grow at a certain rate and sometimes they need to be like fed and watered at the weekend, so people have to then work the weekend to keep looking after their cells.
Chris - That's what graduate students are for, isn't it?
Neil - It is exactly, but once people mature, get older, they don't like spending their weekends going into the lab to do these jobs and that's where some of our systems come in. Our systems can automate the whole process so that scientists can actually use their time more valuably rather than doing the jobs of unscrewing caps and pouring pipetting liquids.
Chris - Isn't it true though that the volumes of liquids that we're testing in laboratories, for many of the modern tests like DNA tests and things are really, really small, and we're doing many, many hundreds of test tubes all in a row all at once and humans are not terribly good at remembering where they got to? You might make a mistake on the 89th tube and they think, "Was it the 88th or 89th? I better start again." Isn't a robot better than that?
Neil - Very much, so. Many years ago, people used to do all of their work in test tubes. As time progressed, we ended up with things like this. This is a plate with 1,536 wells in it. Each well is about a millimetre square and about 5 millimetres deep. To access that, you need some small pipette tips. So in this box, there are 384 pipette tips. So, we make systems that can pipette 384 samples at a time from plates like this into other plates like that for performing experiments on mass.
Chris - Any questions so far about how we can build robots to speed up research in the laboratory?
Ginny - Well, I've got one on the email from Steve Lamble who says, "Why is this technology not used in Amazon warehouses? This was something that was big in the news recently. We're still asking humans to run around with trollies to pick things up." Sounds like the kind of thing, I mean, on a bigger scale, but similar to what you're talking about.
Neil - Yes and actually, I'm surprised that they wouldn't use automated systems in the Amazon warehouse because many warehousing systems are automated. We made a system for the UK Biobank which is for storage of biological samples they're stored at minus 80 degrees. There's potentially millions of samples. The robot is actually working at about minus 20 degrees, but that's an example of an automated warehousing system.
Chris - So, unlike the employees at Amazon who were complaining last year about conditions, robots don't complain. I suppose that's one big bonus, isn't it?
Neil - Indeed. They can work 24 hours a day, 7 days a week without stopping. They need some maintenance but that's of the benefits of automation is that they can work round the clock.
Dave - Is it part of the reason why that's going to be very difficult because there's lots of different objects in the warehouse and you're saying that robots are not that good at dealing with newer, unexpected situations.
Neil - It's certainly a significant factor. Whenever we are looking at a new application, we try and standardise the things that need to be handled and handled as few different components as possible and even try and design the things that we need to handle to make them suitable for robotic application. So, I think you're right, the size and shapes of the packages will be a big factor and if they were to try and automate it, they'd probably need to standardise on a small set of different size boxes.
Chris - So, do people come to you and say, "This is our laboratory. We want you to design us a robot that will do things in our laboratory" or do you make systems and then people buy them and design their lab around your system?
Neil - It's a bit of both. Quite often, we're looking to develop new systems so we talk to people and say, "What is it that you do in your working life and where are the real problems? Where do you spend all of your time?" And so, having those discussions, we identify that people spend a lot of their time doing fairly mundane tasks. We think, well, if we can help with that task, is that worthwhile? And in some of the applications like the automation of cell culture, there's a variety of benefits. It's not just about say, a labour-saving action. When humans perform an operation, there's always some variability from one person to the next person, or what happens on Friday afternoon is often different to what happens on Monday morning, whereas a robot will perform the same task, pretty much identically every time it performs it. So then, you get more consistency of how the cells are actually growing in the flask. Robots also don't introduce contamination. So, that's quite a problem when you're trying to do cell culture, making sure everything stays sterile. There's bacteria everywhere. It's very easy to contaminate samples, but robots can't inherently contaminate it.
Chris - Can't your robots catch computer viruses?
Neil - We try to avoid that, yeah.
Chris - What sort of software do they run on then? How do you programme them?
Neil - There's a variety of different software packages at different levels. So usually, there's a system PC that's running Windows and that then would talk to say, the arm that's got its own controller in, that's sort of coordinating the manipulation of each of each joints to move the pieces around.
Chris - What about actually making those movements though because I have a hand and the most powerful feature of my hand is the fact that I can make my thumb meet the ends of each of my digits. Is that something that's very easy to replicate?
Neil - Not at all. I think generally as humans, we underestimate how amazingly sophisticated our bodies are. So, when you grab something with your hand, you've got an amazing sense of touch in all of your fingers and that feedback with your eyes means that you can look to an object and pick it up. And you don't even think about it. Whereas with a robotic system, on a robotic system that doesn't have a lot of sensory feedback, we might not know that if we picked up a bottle, and it had a missing cap, we might not know that. And then we try to process that and things would go wrong. So, we do have to have a certain amount of sensors on the system. But relatively, most robot grippers are pretty clumsy compared to our hands.
Chris - Any questions first before we - we've just got one question here.
Jack - My name is Jack and I'm from Comberton. How much would it cost to like make and design one of these robots?
Neil - It depends on the sophistication of the system, but usually, it's millions of pounds of development effort.
Chris - How much pocket money do you get? It depends on how many chores he does? You need a robot for that.
Bea - Hi. My name is Bea and I'm from Cambridge. I was wondering, to what level can these systems be used for pattern recognition within the lab environment? So currently, as you explained, they're doing some mechanical tasks, but when it gets to sort of say, analysing 900 different samples, they might provide a sort of speed of processing that is much quicker and help narrow down the amount of samples that say, people working in the lab would have, to take further.
Neil - Yes, so I think that's more related to say, a vision system and analysis of say a photograph. So, as an example, it might be trying to recognise cancerous cells from non-cancerous cells, and that might be a very good application for helping that kind of activity in a lab. There are quite a lot of robotic systems that do have integrated vision systems on them. An example would be in PCB construction, your printed circuit boards inside phones. There are circuit boards with tiny components on and in the assembly of those, those components are presented to the robot, the robot picks them up with a little tiny suction cup. It'll move it to a camera, the camera looks at it, decides where exactly it is and sets the orientation of it, for them to be able to accurately place it onto the PCB.
Ginny - I've got a question here from Dominic in Cambridge. He says, "Why have robots been used in factory production lines for so many years, but seem to be very slow to appear in people's homes? Where's our robot to do the chores?"
Neil - Yes, if only we have those robots in our homes. I think, a lot to do with the economics of it. So, in industrial processes where there's the same task to be done over and over again, so if you think about car production lines where, if you're making one car a minute then having a robot that can do the same spot welds all the time is a very efficient way of applying a robot to a process because it's the same process whereas in a house, the household chores of washing up and doing the hoovering, dusting the cobwebs, they're very varied and everybody's houses are very different. So, in terms of robots, there are vacuums that will sort of bump around, hoovering the carpet, what does it do on the stairs? It gets stuck.
Chris - They defeated the Daleks didn't they, in the stairs. I tell you what we do want. We want an ironing robot. That's what we want, a robot to do ironing.
Neil - No, but then there's other solutions. It would be much better to have clothes that don't need ironing. So, that would be say, an engineer's approach to solving the problem.
Chris - Have you and Blaise got together to see if his speech recognition could be plumbed in to your robots so that you could actually end up with a robot that would do as you told it?
Neil - No, we haven't but it would be very useful because sometimes in developing systems, you can see something bad is going to occur. If only you could shout, "Stop now!"
Chris - Can you list one of such example?
