Mythological and Prehistorical Origins of Neurosurgery.

Science.gov (United States)

Nanda, Anil; Filis, Andreas; Kalakoti, Piyush

2016-05-01

Mythology has a cultural appeal, and the description of some neurosurgical procedures in the Hindu, Greek, Egyptian, and Chinese mythology has a bearing to the origins of our professions. The traces to some of our modern-day practices also can be linked back to the ancient prehistoric eras of the Siberian, Persian, and the Andean region. In this historical perspective, we briefly dwell into individual accounts through the prism of different cultures to highlight the development of neurosurgery in mythology and prehistoric era. Published by Elsevier Inc.

Human induced prehistoric and historical soil erosion and landscape development in Southwestern USA

Science.gov (United States)

Dotterweich, Markus; Ivester, Andrew H.; Hanson, Paul R.; Daniel, Larsen; Dye, David H.; Foster, Thomas H., II

2015-04-01

gathered data will be used to i) compare the spatial extent of prehistoric and historic erosion and the short-term and long-term pedological and geomorphological effects of subtle soil erosion against extreme events, ii) assess the feedback-mechanisms of soil erosion on soil fertility and measurable land use changes in prehistorical and historical times, and (iii) estimate the long term effects of soil erosion and sediment deposition on archaeological features. The outcome will provide a decisive step forward to gather new qualitative and quantitative information on soil erosion during the Native American land use period to be able to achieve a better understanding of the long-term human induced landscape evolution in the uplands of the Southeastern USA and deliver data for a better predicting of landscape evolution to future climatic shifts in precipitation regimes.

Human mobility: Models and applications

Science.gov (United States)

Barbosa, Hugo; Barthelemy, Marc; Ghoshal, Gourab; James, Charlotte R.; Lenormand, Maxime; Louail, Thomas; Menezes, Ronaldo; Ramasco, José J.; Simini, Filippo; Tomasini, Marcello

2018-03-01

Recent years have witnessed an explosion of extensive geolocated datasets related to human movement, enabling scientists to quantitatively study individual and collective mobility patterns, and to generate models that can capture and reproduce the spatiotemporal structures and regularities in human trajectories. The study of human mobility is especially important for applications such as estimating migratory flows, traffic forecasting, urban planning, and epidemic modeling. In this survey, we review the approaches developed to reproduce various mobility patterns, with the main focus on recent developments. This review can be used both as an introduction to the fundamental modeling principles of human mobility, and as a collection of technical methods applicable to specific mobility-related problems. The review organizes the subject by differentiating between individual and population mobility and also between short-range and long-range mobility. Throughout the text the description of the theory is intertwined with real-world applications.

Bear phalanx traumatically introduced into a living human: Prehistoric evidence.

Science.gov (United States)

Richards, Gary D; Ojeda, Hillary M; Jabbour, Rebecca S; Ibarra, Caitlin L; Horton, Caroline F

2013-03-01

Traumatically induced skeletal injuries are common and can be ascribed to a normal range of events occurring in an individual's lifetime. A subset of these trauma-induced injuries provides enhanced insight into cultural history. Such cases might include those referable to medico-surgical and religious/ritualistic practices. We describe prehistoric evidence and cultural implications of the traumatic insertion of an Ursus manual phalanx into the elbow of a living human. The injury healed and the phalanx remained in situ until death. The individual derives from the Ellis Landing shellmound and dates to a subphase of the Middle Period (≈500BC-300AD) in the California cultural sequence. The remains are of a 30-40 year-old female. Comparative data on arm morphology and pathological conditions present were collected (n=159). Three Ursus subspecies (n=15) were examined to identify the taxon represented by the phalanx. The described individual was probably wearing bear paw ornaments at the time she was crushed by a heavy object. During this event, a bear claw was driven into her cubital fossa, the basal phalangeal tubercle being impressed into the humerus. The wound healed completely. The presence of Ursus body parts indicates an elevated societal role for this female; most likely she was a shaman or healer. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

A GIS approach for predicting prehistoric site locations.

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kuiper, J. A.; Wescott, K. L.

1999-08-04

Use of geographic information system (GIS)-based predictive mapping to locate areas of high potential for prehistoric archaeological sites is becoming increasingly popular among archaeologists. Knowledge of the environmental variables influencing activities of original inhabitants is used to produce GIS layers representing the spatial distribution of those variables. The GIS layers are then analyzed to identify locations where combinations of environmental variables match patterns observed at known prehistoric sites. Presented are the results of a study to locate high-potential areas for prehistoric sites in a largely unsurveyed area of 39,000 acres in the Upper Chesapeake Bay region, including details of the analysis process. The project used environmental data from over 500 known sites in other parts of the region and the results corresponded well with known sites in the study area.

Contrasting patterns of prehistoric human diet and subsistence in northernmost Europe.

Science.gov (United States)

Pääkkönen, Mirva; Bläuer, Auli; Olsen, Bjørnar; Evershed, Richard P; Asplund, Henrik

2018-01-18

Current archaeological evidence indicates the transition from hunting-fishing-gathering to agriculture in Northern Europe was a gradual process. This transition was especially complex in the prehistoric North Fennoscandian landscape where the high latitude posed a challenge to both domestic animal breeding and cereal cultivation. The conditions varied, the coastal dwellers had access to rich marine resources and enjoyed a milder climate due to the Gulf Stream, while those living in the inland Boreal forest zone faced longer and colder winters and less diversity in animal and plant resources. Thus, the coastal area provided more favourable conditions for early agriculture compared to those found inland. Interestingly, a cultural differentiation between these areas is archaeologically visible from the late 2 nd millennium BC onwards. This is most clearly seen in regionally distinct pottery styles, offering unique opportunities to probe diet and subsistence through the organic residues preserved in ceramic vessels. Herein, we integrate the lipid biomarker, compound-specific stable carbon isotopes (δ 13 C), and zooarchaeological evidence to reveal culturally distinct human diets and subsistence patterns. In northern Norway, some of the coastal people adopted dairying as part of their subsistence strategy, while the inhabitants of the interior, in common with northern Finland, continued their hunter-gatherer-fisher lifestyles.

Inferring Human Mobility from Sparse Low Accuracy Mobile Sensing Data

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Cuttone, Andrea; Jørgensen, Sune Lehmann; Larsen, Jakob Eg

2014-01-01

Understanding both collective and personal human mobility is a central topic in Computational Social Science. Smartphone sensing data is emerging as a promising source for studying human mobility. However, most literature focuses on high-precision GPS positioning and high-frequency sampling, which...... is not always feasible in a longitudinal study or for everyday applications because location sensing has a high battery cost. In this paper we study the feasibility of inferring human mobility from sparse, low accuracy mobile sensing data. We validate our results using participants' location diaries......, and analyze the inferred geographical networks, the time spent at different places, and the number of unique places over time. Our results suggest that low resolution data allows accurate inference of human mobility patterns....

Mobile human-computer interaction perspective on mobile learning

CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

Botha, Adèle

2010-10-01

Full Text Available Applying a Mobile Human Computer Interaction (MHCI) view to the domain of education using Mobile Learning (Mlearning), the research outlines its understanding of the influences and effects of different interactions on the use of mobile technology...

Freud's prehistoric matrix--owing 'nature' a death.

Science.gov (United States)

Raphael-Leff, Joan

2007-12-01

This paper is informed by contemporary literature in two fields--neonatal research, on the one hand, and the burgeoning interdisciplinary interest in Moses and monotheism, on the other. The author postulates that a cluster of traumatic events during the first two years of Freud's life compelled him to repeat what could not be remembered. Embedded in charged implicit schema, these affects remained unprocessed in Freud, who alone of all psychoanalysts did not have an analysis, manifesting in an uncanny dread/allure of the 'prehistoric' as a dark and dangerous era relating to the archaic feminine/maternal matrix and fratricidal murderousness. Furthermore, she cites evidence to suggest that for Freud this unconsciously excluded subtext of the preoedipal era became associated with ancient Egyptian and Minoan-Mycenaean cultures, a passionate fascination actualized in his collection of antiquities yet incongruously absent in his theoretical work, with three exceptions--Egyptian allusions in Leonardo's unconscious attachment to his archaic mother; the 'Minoan-Mycenaean' analogy on discovering the pre-oedipal mother shortly after the death of Freud's own mother; and Egypt as cradle of humanity in his uncharacteristically rambling, troubled text of Moses and monotheism. The author sees Freud's conceptual avoidance yet compulsive reworking of the prehistoric matrix as a symptomatic attempt to expose early unformulated representations that 'return to exert a powerful effect'.

Genetic polymorphisms in prehistoric Pacific islanders determined by analysis of ancient bone DNA.

Science.gov (United States)

Hagelberg, E; Clegg, J B

1993-05-22

A previously characterized Asian-specific mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) length mutation has been detected in DNA isolated from prehistoric human bones from Polynesia, including Hawaii, Chatham Islands and Society Islands. In contrast, the Asian mutation was absent in skeletal samples from the Melanesian archipelagos of New Britain and Vanuatu and in the oldest samples from Fiji, Tonga and Samoa in the central Pacific (2700-1600 years BP) although it was present in a more recent prehistoric sample from Tonga. These results, augmented by informative DNA sequence data from the hypervariable region of mtDNA, fail to support current views that the central Pacific was settled directly by voyagers from island Southeast Asia, the putative ancestors of modern Polynesians. An earlier occupation by peoples from the neighbouring Melanesian archipelagos seems more likely.

13C evidence for dietary habits of prehistoric man in Denmark

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tauber, H.

1981-01-01

The 13 C fractionation pattern which is affected by the type of metabolism used by plants to fix CO 2 and differs in marine and terrestrial plants, has been used to investigate the dietary habits of prehistoric man in northwestern Europe. The results show that whereas Danish Mesolithic man lived on a diet dominated by sea food, in the Neolithic the human diet consisted predominantly of terrestrial food. (U.K.)

Earth building materials in pre-historic domestic architectures on the south of Portugal

OpenAIRE

Bruno, Patrícia; Faria, Paulina

2008-01-01

HERITAGE 2008 - World Heritage and Sustainable Development. Barcelos: Green Lines Institute for Sustainable Development, Vol. 2, p. 571-579 Pre-historic architectures reveal a profound knowledge of building materials and their selection and application. Depending on each geographical context or functional needs, pre-historic man developed and applied different building techniques. Archaeological vestiges from several pre-historic settlements of southwest Iberia has shown that s...

Correlations between radiometric analysis of Quaternary deposits and the chronology of prehistoric settlements from the southeastern Brazilian coast

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Anjos, R.M., E-mail: meigikos@if.uff.b [Instituto de Fisica, Universidade Federal Fluminense, Av. Gal. Milton Tavares de Souza, s/no, Gragoata, 24210-346 Niteroi, RJ (Brazil); Macario, K.D. [Instituto de Fisica, Universidade Federal Fluminense, Av. Gal. Milton Tavares de Souza, s/no, Gragoata, 24210-346 Niteroi, RJ (Brazil); Lima, T.A. [Departamento de Antropologia, Museu Nacional, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Quinta da Boa Vista, s/no, Sao Cristovao, 20940-040 Rio de Janeiro, RJ (Brazil); Veiga, R.; Carvalho, C.; Fernandes, P.J.F.; Vezzone, M.; Bastos, J. [Instituto de Fisica, Universidade Federal Fluminense, Av. Gal. Milton Tavares de Souza, s/no, Gragoata, 24210-346 Niteroi, RJ (Brazil)

2010-01-15

Natural gamma radiation measurements of sand deposits were carried out in order to study the chronology of prehistoric colonization of the Brazilian coast during the Holocene. The method employs thorium, uranium and potassium as tracers of the geological provenance of Quaternary deposits, where artificial shellmounds are found. The so-called sambaquis are archaeological settlements, characteristic of fisher-gatherers, specialized in the exploitation of shellfish. Our results show a considerable positive correlation between the formation of coastal deposits, based on cross plots of eTh/eU and eTh/K, and the antiquity of its prehistoric human occupation.

Documenting Prehistoric Habitation in Your Community: A Guide for Local Historians. New York State Museum Circular No. 55.

Science.gov (United States)

Lord, Philip, Jr.

Community historians often limit their efforts to periods of written records; this, despite the fact that many communities have witnessed some form of prehistoric human occupation. Prehistory is the study of human events before the advent of written accounts. The community historian interested in prehistory, which has as its main focus material…

Thermoluminescent determination of prehistoric heat treatment of chert artifacts

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Melcher, C.L.; Zimmerman, D.W.

1977-01-01

In recent years archeologists have become interested in the extent to which prehistoric peoples heat-treated chert prior to shaping it into tools. Thermoluminescent determination of the radiation dose accumulated by an artifact since it was formed or last heated provides a simple, reliable test for such heat treatment. This test can be applied to single artifacts without the need for raw source material for comparison. Results on 25 artifacts from four sites indicate that, for many chert sources, color and luster are not useful indicators of heat treatment by prehistoric peoples

The use of multiple isotope signatures in reconstructing prehistoric human diet from archaeological bone from the Pacific and New Zealand

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Leach, F.; Quinn, C.; Morrison, J.; Lyon, G.L.

2001-01-01

The isotopes δ 13 C, δ 15 N and δ 34 S were determined in a wide range of modern plants and the flesh of animals of relevance to prehistoric archaeological studies in the tropical Pacific and New Zealand. This was followed by similar analyses of collagen extract from both animal and human bones. Twenty-one human groups throughout the Pacific and New Zealand were examined, five from New Zealand in some detail. A stochastic simulation technique was used to estimate the relative dietary proportions of five basic groups of food: land plants, land animals, marine shellfish, marine fish, marine mammals. The contribution of both food weight and caloric energy from each of these foods is estimated in the diet of the communities examined. Finally, estimates are provided for the proportions of caloric energy deriving from protein, fat and carbohydrate in the diet. (author). 125 refs., 16 figs., 11 tabs

Modelling dengue epidemic spreading with human mobility

Science.gov (United States)

Barmak, D. H.; Dorso, C. O.; Otero, M.

2016-04-01

We explored the effect of human mobility on the spatio-temporal dynamics of Dengue with a stochastic model that takes into account the epidemiological dynamics of the infected mosquitoes and humans, with different mobility patterns of the human population. We observed that human mobility strongly affects the spread of infection by increasing the final size and by changing the morphology of the epidemic outbreaks. When the spreading of the disease is driven only by mosquito dispersal (flight), a main central focus expands diffusively. On the contrary, when human mobility is taken into account, multiple foci appear throughout the evolution of the outbreaks. These secondary foci generated throughout the outbreaks could be of little importance according to their mass or size compared with the largest main focus. However, the coalescence of these foci with the main one generates an effect, through which the latter develops a size greater than the one obtained in the case driven only by mosquito dispersal. This increase in growth rate due to human mobility and the coalescence of the foci are particularly relevant in temperate cities such as the city of Buenos Aires, since they give more possibilities to the outbreak to grow before the arrival of the low-temperature season. The findings of this work indicate that human mobility could be the main driving force in the dynamics of vector epidemics.

The Ecology of Human Mobility

KAUST Repository

Meekan, Mark G.

2017-02-03

Mobile phones and other geolocated devices have produced unprecedented volumes of data on human movement. Analysis of pooled individual human trajectories using big data approaches has revealed a wealth of emergent features that have ecological parallels in animals across a diverse array of phenomena including commuting, epidemics, the spread of innovations and culture, and collective behaviour. Movement ecology, which explores how animals cope with and optimize variability in resources, has the potential to provide a theoretical framework to aid an understanding of human mobility and its impacts on ecosystems. In turn, big data on human movement can be explored in the context of animal movement ecology to provide solutions for urgent conservation problems and management challenges.

Spatiotemporal Patterns of Urban Human Mobility

Science.gov (United States)

Hasan, Samiul; Schneider, Christian M.; Ukkusuri, Satish V.; González, Marta C.

2013-04-01

The modeling of human mobility is adopting new directions due to the increasing availability of big data sources from human activity. These sources enclose digital information about daily visited locations of a large number of individuals. Examples of these data include: mobile phone calls, credit card transactions, bank notes dispersal, check-ins in internet applications, among several others. In this study, we consider the data obtained from smart subway fare card transactions to characterize and model urban mobility patterns. We present a simple mobility model for predicting peoples' visited locations using the popularity of places in the city as an interaction parameter between different individuals. This ingredient is sufficient to reproduce several characteristics of the observed travel behavior such as: the number of trips between different locations in the city, the exploration of new places and the frequency of individual visits of a particular location. Moreover, we indicate the limitations of the proposed model and discuss open questions in the current state of the art statistical models of human mobility.

Ochres from rituals of prehistoric human funerals at the Toca do Enoque site, Piauí, Brazil

Science.gov (United States)

Cavalcante, Luis Carlos Duarte; da Luz, Maria De Fátima; Guidon, Niéde; Fabris, José Domingos; Ardisson, José Domingos

2011-11-01

The archaeological site known as Toca do Enoque (geographical coordinates, 09° 14' 65.3″ S 43° 55' 62.5″ W) is a rock shelter located in the Serra das Andorinhas (Serra das Confusões National Park), rural area of the city of Guaribas, state of Piauí, Brazil. Several rupestrian paintings (anthropomorphic and zoomorphic motifs along with some pure graphisms), predominantly in red, are found on the sandstone walls. Charcoals, lithic materials, necklaces with teeth, animal bones, gastropod shells, ochres and human skeletons (dated from 6,220 ± 40 to 6,610 ± 40 years before present, BP) were identified in recent excavations in this shelter. Red and yellow ochre samples were collected from prehistoric funeral structures and analyzed with powder X-ray diffractometry, Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy and 57Fe transmission Mössbauer spectroscopy at 298 K and 80 K. Mössbauer data indicate that the red ochre do contain predominantly hematite ( α-Fe2O3) whereas goethite ( α-FeOOH) is the major mineral in the yellow ochre.

Stable carbon isotopic assessment of prehistoric diets in the south-western Cape, Cape Town, South Africa

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Sealy, J C

1984-01-01

This thesis consists of a stable carbon isotopic assessment of the diets of the Holocene human inhabitants of the south-western Cape, South-Africa. Samples of the foods these people ate were collected from each of the four major physiographic zones in the area, and their /sup 13/C//sup 12/C ratios measured. A total of more than 200 such analyses enabled the estimation of the average delta /sup 13/C values of prehistoric human diets in each zone. This information is used to interpret delta /sup 13/C measurements on a series of archaeological human skeletons. The results are consistent with a model of prehistoric subsistence behaviour in which people living at the coast made intensive use of marine food resources throughout the Holocene, consuming such a large proportion of these foods that they must have spent much, if not all of their time at the coast. Inland skeletons reflect an almost entirely terrestrial diet. These results contradict hypotheses about seasonal population movements between the coast and the interior generated from excavated archaeological material. Considerable changes in many of our current views of the Late Stone Age of the south-western Cape will have to be made in order to accommodate these data.

Understanding the Representativeness of Mobile Phone Location Data in Characterizing Human Mobility Indicators

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Shiwei Lu

2017-01-01

Full Text Available The advent of big data has aided understanding of the driving forces of human mobility, which is beneficial for many fields, such as mobility prediction, urban planning, and traffic management. However, the data sources used in many studies, such as mobile phone location and geo-tagged social media data, are sparsely sampled in the temporal scale. An individual’s records can be distributed over a few hours a day, or a week, or over just a few hours a month. Thus, the representativeness of sparse mobile phone location data in characterizing human mobility requires analysis before using data to derive human mobility patterns. This paper investigates this important issue through an approach that uses subscriber mobile phone location data collected by a major carrier in Shenzhen, China. A dataset of over 5 million mobile phone subscribers that covers 24 h a day is used as a benchmark to test the representativeness of mobile phone location data on human mobility indicators, such as total travel distance, movement entropy, and radius of gyration. This study divides this dataset by hour, using 2- to 23-h segments to evaluate the representativeness due to the availability of mobile phone location data. The results show that different numbers of hourly segments affect estimations of human mobility indicators and can cause overestimations or underestimations from the individual perspective. On average, the total travel distance and movement entropy tend to be underestimated. The underestimation coefficient results for estimation of total travel distance are approximately linear, declining as the number of time segments increases, and the underestimation coefficient results for estimating movement entropy decline logarithmically as the time segments increase, whereas the radius of gyration tends to be more ambiguous due to the loss of isolated locations. This paper suggests that researchers should carefully interpret results derived from this type of

The Ecology of Human Mobility.

Science.gov (United States)

Meekan, Mark G; Duarte, Carlos M; Fernández-Gracia, Juan; Thums, Michele; Sequeira, Ana M M; Harcourt, Rob; Eguíluz, Víctor M

2017-03-01

Mobile phones and other geolocated devices have produced unprecedented volumes of data on human movement. Analysis of pooled individual human trajectories using big data approaches has revealed a wealth of emergent features that have ecological parallels in animals across a diverse array of phenomena including commuting, epidemics, the spread of innovations and culture, and collective behaviour. Movement ecology, which explores how animals cope with and optimize variability in resources, has the potential to provide a theoretical framework to aid an understanding of human mobility and its impacts on ecosystems. In turn, big data on human movement can be explored in the context of animal movement ecology to provide solutions for urgent conservation problems and management challenges. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Could the Health Decline of Prehistoric California Indians be Related to Exposure to Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) from Natural Bitumen?

Science.gov (United States)

Sholts, Sabrina B.; Erlandson, Jon M.; Gjerdrum, Thor; Westerholm, Roger

2011-01-01

Background: The negative health effects of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are well established for modern human populations but have so far not been studied in prehistoric contexts. PAHs are the main component of fossil bitumen, a naturally occurring material used by past societies such as the Chumash Indians in California as an adhesive, as a waterproofing agent, and for medicinal purposes. The rich archaeological and ethnohistoric record of the coastal Chumash suggests that they were exposed to multiple uptake pathways of bituminous PAHs, including direct contact, fume inhalation, and oral uptake from contaminated water and seafood. Objectives: We investigated the possibility that PAHs from natural bitumen compromised the health of the prehistoric Chumash Indians in California. Conclusions: Exposure of the ancient Chumash Indians to toxic PAHs appears to have gradually increased across a period of 7,500 years because of an increased use of bitumen in the Chumash technology, together with a dietary shift toward PAH-contaminated marine food. Skeletal analysis indicates a concurrent population health decline that may be related to PAH uptake. However, establishing such a connection is virtually impossible without knowing the actual exposure levels experienced by these populations. Future methodological research may provide techniques for determining PAH levels in ancient skeletal material, which would open new avenues for research on the health of prehistoric populations and on the long-term effects of human PAH exposure. PMID:21596651

The bones of prehistoric diet

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sealy, J.C.

1986-01-01

Stable carbon isotope analysis is one of the techniques used to attempt to reconstruct the diet of people in the southwestern Cape as far back as 10 000 years ago. Carbon isotope measurement is also a useful mean of testing the idea that prehistoric people moved seasonally between the coast and the interior. The use of stable isotopes for dietary reconstruction in conjunction with radioactive isotopes for age determinations provides a significant body of data

Cascading walks model for human mobility patterns.

Science.gov (United States)

Han, Xiao-Pu; Wang, Xiang-Wen; Yan, Xiao-Yong; Wang, Bing-Hong

2015-01-01

Uncovering the mechanism behind the scaling laws and series of anomalies in human trajectories is of fundamental significance in understanding many spatio-temporal phenomena. Recently, several models, e.g. the explorations-returns model (Song et al., 2010) and the radiation model for intercity travels (Simini et al., 2012), have been proposed to study the origin of these anomalies and the prediction of human movements. However, an agent-based model that could reproduce most of empirical observations without priori is still lacking. In this paper, considering the empirical findings on the correlations of move-lengths and staying time in human trips, we propose a simple model which is mainly based on the cascading processes to capture the human mobility patterns. In this model, each long-range movement activates series of shorter movements that are organized by the law of localized explorations and preferential returns in prescribed region. Based on the numerical simulations and analytical studies, we show more than five statistical characters that are well consistent with the empirical observations, including several types of scaling anomalies and the ultraslow diffusion properties, implying the cascading processes associated with the localized exploration and preferential returns are indeed a key in the understanding of human mobility activities. Moreover, the model shows both of the diverse individual mobility and aggregated scaling displacements, bridging the micro and macro patterns in human mobility. In summary, our model successfully explains most of empirical findings and provides deeper understandings on the emergence of human mobility patterns.

Understanding predictability and exploration in human mobility

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Cuttone, Andrea; Jørgensen, Sune Lehmann; González, Marta C.

2018-01-01

Predictive models for human mobility have important applications in many fields including traffic control, ubiquitous computing, and contextual advertisement. The predictive performance of models in literature varies quite broadly, from over 90% to under 40%. In this work we study which underlying...... strong influence on the accuracy of prediction. Finally we reveal that the exploration of new locations is an important factor in human mobility, and we measure that on average 20-25% of transitions are to new places, and approx. 70% of locations are visited only once. We discuss how these mechanisms...... are important factors limiting our ability to predict human mobility....

Heterogeneous Community-based mobility model for human opportunistic network

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hu, Liang; Dittmann, Lars

2009-01-01

a heterogeneous community-based random way-point (HC-RWP) mobility model that captures the four important properties of real human mobility. These properties are based on both intuitive observations of daily human mobility and analysis of empirical mobility traces. By discrete event simulation, we show HC...

Regional, holocene records of the human dimension of global change: sea-level and land-use change in prehistoric Mexico

Science.gov (United States)

Sluyter, Andrew

1997-02-01

Regional, Holocene records hold particular relevance for understanding the reciprocal nature of global environmental change and one of its major human dimensions: "sustainable agriculture", i.e., food production strategies which entail fewer causes of and are less susceptible to environmental change. In an epoch of accelerating anthropogenic transformation, those records reveal the protracted regional causes and consequences of change (often agricultural) in the global system as well as informing models of prehistoric, intensive agriculture which, because of long tenures and high productivities, suggest strategies for sustainable agricultural in the present. This study employs physiographic analysis and the palynological, geochemical record from cores of basin fill to understand the reciprocal relation between environmental and land-use change in the Gulf of Mexico tropical lowland, focusing on a coastal basin sensitive to sea-level change and containing vestiges of prehistoric settlement and wetland agriculture. Fossil pollen reveals that the debut of maize cultivation in the Laguna Catarina watershed dates to ca. 4100 BC, predating the earliest evidence for that cultivar anywhere else in the lowlands of Middle America. Such an early date for a cultivar so central to Neotropical agroecology and environmental change, suggests the urgency of further research in the study region. Moreover, the longest period of continuous agriculture in the basin lasted nearly three millennia (ca. 2400 BC-AD 550) despite eustatic sea-level rise. Geochemical fluxes reveal the reciprocity between land-use and environmental change: slope destabilization, basin aggradation, and eutrophication. The consequent theoretical implications pertain to both applied and basic research. Redeploying ancient agroecologies in dynamic environments necessitates reconstructing the changing operational contexts of putative high productivity and sustainability. Adjusting land use in the face of global

Where are we going? Movement and Mobility in Mesolithic Research

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Thomas Kador

2007-10-01

Full Text Available In this article I will discuss some of the most dominant approaches to early prehistoric, and in particular mesolithic movement and mobility. After outlining the significance of mobility studies to mesolithic research I shall briefly review the most commonly employed models of mobility, including some of their greatest problems and shortcomings. As a way forward I will then offer an alternative approach, based on an integrated study of lithic artefacts within a landscape perspective. To test and illustrate this approach I will present three brief case studies from different parts of Ireland.

Prehistoric archaeology in Central Europe: beyond diversity

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Sosna, D.; Kolář, Jan; Květina, Petr; Trampota, F.

2013-01-01

Roč. 51, č. 2 (2013), s. 123-130 ISSN 0323-1119. [ Theory and method in the prehistoric archaeology of Central Europe. Mikulov, 24.10.2012-26.10.2012] Institutional support: RVO:67985912 ; RVO:67985939 Keywords : archaeological theory * artefact * communication * environment * history of archaeology * reflexivity Subject RIV: AC - Archeology, Anthropology, Ethnology

Human engineering in mobile radwaste systems

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Jones, D.; McMahon, J.; Motl, G.

1988-01-01

To a large degree, mobile radwaste systems are replacing installed plant systems at US nuclear plants due to regulatory obsolescence, high capital and maintenance costs, and increased radiation exposure. Well over half the power plants in the United States now use some sort of mobile system similar to those offered by LN Technologies Corporation. Human engineering is reflected in mobile radwaste system design due to concerns about safety, efficiency, and cost. The radwaste services business is so competitive that vendors must reflect human engineering in several areas of equipment design in order to compete. The paper discusses radiation exposure control, contamination control, compact components, maintainability, operation, and transportability

Cloth cultures in prehistoric Europe: the Bronze Age evidence from Hallstatt

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Susanna Harris

2009-09-01

Full Text Available Cloth Cultures in Prehistoric Europe is a Postdoctoral Fellowship project awarded to Susanna Harris by the British Academy. Its aim is to bring together and examine evidence for textiles and animal skins in prehistoric Europe from the Neolithic and Bronze Age. Several case studies are being examined as part of this project, including the Bronze Age Hallstatt salt mines. Here researchers working on the materials from Hallstatt look at some of the similarities and differences between the techniques applied to textiles and animal skins in their production and use in the mines.

Influence of sociodemographics on human mobility

Science.gov (United States)

Lenormand, Maxime; Louail, Thomas; Cantú-Ros, Oliva G.; Picornell, Miguel; Herranz, Ricardo; Arias, Juan Murillo; Barthelemy, Marc; Miguel, Maxi San; Ramasco, José J.

2015-05-01

Human mobility has been traditionally studied using surveys that deliver snapshots of population displacement patterns. The growing accessibility to ICT information from portable digital media has recently opened the possibility of exploring human behavior at high spatio-temporal resolutions. Mobile phone records, geolocated tweets, check-ins from Foursquare or geotagged photos, have contributed to this purpose at different scales, from cities to countries, in different world areas. Many previous works lacked, however, details on the individuals’ attributes such as age or gender. In this work, we analyze credit-card records from Barcelona and Madrid and by examining the geolocated credit-card transactions of individuals living in the two provinces, we find that the mobility patterns vary according to gender, age and occupation. Differences in distance traveled and travel purpose are observed between younger and older people, but, curiously, either between males and females of similar age. While mobility displays some generic features, here we show that sociodemographic characteristics play a relevant role and must be taken into account for mobility and epidemiological modelization.

Quantifying human mobility perturbation and resilience in Hurricane Sandy.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Qi Wang

Full Text Available Human mobility is influenced by environmental change and natural disasters. Researchers have used trip distance distribution, radius of gyration of movements, and individuals' visited locations to understand and capture human mobility patterns and trajectories. However, our knowledge of human movements during natural disasters is limited owing to both a lack of empirical data and the low precision of available data. Here, we studied human mobility using high-resolution movement data from individuals in New York City during and for several days after Hurricane Sandy in 2012. We found the human movements followed truncated power-law distributions during and after Hurricane Sandy, although the β value was noticeably larger during the first 24 hours after the storm struck. Also, we examined two parameters: the center of mass and the radius of gyration of each individual's movements. We found that their values during perturbation states and steady states are highly correlated, suggesting human mobility data obtained in steady states can possibly predict the perturbation state. Our results demonstrate that human movement trajectories experienced significant perturbations during hurricanes, but also exhibited high resilience. We expect the study will stimulate future research on the perturbation and inherent resilience of human mobility under the influence of hurricanes. For example, mobility patterns in coastal urban areas could be examined as hurricanes approach, gain or dissipate in strength, and as the path of the storm changes. Understanding nuances of human mobility under the influence of such disasters will enable more effective evacuation, emergency response planning and development of strategies and policies to reduce fatality, injury, and economic loss.

Regularity and predictability of human mobility in personal space.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Daniel Austin

Full Text Available Fundamental laws governing human mobility have many important applications such as forecasting and controlling epidemics or optimizing transportation systems. These mobility patterns, studied in the context of out of home activity during travel or social interactions with observations recorded from cell phone use or diffusion of money, suggest that in extra-personal space humans follow a high degree of temporal and spatial regularity - most often in the form of time-independent universal scaling laws. Here we show that mobility patterns of older individuals in their home also show a high degree of predictability and regularity, although in a different way than has been reported for out-of-home mobility. Studying a data set of almost 15 million observations from 19 adults spanning up to 5 years of unobtrusive longitudinal home activity monitoring, we find that in-home mobility is not well represented by a universal scaling law, but that significant structure (predictability and regularity is uncovered when explicitly accounting for contextual data in a model of in-home mobility. These results suggest that human mobility in personal space is highly stereotyped, and that monitoring discontinuities in routine room-level mobility patterns may provide an opportunity to predict individual human health and functional status or detect adverse events and trends.

Rapid prehistoric extinction of iguanas and birds in Polynesia.

Science.gov (United States)

Steadman, David W; Pregill, Gregory K; Burley, David V

2002-03-19

The Tongoleleka archaeological site on Lifuka Island, Kingdom of Tonga, is a rich accumulation of pottery, marine mollusks, and nonhuman bones that represents first human contact on a small island in Remote Oceania approximately 2,850 years ago. The lower strata contain decorated Lapita-style pottery and bones of an extinct iguana (Brachylophus undescribed sp.) and numerous species of extinct birds. The upper strata instead feature Polynesian Plainware pottery and bones of extant species of vertebrates. A stratigraphic series of 20 accelerator-mass spectrometer radiocarbon dates on individual bones of the iguana, an extinct megapode (Megapodius alimentum), and the non-native chicken (Gallus gallus) suggests that anthropogenic loss of the first two species and introduction of the latter occurred on Lifuka within a time interval too short (a century or less) to be resolved by radiometric dating. The geologically instantaneous prehistoric collapse of Lifuka's vertebrate community contrasts with the much longer periods of faunal depletion on some other islands, thus showing that the elapse time between human arrival and major extinction events was highly variable on oceanic islands as well as on continents.

Complex human mobility dynamics on a network

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Szell, M.

2010-01-01

Massive multiplayer online games provide a fascinating new way of observing hundreds of thousands of simultaneously interacting individuals engaged in virtual socio-economic activities. We have compiled a data set consisting of practically all actions of all players over a period of four years from an online game played by over 350,000 people. The universe of this online world is a lattice-like network on which players move in order to interact with other players. We focus on the mobility of human players on this network over a time-period of 500 days. We take a number of mobility measurements and compare them with measures of simulated random walkers on the same topology. Mobility of players is sub-diffusive - the mean squared displacement follows a power law with exponent 0.4 - and significantly deviates from mobility patterns of random walkers. Mean first passage times and transition counts relate via a power-law with slope -1/3. We compare our results with studies where human mobility was measured via mobile phone data and find striking similarities. (author)

Coupled Human-Space Suit Mobility Studies

Data.gov (United States)

National Aeronautics and Space Administration — Current EVA mobility studies only allow for comparisons of how the suit moves when actuated by a human and how the human moves when unsuited. There are now new...

Spatiotemporal property and predictability of large-scale human mobility

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Hai-Tao; Zhu, Tao; Fu, Dongfei; Xu, Bowen; Han, Xiao-Pu; Chen, Duxin

2018-04-01

Spatiotemporal characteristics of human mobility emerging from complexity on individual scale have been extensively studied due to the application potential on human behavior prediction and recommendation, and control of epidemic spreading. We collect and investigate a comprehensive data set of human activities on large geographical scales, including both websites browse and mobile towers visit. Numerical results show that the degree of activity decays as a power law, indicating that human behaviors are reminiscent of scale-free random walks known as Lévy flight. More significantly, this study suggests that human activities on large geographical scales have specific non-Markovian characteristics, such as a two-segment power-law distribution of dwelling time and a high possibility for prediction. Furthermore, a scale-free featured mobility model with two essential ingredients, i.e., preferential return and exploration, and a Gaussian distribution assumption on the exploration tendency parameter is proposed, which outperforms existing human mobility models under scenarios of large geographical scales.

Impact of prehistoric cooking practices on paleoenvironmental proxies in shell midden constituents

Science.gov (United States)

Müller, Peter; Staudigel, Philip; Murray, Sean T.; Westphal, Hildegard; Swart, Peter K.

2016-04-01

Paleoenvironmental proxy records such as oxygen isotopes of calcareous skeletal structures like fish otoliths or mollusk shells provide highest-resolution information about environmental conditions experienced by the organism. Accumulations of such skeletal structures by ancient coastal populations in so called "shell midden" deposits provide us with sub-seasonally resolved paleoclimate records covering time spans up to several millennia. Given their high temporal resolution, these deposits are increasingly used for paleoclimate reconstructions and complement our understanding of ancient climate changes. However, gathered as comestibles, most of these skeletal remains were subject to prehistoric cooking methods prior to deposition. The associated alteration of the chemical proxy signatures as well as the subsequent error for paleoenvironmental reconstructions remained almost entirely neglected so far. Here, we present clumped isotope, conventional oxygen and carbon isotopes as well as element:Ca ratios measured in modern bivalve shells after exposing them to different prehistoric cooking methods. Our data show that most cooking methods considerably alter commonly used paleoclimate proxy systems which can lead to substantial misinterpretations of ancient climate conditions. Since the magnitude of chemical alteration is not distinguishable from natural temperature variability in most coastal settings, the alteration of shell midden constituents by prehistoric cooking remains likely unnoticed in most cases. Thus, depending on the cooking method, pre-depositional heating might have introduced considerable errors into previous paleoclimate studies. However, our data also show that clumped isotope thermometry represents a suitable diagnostic tool to detect such pre-depositional cooking events and also allows differentiating between the most commonly applied prehistoric cooking methods.

Prehistoric human colonization of India

Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

Unknown

2. Earliest human colonization of south Asia. The early human colonization of south Asia is represented largely by an abundance of stone tool assemblages. The oldest known tools ..... component among finished tools is conspicuous in the hinterland riverine ...... sativum), green gram (Vigna radiata), gram/chicken pea.

Prehistoric Rock Structures of the Idaho National Laboratory

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Brenda R Pace

2007-04-01

Over the past 13,500 years, human populations have lived in and productively utilized the natural resources offered by the cold desert environment of the northeastern Snake River Plain in eastern Idaho. Within an overall framework of hunting and gathering, groups relied on an intimate familiarity with the natural world and developed a variety of technologies to extract the resources that they needed to survive. Useful items were abundant and found everywhere on the landscape. Even the basaltic terrain and the rocks, themselves, were put to productive use. This paper presents a preliminary classification scheme for rock structures built on the Idaho National Laboratory landscape by prehistoric aboriginal populations, including discussions of the overall architecture of the structures, associated artifact assemblages, and topographic placement. Adopting an ecological perspective, the paper concludes with a discussion of the possible functions of these unique resources for the desert populations that once called the INL home.

Inferring human mobility using communication patterns

Science.gov (United States)

Palchykov, Vasyl; Mitrović, Marija; Jo, Hang-Hyun; Saramäki, Jari; Pan, Raj Kumar

2014-08-01

Understanding the patterns of mobility of individuals is crucial for a number of reasons, from city planning to disaster management. There are two common ways of quantifying the amount of travel between locations: by direct observations that often involve privacy issues, e.g., tracking mobile phone locations, or by estimations from models. Typically, such models build on accurate knowledge of the population size at each location. However, when this information is not readily available, their applicability is rather limited. As mobile phones are ubiquitous, our aim is to investigate if mobility patterns can be inferred from aggregated mobile phone call data alone. Using data released by Orange for Ivory Coast, we show that human mobility is well predicted by a simple model based on the frequency of mobile phone calls between two locations and their geographical distance. We argue that the strength of the model comes from directly incorporating the social dimension of mobility. Furthermore, as only aggregated call data is required, the model helps to avoid potential privacy problems.

Scaling identity connects human mobility and social interactions.

Science.gov (United States)

Deville, Pierre; Song, Chaoming; Eagle, Nathan; Blondel, Vincent D; Barabási, Albert-László; Wang, Dashun

2016-06-28

Massive datasets that capture human movements and social interactions have catalyzed rapid advances in our quantitative understanding of human behavior during the past years. One important aspect affecting both areas is the critical role space plays. Indeed, growing evidence suggests both our movements and communication patterns are associated with spatial costs that follow reproducible scaling laws, each characterized by its specific critical exponents. Although human mobility and social networks develop concomitantly as two prolific yet largely separated fields, we lack any known relationships between the critical exponents explored by them, despite the fact that they often study the same datasets. Here, by exploiting three different mobile phone datasets that capture simultaneously these two aspects, we discovered a new scaling relationship, mediated by a universal flux distribution, which links the critical exponents characterizing the spatial dependencies in human mobility and social networks. Therefore, the widely studied scaling laws uncovered in these two areas are not independent but connected through a deeper underlying reality.

Tracking Human Mobility Using WiFi Signals

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Sapiezynski, Piotr; Stopczynski, Arkadiusz; Gatej, Radu

2015-01-01

We study six months of human mobility data, including WiFi and GPS traces recorded with high temporal resolution, and find that time series of WiFi scans contain a strong latent location signal. In fact, due to inherent stability and low entropy of human mobility, it is possible to assign location...... to WiFi access points based on a very small number of GPS samples and then use these access points as location beacons. Using just one GPS observation per day per person allows us to estimate the location of, and subsequently use, WiFi access points to account for 80% of mobility across a population....... These results reveal a great opportunity for using ubiquitous WiFi routers for high-resolution outdoor positioning, but also significant privacy implications of such side-channel location tracking....

Variable effects of cinder-cone eruptions on prehistoric agrarian human populations in the American southwest

Science.gov (United States)

Ort, Michael H.; Elson, Mark D.; Anderson, Kirk C.; Duffield, Wendell A.; Samples, Terry L.

2008-10-01

Two ˜ 900 BP cinder-cone eruptions in the American Southwest affected prehistoric human populations in different ways, mostly because of differences in the eruption styles and area affected. Primary pre-eruption cultural factors that may have led to successful adaptation to the eruptions include decision-making at the family or household level, low investment in site structures, dispersion of agricultural sites in varied environments, and settlement spread over a large area so that those who were less affected could shelter and feed evacuees. Sunset Crater, near Flagstaff, Arizona, produced about 8 km 2 lava flow fields and a ˜ 2300-km 2 tephra blanket in an area that had been settled by prehistoric groups for at least 1000 years. Local subsistence relied on agriculture, primarily maize, and > 30 cm tephra cover rendered 265 km 2 of prime land unfarmable. This area was apparently abandoned for at least several generations. A > 500-km 2 area was probably marked by collapsed roofs and other structural damage from the fallout. If the eruption occurred during the agricultural season, the fallout would also have significantly damaged crops. The eruption did have some benefits to local groups because lower elevation land, which had previously been too dry to farm, became agriculturally productive due to 3-8 cm of tephra 'mulch' and some temporary soil nutrient improvements. This previously uninhabited land became the site of significant year-round settlement and farming, eventually containing some of the largest pueblo structures ever built in the region. New agricultural techniques were developed to manage the fallout mulch. The eruption also affected ceramic production and trading patterns, and volcano-related ritual behavior - the production of maize-impressed lava-spatter agglutinate - was initiated. Little Springs Volcano, about 200 km northwest of Sunset Crater, is a small spatter rampart around a series of vents that produced about 5 km 2 of lava flow fields

New approaches to human mobility: using mobile phones for demographic research.

Science.gov (United States)

Palmer, John R B; Espenshade, Thomas J; Bartumeus, Frederic; Chung, Chang Y; Ozgencil, Necati Ercan; Li, Kathleen

2013-06-01

This article explores new methods for gathering and analyzing spatially rich demographic data using mobile phones. It describes a pilot study (the Human Mobility Project) in which volunteers around the world were successfully recruited to share GPS and cellular tower information on their trajectories and respond to dynamic, location-based surveys using an open-source Android application. The pilot study illustrates the great potential of mobile phone methodology for moving spatial measures beyond residential census units and investigating a range of important social phenomena, including the heterogeneity of activity spaces, the dynamic nature of spatial segregation, and the contextual dependence of subjective well-being.

Human mobility in space from three modes of public transportation

Science.gov (United States)

Jiang, Shixiong; Guan, Wei; Zhang, Wenyi; Chen, Xu; Yang, Liu

2017-10-01

The human mobility patterns have drew much attention from researchers for decades, considering about its importance for urban planning and traffic management. In this study, the taxi GPS trajectories, smart card transaction data of subway and bus from Beijing are utilized to model human mobility in space. The original datasets are cleaned and processed to attain the displacement of each trip according to the origin and destination locations. Then, the Akaike information criterion is adopted to screen out the best fitting distribution for each mode from candidate ones. The results indicate that displacements of taxi trips follow the exponential distribution. Besides, the exponential distribution also fits displacements of bus trips well. However, their exponents are significantly different. Displacements of subway trips show great specialties and can be well fitted by the gamma distribution. It is obvious that human mobility of each mode is different. To explore the overall human mobility, the three datasets are mixed up to form a fusion dataset according to the annual ridership proportions. Finally, the fusion displacements follow the power-law distribution with an exponential cutoff. It is innovative to combine different transportation modes to model human mobility in the city.

Natural disasters and human mobility

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Mbaye, L.; Zimmermann, K.

2016-01-01

This paper reviews the effect of natural disasters on human mobility or migration. Although there is an increase of natural disasters and migration recently and more patterns to observe, the relationship remains complex. While some authors find that disasters increase migration, others show that

Beyond Virtual Replicas: 3D Modeling and Maltese Prehistoric Architecture

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Filippo Stanco

2013-01-01

Full Text Available In the past decade, computer graphics have become strategic for the development of projects aimed at the interpretation of archaeological evidence and the dissemination of scientific results to the public. Among all the solutions available, the use of 3D models is particularly relevant for the reconstruction of poorly preserved sites and monuments destroyed by natural causes or human actions. These digital replicas are, at the same time, a virtual environment that can be used as a tool for the interpretative hypotheses of archaeologists and as an effective medium for a visual description of the cultural heritage. In this paper, the innovative methodology and aims and outcomes of a virtual reconstruction of the Borg in-Nadur megalithic temple, carried out by Archeomatica Project of the University of Catania, are offered as a case study for a virtual archaeology of prehistoric Malta.

The Bacterial Mobile Resistome Transfer Network Connecting the Animal and Human Microbiomes.

Science.gov (United States)

Hu, Yongfei; Yang, Xi; Li, Jing; Lv, Na; Liu, Fei; Wu, Jun; Lin, Ivan Y C; Wu, Na; Weimer, Bart C; Gao, George F; Liu, Yulan; Zhu, Baoli

2016-11-15

Horizontally acquired antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) in bacteria are highly mobile and have been ranked as principal risk resistance determinants. However, the transfer network of the mobile resistome and the forces driving mobile ARG transfer are largely unknown. Here, we present the whole profile of the mobile resistome in 23,425 bacterial genomes and explore the effects of phylogeny and ecology on the recent transfer (≥99% nucleotide identity) of mobile ARGs. We found that mobile ARGs are mainly present in four bacterial phyla and are significantly enriched in Proteobacteria The recent mobile ARG transfer network, which comprises 703 bacterial species and 16,859 species pairs, is shaped by the bacterial phylogeny, while an ecological barrier also exists, especially when interrogating bacteria colonizing different human body sites. Phylogeny is still a driving force for the transfer of mobile ARGs between farm animals and the human gut, and, interestingly, the mobile ARGs that are shared between the human and animal gut microbiomes are also harbored by diverse human pathogens. Taking these results together, we suggest that phylogeny and ecology are complementary in shaping the bacterial mobile resistome and exert synergistic effects on the development of antibiotic resistance in human pathogens. The development of antibiotic resistance threatens our modern medical achievements. The dissemination of antibiotic resistance can be largely attributed to the transfer of bacterial mobile antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs). Revealing the transfer network of these genes in bacteria and the forces driving the gene flow is of great importance for controlling and predicting the emergence of antibiotic resistance in the clinic. Here, by analyzing tens of thousands of bacterial genomes and millions of human and animal gut bacterial genes, we reveal that the transfer of mobile ARGs is mainly controlled by bacterial phylogeny but under ecological constraints. We also found

Precipitation change and its effects on prehistorical human activities in the Gonghe Basin, Northeastern Qinghai-Tibet Plateau during middle and late Holocene

Science.gov (United States)

Hou, Xiaoqing; Hou, Guangliang; Wang, Fangfang; Wang, Qingbo

2018-02-01

Northeastern Qinghai-tibet Plateau is considered as the ideal region for study of the climate change during the Holocene. Based on the meteorological data, the surface & fossil pollen data, this paper reconstructed the precipitation series of the region since middle Holocene with the GIS and MAT techniques, and discussed its relationship with prehistorical human activities. The results indicate that there are four major climatic phases: (I) Middle Holocene Humid Phase (6300-5000 aBP), with the primitive millet-farming first imported into the region; (II) Late Middle Holocene Sub-humid Phase (5000-3900 aBP), with the millet-farming spread rapidly within the region; (III) Late Holocene Fluctuation Phase (3900-2900 aBP), with the mean annual precipitation dropped down to lower than 240 mm, and a production mode-shift to a combination of cropping and husbandry; (IV) Late Holocene Stationary Phase (2900-0 aBP), with a precipitation alike the modern time, and a steady farming-pastoral economic pattern.

Minimal mobile human computer interaction

NARCIS (Netherlands)

el Ali, A.

2013-01-01

In the last 20 years, the widespread adoption of personal, mobile computing devices in everyday life, has allowed entry into a new technological era in Human Computer Interaction (HCI). The constant change of the physical and social context in a user's situation made possible by the portability of

Petrology of the prehistoric lavas and dyke of the Barren Island ...

Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

R. Narasimhan (Krishtel eMaging) 1461 1996 Oct 15 13:05:22

historic times, the eruptions that led to the formation of this volcanic island occurred mainly during prehistoric times. ... eruptions occurred from its centre, producing a. 250m high ... non-eruptive lateral landslide of the original cone or by vertical ...

The hydrology of prehistoric farming systems in a central Arizona ecotone

Science.gov (United States)

Gumerman, G. J.; Hanson, J. A.; Brew, D.; Tomoff, K.; Weed, C. S.

1975-01-01

The prehistoric land use and water management in the semi-arid Southwest was examined. Remote sensing data, geology, hydrology and biology are discussed along with an evaluation of remote sensing contributions, recommendations for applications, and proposed future remote sensing studies.

Erratics and Re-cycled Stone: scholarly irrelevancies or fundamental utilities to lithic studies in prehistoric Britain and beyond?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

C. Stephen Briggs

2009-09-01

Full Text Available There are many theories explaining later prehistoric 'trade' and 'exchange systems' in stone artefacts. Evidence matching the petrographic information of transported implements with the country rock (local bedrock where 'factories' produced flaked stone axes is felt to be compelling. Consequently, across Europe it is widely believed that the only way 'factory' rock could have reached the places where artefacts have been found was by human carriage. The discovery of implement working floors, or 'factories' in montane areas (c. 1900-1970 on primary exposures of stone, lithologically almost identical to polished axes found considerable distances from them, has led to a belief in the industrial, economic or social processing and carriage of finished products. There are caveats to this proof of evidence, however. Natural processes constantly redistribute incalculable numbers of durable erratic pebble- to boulder-sized clasts, so why could these not have been used for making prehistoric artefacts? There is abundant evidence in the archaeological record that artefacts were crafted from such material. And although there is now an archive of petrographic thin-sections available to help to identify the origins of the artefacts, no comparable data are available on re-cycled stone. Implement provenancing is therefore unlikely to be of lasting scientific value until investigative programmes have accumulated far more accurate petrographic data on pebbles and erratics from superficial deposits. Comparisons between some British-Irish implement distribution patterns with those of glacial erratics suggests the available evidence already better fits an interpretation of deterministic and opportunistic stone procurement rather than one involving long-distance travel by prehistoric peoples. Extensive, long-term sampling and provenancing programmes are now needed to address this requirement.

The beginnings of human palaeontology: prehistory, craniometry and the 'fossil human races'.

Science.gov (United States)

Goodrum, Matthew R

2016-09-01

Since the nineteenth century, hominid palaeontology has offered critical information about prehistoric humans and evidence for human evolution. Human fossils discovered at a time when there was growing agreement that humans existed during the Ice Age became especially significant but also controversial. This paper argues that the techniques used to study human fossils from the 1850s to the 1870s and the way that these specimens were interpreted owed much to the anthropological examination of Stone, Bronze, and Iron Age skeletons retrieved by archaeologists from prehistoric tombs throughout Europe. What emerged was the idea that a succession of distinct human races, which were identified using techniques such as craniometry, had occupied and migrated into Europe beginning in the Ice Age and continuing into the historic period. This marks a phase in the history of human palaeontology that gradually gave way to a science of palaeoanthropology that viewed hominid fossils more from the perspective of evolutionary theory and hominid phylogeny.

The mobilize center: an NIH big data to knowledge center to advance human movement research and improve mobility.

Science.gov (United States)

Ku, Joy P; Hicks, Jennifer L; Hastie, Trevor; Leskovec, Jure; Ré, Christopher; Delp, Scott L

2015-11-01

Regular physical activity helps prevent heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and other chronic diseases, yet a broad range of conditions impair mobility at great personal and societal cost. Vast amounts of data characterizing human movement are available from research labs, clinics, and millions of smartphones and wearable sensors, but integration and analysis of this large quantity of mobility data are extremely challenging. The authors have established the Mobilize Center (http://mobilize.stanford.edu) to harness these data to improve human mobility and help lay the foundation for using data science methods in biomedicine. The Center is organized around 4 data science research cores: biomechanical modeling, statistical learning, behavioral and social modeling, and integrative modeling. Important biomedical applications, such as osteoarthritis and weight management, will focus the development of new data science methods. By developing these new approaches, sharing data and validated software tools, and training thousands of researchers, the Mobilize Center will transform human movement research. © The Author 2015. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the American Medical Informatics Association.

First use of portable system coupling X-ray diffraction and X-ray fluorescence for in-situ analysis of prehistoric rock art.

Science.gov (United States)

Beck, L; Rousselière, H; Castaing, J; Duran, A; Lebon, M; Moignard, B; Plassard, F

2014-11-01

Study of prehistoric art is playing a major role in the knowledge of human evolution. Many scientific methods are involved in this investigation including chemical analysis of pigments present on artefacts or applied to cave walls. In the past decades, the characterization of coloured materials was carried on by taking small samples. This procedure had two main disadvantages: slight but existing damage of the paintings and limitation of the number of samples. Thanks to the advanced development of portable systems, in-situ analysis of pigment in cave can be now undertaken without fear for this fragile Cultural Heritage. For the first time, a portable system combining XRD and XRF was used in an underground and archaeological environment for prehistoric rock art studies. In-situ non-destructive analysis of black prehistoric drawings and determination of their composition and crystalline structure were successfully carried out. Original results on pigments used 13,000 years ago in the cave of Rouffignac (France) were obtained showing the use of two main manganese oxides: pyrolusite and romanechite. The capabilities of the portable XRD-XRF system have been demonstrated for the characterization of pigments as well as for the analysis of rock in a cave environment. This first in-situ experiment combining X-ray diffraction and X-ray fluorescence open up new horizons and can fundamentally change our approach of rock art studies. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopic and isotopic analysis of carbonized residues from subarctic Canadian prehistoric pottery

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sherriff, B.L.; Tisdale, M.A.; Sayer, B.G.; Schwarcz, H.P.; Knyf, M.

1995-01-01

Late prehistoric pottery is found in abundance at archaeological sites around Southern Indian Lake. Black residues, found on the two dominant vessel forms, flat plates and round pots, are presumed to be the remains of prehistoric meals. 13 C cross-polarization magic-angle-spinning nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (CPMAS NMR) and 13 C and 15 N isotopic ratios and C/N ratios are used to reconstruct prehistoric diet and to shed light on possible uses for the plates. Samples of foods were cooked in clay pots, on a wood fire, to simulate the conditions of burning that could have produced the residue. Decomposition of carbohydrates, protein, and fat during cooking is studied with 13 C CPMAS NMR, and the effect of cooking on isotopic and C/N ratios documented. Predominantly fish and fat were cooked in the pots, whereas the residues from plates contain a greater proportion of fat and could have been used as frying pans or possibly as fat-burning lamps placed on the ashes of a wood fire. (Author)

The Path towards Endangered Species: Prehistoric Fisheries in Southeastern Brazil.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mariana Samôr Lopes

Full Text Available Brazilian shellmounds are archaeological sites with a high concentration of marine faunal remains. There are more than 2000 sites along the coast of Brazil that range in age from 8,720 to 985 cal BP. Here, we studied the ichthyoarchaeological remains (i.e., cranial/postcranial bones, otoliths, and teeth, among others at 13 shellmounds on the southern coast of the state of Rio de Janeiro, which are located in coastal landscapes, including a sandy plain with coastal lagoons, rocky islands, islets and rocky bays. We identified patterns of similarity between shellmounds based on fish diversity, the ages of the assemblages, littoral geomorphology and prehistoric fisheries. Our new radiocarbon dating, based on otolith samples, was used for fishery characterization over time. A taxonomical study of the ichthyoarchaeological remains includes a diversity of 97 marine species, representing 37% of all modern species (i.e., 265 spp. that have been documented along the coast of Rio de Janeiro state. This high fish diversity recovered from the shellmounds is clear evidence of well-developed prehistoric fishery activity that targeted sharks, rays and finfishes in a productive area influenced by coastal marine upwelling. The presence of adult and neonate shark, especially oceanic species, is here interpreted as evidence of prehistoric fisheries capacity for exploitation and possibly overexploitation in nursery areas. Various tools and strategies were used to capture finfish in seasonal fisheries, over rocky reef bottoms and in sandy littoral environments. Massive catches of whitemouth croaker, main target dermersal species of South Atlantic coast, show evidence of a reduction in body size of approximately 28% compared with modern fisheries. Fishery activity involving vulnerable species, especially in nursery areas, could mark the beginning of fish depletion along the southeastern Brazilian coast and the collapse of natural fish populations.

The Path towards Endangered Species: Prehistoric Fisheries in Southeastern Brazil

Science.gov (United States)

Lopes, Mariana Samôr; Bertucci, Thayse Cristina Pereira; Rapagnã, Luciano; Tubino, Rafael de Almeida; Monteiro-Neto, Cassiano; Tomas, Acácio Ribeiro Gomes; Tenório, Maria Cristina; Lima, Tânia; Souza, Rosa; Carrillo-Briceño, Jorge Domingo; Haimovici, Manuel; Macario, Kita; Carvalho, Carla; Aguilera Socorro, Orangel

2016-01-01

Brazilian shellmounds are archaeological sites with a high concentration of marine faunal remains. There are more than 2000 sites along the coast of Brazil that range in age from 8,720 to 985 cal BP. Here, we studied the ichthyoarchaeological remains (i.e., cranial/postcranial bones, otoliths, and teeth, among others) at 13 shellmounds on the southern coast of the state of Rio de Janeiro, which are located in coastal landscapes, including a sandy plain with coastal lagoons, rocky islands, islets and rocky bays. We identified patterns of similarity between shellmounds based on fish diversity, the ages of the assemblages, littoral geomorphology and prehistoric fisheries. Our new radiocarbon dating, based on otolith samples, was used for fishery characterization over time. A taxonomical study of the ichthyoarchaeological remains includes a diversity of 97 marine species, representing 37% of all modern species (i.e., 265 spp.) that have been documented along the coast of Rio de Janeiro state. This high fish diversity recovered from the shellmounds is clear evidence of well-developed prehistoric fishery activity that targeted sharks, rays and finfishes in a productive area influenced by coastal marine upwelling. The presence of adult and neonate shark, especially oceanic species, is here interpreted as evidence of prehistoric fisheries capacity for exploitation and possibly overexploitation in nursery areas. Various tools and strategies were used to capture finfish in seasonal fisheries, over rocky reef bottoms and in sandy littoral environments. Massive catches of whitemouth croaker, main target dermersal species of South Atlantic coast, show evidence of a reduction in body size of approximately 28% compared with modern fisheries. Fishery activity involving vulnerable species, especially in nursery areas, could mark the beginning of fish depletion along the southeastern Brazilian coast and the collapse of natural fish populations. PMID:27355355

The Path towards Endangered Species: Prehistoric Fisheries in Southeastern Brazil.

Science.gov (United States)

Lopes, Mariana Samôr; Bertucci, Thayse Cristina Pereira; Rapagnã, Luciano; Tubino, Rafael de Almeida; Monteiro-Neto, Cassiano; Tomas, Acácio Ribeiro Gomes; Tenório, Maria Cristina; Lima, Tânia; Souza, Rosa; Carrillo-Briceño, Jorge Domingo; Haimovici, Manuel; Macario, Kita; Carvalho, Carla; Aguilera Socorro, Orangel

2016-01-01

Brazilian shellmounds are archaeological sites with a high concentration of marine faunal remains. There are more than 2000 sites along the coast of Brazil that range in age from 8,720 to 985 cal BP. Here, we studied the ichthyoarchaeological remains (i.e., cranial/postcranial bones, otoliths, and teeth, among others) at 13 shellmounds on the southern coast of the state of Rio de Janeiro, which are located in coastal landscapes, including a sandy plain with coastal lagoons, rocky islands, islets and rocky bays. We identified patterns of similarity between shellmounds based on fish diversity, the ages of the assemblages, littoral geomorphology and prehistoric fisheries. Our new radiocarbon dating, based on otolith samples, was used for fishery characterization over time. A taxonomical study of the ichthyoarchaeological remains includes a diversity of 97 marine species, representing 37% of all modern species (i.e., 265 spp.) that have been documented along the coast of Rio de Janeiro state. This high fish diversity recovered from the shellmounds is clear evidence of well-developed prehistoric fishery activity that targeted sharks, rays and finfishes in a productive area influenced by coastal marine upwelling. The presence of adult and neonate shark, especially oceanic species, is here interpreted as evidence of prehistoric fisheries capacity for exploitation and possibly overexploitation in nursery areas. Various tools and strategies were used to capture finfish in seasonal fisheries, over rocky reef bottoms and in sandy littoral environments. Massive catches of whitemouth croaker, main target dermersal species of South Atlantic coast, show evidence of a reduction in body size of approximately 28% compared with modern fisheries. Fishery activity involving vulnerable species, especially in nursery areas, could mark the beginning of fish depletion along the southeastern Brazilian coast and the collapse of natural fish populations.

Spatiotemporal Analysis of Human Mobility in Manila Metropolitan Area with Person-Trip Data

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kai Liu

2018-01-01

Full Text Available The metropolitan area can be regarded as a multi-functional structure consisting of plural coordinated urban nucleuses. This study aims to clarify the characteristics of urban nucleuses and a spatiotemporal pattern of human mobility in the Manila metropolitan area. Hourly density of human mobility from 00:00 to 24:00 in the whole study area is quantitatively studied. Urban nucleuses with six types: central city, business city, commuter town, south suburb, north suburb, and subcenter city, are identified. Differences of human mobility owing to different human behaviors or properties are also analyzed in 10 typical areas with different urban functions. Results prove that pattern of human mobility in each area depends on its human social division, population composition, infrastructure condition, and functional structure. This study provides an effective thinking on handling geo-tagged big data supported by MATLAB programming and GIS technology. Moreover, spatiotemporal analysis of human mobility also possesses a meaningful academic value for transport geography.

Challenges for coexistence of machine to machine and human to human applications in mobile network

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Sanyal, R.; Cianca, E.; Prasad, Ramjee

2012-01-01

A key factor for the evolution of the mobile networks towards 4G is to bring to fruition high bandwidth per mobile node. Eventually, due to the advent of a new class of applications, namely, Machine-to-Machine, we foresee new challenges where bandwidth per user is no more the primal driver...... be evolved to address various nuances of the mobile devices used by man and machines. The bigger question is as follows. Is the state-of-the-art mobile network designed optimally to cater both the Human-to-Human and Machine-to-Machine applications? This paper presents the primary challenges....... As an immediate impact of the high penetration of M2M devices, we envisage a surge in the signaling messages for mobility and location management. The cell size will shrivel due to high tele-density resulting in even more signaling messages related to handoff and location updates. The mobile network should...

Phytoliths in pottery reveal the use of spice in European prehistoric cuisine.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hayley Saul

Full Text Available Here we present evidence of phytoliths preserved in carbonised food deposits on prehistoric pottery from the western Baltic dating from 6,100 cal BP to 5750 cal BP. Based on comparisons to over 120 European and Asian species, our observations are consistent with phytolith morphologies observed in modern garlic mustard seed (Alliaria petiolata (M. Bieb Cavara & Grande. As this seed has a strong flavour, little nutritional value, and the phytoliths are found in pots along with terrestrial and marine animal residues, these findings are the first direct evidence for the spicing of food in European prehistoric cuisine. Our evidence suggests a much greater antiquity to the spicing of foods than is evident from the macrofossil record, and challenges the view that plants were exploited by hunter-gatherers and early agriculturalists solely for energy requirements, rather than taste.

Phytoliths in Pottery Reveal the Use of Spice in European Prehistoric Cuisine

Science.gov (United States)

Saul, Hayley; Madella, Marco; Fischer, Anders; Glykou, Aikaterini; Hartz, Sönke; Craig, Oliver E.

2013-01-01

Here we present evidence of phytoliths preserved in carbonised food deposits on prehistoric pottery from the western Baltic dating from 6,100 cal BP to 5750 cal BP. Based on comparisons to over 120 European and Asian species, our observations are consistent with phytolith morphologies observed in modern garlic mustard seed (Alliaria petiolata (M. Bieb) Cavara & Grande). As this seed has a strong flavour, little nutritional value, and the phytoliths are found in pots along with terrestrial and marine animal residues, these findings are the first direct evidence for the spicing of food in European prehistoric cuisine. Our evidence suggests a much greater antiquity to the spicing of foods than is evident from the macrofossil record, and challenges the view that plants were exploited by hunter-gatherers and early agriculturalists solely for energy requirements, rather than taste. PMID:23990910

Modelling human mobility patterns using photographic data shared online.

Science.gov (United States)

Barchiesi, Daniele; Preis, Tobias; Bishop, Steven; Moat, Helen Susannah

2015-08-01

Humans are inherently mobile creatures. The way we move around our environment has consequences for a wide range of problems, including the design of efficient transportation systems and the planning of urban areas. Here, we gather data about the position in space and time of about 16 000 individuals who uploaded geo-tagged images from locations within the UK to the Flickr photo-sharing website. Inspired by the theory of Lévy flights, which has previously been used to describe the statistical properties of human mobility, we design a machine learning algorithm to infer the probability of finding people in geographical locations and the probability of movement between pairs of locations. Our findings are in general agreement with official figures in the UK and on travel flows between pairs of major cities, suggesting that online data sources may be used to quantify and model large-scale human mobility patterns.

Multi-scale spatio-temporal analysis of human mobility

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Alessandretti, Laura; Sapiezynski, Piotr; Jørgensen, Sune Lehmann

2017-01-01

The recent availability of digital traces generated by phone calls and online logins has significantly increased the scientific understanding of human mobility. Until now, however, limited data resolution and coverage have hindered a coherent description of human displacements across different...

Unified underpinning of human mobility in the real world and cyberspace

Science.gov (United States)

Zhao, Yi-Ming; Zeng, An; Yan, Xiao-Yong; Wang, Wen-Xu; Lai, Ying-Cheng

2016-05-01

Human movements in the real world and in cyberspace affect not only dynamical processes such as epidemic spreading and information diffusion but also social and economical activities such as urban planning and personalized recommendation in online shopping. Despite recent efforts in characterizing and modeling human behaviors in both the real and cyber worlds, the fundamental dynamics underlying human mobility have not been well understood. We develop a minimal, memory-based random walk model in limited space for reproducing, with a single parameter, the key statistical behaviors characterizing human movements in both cases. The model is validated using relatively big data from mobile phone and online commerce, suggesting memory-based random walk dynamics as the unified underpinning for human mobility, regardless of whether it occurs in the real world or in cyberspace.

Understanding Spatiotemporal Patterns of Human Convergence and Divergence Using Mobile Phone Location Data

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Xiping Yang

2016-09-01

Full Text Available Investigating human mobility patterns can help researchers and agencies understand the driving forces of human movement, with potential benefits for urban planning and traffic management. Recent advances in location-aware technologies have provided many new data sources (e.g., mobile phone and social media data for studying human space-time behavioral regularity. Although existing studies have utilized these new datasets to characterize human mobility patterns from various aspects, such as predicting human mobility and monitoring urban dynamics, few studies have focused on human convergence and divergence patterns within a city. This study aims to explore human spatial convergence and divergence and their evolutions over time using large-scale mobile phone location data. Using a dataset from Shenzhen, China, we developed a method to identify spatiotemporal patterns of human convergence and divergence. Eight distinct patterns were extracted, and the spatial distributions of these patterns are discussed in the context of urban functional regions. Thus, this study investigates urban human convergence and divergence patterns and their relationships with the urban functional environment, which is helpful for urban policy development, urban planning and traffic management.

Audio Technology and Mobile Human Computer Interaction

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Chamberlain, Alan; Bødker, Mads; Hazzard, Adrian

2017-01-01

Audio-based mobile technology is opening up a range of new interactive possibilities. This paper brings some of those possibilities to light by offering a range of perspectives based in this area. It is not only the technical systems that are developing, but novel approaches to the design...... and understanding of audio-based mobile systems are evolving to offer new perspectives on interaction and design and support such systems to be applied in areas, such as the humanities....

Mobilization and Counter-mobilization Against LGBT Rights. Conservative Responses to the Recognition of Human Rights

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Jairo Antonio López Pacheco

2017-10-01

Full Text Available This article analyzes the counter-mobilization against the institutionalization of lgbt rights in Colombia and Mexico. From an analytical framework that integrates the dimension of mobilization and counter-mobilization in the conflicts for rights, we show that the conservative reaction in Colombia and Mexico is a coordinated and active response against the conquests of sexual minorities, led by the churches, which has slowed the progress of effective recognition of human rights. We have identified similar strategies of mobilization of demand frameworks, mobilization structures and collective action repertories in both cases that have raised the political costs of institutional changes through two mechanisms of conflict: street and electoral activism and institutional activism.

Palaeotsunamis and their significance for prehistoric coastal communities

Science.gov (United States)

Goff, J. R.

2011-12-01

The damage caused by large tsunamis to human populations at the coast has been all too evident over the past few years. However, while we have seen the immediate after-effects of such events, we are less familiar with the longer term changes associated with them. Using prehistoric New Zealand as a case study, the talk first addresses the wider geological context associated with a tsunami - what caused it and what were the consequences for the physical environment? Prehistoric Maori lived predominantly in coastal settlements, particularly during their early settlement period. They had far ranging canoe trade routes and made widespread use of intertidal and coastal resources. As such it is possible to determine much of the ecological and societal ramifications of a 15th century tsunami inundation. The 15th century tsunami is recorded in numerous purakau or oral recordings. These form part of Maori Traditional Environmental Knowledge (TEK), but the event can also be identified through archaeological, geological and palaeo-ecological indicators. One of several purakau from the 15th century refers to the "Coming of the Sand". This centres on a place called Potiki-taua, where Potiki and his group settled. Mango-huruhuru, the old priest, built a large house on low land near the sea while Potiki-roa and his wife put theirs on higher ground further inland. Mango-huruhuru's house had a rocky beach in front of it that was unsuitable for landing canoes and so he decided to use his powers to bring sand from Hawaiki. After sunset he sat on his roof and recited a karakia (prayer/chant). On conclusion a dark cloud with its burden of sand reached the shore. The women called out "A! The sea rises; the waves and the sand will overwhelm us". The people fell where they stood and were buried in the sand along with the house and cultivations and all the surrounding country, and with them, the old priest and his youngest daughter (memorialised and turned into a rock which stands there

GPR Imaging of Prehistoric Animal Bone-beds

Science.gov (United States)

Schneider, Blair Benson

This research investigates the detection capabilities of Ground-penetrating radar for imaging prehistoric animal bone-beds. The first step of this investigation was to determine the dielectric properties of modern animal bone as a proxy for applying non-invasive ground-penetrating radar (GPR) for detecting prehistoric animal remains. Over 90 thin section samples were cut from four different modern faunal skeleton remains: bison, cow, deer, and elk. One sample of prehistoric mammoth core was also analyzed. Sample dielectric properties (relative permittivity, loss factor, and loss-tangent values) were measured with an impedance analyzer over frequencies ranging from 10 MHz to 1 GHz. The results reveal statistically significant dielectric-property differences among different animal fauna, as well as variation as a function of frequency. The measured sample permittivity values were then compared to modeled sample permittivity values using common dielectric-mixing models. The dielectric mixing models were used to report out new reported values of dry bone mineral of 3-5 in the frequency range of 10 MHz to 1 GHz. The second half of this research collected controlled GPR experiments over a sandbox containing buried bison bone elements to evaluate GPR detection capabilities of buried animal bone. The results of the controlled GPR sandbox tests were then compared to numerical models in order to predict the ability of GPR to detect buried animal bone given a variety of different depositional factors, the size and orientation of the bone target and the degree of bone weathering. The radar profiles show that GPR is an effective method for imaging the horizontal and vertical extent of buried animal bone. However, increased bone weathering and increased bone dip were both found to affect GPR reflection signal strength. Finally, the controlled sandbox experiments were also utilized to investigate the impact of survey design for imaging buried animal bone. In particular, the

Uncovering stable and occasional human mobility patterns: A case study of the Beijing subway

Science.gov (United States)

Yong, Nuo; Ni, Shunjiang; Shen, Shifei; Chen, Peng; Ji, Xuewei

2018-02-01

There have generally been two kinds of approaches to the empirical study of human mobility. At the group level, some valuable information might be submerged in statistical noise, while due to the diversity of individual purpose and preference, there is still no general statistical regularity of human mobility at the individual level. In this paper, we considered group-level human mobility as the combination of several basic patterns and analyzed the collective mobility by category. Utilizing matrix factorization and correlation analysis, we extracted some of the stable/occasional components from the collective human mobility in the Beijing subway and found that the departure and arrival mobility patterns have different characteristics, both in time and space, under various conditions. We classified individual records into different patterns and analyzed the most likely trip distance by category. The proposed method can decompose stable/occasional mobility patterns from the collective mobility and identify passengers belonging to different patterns, helping us to better understand the origin of different mobility patterns and provide guidance for emergency management of large crowds.