Neil - Well, these flasks, they're quite brittle material and sometimes in developing the systems, you leave a flask in a place where it shouldn't be. The robot, the system knows where everything is, but if you open an incubator door and you decide to start moving flasks, and you take the flask out, have a look at it, think that's very interesting and put it back, if the system doesn't know that, it can quite easily just smash one of these flasks completely inside another flask. So it would basically one flask right inside another.
Chris - Whoops! Especially if there's ebola in there or something. That could nasty, couldn't it?
Chris - Paul you have the amazing party conversation starter of being able to say that you make rovers for far away planets.
Paul - Yes, although it tends to be the social equivalent of Marmite either it starts conversation or kills it dead. So, we have a 6-wheeled vehicle which we refer to as the Mars rover that's going to Mars in 2018. The goal of the mission is to look for signs of life outside our planet. So, whereas previous rovers and they primarily have been American, this is the first European one, have looked for the conditions for life and things like that. We are looking for life directly.
Chris - And what are the hallmarks of life that you'll be looking for?
Paul - Well, it's a little bit difficult to say because when you try and characterise life, you'll find it's actually very, very hard. So essentially, we have an organic molecule detector that looks for very simple molecular structures and we also have a drill on the front of rover that allows us to take samples from 2 meters below the surface.
Chris - like a Black and Decker.
Paul - It's actually more akin to an oil rig actually in the way it works. It has a single drill piece and the extension rods that rotate into place to make a drill that is 2 meters long. And then the drill piece has a camera shutter in the bottom of it that can push the sample in and bring it back up to be analysed by the organic molecule analyser.
Chris - How big is this rover?
Paul - So, it's a medium size Mars rover if there's such a thing. It's about 2 meters tall from the base of the wheels to the top of the mast and about 1.6 meters long. So, it's a reasonably sizable beast and that means it can travel over most of the terrain we expect it to encounter.
Chris - There seems to be a sort of vogue for describing your rover in relation to a vehicle here on Earth. Curiosity famously dubbed the size of a Mini Cooper. So, how big is your one then?
Paul - I was thinking more like one of those big lawn mowers that you sit around and drive around on. It's kind of that sort of size I think.
Chris - So, how far down the development process are you with it?
Paul - Well, we've got to the point where we are develop - well, we have several development models to test out the bits of the technology the rover will use that is less mature. Simply because it hasn't been done before. In particular, the autonomy the rover has, the ability the rover has to drive itself across the surface of Mars. We have several prototype rovers that allow us to demonstrate that and practice it, and see what works and what doesn't. But we're actually some way from building the flight rover.
Chris - And you can recreate Mars to test it on, can you?
Paul - We can, yes. So, we have a big Mars yard, a giant sandpit if you like in Stevenage and the rover essentially practices in there. It drives over rocks. It sees how we handle slopes and our prototypes are deliberately developed such that they have the same weight on Earth as the real one is on Mars. So, they behave in the same way as a real one will do when it gets to Mars where the gravity is much lower. And therefore, we can write all our clever software to control it, knowing it'll work on the flight rover when we get there.
Chris - Is the temperature on Mars at night time not close to minus a hundred though?
Paul - It can be slightly lower than that. Yes, I mean, day time temperatures are around zero to 10 degrees which electronics typically like, but night time temperatures as you say can drop to minus 130 and they drop off very quickly because the Martian atmosphere is very thin and it just doesn't have the same heat retention capability that the Earth does.
Chris - But is it not quite good to have cold temperatures for electronics because doesn't the electrical resistance drop when it's nice and cold.
Paul - It can do, but the real problem is that essentially, when you get to the sort of below minus 100, you're starting to see your circuit boards is freezing, solder's going to start to break, even the circuit board will just break in two. And so, that means that it's now dead and you've got no way of repairing it. So, we have to avoid low temperatures as much as possible.
Ginny - So, we have a little demo now to show you exactly what happens to various bits of electronics at very low temperatures.
Dave - So, what I have here is an exceedingly jury rigged circuit. I have some batteries with a little light and a very long coil of wire. In this thermos flask, I have some liquid nitrogen which is sitting a little bit colder than Mars at about minus 196 degrees centigrade.
Ginny - So, you can see. We've just poured some out into a cup and you can see that it's bubbling and that's because it's actually boiling in the same way that your kettle gets lots of bubbles in it when it boils, when it comes up to 100 degrees, this liquid nitrogen will boil at room temperature. All that vapour coming off is that kind of vapour as it's boiling. So, we've got a nice little circuit here. It's a little bit makeshift. We've got some wire and we've got a bright red LED which everyone can see is glowing beautifully. So, what are you going to do with that LED?
Dave - So, the first thing I'm going to do is cool down the wire.
Ginny - So, you're popping the wire into the thermos flask full of liquid nitrogen. We've got beautiful vapour going everywhere and it's making quite a noise, and now it seems to have quietened down. So, what does that mean?
Dave - So now, the wire is sitting about minus 200 degrees centigrade and the wire actually is perfectly fine at this sort of temperature. If anything, LED will have got a little bit brighter because the resistance of copper drops an awful lot when you get down to this sort of temperature, I think even by a factor of 10. But if instead of that, we cool down the LED which is a piece of electronics. It's does work quite so well.
Ginny - That looks so pretty. It's glowing in the cup of liquid nitrogen and it's gone off. It stopped working. Have you just broken it?
Dave - If I take it out again and let it warm up slowly, it comes back on.
Ginny - Yeah, so it's back. It's not quite as bright as it was at the beginning, but it's getting there. Yeah, I'd say it's just as bright. So, it wasn't that you broken it. It's just while it's that cold, it can't work. Why is that?
Dave - So, LED and most of the clever bits of electronics are made out of materials called semi-conductors and these can conduct or insulate and they can have all sorts of interesting properties. But in order to work they need a bit of heat to kind of give the electrons a bit of a kick and let them move around. But as you cool them down, the electrons kind of get locked up and can't flow as an electric current. They basically just stop working. So, if you get a piece of electronics cold enough, it just doesn't work.
Ginny - So, something to avoid on Mars I guess.
Paul - Definitely, yes. So, we have to manufacture the environment that the electronics sit in to be much closer to where the electronics do like to operate. So, somewhere between minus 40 and 10 degrees centigrade. The way we do that is, we put all the electronics in a central core structure which we refer to as the bathtub and the bath tub essentially has the space equivalent of double glazing. So, it has an inner skin and then a cold gas trapped between that layer and the outer skin. Just like double glazing, it stops the heat from escaping and creates a thermal barrier. So, you can control the temperature of the inside of that bath tub to whatever you like. Typically, somewhere between minus 40 and 10 degrees.
Chris - Where does the power come from?
Paul - Well, all our power comes from the solar panels that sit on top of the bathtub and essentially seal it. So, that's our primary power source while we're on Mars. We have a battery as well that charges up in the day to keep the rover alive at night. But in essence, yes, we are completely environmentally friendly and solar powered.
Chris - These solar panels, how long will they keep the rover running for?
Paul - It's an interesting question because one of the big issues with using solar panels on Mars is that they eventually get covered in dust. It's very, very difficult to get that dust off once it's landed on the solar panel. Essentially, your efficiency, the amount of power you're generating from that solar panel drops off over the mission.
Chris - You need a robot to clean them.
Paul - Almost, but then that can get a little bit difficult because you end up scratching the glass because the solar panel is covered in glass and then you have permanent damage, and then you will never generate enough power again. So, it is a problem and we oversize the solar panel to compensate for a bit of that. But fortunately, dust storms which can envelop the whole planet on Mars are seasonal. They tend to happen from the autumn equinox around to the spring equinox. And so, it makes sense that our mission lands at the spring equinox, just after the dust storm season has finished and then our nominal mission should be completed by the time it starts again.
Chris - Questions from the audience. Who would like to ask about building a robot to explore another planet?
Mark - Hi. It's Mark from Cambridge. I was just wondering, given that what can go wrong will go wrong and that Mars is a long way away, do you tend to over engineer the systems to try and ensure that they don't break or does the rover have some ability of repairing itself at all?
Paul - Certainly, we do over engineer it a little bit to guarantee that it's going to work over its nominal mission. But in fact, the main way we avoid problems is to carry two of everything. We have a prime and a redundant equivalent of every single unit on the rovers. So we have two computers, two power distribution units, two sets of sensors, and so on and so on. So essentially, if one breaks you switch on to the B side if you like, and use that instead and they both work in the same way.
Chris - Have you got any spare tyres?
Paul - Actually, we don't use tyres because they're made of rubber and we can't organics to Mars if we're looking for life. So, we actually make the wheels of the rover out of metal and they are sort of like a spring in a wheel. They compress slightly to allow us to climb over rocks and grip properly.
Chris - How do you actually control and steer the rover around on Mars?
Paul - Well, because Mars is so far away and in the worst case, there's a 20-minute time delay. It's not practical to drive the rover by remote control. Even though it's monitored back on Earth, we actually want the rover to make as much of the decisions as it possibly can. In fact, our rover is capable of accepting a target which can be several hundred meters away and is simply a X, Y coordinate and then the rover does everything else itself. It will use its cameras to image the terrain in front of it, identify where the rocks and the slopes are, figure out if certain areas of that terrain are safe or not, plan a path through it and then drive that path all by itself. In fact we'll only see the rover once or twice a day.
Chris - I'm still disappointed that you can't sit in your lab with like a radio control device and sort of think, I'm steering this thing. How far away is it to Mars? How far is your message having to go to get to Mars?
Paul - It varies. So, the closest approach is 36 million miles. The furthest is 250 million miles. So, that's where the 20-minute time delay comes from, even travelling at the speed of light.
Chris - So, 20 minutes for my message to go what I want it to do to get to the rover.
Paul - Yes, that's right. So, if the rover was driving forward and you saw an obstacle you wanted it to avoid, you'd press stop and then 20 minutes later, it would have hit whatever the obstacle was you were trying to avoid because the signal takes so long to get there.
Sophia - Hello. I'm Sophia from Cambridge. I would like to know if this rover stays on Mars or do you bring it back?
Paul - Sadly, no. It's staying on Mars forever. The reason for this is quite simple. When you want to take lots of scientific instruments, you want to essentially have as big a rover as you can possibly send, and if you want to bring something back, you have to take the fuel with you to then launch it back off the surface of Mars and back to Earth. And of course, that severely limits the size of the rover, the number of scientific instruments, and so on that you can send. So, it's so simple choice essentially. Do you want to do lots of science or do you want to get the sample back? To this point, all the rovers have been on a one-way trip, but the mission that follows ExoMars is called Mars Sample Return and it's a much simpler spacecraft. It's designed to land, take some samples, and then get back up and back to Earth. But the groundwork has been done by the rovers because they had figured out by travelling large distances, where is interesting and where is not to take samples from.
Chris - What about making sure we don't bring back something horrible to Earth from Mars? What steps are in place to make sure we don't ruin our planet?
Paul - It's a big issue. It applies in both directions actually. We have somthing called planetary protection that means we can't contaminate Mars. But yes, if we were going to bring a sample back, it can't contaminate the Earth. So, it's likely that the sample container would be essentially launched and then collected in orbit by another spacecraft that has not been down to the surface of Mars. That would then return it back to Earth and it would be sealed in an entry vehicle to get it back down to the surface. So, no part of a spacecraft that has been exposed to the Mars environment has actually been exposed then to Earth.
Chris - So that way, there's no way it can deposit anything into Earth's atmosphere.
Paul - That's right and you'd have about 10 minutes or so on landing to go and find it, collect it, and get it back into a clean environment.
Paul - Well hopefully not - because of the risk of contamination still.
Chris - Any other questions? Yes, Neil. Go ahead.
Neil - What is the lifetime of a rover on Mars?
Paul - Well, the nominal mission if I can call it that is 218 days or sols as they are on Mars, and that's reasonably typical, the Spirit and Opportunity rovers had a lifetime of 180 sols. Curiosity is about 2 years. So, that's when it has to achieve all its basic science goals. But of course, the mission can go on and will go on beyond that. Partly as a result of the over engineering, but partly because we'll just keep running it until something breaks.
Ginny - Steve on Facebook wants to know, "We've got driver-less trains and you were talking about a sort of driver-less rover, so when are we going to have driver-less cars, and would we really trust them? Can we be sure that they'd actually be safe?"
Paul - It's an interesting question. I mean, we are starting to make steps to that. Google have a car that can do some degree of driving by itself. It's probably only ever going to work if all the cars are driver-less because then there's less unpredictability certainly. But I mean, certain features of it are appearing in cars these days like lane control. So, if you start to go outside of your lane, it'll vibrate to let you know that's happening. So, some features will come in to our cars, but I think we're some way from all of us driving cars that are autonomous.
Chris - Any other questions from you guys out there, one at the back just over here?
Rhys - So, this is Rhys Edmunds from Comberton. How long roughly will a rover be out on the surface of Mars per day?
Paul - Well certainly at night, we don't go anywhere The rover is parked up at night because of the temperature drop, just to keep the rover alive. But in the day, it rather depends on whether we're at the science site or not. So, it might be drilling holes or we might be doing analysis, that sort of thing. But if it's a driving day, we expect to travel about 70 meters and that's all being done autonomously. Over that 218 days, we'll be doing about 4 km or so. So obviously, we're not driving every day, but that's typically what we have to design for.
Chris - When will this actually blast off heading for Mars?
Paul - We're due for launch in 2018 and the launch date is quite specific because you can't just go to Mars whenever you like.We have to wait for the planets to be in the correct alignment relative to each other, such that by the time you blast off and get to Mars orbit, Mars is there. So, that only happens every 2 and a bit years and that's why the first part of the mission goes in 2016 and the rover goes in 2018 because they have to wait for the next opportunity.
Chris - Curiosity came down in this incredible way where they actually had a platform that had thrusters that stopped the rover above the surface and then winched it down onto the surface of Mars. I mean, it was incredibly elegant. How are you going to land? Not like a Beagle hopefully.
Paul - Hopefully, not. But we will also be using powered decent because that's really the standard for rovers of this size. Partly because you want to have a nice gentle landing, but partly because you want to target the rover very, very carefully. I mean now, we have a reasonable idea of where we want to take samples. The rover has to be able to be directed to that place and can't just bounce around for miles. So, we essentially have a landing platform that has rocket motors in it, but the difference is, we're sat on top of it, not being winched down from it. We land the whole thing because the difference between us and the Curiosity mission is that we have instruments and so on, on the actual landing platform. So, we want to land them both in the same place, so we get a consistent data.
Kate - I'm Kate from Cambridge. I've got a question. How would the Mars rover have done on Robot Wars and does the panel think that more kids would get into robotics if the BBC brought it back? How else should kids get into robotics?
Paul - I don't think our rover would fair very well because it's very, very slow. There are rather different constraints when you are 250 million miles away. So actually, we would be severely outcassed I think on the Robot Wars arena. But yes, you're absolutely right. That sort of thing is a great inspiration for young people to go and explore engineering software. Something like a rover has so many different aspects of engineering that it's actually quite a good way to explore lots of different areas.
Ginny - Neil, do you think one of your arms would do quite well? Would it be able to sort of punch people?
Chris - In Robot Wars?
Ginny - In Robot Wars, yeah.
Neil - Yeah. When I was younger, I always fancied entering the competition. Maybe I'm not too old.
Ginny - Now, I've got a sort of more general question for all of you I guess is, Maybeline on twitter wants to know, could we power robots on something other than, well, I guess we use electricity. Could we use something like food to power robots?