Direct radiocarbon dates for prehistoric paintings at the Altamira, El Castillo and Niaux caves

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Valladas, H.; Cachier, H.; Maurice, P.; Arnold, M.; Quiros, F.B. de; Valdes, V.C.; Uzquiano, P.

1992-01-01

Among things that most strikingly distinguish modern humans from other hominids and the rest of the animal kingdom is the ability to represent things and events pictorially. Complex paintings of the type discovered in the Altamira, El Castillo, Niaux and Lascaux caves represent an important stepping stone in the cultural evolution of humankind. Until now dates were derived from style or dated remains left by prehistoric visitors and could be biased by prolonged occupation or visits unrelated to painting activity. Here we report the first radiocarbon dates for the charcoal used to draw stylistically similar bisons in these caves: 14,000 ± 400 yr BP in the Spanish caves of Altamira, 12,990 ± 200 yr BP in El Castillo, and 12,890 ± 160 yr BP for a bison of different style in the French Pyrenean cave of Niaux. Our results demonstrate the imprecise nature of stylistic dating and show that painting dates derived from remains of human activities should be used with caution. (Author)

On the Relationship between Holocene Geomorphic Evolution of Rivers and Prehistoric Settlements Distribution in the Songshan Mountain Region of China

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Peng Lu

2017-01-01

Full Text Available This paper deals with the study of Holocene geomorphic evolution of rivers around Songshan Mountain in relation to human frequentation in Prehistoric periods. The investigations were performed by means of an integration of GIS data processing; field surveys and particle size analysis. In 8000–3000 aBP; in the Songshan Mountain Region, large-scale river sedimentation occurred. This increased the elevation of river beds that were higher than today. After 3000 aBP; the upper reaches of the rivers experienced a down cut; while the lower reaches experienced continuing sedimentation. The data on the elevation of prehistoric settlements above the river levels were obtained from Digital Elevation Models (DEMs. These data were corrected according to the evolutionary features of fluvial landforms in order to obtain synchronous elevations above river levels of prehistoric settlements. The relationship between sediment distribution and the Holocene geomorphic evolution was investigated through the statistical analysis of the elevation above the river levels. Outputs from our analyses enabled us to differentiate three evolutionary stages. During the first one, related to Peiligang culture (9000–7500 aBP, populations mainly settled on both hilly relief and high plateaus depending on their agriculture production modes. During the second stage, from Yangshao (7500–5000 aBP to the Longshan period (5000–4000 aBP, settlements were mainly distributed on mountainous areas and hilly lands to avoid flooding and to develop agriculture. Finally, during the Xiashang culture (4000–3000 aBP, a large number of settlements migrated to the plain area to facilitate trade of goods and cultural exchanges.

On the analysis of human mobility model for content broadcasting in 5G networks

KAUST Repository

Lau, Chun Pong

2018-02-15

Today\\'s mobile service providers aim at ensuring end-to-end performance guarantees. Hence, ensuring an efficient content delivery to end users is highly required. Currently, transmitting popular contents in modern mobile networks rely on unicast transmission. This result into a huge underutilization of the wireless bandwidth. The urban scale mobility of users is beneficial for mobile networks to allocate radio resources spatially and temporally for broadcasting contents. In this paper, we conduct a comprehensive analysis on a human activity/mobility model and the content broadcasting system in 5G mobile networks. The objective of this work is to describe how human daily activities could improve the content broadcasting efficiency. We achieve the objective by analyzing the transition probabilities of a user traveling over several places according to the change of states of daily human activities. Using a reallife simulation, we demonstrate the relationship between the human mobility and the optimization objective of the content broadcasting system.

Mobile Robots in Human Environments

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Svenstrup, Mikael

intelligent mobile robotic devices capable of being a more natural and sociable actor in a human environment. More specific the emphasis is on safe and natural motion and navigation issues. First part of the work focus on developing a robotic system, which estimates human interest in interacting......, lawn mowers, toy pets, or as assisting technologies for care giving. If we want robots to be an even larger and more integrated part of our every- day environments, they need to become more intelligent, and behave safe and natural to the humans in the environment. This thesis deals with making...... as being able to navigate safely around one person, the robots must also be able to navigate in environments with more people. This can be environments such as pedestrian streets, hospital corridors, train stations or airports. The developed human-aware navigation strategy is enhanced to formulate...

Energy-Efficient Crowdsensing of Human Mobility and Signal Levels in Cellular Networks

Science.gov (United States)

Foremski, Paweł; Gorawski, Michał; Grochla, Krzysztof; Polys, Konrad

2015-01-01

The paper presents a practical application of the crowdsensing idea to measure human mobility and signal coverage in cellular networks. Currently, virtually everyone is carrying a mobile phone, which may be used as a sensor to gather research data by measuring, e.g., human mobility and radio signal levels. However, many users are unwilling to participate in crowdsensing experiments. This work begins with the analysis of the barriers for engaging people in crowdsensing. A survey showed that people who agree to participate in crowdsensing expect a minimum impact on their battery lifetime and phone usage habits. To address these requirements, this paper proposes an application for measuring the location and signal strength data based on energy-efficient GPS tracking, which allows one to perform the measurements of human mobility and radio signal levels with minimum energy utilization and without any engagement of the user. The method described combines measurements from the accelerometer with effective management of the GPS to monitor the user mobility with the decrease in battery lifetime by approximately 20%. To show the applicability of the proposed platform, the sample results of signal level distribution and coverage maps gathered for an LTE network and representing human mobility are shown. PMID:26340633

Estimating Human Predictability From Mobile Sensor Data

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jensen, Bjørn Sand; Larsen, Jakob Eg; Jensen, Kristian

2010-01-01

Quantification of human behavior is of prime interest in many applications ranging from behavioral science to practical applications like GSM resource planning and context-aware services. As proxies for humans, we apply multiple mobile phone sensors all conveying information about human behavior....... Using a recent, information theoretic approach it is demonstrated that the trajectories of individual sensors are highly predictable given complete knowledge of the infinite past. We suggest using a new approach to time scale selection which demonstrates that participants have even higher predictability...

Explaining the power-law distribution of human mobility through transportation modality decomposition

Science.gov (United States)

Zhao, Kai; Musolesi, Mirco; Hui, Pan; Rao, Weixiong; Tarkoma, Sasu

2015-03-01

Human mobility has been empirically observed to exhibit Lévy flight characteristics and behaviour with power-law distributed jump size. The fundamental mechanisms behind this behaviour has not yet been fully explained. In this paper, we propose to explain the Lévy walk behaviour observed in human mobility patterns by decomposing them into different classes according to the different transportation modes, such as Walk/Run, Bike, Train/Subway or Car/Taxi/Bus. Our analysis is based on two real-life GPS datasets containing approximately 10 and 20 million GPS samples with transportation mode information. We show that human mobility can be modelled as a mixture of different transportation modes, and that these single movement patterns can be approximated by a lognormal distribution rather than a power-law distribution. Then, we demonstrate that the mixture of the decomposed lognormal flight distributions associated with each modality is a power-law distribution, providing an explanation to the emergence of Lévy Walk patterns that characterize human mobility patterns.

On the Use of Human Mobility Proxies for Modeling Epidemics

Science.gov (United States)

Tizzoni, Michele; Bajardi, Paolo; Decuyper, Adeline; Kon Kam King, Guillaume; Schneider, Christian M.; Blondel, Vincent; Smoreda, Zbigniew; González, Marta C.; Colizza, Vittoria

2014-01-01

Human mobility is a key component of large-scale spatial-transmission models of infectious diseases. Correctly modeling and quantifying human mobility is critical for improving epidemic control, but may be hindered by data incompleteness or unavailability. Here we explore the opportunity of using proxies for individual mobility to describe commuting flows and predict the diffusion of an influenza-like-illness epidemic. We consider three European countries and the corresponding commuting networks at different resolution scales, obtained from (i) official census surveys, (ii) proxy mobility data extracted from mobile phone call records, and (iii) the radiation model calibrated with census data. Metapopulation models defined on these countries and integrating the different mobility layers are compared in terms of epidemic observables. We show that commuting networks from mobile phone data capture the empirical commuting patterns well, accounting for more than 87% of the total fluxes. The distributions of commuting fluxes per link from mobile phones and census sources are similar and highly correlated, however a systematic overestimation of commuting traffic in the mobile phone data is observed. This leads to epidemics that spread faster than on census commuting networks, once the mobile phone commuting network is considered in the epidemic model, however preserving to a high degree the order of infection of newly affected locations. Proxies' calibration affects the arrival times' agreement across different models, and the observed topological and traffic discrepancies among mobility sources alter the resulting epidemic invasion patterns. Results also suggest that proxies perform differently in approximating commuting patterns for disease spread at different resolution scales, with the radiation model showing higher accuracy than mobile phone data when the seed is central in the network, the opposite being observed for peripheral locations. Proxies should therefore be

Environmental Change and Human Mobility: Trends, Law and Policy

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Susan F. Martin

2017-10-01

Full Text Available Enhancing the protection of persons displaced by natural disasters and the impacts of climate change will require sustained attention. This article identifies practical solutions, many of which are currently under consideration by governments and international organizations, to improve the lives of millions of people affected by environmental crises. It begins with a brief overview of why people move, the nature of those movements, and the relationship between human mobility and adaptation to environmental change by highlighting three types of mobility – migration, displacement and planned relocation. Next, the international and regional level will be discussed, with particular focus on legislative and policy frameworks for addressing human mobility in the context of environmental change. The article identifies gaps in existing frameworks as well as recent efforts to address them, particularly through mini-multilateral initiatives aimed at identifying principles and practices that should guide governmental action. The article concludes that efforts to improve responses require a better evidence base than currently exists on issues such as the environmental determinants of migration, displacement and planned relocation; the multi-faceted ways in which environmental factors relate to the many other causes of population movements in the cases of human mobility; and the impact of such movements on the well-being of migrants, communities of origin, and communities of destination.

Climate-driven endemic cholera is modulated by human mobility in a megacity

Science.gov (United States)

Perez-Saez, Javier; King, Aaron A.; Rinaldo, Andrea; Yunus, Mohammad; Faruque, Abu S. G.; Pascual, Mercedes

2017-10-01

Although a differential sensitivity of cholera dynamics to climate variability has been reported in the spatially heterogeneous megacity of Dhaka, Bangladesh, the specific patterns of spread of the resulting risk within the city remain unclear. We build on an established probabilistic spatial model to investigate the importance and role of human mobility in modulating spatial cholera transmission. Mobility fluxes were inferred using a straightforward and generalizable methodology that relies on mapping population density based on a high resolution urban footprint product, and a parameter-free human mobility model. In accordance with previous findings, we highlight the higher sensitivity to the El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) in the highly populated urban center than in the more rural periphery. More significantly, our results show that cholera risk is largely transmitted from the climate-sensitive core to the periphery of the city, with implications for the planning of control efforts. In addition, including human mobility improves the outbreak prediction performance of the model with an 11 month lead. The interplay between climatic and human mobility factors in cholera transmission is discussed from the perspective of the rapid growth of megacities across the developing world.

Estimating mobility using sparse data: Application to human genetic variation.

Science.gov (United States)

Loog, Liisa; Mirazón Lahr, Marta; Kovacevic, Mirna; Manica, Andrea; Eriksson, Anders; Thomas, Mark G

2017-11-14

Mobility is one of the most important processes shaping spatiotemporal patterns of variation in genetic, morphological, and cultural traits. However, current approaches for inferring past migration episodes in the fields of archaeology and population genetics lack either temporal resolution or formal quantification of the underlying mobility, are poorly suited to spatially and temporally sparsely sampled data, and permit only limited systematic comparison between different time periods or geographic regions. Here we present an estimator of past mobility that addresses these issues by explicitly linking trait differentiation in space and time. We demonstrate the efficacy of this estimator using spatiotemporally explicit simulations and apply it to a large set of ancient genomic data from Western Eurasia. We identify a sequence of changes in human mobility from the Late Pleistocene to the Iron Age. We find that mobility among European Holocene farmers was significantly higher than among European hunter-gatherers both pre- and postdating the Last Glacial Maximum. We also infer that this Holocene rise in mobility occurred in at least three distinct stages: the first centering on the well-known population expansion at the beginning of the Neolithic, and the second and third centering on the beginning of the Bronze Age and the late Iron Age, respectively. These findings suggest a strong link between technological change and human mobility in Holocene Western Eurasia and demonstrate the utility of this framework for exploring changes in mobility through space and time. Copyright © 2017 the Author(s). Published by PNAS.

From human behavior to the spread of mobile phone viruses

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Pu

Percolation theory was initiated some 50 years ago as a mathematical framework for the study of random physical processes such as the flow of a fluid through a disordered porous medium. It has been proved to be a remarkably rich theory, with applications from thermodynamic phase transitions to complex networks. In this dissertation percolation theory is used to study the diffusion process of mobile phone viruses. Some methodologies widely used in statistical physics are also applied to uncover the underlying statistical laws of human behavior and simulate the spread of mobile phone viruses in a large population. I find that while Bluetooth viruses can reach all susceptible handsets with time, they spread slowly due to human mobility, offering ample opportunities to deploy antiviral software. In contrast, viruses utilizing multimedia messaging services (MMS) could infect all users in hours, but currently a phase transition on the underlying call graph limits them to only a small fraction of the susceptible users. These results explain the lack of a major mobile virus breakout so far and predict that once a mobile operating system's market share reaches the phase transition point, viruses will pose a serious threat to mobile communications. These studies show how the large datasets and tools of statistical physics can be used to study some specific and important problems, such as the spread of mobile phone viruses.

Does Human Capital Investment Impact the Earning Mobility of the Near Poor?

Science.gov (United States)

Karasik, Bradley

2012-01-01

This secondary analysis of the earning mobility of the near poor examined the impact of human capital investment on the earning mobility of the near poor between 2005 and 2009. The theory framing this study is Human Capital Theory (Shultz, 1961). Other demographic and socioeconomic variables were included in this study to further explore factors…

Depth camera driven mobile robot for human localization and following

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Skordilis, Nikolaos; Vidakis, Nikolaos; Triantafyllidis, Georgios

2014-01-01

In this paper the design and the development of a mobile robot able to locate and then follow a human target is described. Both the integration of the required mechatronics components and the development of appropriate software are covered. The main sensor of the developed mobile robot is an RGB-...

Demonstration of Mobile Auto-GPS for Large Scale Human Mobility Analysis

Science.gov (United States)

Horanont, Teerayut; Witayangkurn, Apichon; Shibasaki, Ryosuke

2013-04-01

The greater affordability of digital devices and advancement of positioning and tracking capabilities have presided over today's age of geospatial Big Data. Besides, the emergences of massive mobile location data and rapidly increase in computational capabilities open up new opportunities for modeling of large-scale urban dynamics. In this research, we demonstrate the new type of mobile location data called "Auto-GPS" and its potential use cases for urban applications. More than one million Auto-GPS mobile phone users in Japan have been observed nationwide in a completely anonymous form for over an entire year from August 2010 to July 2011 for this analysis. A spate of natural disasters and other emergencies during the past few years has prompted new interest in how mobile location data can help enhance our security, especially in urban areas which are highly vulnerable to these impacts. New insights gleaned from mining the Auto-GPS data suggest a number of promising directions of modeling human movement during a large-scale crisis. We question how people react under critical situation and how their movement changes during severe disasters. Our results demonstrate a case of major earthquake and explain how people who live in Tokyo Metropolitan and vicinity area behave and return home after the Great East Japan Earthquake on March 11, 2011.

Cooperative mobility systems: The human factor challenges.

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Martens, Marieke; Kroon, Elisabeth

2014-01-01

This paper presents a vision on cooperative mobility systems from a human factors perspective. To create a common ground for future developments, it’s important to define the common research themes and knowledge gaps. This article presents what steps need to be taken in order to come to proper

EVALUATION OF EMF EXPOSURE OF MOBILE PHONES ON HUMAN HEAD

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

N. I. Vtornikova

2017-01-01

Full Text Available Introduction. Mobile phones are worldwide spread nowadays. Smartphones penetration is growing year after year. Numerous studies indicate the negative effect of EMF exposure of these devices on humans. Therefore, it is important to study the peculiarities of their influence on the target organ-the brain. It is important for solving this problem to find out the real situation of the distribution of energy flux density (EFD of EMF exposure near the front panel of the apparatus.The aim of the study is to determine and compare EMF exposure from smartphones and classic mobile phones on human head.Material and methods. The original method patented in the Russian Federation was used in this study. The used original measuring setup is also patented, developed and assembled by the authors of the study. The object of the study was classical mobile phones and smartphones widespread at the time of work.Results. We got the graphic of matrices of distribution of energy flux density (EFD of EMF exposure in the plane against the front panel of 10 apparatus corresponding to the topography of a human head. The study revealed peculiarities of this distribution in smartphones and the classic mobile phones and got the values of energy flux density (EFD of EMF exposure in the investigated devices acting primarily on the brain.Conclusions. The design of smartphones and mobile phones determines the overall picture of distribution of EFD of EMF exposure in the plane against the front panel for devices of a particular type. This picture must be taken into account when planning epidemiological and experimental studies to obtain comparable results. Progress in the development of mobile communication technologies has led to an increase in the electromagnetic load on users of modern devices.

Berber genealogy and the politics of prehistoric archaeology and craniology in French Algeria (1860s-1880s).

Science.gov (United States)

Effros, Bonnie

2017-03-01

Following the conquest of Algiers and its surrounding territory by the French army in 1830, officers noted an abundance of standing stones in this region of North Africa. Although they attracted considerably less attention among their cohort than more familiar Roman monuments such as triumphal arches and bridges, these prehistoric remains were similar to formations found in Brittany and other parts of France. The first effort to document these remains occurred in 1863, when Laurent-Charles Féraud, a French army interpreter, recorded thousands of dolmens and stone formations south-west of Constantine. Alleging that these constructions were Gallic, Féraud hypothesized the close affinity of the French, who claimed descent from the ancient Gauls, with the early inhabitants of North Africa. After Féraud's claims met with scepticism among many prehistorians, French scholars argued that these remains were constructed by the ancestors of the Berbers (Kabyles in contemporary parlance), whom they hypothesized had been dominated by a blond race of European origin. Using craniometric statistics of human remains found in the vicinity of the standing stones to propose a genealogy of the Kabyles, French administrators in Algeria thereafter suggested that their mixed origins allowed them to adapt more easily than the Arab population to French colonial governance. This case study at the intersection of prehistoric archaeology, ancient history and craniology exposes how genealogical (and racial) classification made signal contributions to French colonial ideology and policy between the 1860s and 1880s.

Biodeterioration agents: Bacterial and fungal diversity dwelling in or on the pre-historic rock-paints of Kabra-pahad, India.

Science.gov (United States)

Biswas, Jayant; Sharma, Kavita; Harris, K K; Rajput, Yogita

2013-09-01

In the last few decades, losses of our cultural heritage due to biodeteriorationare beinghighly recognized. From museum objects to rock monuments, the microbial biodeterioration agents are found to be the most destructive. Possibilities for proper preservative measure(s) are always more when it is only a monument, statue, museum article, or pre-historic art in any small subterranean cave. Nevertheless, preservation/protection of the footprints occupying a big area, lying scattered in a very negligible manner requires safeguard against several deterioration factors; right from various physical, chemical and biological agents which are indeed interrelated to each other. In the present study, some microbial communities possibly responsible for deteriorating the rocks of Kabra-pahad, where the most famous pre-historic rock paints of India prevail have been identified. The diversity of fungi and bacteria present in the stone crust of the infected areas has been studied by employing standard laboratory methods. The cultivated cultures confirmed total fifteen fungal species, among which Aspergillus group were the most dominant. Among bacteria, total 80 numbers of colonies were observed that dominated by two major groups; Micrococcus.spp and Staphylococcus spp. The pre-historic footprint in the form of rock paints in Kabra-pahad of district Raigarh, Chhattisgarh, India is lying in a very deteriorated manner. In the present study, we have tried to identify few major deteriorating factors that are responsible for such degradation of our existing pre-historic footprints.

HUMAN FOLLOWING ON ROS FRAMEWORK A MOBILE ROBOT

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Gigih Priyandoko

2018-06-01

Full Text Available Service mobile robot is playing a more critical role in today's society as more people such as a disabled person or the elderly are in need of mobile robot assistance. An autonomous person following ability shows great importance to the overall role of service mobile robot in assisting human. The objective of this paper focuses on developing a robot follow a person. The robot is equipped with the necessary sensors such as a Microsoft Kinect sensor and a Hokuyo laser sensor. Four suitable tracking methods are introduced in this project which is implemented and tested on the person following algorithm. The tracking methods implemented are face detection, leg detection, color detection and person blob detection. All of the algorithms implementations in this project is performed using Robot Operating System (ROS. The result showed that the mobile robot could track and follow the target person based on the person movement.

An Efficient and Secure m-IPS Scheme of Mobile Devices for Human-Centric Computing

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Young-Sik Jeong

2014-01-01

Full Text Available Recent rapid developments in wireless and mobile IT technologies have led to their application in many real-life areas, such as disasters, home networks, mobile social networks, medical services, industry, schools, and the military. Business/work environments have become wire/wireless, integrated with wireless networks. Although the increase in the use of mobile devices that can use wireless networks increases work efficiency and provides greater convenience, wireless access to networks represents a security threat. Currently, wireless intrusion prevention systems (IPSs are used to prevent wireless security threats. However, these are not an ideal security measure for businesses that utilize mobile devices because they do not take account of temporal-spatial and role information factors. Therefore, in this paper, an efficient and secure mobile-IPS (m-IPS is proposed for businesses utilizing mobile devices in mobile environments for human-centric computing. The m-IPS system incorporates temporal-spatial awareness in human-centric computing with various mobile devices and checks users’ temporal spatial information, profiles, and role information to provide precise access control. And it also can extend application of m-IPS to the Internet of things (IoT, which is one of the important advanced technologies for supporting human-centric computing environment completely, for real ubiquitous field with mobile devices.

Road Signs: Geosemiotics and Human Mobility

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hamid, Salmiah Binti Abdul

In order to provide an overview of the state-of-the-art developments, this thesis presents a theoretical lens that is used to anchor the subjects of the studies of ‘people’, ‘road signs’ and ‘built environment’ through the theories of geosemiotics and mobility. The fields of geosemiotics and mobi......In order to provide an overview of the state-of-the-art developments, this thesis presents a theoretical lens that is used to anchor the subjects of the studies of ‘people’, ‘road signs’ and ‘built environment’ through the theories of geosemiotics and mobility. The fields of geosemiotics...... and mobility are important aspects of this research; they provide another theoretical challenge in the form of merging these two disciplines in the analysis in order to enhance a dialogue between the fields of urban design and graphic design practices. Thus, the interrelation between the two theories will help...... to answer the question of whether road signs have significant impact on human behaviour when moving in an urban environment. Selected cities in Denmark and Scotland were used as study areas in this research project. The methods were conducted within urban settings as well as controlled settings...

A Theoretical Basis for Entropy-Scaling Effects in Human Mobility Patterns.

Science.gov (United States)

Osgood, Nathaniel D; Paul, Tuhin; Stanley, Kevin G; Qian, Weicheng

2016-01-01

Characterizing how people move through space has been an important component of many disciplines. With the advent of automated data collection through GPS and other location sensing systems, researchers have the opportunity to examine human mobility at spatio-temporal resolution heretofore impossible. However, the copious and complex data collected through these logging systems can be difficult for humans to fully exploit, leading many researchers to propose novel metrics for encapsulating movement patterns in succinct and useful ways. A particularly salient proposed metric is the mobility entropy rate of the string representing the sequence of locations visited by an individual. However, mobility entropy rate is not scale invariant: entropy rate calculations based on measurements of the same trajectory at varying spatial or temporal granularity do not yield the same value, limiting the utility of mobility entropy rate as a metric by confounding inter-experimental comparisons. In this paper, we derive a scaling relationship for mobility entropy rate of non-repeating straight line paths from the definition of Lempel-Ziv compression. We show that the resulting formulation predicts the scaling behavior of simulated mobility traces, and provides an upper bound on mobility entropy rate under certain assumptions. We further show that this formulation has a maximum value for a particular sampling rate, implying that optimal sampling rates for particular movement patterns exist.

Human mobility, cognition and GISc

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Welcome to Human Mobility, Cognition and GISc’ - a conference hosted by the University of Copenhagen on November 9, 2015. The present document encloses the abstracts contributed by five invited speakers and eight submitted as responses to a public call made on June 1st 2015. In GIS and related...... the psychological/cognitive and neurophysiological background of our spatial behavior - including our abilities to perceive, memorize, apply and communicate spatial knowledge. It is the aim of the conference to bring together professionals from cognitive, analytical and geo-technical sciences (including...

The tomography of human mobility - what do shortest-path trees reveal?

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Thiemann, Christian [Eng. Sci. and Appl. Math, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL (United States); Max-Planck-Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization, Goettingen (Germany); Grady, Daniel; Brockmann, Dirk [Eng. Sci. and Appl. Math, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL (United States)

2010-07-01

Similar to illustrating the anatomy of organs using pictures of tissue slices taken at various depths, we construct shortest-path trees of different nodes to create tomograms of large-scale human mobility networks. This tomography allows us to measure global properties of the system conditioned on a reference location in the network to gain a fuller characterization of a node. It also suggests a canonical coordinate system for representing complex networks and dynamical processes thereon in a simplified way, revealing a new symmetry in the human mobility networks we investigated. Furthermore, introducing the notion of tree similarity, we devised a new technique for clustering nodes with similar topological footprint, yielding a unique and efficient method for community identification and topological backbone extraction. We applied these methods to a multi-scale human mobility network obtained from the dollar-bill-tracking site wheresgoerge.com and to the U.S. and world-wide air transportation network.

The prehistoric mines of Gavà: an example of a comprehensive approach to the study and public presentation of an archaeological site

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Blasco, Mònica

2000-12-01

Full Text Available The Prehistoric Mines of Gavà used to provide variscite about 6000 years ago. This mineral was used for decorative purposes! For the last ten years, the Gavà Museum has been implementing a comprehensive intervention (research, conservation and information dissemination campaign for the mines. This programme is financed by many different institutions, such as the city hall, the Generalitat de Cataluña (the Catalan Government, the Diputación de Barcelona (the city council and lNEM (employment office. The museum leads and coordinates an interdisciplinary team and has established cooperation agreements with some universities. The Prehistoric Mines can be visited since 1993, and meet the visitors´ safety, mobility and understanding requirements, without affecting their conservation and scientific rigor Visits are guided and their goal is to make people experience emotions. Although they have got a varied target group, they are especially aimed at students. Thus, there is a number of activities planned only for them. The visits to the Prehistoric Mines have been considered an accepted educational resource in Barcelona and its metropolitan area. The main future project of the museum is the Archaeological Park of the Prehistoric Mines. It will be a centre aimed at interpreting the Neolithic period and the origin of the mining industry. Its objectives are to maintain intervention and to attract the cultural tourism in Barcelona.

Las Minas Prehistóricas de Gavá proporcionaron variscita, un material ornamental, hace 6000 años. Desde hace diez años el Museo de Gavá impulsa una intervención integral (investigación, conservación y difusión, financiada por diversas instituciones (Ayuntamiento, Generalitat de Cataluña, Diputación de Barcelona e INEM, lidera y coordina un equipo interdisciplinar y mantiene convenios de colaboración con diferentes universidades. Las minas están abiertas al público desde 1993 y

Size variation in Middle Pleistocene humans.

Science.gov (United States)

Arsuaga, J L; Carretero, J M; Lorenzo, C; Gracia, A; Martínez, I; Bermúdez de Castro, J M; Carbonell, E

1997-08-22

It has been suggested that European Middle Pleistocene humans, Neandertals, and prehistoric modern humans had a greater sexual dimorphism than modern humans. Analysis of body size variation and cranial capacity variation in the large sample from the Sima de los Huesos site in Spain showed instead that the sexual dimorphism is comparable in Middle Pleistocene and modern populations.

Prehistoric contacts over the Straits of Gibraltar indicated by genetic analysis of Iberian Bronze Age cattle.

Science.gov (United States)

Anderung, Cecilia; Bouwman, Abigail; Persson, Per; Carretero, José Miguel; Ortega, Ana Isabel; Elburg, Rengert; Smith, Colin; Arsuaga, Juan Luis; Ellegren, Hans; Götherström, Anders

2005-06-14

The geographic situation of the Iberian Peninsula makes it a natural link between Europe and North Africa. However, it is a matter of debate to what extent African influences via the Straits Gibraltar have affected Iberia's prehistoric development. Because early African pastoralist communities were dedicated to cattle breeding, a possible means to detect prehistoric African-Iberian contacts might be to analyze the origin of cattle breeds on the Iberian Peninsula. Some contemporary Iberian cattle breeds show a mtDNA haplotype, T1, that is characteristic to African breeds, generally explained as being the result of the Muslim expansion of the 8th century A.D., and of modern imports. To test a possible earlier African influence, we analyzed mtDNA of Bronze Age cattle from the Portalón cave at the Atapuerca site in northern Spain. Although the majority of samples showed the haplotype T3 that dominates among European breeds of today, the T1 haplotype was found in one specimen radiocarbon dated 1800 calibrated years B.C. Accepting T1 as being of African origin, this result indicates prehistoric African-Iberian contacts and lends support to archaeological finds linking early African and Iberian cultures. We also found a wild ox haplotype in the Iberian Bronze Age sample, reflecting local hybridization or backcrossing or that aurochs were hunted by these farming cultures.

Reconstruction of prehistoric plant production and cooking practices by a new isotopic method

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Hastorf, C A [California Univ., Los Angeles (USA). Dept. of Anthropology; DeNiro, M J [California Univ., Los Angeles (USA). Dept. of Earth and Space Sciences

1985-06-06

A new method is presented based on isotopic analysis of burnt organic matter, allowing the characterization of previously unidentifiable plant remains extracted from archaeological contexts. The method is used to reconstruct prehistoric production, preparation and consumption of plant foods, as well as the use of ceramic vessels, in the Upper Mantaro Valley region of the central Peruvian Andes.

Progressive results from the PIXE program for sourcing prehistoric Papuan pottery

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Allen, J.; Duerden, P.

1982-01-01

A study with the aim of identifying pottery from Motupore Island, Papua New Guinea, in other local and distant sites is described. PIXE, the analytical technique used, is outlined. Elements selected for sourcing studies were: major elements - Si, Al, K, Ca, Ti, Fe; trace elements - Sr, Rb. From the results so far obtained, it is apparent that the approach is providing the legitimate allocation of prehistoric sherds to source materials on the basis of their chemical composition

Small scattered fragments do not a dwarf make: biological and archaeological data indicate that prehistoric inhabitants of Palau were normal sized.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Scott M Fitzpatrick

Full Text Available UNLABELLED: Current archaeological evidence from Palau in western Micronesia indicates that the archipelago was settled around 3000-3300 BP by normal sized populations; contrary to recent claims, they did not succumb to insular dwarfism. BACKGROUND: Previous and ongoing archaeological research of both human burial and occupation sites throughout the Palauan archipelago during the last 50 years has produced a robust data set to test hypotheses regarding initial colonization and subsequent adaptations over the past three millennia. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Close examination of human burials at the early (ca. 3000 BP and stratified site of Chelechol ra Orrak indicates that these were normal sized individuals. This is contrary to the recent claim of contemporaneous "small-bodied" individuals found at two cave sites by Berger et al. (2008. As we argue, their analyses are flawed on a number of different analytical levels. First, their sample size is too small and fragmentary to adequately address the variation inherent in modern humans within and outside of Palau. Second, the size and stature of all other prehistoric (both older and contemporaneous skeletal assemblages found in Palau fall within the normal parameters of modern human variation in the region, indicating this was not a case of insular dwarfism or a separate migratory group. Third, measurements taken on several skeletal elements by Berger et al. may appear to be from smaller-bodied individuals, but the sizes of these people compares well with samples from Chelechol ra Orrak. Last, archaeological, linguistic, and historical evidence demonstrates a great deal of cultural continuity in Palau through time as expected if the same population was inhabiting the archipelago. CONCLUSIONS: Prehistoric Palauan populations were normal sized and exhibit traits that fall within the normal variation for Homo sapiens-they do not support the claims by Berger et al. (2008 that there were smaller

Detection of chaotic dynamics in human gait signals from mobile devices

Science.gov (United States)

DelMarco, Stephen; Deng, Yunbin

2017-05-01

The ubiquity of mobile devices offers the opportunity to exploit device-generated signal data for biometric identification, health monitoring, and activity recognition. In particular, mobile devices contain an Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) that produces acceleration and rotational rate information from the IMU accelerometers and gyros. These signals reflect motion properties of the human carrier. It is well-known that the complexity of bio-dynamical systems gives rise to chaotic dynamics. Knowledge of chaotic properties of these systems has shown utility, for example, in detecting abnormal medical conditions and neurological disorders. Chaotic dynamics has been found, in the lab, in bio-dynamical systems data such as electrocardiogram (heart), electroencephalogram (brain), and gait data. In this paper, we investigate the following question: can we detect chaotic dynamics in human gait as measured by IMU acceleration and gyro data from mobile phones? To detect chaotic dynamics, we perform recurrence analysis on real gyro and accelerometer signal data obtained from mobile devices. We apply the delay coordinate embedding approach from Takens' theorem to reconstruct the phase space trajectory of the multi-dimensional gait dynamical system. We use mutual information properties of the signal to estimate the appropriate delay value, and the false nearest neighbor approach to determine the phase space embedding dimension. We use a correlation dimension-based approach together with estimation of the largest Lyapunov exponent to make the chaotic dynamics detection decision. We investigate the ability to detect chaotic dynamics for the different one-dimensional IMU signals, across human subject and walking modes, and as a function of different phone locations on the human carrier.

The evolution of human mobility based on the public goods game

Science.gov (United States)

Yan, Shiqing

2017-07-01

We explore the evolution of human mobility behavior based on public goods game. By using mean field method, the population distribution in different regions is theoretical calculated. Numerical simulation results show that the correlation between the region's degree and its final population is not significant under a larger human migration rate. Human mobility could effectively promote cooperative behavior and the population balance of different regions. Therefore, encouraging individuals to migrate may increase the total benefits of the whole society. Moreover, increasing the cooperation cost could reduce the number of cooperators, and that would happen to the correlation between the region's degree and its final population. The results indicate the total population could not dramatically rise with the region's degree under an unfair society.

Educational Mismatches and Earnings: Extensions of Occupational Mobility Theory and Evidence of Human Capital Depreciation

Science.gov (United States)

Rubb, Stephen

2006-01-01

Using a human capital theory framework, this study examines the impact of educational mismatches on earnings and occupational mobility. Occupational mobility theory suggests that overeducated workers observe greater upward occupational mobility and undereducated workers observe lower upward occupational mobility. By extension, this leads to…

Multidimensional human dynamics in mobile phone communications.

Science.gov (United States)

Quadri, Christian; Zignani, Matteo; Capra, Lorenzo; Gaito, Sabrina; Rossi, Gian Paolo

2014-01-01

In today's technology-assisted society, social interactions may be expressed through a variety of techno-communication channels, including online social networks, email and mobile phones (calls, text messages). Consequently, a clear grasp of human behavior through the diverse communication media is considered a key factor in understanding the formation of the today's information society. So far, all previous research on user communication behavior has focused on a sole communication activity. In this paper we move forward another step on this research path by performing a multidimensional study of human sociality as an expression of the use of mobile phones. The paper focuses on user temporal communication behavior in the interplay between the two complementary communication media, text messages and phone calls, that represent the bi-dimensional scenario of analysis. Our study provides a theoretical framework for analyzing multidimensional bursts as the most general burst category, that includes one-dimensional bursts as the simplest case, and offers empirical evidence of their nature by following the combined phone call/text message communication patterns of approximately one million people over three-month period. This quantitative approach enables the design of a generative model rooted in the three most significant features of the multidimensional burst - the number of dimensions, prevalence and interleaving degree - able to reproduce the main media usage attitude. The other findings of the paper include a novel multidimensional burst detection algorithm and an insight analysis of the human media selection process.