Paul- Well, I can start by saying something which is quite important for planetary exploration of the future, particularly when we go so far away from outside the orbit of Mars where solar power is starting to become not a viable source. It may even be applicable for human missions, particularly with regards to getting something back without having to take lots of fuel with you to do that. One of the ideas is that you would actually mine methane and use that as your fuel to power your rocket or whatever to get back to Earth.
Neil - It's really a fracking mission.
Chris - Is that what the drill's for?
Chris - Any other questions from everyone at home?
Ginny - So, Joe asks, "There's been this movie out recently 'Her'. I haven't seen it but I think it's about someone falling in love with one of the sort of voice recognition systems and we were wondering how important is it to have an emotional connection to a robot and sort of linked to that. What do you need to have that emotional connection? Do we need something that looks human, that sounds human?
Chris - What will she say?
Neil - I think usually, she says, no.
Chris - She's fussy then.
Neil - She's very fussy and I think has refused most of the population. I think she likes her own company. So, I think the things that we get affected by, are things like the voice. It's quite easy for us to hear emotion in a voice and that can have a very big impact. So, I think the more that you have, the more affinity you can attach to the robot. But I think it's not necessary that you have everything. So, you probably don't even need to have a face or a picture of a face. You can start developing some emotion for your robot/device even if it doesn't have a picture of it.
Chris - Do you give your robots names, Neil?
Neil - Yes, we do. For the projects, they'll all have names and they've had various themes of names over the years.
Chris - The diagnostic lab I work in, they've got things like Rob, Jane and Freddie and stuff like that. I mean, Scooby Doo. Everyone thinks it's quite funny, but it does actually kind of endear the staff to the machine they're using to do all these tests.
Neil - Yup and we've wasted many hours debating what we should call the systems in our robots.
Neil - The debates continue.
Chris - Have you got a nickname for your robot, Paul?
Paul - Yeah, all the prototypes have names. So, we've got Brigitte, Bradley, Bruno, and Brian, are our four.
Chris - So, you favour B's then.
Paul - We do, yes. So, it started with Brigitte because our prototypes are referred to as bread boards, it's the correct engineering term for them. So they often get shortened to BB in the documentation. One of the members of the project team was a fan of Brigitte Bardot and so, it became known as Brigitte and we sort of followed on with the B's from there.
Ginny - That kind of leads on to - there's a question here from Jenny Lugo who wants to know if there are any sort of ethical issues around the use of robots and she quotes this article she read which had the line, "We had people interact with very cute baby robotic dinosaurs and then at the end of the workshop, we asked them to torture and kill them. They were pretty distressed by this."
Chris - I'm not surprised.
Ginny - So, does naming your robots and sort of giving them a personality, then mean you're going to be sad when they break or are you going to miss your robot that doesn't come back from Mars?
Paul - Yeah, I guess so. There's a very sad cartoon that does its rounds on the internet of Spirit asking whether it can come home or not, but yeah, it gives them a bit of a personality. And they do have personalities and it probably makes us care for them, I think.
Chris - The Chinese lander that was exploring the moon across the Christmas period developed a problem and it sent back a message and it said, "My masters can't manage to shut me down in time for the cold weather that's coming, so I might not wake up again in the morning. Goodbye." It got virally tweeted around the world because I think everyone felt very attached to this machine. Did people get attached to your lab machines?
Neil - I think attached is a strong word, but yeah, if you've been working on a system, on a robot for a year and you know it's a prototype, and at some point, it's going to go in the skip then you think you've put so much effort into making something and then once it's served its purpose to throw it away, that's sometimes tough.
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Keratoglobus
Keratoglobus is a rare non-inflammatory corneal thinning disorder characterised by generalised thinning and globular ectasis (protrusion) of the cornea. The non-inflammatory corneal ectasias are a group of disorders characterised by corneal thinning, protrusion, and scarring. Keratoglobus forms a rarer subset of this group.
Keratoglobus was first described as a separate clinical entity by Verrey in 1947, through detailed descriptions of his patients. In the past, it was considered synonymous with megalocornea and congenital glaucoma.
The exact genetics and pathogenesis of this disorder is still not clear. There are similarities with other non-inflammatory thinning disorder like keratoconus, which gave rise to hypothesis about the aetiopathogenesis.
Keratoglobus and keratoconus are both non-inflammatory ectatic disorders of the cornea. Cavara in 1950 made distinction between keratoglobus and keratoconus. The cornea in keratoglobus is diffusely thinned, often more markedly in the peripheral cornea, whereas in keratoconus the thinning is most prominent in the central cornea. The histopathological changes seen in keratoglobus, including disruption of Bowman's layer and Descemet's membrane breaks, are very similar to those seen in advanced keratoconus. These similarities have brought about confusion as to whether the disorders comprising this group are separate clinical disorders, or rather a spectrum of the same disease process. In fact, the histological similarities have led to the speculation that keratoglobus may be an end-stage manifestation of advanced keratoconus.
Clinical presentation is characterised by progressive diminution of vision resulting from irregular corneal topography with increased corneal fragility due to extreme thinning. Conservative and surgical management for visual rehabilitation and improved tectonic (structural) stability have been described, but are challenging. In the absence of a definitive standard procedure for management of this disorder, various surgical procedures have been attempted in order to overcome the difficulties.
Both congenital and acquired forms have been shown to occur, and may be associated with various other ocular and systemic syndromes including the connective tissue disorders.
Congenital form is present at birth and is associated with:
Ehlers- Danlos syndrome type VI.
Blue sclera syndrome.
Leber's congenital amaurosis.
Acquired form presents in adulthood and may evolve from pre-existing cases of keratoconus or pellucid marginal degeneration. It is associated with:
Chronic marginal blepharitis.
Dysthyroid ophthalmopathy.
Vernal keratoconjunctivitis.
http://www.nature.com/eye/journal/v27/n9/full/eye2013130a.html
http://eyewiki.aao.org/Keratoglobus
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Meghpara Beeran, Nakamura Hiroshi, Vemuganti Geeta K, Murthy Somasheila I, Sugar Joel, Yue Beatrice YJT, Edward Deepak P. Arch Ophthalmol 2009; 127(8): 1029.
Cavara V. Keratoglobus and keratoconus: a contribution to the nosological interpretation of keratoglobus. Br J Ophthalmol. 1950; 34(10): 621– 626.
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Patients are generally asymptomatic.
Poor vision.
Suboptimal visual acuity with spectacle correction.
Poor fit, associated pain or suboptimal visual acuity with use of contact lenses.
Patient developing acute hydrops may present with:
Pain.
Watering.
Photophobia.
Sudden diminution of vision.
Due to extreme thinning and fragility of cornea, patients may present with:
Corneal perforation.
Causes of Keratoglobus may be:
Congenital: Keratoglobus is primarily considered a congenital disorder present since birth. The congenital form of the disorder is always bilateral. The exact genetics of the disorder have not been studied in detail and no definite inheritance pattern has been described. It is assumed to be autosomal recessive.
It has also been associated with:
- Ehlers–Danlos syndrome type VI: Ehlers–Danlos syndrome type VI is distinct for its ocular manifestations. These include corneal abnormalities of cornea plana, keratoconus and keratoglobus, blue sclera, and ocular fragility. Other systemic features in this type are the presence of hypermobile joints, skeletal abnormalities like scoliosis, pectus excavatum, a marfanoid habitus, and hearing loss. Skin laxity and fragility is not a characteristic finding, unlike in other types of Ehlers–Danlos syndromes, and lysyl hydroxylase activity may be normal.
- Marfan syndrome.
- Rubinstein–Taybi syndrome.
- Blue sclera syndromes: Blue sclera syndromes may be the manifestation of syndromes like Ehlers–Danlos syndrome type VI or osteogenesis imperfecta.
- Leber's congenital amaurosis.
Acquired: In recent years, there have been reports of acquired forms of keratoglobus. It has been associated with disorders such as:
- Vernal keratoconjunctivitis.
- Chronic marginal blepharitis.
- Dysthyroid ophthalmopathy.
- Idiopathic orbital inflammation.
Case reports of keratoglobus being associated with syphilis, trauma and posterior polymorphous dystrophy have also been reported in the literature.
There are reports of keratoconus and keratoglobus, as well as pellucid marginal corneal degeneration and keratoglobus being clinically documented in the same patient over time. Overlaps in aetiological factors between keratoconus, pellucid marginal degeneration, and keratoglobus, such as their manifestations in connective tissue disorders and various acquired forms leads to speculation about their being different spectrums of the same disease. However, a constant association and progression between these ectatic disorders has not been described to validate the hypothesis.