Multidimensional human dynamics in mobile phone communications.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Christian Quadri

Full Text Available In today's technology-assisted society, social interactions may be expressed through a variety of techno-communication channels, including online social networks, email and mobile phones (calls, text messages. Consequently, a clear grasp of human behavior through the diverse communication media is considered a key factor in understanding the formation of the today's information society. So far, all previous research on user communication behavior has focused on a sole communication activity. In this paper we move forward another step on this research path by performing a multidimensional study of human sociality as an expression of the use of mobile phones. The paper focuses on user temporal communication behavior in the interplay between the two complementary communication media, text messages and phone calls, that represent the bi-dimensional scenario of analysis. Our study provides a theoretical framework for analyzing multidimensional bursts as the most general burst category, that includes one-dimensional bursts as the simplest case, and offers empirical evidence of their nature by following the combined phone call/text message communication patterns of approximately one million people over three-month period. This quantitative approach enables the design of a generative model rooted in the three most significant features of the multidimensional burst - the number of dimensions, prevalence and interleaving degree - able to reproduce the main media usage attitude. The other findings of the paper include a novel multidimensional burst detection algorithm and an insight analysis of the human media selection process.

How Big Data Fast Tracked Human Mobility Research and the Lessons for Animal Movement Ecology

KAUST Repository

Thums, Michele; Ferná ndez-Gracia, Juan; Sequeira, Ana M. M.; Eguí luz, Ví ctor M.; Duarte, Carlos M.; Meekan, Mark G.

2018-01-01

The rise of the internet coupled with technological innovations such as smartphones have generated massive volumes of geo-referenced data (big data) on human mobility. This has allowed the number of studies of human mobility to rapidly overtake those of animal movement. Today, telemetry studies of animals are also approaching big data status. Here, we review recent advances in studies of human mobility and identify the opportunities they present for advancing our understanding of animal movement. We describe key analytical techniques, potential bottlenecks and a roadmap for progress toward a synthesis of movement patterns of wild animals.

How Big Data Fast Tracked Human Mobility Research and the Lessons for Animal Movement Ecology

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Michele Thums

2018-02-01

Full Text Available The rise of the internet coupled with technological innovations such as smartphones have generated massive volumes of geo-referenced data (big data on human mobility. This has allowed the number of studies of human mobility to rapidly overtake those of animal movement. Today, telemetry studies of animals are also approaching big data status. Here, we review recent advances in studies of human mobility and identify the opportunities they present for advancing our understanding of animal movement. We describe key analytical techniques, potential bottlenecks and a roadmap for progress toward a synthesis of movement patterns of wild animals.

How Big Data Fast Tracked Human Mobility Research and the Lessons for Animal Movement Ecology

KAUST Repository

Thums, Michele

2018-02-13

The rise of the internet coupled with technological innovations such as smartphones have generated massive volumes of geo-referenced data (big data) on human mobility. This has allowed the number of studies of human mobility to rapidly overtake those of animal movement. Today, telemetry studies of animals are also approaching big data status. Here, we review recent advances in studies of human mobility and identify the opportunities they present for advancing our understanding of animal movement. We describe key analytical techniques, potential bottlenecks and a roadmap for progress toward a synthesis of movement patterns of wild animals.

A Study on Generic Representation of Skeletal Remains Replication of Prehistoric Burial

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

C.-W. Shao

2015-08-01

Full Text Available Generic representation of skeletal remains from burials consists of three dimensions which include physical anthropologists, replication technicians, and promotional educators. For the reason that archaeological excavation is irreversible and disruptive, detail documentation and replication technologies are surely needed for many purposes. Unearthed bones during the process of 3D digital scanning need to go through reverse procedure, 3D scanning, digital model superimposition, rapid prototyping, mould making, and the integrated errors generated from the presentation of colours and textures are important issues for the presentation of replicate skeleton remains among professional decisions conducted by physical anthropologists, subjective determination of makers, and the expectations of viewers. This study presents several cases and examines current issues on display and replication technologies for human skeletal remains of prehistoric burials. This study documented detail colour changes of human skeleton over time for the reference of reproduction. The tolerance errors of quantification and required technical qualification is acquired according to the precision of 3D scanning, the specification requirement of rapid prototyping machine, and the mould making process should following the professional requirement for physical anthropological study. Additionally, the colorimeter is adopted to record and analyse the “colour change” of the human skeletal remains from wet to dry condition. Then, the “colure change” is used to evaluate the “real” surface texture and colour presentation of human skeletal remains, and to limit the artistic presentation among the human skeletal remains reproduction. The“Lingdao man No.1”, is a well preserved burial of early Neolithic period (8300 B.P. excavated from Liangdao-Daowei site, Matsu, Taiwan , as the replicating object for this study. In this study, we examined the reproduction procedures step by

Uncovering urban human mobility from large scale taxi GPS data

Science.gov (United States)

Tang, Jinjun; Liu, Fang; Wang, Yinhai; Wang, Hua

2015-11-01

Taxi GPS trajectories data contain massive spatial and temporal information of urban human activity and mobility. Taking taxi as mobile sensors, the information derived from taxi trips benefits the city and transportation planning. The original data used in study are collected from more than 1100 taxi drivers in Harbin city. We firstly divide the city area into 400 different transportation districts and analyze the origin and destination distribution in urban area on weekday and weekend. The Density-Based Spatial Clustering of Applications with Noise (DBSCAN) algorithm is used to cluster pick-up and drop-off locations. Furthermore, four spatial interaction models are calibrated and compared based on trajectories in shopping center of Harbin city to study the pick-up location searching behavior. By extracting taxi trips from GPS data, travel distance, time and average speed in occupied and non-occupied status are then used to investigate human mobility. Finally, we use observed OD matrix of center area in Harbin city to model the traffic distribution patterns based on entropy-maximizing method, and the estimation performance verify its effectiveness in case study.

Human Capital of Family and Social Mobility in Rural Areas-Evidence from China

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

ZHANG Jin-hua; YU Mei-lian; WU Fang-wei; CHEN Wei

2013-01-01

This research focuses on the impact of family’s human capital on social mobility in China’s rural community. Empirical research is conducted based on data from surveying a typical rural community in the past 20 yr. The study indicates that social mobility in rural area is active in the past 20 yr, and the human capital of family, represented by primary labor’s education level, has played an essential role in mobility of low social class. Meanwhile, socio-economic development and the change of supply and demand in labor market dims the signaling role of degree education, but the impact of occupational training is increasingly remarkable. Therefore, the change from sole degree education to multi-leveled education including occupational education and training is a main way for China’s rural families in low class to realize social mobility.

Evidence for Prehistoric Astronomy in the Aegean

Science.gov (United States)

Banos, G.

In this study an effort is made to find evidence, based on literary and archaeological sources, for the astronomical knowledge of the people in and around the Aegean in prehistoric times. The main conclusions are: 1) The Minoans, as well as the Mycenaeans, had a calendar, not necessarily the same. The existence of a Mycenaean calendar is well known from the Knossos and Pylos tablets containing a number of months. 2) The Minoans had a luni-solar calendar and a time record system. They used as a basic time unit the time of rise of the solar disc, measured probably through a clepsydre, and the well known gaming board (zatrikion) of the Heraclion Museum as a time-keeper. Bigger units were the day, the lunar months, the year and the octaetiris. 3) The necessary observations were probably made from sites such as the peak sanctuaries in Crete.

Human movement activity classification approaches that use wearable sensors and mobile devices

Science.gov (United States)

Kaghyan, Sahak; Sarukhanyan, Hakob; Akopian, David

2013-03-01

Cell phones and other mobile devices become part of human culture and change activity and lifestyle patterns. Mobile phone technology continuously evolves and incorporates more and more sensors for enabling advanced applications. Latest generations of smart phones incorporate GPS and WLAN location finding modules, vision cameras, microphones, accelerometers, temperature sensors etc. The availability of these sensors in mass-market communication devices creates exciting new opportunities for data mining applications. Particularly healthcare applications exploiting build-in sensors are very promising. This paper reviews different approaches of human activity recognition.

A Tale of Many Cities: Universal Patterns in Human Urban Mobility

Science.gov (United States)

Noulas, Anastasios; Scellato, Salvatore; Lambiotte, Renaud; Pontil, Massimiliano; Mascolo, Cecilia

2012-01-01

The advent of geographic online social networks such as Foursquare, where users voluntarily signal their current location, opens the door to powerful studies on human movement. In particular the fine granularity of the location data, with GPS accuracy down to 10 meters, and the worldwide scale of Foursquare adoption are unprecedented. In this paper we study urban mobility patterns of people in several metropolitan cities around the globe by analyzing a large set of Foursquare users. Surprisingly, while there are variations in human movement in different cities, our analysis shows that those are predominantly due to different distributions of places across different urban environments. Moreover, a universal law for human mobility is identified, which isolates as a key component the rank-distance, factoring in the number of places between origin and destination, rather than pure physical distance, as considered in some previous works. Building on our findings, we also show how a rank-based movement model accurately captures real human movements in different cities. PMID:22666339

A tale of many cities: universal patterns in human urban mobility.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Anastasios Noulas

Full Text Available The advent of geographic online social networks such as Foursquare, where users voluntarily signal their current location, opens the door to powerful studies on human movement. In particular the fine granularity of the location data, with GPS accuracy down to 10 meters, and the worldwide scale of Foursquare adoption are unprecedented. In this paper we study urban mobility patterns of people in several metropolitan cities around the globe by analyzing a large set of Foursquare users. Surprisingly, while there are variations in human movement in different cities, our analysis shows that those are predominantly due to different distributions of places across different urban environments. Moreover, a universal law for human mobility is identified, which isolates as a key component the rank-distance, factoring in the number of places between origin and destination, rather than pure physical distance, as considered in some previous works. Building on our findings, we also show how a rank-based movement model accurately captures real human movements in different cities.

Environmental change and human mobility in the digital age

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Boas, Ingrid

2017-01-01

This intervention argues for the need of research to examine how information and communication technologies (ICTs) shape human mobility in the context of environmental change. ICTs are becoming increasingly central in the daily lives of migrants and communities at risk of environmental events.

Lead in prehistoric, historic and contemporary Japanese: stable isotopic study by ICP mass spectrometry

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Suzuki, T.; Morita, M.; Yoneda, M.; Yoshinaga, J.

1998-01-01

Lead concentration and isotopic composition of prehistoric (middle and latest Jomon era, 2000-4500 BP, n=6), historic (Edo era, 130-400 BP, n=10), and contemporary (died in 1987-88, n=15) Japanese bones, and deciduous teeth from contemporary Japanese children born during 1985-88 (n=17) were analyzed by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry. Lead concentration was lowest in Jomon bones and was higher in rural Edo, contemporary, and urban Edo, in that order. Elevated Pb concentration in historic Edo people, as reported previously, was reconfirmed. The average isotopic ratios ( 207 Pb/ 206 Pb and 208 Pb/ 206 Pb) in excavated (prehistoric and historic) bones, contemporary bones, and deciduous teeth were different from each other. The contemporary bones had the least radiogenic composition (mean 207 Pb/ 206 Pb: 0.879; mean 208 Pb/ 206 Pb: 2.126) while the excavated bones the most (0.848; 2.098), and teeth intermediate (0.866; 2.111). The comparison with the literature data of isotopic compositions of environmental samples showed that the isotopic composition of the excavated bones was within the range of Japanese ores, rocks and soils, indicating the absence of foreign Pb sources in preindustrialized Japan. That of the contemporary bones was closer to the average gasoline Pb, the use of which had been banned in the late 1970s, than to the Pb in airborne particulate matter or refuse incineration ash of 1980s. The average Pb isotopic ratios in the deciduous teeth was close to the isotopic ratios of Pb in airborne particulate matter and refuse incineration ash. These data indicated that the contemporary Japanese population was exposed to foreign Pb which had different isotopic composition from domestic Pb. Exposure to Pb of foreign origin was particularly evidently recorded in people born before the leaded gasoline ban. The history of human Pb contamination in Japan is discussed based on the present results and other previously published data. (Copyright (c) 1998

Harmful effects of mobile phone waves on blood tissues of the human body

OpenAIRE

Kumar, Vijay; Ahmad, Mushtaq; Sharma, A. K.

2013-01-01

  Abstract. Penetration of electromagnetic waves emitted by mobile phones into human skin and blood was studied. The transmitted waves from these mobile phones were exposed to the human body and were penetrated into the body where field was reduced exponentially with depth. As the reduction in field was due to absorption of power, specific absorption rate was calculated and compared with permissible limit given by International Commission on Non-ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP) and Worl...

Mobile Phone Use and Human-Wildlife Conflict in Northern Tanzania

Science.gov (United States)

Lewis, Ashley L.; Baird, Timothy D.; Sorice, Michael G.

2016-07-01

Throughout the developing world, mobile phones are spreading rapidly into rural areas where subsistence livelihoods, biodiversity conservation, and human-wildlife conflict (HWC) are each common. Despite this trend, little is known about the relationship between mobile phones and HWC in conservation landscapes. This paper examines this relationship within ethnically Maasai communities in northern Tanzania on the border of Tarangire National Park. Mixed qualitative and quantitative methods of data collection and analysis are used to (1) describe how Maasai agro-pastoralists use phones to manage human-wildlife interactions; and (2) assess the relationship between phone use and measures of HWC, controlling for other factors. The findings indicate that households use phones to reduce the number and severity of HWC events and that the relationship between phones and HWC varies according to the type of HWC.

A diffusion based study of population dynamics: Prehistoric migrations into South Asia.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mayank N Vahia

Full Text Available A diffusion equation has been used to study migration of early humans into the South Asian subcontinent. The diffusion equation is tempered by a set of parameters that account for geographical features like proximity to water resources, altitude, and flatness of land. The ensuing diffusion of populations is followed in time-dependent computer simulations carried out over a period of 10,000 YBP. The geographical parameters are determined from readily-available satellite data. The results of our computer simulations are compared to recent genetic data so as to better correlate the migratory patterns of various populations; they suggest that the initial populations started to coalesce around 4,000 YBP before the commencement of a period of relative geographical isolation of each population group. The period during which coalescence of populations occurred appears consistent with the established timeline associated with the Harappan civilization and also, with genetic admixing that recent genetic mapping data reveal. Our results may contribute to providing a timeline for the movement of prehistoric people. Most significantly, our results appear to suggest that the Ancestral Austro-Asiatic population entered the subcontinent through an easterly direction, potentially resolving a hitherto-contentious issue.

Human Pacman: A Mobile Augmented Reality Entertainment System Based on Physical, Social, and Ubiquitous Computing

Science.gov (United States)

Cheok, Adrian David

This chapter details the Human Pacman system to illuminate entertainment computing which ventures to embed the natural physical world seamlessly with a fantasy virtual playground by capitalizing on infrastructure provided by mobile computing, wireless LAN, and ubiquitous computing. With Human Pacman, we have a physical role-playing computer fantasy together with real human-social and mobile-gaming that emphasizes on collaboration and competition between players in a wide outdoor physical area that allows natural wide-area human-physical movements. Pacmen and Ghosts are now real human players in the real world experiencing mixed computer graphics fantasy-reality provided by using the wearable computers on them. Virtual cookies and actual tangible physical objects are incorporated into the game play to provide novel experiences of seamless transitions between the real and virtual worlds. This is an example of a new form of gaming that anchors on physicality, mobility, social interaction, and ubiquitous computing.

Human Mobility Analysis for Extracting Local Interactions under Rapid Socio-Economic Transformation in Dawei, Myanmar

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Satomi Kimijima

2017-09-01

Full Text Available Understanding human mobility patterns provides knowledge about impacts of a socio-economic transformation in a rapidly urbanizing environment. This study assesses a long-term mobility data which uses a face-to-face questionnaire and GPS logger-based method of data collection for extracting socio-economic impacts from the rapid transformation. Conversion of mobility related information such as travel distance, direction, and time from the questionnaire survey into spatiotemporal information was carried out by developing an algorithm. To illustrate the proposed approach, a case study in Dawei Special Economic Zone, Myanmar was conducted. The results show that the questionnaire-based mobility data can be associated with GPS-based mobility data and diverse mobility patterns are found for different social groups in the stage of urban formation. The results enabled an understanding of the human dynamics in interactions, which can be used for monitoring rural sustainability and its challenges in the future with the background of the accelerated project development in the area.

Human Mobility Patterns and Cholera Epidemics: a Spatially Explicit Modeling Approach

Science.gov (United States)

Mari, L.; Bertuzzo, E.; Righetto, L.; Casagrandi, R.; Gatto, M.; Rodriguez-Iturbe, I.; Rinaldo, A.

2010-12-01

Cholera is an acute enteric disease caused by the ingestion of water or food contaminated by the bacterium Vibrio cholerae. Although most infected individuals do not develop severe symptoms, their stool may contain huge quantities of V.~cholerae cells. Therefore, while traveling or commuting, asymptomatic carriers can be responsible for the long-range dissemination of the disease. As a consequence, human mobility is an alternative and efficient driver for the spread of cholera, whose primary propagation pathway is hydrological transport through river networks. We present a multi-layer network model that accounts for the interplay between epidemiological dynamics, hydrological transport and long-distance dissemination of V.~cholerae due to human movement. In particular, building on top of state-of-the-art spatially explicit models for cholera spread through surface waters, we describe human movement and its effects on the propagation of the disease by means of a gravity-model approach borrowed from transportation theory. Gravity-like contact processes have been widely used in epidemiology, because they can satisfactorily depict human movement when data on actual mobility patterns are not available. We test our model against epidemiological data recorded during the cholera outbreak occurred in the KwaZulu-Natal province of South Africa during years 2000--2001. We show that human mobility does actually play an important role in the formation of the spatiotemporal patterns of cholera epidemics. In particular, long-range human movement may determine inter-catchment dissemination of V.~cholerae cells, thus in turn explaining the emergence of epidemic patterns that cannot be produced by hydrological transport alone. We also show that particular attention has to be devoted to study how heterogeneously distributed drinking water supplies and sanitation conditions may affect cholera transmission.

Analysis of Human Mobility Based on Cellular Data

Science.gov (United States)

Arifiansyah, F.; Saptawati, G. A. P.

2017-01-01

Nowadays not only adult but even teenager and children have then own mobile phones. This phenomena indicates that the mobile phone becomes an important part of everyday’s life. Based on these indication, the amount of cellular data also increased rapidly. Cellular data defined as the data that records communication among mobile phone users. Cellular data is easy to obtain because the telecommunications company had made a record of the data for the billing system of the company. Billing data keeps a log of the users cellular data usage each time. We can obtained information from the data about communication between users. Through data visualization process, an interesting pattern can be seen in the raw cellular data, so that users can obtain prior knowledge to perform data analysis. Cellular data processing can be done using data mining to find out human mobility patterns and on the existing data. In this paper, we use frequent pattern mining and finding association rules to observe the relation between attributes in cellular data and then visualize them. We used weka tools for finding the rules in stage of data mining. Generally, the utilization of cellular data can provide supporting information for the decision making process and become a data support to provide solutions and information needed by the decision makers.

Impact of human mobility on the emergence of dengue epidemics in Pakistan

Science.gov (United States)

Wesolowski, Amy; Qureshi, Taimur; Boni, Maciej F.; Sundsøy, Pål Roe; Johansson, Michael A.; Rasheed, Syed Basit; Engø-Monsen, Kenth; Buckee, Caroline O.

2015-01-01

The recent emergence of dengue viruses into new susceptible human populations throughout Asia and the Middle East, driven in part by human travel on both local and global scales, represents a significant global health risk, particularly in areas with changing climatic suitability for the mosquito vector. In Pakistan, dengue has been endemic for decades in the southern port city of Karachi, but large epidemics in the northeast have emerged only since 2011. Pakistan is therefore representative of many countries on the verge of countrywide endemic dengue transmission, where prevention, surveillance, and preparedness are key priorities in previously dengue-free regions. We analyze spatially explicit dengue case data from a large outbreak in Pakistan in 2013 and compare the dynamics of the epidemic to an epidemiological model of dengue virus transmission based on climate and mobility data from ∼40 million mobile phone subscribers. We find that mobile phone-based mobility estimates predict the geographic spread and timing of epidemics in both recently epidemic and emerging locations. We combine transmission suitability maps with estimates of seasonal dengue virus importation to generate fine-scale dynamic risk maps with direct application to dengue containment and epidemic preparedness. PMID:26351662

Patterns and Limitations of Urban Human Mobility Resilience under the Influence of Multiple Types of Natural Disaster.

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Qi; Taylor, John E

2016-01-01

Natural disasters pose serious threats to large urban areas, therefore understanding and predicting human movements is critical for evaluating a population's vulnerability and resilience and developing plans for disaster evacuation, response and relief. However, only limited research has been conducted into the effect of natural disasters on human mobility. This study examines how natural disasters influence human mobility patterns in urban populations using individuals' movement data collected from Twitter. We selected fifteen destructive cases across five types of natural disaster and analyzed the human movement data before, during, and after each event, comparing the perturbed and steady state movement data. The results suggest that the power-law can describe human mobility in most cases and that human mobility patterns observed in steady states are often correlated with those in perturbed states, highlighting their inherent resilience. However, the quantitative analysis shows that this resilience has its limits and can fail in more powerful natural disasters. The findings from this study will deepen our understanding of the interaction between urban dwellers and civil infrastructure, improve our ability to predict human movement patterns during natural disasters, and facilitate contingency planning by policymakers.

Exact solution of gyration radius of individual's trajectory for a simplified human mobility model

OpenAIRE

Yan, Xiao-Yong; Han, Xiao-Pu; Zhou, Tao; Wang, Bing-Hong

2010-01-01

Gyration radius of individual's trajectory plays a key role in quantifying human mobility patterns. Of particular interests, empirical analyses suggest that the growth of gyration radius is slow versus time except the very early stage and may eventually arrive to a steady value. However, up to now, the underlying mechanism leading to such a possibly steady value has not been well understood. In this Letter, we propose a simplified human mobility model to simulate individual's daily travel wit...

Age of a prehistoric "Rodedian" cult site constrained by sediment and rock surface luminescence dating techniques

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Sohbati, Reza; Murray, Andrew; Porat, N.

2015-01-01

The construction age of a pavement in a “Rodedian” prehistoric cult site in Negev desert, Israel, is established by determining the burial age of (i) a cobble used in the pavement, and (ii) the underlying sediment. The quartz OSL age and the K-feldspar corrected IR50 age from the sediment...

New evidence for the catastrophic demise of a prehistoric settlement (the Lajia Ruins) in the Guanting Basin, upper Yellow River, NW China

Science.gov (United States)

Zhao, Hui; Huang, Chun Chang; Zheng, Zixing; Hu, Ying; Zhang, Yuzhu; Guo, Yongqiang; Zhou, Qiang

2017-09-01

The Lajia Ruins in the Guanting Basin, NW China, are a product of the prehistoric Qijia Culture. Like Pompeii, they are a rare example of an archaeological site preserved by a natural disaster and are therefore important in archaeology, anthropology and geology. However, the nature of the disaster(s) responsible for the destruction of the site remains controversial. Most studies have focused on an earthquake and a red clay layer directly overlying the site and a detailed stratigraphic study of the mid-Holocene sedimentary strata combined with other intervals of red clay deposition (hence possible disasters) is lacking. We identified a mid-Holocene paleosol sequence (the Shanglajia section) at the site which contains two layers of red clay, dated to 3950 a BP and 3500 a BP, intercalated within the mid-Holocene paleosol (S0). Subsequent multi-proxy analysis indicated that the characteristics of the two red clay layers resemble those of typical Tertiary red clay deposits and the modern gully deposit at the foot of the Great Red Hills, but are distinctly different from those of the slackwater deposits of the Yellow River and the mid-Holocene paleosol. Our results suggest that, at 3950 a BP and 3500 a BP, two large-scale rainstorm-induced mudflow events, originating from the gullies to the north, flooded the Lajia area on the second terrace of the Yellow River, devastating and burying the human settlements. We infer that the intensified erosion and mass wasting were caused by human activity; in addition, natural factors such as rainstorms and earthquakes, may also have played an important role in triggering catastrophic mudflow events in the Tertiary Red Clay deposits. Overall, our results provide further insights into prehistoric man-land relationships in this environmentally sensitive region which may have implications for modern land use in this region of China and elsewhere.

Heathland and the palynology of prehistoric barrows. Reflections on the interrelation between soil formation and pollen infiltration.

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Groenman-van Waateringe, W; Spek, Mattheus

2016-01-01

In the sandy areas of the Netherlands, heather (Calluna vulgaris) played an important role in the construction of prehistoric barrows, although, as will be shown in this paper, not in all periods as was recently asserted by Doorenbosch (2013). Since the mineralogical composition and the texture of

Using Human Gestures and Generic Skills to Instruct a Mobile Robot Arm in a Feeder Filling Scenario

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Pedersen, Mikkel Rath; Høilund, Carsten; Krüger, Volker

2012-01-01

Mobile robots that have the ability to cooperate with humans are able to provide new possibilities to manufac- turing industries. In this paper, we discuss our mobile robot arm that a) can provide assistance at different locations in a factory and b) that can be programmed using complex human...... actions such as pointing in Take this object. In this paper, we discuss the use of the mobile robot for a feeding scenario where a human operator specifies the parts and the feeders through pointing gestures. The system is partially built using generic robotic skills. Through extensive experiments, we...

Mobility Divides

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jensen, Ole B.

Contemporary mobilities are cultural and social manifestations, and the mobile practices in the everyday life of billions of humans are re-configuring senses of place, self, other and relationships to the built environment. The way ‘mobile situations’ are staged in designed and built environments......’ in the everyday life and cast light on how design and ‘materialities of mobilites’ are creating differential mobilities across societies, social networks, and communities of practices.......Contemporary mobilities are cultural and social manifestations, and the mobile practices in the everyday life of billions of humans are re-configuring senses of place, self, other and relationships to the built environment. The way ‘mobile situations’ are staged in designed and built environments...

Prehistoric introduction of domestic pigs onto the Okinawa Islands: ancient mitochondrial DNA evidence.

Science.gov (United States)

Watanobe, Takuma; Ishiguro, Naotaka; Nakano, Masuo; Takamiya, Hiroto; Matsui, Akira; Hongo, Hitomi

2002-08-01

Ancient DNAs of Sus scrofa specimens excavated from archaeological sites on the Okinawa islands were examined to clarify the genetic relationships among prehistoric Sus scrofa, modern wild boars and domestic pigs inhabiting the Ryukyu archipelago, the Japanese islands, and the Asian continent. We extracted remain DNA from 161 bone specimens excavated from 12 archaeological sites on the Okinawa islands and successfully amplified mitochondrial DNA control region fragments from 33 of 161 specimens. Pairwise difference between prehistoric and modern S. scrofa nucleotide sequences showed that haplotypes of the East Asian domestic pig lineage were found from archaeological specimens together with Ryukyu wild boars native to the Ryukyu archipelago. Phylogenetic analysis of 14 ancient sequences (11 haplotypes; 574 bp) indicated that S. scrofa specimens from two Yayoi-Heian sites (Kitahara and Ara shellmiddens) and two Recent Times sites (Wakuta Kiln and Kiyuna sites) are grouped with modern East Asian domestic pigs. Sus scrofa specimens from Shimizu shellmidden (Yayoi-Heian Period) were very closely related to modern Sus scrofa riukiuanus but had a unique nucleotide insertion, indicating that the population is genetically distinct from the lineage of modern Ryukyu wild boars. This genetic evidence suggests that domestic pigs from the Asian continent were introduced to the Okinawa islands in the early Yayoi-Heian period (1700-2000 BP), or earlier.

The seasonal factor at the prehistoric site of Shag River Mouth, New Zealand

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Higham, T.F.G.

1997-01-01

This paper addresses moa hunters' seasonality at the Shag River Mouth site. A two meters section in layer 4 of the SM/C: Dune site was left as a baulk in 1988 to enable the stratigraphic profile (∼2m) to be more carefully investigated. Within the baulk, detailed lensing and microstrata could be identified. Claassen (1991) has suggested that one of the most important variables in determining seasonal and prehistoric shell-bearing site formation more accurately is emphasizing finer stratigraphic resolution and more rigorous attention to retrieving midden components. At Shag River Mouth, seven sub-layers, or spits, were excavated within the 2m baulk to refine the precision of subsequent seasonal analyses and enable a detailed assessment of the components of each and their season of deposition. A variety of seasonal methods were utilised including 18 O analysis of blue mussel shell carbonate and growth ring analysis of estuarine bivalves. In addition, sagital otoliths of red cod excavated from the site were sectioned and the annual and seasonal growth rings formed during the fishes' life were analysed for seasonal information. This has enabled a detailed analysis of the seasonality of this discrete area of the Shag River Mouth site. The significance of the results for understanding the prehistoric seasonal round of activities within the site and its wider orbit is presented

Mussel remains from prehistoric salt works, clarke county, Alabama

Science.gov (United States)

McGregor, S.W.; Dumas, A.A.

2010-01-01

Archaeological research at salt springs in Clarke County, AL (Tombigbee River drainage), documented bivalve mollusk exploitation by late prehistoric American Indians. A total of 582 valves representing 19 species of freshwater mussels (Unionidae) and an estuarine clam (Mactridae) from the Lower Salt Works Site (ca. A.D. 900-1550) and 41 valve fragments representing 6 mussel species from the Stimpson Site (ca. A.D. 1200-1550) were documented. The Lower Salt Works fauna was dominated numerically by Fusconaia ebena and Quadrula asperata, the dominant species reported during recent local surveys. The mussel species represented are known from medium to large streams in sand and gravel habitats and include four federally protected species and other species of conservation concern in Alabama. Results offer comparative data for other archaeological and ecological studies in the region.

Mobile human network management and recommendation by probabilistic social mining.

Science.gov (United States)

Min, Jun-Ki; Cho, Sung-Bae

2011-06-01

Recently, inferring or sharing of mobile contexts has been actively investigated as cell phones have become more than a communication device. However, most of them focused on utilizing the contexts on social network services, while the means in mining or managing the human network itself were barely considered. In this paper, the SmartPhonebook, which mines users' social connections to manage their relationships by reasoning social and personal contexts, is presented. It works like an artificial assistant which recommends the candidate callees whom the users probably would like to contact in a certain situation. Moreover, it visualizes their social contexts like closeness and relationship with others in order to let the users know their social situations. The proposed method infers the social contexts based on the contact patterns, while it extracts the personal contexts such as the users' emotional states and behaviors from the mobile logs. Here, Bayesian networks are exploited to handle the uncertainties in the mobile environment. The proposed system has been implemented with the MS Windows Mobile 2003 SE Platform on Samsung SPH-M4650 smartphone and has been tested on real-world data. The experimental results showed that the system provides an efficient and informative way for mobile social networking.

Human Robot Interaction for Hybrid Collision Avoidance System for Indoor Mobile Robots

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mazen Ghandour

2017-06-01

Full Text Available In this paper, a novel approach for collision avoidance for indoor mobile robots based on human-robot interaction is realized. The main contribution of this work is a new technique for collision avoidance by engaging the human and the robot in generating new collision-free paths. In mobile robotics, collision avoidance is critical for the success of the robots in implementing their tasks, especially when the robots navigate in crowded and dynamic environments, which include humans. Traditional collision avoidance methods deal with the human as a dynamic obstacle, without taking into consideration that the human will also try to avoid the robot, and this causes the people and the robot to get confused, especially in crowded social places such as restaurants, hospitals, and laboratories. To avoid such scenarios, a reactive-supervised collision avoidance system for mobile robots based on human-robot interaction is implemented. In this method, both the robot and the human will collaborate in generating the collision avoidance via interaction. The person will notify the robot about the avoidance direction via interaction, and the robot will search for the optimal collision-free path on the selected direction. In case that no people interacted with the robot, it will select the navigation path autonomously and select the path that is closest to the goal location. The humans will interact with the robot using gesture recognition and Kinect sensor. To build the gesture recognition system, two models were used to classify these gestures, the first model is Back-Propagation Neural Network (BPNN, and the second model is Support Vector Machine (SVM. Furthermore, a novel collision avoidance system for avoiding the obstacles is implemented and integrated with the HRI system. The system is tested on H20 robot from DrRobot Company (Canada and a set of experiments were implemented to report the performance of the system in interacting with the human and avoiding

Evidence for prehistoric origins of Egyptian mummification in late Neolithic burials.

Science.gov (United States)

Jones, Jana; Higham, Thomas F G; Oldfield, Ron; O'Connor, Terry P; Buckley, Stephen A

2014-01-01

Traditional theories on ancient Egyptian mummification postulate that in the prehistoric period (i.e. the Neolithic and Chalcolithic periods, 5th and 4th millennia B.C.) bodies were naturally desiccated through the action of the hot, dry desert sand. Although molding of the body with resin-impregnated linen is believed to be an early Pharaonic forerunner to more complex processes, scientific evidence for the early use of resins in artificial mummification has until now been limited to isolated occurrences during the late Old Kingdom (c. 2200 B.C.), their use becoming more apparent during the Middle Kingdom (c. 2000-1600 BC). We examined linen wrappings from bodies in securely provenanced tombs (pit graves) in the earliest recorded ancient Egyptian cemeteries at Mostagedda in the Badari region (Upper Egypt). Our investigations of these prehistoric funerary wrappings using a combination of gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) and thermal desorption/pyrolysis (TD/Py)-GC-MS have identified a pine resin, an aromatic plant extract, a plant gum/sugar, a natural petroleum source, and a plant oil/animal fat in directly AMS-dated funerary wrappings. Predating the earliest scientific evidence by more than a millennium, these embalming agents constitute complex, processed recipes of the same natural products, in similar proportions, as those utilized at the zenith of Pharaonic mummification some 3,000 years later. The antibacterial properties of some of these ingredients and the localized soft-tissue preservation that they would have afforded lead us to conclude that these represent the very beginnings of experimentation that would evolve into the famous mummification practice of the Pharaonic period.

Evidence for prehistoric origins of Egyptian mummification in late Neolithic burials.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jana Jones

Full Text Available Traditional theories on ancient Egyptian mummification postulate that in the prehistoric period (i.e. the Neolithic and Chalcolithic periods, 5th and 4th millennia B.C. bodies were naturally desiccated through the action of the hot, dry desert sand. Although molding of the body with resin-impregnated linen is believed to be an early Pharaonic forerunner to more complex processes, scientific evidence for the early use of resins in artificial mummification has until now been limited to isolated occurrences during the late Old Kingdom (c. 2200 B.C., their use becoming more apparent during the Middle Kingdom (c. 2000-1600 BC. We examined linen wrappings from bodies in securely provenanced tombs (pit graves in the earliest recorded ancient Egyptian cemeteries at Mostagedda in the Badari region (Upper Egypt. Our investigations of these prehistoric funerary wrappings using a combination of gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS and thermal desorption/pyrolysis (TD/Py-GC-MS have identified a pine resin, an aromatic plant extract, a plant gum/sugar, a natural petroleum source, and a plant oil/animal fat in directly AMS-dated funerary wrappings. Predating the earliest scientific evidence by more than a millennium, these embalming agents constitute complex, processed recipes of the same natural products, in similar proportions, as those utilized at the zenith of Pharaonic mummification some 3,000 years later. The antibacterial properties of some of these ingredients and the localized soft-tissue preservation that they would have afforded lead us to conclude that these represent the very beginnings of experimentation that would evolve into the famous mummification practice of the Pharaonic period.

Evidence for Prehistoric Origins of Egyptian Mummification in Late Neolithic Burials

Science.gov (United States)

Jones, Jana; Higham, Thomas F. G.; Oldfield, Ron; O'Connor, Terry P.; Buckley, Stephen A.