The diagnosis of keratoglobus is essentially clinical, owing to the characteristic clinical findings. In less severe cases, there may be difficulty in differentiating the condition from other ectatic conditions.
Keratoglobus, a bilateral ectatic disorder of the cornea, is characterised by a globular protrusion of the cornea associated with diffuse thinning from limbus to limbus. The age of onset is at birth.
Patients usually present with stable or worsening bilateral visual impairment which may not be corrected with spectacles or contact lenses. Rarely, patient may present with acute pain in eyes due to acute hydrops.
Clinical diagnosis is made by slit lamp examination (bio-microscopy) of the eye.
Clinical features:
Irregular retinoscopic reflex.
Myopia or high myopia.
Irregular astigmatism.
Globular protrusion of cornea.
Diffuse corneal thinning, most severe in peripheral part and may be up to one- fifth of the normal corneal thickness.
Folds, breaks, or thickening of Descemet's membrane.
Spontaneous rupture or tear of Descemet's membrane.
Clear cornea unless there are episodes of acute hydrops and scarring.
Normal corneal diameter, which distinguishes it from buphthalmos.
Vogt striae and Fleischer's rings are not associated, unlike keratoconus.
Investigational procedures:
Corneal topography or videokeratography: Corneal topography or videokeratography show diffuse thinning.
Ultrasonic pachymetry: Ultrasonic pachymetry shows reduced corneal thickness.
Anterior segment optical coherence tomography (AS- OCT).
Scheimpflug analysis: A Scheimpflug system images the anterior segment by creating an optical section of the cornea. Topography and pachymetry of the cornea is calculated and displayed which shows generalised thinning.
Systemic examination may show features of blue sclera, skeletal abnormalities, hyper-mobility of joints, hearing loss, abnormal dentition or high-arched palate. There may be features specific to each syndrome. It has been seen in few cases that keratoglobus in association with blue sclera syndromes is more probable to undergo spontaneous perforation or after minimal trauma, and hence the name 'brittle cornea' is used.
Histopathology:
There are frequent disruptions or complete absence of Bowman's layer, stromal thinning and disorganisation, and breaks or thickening of Descemet's membrane. Acquired type of keratoglobus is characterised by an essentially normal Bowman's layer that undergoes focal breaks with superficial stromal ectasia secondary to other corneal pathology.
Immunohistochemical studies: There are limited immunohistochemical studies in cases of keratoglobus. Meghpara et al. (2009) found decreased expression of proteinase inhibitor alpha-1-PI, and increased expression of the transcription factor Sp1 in the corneal epithelial cells. They found increased expression of matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) 1, 2, and 3 within the epithelial cells. The MMPs are responsible for degradation of some component of the extracellular matrix. Increased Sp1 and MMP 1, 2, and 3 was found diffusely throughout the cornea, but maximally at the mid-periphery and corresponded to areas of underlying Bowman's layer disruptions. The increased expression of pro-degradation products and decreased expression of inhibitory substances is most probably a key pathogenic factor in causing ectasia.
Differential diagnosis:
Keratoconus: Keratoconus develops around puberty and may progress until 40–50 years of age, whereas keratoglobus presents at birth. Keratoglobus is considered a non-progressive or minimally progressive disorder. The corneal thinning in keratoconus is most commonly seen in the inferior paracentral aspect of the cornea. The protrusion is commonly described as conical in shape, with maximal thinning at the apex. Keratoglobus presents with diffuse thinning and a globular protrusion. Keratoconus shows scarring, Vogt's striae and Fleischer's ring.
Pellucid marginal degeneration: Pellucid marginal degeneration presents around 20–40 years of age. Thinning involves the inferior aspect of cornea, as a band of 1–2 mm width and extending from 4 to 8 o'clock position. Protrusion occur superior to this area of thinning, leading to characteristic topographical patterns. Scarring and hydrops may also occur as well.
Congenital glaucoma: Congenital glaucoma may show moderate protrusion of the cornea, hydrops, and mild astigmatism with myopia. Hallmark of Congenital glaucoma is raised intraocular pressure and possible glaucomatous optic nerve changes that would be absent in the case of keratoglobus. There is no corneal thinning and corneal diameters may be increased. In congenital glaucoma, the myopia would result primarily from the increased anterior and posterior axial length, whereas in keratoglobus it would be mainly because of the increased corneal curvature.
Megalocornea: In megalocornea, the main differentiating feature is the increased corneal diameter (usually over 12.5 mm) with absence of any corneal thinning. This is in contrast to keratoglobus where corneal diameters are normal and there is profound, diffuse thinning. There is therefore an absence of any corneal protrusion, astigmatism, hydrops, or scarring in cases of megalocornea.
Corneal ectasia following refractive surgery.
Management should be carried out under medical supervision.
Conservative therapy:
Protective eye wear: Patients should use protective eye wear and avoid contact sports owing to the high risk of perforation. Enforcement of use of protective glasses is difficult in children, making them susceptible to injury.
Medical therapy:
Spectacle correction: High myopia may be corrected with spectacles, but is limited by high irregular astigmatism.
Contact lenses: Use of contact lenses is still a matter of debate because of the theoretical risk of perforation on contact lens insertion and removal over corneas that are known to perforate on even trivial trauma. The extreme protrusion and irregularity makes fitting complicated, with a need for balance between optical improvement and lens stability. Customised fitting of scleral lenses, small diameter rigid gas permeable (RGP) lenses, reverse geometry hydrogel lenses, as well as large diameter inverse geometry RGP lenses have been described for corneal ectasias.
Conventional treatment of acute hydrops is nonspecific, and involves the use of patching, bandage contact lens, topical hypertonic saline, and cycloplegics to reduce the oedema. In recent years intra-cameral (in anterior chamber of eye) gas has been tried for acute hydrops.
Surgical therapy:
Surgically, there is no known standard procedure for management of the condition owing to its rarity. Individual procedures have their own advantages and disadvantages.
Repair of perforations: Repair of perforations commonly resulted in poor outcomes because of the nature of the perforations that are usually large, and owing to the fragility of the thinned cornea that prevented stable placement of sutures that would cut through or 'cheese-wire'.
Penetrating keratoplasty: Penetrating keratoplasty in keratoglobus is also not possible because of the thinned cornea and peripheral graft–host thickness disparity that prevents adequate wound closure. Patients also are left with extreme irregular astigmatism and ultimately poor visual outcome. Large limbus to limbus donor corneal grafts have been tried to avoid placement of the graft–host junction at the thinned mid-periphery, thereby creating better stability.
Pentacam- based deep anterior lamellar keratoplasty (DALK): In deep anterior lamellar keratoplasty (DALK), the anterior third to two-thirds of the cornea is replaced with donor tissue. Use of pentacam provides a three-dimensional image or thickness profile of the entire cornea preoperatively.
Corneoscleroplasty: Corneoscleroplasty involves a central full thickness penetrating keratoplasty with a lamellar peripheral corneoscleral dissection from the edge of the full thickness keratoplasty.
Epikeratoplasty: Epikeratoplasty is a rare form of surgery. This is a type of on-lay lamellar keratoplasty in which a lens made of human corneal tissue is sutured onto the anterior surface of the cornea to change its anterior curvature and refraction.
'Tuck-in' lamellar keratoplasty: 'Tuck-in' lamellar keratoplasty refers to a central lamellar keratoplasty with intrastromal tucking of the peripheral flange.
Corneoscleral rim: Corneoscleral rim is a temporary measure to provide tectonic stability over thinned corneal periphery. It slows progression of mid- peripheral thinning and delays further surgical intervention.
The prognosis for keratoglobus is poor. Spectacle correction often results in sub-optimal 'best corrected visual acuity' (BCVA).
Surgical correction may be associated with complications.
Complications of keratoglobus may be:
Acute corneal hydrops: Advanced keratoglobus rarely may progress to acute corneal hydrops due to breaks in Descemet's membrane, leading to corneal oedema.
Corneal perforation: Corneal perforation may occur either spontaneously or following minor trauma.
PUBLISHED DATE : Sep 07, 2016
PUBLISHED BY : Zahid
CREATED / VALIDATED BY : Dr. S. C. Gupta
LAST UPDATED ON : Sep 07, 2016
The content on this page has been supervised by the Nodal Officer, Project Director and Assistant Director (Medical) of Centre for Health Informatics. Relevant references are cited on each page.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Мейсон (округ, Іллінойс)
Мейсон (округ, Кентуккі)
Мейсон (округ, Мічиган)
Мейсон (округ, Техас)
Мейсон (округ, Вашингтон)
Мейсон (округ, Західна Вірджинія)

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


David Lee wrote: The author (both human and divine) would write in a way that the epistle could be understood by most readers, especially if it was meant to be passed around and read in different churches. I think languages have enough nuance that by using certain vocabulary, word order, and word patterns, a fluent immersed reader would be clear on what the epistle is saying, at least semantically.
David Lee wrote: What resources can I consult that tackle the question of how to recognize questions in greek?
Stephen Carlson wrote: Well, the original recipient would have the letter read aloud. If the reader was the letter carrier on Paul's behalf, then he or she would know how to intone it.
David Lee wrote: Yes, but the recipients of the epistle would have unambiguously read it one way or the other.
Well, the original recipient would have the letter read aloud. If the reader was the letter carrier on Paul's behalf, then he or she would know how to intone it.
David Lee wrote: What cues are there (given that there are no punctuations in the original) that allow us to tell whether a phrase is a question or a statement? For example, in English, when we begin with "do you...", it's pretty clear that it's a question even though we don't hear the rest of the question or see the question mark.
David Lee wrote: Or more broadly, how can you tell if a positive phrase (lacking οὐκ/μὴ) is a question?
Have you been filled? Are you now rich? Have you started reigning without us?
You are already filled, you have already become rich, you have become kings without us; and indeed, I wish that you had become kings so that we also might reign with you.
Already you have all you want! Already you have become rich! Without us you have become kings! And would that you did reign, so that we might share the rule with you!
Already you have all you want! Already you have become rich! You have begun to reign—and that without us! How I wish that you really had begun to reign so that we also might reign with you!
ἤδη κεκορεσμένοι ἐστέ; ἤδη ἐπλουτήσατε; χωρὶς ἡμῶν ἐβασιλεύσατε; καὶ ὄφελόν γε ἐβασιλεύσατε, ἵνα καὶ ἡμεῖς ὑμῖν συνβασιλεύσωμεν.
Bible study tonight with the Lutheran's it was nice to hear 'em talk about the dry bones. And ask what it meant.
Sometimes you just gotta shut up and be nice.
I'll look up the verse but I don't remember God asking me anything.
Sounds like they had a little bit of that NAR back then to.
So if I understand correctly, Paul is saying he wasn't rich or looking to reign, (in the natural) apart from Jesus Christ.
I would think that lines up with Psalm 110 and other N.T. verses of that type.
There has to be a balance. I think we are to be salt and light as best we are able. Some are more able. I think of school teachers, judges, law makers, even governor's and presidents, soldiers etc. We are to have some influence for Christ some influence for Jesus Christ and Righteousness.
Obviously the role of the law and morality is a huge subject.


Friday 30/9/16 New Moon Day!
The New Moon is in Libra!
Mars in Capricorn trines Retrograde Ceres in Taurus.
This New Moon cycle in Libra brings fresh and creative energy into our lives, and more specifically, into our relationships. This would be one of the more auspicious lunar cycle as the Libra New Moon is conjunct with Jupiter ( who is also in the sign of Libra). So the planet of good luck, fortune and expansion is in the sign of Libra who is ruled by Venus the goddess of love and abundance along with this New Moon also in lovely Libra can only mean positivity and expansion is set to unfold in our personal and profession relationships!! So gang, today put some time aside and set your intentions about what you want to bring into your life. Especially in regards to romance, relationships, beauty , abundance, balance and harmony!
New Moons are a great time when, whether you want more of the same or you want to change something in your life altogether. Use the New Moon energy to positively get clear about your hopes and dreams and plant seeds of intention.
Libra is a sign that invites us to bring harmony and start anew in our relationships. This month it is a time to work on re-balancing our relationships (personal and business) and to recognise our partners as teammates rather than our rivals. We will have a chance to build and develop our negotiating skills without compromising our principles or needs. Libra ruled by Venus has a beautiful ability to bring into our life peace and harmony, love, beauty and the energy and means to help us balance areas in our lives that require commitment and effort.
Mars in Capricorn trines Retrograde Ceres in Taurus. This planetary position is about harmoniously aligning our will. Our warrior drive with the Great Mother Asteroid that rules over Mother Earth and the unification of giving and receiving through the exchange of our energy. Negotiations may be especially useful today as we channel our warrior energy to support and assert our needs and the needs of those who can't defend themselves, in ways that don't offend others. We feel compelled and motivated to take actions in our lives, nurturing our needs and bringing more security and stability into our world.
The New Moon will also form a square with both Mars and Pluto, this may mean we need to overcome any resistance and avoid any power struggles that may arise. But with the Sun in Libra who is ruled by Venus in a close trine to Neptune, we will be more compassionate and open to making changes, also be willing to compromise and find the balance!


BOSTON — This is it. The final time.
Shalane Flanagan made that clear Friday morning at the Fairmont Copley Hotel, stating that Monday's 122nd running of the Boston Marathon would be the last time she competes to win on her hometown course.
Wanting to finally win what she refers to as "her" race — having grown up about 16½ miles from the finish line on Bolyston Street — the 36-year-old Flanagan said she's well prepared, focused and ready to do whatever it takes.


text:
Toshiba Announces Methanol Fuel Cell for Portable Devices
The world leader in bringing fuel-celltechnology to portable products, today announced a prototype of highly compact,direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC) that opens the way to the use of DMFCas an alternative power source to recharge batteries for personal devicesas small as cell phones, digital still cameras, PDAs and mobile TVs. The new DMFC issmall enough to fit in a carry-on bag or even in a jeans pocket as aportable power source.
Toshiba led the industry in announcing the first DMFC for portable PCs in March this year. The latest announcement confirms that the company remains a step ahead of its competitors in developing the potential of fuel cells. Toshiba expects to commercialize DMFC for both portable PCs and handheld products within 2005. The new DMFC will provide a greater freedom for users of those handheld equipments to easily recharge the batteries in a mobile environment,whether they are away from home on business travel or out on a beach.
Toshiba's new DMFC for portable devices realizes an average output of 1 watt per hour for approximately twenty hours of operation as total ona single 25cc fuel cartridge of high concentration methanol.
Drawing on know-how gained in its work on DMFC for portable PCs,Toshiba achieved the miniaturization necessary for a fuel cell for use with handheld products by minimizing the size of auxiliary parts, such as the fuel tank, the liquid and air transmission pumps, the interface and electric circuits and the DC-DC converter. The methanol fuel is also stored at a high concentration, allowing the fuel cartridge to be reduced to a volume of only 25cc. The fruit of these development efforts is a DMFC with a volume off only 140cc; a DMFC that fits snugly into the palm of the hand.
Toshiba will present the DMFC for portable devices at CEATEC JAPAN 2003 in Makuhari Messe to be held in Chiba prefecture, Japan from October 7 to 11.
Some key technologies
Methanol in a fuel cell delivers power most efficiently when mixed with water in a 3 to 6% methanol concentration – a concentration requiring a fuel tank that is much too large for use with portable equipment.Toshiba overcame this by developing a system that allows a higher concentration of methanol to be diluted by the water produced asa by-product of the power generation process. This technology allows methanol to be stored at a much higher concentration, and achieves a fuel tank less than 1/10 the size of that required for storing the same volume of methanol in a 3 to 6% concentration.The current prototype can operate for approximately twenty hours on25cc of high concentration methanol.
Toshiba will continue development of DFMC technology, with the aim of product commercialization for portable PCs and cellular phones within 2005.
Toshiba's Mobile Methanol Fuel Cell
Toshiba Fuel Cell Officially Certified as World's Smallest by Guinness
KDDI Develops Prototype Fuel-Cell Mobile Phones with Toshiba, Hitachi, Ltd
KDDI: Fuel Cells in 2007; Where's NEC?
Fuel-Cell Mobile Phones for Digital TV
previous post: Enfour Partners with Houghton Mifflin Company's American Heritage :: next post: Sharp's New High-Res LCD Panel