2014-01-01

Traditional theories on ancient Egyptian mummification postulate that in the prehistoric period (i.e. the Neolithic and Chalcolithic periods, 5th and 4th millennia B.C.) bodies were naturally desiccated through the action of the hot, dry desert sand. Although molding of the body with resin-impregnated linen is believed to be an early Pharaonic forerunner to more complex processes, scientific evidence for the early use of resins in artificial mummification has until now been limited to isolated occurrences during the late Old Kingdom (c. 2200 B.C.), their use becoming more apparent during the Middle Kingdom (c. 2000-1600 BC). We examined linen wrappings from bodies in securely provenanced tombs (pit graves) in the earliest recorded ancient Egyptian cemeteries at Mostagedda in the Badari region (Upper Egypt). Our investigations of these prehistoric funerary wrappings using a combination of gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) and thermal desorption/pyrolysis (TD/Py)-GC-MS have identified a pine resin, an aromatic plant extract, a plant gum/sugar, a natural petroleum source, and a plant oil/animal fat in directly AMS-dated funerary wrappings. Predating the earliest scientific evidence by more than a millennium, these embalming agents constitute complex, processed recipes of the same natural products, in similar proportions, as those utilized at the zenith of Pharaonic mummification some 3,000 years later. The antibacterial properties of some of these ingredients and the localized soft-tissue preservation that they would have afforded lead us to conclude that these represent the very beginnings of experimentation that would evolve into the famous mummification practice of the Pharaonic period. PMID:25118605

Mobile app for human-interaction with sitter robots

Science.gov (United States)

Das, Sumit Kumar; Sahu, Ankita; Popa, Dan O.

2017-05-01

Human environments are often unstructured and unpredictable, thus making the autonomous operation of robots in such environments is very difficult. Despite many remaining challenges in perception, learning, and manipulation, more and more studies involving assistive robots have been carried out in recent years. In hospital environments, and in particular in patient rooms, there are well-established practices with respect to the type of furniture, patient services, and schedule of interventions. As a result, adding a robot into semi-structured hospital environments is an easier problem to tackle, with results that could have positive benefits to the quality of patient care and the help that robots can offer to nursing staff. When working in a healthcare facility, robots need to interact with patients and nurses through Human-Machine Interfaces (HMIs) that are intuitive to use, they should maintain awareness of surroundings, and offer safety guarantees for humans. While fully autonomous operation for robots is not yet technically feasible, direct teleoperation control of the robot would also be extremely cumbersome, as it requires expert user skills, and levels of concentration not available to many patients. Therefore, in our current study we present a traded control scheme, in which the robot and human both perform expert tasks. The human-robot communication and control scheme is realized through a mobile tablet app that can be customized for robot sitters in hospital environments. The role of the mobile app is to augment the verbal commands given to a robot through natural speech, camera and other native interfaces, while providing failure mode recovery options for users. Our app can access video feed and sensor data from robots, assist the user with decision making during pick and place operations, monitor the user health over time, and provides conversational dialogue during sitting sessions. In this paper, we present the software and hardware framework that

Ancient water bottle use and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) exposure among California Indians: a prehistoric health risk assessment.

Science.gov (United States)

Sholts, Sabrina B; Smith, Kevin; Wallin, Cecilia; Ahmed, Trifa M; Wärmländer, Sebastian K T S

2017-06-23

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are the main toxic compounds in natural bitumen, a fossil material used by modern and ancient societies around the world. The adverse health effects of PAHs on modern humans are well established, but their health impacts on past populations are unclear. It has previously been suggested that a prehistoric health decline among the native people living on the California Channel Islands may have been related to PAH exposure. Here, we assess the potential health risks of PAH exposure from the use and manufacture of bitumen-coated water bottles by ancient California Indian societies. We replicated prehistoric bitumen-coated water bottles with traditional materials and techniques of California Indians, based on ethnographic and archaeological evidence. In order to estimate PAH exposure related to water bottle manufacture and use, we conducted controlled experiments to measure PAH contamination 1) in air during the manufacturing process and 2) in water and olive oil stored in a completed bottle for varying periods of time. Samples were analyzed with gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS) for concentrations of the 16 PAHs identified by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as priority pollutants. Eight PAHs were detected in concentrations of 1-10 μg/m 3 in air during bottle production and 50-900 ng/L in water after 2 months of storage, ranging from two-ring (naphthalene and methylnaphthalene) to four-ring (fluoranthene) molecules. All 16 PAHs analyzed were detected in olive oil after 2 days (2 to 35 μg/kg), 2 weeks (3 to 66 μg/kg), and 2 months (5 to 140 μg/kg) of storage. For ancient California Indians, water stored in bitumen-coated water bottles was not a significant source of PAH exposure, but production of such bottles could have resulted in harmful airborne PAH exposure.

Truncated Levy flights and agenda-based mobility are useful for the assessment of personal human exposure

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Schlink, Uwe; Ragas, Ad M.J.

2011-01-01

Receptor-oriented approaches can assess the individual-specific exposure to air pollution. In such an individual-based model we analyse the impact of human mobility to the personal exposure that is perceived by individuals simulated in an exemplified urban area. The mobility models comprise random walk (reference point mobility, RPM), truncated Levy flights (TLF), and agenda-based walk (RPMA). We describe and review the general concepts and provide an inter-comparison of these concepts. Stationary and ergodic behaviour are explained and applied as well as performance criteria for a comparative evaluation of the investigated algorithms. We find that none of the studied algorithm results in purely random trajectories. TLF and RPMA prove to be suitable for human mobility modelling, because they provide conditions for very individual-specific trajectories and exposure. Suggesting these models we demonstrate the plausibility of their results for exposure to air-borne benzene and the combined exposure to benzene and nonane. - Highlights: → Human exposure to air pollutants is influenced by a person's movement in the urban area. → We provide a simulation study of approaches to modelling personal exposure. → Agenda-based models and truncated Levy flights are recommended for exposure assessment. → The procedure is demonstrated for benzene exposure in an urban region. - Truncated Levy flights and agenda-based mobility are useful for the assessment of personal human exposure.

The relative stability of prehistorical geographic environment in China's tropics on the basis of archaeology

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

无

2002-01-01

According to archaeological data from about sixty samples the relative stability ofphysical and human geographical environment in the tropical zone of China is discussed in thispaper. Because of the superior natural environment, sufficient food resources and a sparsepopulation resulting in the absence of social requirement to transform the productive forces, theadvancement of economy and society was stagnated during prehistorical period in China's tropics.Compared with northern China, the appearance of ground stone tool stagnated about 3,000 years,the beginning of Bronze Age, about 1,000 years, and the agriculture, 2,500-3,000 years. The noceramics age continued till the early Neolithic Age and the appearance of colour or white ceramicswas 2,000 years later than that in northern China. The life form of migration to gather and to huntcontinued till the middle Neolithic Age, and the fixed settlement based on agriculture 1,000-2,000years stagnated. The clan commune just appeared at the end of the Neolithic Age which was 2,000-3,000 years later than that in northern China.

Is human saliva an indicator of the adverse health effects of using mobile phones?

Science.gov (United States)

Hamzany, Yaniv; Feinmesser, Raphael; Shpitzer, Thomas; Mizrachi, Aviram; Hilly, Ohad; Hod, Roy; Bahar, Gideon; Otradnov, Irina; Gavish, Moshe; Nagler, Rafael M

2013-02-20

Increasing use of mobile phones creates growing concerns regarding harmful effects of radiofrequency nonionizing electromagnetic radiation on human tissues located close to the ear, where phones are commonly held for long periods of time. We studied 20 subjects in the mobile-phone group who had a mean duration of mobile phone use of 12.5 years (range 8-15) and a mean time use of 29.6 h per month (range 8-100). Deaf individuals served as controls. We compared salivary outcomes (secretion, oxidative damage indices, flow rate, and composition) between mobile phone users and nonusers. We report a significant increase in all salivary oxidative stress indices studied in mobile phone users. Salivary flow, total protein, albumin, and amylase activity were decreased in mobile phone users. These observations lead to the hypothesis that the use of mobile phones may cause oxidative stress and modify salivary function.

Mobile phone radiofrequency exposure has no effect on DNA double strand breaks (DSB) in human lymphocytes.

Science.gov (United States)

Danese, Elisa; Lippi, Giuseppe; Buonocore, Ruggero; Benati, Marco; Bovo, Chiara; Bonaguri, Chiara; Salvagno, Gian Luca; Brocco, Giorgio; Roggenbuck, Dirk; Montagnana, Martina

2017-07-01

The use of mobile phones has been associated with an increased risk of developing certain type of cancer, especially in long term users. Therefore, this study was aimed to investigate the potential genotoxic effect of mobile phone radiofrequency exposure on human peripheral blood mononuclear cells in vitro. The study population consisted in 14 healthy volunteers. After collection of two whole blood samples, the former was placed in a plastic rack, 1 cm from the chassis of a commercial mobile phone (900 MHz carrier frequency), which was activated by a 30-min call. The second blood sample was instead maintained far from mobile phones or other RF sources. The influence of mobile phone RF on DNA integrity was assessed by analyzing γ-H2AX foci in lymphocytes using immunofluorescence staining kit on AKLIDES. No measure of γ-H2AX foci was significantly influenced by mobile phone RF exposure, nor mobile phone exposure was associated with significant risk of genetic damages in vitro (odds ratio comprised between 0.27 and 1.00). The results of this experimental study demonstrate that exposure of human lymphocytes to a conventional 900 MHz RF emitted by a commercial mobile phone for 30 min does not significantly impact DNA integrity.

A South American Prehistoric Mitogenome: Context, Continuity, and the Origin of Haplogroup C1d

Science.gov (United States)

Sans, Mónica; Figueiro, Gonzalo; Hughes, Cris E.; Lindo, John; Hidalgo, Pedro C.; Malhi, Ripan S.

2015-01-01

Based on mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA), it has been estimated that at least 15 founder haplogroups peopled the Americas. Subhaplogroup C1d3 was defined based on the mitogenome of a living individual from Uruguay that carried a lineage previously identified in hypervariable region I sequences from ancient and modern Uruguayan individuals. When complete mitogenomes were studied, additional substitutions were found in the coding region of the mitochondrial genome. Using a complete ancient mitogenome and three modern mitogenomes, we aim to clarify the ancestral state of subhaplogroup C1d3 and to better understand the peopling of the region of the Río de la Plata basin, as well as of the builders of the mounds from which the ancient individuals were recovered. The ancient mitogenome, belonging to a female dated to 1,610±46 years before present, was identical to the mitogenome of one of the modern individuals. All individuals share the mutations defining subhaplogroup C1d3. We estimated an age of 8,974 (5,748–12,261) years for the most recent common ancestor of C1d3, in agreement with the initial peopling of the geographic region. No individuals belonging to the defined lineage were found outside of Uruguay, which raises questions regarding the mobility of the prehistoric inhabitants of the country. Moreover, the present study shows the continuity of Native lineages over at least 6,000 years. PMID:26509686

On the analysis of human mobility model for content broadcasting in 5G networks

KAUST Repository

Lau, Chun Pong; Alabbasi, Abdulrahman; Shihada, Basem

2018-01-01

by analyzing the transition probabilities of a user traveling over several places according to the change of states of daily human activities. Using a reallife simulation, we demonstrate the relationship between the human mobility and the optimization objective

Analyzing the distribution of human activity space from mobile phone usage - An individual and urban-oriented study

OpenAIRE

Yuan Y.; Raubal M.

2016-01-01

Travel activities are embodied as people’s needs to be physically present at certain locations. The development of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs such as mobile phones) has introduced new data sources for modeling human activities. Based on the scattered spatiotemporal points provided in mobile phone datasets it is feasible to study the patterns (e.g. the scale shape and regularity) of human activities. In this paper we propose methods for analyzing the distribution of human...

Neutron activation analysis of the prehistoric and ancient bone remains

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Vasidov, A.; Osinskaya, N.S.; Khatamov, Sh.; Rakhmanova, T.; Akhmadshaev, A.Sh.

2006-01-01

Full text: In the work results of the instrumental neutron activation analysis (INAA) of prehistoric bone remains of dinosaurs and ancient bones of bear, archantrop found out on the territory of Uzbekistan are presents. A bone of dinosaur from Mongolia, standard a bone of the person and soils taken from a surface and from of the femoral joint of a dinosaur were also subject to INAA. The INAA method determines of contents of about 30 elements in bones and soils in an interval 0.043-3600 mg / kg. Among found elements Ca (46 %), Sc, Cr, Fe (up to 2.2 g/kg), Ni, Zn, Sr (up to 3.6 g/kg), Sb, Ba, Sb and some others are mainly found in bones. The contents of some elements in bones of dinosaurs reach very high values 280-3200 mg / kg, and are mainly lanthanides La, Ce, Nd, Sm, Eu, Tb, Yb and Lu. In our opinion, lanthanides and some other elements, like As, Br, and Mo in bones were formed as a result of fission of uranium and transuranium elements. Because content of uranium in bones of dinosaurs is very high, up to 180 mg / kg, and those of thorium is 20 mg/ kg. However U and Th in soils are 4.8 mg/kg and 3.7 mg / kg, respectively. The content of uranium in bones of the archantrop is 1.53 mg / kg, while U in standard bone of the human is less than 0,016 mg/kg. (author)

New method development in prehistoric stone tool research: evaluating use duration and data analysis protocols.

Science.gov (United States)

Evans, Adrian A; Macdonald, Danielle A; Giusca, Claudiu L; Leach, Richard K

2014-10-01

Lithic microwear is a research field of prehistoric stone tool (lithic) analysis that has been developed with the aim to identify how stone tools were used. It has been shown that laser scanning confocal microscopy has the potential to be a useful quantitative tool in the study of prehistoric stone tool function. In this paper, two important lines of inquiry are investigated: (1) whether the texture of worn surfaces is constant under varying durations of tool use, and (2) the development of rapid objective data analysis protocols. This study reports on the attempt to further develop these areas of study and results in a better understanding of the complexities underlying the development of flexible analytical algorithms for surface analysis. The results show that when sampling is optimised, surface texture may be linked to contact material type, independent of use duration. Further research is needed to validate this finding and test an expanded range of contact materials. The use of automated analytical protocols has shown promise but is only reliable if sampling location and scale are defined. Results suggest that the sampling protocol reports on the degree of worn surface invasiveness, complicating the ability to investigate duration related textural characterisation. Copyright © 2014. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Effect of mobile phone station on micronucleus frequency and chromosomal aberrations in human blood cells.

Science.gov (United States)

Yildirim, M S; Yildirim, A; Zamani, A G; Okudan, N

2010-01-01

The use of mobile telephones has rapidly increased worldwide as well as the number of mobile phone base stations that lead to rise low level radiofrequency emissions which may in turn have possible harm for human health. The national radiation protection board has published the known effects of radio waves exposure on humans living close to mobile phone base stations. However, several studies have claimed that the base station has detrimental effects on different tissues. In this study, we aimed to evaluate the effects of mobile phone base stations on the micronucleus (MN) frequency and chromosomal aberrations on blood in people who were living around mobile phone base stations and healthy controls. Frequency of MN and chromosomal aberrations in study and control groups was 8.96 +/- 3.51 and 6.97 +/- 1.52 (p: 0.16); 0.36 +/- 0.31 and 0.75 +/- 0.61 (p: 0.07), respectively. Our results show that there was not a significant difference of MN frequency and chromosomal aberrations between the two study groups. The results claim that cellular phones and their base stations do not produce important carcinogenic changes.

Functional Mobility Testing: A Novel Method to Establish Human System Interface Design Requirements

Science.gov (United States)

England, Scott A.; Benson, Elizabeth A.; Rajulu, Sudhakar

2008-01-01

Across all fields of human-system interface design it is vital to posses a sound methodology dictating the constraints on the system based on the capabilities of the human user. These limitations may be based on strength, mobility, dexterity, cognitive ability, etc. and combinations thereof. Data collected in an isolated environment to determine, for example, maximal strength or maximal range of motion would indeed be adequate for establishing not-to-exceed type design limitations, however these restraints on the system may be excessive over what is basally needed. Resources may potentially be saved by having a technique to determine the minimum measurements a system must accommodate. This paper specifically deals with the creation of a novel methodology for establishing mobility requirements for a new generation of space suit design concepts. Historically, the Space Shuttle and the International Space Station vehicle and space hardware design requirements documents such as the Man-Systems Integration Standards and International Space Station Flight Crew Integration Standard explicitly stated that the designers should strive to provide the maximum joint range of motion capabilities exhibited by a minimally clothed human subject. In the course of developing the Human-Systems Integration Requirements (HSIR) for the new space exploration initiative (Constellation), an effort was made to redefine the mobility requirements in the interest of safety and cost. Systems designed for manned space exploration can receive compounded gains from simplified designs that are both initially less expensive to produce and lighter, thereby, cheaper to launch.

Palaeo-ethnology, palaeo-environment and palaeo-climatology of Piaui, Brazil: palynological studies on human coprolites collected at the ''Pedra Furada'' site

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chaves, S.; Renault-Miskovsky, J.

1996-01-01

Fossil human faeces were collected from the rock-shelter of ''Pedra Furada'' (Piaui, Brazil), which is considered nowadays as one of the most ancient prehistoric sites in America. These dated coprolites range from 8,500 to 7,000 BP and are evidence of an occupation phase connected with ''Serra Talhada'' cultural traditions I and II. These coprolites were analysed by palynological studies. The results have given palaeo-climatological and palaeo-environmental data with an emphasis on palaeo-ethnological aspects. Evidence emerges regarding the range of medicinal and food plants of the prehistoric humans who inhabited the site for some 1,500 years. (authors). 32 refs., 3 figs

The idea of human prehistory: the natural sciences, the human sciences, and the problem of human origins in Victorian Britain.

Science.gov (United States)

Goodrum, Matthew R

2012-01-01

The idea of human prehistory was a provocative and profoundly influential new notion that took shape gradually during the nineteenth century. While archaeology played an important role in providing the evidence for this idea many other sciences such as geology, paleontology, ethnology, and physical anthropology all made critical contributions to discussions about human prehistory. Many works have explored the history of prehistoric archaeology but this paper examines the conceptual content of the idea of "human prehistory" as it developed in the British scientific community. Both the natural and the human sciences contributed to what was in fact a complex collection of individual elements that together constituted the prevailing idea of human prehistory, although there were other competing conceptions of human prehistory endorsed by various scientists and critics of the new view of early human history.

Radiocarbon dates from Wairau Bar and their implications for the prehistoric colonisation of New Zealand

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Higham, T.F.G.; Anderson, A.J.

1997-01-01

A set of thirteen moa eggshell samples from burial features at the Wairau Bar site were used for dating. The samples were obtained from the Canterbury Museum in Christchurch where they have been displayed as part of a permanent exhibition.Three marine shell samples were also analysed. Radiocarbon dating of the samples was carried out using conventional and AMS techniques. The results will be presented and the archaeological implications for the prehistoric colonization of New Zealand will be discussed

Compressed sensing method for human activity recognition using tri-axis accelerometer on mobile phone

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

Song Hui; Wang Zhongmin

2017-01-01

The diversity in the phone placements of different mobile users' dailylife increases the difficulty of recognizing human activities by using mobile phone accelerometer data.To solve this problem,a compressed sensing method to recognize human activities that is based on compressed sensing theory and utilizes both raw mobile phone accelerometer data and phone placement information is proposed.First,an over-complete dictionary matrix is constructed using sufficient raw tri-axis acceleration data labeled with phone placement information.Then,the sparse coefficient is evaluated for the samples that need to be tested by resolving L1 minimization.Finally,residual values are calculated and the minimum value is selected as the indicator to obtain the recognition results.Experimental results show that this method can achieve a recognition accuracy reaching 89.86％,which is higher than that of a recognition method that does not adopt the phone placement information for the recognition process.The recognition accuracy of the proposed method is effective and satisfactory.

Human Security and the Governmentality of Neo-Liberal Mobility : A Feminist Perspective

NARCIS (Netherlands)

T-D. Truong (Thanh-Dam)

2006-01-01

textabstractTransnational migration and its implications for human security as a policy field constitute one of the most complex issues of our time. Current experiences of displacement and security spans between a cyber world characterized by hyper mobility of finance, technology, information and

Pre-excavation studies of prehistoric cave sites by magnetic prospecting

Science.gov (United States)

Itkis., Sonia; Matskevich, Zinovii; Meshveliani, Tengiz

2014-05-01

Detailed magnetic survey was performed for caves study in Israel (1995-1996) within the framework of the Beit Shemesh Regional Project (Judean Shephelah). The experience accumulated in Israel we applied later (2010) in two Georgian prehistoric cave sites: Cherula and Kotias-Klde. The magnetic method is based on the contrast in magnetic properties between a target object (e.g., buried archaeological feature) and the host medium (i.e, the surrounding bedrock and soil). The feasibility of the magnetic method for cave revealing was evaluated by magnetic susceptibility (κ) measurements of surrounding soil and rocks, and archaeological features: stones making up the walls, ceramic fragments and cave fill. According to data obtained, the κ of soil within caves (cave fill) is higher than that of surrounding soil. The enhancement of cave fill κ occurs because processes associated with human habitation: repeated heating and accumulation of organic debris. Both these processes provide good conditions for the conversion of the iron oxide found within the soil to a strongly ferromagnetic form (Mullins, 1977; Maher, 1986; Dalan and Banerjee, 1998, Itkis and Eppelbaum, 1999; Itkis, 2003) The presence of highly magnetic ceramics in caves also enhances magnetic contrast between practically non-magnetic bed rock (chalk in Ramat Beit Shemesh Site (Israel) and limestone (Georgian sites) and the cave fill, increasing the potential of the magnetic method to reveal caves (Itkis, 2011). Based on magnetic survey results, an excavation revealed a cave with a large amount of well preserved pottery and finds typical of the Early Bronze Age. Both studied cave sites in Georgia were located in Chiatura region of Imeretia province. Cherula site is a karstic rockshelter with a single chamber, ca 100 sq. m. The site was briefly tested in 1970s'. The area excavated in 2010 went to the depth of 60 cm below the present day surface; the limestone bedrock was not reached. The excavation revealed

A probable prehistoric case of meningococcal disease from San Francisco Bay: Next generation sequencing of Neisseria meningitidis from dental calculus and osteological evidence.

Science.gov (United States)

Eerkens, Jelmer W; Nichols, Ruth V; Murray, Gemma G R; Perez, Katherine; Murga, Engel; Kaijankoski, Phil; Rosenthal, Jeffrey S; Engbring, Laurel; Shapiro, Beth

2018-05-25

Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) of ancient dental calculus samples from a prehistoric site in San Francisco Bay, CA-SCL-919, reveals a wide range of potentially pathogenic bacteria. One older adult woman, in particular, had high levels of Neisseria meningitidis and low levels of Haemophilus influenzae, species that were not observed in the calculus from three other individuals. Combined with the presence of incipient endocranial lesions and pronounced meningeal grooves, we interpret this as an ancient case of meningococcal disease. This disease afflicts millions around the globe today, but little is known about its (pre)history. With additional sampling, we suggest NGS of calculus offers an exciting new window into the evolutionary history of these bacterial species and their interactions with humans. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Human progenitor cells rapidly mobilized by AMD3100 repopulate NOD/SCID mice with increased frequency in comparison to cells from the same donor mobilized by granulocyte colony stimulating factor

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hess, David A; Bonde, Jesper; Craft, Timothy P

2007-01-01

) or purified CD34(+) cells was compared at limiting dilution into NOD/SCID mice. Human AMD3100-mobilized MNC possessed enhanced repopulating frequency in comparison to G-CSF-mobilized MNC from paired donors, and purified CD34(+) progenitors were at least as efficient as the G-CSF mobilized cells....... The frequencies of NOD/SCID repopulating cells (SRC) were 1 SRC in 8.7 x 10(6) AMD3100-mobilized MNC compared to 1 SRC in 29.0 x 10(6) G-CSF-mobilized MNC, and 1 SRC in 1.2 x 10(5) AMD3100-mobilized CD34(+) cells compared to 1 SRC in 1.8 x 10(5) G-CSF-mobilized CD34(+) cells. Hematopoietic differentiation...

Spatiotemporal detection of unusual human population behavior using mobile phone data.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Adrian Dobra

Full Text Available With the aim to contribute to humanitarian response to disasters and violent events, scientists have proposed the development of analytical tools that could identify emergency events in real-time, using mobile phone data. The assumption is that dramatic and discrete changes in behavior, measured with mobile phone data, will indicate extreme events. In this study, we propose an efficient system for spatiotemporal detection of behavioral anomalies from mobile phone data and compare sites with behavioral anomalies to an extensive database of emergency and non-emergency events in Rwanda. Our methodology successfully captures anomalous behavioral patterns associated with a broad range of events, from religious and official holidays to earthquakes, floods, violence against civilians and protests. Our results suggest that human behavioral responses to extreme events are complex and multi-dimensional, including extreme increases and decreases in both calling and movement behaviors. We also find significant temporal and spatial variance in responses to extreme events. Our behavioral anomaly detection system and extensive discussion of results are a significant contribution to the long-term project of creating an effective real-time event detection system with mobile phone data and we discuss the implications of our findings for future research to this end.

The evolution of social behavior in the prehistoric American southwest.

Science.gov (United States)

Gumerman, George J; Swedlund, Alan C; Dean, Jeffrey S; Epstein, Joshua M

2003-01-01

Long House Valley, located in the Black Mesa area of northeastern Arizona (USA), was inhabited by the Kayenta Anasazi from circa 1800 B.C. to circa A.D. 1300. These people were prehistoric precursors of the modern Pueblo cultures of the Colorado Plateau. A rich paleoenvironmental record, based on alluvial geomorphology, palynology, and dendroclimatology, permits the accurate quantitative reconstruction of annual fluctuations in potential agricultural production (kg maize/hectare). The archaeological record of Anasazi farming groups from A.D. 200 to 1300 provides information on a millennium of sociocultural stasis, variability, change, and adaptation. We report on a multi-agent computational model of this society that closely reproduces the main features of its actual history, including population ebb and flow, changing spatial settlement patterns, and eventual rapid decline. The agents in the model are monoagriculturalists, who decide both where to situate their fields and where to locate their settlements.

CityMobil : Human factor issues regarding highly automated vehicles on eLane

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Toffetti, A.; Wilschut, E.S.; Martens, M.H.; Schieben, A.; Rambaldini, A.; Merat, N.; Flemisch, F.

2009-01-01

There are several human factor concerns with highly autonomous or semiautonomous driving, such as transition of control, loss of skill, and dealing with automated system errors. Four CityMobil experiments studied the eLane concept for dual-mode cars, and the results of one are described. The open

Early agriculture and crop transmission among Bronze Age mobile pastoralists of Central Eurasia.

Science.gov (United States)

Spengler, Robert; Frachetti, Michael; Doumani, Paula; Rouse, Lynne; Cerasetti, Barbara; Bullion, Elissa; Mar'yashev, Alexei

2014-05-22

Archaeological research in Central Eurasia is exposing unprecedented scales of trans-regional interaction and technology transfer between East Asia and southwest Asia deep into the prehistoric past. This article presents a new archaeobotanical analysis from pastoralist campsites in the mountain and desert regions of Central Eurasia that documents the oldest known evidence for domesticated grains and farming among seasonally mobile herders. Carbonized grains from the sites of Tasbas and Begash illustrate the first transmission of southwest Asian and East Asian domesticated grains into the mountains of Inner Asia in the early third millennium BC. By the middle second millennium BC, seasonal camps in the mountains and deserts illustrate that Eurasian herders incorporated the cultivation of millet, wheat, barley and legumes into their subsistence strategy. These findings push back the chronology for domesticated plant use among Central Eurasian pastoralists by approximately 2000 years. Given the geography, chronology and seed morphology of these data, we argue that mobile pastoralists were key agents in the spread of crop repertoires and the transformation of agricultural economies across Asia from the third to the second millennium BC.

Influence of Humans on Evolution and Mobilization of Environmental Antibiotic Resistome

Science.gov (United States)

Gaze, William H.; Krone, Stephen M.; Larsson, D.G. Joakim; Li, Xian-Zhi; Robinson, Joseph A.; Simonet, Pascal; Smalla, Kornelia; Timinouni, Mohammed; Topp, Ed; Wellington, Elizabeth M.; Zhu, Yong-Guan

2013-01-01

The clinical failure of antimicrobial drugs that were previously effective in controlling infectious disease is a tragedy of increasing magnitude that gravely affects human health. This resistance by pathogens is often the endpoint of an evolutionary process that began billions of years ago in non–disease-causing microorganisms. This environmental resistome, its mobilization, and the conditions that facilitate its entry into human pathogens are at the heart of the current public health crisis in antibiotic resistance. Understanding the origins, evolution, and mechanisms of transfer of resistance elements is vital to our ability to adequately address this public health issue. PMID:23764294

Human Exploration Systems and Mobility Capability Roadmap Progress Review

Science.gov (United States)

Culbert, Chris; Taylor, Jeff

2005-01-01

Contents include the following: Capability Roadmap Team. Capability Description and Capability Breakdown Structure. Benefits of the Human Systems and Mobility Capability. Roadmap Process and Approach. Drivers and Assumptions for the whole team. Current State-of-the-Art, Assumptions and Requirements will be covered in the appropriate sections. Capability Presentations by Leads under Roadmap (Repeated for each capability under roadmap). Capability Description, Benefits, Current State-of-the-Art. Capability Requirements and Assumptions. Roadmap for Capability. Capability Readiness Level. Technology Readiness Level. Figures of Merit. Summary of Top Level Capability. Significant Technical Challenges. Summary and Forward Work.

Changing Trends in Modeling Mobility

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Aarti Munjal

2012-01-01

Full Text Available A phenomenal increase in the number of wireless devices has led to the evolution of several interesting and challenging research problems in opportunistic networks. For example, the random waypoint mobility model, an early, popular effort to model mobility, involves generating random movement patterns. Previous research efforts, however, validate that movement patterns are not random; instead, human mobility is predictable to some extent. Since the performance of a routing protocol in an opportunistic network is greatly improved if the movement patterns of mobile users can be somewhat predicted in advance, several research attempts have been made to understand human mobility. The solutions developed use our understanding of movement patterns to predict the future contact probability for mobile nodes. In this work, we summarize the changing trends in modeling human mobility as random movements to the current research efforts that model human walks in a more predictable manner. Mobility patterns significantly affect the performance of a routing protocol. Thus, the changing trend in modeling mobility has led to several changes in developing routing protocols for opportunistic networks. For example, the simplest opportunistic routing protocol forwards a received packet to a randomly selected neighbor. With predictable mobility, however, routing protocols can use the expected contact information between a pair of mobile nodes in making forwarding decisions. In this work, we also describe the previous and current research efforts in developing routing protocols for opportunistic networks.

Ageing of low-firing prehistoric ceramics in hydrothermal conditions

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Petra Zemenová

2012-03-01

Full Text Available Remains of a prehistoric ceramic object, a moon-shaped idol from the Bronze Age found in archaeological site Zdiby near Prague in the Czech Republic, were studied especially in terms of the firing temperature. Archaeological ceramics was usually fired at temperatures below 1000 °C. It contained unstable non-crystalline products, residua after calcination of clay components of a ceramic material. These products as metakaolinite can undergo a reverse rehydration to a structure close to kaolinite. The aim of this work was to prove whether the identified kaolinite in archaeological ceramics is a product of rehydration. The model compound containing high amount of kaolinite was prepared in order to follow its changes during calcination and hydrothermal treatment. Archaeological ceramics and the model compound were treated by hydrothermal ageing and studied by XRF, XRD and IR analyses. It was proved that the presence of kaolinite in the border-parts of the archaeological object was not a product of rehydration, but that it originated from the raw materials.

New evidence for prehistoric copper metallurgy in the vicinity of Bor

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kapuran Aleksandar

2016-01-01

Full Text Available The last three years of archaeological investigations at the site Ru`ana in Banjsko Polje, in the immediate vicinity of Bor, have provided new evidence regarding the role of non-ferrous metallurgy in the economy of the prehistoric communities of north-eastern Serbia. The remains of metallurgical furnaces and a large amount of metallic slags at two neighbouring sites in the mentioned settlement reveal that locations with many installations for the thermal processing of copper ore existed in the Bronze Age. We believe, judging by the finds of material culture, that metallurgical activities in this area also continued into the Iron Age and, possibly, into the 4th century AD. [Projekat Ministarstva nauke Republike Srbije, br. 177020: Archaeology of Serbia: Cultural identity, integration factors, technological processes and the role of the central Balkans in the development of European prehistory

Instrumental neutron activation analysis of prehistoric and ancient bone remains

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Vasidov, A.; Osinskaya, N.S.; Khatamov, Sh.; Rakhmanova, T.

2008-01-01

Instrumental neutron activation analysis (INAA) was used to study the element contents in bones of prehistoric dinosaurs and bones of an ancient bear and an archantrop (ancient person), which were found on the territory of Uzbekistan. Concentrations of more than 25 elements were in the range of 0.043-3600 mg/kg. Multielement analyses of bone and soil samples were carried out by INAA using the WWR-SM research nuclear reactor. Results of measurements have shown that in the dinosaurs bones the concentration of the rare earth elements (REEs) were within 280-3200 mg/kg; the uranium content reached a very high value, up to 180 mg/kg, while in soils coating the dinosaurs bones this content was 4.2 mg/kg; in the bones of the archantrop it was 1.53 mg/kg and in the bones of a standard person its amount is less than 0.016 mg/kg. (author)

Theories about evolutionary origins of human hepatitis B virus in primates and humans

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Breno Frederico de Carvalho Dominguez Souza

2014-09-01

Conclusion: Some hypotheses about the evolutionary origins of human hepatitis B virus have been debated since the ‘90s. One theory suggested a New World origin because of the phylogenetic co-segregation between some New World human hepatitis B virus genotypes F and H and woolly monkey human hepatitis B virus in basal sister-relationship to the Old World non-human primates and human hepatitis B virus variants. Another theory suggests an Old World origin of human hepatitis B virus, and that it would have been spread following prehistoric human migrations over 100,000 years ago. A third theory suggests a co-speciation of human hepatitis B virus in non-human primate hosts because of the proximity between the phylogeny of Old and New World non-human primate and their human hepatitis B virus variants. The importance of further research, related to the subject in South American wild fauna, is paramount and highly relevant for understanding the origin of human hepatitis B virus.

Human Factors for Nursing: From In-Situ Testing to Mobile Usability Engineering.

Science.gov (United States)

Kushniruk, Andre W; Borycki, Elizabeth M; Solvoll, Terje; Hullin, Carola

2016-01-01

The tutorial goal is to familiarize participants with human aspects of health informatics and human-centered approaches to the design, evaluation and deployment of both usable and safe healthcare information systems. The focus will be on demonstrating and teaching practical and low-cost methods for evaluating mobile applications in nursing. Basic background to testing methods will be provided, followed by live demonstration of the methods. Then the audience will break into small groups to explore the application of the methods to applications of interest (there will be a number of possible applications that will be available for applications in areas such as electronic health records and decision support, however, if the groups have applications of specific interest to them that will be possible). The challenges of conducting usability testing, and in particular mobile usability testing will be discussed along with practical solutions. The target audience includes practicing nurses and nurse researchers, nursing informatics specialists, nursing students, nursing managers and health informatics professionals interested in improving the usability and safety of healthcare applications.

Prehistoric land use and Neolithisation in Europe in the context of regional climate events

Science.gov (United States)

Lemmen, C.; Wirtz, K. W.; Gronenborn, D.

2009-04-01

We present a simple, adaptation-driven, spatially explicit model of pre-Bronze age socio-technological change, called the Global Land Use and Technological Evolution Simulator (GLUES). The socio-technological realm is described by three characteristic traits: available technology, subsistence style ratio, and economic diversity. Human population and culture develop in the context of global paleoclimate and regional paleoclimate events. Global paleoclimate is derived from CLIMBER-2 Earth System Model anomalies superimposed on the IIASA temperature and precipitation database. Regional a forcing is provided by abrupt climate deteriorations from a compilation of 138 long-term high-resolution climate proxy time series from mostly terrestrial and near-shore archives. The GLUES simulator provides for a novel way to explore the interplay between climate, climate change, and cultural evolution both on the Holocene timescale as well as for short-term extreme event periods. We sucessfully simulate the migration of people and the diffusion of Neolithic technology from the Near East into Europe in the period 12000-4000 a BP. We find good agreement with recent archeological compilations of Western Eurasian Neolithic sites. No causal relationship between climate events and cultural evolution could be identified, but the speed of cultural development is found to be modulated by the frequency of climate events. From the demographic evolution and regional ressource consumption, we estimate regional land use change and prehistoric greenhouse gas emissions.

Rising Inequality and Intergenerational Mobility: The Role of Public Investments in Human Capital.

Science.gov (United States)

Aizer, Anna

2014-06-01

One consequence of the rise in inequality witnessed over the past 40 years is its potentially negative impact on intergenerational mobility if parents at the bottom of the income distribution invest significantly less in their children's human capital. I consider whether public investments in children can potentially offset the inequality of private investments. Specifically, examining changes in public spending in 25 Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development countries over the period 2000-2009, I find that increases in spending on health are most strongly associated with reductions in the importance of family background and declines in inequality in the production of child human capital as measured by the Program for International Student Assessment test scores among 15-year-olds. Public spending on family support, housing, and education are also moderately related. In contrast, increased spending on the elderly is associated with increases in the importance of parental background and inequality of child test scores. These results suggest that public investments in child human capital have the potential to offset the potentially negative impact of increasing income inequality on intergenerational mobility and inequality of the next generation. Further research firmly establishing a causal relationship is needed.