This online Illinois Adult Drivers Ed course is approved for adults ages 18-20 who need to obtain an Illinois driver's license and have not previously held a driver's license in any other state or completed a classroom driver education course. Certificates will only be issued to those students who complete the course and are between the ages of 18 and 20 years old.
The course contains videos, interactive games and driving safety simulations so that you can have fun and be engaged while you learn. At the conclusion of each chapter you will be prompted to take a quiz. Upon passing the quiz you will move to the next chapter. At the conclusion of the course you will take a final exam. You must pass with a score of 75%. Upon passing our course, you will be able to download a certificate of completion which you must present to the Illinois SOS in order to apply for your first Illinois Driver's License.
Start and stop the course whenever you like. We'll save your progress!
Have the course read aloud with our FREE course audio feature.
Our mobile compatible program allows you take the course on any laptop, mobile or tablet device!
24/7 online or telephone customer support.
Low Price Guarantee – if you find a lower online course price, let us know and we'll beat it!
Fast and free electronic delivery of your certificate of completion!
IMPORTANT NOTICE: IF THERE ARE ANY COMPLAINTS ABOUT THIS WEBSITE OR OUR PROGRAM YOU MUST CALL THE SECRETARY OF STATE, COMMERCIAL DRIVING SECTION, AT 847-981-7459. ALSO, PLEASE NOTE THAT WE ARE PROHIBITED FROM SELLING OR DISCLOSING ANY CONSUMER INFORMATION THAT YOU MAY BE ASKED TO PROVIDE WHEN REGISTERING FOR THIS COURSE.


Located on Lot 40 Off Jones Road on Left across from Kent Farms (in 2005). Must walk south approximately 1000 yards from roadway into woods.
Land owners on 1869 Atlas (viewable on this website, Town of Andover) were Corwins & Boyds.
The old Maple Tree standing proudly in the very center of this cemetery could very well be one of the original Maples planted by the Corwins & Boyds. It exceeds 3' through the trunk.


text:
Q: c++ open a Window İ am new at c++ programming.When i compile this code it dont giving any error,but while its still running ,I cant see any Window.I copied this code from a book to my visual c++.What i am doing wrong. thanks for everything
// How to print text in Win32 C/C++
// Auther: -LeetGamer-

#include <Windows.h>
#include <WindowsX.h>

LRESULT CALLBACK WindowProc(HWND hWnd,UINT message,WPARAM wParam,LPARAM lParam);

int WINAPI WinMain (HINSTANCE hInstance, HINSTANCE hPrevInstance, LPSTR lpCmdLine, int nCmdShow)
{
    WNDCLASSEX ps;
    HWND hWnd;

    ZeroMemory(&ps,sizeof(WNDCLASSEX));

    ps.cbSize=sizeof(WNDCLASSEX);
    ps.style=CS_HREDRAW | CS_VREDRAW ;
    ps.lpfnWndProc=(WNDPROC)WindowProc;
    ps.hInstance=hInstance;
    ps.hCursor=LoadCursor(NULL,IDC_ARROW);
    ps.hbrBackground=(HBRUSH)COLOR_WINDOW;
    ps.lpszClassName="asdasdasd";

    RegisterClassEx(&ps);

    hWnd=CreateWindowEx(NULL,"ASDASDDA","dsfsdfsdf",WS_OVERLAPPEDWINDOW,300,300,500,400,NULL,NULL,hInstance,NULL);

    ShowWindow(hWnd,nCmdShow);

    MSG mesaj;

    while(GetMessage(&mesaj,NULL,0,0))
    {
        TranslateMessage(&mesaj);
        DispatchMessage(&mesaj);
    }

    return mesaj.wParam;
}

LRESULT CALLBACK WindowProc(HWND hWnd,UINT message,WPARAM wParam,LPARAM lParam)
{
    switch(message)
    {
        case WM_DESTROY:
            {
                PostQuitMessage(0);
                return 0;
            }
            break;

    }

    return DefWindowProc(hWnd,message,wParam,lParam);
}

A: The class name must be the same in RegisterClassEx and CreateWindowEx
use:
const char * pszClassName = "MyClassName";

[...]

ps.lpszClassName = pszClassName;

[...]

hWnd = CreateWindowEx( NULL, pszClassName, [...]

Also, take the habit of checking results from APIs. Here, CreateWindowEx returned NULL.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


When looking for wedding venues in San Francisco, The Clift San Francisco offers so much more than classic elegance. From the Phillippe Starck-designed interiors and old-world hotel glamour to private rooms for bridal showers, brunches and teas—our hotel stands-out as a perfect spot for San Francisco weddings.
Attention to detail and an experienced staff help to craft your one-of-a kind experience whether a traditional sit-down, dinner party or contemporary cocktails. It's no wonder we're recognized among wedding venues in San Francisco. Speak to one of our experienced event staff to create your one-of-a-kind day.
With the soaring lobby, elegant dining venues and experienced event planners you'll surely want to host your San Francisco wedding reception here. We also cater to rehearsal dinners, showers and additional family gatherings. Our wedding professionals will craft a one-of-a kind experience you won't forget.
Our exceptional catering and event menus and services elevate your special event to new culinary heights. Our talented chefs and catering managers welcome the opportunity to create menus tailored to your specific tastes.


text:
Kallumoras är en kulle i Finland.   Den ligger i den ekonomiska regionen Norra Lappland och landskapet Lappland, i den norra delen av landet,  km norr om huvudstaden Helsingfors. Toppen på Kallumoras är  meter över havet, eller  meter över den omgivande terrängen. Bredden vid basen är  km.

Terrängen runt Kallumoras är huvudsakligen platt. Den högsta punkten i närheten är  meter över havet,  km väster om Kallumoras.  Trakten runt Kallumoras är nära nog obefolkad, med mindre än två invånare per kvadratkilometer. Det finns inga samhällen i närheten. Omgivningarna runt Kallumoras är i huvudsak ett öppet busklandskap.

Trakten ingår i den boreala klimatzonen. Årsmedeltemperaturen i trakten är  °C. Den varmaste månaden är juli, då medeltemperaturen är  °C, och den kallaste är februari, med  °C.

Kommentarer

Källor

Kullar i Lappland, Finland
Berg i Finland 200 meter över havet eller högre

Artiklar med robotjusterad position


>> > patched to use `mktemp'.
Everyone seems to agree that this is the way forward.  So, how about we just remove the current mktemp patch, rather than wait for coreutils to make a release containing their implementation?  This could give us a little more time to root out any scripts that still call `tempfile', though from Bryan & Bruce's investigations, there don't appear to be too many.


Joseph C. Bardin, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering, has helped scientists at Google design and build a small, low-power controller to be used with quantum computers – devices that operate at near absolute zero to take advantage of physical phenomena that only occur at those temperatures. Bardin, along with Erik Lucero, staff research scientist and hardware lead for the Google AI Quantum Team, described the new devices on Google's AI Blog in a Feb. 21 post.
They say the new controller shows they have made significant progress toward an efficient, reliable and scalable means of controlling quantum systems' electronics — systems scientists hope will someday solve computationally complex problems beyond the reach of classical machines.
At the International Solid State Circuits Conference (ISSCC) in San Francisco last week, Bardin and researchers on the company's (artificial intelligence) AI Quantum team unveiled a cryogenic controller fabricated using CMOS – conventional computer chip technology. Google says the 1-millimeter-by-1.6-millimeter controller — which provides an instruction set for single-qubit operations — runs at 3 degrees Kelvin (about -454.27 degrees Fahrenheit) and consumes less than 2 milliwatts of power — 1,000 times less power than Google's current control electronics. A qubit is the basic unit of quantum information.
Bardin says the new controller is a first step in steamlining the complex network of technology needed to connect the quantum computing element with traditional computers that operate at room temperature. The new custom integrated circuits, by contrast, control qubits, the basic units of quantum information, from within the cooling system, reducing the number of physical connections needed to and from quantum processors. According to Google, baseline experiments for the controller hardware show "similar" performance compared with its standard qubit control electronics.
Bardin and Erik Lucero caution that it's merely a first step toward a "truly scalable" qubit management system — the controller only addresses a single qubit, and it still requires several connections to room temperature. Still, they say it's promising progress in the pursuit of reducing the energy required to control qubits while maintaining the control required to perform "high-quality" qubit operations.


BGC Partners, Inc. (NASDAQ:BGCP), an international brokerage company servicing the financial and real estate markets, today announces that it has sealed a committed unsecured credit agreement with a group of lenders. The agreement provides for maximum revolving loans of $150 million, with the option to increase the aggregate loans to $200 million.
On February 25, 2016, BGC entered into an agreement with Bank of America, N.A., as administrative agent, and a syndicate of lenders, including Capital One, N.A.; Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Limited, New York Branch; U.S. Bank National Association; Associated Bank, National Association; BankUnited, N.A.; and Western Alliance Bank. The maturity date of the facility is February 25, 2018.
Borrowings under this facility will bear interest at either LIBOR or a defined base rate plus an additional margin. This margin will range from 50 basis points to 250 basis points, depending on BGC's debt rating as determined by S&P and Fitch and whether the loan is a LIBOR loan or a base rate loan.
"We are very pleased to announce this new credit agreement, which further enhances the Company's operating flexibility with respect to our growth strategy. We already have a very strong balance sheet, with more than $1 billion of liquidity. In addition, we expect to receive over $760 million in additional Nasdaq stock over time, which is not yet reflected on our balance sheet. This agreement bolsters our already robust financial position, while giving us even more resources we can use to make continued and disciplined investments for the long-term benefit of the Company.
For the official announcement from BGC Partners, click here.


2008-07-19 23:48:10 OPEN GOLF - Special news bulletin.
2008-07-18 20:08:12 OPEN GOLF - Special news bulletin.
2008-07-17 23:18:12 OPEN GOLF - Special news bulletin.
2008-07-17 20:08:12 OPEN GOLF - Special news bulletin.
1st Day Of Competition. 1st Update.
2008-07-16 23:45:09 OPEN GOLF - Special news bulletin.
2008-07-14 23:45:09 OPEN GOLF - Special news bulletin.


text:
Dismantling Stigma and Discrimination in Health Services in the Dominican Republic
Ruby reading the anti-stigma and discrimination policies at a public hospital.
Ruby Mercenario is a 32-year-old transgender woman who receives care at the Francisco Gonzalvo public hospital in the La Romana province of the Dominican Republic. She praises the benefits of receiving services at a place free of stigma and discrimination.
"Doctors refer to me by my female name, and there's respect for gay and transgender people. The doctors at this hospital are very knowledgeable about the health needs of gay and transgender people, the bullying has stopped, and the doorman defends us if he sees we are being mistreated."
Unfortunately, this was not always the case. Ruby recalls that "it used to be terrible for transgender people to try to access services at the health centers. As soon as you arrived at the hospital people would start teasing you. The doorman and the motorcycle drivers would bully the transgender girls who came for medical care. The doctors wouldn't even see you and they would send you from one place to another. There was a lot of discrimination."
Stigma and discrimination continue to be among the most misunderstood aspects of the HIV epidemic. People who are HIV-positive, or who believe they are, frequently suffer rejection, abuse, and exclusion from the health system, especially if they happen to be men who have sex with men, transgender people, or sex workers. This is a significant barrier to prevention and treatment, which compounds the effects of the epidemic.
In 2016, the Advancing Partners & Communities (APC) project—funded by the United States Agency for International Development within the framework of the U.S. President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief— implemented a series of interventions to reduce stigma and discrimination against key populations (men who have sex with men, transgender people, and sex workers) and people living with HIV in 17 public and private sector health centers.
APC completed the following activities:
Strengthened institutional capacity of the health centers to implement effective programs to address stigma and discrimination.
Sensitized and trained health personnel on different issues related to stigma and discrimination.
Facilitated collaboration between hospital authorities and civil society organizations that work with key populations.
Established procedures for anonymous reporting of cases of stigma and discrimination.
Facilitated periodic meetings with hospital committees to follow up on reported cases of stigma and discrimination.
Encouraged exchange of experiences and best practices between the health centers and representatives of key populations.
Since implementation of the anti-stigma and discrimination policies and procedures at these health centers, beneficiaries are able to access services in an environment where they are treated with respect and are supported.
"The hospital director helps us a lot, she is always checking to see how we are doing. In addition to the counselors, the HIV clinic staff and the laboratory and emergency care staff now treat transgender women with respect when they come to the hospital. There has been a huge change here," says Ruby.


text:
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.IO;

namespace SPR.Blog.Models
{
    public class PhysicalFileSystem : IFileSystem
    {
        public void CreateDirectory(string path)
        {
            Directory.CreateDirectory(path);
        }

        public bool DirectoryExists(string path)
        {
            return Directory.Exists(path);
        }

        public void DeleteFile(string path)
        {
            File.Delete(path);
        }

        public bool FileExists(string path)
        {
            return File.Exists(path);
        }

        public string ReadFileText(string path)
        {
            return File.ReadAllText(path);
        }

        public void WriteFileText(string path, string text)
        {
            File.WriteAllText(path, text);
        }

        public IEnumerable<string> EnumerateFiles(string directoryPath)
        {
            return Directory.EnumerateFiles(directoryPath);
        }

        public DateTime GetFileLastWriteTime(string path)
        {
            return File.GetLastWriteTime(path);
        }

        public void WriteFile(string path, byte[] data)
        {
            File.WriteAllBytes(path, data);
        }

        public void AppendFile(string path, byte[] data)
        {
            Stream outStream = File.OpenWrite(path);
            outStream.Seek(0, SeekOrigin.End);
            outStream.Write(data, 0, data.Length);
        }

        public void AppendFile(string path, byte[] data, int offset, int count)
        {
            using (Stream outStream = File.OpenWrite(path))
            {
                outStream.Seek(0, SeekOrigin.End);
                outStream.Write(data, offset, count);
            }
        }
    }
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


While inequality between states is decreasing, more and more societies face growing inequalities within the countries they are living in. According to latest figures , the richest 1% of the global population owns 48% of the global wealth while 52% is owned by 99%. Inequality is not only represented by income or GDP, it is closely connected to limited opportunities for certain people. Horizontal inequality which describes inequality between groups because of their gender, race, ethnicity, disability or religious orientation, is getting more and more attention as it fuels instability and conflict.
Societies face pressing international challenges such as globalization, economic crises and religious conflicts. In this context civil society organizations often realize that the space available for participation, social engagement and open dialogue is shrinking and political, socio-economic and cultural human rights around the world are being violated.
Democracy is on the wane in many countries throughout the world, leading to increased discrimination against disadvantaged population groups and giving rise to more conflicts. The tide of protest against growing social inequality has surged globally and continues unabated, accompanied by demands for more participation and better living conditions. Participation and inclusiveness should be at the center of supporting cohesive societies, in particular the support of democratic processes, decision making and distribution of power.
On a political level, what is needed to reduce the income gap between rich and poor in developing countries as well as emerging economies? How can issues of inequality be tackled in a more comprehensive and cross-sectoral way?
How can inclusive participation be guaranteed in a world that is getting more complex and is increasingly faced with international challenges?
Does it need a fresh impetus to effectively integrate local, national, regional and global initiatives to better protect human rights and foster inclusion?
What new forms of participation and dialogue between state and society can be identified? Which actors must be involved and how? What alliances do we need to reduce risks and drive sustainable development (especially under the consideration of emerging economies)?
How do we build inclusive and legitimate political institutions at local, national and international level that are able to engage in dialogue with citizens? What role can civil society play?
How can international Cooperation support the inclusiveness of policy?
What new tasks are on the horizon for cooperation? How can GIZ support partnership-based actions between industrialized nations, emerging economies and developing countries?
How can international cooperation help eliminate legal and/or socio-economic discrimination against certain population groups? How can we secure equal rights of participation, particularly for women and other vulnerable groups?