Rising Inequality and Intergenerational Mobility: The Role of Public Investments in Human Capital

Science.gov (United States)

Aizer, Anna

2014-01-01

One consequence of the rise in inequality witnessed over the past 40 years is its potentially negative impact on intergenerational mobility if parents at the bottom of the income distribution invest significantly less in their children's human capital. I consider whether public investments in children can potentially offset the inequality of private investments. Specifically, examining changes in public spending in 25 Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development countries over the period 2000–2009, I find that increases in spending on health are most strongly associated with reductions in the importance of family background and declines in inequality in the production of child human capital as measured by the Program for International Student Assessment test scores among 15-year-olds. Public spending on family support, housing, and education are also moderately related. In contrast, increased spending on the elderly is associated with increases in the importance of parental background and inequality of child test scores. These results suggest that public investments in child human capital have the potential to offset the potentially negative impact of increasing income inequality on intergenerational mobility and inequality of the next generation. Further research firmly establishing a causal relationship is needed. PMID:25419203

TelCoVis: Visual Exploration of Co-occurrence in Urban Human Mobility Based on Telco Data.

Science.gov (United States)

Wu, Wenchao; Xu, Jiayi; Zeng, Haipeng; Zheng, Yixian; Qu, Huamin; Ni, Bing; Yuan, Mingxuan; Ni, Lionel M

2016-01-01

Understanding co-occurrence in urban human mobility (i.e. people from two regions visit an urban place during the same time span) is of great value in a variety of applications, such as urban planning, business intelligence, social behavior analysis, as well as containing contagious diseases. In recent years, the widespread use of mobile phones brings an unprecedented opportunity to capture large-scale and fine-grained data to study co-occurrence in human mobility. However, due to the lack of systematic and efficient methods, it is challenging for analysts to carry out in-depth analyses and extract valuable information. In this paper, we present TelCoVis, an interactive visual analytics system, which helps analysts leverage their domain knowledge to gain insight into the co-occurrence in urban human mobility based on telco data. Our system integrates visualization techniques with new designs and combines them in a novel way to enhance analysts' perception for a comprehensive exploration. In addition, we propose to study the correlations in co-occurrence (i.e. people from multiple regions visit different places during the same time span) by means of biclustering techniques that allow analysts to better explore coordinated relationships among different regions and identify interesting patterns. The case studies based on a real-world dataset and interviews with domain experts have demonstrated the effectiveness of our system in gaining insights into co-occurrence and facilitating various analytical tasks.

Mobile Semiotics

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jensen, Ole B.

2013-01-01

This chapter aims to understand the mobile condition of contemporary life with a particular view to the signifying dimension of the environment and its ‘readability’. The chapter explores the potentials of semiotics and its relationship to the new mobilities literature. What takes place...... is a ‘mobile sense making’ where signs and materially situated meanings connect to the moving human body and thus create particular challenges and complexities of making sense of the world. The chapter includes notions of mobility systems and socio-technical networks in order to show how a ‘semiotic layer’ may...... work to afford or restrict mobile practices....

A Generalized Radiation Model for Human Mobility: Spatial Scale, Searching Direction and Trip Constraint.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Chaogui Kang

Full Text Available We generalized the recently introduced "radiation model", as an analog to the generalization of the classic "gravity model", to consolidate its nature of universality for modeling diverse mobility systems. By imposing the appropriate scaling exponent λ, normalization factor κ and system constraints including searching direction and trip OD constraint, the generalized radiation model accurately captures real human movements in various scenarios and spatial scales, including two different countries and four different cities. Our analytical results also indicated that the generalized radiation model outperformed alternative mobility models in various empirical analyses.

Stone tools from the ancient Tongan state reveal prehistoric interaction centers in the Central Pacific

Science.gov (United States)

Clark, Geoffrey R.; Reepmeyer, Christian; Melekiola, Nivaleti; Woodhead, Jon; Dickinson, William R.; Martinsson-Wallin, Helene

2014-07-01

Tonga was unique in the prehistoric Pacific for developing a maritime state that integrated the archipelago under a centralized authority and for undertaking long-distance economic and political exchanges in the second millennium A.D. To establish the extent of Tonga's maritime polity, we geochemically analyzed stone tools excavated from the central places of the ruling paramounts, particularly lithic artifacts associated with stone-faced chiefly tombs. The lithic networks of the Tongan state focused on Samoa and Fiji, with one adze sourced to the Society Islands 2,500 km from Tongatapu. To test the hypothesis that nonlocal lithics were especially valued by Tongan elites and were an important source of political capital, we analyzed prestate lithics from Tongatapu and stone artifacts from Samoa. In the Tongan state, 66% of worked stone tools were long-distance imports, indicating that interarchipelago connections intensified with the development of the Tongan polity after A.D. 1200. In contrast, stone tools found in Samoa were from local sources, including tools associated with a monumental structure contemporary with the Tongan state. Network analysis of lithics entering the Tongan state and of the distribution of Samoan adzes in the Pacific identified a centralized polity and the products of specialized lithic workshops, respectively. These results indicate that a significant consequence of social complexity was the establishment of new types of specialized sites in distant geographic areas. Specialized sites were loci of long-distance interaction and formed important centers for the transmission of information, people, and materials in prehistoric Oceania.

Real-time multiple human perception with color-depth cameras on a mobile robot.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Hao; Reardon, Christopher; Parker, Lynne E

2013-10-01

The ability to perceive humans is an essential requirement for safe and efficient human-robot interaction. In real-world applications, the need for a robot to interact in real time with multiple humans in a dynamic, 3-D environment presents a significant challenge. The recent availability of commercial color-depth cameras allow for the creation of a system that makes use of the depth dimension, thus enabling a robot to observe its environment and perceive in the 3-D space. Here we present a system for 3-D multiple human perception in real time from a moving robot equipped with a color-depth camera and a consumer-grade computer. Our approach reduces computation time to achieve real-time performance through a unique combination of new ideas and established techniques. We remove the ground and ceiling planes from the 3-D point cloud input to separate candidate point clusters. We introduce the novel information concept, depth of interest, which we use to identify candidates for detection, and that avoids the computationally expensive scanning-window methods of other approaches. We utilize a cascade of detectors to distinguish humans from objects, in which we make intelligent reuse of intermediary features in successive detectors to improve computation. Because of the high computational cost of some methods, we represent our candidate tracking algorithm with a decision directed acyclic graph, which allows us to use the most computationally intense techniques only where necessary. We detail the successful implementation of our novel approach on a mobile robot and examine its performance in scenarios with real-world challenges, including occlusion, robot motion, nonupright humans, humans leaving and reentering the field of view (i.e., the reidentification challenge), human-object and human-human interaction. We conclude with the observation that the incorporation of the depth information, together with the use of modern techniques in new ways, we are able to create an

Dating by Infrared Stimulated Luminescence of a prehistoric campfire from Serido region in northeastern Brazil

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Santana, Sergio T.; Khoury, Helen J.; Borges, Fabio M.; Sullasi, Henry L.; Avila, Gabriela M.; Pessis, Anne-Marie; Guzzo, Pedro L.

2011-01-01

This study aimed to determine the age of a prehistoric campfire from Serido region in northeastern Brazil. The dating was performed by Infrared Stimulated Luminescence (IRSL) by the method of multiple aliquot regenerative doses. Samples were collected from five different parts of the campfire in order to determine the accumulated dose, and samples of two parts of the campfire for determine the annual dose rate. After a statistical analysis of these values, we calculated an average age of 3640 +- 710 years. This age allowed to define a time frame for archaeological studies in this region. (author)

Inferring Human Activity in Mobile Devices by Computing Multiple Contexts.

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, Ruizhi; Chu, Tianxing; Liu, Keqiang; Liu, Jingbin; Chen, Yuwei

2015-08-28

This paper introduces a framework for inferring human activities in mobile devices by computing spatial contexts, temporal contexts, spatiotemporal contexts, and user contexts. A spatial context is a significant location that is defined as a geofence, which can be a node associated with a circle, or a polygon; a temporal context contains time-related information that can be e.g., a local time tag, a time difference between geographical locations, or a timespan; a spatiotemporal context is defined as a dwelling length at a particular spatial context; and a user context includes user-related information that can be the user's mobility contexts, environmental contexts, psychological contexts or social contexts. Using the measurements of the built-in sensors and radio signals in mobile devices, we can snapshot a contextual tuple for every second including aforementioned contexts. Giving a contextual tuple, the framework evaluates the posteriori probability of each candidate activity in real-time using a Naïve Bayes classifier. A large dataset containing 710,436 contextual tuples has been recorded for one week from an experiment carried out at Texas A&M University Corpus Christi with three participants. The test results demonstrate that the multi-context solution significantly outperforms the spatial-context-only solution. A classification accuracy of 61.7% is achieved for the spatial-context-only solution, while 88.8% is achieved for the multi-context solution.

Mobile phone radiation induces reactive oxygen species production and DNA damage in human spermatozoa in vitro.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Geoffry N De Iuliis

Full Text Available BACKGROUND: In recent times there has been some controversy over the impact of electromagnetic radiation on human health. The significance of mobile phone radiation on male reproduction is a key element of this debate since several studies have suggested a relationship between mobile phone use and semen quality. The potential mechanisms involved have not been established, however, human spermatozoa are known to be particularly vulnerable to oxidative stress by virtue of the abundant availability of substrates for free radical attack and the lack of cytoplasmic space to accommodate antioxidant enzymes. Moreover, the induction of oxidative stress in these cells not only perturbs their capacity for fertilization but also contributes to sperm DNA damage. The latter has, in turn, been linked with poor fertility, an increased incidence of miscarriage and morbidity in the offspring, including childhood cancer. In light of these associations, we have analyzed the influence of RF-EMR on the cell biology of human spermatozoa in vitro. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Purified human spermatozoa were exposed to radio-frequency electromagnetic radiation (RF-EMR tuned to 1.8 GHz and covering a range of specific absorption rates (SAR from 0.4 W/kg to 27.5 W/kg. In step with increasing SAR, motility and vitality were significantly reduced after RF-EMR exposure, while the mitochondrial generation of reactive oxygen species and DNA fragmentation were significantly elevated (P<0.001. Furthermore, we also observed highly significant relationships between SAR, the oxidative DNA damage bio-marker, 8-OH-dG, and DNA fragmentation after RF-EMR exposure. CONCLUSIONS: RF-EMR in both the power density and frequency range of mobile phones enhances mitochondrial reactive oxygen species generation by human spermatozoa, decreasing the motility and vitality of these cells while stimulating DNA base adduct formation and, ultimately DNA fragmentation. These findings have clear implications

Modelling cholera epidemics: the role of waterways, human mobility and sanitation

OpenAIRE

Mari, L.; Bertuzzo, E.; Righetto, L.; Casagrandi, R.; Gatto, M.; Rodriguez-Iturbe, I.; Rinaldo, A.

2011-01-01

We investigate the role of human mobility as a driver for long-range spreading of cholera infections, which primarily propagate through hydrologically controlled ecological corridors. Our aim is to build a spatially explicit model of a disease epidemic, which is relevant to both social and scientific issues. We present a two-layer network model that accounts for the interplay between epidemiological dynamics, hydrological transport and long-distance dissemination of the pathogen Vibrio choler...

Scale of human mobility in the southern Andes (Argentina and Chile): A new framework based on strontium isotopes.

Science.gov (United States)

Barberena, Ramiro; Durán, Víctor A; Novellino, Paula; Winocur, Diego; Benítez, Anahí; Tessone, Augusto; Quiroga, María N; Marsh, Erik J; Gasco, Alejandra; Cortegoso, Valeria; Lucero, Gustavo; Llano, Carina; Knudson, Kelly J

2017-10-01

The goal of this article is to assess the scale of human paleomobility and ecological complementarity between the lowlands and highlands in the southern Andes during the last 2,300 years. By providing isotope results for human bone and teeth samples, we assess a hypothesis of "high residential mobility" suggested on the basis of oxygen isotopes from human remains. We develop an isotopic assessment of human mobility in a mountain landscape combining strontium and oxygen isotopes. We analyze bone and teeth samples as an approach to life-history changes in spatial residence. Human samples from the main geological units and periods within the last two millennia are selected. We present a framework for the analysis of bioavailable strontium based on the combination of the geological data with isotope results for rodent samples. The 87 Sr/ 86 Sr values from human samples indicate residential stability within geological regions along life history. When comparing strontium and oxygen values for the same human samples, we record a divergent pattern: while δ 18 O values for samples from distant regions overlap widely, there are important differences in 87 Sr/ 86 Sr values. Despite the large socio-economic changes recorded, 87 Sr/ 86 Sr values indicate a persisting scenario of low systematic mobility between the different geological regions. Our results suggest that strontium isotope values provide the most germane means to track patterns of human occupation of distinct regions in complex geological landscapes, offering a much higher spatial resolution than oxygen isotopes in the southern Andes. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Human brain wave activity during exposure to radiofrequency field emissions from mobile phones

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

D'Costa, H.; Cosic, I.

2003-01-01

The aim of this study was to determine whether there is an effect of mobile phone electromagnetic field emissions on the human electroencephalograph (EEG). EEG recordings from ten awake subjects were taken during exposure to radiofrequency (RF) emissions from a mobile phone positioned behind the head. Two experimental trials were conducted. In the first trial, RF exposures were generated by a GSM mobile phone with the speaker disabled and configured to transmit at full-radiated power. During the second trial, exposures were generated by a non-modified GSM mobile phone in active standby mode. For each trial, subjects were exposed in five minute intervals to a randomized, interrupted sequence of five active and five sham exposures. The experiment was conducted under single-blind conditions. The average EEG band power in active exposure recordings was compared to corresponding sham recordings. Statistical tests indicated significant difference in the full-power mode trial within the EEG alpha (8-13 Hz) and beta (13-32 Hz) bands. A subsequent statistical analysis of median spectral power in discrete EEG rhythms revealed significant differences in 7 of the 32 distinct frequencies overall. In conclusion, the results of this study lend support to EEG effects from mobile phones activated in talk-mode. Copyright (2003) Australasian College of Physical Scientists and Engineers in Medicine

Staging Mobilities / Designing Mobilities

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jensen, Ole B.

2015-01-01

, and systems 'hosting' these multiple and complex mobilities are designed and how they are staging these in terms of their physical layout. By analysing specific cases of ‘mobilities design’ related to the four modes of moving; Walk, Bike, Train, and Car, the book uncover important and until now neglected...... is more than movement between point A and B. It explores how the movement of people, goods, information, and signs influences human understandings of self, other and the built environment. Moving towards a new understanding of the relationship between movement, interaction and environments, the project...

Analyzing Urban Human Mobility Patterns through a Thematic Model at a Finer Scale

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Faming Zhang

2016-06-01

Full Text Available Taxi trajectories reflect human mobility over a road network. Pick-up and drop-off locations in different time periods represent origins and destinations of trips, respectively, demonstrating the spatiotemporal characteristics of human behavior. Each trip can be viewed as a displacement in the random walk model, and the distribution of extracted trips shows a distance decay effect. To identify the spatial similarity of trips at a finer scale, this paper investigates the distribution of trips through topic modeling techniques. Firstly, trip origins and trip destinations were identified from raw GPS data. Then, different trips were given semantic information, i.e., link identification numbers with a semantic enrichment process. Each taxi trajectory was composed of a series of trip destinations corresponding to the same taxi. Subsequently, each taxi trajectory was analogous to a document consisting of different words, and all taxi’s trajectories could be regarded as document corpora, enabling a semantic analysis of massive trip destinations. Finally, we obtained different trip destination topics reflecting the spatial similarity and regional property of human mobility through LDA topic model training. The effectiveness of this approach was illustrated by a case study using a large dataset of taxi trajectories collected from 2 to 8 June 2014 in Wuhan, China.

Preliminary Laser Cleaning Studies of a Consolidated Prehistoric Basketry Coming from the Pile Building of Fiave-Carera in the North-East of Italy

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Belli, R.; Miotello, A.; Mosaner, P.; Toniutti, L.; Bazzanella, M.

2006-01-01

In the archaeological field, some specific advantages are recognized to laser cleaning, like, for example, the absence of mechanical contacts with the sample. The cleaning procedures generally involve a multilayer structure (dust, dirty, organic deposits, and, in some cases, consolidant substances). In this work, prehistoric wood samples (found and consolidated in 1970s) have been laser irradiated (KrF excimer laser) in order to restore their original surface aspect. A certain amount of burned matter was also present. Samples came from a fragment of a prehistoric basketry found in the lake dwelling site of Fiave-Carera, Trento, Italy (1500-1400 BC). It was observed that the laser cleaning effects are strictly dependent on the irradiation parameters (power density and number of pulses). Efficient material removal was possible by using appropriate energy density. Moreover, for lower laser energy density, special structures appeared on the surface of the consolidating substance that we attributed to heating-induced stresses on the consolidant surface.

Phenotypic and genotypic characterization of antioxidant enzyme system in human population exposed to radiation from mobile towers.

Science.gov (United States)

Gulati, Sachin; Yadav, Anita; Kumar, Neeraj; Priya, Kanu; Aggarwal, Neeraj K; Gupta, Ranjan

2018-03-01

In the present era, cellular phones have changed the life style of human beings completely and have become an essential part of their lives. The number of cell phones and cell towers are increasing in spite of their disadvantages. These cell towers transmit radiation continuously without any interruption, so people living within 100s of meters from the tower receive 10,000 to 10,000,000 times stronger signal than required for mobile communication. In the present study, we have examined superoxide dismutase (SOD) enzyme activity, catalase (CAT) enzyme activity, lipid peroxidation assay, and effect of functional polymorphism of SOD and CAT antioxidant genes against mobile tower-induced oxidative stress in human population. From our results, we have found a significantly lower mean value of manganese superoxide dismutase (MnSOD) enzyme activity, catalase (CAT) enzyme activity, and a high value of lipid peroxidation assay in exposed as compared to control subjects. Polymorphisms in antioxidant MnSOD and CAT genes significantly contributed to its phenotype. In the current study, a significant association of genetic polymorphism of antioxidant genes with genetic damage has been observed in human population exposed to radiations emitted from mobile towers.

Human immunodeficiency virus type 1 evolution in vivo tracked by DNA heteroduplex mobility assays

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Delwart, E. L.; Sheppard, H. W.; Walker, B. D.; Goudsmit, J.; Mullins, J. I.

1994-01-01

High mutation rates and strong selective pressures imposed on human immunodeficiency viruses in vivo result in the formation of pools of genetic variants known as quasispecies. DNA heteroduplex mobility and tracking analyses were used to monitor the generation of HIV sequence diversity, to estimate

Pre-historic eating patterns in Latin America and protective effects of plant-based diets on cardiovascular risk factors

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Julio C. Acosta Navarro

2010-01-01

Full Text Available In this review, we present the contributions to nutrition science from Latin American native peoples and scientists, appreciated from a historic point of view since pre-historic times to the modern age. Additionally, we present epidemiological and clinical studies on the area of plant-based diets and their relation with the prevention and treatment of cardiovascular diseases conducted in recent decades, and we discuss challenges and perspectives regarding aspects of nutrition in the region

The Pacific Rat Race to Easter Island: Tracking the Prehistoric Dispersal of Rattus exulans Using Ancient Mitochondrial Genomes

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Katrina West

2017-05-01

Full Text Available The location of the immediate eastern Polynesian origin for the settlement of Easter Island (Rapa Nui, remains unclear with conflicting archeological and linguistic evidence. Previous genetic commensal research using the Pacific rat, Rattus exulans; a species transported by humans across Remote Oceania and throughout the Polynesian Triangle, has identified broad interaction spheres across the region. However, there has been limited success in distinguishing finer-scale movements between Remote Oceanic islands as the same mitochondrial control region haplotype has been identified in the majority of ancient rat specimens. To improve molecular resolution and identify a pattern of prehistoric dispersal to Easter Island, we sequenced complete mitochondrial genomes from ancient Pacific rat specimens obtained from early archeological contexts across West and East Polynesia. Ancient Polynesian rat haplotypes are closely related and reflect the widely supported scenario of a central East Polynesian homeland region from which eastern expansion occurred. An Easter Island and Tubuai (Austral Islands grouping of related haplotypes suggests that both islands were established by the same colonization wave, proposed to have originated in the central homeland region before dispersing through the south-eastern corridor of East Polynesia.

Population Dynamics of Early Human Migration in Britain.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mayank N Vahia

Full Text Available Early human migration is largely determined by geography and human needs. These are both deterministic parameters when small populations move into unoccupied areas where conflicts and large group dynamics are not important. The early period of human migration into the British Isles provides such a laboratory which, because of its relative geographical isolation, may allow some insights into the complex dynamics of early human migration and interaction.We developed a simulation code based on human affinity to habitable land, as defined by availability of water sources, altitude, and flatness of land, in choosing the path of migration. Movement of people on the British island over the prehistoric period from their initial entry points was simulated on the basis of data from the megalithic period. Topographical and hydro-shed data from satellite databases was used to define habitability, based on distance from water bodies, flatness of the terrain, and altitude above sea level. We simulated population movement based on assumptions of affinity for more habitable places, with the rate of movement tempered by existing populations. We compared results of our computer simulations with genetic data and show that our simulation can predict fairly accurately the points of contacts between different migratory paths. Such comparison also provides more detailed information about the path of peoples' movement over ~2000 years before the present era.We demonstrate an accurate method to simulate prehistoric movements of people based upon current topographical satellite data. Our findings are validated by recently-available genetic data. Our method may prove useful in determining early human population dynamics even when no genetic information is available.

Entrepreneurial Team: How Human and Social Capital Influence Entrepreneurial Opportunity Identification and Mobilization of External Resources

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Ahlem Omri

2015-01-01

Full Text Available Entrepreneurial teams play an extremely important role in the development of any country, especially in developing countries. To understand entrepreneurial teams that operate in a low-technology industry, we rely on the network and human perspective on entrepreneurship. In this paper, we investigate how the social and human capital of entrepreneurial team members influences their ability to identify entrepreneurial opportunities and mobilize external resources. We extend prior research in two ways. First, by using the ordered probit method to measure the identified entrepreneurial opportunities number at the level of entrepreneurial teams. Second, to our knowledge, there is a very small number of studies that have theoretically and empirically investigated the mobilization of external resources, especially at the level of entrepreneurial teams.

How They Move Reveals What Is Happening: Understanding the Dynamics of Big Events from Human Mobility Pattern

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jean Damascène Mazimpaka

2017-01-01

Full Text Available The context in which a moving object moves contributes to the movement pattern observed. Likewise, the movement pattern reflects the properties of the movement context. In particular, big events influence human mobility depending on the dynamics of the events. However, this influence has not been explored to understand big events. In this paper, we propose a methodology for learning about big events from human mobility pattern. The methodology involves extracting and analysing the stopping, approaching, and moving-away interactions between public transportation vehicles and the geographic context. The analysis is carried out at two different temporal granularity levels to discover global and local patterns. The results of evaluating this methodology on bus trajectories demonstrate that it can discover occurrences of big events from mobility patterns, roughly estimate the event start and end time, and reveal the temporal patterns of arrival and departure of event attendees. This knowledge can be usefully applied in transportation and event planning and management.

Individual differences in the effects of mobile phone exposure on human sleep: rethinking the problem.

Science.gov (United States)

Loughran, Sarah P; McKenzie, Raymond J; Jackson, Melinda L; Howard, Mark E; Croft, Rodney J

2012-01-01

Mobile phone exposure-related effects on the human electroencephalogram (EEG) have been shown during both waking and sleep states, albeit with slight differences in the frequency affected. This discrepancy, combined with studies that failed to find effects, has led many to conclude that no consistent effects exist. We hypothesised that these differences might partly be due to individual variability in response, and that mobile phone emissions may in fact have large but differential effects on human brain activity. Twenty volunteers from our previous study underwent an adaptation night followed by two experimental nights in which they were randomly exposed to two conditions (Active and Sham), followed by a full-night sleep episode. The EEG spectral power was increased in the sleep spindle frequency range in the first 30 min of non-rapid eye movement (non-REM) sleep following Active exposure. This increase was more prominent in the participants that showed an increase in the original study. These results confirm previous findings of mobile phone-like emissions affecting the EEG during non-REM sleep. Importantly, this low-level effect was also shown to be sensitive to individual variability. Furthermore, this indicates that previous negative results are not strong evidence for a lack of an effect and, given the far-reaching implications of mobile phone research, we may need to rethink the interpretation of results and the manner in which research is conducted in this field. Copyright © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Mobile Applications for Patient-centered Care Coordination: A Review of Human Factors Methods Applied to their Design, Development, and Evaluation.

Science.gov (United States)

Baysari, M T; Westbrook, J I

2015-08-13

To examine if human factors methods were applied in the design, development, and evaluation of mobile applications developed to facilitate aspects of patient-centered care coordination. We searched MEDLINE and EMBASE (2013-2014) for studies describing the design or the evaluation of a mobile health application that aimed to support patients' active involvement in the coordination of their care. 34 papers met the inclusion criteria. Applications ranged from tools that supported self-management of specific conditions (e.g. asthma) to tools that provided coaching or education. Twelve of the 15 papers describing the design or development of an app reported the use of a human factors approach. The most frequently used methods were interviews and surveys, which often included an exploration of participants' current use of information technology. Sixteen papers described the evaluation of a patient application in practice. All of them adopted a human factors approach, typically an examination of the use of app features and/or surveys or interviews which enquired about patients' views of the effects of using the app on their behaviors (e.g. medication adherence), knowledge, and relationships with healthcare providers. No study in our review assessed the impact of mobile applications on health outcomes. The potential of mobile health applications to assist patients to more actively engage in the management of their care has resulted in a large number of applications being developed. Our review showed that human factors approaches are nearly always adopted to some extent in the design, development, and evaluation of mobile applications.

Modelling and assessment of the electric field strength caused by mobile phone to the human head.

Science.gov (United States)

Buckus, Raimondas; Strukcinskiene, Birute; Raistenskis, Juozas; Stukas, Rimantas

2016-06-01

Electromagnetic field exposure is the one of the most important physical agents that actively affects live organisms and environment. Active use of mobile phones influences the increase of electromagnetic field radiation. The aim of the study was to measure and assess the electric field strength caused by mobile phones to the human head. In this paper the software "COMSOL Multiphysics" was used to establish the electric field strength created by mobile phones around the head. The second generation (2G) Global System for Mobile (GSM) phones that operate in the frequency band of 900 MHz and reach the power of 2 W have a stronger electric field than (2G) GSM mobile phones that operate in the higher frequency band of 1,800 MHz and reach the power up to 1 W during conversation. The third generation of (3G) UMTS smart phones that effectively use high (2,100 MHz) radio frequency band emit the smallest electric field strength values during conversation. The highest electric field strength created by mobile phones is around the ear, i.e. the mobile phone location. The strength of mobile phone electric field on the phantom head decreases exponentially while moving sidewards from the center of the effect zone (the ear), and constitutes 1-12% of the artificial head's surface. The highest electric field strength values of mobile phones are associated with their higher power, bigger specific energy absorption rate (SAR) and lower frequency of mobile phone. The stronger electric field emitted by the more powerful mobile phones takes a higher percentage of the head surface. The highest electric field strength created by mobile phones is distributed over the user's ear.

Sangkulirang Mangkalihat: The Earliest Prehistoric Rock-Art in the World

Science.gov (United States)

Imam Gozali Sumantri, Dirga; Soeria Atmadja, Dicky A. S.; Setiawan, Pindi

2018-05-01

Borneo island, a part of Sundaland - a great mainland in South East Asia thousands of years ago - is the largest island in Indonesian Archipelago. In the middle-eastern of East Borneo, lies a peninsula karst region named Sangkulirang Mangkalihat. The region's biodiversity contains many species of flora and fauna which are part of karst ecosystem. Surprisingly, thousands prehistoric rock art paintings and engraving were found here, spread over 48 inland caves in seven different karst mountain areas. The rock arts are painted on the ceiling, wall, and hollow of the cave depends on the meaning. They illustrate forms such as spiritual images (zoomorphic and antropomorphic) for sacred spiritual meaning, and social phenomenon images (tools and weapons) for description of daily life. From all those rock-arts, hand paintings are the most common elements appeared. Compared to other paintings, these are the only negative images using different techniques. Radiocarbon dating indicated that the rock-arts at Tewet Cave in Sangkulirang Mangkalihat is 40,000 BP. It is much earlier compared to Lascaux Cave (35,400 BP) and Chauvet Cave (32,000) in France which were previously known as the earliest one in the world. Rock arts and some archeological findings also indicate the migration of Austronesian People. During the migration, Borneo's climate and land cover were changing from time to time. Continental climate occurred when all Sundaland was still dry (40,000-21,000 BP), followed by tropical savanna climate and archipelagic climate (12,000-7.000 BP), and then Tropical Rainforest consecutively (1,000 BP). Correlatively, geological interpretations from such areas indicate land cover changes. These changes effected Austronesian ways of living, e.g. from hunting to fishing, and were depicted clearly on their paintings. Today, - as observed from time series satellite images - industrial activities such as karst exploitation for cement production and land clearing for palm

Human capital identification process: linkage for family medicine and community medicine to mobilize the community.

Science.gov (United States)

Tanasugarn, Chanuantong; Thongbunjob, Krid

2012-06-01

Community diagnosis and approach has shifted from a professional focus to a community focus. The information system has also been developed to reflect socio-cultural information. This new system has been established throughout the country and is being recorded in the computer system. However these data still lack human capital information to promote community mobilization. The present study aims to develop a process which reflects human capital from the insider and outsider points of view and which builds on the existing work system of primary care service, family medicine, and community medicine. The present study applies the participatory action research design with mixed methods including community grand-tour, household survey socio-metric questionnaire and focus group discussion in order to gather insider view of human capital. A key instrument developed in the present study is the socio-metric questionnaire which was designed according to the community grand tour and household survey results. The findings indicate that the process is feasible and the insider point of view given a longer evidence based list of the human capital. The model enhanced a closer relationship between professional and community people and suggested the realistic community mobilizer name list. Human capital identification process is feasible and should be recommended to integrate in the existing work process of the health staff in family and community practice.

Spatio-Temporal Analysis of Human Activities in Indoor Environments through Mobile Sensing

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Prentow, Thor Siiger

with the intuition and personal experience of the planners. Lack of real-time information on task execution has made it difficult to adapt to changes in the schedules, such as delays or suddenly occurring urgent tasks. The recent advances in methods and devices for mobile sensing provides opportunities...... methods for spatio-temporal analysis of human activities in indoor environments based on mobile sensing. The methods aim to improve scheduling and facility utilization by providing information on the used route networks, transportation modes, travel times, and the flow of people through buildings....... The methods are based on large-scale real-time indoor positioning through the use of existing WiFi infrastructures, which allows for easy deployment even in very large building complexes. The methods are designed for real-time operation, which enables them to detect and adjust to changes as they occur...

Modelling and assessment of the electric field strength caused by mobile phone to the human head

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Buckus Raimondas

2016-01-01

Full Text Available Background/Aim. Electromagnetic field exposure is the one of the most important physical agents that actively affects live organisms and environment. Active use of mobile phones influences the increase of electromagnetic field radiation. The aim of the study was to measure and assess the electric field strength caused by mobile phones to the human head. Methods. In this paper the software “COMSOL Multiphysics” was used to establish the electric field strength created by mobile phones around the head. Results. The second generation (2G Global System for Mobile (GSM phones that operate in the frequency band of 900 MHz and reach the power of 2 W have a stronger electric field than (2G GSM mobile phones that operate in the higher frequency band of 1,800 MHz and reach the power up to 1 W during conversation. The third generation of (3G UMTS smart phones that effectively use high (2,100 MHz radio frequency band emit the smallest electric field strength values during conversation. The highest electric field strength created by mobile phones is around the ear, i.e. the mobile phone location. The strength of mobile phone electric field on the phantom head decreases exponentially while moving sidewards from the center of the effect zone (the ear, and constitutes 1-12% of the artificial head’s surface. Conclusion. The highest electric field strength values of mobile phones are associated with their higher power, bigger specific energy absorption rate (SAR and lower frequency of mobile phone. The stronger electric field emitted by the more powerful mobile phones takes a higher percentage of the head surface. The highest electric field strength created by mobile phones is distributed over the user ear.

Identifying seasonal mobility profiles from anonymized and aggregated mobile phone data. Application in food security.

Science.gov (United States)

Zufiria, Pedro J; Pastor-Escuredo, David; Úbeda-Medina, Luis; Hernandez-Medina, Miguel A; Barriales-Valbuena, Iker; Morales, Alfredo J; Jacques, Damien C; Nkwambi, Wilfred; Diop, M Bamba; Quinn, John; Hidalgo-Sanchís, Paula; Luengo-Oroz, Miguel

2018-01-01

We propose a framework for the systematic analysis of mobile phone data to identify relevant mobility profiles in a population. The proposed framework allows finding distinct human mobility profiles based on the digital trace of mobile phone users characterized by a Matrix of Individual Trajectories (IT-Matrix). This matrix gathers a consistent and regularized description of individual trajectories that enables multi-scale representations along time and space, which can be used to extract aggregated indicators such as a dynamic multi-scale population count. Unsupervised clustering of individual trajectories generates mobility profiles (clusters of similar individual trajectories) which characterize relevant group behaviors preserving optimal aggregation levels for detailed and privacy-secured mobility characterization. The application of the proposed framework is illustrated by analyzing fully anonymized data on human mobility from mobile phones in Senegal at the arrondissement level over a calendar year. The analysis of monthly mobility patterns at the livelihood zone resolution resulted in the discovery and characterization of seasonal mobility profiles related with economic activities, agricultural calendars and rainfalls. The use of these mobility profiles could support the timely identification of mobility changes in vulnerable populations in response to external shocks (such as natural disasters, civil conflicts or sudden increases of food prices) to monitor food security.

Identifying seasonal mobility profiles from anonymized and aggregated mobile phone data. Application in food security.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Pedro J Zufiria

Full Text Available We propose a framework for the systematic analysis of mobile phone data to identify relevant mobility profiles in a population. The proposed framework allows finding distinct human mobility profiles based on the digital trace of mobile phone users characterized by a Matrix of Individual Trajectories (IT-Matrix. This matrix gathers a consistent and regularized description of individual trajectories that enables multi-scale representations along time and space, which can be used to extract aggregated indicators such as a dynamic multi-scale population count. Unsupervised clustering of individual trajectories generates mobility profiles (clusters of similar individual trajectories which characterize relevant group behaviors preserving optimal aggregation levels for detailed and privacy-secured mobility characterization. The application of the proposed framework is illustrated by analyzing fully anonymized data on human mobility from mobile phones in Senegal at the arrondissement level over a calendar year. The analysis of monthly mobility patterns at the livelihood zone resolution resulted in the discovery and characterization of seasonal mobility profiles related with economic activities, agricultural calendars and rainfalls. The use of these mobility profiles could support the timely identification of mobility changes in vulnerable populations in response to external shocks (such as natural disasters, civil conflicts or sudden increases of food prices to monitor food security.

Human impacts on riparian ecosystems of the Middle Rio Grande Valley during historic times

Science.gov (United States)

Frank E. Wozniak

1996-01-01

The development of irrigation agriculture in historic times has profoundly impacted riparian ecosystems in the Middle Rio Grande Valley of New Mexico. A vital relationship has existed between water resources and settlement in the semi-arid Southwest since prehistoric times. Levels of technology have influenced human generated changes in the riparian ecosystems of the...

Mobile phone social harms (mobile phone, communicative device or ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

One of the human inventions created in order to facilitate life but it became scourge for him is mobile phone. Ignorance on quality of using mobile phone and conscious use of it in inappropriate way will have consequences that it seems that it gradually becomes as social problem and harm. Author of this paper aims to warns ...

Exploring the impact of climate variability during the Last Glacial Maximum on the pattern of human occupation of Iberia.

Science.gov (United States)

Burke, Ariane; Levavasseur, Guillaume; James, Patrick M A; Guiducci, Dario; Izquierdo, Manuel Arturo; Bourgeon, Lauriane; Kageyama, Masa; Ramstein, Gilles; Vrac, Mathieu

2014-08-01

The Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) was a global climate event, which had significant repercussions for the spatial distribution and demographic history of prehistoric populations. In Eurasia, the LGM coincides with a potential bottleneck for modern humans and may mark the divergence date for Asian and European populations (Keinan et al., 2007). In this research, the impact of climate variability on human populations in the Iberian Peninsula during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) is examined with the aid of downscaled high-resolution (16 × 16 km) numerical climate experiments. Human sensitivity to short time-scale (inter-annual) climate variability during this key time period, which follows the initial modern human colonisation of Eurasia and the extinction of the Neanderthals, is tested using the spatial distribution of archaeological sites. Results indicate that anatomically modern human populations responded to small-scale spatial patterning in climate variability, specifically inter-annual variability in precipitation levels as measured by the standard precipitation index. Climate variability at less than millennial scale, therefore, is shown to be an important component of ecological risk, one that played a role in regulating the spatial behaviour of prehistoric human populations and consequently affected their social networks. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Analysis of Thousands of Prehistoric Mediterranean Obsidian Artifacts Using a Nondestructive Portable X-Ray Fluorescence Spectrometer

Science.gov (United States)

Tykot, Robert

A portable, hand-held X-ray fluorescence spectrometer has been used for a decade to elementally analyze prehistoric obsidian artifacts in the Mediterranean. Nearly 400 geological obsidian samples and 7500 obsidian artifacts have been analyzed. The pXRF can distinguish all individual sources, as well as assign artifacts specifically to most subsources. For the island sources of Lipari, Pantelleria, Sardinia, and Melos, it is important to address the usage of obsidian from specific subsources due to human selection based on physical properties of the raw material and their production practices, which may have changed over time from the Early Neolithic to the Bronze Age. The analysis of 50 or more artifacts from 60 different archaeological sites allows for statistical comparison between sites, and their contexts, geographic areas (e.g. coastal/inland, highland/lowland) and distance from geological sources. The frequency of transport between island sources and mainland sites is suggestive of maritime capabilities also for the transport of domesticated animals, ceramics, and other materials. This presentation will specifically address potential limitations of the portable XRF, including non-destructive surface analysis of potentially heterogeneous materials, and limited trace element detection compared to other analytical methods, versus its highly beneficial ``package'' of analyzing great numbers of artifacts non-destructively and rapidly without needing to export them from museums and facilities in many countries.

Exploring space-time structure of human mobility in urban space

Science.gov (United States)

Sun, J. B.; Yuan, J.; Wang, Y.; Si, H. B.; Shan, X. M.

2011-03-01

Understanding of human mobility in urban space benefits the planning and provision of municipal facilities and services. Due to the high penetration of cell phones, mobile cellular networks provide information for urban dynamics with a large spatial extent and continuous temporal coverage in comparison with traditional approaches. The original data investigated in this paper were collected by cellular networks in a southern city of China, recording the population distribution by dividing the city into thousands of pixels. The space-time structure of urban dynamics is explored by applying Principal Component Analysis (PCA) to the original data, from temporal and spatial perspectives between which there is a dual relation. Based on the results of the analysis, we have discovered four underlying rules of urban dynamics: low intrinsic dimensionality, three categories of common patterns, dominance of periodic trends, and temporal stability. It implies that the space-time structure can be captured well by remarkably few temporal or spatial predictable periodic patterns, and the structure unearthed by PCA evolves stably over time. All these features play a critical role in the applications of forecasting and anomaly detection.

Oxiuríase e migrações pré-históricas Oxyuriasis and prehistoric migrations

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Adauto Araújo

1995-06-01

hosts in ancient times. These findings allow us to re-examine theories proposed at the beginning of the century concerning transpacific contacts that Asian populations may have had with South America. This has been the case, for example, with hookworm eggs found in archeological material dating up to 7,000 years before present. Because of the increase in scientific production in this area, it has now become necessary to undertake syntheses that assess the state of the art and propose workable paleoepidemological models of the prehistoric dispersion of human parasitoses. Based on findings of Enterobius vermicularis eggs in archeological material in the Americas, the present study is an effort in this direction. Unlike the hookworm, the pinworm does not require a soil cycle in order to be transmitted from one host to another, thereby meaning that its persistence in a given human population does not depend on climatic conditions. Thus, it could have been brought from the old to the new continent, possibly by human migrations across the Bering Strait. This may explain the greater geographical dispersion and dissemination of these findings in North America from 10,000 yrs B.P. till today. In South America, on the other hand, archeological findings have only confirmed existence of Enterobius vermicularis eggs within the Andean region, with findings located specifically in Chile and northern Argentina. Although a large number of samples have been examined, no such eggs have been found in coprolites in Brazil. The paper discusses models that account for the known distribution of this parasitosis in prehistoric populations.

A mobile Nursing Information System based on human-computer interaction design for improving quality of nursing.

Science.gov (United States)

Su, Kuo-Wei; Liu, Cheng-Li

2012-06-01

A conventional Nursing Information System (NIS), which supports the role of nurse in some areas, is typically deployed as an immobile system. However, the traditional information system can't response to patients' conditions in real-time, causing delays on the availability of this information. With the advances of information technology, mobile devices are increasingly being used to extend the human mind's limited capacity to recall and process large numbers of relevant variables and to support information management, general administration, and clinical practice. Unfortunately, there have been few studies about the combination of a well-designed small-screen interface with a personal digital assistant (PDA) in clinical nursing. Some researchers found that user interface design is an important factor in determining the usability and potential use of a mobile system. Therefore, this study proposed a systematic approach to the development of a mobile nursing information system (MNIS) based on Mobile Human-Computer Interaction (M-HCI) for use in clinical nursing. The system combines principles of small-screen interface design with user-specified requirements. In addition, the iconic functions were designed with metaphor concept that will help users learn the system more quickly with less working-memory. An experiment involving learnability testing, thinking aloud and a questionnaire investigation was conducted for evaluating the effect of MNIS on PDA. The results show that the proposed MNIS is good on learning and higher satisfaction on symbol investigation, terminology and system information.

Reciprocity of mobile phone calls

OpenAIRE

Kovanen, Lauri; Saramaki, Jari; Kaski, Kimmo

2010-01-01

We present a study of the reciprocity of human behaviour based on mobile phone usage records. The underlying question is whether human relationships are mutual, in the sense that both are equally active in keeping up the relationship, or is it on the contrary typical that relationships are lopsided, with one party being significantly more active than the other. We study this question with the help of a mobile phone data set consisting of all mobile phone calls between 5.3 million customers of...

High mobility group A1 enhances tumorigenicity of human cholangiocarcinoma and confers resistance to therapy

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Quintavalle, Cristina; Burmeister, Katharina; Piscuoglio, Salvatore

2017-01-01

High mobility group A1 (HMGA1) protein has been described to play an important role in numerous types of human carcinoma. By the modulation of several target genes HMGA1 promotes proliferation and epithelial-mesenchymal transition of tumor cells. However, its role in cholangiocarcinoma (CCA) has...

Trepanation Procedures/Outcomes: Comparison of Prehistoric Peru with Other Ancient, Medieval, and American Civil War Cranial Surgery.

Science.gov (United States)

Kushner, David S; Verano, John W; Titelbaum, Anne R

2018-06-01

More prehistoric trepanned crania have been found in Peru than any other location worldwide. We examine trepanation practices and outcomes in Peru over nearly 2000 years from 400 BC to provide a perspective on the procedure with comparison with procedures/outcomes of other ancient, medieval, and American Civil War cranial surgery. Data on trepanation demographics, techniques, and survival rates were collected through the scientific analysis of more than 800 trepanned crania discovered in Peru, through field studies and the courtesy of museums and private collections in the United States and Peru, over nearly 3 decades. Data on procedures and outcomes of cranial surgery ancient, medieval, and during 19th-century through the American Civil war were obtained via a literature review. Successful trepanations from prehistoric times through the American Civil War likely involved shallow surgeries that did not pierce the dura mater. Although there are regional and temporal variations in ancient Peru, overall long-term survival rates for the study series were about 40% in the earliest period (400-200 BC), with improvement to a high of 91% in samples from AD 1000-1400, to an average of 75%-83% during the Inca Period (AD 1400s-1500). In comparison, the average cranial surgery mortality rate during the American Civil war was 46%-56%, and short- and long-term survival rates are unknown. The contrast in outcomes highlights the astonishing success of ancient cranial surgery in Peru in the treatment of living patients. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Mollusc succession of a prehistoric settlement area during the Holocene: A case study of the České středohoří Mountains (Czech Republic)

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Juřičková, L.; Horáčková, J.; Jansová, A.; Ložek, Vojen

2013-01-01

Roč. 23, č. 12 (2013), s. 1811-1823 ISSN 0959-6836 Institutional support: RVO:67985831 Keywords : České středohoří Mountains * Holocene * mollusc succession * prehistoric settlement * radiocarbon AMS dating Subject RIV: DB - Geology ; Mineralogy Impact factor: 3.794, year: 2013

Restricted Mobilities

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Nielsen, Mette; Lassen, Claus

2012-01-01

communities and shopping centres through mobility lenses. The article shows how different mobility systems enable and restrict the public access to private-public spaces, and it points out that proprietary communities create an unequal potential for human movement and access in the city. The main argument......Privatisation of public spaces in the contemporary city has increased during the last decades but only few studies have approached this field from a mobility perspective. Therefore the article seeks to rectify this by exploring two Australian examples of private spaces in the city; gated...... and stratification mechanisms. In conclusion the article therefore suggests that future urban research and planning also needs a mobile understanding of spaces in the cities and how different mobility systems play an important role to sustain the exclusiveness that often characterises the private/public spaces...

Palaeo-ethnology, palaeo-environment and palaeo-climatology of Piaui, Brazil: palynological studies on human coprolites collected at the ``Pedra Furada`` site; Paleoethnologie, paleoenvironnement et paleoclimatologie du Piaui, Bresil: apport de l`etude pollinique de coprolithes humains recueillis dans le gisement prehistorique de ``Pedra Furada``

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Chaves, S.; Renault-Miskovsky, J. [Institut de Paleontologie, 75 - Paris (France)]|[Universidade Federal, Rio de Janeiro, RJ (Brazil)

1996-06-13

Fossil human faeces were collected from the rock-shelter of ``Pedra Furada`` (Piaui, Brazil), which is considered nowadays as one of the most ancient prehistoric sites in America. These dated coprolites range from 8,500 to 7,000 BP and are evidence of an occupation phase connected with ``Serra Talhada`` cultural traditions I and II. These coprolites were analysed by palynological studies. The results have given palaeo-climatological and palaeo-environmental data with an emphasis on palaeo-ethnological aspects. Evidence emerges regarding the range of medicinal and food plants of the prehistoric humans who inhabited the site for some 1,500 years. (authors). 32 refs., 3 figs.

The Economics of Human Development and Social Mobility *

Science.gov (United States)

Heckman, James J.; Mosso, Stefano

2014-01-01

This paper distills and extends recent research on the economics of human development and social mobility. It summarizes the evidence from diverse literatures on the importance of early life conditions in shaping multiple life skills and the evidence on critical and sensitive investment periods for shaping different skills. It presents economic models that rationalize the evidence and unify the treatment effect and family influence literatures. The evidence on the empirical and policy importance of credit constraints in forming skills is examined. There is little support for the claim that untargeted income transfer policies to poor families significantly boost child outcomes. Mentoring, parenting, and attachment are essential features of successful families and interventions to shape skills at all stages of childhood. The next wave of family studies will better capture the active role of the emerging autonomous child in learning and responding to the actions of parents, mentors and teachers. PMID:25346785

Change of PAHs with evolution of paddy soils from prehistoric to present over the last six millennia in the Yangtze River Delta region, China

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Zhang, Jin [School of Environmental and Resource Sciences, Zhejiang Agricultural and Forestry University, 88 North Huancheng Rd. of Lin' an, Hangzhou 311300 (China); Institute of Geosciences, Christian-Albrechts-University of Kiel, Ludewig-Meyn-Str. 10, 24118 Kiel (Germany); Cornelia, Mueller-Niggemann [Institute of Geosciences, Christian-Albrechts-University of Kiel, Ludewig-Meyn-Str. 10, 24118 Kiel (Germany); Wang, Minyan, E-mail: jz.zafu@gmail.com [Tianmu College of Zhejiang Agricultural and Forestry University, 252 Yijin Str.of Lin' an, Hangzhou 311300 (China); Cao, Zhihong [Institute of Soil Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 71 East Beijing Rd., Nanjing 210008 (China); Luo, Xiping, E-mail: luoxpzj@yahoo.com.cn [School of Environmental and Resource Sciences, Zhejiang Agricultural and Forestry University, 88 North Huancheng Rd. of Lin' an, Hangzhou 311300 (China); Wong, Minghung [School of Environmental and Resource Sciences, Zhejiang Agricultural and Forestry University, 88 North Huancheng Rd. of Lin' an, Hangzhou 311300 (China); Croucher Institute for Environmental Sciences, and Department of Biology, Hong Kong Baptist University, 224 Waterloo Rd., Kln., Hong Kong (China); Chen, Wei [Department of Ecology and Evolution, Frankfurt University, Max-Von-Laue Str. 13, 60438 Frankfurt am Main (Germany)

2013-04-01

To evaluate the influence of hydroponics management on soil organic components with evolution of paddy soil over the last six millennia, PAHs, as a biomarker, as well as total organic carbon content were used to explore changes of paddy soil organic carbon in two entirely buried ancient paddy soil profiles. The results showed that hydroponics management can cause organic carbon deposition in rice paddy. The changing of total PAH concentrations was not always in accordance with the changing of total organic carbon contents in layers of the buried ancient paddy soils. The PAHs in 6280 BP prehistoric paddy soil layer was 3-ring > 5-ring > 4-ring > 6-ring, while in layers of the present paddy soil and the prehistoric upland were 3-ring > 4-ring > 5-ring > 6-ring. The contribution of phenanthrene to total PAHs in two profiles and the increasing ratio of phenanthrene to alkylated PAHs from parent material/6280 BP prehistoric upland to 6280 BP paddy suggested substantial increase of the anthropogenic influence of hydroponics management on rice paddy soil. And in view of the {sup 14}C age and bioremains in the two profiles, it was only possible for PAHs to be derived from hydroponics management with evolution of the paddy soils form the Neolithic age. Cadalene could be used as an indicator for biological sources of PAHs released by rice plant residues, and benzo[g,h,i]fluoranthene and benzo[g,h,i]perylene for pyrogenic sources released by field vegetation fires. - Highlights: ► Soil hydroponics management can cause SOC deposition in rice paddy. ► PAHs in buried ancient paddy soil profiles were mainly derived from anthropogenic hydroponics management. ► PAH, as a biomarker, was not suitable for tracing SOC change with evolution of paddy soil from the Neolithic age.

Change of PAHs with evolution of paddy soils from prehistoric to present over the last six millennia in the Yangtze River Delta region, China

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zhang, Jin; Cornelia, Mueller-Niggemann; Wang, Minyan; Cao, Zhihong; Luo, Xiping; Wong, Minghung; Chen, Wei

2013-01-01

To evaluate the influence of hydroponics management on soil organic components with evolution of paddy soil over the last six millennia, PAHs, as a biomarker, as well as total organic carbon content were used to explore changes of paddy soil organic carbon in two entirely buried ancient paddy soil profiles. The results showed that hydroponics management can cause organic carbon deposition in rice paddy. The changing of total PAH concentrations was not always in accordance with the changing of total organic carbon contents in layers of the buried ancient paddy soils. The PAHs in 6280 BP prehistoric paddy soil layer was 3-ring > 5-ring > 4-ring > 6-ring, while in layers of the present paddy soil and the prehistoric upland were 3-ring > 4-ring > 5-ring > 6-ring. The contribution of phenanthrene to total PAHs in two profiles and the increasing ratio of phenanthrene to alkylated PAHs from parent material/6280 BP prehistoric upland to 6280 BP paddy suggested substantial increase of the anthropogenic influence of hydroponics management on rice paddy soil. And in view of the 14 C age and bioremains in the two profiles, it was only possible for PAHs to be derived from hydroponics management with evolution of the paddy soils form the Neolithic age. Cadalene could be used as an indicator for biological sources of PAHs released by rice plant residues, and benzo[g,h,i]fluoranthene and benzo[g,h,i]perylene for pyrogenic sources released by field vegetation fires. - Highlights: ► Soil hydroponics management can cause SOC deposition in rice paddy. ► PAHs in buried ancient paddy soil profiles were mainly derived from anthropogenic hydroponics management. ► PAH, as a biomarker, was not suitable for tracing SOC change with evolution of paddy soil from the Neolithic age

Viral diseases and human evolution

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Leal Élcio de Souza

2000-01-01

Full Text Available The interaction of man with viral agents was possibly a key factor shaping human evolution, culture and civilization from its outset. Evidence of the effect of disease, since the early stages of human speciation, through pre-historical times to the present suggest that the types of viruses associated with man changed in time. As human populations progressed technologically, they grew in numbers and density. As a consequence different viruses found suitable conditions to thrive and establish long-lasting associations with man. Although not all viral agents cause disease and some may in fact be considered beneficial, the present situation of overpopulation, poverty and ecological inbalance may have devastating effets on human progress. Recently emerged diseases causing massive pandemics (eg., HIV-1 and HCV, dengue, etc. are becoming formidable challenges, which may have a direct impact on the fate of our species.

HotMobile 2008: Postconference Report

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Hong, J.; Lindqvist, J.; Pawar, P.; Stuntebeck, E.

2008-01-01

HotMobile 2008 presented a two-day program on mobile computing systems and applications. The authors focuses on the sessions on sensors, modularity, wireless, security, systems, and screens. The mobile device is the most amazing invention in history and that it has had the largest impact on human

Predictability of Mobile Phone Associations

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jensen, Bjørn Sand; Larsen, Jan; Hansen, Lars Kai

2010-01-01

Prediction and understanding of human behavior is of high importance in many modern applications and research areas ranging from context-aware services, wireless resource allocation to social sciences. In this study we collect a novel dataset using standard mobile phones and analyze how the predi...... representation, and general behavior. This is of vital interest in the development of context-aware services which rely on forecasting based on mobile phone sensors.......Prediction and understanding of human behavior is of high importance in many modern applications and research areas ranging from context-aware services, wireless resource allocation to social sciences. In this study we collect a novel dataset using standard mobile phones and analyze how...... the predictability of mobile sensors, acting as proxies for humans, change with time scale and sensor type such as GSM and WLAN. Applying recent information theoretic methods, it is demonstrated that an upper bound on predictability is relatively high for all sensors given the complete history (typically above 90...

The Effects of Trust Transference, Mobile Attributes and Enjoyment on Mobile Trust

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Cristiane Junqueira Giovannini

2015-01-01

Full Text Available Trust is essential in building relationships. In mobile commerce, as in electronic commerce, trust is even more valuable given the absence of human contact and direct observation of the service provider. Despite the importance of trust for mobile commerce, there has been little academic effort to study the relationships between mobile devices unique components of interactivity and customer trust, or the relationship between offline, online and mobile trust. This study proposes a trust-mediated model for customer attitude and transaction intentions in mobile commerce contexts that incorporates trust transference and unique factors present in mobile commerce. Data were collected in an online survey and analyzed via structural equations modeling. Results suggest that trust transferred from online contexts and ease of use have significant effects on mobile trust formation, while also indicating that mobile trust influences consumers’ attitudes and intentions to purchase using mobile devices.

Phenomenology of Mobile Phone Users’ Experiences About Mobilization in Social Relationships

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

M. Mokhtari

2017-09-01

Full Text Available Technology has important role in communications and shapes people’s relations but also imposes its principles on these relationships. The term “Mobilization” refers to special form of life style characterized by properties such as speed and quantity. This investigation aimed at studying user experiences with regard to mobilization in human relationships. To this purpose, we conducted a phenomenological approach and arranged in-depth interviews with 12 users of mobile phones focusing on different virtual spaces. The use of mobile and virtual networks was researched with the view of "satisfaction and happiness."The obtained data were analyzed with Colaizzi’s 7 steps method and the results revealed 2 themes: “experience from technology” and “relational experiences” with more detailed sub-themes. Results showed that users pass through the stages of “experience from technology” i.e., from “familiarity”, to “attraction”, then “drown to nakedness, “to” pointlessness,” and ultimately “control”. Also participants’ communication experiences showed different types of confounded relationships. This process called mobilization, in which the characteristics, application context, and specific nature of the mobile phone use enter the human relationships and change them. Indeed, mobilization is not a technologic process but is a cultural one. The problem is not the invention but is the feel and urge to use this technology.

Hierarchical coordination control of mobile robots

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Adinandra, S.

2012-01-01

In the last decade, robotic systems have penetrated human life more than human can imagine. In particular, the multi-mobile robotic systems have faced a fast growing due to the fact that by deploying a large collection of mobile robots the overall system has a high redundancy and offers the

The public life of the European North of Russia in the prehistoric era

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kondreskul A.M.

2017-03-01

Full Text Available the article gives the characteristics of the social life of the North of European Russia in the prehistoric era, examines its features in different periods of the stone age, defines the time (milestones and ways of penetration of the first people on the European North, clarifies the nature and causes of this process, techniques of adaptation of primitive communities, stresses the importance in this process of natural and geographical factors. At each stage of the development of the northern populations is characterized by changes in the economy, the stone industry, religion and art. The author demonstrates the continuity of the social order: from the community to the tribal community and tribe, focuses on the problem of the coexistence of Cro-Magnon and Neanderthals and the causes of the Neanderthals death, as well as military clashes between the tribes belonging to different archaeological cultures.

An autonomous, automated and mobile device to concurrently assess several cognitive functions in group-living non-human primates.

Science.gov (United States)

Fizet, Jonas; Rimele, Adam; Pebayle, Thierry; Cassel, Jean-Christophe; Kelche, Christian; Meunier, Hélène

2017-11-01

Research methods in cognitive neuroscience using non-human primates have undergone notable changes over the last decades. Recently, several research groups have described freely accessible devices equipped with a touchscreen interface. Two characteristics of such systems are of particular interest: some apparatuses include automated identification of subjects, while others are mobile. Here, we designed, tested and validated an experimental system that, for the first time, combine automatization and mobility. Moreover, our system allows autonomous learning and testing of cognitive performance in group-living subjects, including follow-up assessments. The mobile apparatus is designed to be available 24h a day, 7days a week, in a typical confined primate breeding and housing facility. Here we present as proof of concept, the results of two pilot studies. We report that rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta) learned the tasks rapidly and achieved high-level of stable performance. Approaches of this kind should be developed for future pharmacological and biomedical studies in non-human primates. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Weight loss efficacy of a novel mobile Diabetes Prevention Program delivery platform with human coaching

Science.gov (United States)

Michaelides, Andreas; Raby, Christine; Wood, Meghan; Farr, Kit

2016-01-01

Objective To evaluate the weight loss efficacy of a novel mobile platform delivering the Diabetes Prevention Program. Research Design and Methods 43 overweight or obese adult participants with a diagnosis of prediabetes signed-up to receive a 24-week virtual Diabetes Prevention Program with human coaching, through a mobile platform. Weight loss and engagement were the main outcomes, evaluated by repeated measures analysis of variance, backward regression, and mediation regression. Results Weight loss at 16 and 24 weeks was significant, with 56% of starters and 64% of completers losing over 5% body weight. Mean weight loss at 24 weeks was 6.58% in starters and 7.5% in completers. Participants were highly engaged, with 84% of the sample completing 9 lessons or more. In-app actions related to self-monitoring significantly predicted weight loss. Conclusions Our findings support the effectiveness of a uniquely mobile prediabetes intervention, producing weight loss comparable to studies with high engagement, with potential for scalable population health management. PMID:27651911

Middle Palaeolithic flint procurement in Central Mediterranean Iberia: Implications for human mobility

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Aleix Eixea

2014-03-01

Full Text Available Different flint types from the Middle Palaeolithic site of Abrigo de la Quebrada (Chelva, Valencia are characterized,  both macro- and microscopically, and compared with types found at other localities in the region. Although procurement predominantly concerned the immediate vicinity of sites, our results show the presence of the same types in assemblages separated by distances of up to 120 km. The long distances involved are suggestive of a pattern of North-South mobility of human groups along the coastline of central Mediterranean Iberia.

The first in situ micro-Raman spectroscopic analysis of prehistoric cave art of Rouffignac St-Cernin, France

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lahlil, Sophia; Lebon, Matthieu; Beck, Lucile; Rousseliere, Helene; Vignaud, Colette; Reiche, Ina; Menu, Michel; Paillet, Patrick; Plassard, Frederic

2012-01-01

The first in situ micro-Raman spectroscopic study of prehistoric drawings found in the cave of Rouffignac-Saint-Cernin (Dordogne, France) was carried out. Rouffignac cave art, assigned to the upper Magdalenian Paleolithic period (13500-12000 bp), is constituted of more than 250 drawings and engraving including 158 mammoths. There are about a hundred drawings, all made of black pigments. Until now, destructive chemical analyses performed on one sample, as well as recent micro X-ray fluorescence (μ-XRF) in situ analyses have shown that the drawings contain manganese oxides. Because no carbon has yet been found, no direct dating of the drawings could be performed. This new study of the Rouffignac cave using non-destructive in situ micro-analyses aims at confirming or not the absence of carbon-based drawings and at understanding the apparent homogeneity of the parietal representations by the identification of the crystalline phases constituting the black pigments. The adaptability of portable equipment as well as the feasibility of in situ micro-Raman analyses in a cave environment was tested. The results obtained are compared with in situ XRF, and X-ray diffraction microanalysis is performed at the same time in the cave. We demonstrate that a portable Raman instrument is very useful to analyze non-destructively drawings in the following difficult conditions: high humidity, various wall geometries, and small amounts of material studied. These results show that the black manganese oxides romanechite and pyrolusite were used as pigments by prehistorical artists. Carbon and carotenoids have been found locally. Differences between the various figures are highlighted and hypotheses about the drawings production are proposed. (authors)

Human-Centered Design and Evaluation of Haptic Cueing for Teleoperation of Multiple Mobile Robots.

Science.gov (United States)

Son, Hyoung Il; Franchi, Antonio; Chuang, Lewis L; Kim, Junsuk; Bulthoff, Heinrich H; Giordano, Paolo Robuffo

2013-04-01

In this paper, we investigate the effect of haptic cueing on a human operator's performance in the field of bilateral teleoperation of multiple mobile robots, particularly multiple unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). Two aspects of human performance are deemed important in this area, namely, the maneuverability of mobile robots and the perceptual sensitivity of the remote environment. We introduce metrics that allow us to address these aspects in two psychophysical studies, which are reported here. Three fundamental haptic cue types were evaluated. The Force cue conveys information on the proximity of the commanded trajectory to obstacles in the remote environment. The Velocity cue represents the mismatch between the commanded and actual velocities of the UAVs and can implicitly provide a rich amount of information regarding the actual behavior of the UAVs. Finally, the Velocity+Force cue is a linear combination of the two. Our experimental results show that, while maneuverability is best supported by the Force cue feedback, perceptual sensitivity is best served by the Velocity cue feedback. In addition, we show that large gains in the haptic feedbacks do not always guarantee an enhancement in the teleoperator's performance.

Human Technology and Human Affects

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Fausing, Bent

2009-01-01

Human Technology and Human Affects  This year Samsung introduced a mobile phone with "Soul". It was made with a human touch and included itself a magical touch. Which function does technology and affects get in everyday aesthetics like this, its images and interactions included this presentation...... will ask and try to answer. The mobile phone and its devices are depicted as being able to make a unique human presence, interaction, and affect. The medium, the technology is a necessary helper to get towards this very special and lost humanity. Without the technology, no special humanity - soul....... The paper will investigate how technology, humanity, affects, and synaesthesia are presented and combined with examples from everyday aesthetics, e.g. early computer tv-commercial, net-commercial for mobile phones. Technology and affects point, is the conclusion, towards a forgotten pre-human and not he...

Mobile Tower Radiation Protection System

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jabbar Slman Hussein

2017-12-01

Full Text Available Clean environment is one of the most necessarily needs for Human life. So what about mobile effect and its towers pollution? It's effect on public health? Effect of huge groan of mobile networks. In counting of these dangers that will harm us from mobile towers in the far run, was the reasons for writing this research, came this study to look at the mobile towers and mobile effects possible health harm for the purpose of diagnosis of these effects and to suggest ways that can be used to avoid or minimize the risks.  Faraday Cage, is the solution suggested here, also there are many other solutions for this problem, a Faraday cage is a metallic enclosure that stops the entry or escape of an EM field. Also, two experiments are accomplished, first one showing the effect of Faraday cage on preventing the EMR from mobile cellphone, and the second  experiment gives the effect of Faraday cage on preventing the EMR from mobile tower EMR on human health listed in the research, that have been done by using conducting shell (grid design according the EM wavelength used by three company's mobile working in Iraq, the result show good isolations.

Dedicated mobile volumetric cone-beam computed tomography for human brain imaging: A phantom study.

Science.gov (United States)

Ryu, Jong-Hyun; Kim, Tae-Hoon; Jeong, Chang-Won; Jun, Hong-Young; Heo, Dong-Woon; Lee, Jinseok; Kim, Kyong-Woo; Yoon, Kwon-Ha

2015-01-01

Mobile computed tomography (CT) with a cone-beam source is increasingly used in the clinical field. Mobile cone-beam CT (CBCT) has great merits; however, its clinical utility for brain imaging has been limited due to problems including scan time and image quality. The aim of this study was to develop a dedicated mobile volumetric CBCT for obtaining brain images, and to optimize the imaging protocol using a brain phantom. The mobile volumetric CBCT system was evaluated with regards to scan time and image quality, measured as signal-to-noise-ratio (SNR), contrast-to-noise-ratio (CNR), spatial resolution (10% MTF), and effective dose. Brain images were obtained using a CT phantom. The CT scan took 5.14 s at 360 projection views. SNR and CNR were 5.67 and 14.5 at 120 kV/10 mA. SNR and CNR values showed slight improvement as the x-ray voltage and current increased (p < 0.001). Effective dose and 10% MTF were 0.92 mSv and 360 μ m at 120 kV/10 mA. Various intracranial structures were clearly visible in the brain phantom images. Using this CBCT under optimal imaging acquisition conditions, it is possible to obtain human brain images with low radiation dose, reproducible image quality, and fast scan time.

Carbon-13 evidence for the diet of prehistoric humans in Denmark

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tauber, H.

1982-01-01

Bones and tissue from 42 humans fom Denmark and Greenland, ranging in time from 5500 B.C. to A.D. 1750, have been analysed for C-13. The analyses have shown a very marked difference in food habits between Mesolithic time in Denmark, when marine food was dominant and Neolithic time and younger periods, where a predominance of terrestrial food is indicated. (author)

Correlation between social proximity and mobility similarity.

Science.gov (United States)

Fan, Chao; Liu, Yiding; Huang, Junming; Rong, Zhihai; Zhou, Tao

2017-09-20

Human behaviors exhibit ubiquitous correlations in many aspects, such as individual and collective levels, temporal and spatial dimensions, content, social and geographical layers. With rich Internet data of online behaviors becoming available, it attracts academic interests to explore human mobility similarity from the perspective of social network proximity. Existent analysis shows a strong correlation between online social proximity and offline mobility similarity, namely, mobile records between friends are significantly more similar than between strangers, and those between friends with common neighbors are even more similar. We argue the importance of the number and diversity of common friends, with a counter intuitive finding that the number of common friends has no positive impact on mobility similarity while the diversity plays a key role, disagreeing with previous studies. Our analysis provides a novel view for better understanding the coupling between human online and offline behaviors, and will help model and predict human behaviors based on social proximity.

Prehistoric human impact in the mountains of Bohemia. Do pollen and archaeological data support the traditional scenario of a prehistoric "wilderness"?

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Kozáková, Radka; Pokorný, P.; Peša, V.; Danielisová, Alžběta; Čuláková, Katarína; Svitavská-Svobodová, Helena

2015-01-01

Roč. 220, September (2015), s. 29-43 ISSN 0034-6667 Grant - others:Rada Programu interní podpory projektů mezinárodní spolupráce AV ČR(CZ) M300020903 Program:M Institutional support: RVO:67985912 ; RVO:67985939 Keywords : mountains * human impact * pollen * archaeology * prehistory Subject RIV: AC - Archeology, Anthropology, Ethnology; EF - Botanics (BU-J) Impact factor: 2.158, year: 2015

Including the Other: Regulation of the Human Rights of Mobile Students in a Nation-Bound World

Science.gov (United States)

Marginson, Simon

2012-01-01

The world's three million cross-border international students are located in a "gray zone" of regulation with incomplete human rights, security and capabilities. Like other mobile persons such as short-term business and labour entrants, and refugees, students located on foreign soil do not enjoy the same protections and entitlements as…

Supersampling and Network Reconstruction of Urban Mobility.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Oleguer Sagarra

Full Text Available Understanding human mobility is of vital importance for urban planning, epidemiology, and many other fields that draw policies from the activities of humans in space. Despite the recent availability of large-scale data sets of GPS traces or mobile phone records capturing human mobility, typically only a subsample of the population of interest is represented, giving a possibly incomplete picture of the entire system under study. Methods to reliably extract mobility information from such reduced data and to assess their sampling biases are lacking. To that end, we analyzed a data set of millions of taxi movements in New York City. We first show that, once they are appropriately transformed, mobility patterns are highly stable over long time scales. Based on this observation, we develop a supersampling methodology to reliably extrapolate mobility records from a reduced sample based on an entropy maximization procedure, and we propose a number of network-based metrics to assess the accuracy of the predicted vehicle flows. Our approach provides a well founded way to exploit temporal patterns to save effort in recording mobility data, and opens the possibility to scale up data from limited records when information on the full system is required.

The influence of population mobility on human settlements

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Cleophas Lado

2013-07-01

Full Text Available This paper examines some of the characteristics of world's population mobility, cultural environment and changing societies. Some of the national and international problems associated with population data collection and enumeration are explored including transient and temporary population movements. In analyzing population mobility and demographic transition, Zelinky's hypothesis is used as a conceptual framework applicable in both Developed and Developing countries. The findings of the study focused mainly on some of government policies and implications essential for rural-orientated and urban-orientated development programmes. It is emphasized that to achieve some of the socio-economic development objectives in any nation, it is important to have a comprehensive understanding of all the processes of mobility to match the various government policies of the redistribution.

Mobile phones and sleep - A review

Science.gov (United States)

Supe, Sanjay S.

2010-01-01

The increasing use of mobile phones has raised concerns regarding the potential health effects of exposure to the radiofrequency electromagnetic fields. An increasing amount research related to mobile phone use has focussed on the possible effects of mobile phone exposure on human brain activity and function. In particular, the use of sleep research has become a more widely used technique for assessing the possible effects of mobile phones on human health and wellbeing especially in the investigation of potential changes in sleep architecture resulting from mobile phone use. Acute exposure to a mobile phone prior to sleep significantly enhances electroencephalogram spectral power in the sleep spindle frequency range. This mobile phone-induced enhancement in spectral power is largely transitory and does not linger throughout the night. Furthermore, a reduction in rapid eye movement sleep latency following mobile phone exposure was also found, although interestingly, neither this change in rapid eye movement sleep latency or the enhancement in spectral power following mobile phone exposure, led to changes in the overall quality of sleep. In conclusion, a short exposure to the radiofrequency electromagnetic fields emitted by a mobile phone handset immediately prior to sleep is sufficient to induce changes in brain activity in the initial part of sleep. The consequences or functional significance of this effect are currently unknown and it would be premature to draw conclusions about possible health consequences.

Entropic measures of individual mobility patterns

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gallotti, Riccardo; Bazzani, Armando; Rambaldi, Sandro; Esposti, Mirko Degli

2013-01-01

Understanding human mobility from a microscopic point of view may represent a fundamental breakthrough for the development of a statistical physics for cognitive systems and it can shed light on the applicability of macroscopic statistical laws for social systems. Even if the complexity of individual behaviors prevents a true microscopic approach, the introduction of mesoscopic models allows the study of the dynamical properties for the non-stationary states of the considered system. We propose to compute various entropy measures of the individual mobility patterns obtained from GPS data that record the movements of private vehicles in the Florence district, in order to point out new features of human mobility related to the use of time and space and to define the dynamical properties of a stochastic model that could generate similar patterns. Moreover, we can relate the predictability properties of human mobility to the distribution of time passed between two successive trips. Our analysis suggests the existence of a hierarchical structure in the mobility patterns which divides the performed activities into three different categories, according to the time cost, with different information contents. We show that a Markov process defined by using the individual mobility network is not able to reproduce this hierarchy, which seems the consequence of different strategies in the activity choice. Our results could contribute to the development of governance policies for a sustainable mobility in modern cities. (paper)

Effect of Bluetooth headset and mobile phone electromagnetic fields on the human auditory nerve.

Science.gov (United States)

Mandalà, Marco; Colletti, Vittorio; Sacchetto, Luca; Manganotti, Paolo; Ramat, Stefano; Marcocci, Alessandro; Colletti, Liliana

2014-01-01

The possibility that long-term mobile phone use increases the incidence of astrocytoma, glioma and acoustic neuroma has been investigated in several studies. Recently, our group showed that direct exposure (in a surgical setting) to cell phone electromagnetic fields (EMFs) induces deterioration of auditory evoked cochlear nerve compound action potential (CNAP) in humans. To verify whether the use of Bluetooth devices reduces these effects, we conducted the present study with the same experimental protocol. Randomized trial. Twelve patients underwent retrosigmoid vestibular neurectomy to treat definite unilateral Ménière's disease while being monitored with acoustically evoked CNAPs to assess direct mobile phone exposure or alternatively the EMF effects of Bluetooth headsets. We found no short-term effects of Bluetooth EMFs on the auditory nervous structures, whereas direct mobile phone EMF exposure confirmed a significant decrease in CNAPs amplitude and an increase in latency in all subjects. The outcomes of the present study show that, contrary to the finding that the latency and amplitude of CNAPs are very sensitive to EMFs produced by the tested mobile phone, the EMFs produced by a common Bluetooth device do not induce any significant change in cochlear nerve activity. The conditions of exposure, therefore, differ from those of everyday life, in which various biological tissues may reduce the EMF affecting the cochlear nerve. Nevertheless, these novel findings may have important safety implications. © 2013 The American Laryngological, Rhinological and Otological Society, Inc.

Human-mediated extirpation of the unique Chatham Islands sea lion and implications for the conservation management of remaining New Zealand sea lion populations.

Science.gov (United States)

Rawlence, Nicolas J; Collins, Catherine J; Anderson, Christian N K; Maxwell, Justin J; Smith, Ian W G; Robertson, Bruce C; Knapp, Michael; Horsburgh, Katherine Ann; Stanton, Jo-Ann L; Scofield, R Paul; Tennyson, Alan J D; Matisoo-Smith, Elizabeth A; Waters, Jonathan M

2016-08-01

While terrestrial megafaunal extinctions have been well characterized worldwide, our understanding of declines in marine megafauna remains limited. Here, we use ancient DNA analyses of prehistoric (extinct within 200 years due to overhunting, paralleling the extirpation of a similarly large endemic mainland population. Whole mitogenomic analyses confirm substantial intraspecific diversity among prehistoric lineages. Demographic models suggest that even low harvest rates would likely have driven rapid extinction of these lineages. This study indicates that surviving Phocarctos populations are remnants of a once diverse and widespread sea lion assemblage, highlighting dramatic human impacts on endemic marine biodiversity. Our findings also suggest that Phocarctos bycatch in commercial fisheries may contribute to the ongoing population decline. © 2016 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

On data processing required to derive mobility patterns from passively-generated mobile phone data

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Feilong; Chen, Cynthia

2018-01-01

Passively-generated mobile phone data is emerging as a potential data source for transportation research and applications. Despite the large amount of studies based on the mobile phone data, only a few have reported the properties of such data, and documented how they have processed the data. In this paper, we describe two types of common mobile phone data: Call Details Record (CDR) data and sightings data, and propose a data processing framework and the associated algorithms to address two key issues associated with the sightings data: locational uncertainty and oscillation. We show the effectiveness of our proposed methods in addressing these two issues compared to the state of art algorithms in the field. We also demonstrate that without proper processing applied to the data, the statistical regularity of human mobility patterns—a key, significant trait identified for human mobility—is over-estimated. We hope this study will stimulate more studies in examining the properties of such data and developing methods to address them. Though not as glamorous as those directly deriving insights on mobility patterns (such as statistical regularity), understanding properties of such data and developing methods to address them is a fundamental research topic on which important insights are derived on mobility patterns. PMID:29398790

Data mining mobile devices

CERN Document Server

Mena, Jesus

2013-01-01

With today's consumers spending more time on their mobiles than on their PCs, new methods of empirical stochastic modeling have emerged that can provide marketers with detailed information about the products, content, and services their customers desire.Data Mining Mobile Devices defines the collection of machine-sensed environmental data pertaining to human social behavior. It explains how the integration of data mining and machine learning can enable the modeling of conversation context, proximity sensing, and geospatial location throughout large communities of mobile users

Plant polyphenols mobilize nuclear copper in human peripheral lymphocytes leading to oxidatively generated DNA breakage: implications for an anticancer mechanism.

Science.gov (United States)

Shamim, Uzma; Hanif, Sarmad; Ullah, M F; Azmi, Asfar S; Bhat, Showket H; Hadi, S M

2008-08-01

It was earlier proposed that an important anti-cancer mechanism of plant polyphenols may involve mobilization of endogenous copper ions, possibly chromatin-bound copper and the consequent pro-oxidant action. This paper shows that plant polyphenols are able to mobilize nuclear copper in human lymphocytes, leading to degradation of cellular DNA. A cellular system of lymphocytes isolated from human peripheral blood and comet assay was used for this purpose. Incubation of lymphocytes with neocuproine (a cell membrane permeable copper chelator) inhibited DNA degradation in intact lymphocytes. Bathocuproine, which is unable to permeate through the cell membrane, did not cause such inhibition. This study has further shown that polyphenols are able to degrade DNA in cell nuclei and that such DNA degradation is inhibited by neocuproine as well as bathocuproine (both of which are able to permeate the nuclear pore complex), suggesting that nuclear copper is mobilized in this reaction. Pre-incubation of lymphocyte nuclei with polyphenols indicates that it is capable of traversing the nuclear membrane. This study has also shown that polyphenols generate oxidative stress in lymphocyte nuclei which is inhibited by scavengers of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and neocuproine. These results indicate that the generation of ROS occurs through mobilization of nuclear copper resulting in oxidatively generated DNA breakage.

No place to hide? The ethics and analytics of tracking mobility using mobile phone data

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Taylor, L.

2016-01-01

This paper examines the ethical and methodological problems with tracking human mobility using data from mobile phones, focusing on research involving low- and middle-income countries. Such datasets are becoming accessible to an increasingly broad community of researchers and data scientists, with a

From Humanizing the Educational Process to Professionally Mobile Specialists Training

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

T. A. Fugelova

2012-01-01

Full Text Available Training professional mobile specialists capable of responding flexibly to dynamic changes in society is considered to be the most important issue of the modern educational system. The paper justifies the idea that technical universities should take responsibility for solving this problem by means of humanization of technical education, which implies reconsidering its values and general notions. For overcoming the technocratic trends, the author recommends to cultivate the value of professionalism in the humanization context.Professionalism is defined by using the «professional service» idea as a «purpose acknowledgment, supertask, even a mission». The main components of the above attitude lie in finding the harmony with the world and its basic values. Therefore, technical universities face the challenge of training people of intelligence with a high moral and business responsibility. The basic value of such a person is regarded as «dedication to the cause» - the constant desire to improve the world and leave behind them- selves something of value to society. For training such specialists, the educational process should provide teachers dialogue and collaboration with students to facilitate the process of self-determination and self-development of the prospective specialists. 

The Role of Governance in Mobile Phones for Inclusive Human Development in Sub-Saharan Africa

OpenAIRE

Asongu, Simplice A; Nwachukwu, Jacinta

2016-01-01

This study assesses the synergy effects of governance in mobile phone penetration for inclusive human development in Sub-Saharan Africa with data for the period 2000-2012 by employing a battery of interactive estimation techniques, namely: Fixed effects (FE), Generalised Method of Moments (GMM) and Tobit regressions. Concepts of political (voice & accountability and political stability/no violence), economic (government effectiveness and regulation quality) and institutional (corruption-contr...

Reconstructing the eruption magnitude and energy budgets for the pre-historic eruption of the monogenetic ˜5 ka Mt. Gambier Volcanic Complex, south-eastern Australia

Science.gov (United States)

van Otterloo, Jozua; Cas, Raymond A. F.

2013-12-01

Understanding explosive volcanic eruptions, especially phreatomagmatic eruptions, their intensities and energy budgets is of major importance when it comes to risk and hazard studies. With only a few historic occurrences of phreatomagmatic activity, a large amount of our understanding comes from the study of pre-historic volcanic centres, which causes issues when it comes to preservation and vegetation. In this research, we show that using 3D geometrical modelling it is possible to obtain volume estimates for different deposits of a pre-historic, complex, monogenetic centre, the Mt. Gambier Volcanic Complex, south-eastern Australia. Using these volumes, we further explore the energy budgets and the magnitude of this eruption (VEI 4), including dispersal patterns (eruption columns varying between 5 and 10 km, dispersed towards north-east to south), to further our understanding of intraplate, monogenetic eruptions involving phreatomagmatic activity. We also compare which thermodynamic model fits best in the creation of the maar crater of Mt. Gambier: the major-explosion-dominated model or the incremental growth model. In this case, the formation of most of the craters can best be explained by the latter model.

Mobile news - a review and model of journalism in an age of mobile media

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Westlund, Oscar

2012-01-01

The technological convergence of mobile “phones” and multimedia has been taking place since the 1990s, but it was not until the commercial birth of touchscreen-enabled mobile devices, offered with flat-rate subscriptions for mobile internet, that widespread production and use of news....... This article explores the production of mobile news, by discussing and synthesising the findings of the contemporary literature found in the nexus of journalism and mobile media. It posits a model of journalism focusing on the roles of humans and technology in activities characterised by customising......-related content and services began to flourish. Accessing mobile news has gained traction in the everyday life of the public. In parallel, legacy news media have in recent years developed news provision, by repurposing or customising journalistic content published for mobile sites and/or applications...

The use of mobile phones for demographic surveillance of mobile pastoralists and their animals in Chad: proof of principle.

Science.gov (United States)

Jean-Richard, Vreni; Crump, Lisa; Moto Daugla, Doumagoum; Hattendorf, Jan; Schelling, Esther; Zinsstag, Jakob

2014-01-01

Demographic information is foundational for the planning and management of social programmes, in particular health services. The existing INDEPTH network surveillance sites are limited to coverage of sedentary populations. Including mobile populations in this approach would be expensive, time consuming and possibly low in accuracy. Very little is known about the demography of mobile pastoralists and their animals, so innovative approaches are urgently needed. To test and evaluate a mobile demographic surveillance system for mobile pastoralist households, including livestock herds, using mobile phones. Mobile pastoralist camps were monitored (10 for 12 months and 10 for 18 months) using biweekly mobile phone calls with camp leaders and their wives to conduct interviews about the households and livestock. The collected information was validated through personal visits, GPS data and a livestock demographic model. The study showed the feasibility of mobile phone surveillance for mobile pastoralist camps, providing usable, valid information on human and livestock population structures, pregnancy outcomes and herd dynamics, as well as migration patterns. The approach was low-cost and applicable with the existing local resources. Demographic surveillance in mobile populations is feasible using mobile phones. Expansion of the small-scale system into a full mobile demographic surveillance system is warranted and would likely lead to improved planning and provision of human and animal health care.

Context-awareness and Mobile HCI

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Qin, Xiangang; Tan, Chee Wee; Clemmensen, Torkil

2017-01-01

-awareness has been employed broadly in developing applications and services on mobile platform, has had a huge impact on mobile user experience, and has altered the interaction between humans and computers by giving the latter a more active role to play. The significance of context-awareness in the usage......Context-awareness endows mobile devices and services with the capability of interacting with users in an efficient, intelligent, natural and smart fashion. Consequently, context-awareness makes a significant difference to mobile HCI. However, the challenges brought by context-awareness to users...... of mobile devices are rarely examined in depth. In this paper, previous conceptions of context and their contribution to context-awareness in mobile HCI is scrutinized and a preliminary context-computer interaction (CCI) model is advanced to illustrate the interaction characterized by mobile context...

Patterns, Entropy, and Predictability of Human Mobility and Life

Science.gov (United States)

Qin, Shao-Meng; Verkasalo, Hannu; Mohtaschemi, Mikael; Hartonen, Tuomo; Alava, Mikko

2012-01-01

Cellular phones are now offering an ubiquitous means for scientists to observe life: how people act, move and respond to external influences. They can be utilized as measurement devices of individual persons and for groups of people of the social context and the related interactions. The picture of human life that emerges shows complexity, which is manifested in such data in properties of the spatiotemporal tracks of individuals. We extract from smartphone-based data for a set of persons important locations such as “home”, “work” and so forth over fixed length time-slots covering the days in the data-set (see also [1], [2]). This set of typical places is heavy-tailed, a power-law distribution with an exponent close to −1.7. To analyze the regularities and stochastic features present, the days are classified for each person into regular, personal patterns. To this are superimposed fluctuations for each day. This randomness is measured by “life” entropy, computed both before and after finding the clustering so as to subtract the contribution of a number of patterns. The main issue that we then address is how predictable individuals are in their mobility. The patterns and entropy are reflected in the predictability of the mobility of the life both individually and on average. We explore the simple approaches to guess the location from the typical behavior, and of exploiting the transition probabilities with time from location or activity A to B. The patterns allow an enhanced predictability, at least up to a few hours into the future from the current location. Such fixed habits are most clearly visible in the working-day length. PMID:23300542

"Mobile Fashion" Application

OpenAIRE

Kashanipour, Morvarid

2012-01-01

This master thesis investigates studies on fashion oriented people according to the "Outfit-Centric Accessories" concept. The outfit-centric accessories concept originated from recent research study by Juhlin and Zhang (2011) about mobile phone representation in fashion and Aesthetic of Interaction area of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI). The term outfit-centric accessories originated from clothing and wearer. In this concept an outfit is playing a role as the centerpiece and a mobile phone ...

Modelling cholera epidemics: the role of waterways, human mobility and sanitation.

Science.gov (United States)

Mari, L; Bertuzzo, E; Righetto, L; Casagrandi, R; Gatto, M; Rodriguez-Iturbe, I; Rinaldo, A

2012-02-07

We investigate the role of human mobility as a driver for long-range spreading of cholera infections, which primarily propagate through hydrologically controlled ecological corridors. Our aim is to build a spatially explicit model of a disease epidemic, which is relevant to both social and scientific issues. We present a two-layer network model that accounts for the interplay between epidemiological dynamics, hydrological transport and long-distance dissemination of the pathogen Vibrio cholerae owing to host movement, described here by means of a gravity-model approach. We test our model against epidemiological data recorded during the extensive cholera outbreak occurred in the KwaZulu-Natal province of South Africa during 2000-2001. We show that long-range human movement is fundamental in quantifying otherwise unexplained inter-catchment transport of V. cholerae, thus playing a key role in the formation of regional patterns of cholera epidemics. We also show quantitatively how heterogeneously distributed drinking water supplies and sanitation conditions may affect large-scale cholera transmission, and analyse the effects of different sanitation policies.

Modelling cholera epidemics: the role of waterways, human mobility and sanitation

Science.gov (United States)

Mari, L.; Bertuzzo, E.; Righetto, L.; Casagrandi, R.; Gatto, M.; Rodriguez-Iturbe, I.; Rinaldo, A.

2012-01-01

We investigate the role of human mobility as a driver for long-range spreading of cholera infections, which primarily propagate through hydrologically controlled ecological corridors. Our aim is to build a spatially explicit model of a disease epidemic, which is relevant to both social and scientific issues. We present a two-layer network model that accounts for the interplay between epidemiological dynamics, hydrological transport and long-distance dissemination of the pathogen Vibrio cholerae owing to host movement, described here by means of a gravity-model approach. We test our model against epidemiological data recorded during the extensive cholera outbreak occurred in the KwaZulu-Natal province of South Africa during 2000–2001. We show that long-range human movement is fundamental in quantifying otherwise unexplained inter-catchment transport of V. cholerae, thus playing a key role in the formation of regional patterns of cholera epidemics. We also show quantitatively how heterogeneously distributed drinking water supplies and sanitation conditions may affect large-scale cholera transmission, and analyse the effects of different sanitation policies. PMID:21752809

[The evolutionist fallacy of early visitors. Analogies between 'primitive peoples' and prehistoric man in medical historiography].

Science.gov (United States)

Bruchhausen, Walter

2006-01-01

Accounts of 'prehistoric medicine' and 'ethnomedicine' have sometimes led to conclusions by analogy in medical historiography that are seen as highly problematic in modern cultural anthropology. However, this review of medical historical writings of the last three centuries shows that evolutionist identifications of early with foreign medicine were not a permanent trait of medical historiography. This approach flourished mainly in the climate of certain movements or periods that were characterised by fanatical belief in progress and by social utopias: the French Revolution, Darwinism and the period of industrial expansion in Germany, and National Socialism. Medical historiography shared this problematic approach with contemporary (social and cultural) anthropology, and - despite this methodological misuse - both acknowledged the legitimacy or even requirement of studying also similarities in the development of different periods and cultures.

SAR and Mobile Phone Radiation Hazard. How Aware are College Students in Delhi?

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Daminee Saini

2017-02-01

Full Text Available Mobile phones have become the most common gadget in the world today and are found in the hands of students most of the time. With advancement in mobile technology, usage of mobile phones has increased significantly. Mobile phone functioning uses electromagnetic radiation in the microwave range, which may be harmful to human health. Research has focused on this aspect since the invention of mobile phones and there seems to be a consensus that mobile phone radiations have an impact on human beings. However, no concrete scientific assessment of the impact of mobile phone radiation (MPR on human beings has been made available. As a result, impact of MPR on human health is a research area requiring greater investigation. The following research contribution attempts to assess the awareness of undergraduate student community about radiation threat posed by the usage of mobile phones. We find that while students are concerned about various specifications of their mobile phones, the knowledge and awareness about MPRs is wanting.

3D Recording methodology applied to the Grotta Scritta Prehistoric Rock-Shelter in Olmeta-Di-Capocorso (Corsica, France)

Science.gov (United States)

Grussenmeyer, P.; Burens, A.; Guillemin, S.; Alby, E.; Allegrini Simonetti, F.; Marchetti, M.-L.

2015-08-01

The Grotta Scritta I prehistoric site is located on the west side of Cap Corse, in the territory of the municipality of Olmeta-di- Capocorso (Haute-Corse, France). This rock shelter is located on a western spur of the mountains La Serra, at 412 m height above sea level. In the regional context of a broad set of megalithic burial sites (regions Nebbiu and Agriates) and a rich insular prehistoric rock art with several engraved patterns (mainly geometric), the Grotta Scritta is the only site with painted depictions of Corsica. Around twenty parietal depictions are arranged in the upper part of the rock-shelter and takes advantage of the microtopography of the wall. Today, the Grotta Scritta is a vulnerable site, made fragile by the action of time and man. The 3D scanning of the rockshelter and paintings of the Grotta Scritta was carried out by surveyors and archaeologists from INSA Strasbourg and from UMR 5602 GEODE (Toulouse), by combining accurate terrestrial laser scanning and photogrammetry techniques. These techniques are based on a full 3D documentation without contact of the rock-shelter paintings. The paper presents the data acquisition methodology followed by an overview of data processing solutions based on both imaging and laser scanning. Several deliverables as point clouds, meshed models, textured models and orthoimages are proposed for the documentation. Beyond their usefulness in terms of valorization, communication and virtual restitution, the proposed models also provide support tools for the analysis and perception of the complexity of the volumes of the shelter (namely for the folded forms of the dome housing the paintings) as well as for the accuracy of the painted depictions recorded on the orthophotos processed from the 3D model.

An analytical study of prehistoric lead and silver objects from the Aegean

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Pernicka, E.; Wagner, G.A.; Assimenos, K.; Doumas, C.; Begemann, F.; Todt, W.

1983-01-01

In the course of an archaeometallurgical study on the metal sources of archaic silver coinage it was discovered that lead-silver mines on the Cycladic island of Siphnos, which were known to Herodotus (III, 57) and exploited in archaic times, were already worked in the Early Bronze Age (EBA). In addition, new excavations in Thorikos have shown that the well-known lead-silver deposit of Laurion on Attika was also exploited as early as the EBA. In order to assess the role which these two mining districts and other possible ore sources played in the Bronze Age for the supply of lead and silver, we analyzed prehistoric lead and silver objects from the Aegean region. The methods employed were the same as have been used to characterize the ore deposits. In addition we wanted to study to what extent cupellation was practised in these early periods. Bulk composition and trace element concentrations were determined by instrumental and radiochemical neutron activation and atomic absorption spectrometry. Isotope abundance analyses were performed on a VARIAN MAT 261 mass spectrometer. Experimental details are given. Results are presented and discussed. (U.K.)

Intracellular calcium mobilization in human lymphocytes in the presence of synthetic IgG Fc peptides

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Plummer, J.M.; Panahi, Y.P.; McClurg, M.R.; Hahn, G.S.; Naemura, J.R.

1986-01-01

Certain synthetic peptides derived from the Fc region of human IgG can suppress the mixed lymphocyte response. These peptides were tested for the ability to induce intracellular calcium mobilization in human lymphocytes using fura-2/calcium fluorescence. T cells were isolated by rosetting and were > 90% OKT3 positive. Lymphocytes were incubated with the acetoxymethyl ester of fura-2 (10 μM) for 60 minutes at 37 0 C. Fluorescence intensity changes at 505 nm were monitored at an excitation lambda of 340 nm. Fura-2 was not cytotoxic compared to quin-2 since fura-2 loaded mononuclear cells incorporated 3 H-thymidine when stimulated by PHA, succinyl Con A, PWM or LPS-STM whereas quin-2 loaded cells showed a dose dependent inhibition of proliferation. Those synthetic peptides (5 to 400 μg/ml) that suppressed the MLR induced a dose dependent increase in intracellular calcium in mononuclear cells, lymphocytes, non-T cells and T cells. The fura-2 calcium fluorescence time course response was similar for peptide, PHA and succinyl Con A. These results suggest that these immunoregulatory peptides suppress 3 H-thymidine incorporation at a point after intracellular calcium mobilization and that fura-2 has advantages over quin-2 in measuring intracellular calcium levels in lymphocytes

Assessing the Quality of Steady-state Visual-evoked Potentials for Moving Humans Using a Mobile Electroencephalogram Headset

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Yuan-Pin eLin

2014-03-01

Full Text Available Recent advances in mobile electroencephalogram (EEG systems, featuring non-prep dry electrodes and wireless telemetry, have urged the needs of mobile brain-computer interfaces (BCIs for applications in our daily life. Since the brain may behave differently while people are actively situated in ecologically-valid environments versus highly-controlled laboratory environments, it remains unclear how well the current laboratory-oriented BCI demonstrations can be translated into operational BCIs for users with naturalistic movements. Understanding inherent links between natural human behaviors and brain activities is the key to ensuring the applicability and stability of mobile BCIs. This study aims to assess the quality of steady-state visual-evoked potentials (SSVEPs, which is one of promising channels for functioning BCI systems, recorded using a mobile EEG system under challenging recording conditions, e.g., walking. To systemati-cally explore the effects of walking locomotion on the SSVEPs, this study instructed subjects to stand or walk on a treadmill running at speeds of 1, 2, and 3 mile (s per hour (MPH while con-currently perceiving visual flickers (11 and 12 Hz. Empirical results of this study showed that the SSVEP amplitude tended to deteriorate when subjects switched from standing to walking. Such SSVEP suppression could be attributed to the walking locomotion, leading to distinctly deteriorated SSVEP detectability from standing (84.87±13.55% to walking (1 MPH: 83.03±13.24%, 2 MPH: 79.47±13.53%, and 3 MPH: 75.26±17.89%. These findings not only demonstrated the applicability and limitations of SSVEPs recorded from freely behaving humans in realistic environments, but also provide useful methods and techniques for boosting the translation of the BCI technology from laboratory demonstrations to practical applications.

Diet and human mobility from the lapita to the early historic period on Uripiv island, Northeast Malakula, Vanuatu.

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Rebecca Kinaston

Full Text Available Vanuatu was first settled ca. 3000 years ago by populations associated with the Lapita culture. Models of diet, subsistence practices, and human interaction for the Lapita and subsequent occupation periods have been developed mainly using the available archaeological and paleoenvironmental data. We test these models using stable (carbon, nitrogen, and sulfur and radiogenic (strontium isotopes to assess the diet and childhood residency of past communities that lived on the small (<1 km2 island of Uripiv, located off the northeast coast of Malakula, Vanuatu. The burials are from the initial Lapita occupation of the island (ca. 2800-2600 BP, the subsequent later Lapita (LL, ca. 2600-2500 BP and post-Lapita (PL, ca. 2500-2000 BP occupations, in addition to a late prehistoric/historic (LPH, ca. 300-150 BP occupation period. The human stable isotope results indicate a progressively more terrestrial diet over time, which supports the archaeological model of an intensification of horticultural and arboricultural systems as local resources were depleted, populations grew, and cultural situations changed. Pig diets were similar and included marine foods during the Lapita and PL periods but were highly terrestrial during the LPH period. This dietary pattern indicates that there was little variation in animal husbandry methods during the first 800 years of prehistory; however, there was a subsequent change as animal diets became more controlled in the LPH period. After comparison with the local bioavailable 87Sr/86Sr baseline, all of the Lapita and LPH individuals appeared to be 'local', but three of the PL individuals were identified as "non-local." We suggest that these "non-locals" moved to the island after infancy or childhood from one of the larger islands, supporting the model of a high level of regional interaction during the post-Lapita period.

Review of Pocket Guide Megaliths [app

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Barney Harris

2017-09-01

Full Text Available The Pocket Guide Megaliths app was developed by Senet Mobile UK in collaboration with The Megalithic Portal website. The app was released in 2016 and is currently available for iOS devices, such as iPhone and iPads. Pocket Guide Megaliths presents the Megalithic Portal's burgeoning worldwide database of ancient and prehistoric sites in a variety of innovative and engaging ways. It aims to act primarily as a guide to enjoying and exploring the rich prehistoric heritage of the world, though offers additional functionality for would-be monument explorers too.

Is There a Mobile Social Presence?

Science.gov (United States)

Tu, Chih-Hsiung; McIsaac, Marina; Sujo-Montes, Laura; Armfield, Shadow

2012-01-01

Mobile learning environments are human networks that afford the opportunity to participate in creative endeavors, social networking, organize/reorganize social contents, and manage social acts at anytime, anywhere through mobile technologies. Social acts that elicit identities, develop awareness, cement relationships, ensure connections, and…

Disease containment strategies based on mobility and information dissemination

OpenAIRE

Pejović, Veljko; Lima, Antonio; De Domenico, Manlio; Musolesi, Mirco

2016-01-01

Human mobility and social structure are at the basis of disease spreading. Disease containment strategies are usually devised from coarse-grained assumptions about human mobility. Cellular networks data, however, provides finer-grained information, not only about how people move, but also about how they communicate. In this paper we analyze the behavior of a large number of individuals in Ivory Coast using cellular network data. We model mobility and communication between individuals by means...

Reconstructing Holocene vegetation on the island of Gran Canaria before and after human colonization

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

de Nascimento, Lea; Nogué, Sandra; Criado, Constantino

2016-01-01

, 400 years before the earliest archaeological evidence of human presence in the island (c. 1900 cal. yr BP). Our data show an increased frequency of fires at that time, coinciding with the decline of palms and the increase of grasses, indicating that humans were present and were transforming vegetation......, thus showing that the demise of Gran Canaria’s forest began at an early point in the prehistoric occupation of the island. In the following centuries, there were no signs of forest recovery. Pollen from cultivated cereals became significant, implying the introduction of agriculture in the site, by 1800...

Synchrotron Radiation and Energy Dispersive X-Ray Fluorescence Applications on Elemental Distribution in Human Hair and Bones

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Carvalho, M.L.; Marques, A.F.; Brito, J.

2003-01-01

This work is an application of synchrotron microprobe X- Ray fluorescence in order to study elemental distribution along human hair samples of contemporary citizens. Furthermore, X-Ray fluorescence spectrometry is also used to analyse human bones of different historical periods: Neolithic and contemporary subjects. The elemental content in the bones allowed us to conclude about environmental contamination, dietary habits and health status influence in the corresponding citizens. All samples were collected post-mortem. Quantitative analysis was performed for Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, Cu, Zn, Br, Rb, Sr and Pb. Mn and Fe concentration were much higher in bones from pre-historic periods. On the contrary, Pb bone concentrations of contemporary subjects are much higher than in pre-historical ones, reaching 100 μg g-1, in some cases. Very low concentrations for Co, Ni, Br and Rb were found in all the analysed samples. Cu concentrations, allows to distinguish Chalcolithic bones from the Neolithic ones. The distribution of trace elements along human hair was studied for Pb and the obtained pattern was consistent with the theoretical model, based on the diffusion of this element from the root and along the hair. Therefore, the higher concentrations in hair for Pb of contemporary individuals were also observed in the bones of citizens of the same sampling sites. All samples were analysed directly without any chemical treatment

Dietary variation and stress among prehistoric Jomon foragers from Japan.

Science.gov (United States)

Temple, Daniel H

2007-08-01

Current archaeological evidence indicates that greater dietary reliance on marine resources is recorded among the eastern Jomon, while plant dependence prevailed in western/inland Japan. The hypothesis that the dietary choices of the western/inland Jomon will be associated with greater systemic stress is tested by comparing carious tooth and enamel hypoplasia frequencies between the eastern and western/inland Jomon. Demographic collapse coincides with climate change during the Middle to Late Jomon period, suggesting dwindling resource availability. It is hypothesized that this change was associated with greater systemic stress and/or dietary change among the Middle to Late Jomon. This hypothesis is tested by comparing enamel hypoplasia and carious tooth frequencies between Middle to Late and Late to Final Jomon foragers. Enamel hypoplasia was significantly more prevalent among the western/inland Jomon. Such findings are consistent with archaeological studies that argue for greater plant consumption and stresses associated with seasonal resource depletion among the western/inland Jomon. Approximately equivalent enamel hypoplasia frequencies between Middle to Late and Late to Final Jomon foragers argues against a demographic collapse in association with diminished nutritional returns. Significant differences in carious tooth frequencies are, however, observed between Middle to Late and Late to Final Jomon foragers. These results suggest a subsistence shift during the Middle to Late Jomon period, perhaps in response to a changed climate. The overall patterns of stress documented by this study indicate wide-spread environmentally directed biological variation among the prehistoric Jomon. (c) 2007 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

Reconstruction of human exposure to heavy metals using synchrotron radiation microbeams in prehistoric and modern humans

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Koizumi, Akio; Azechi, Miki; Shirasawa, Koyo

2009-01-01

Teeth can serve as records of environmental exposure to heavy metals during their formation. We applied a new technology - synchrotron radiation microbeams (SRXRF) - for analysis of heavy metals in human permanent teeth in modern and historical samples. Each tooth was cut in half. A longitudinal section 200 μm in thickness was subjected to the determination of the heavy metal content by SRXRF or conventional analytical methods (ICP-MS analysis or reduction-aeration atomic absorption spectrometry). The relative concentrations of Pb, Hg, Cu and Zn measured by SRXRF were translated in concentrations (in g of heavy metal/g of enamel) using calibration curves by the two analytical methods. Concentrations in teeth in the modern females (n=5) were 1.2±0.5 μg/g (n=5) for Pb; 1.7±0.2 ng/g for Hg; 0.9±1.1 μg/g for Cu; 150±24.6 μg/g for Zn. The levels of Pb were highest in the teeth samples obtained from the humans of the Edo era (1603-1868 AD) (0.5-4.0 μg/g, n=4). No trend was observed in this study in the Hg content in teeth during 3,000 years. The concentrations of Cu were highest in teeth of two medieval craftsmen (57.0 and 220 μg/g). The levels of Zn were higher in modern subjects (P<0.05) than those in the Jomon (∼1000 BC) to Edo periods [113.2±27.4 (μg/g, n=11)]. Reconstruction of developmental exposure history to lead in a famous court painter of the Edo period (18th century) revealed high levels of Pb (7.1-22.0 μg/g) in his childhood. SRXRF is useful a method for reconstructing human exposures in very long trends. (author)

How do walkers behave when crossing the way of a mobile robot that replicates human interaction rules?

Science.gov (United States)

Vassallo, Christian; Olivier, Anne-Hélène; Souères, Philippe; Crétual, Armel; Stasse, Olivier; Pettré, Julien

2018-02-01

Previous studies showed the existence of implicit interaction rules shared by human walkers when crossing each other. Especially, each walker contributes to the collision avoidance task and the crossing order, as set at the beginning, is preserved along the interaction. This order determines the adaptation strategy: the first arrived increases his/her advance by slightly accelerating and changing his/her heading, whereas the second one slows down and moves in the opposite direction. In this study, we analyzed the behavior of human walkers crossing the trajectory of a mobile robot that was programmed to reproduce this human avoidance strategy. In contrast with a previous study, which showed that humans mostly prefer to give the way to a non-reactive robot, we observed similar behaviors between human-human avoidance and human-robot avoidance when the robot replicates the human interaction rules. We discuss this result in relation with the importance of controlling robots in a human-like way in order to ease their cohabitation with humans. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Prolonging herd immunity to cholera via vaccination: Accounting for human mobility and waning vaccine effects.

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Corey M Peak

2018-02-01

Full Text Available Oral cholera vaccination is an approach to preventing outbreaks in at-risk settings and controlling cholera in endemic settings. However, vaccine-derived herd immunity may be short-lived due to interactions between human mobility and imperfect or waning vaccine efficacy. As the supply and utilization of oral cholera vaccines grows, critical questions related to herd immunity are emerging, including: who should be targeted; when should revaccination be performed; and why have cholera outbreaks occurred in recently vaccinated populations?We use mathematical models to simulate routine and mass oral cholera vaccination in populations with varying degrees of migration, transmission intensity, and vaccine coverage. We show that migration and waning vaccine efficacy strongly influence the duration of herd immunity while birth and death rates have relatively minimal impacts. As compared to either periodic mass vaccination or routine vaccination alone, a community could be protected longer by a blended "Mass and Maintain" strategy. We show that vaccination may be best targeted at populations with intermediate degrees of mobility as compared to communities with very high or very low population turnover. Using a case study of an internally displaced person camp in South Sudan which underwent high-coverage mass vaccination in 2014 and 2015, we show that waning vaccine direct effects and high population turnover rendered the camp over 80% susceptible at the time of the cholera outbreak beginning in October 2016.Oral cholera vaccines can be powerful tools for quickly protecting a population for a period of time that depends critically on vaccine coverage, vaccine efficacy over time, and the rate of population turnover through human mobility. Due to waning herd immunity, epidemics in vaccinated communities are possible but become less likely through complementary interventions or data-driven revaccination strategies.

Lipid mobilization from human abdominal, subcutaneous adipose tissue is independent of sex during steady-state exercise

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bülow, Jens; Gjeraa, Kirsten; Enevoldsen, Lotte Hahn

2006-01-01

The aim of the study was to elucidate whether there are sex differences of significant biological importance in the human abdominal, subcutaneous adipose tissue lipid metabolism when studied by Fick's Principle during rest and exercise in steady-state conditions. The net mobilization of fatty acids...... intensity, and for another 60 min during post-exercise recovery. The results show that there are not significant sex differences with respect to the steady-state fatty acid and glycerol mobilizations neither during resting condition nor during exercise....... and glycerol from the abdominal, subcutaneous adipose tissue was measured by arterio-venous catheterizations and simultaneous measurements of adipose tissue blood flow with the local Xe-clearance technique in 16 healthy, young normal weight men and women during rest, during 1 h of exercise at moderate...

Understanding the complexity of the Lévy-walk nature of human mobility with a multi-scale cost∕benefit model.

Science.gov (United States)

Scafetta, Nicola

2011-12-01

Probability distributions of human displacements have been fit with exponentially truncated Lévy flights or fat tailed Pareto inverse power law probability distributions. Thus, people usually stay within a given location (for example, the city of residence), but with a non-vanishing frequency they visit nearby or far locations too. Herein, we show that an important empirical distribution of human displacements (range: from 1 to 1000 km) can be well fit by three consecutive Pareto distributions with simple integer exponents equal to 1, 2, and (>) 3. These three exponents correspond to three displacement range zones of about 1 km ≲Δr≲10 km, 10 km ≲Δr≲300 km, and 300 km ≲Δr≲1000 km, respectively. These three zones can be geographically and physically well determined as displacements within a city, visits to nearby cities that may occur within just one-day trips, and visit to far locations that may require multi-days trips. The incremental integer values of the three exponents can be easily explained with a three-scale mobility cost∕benefit model for human displacements based on simple geometrical constrains. Essentially, people would divide the space into three major regions (close, medium, and far distances) and would assume that the travel benefits are randomly∕uniformly distributed mostly only within specific urban-like areas. The three displacement distribution zones appear to be characterized by an integer (1, 2, or >3) inverse power exponent because of the specific number (1, 2, or >3) of cost mechanisms (each of which is proportional to the displacement length). The distributions in the first two zones would be associated to Pareto distributions with exponent β = 1 and β = 2 because of simple geometrical statistical considerations due to the a priori assumption that most benefits are searched in the urban area of the city of residence or in the urban area of specific nearby cities. We also show, by using independent records of

Understanding the complexity of the Lévy-walk nature of human mobility with a multi-scale cost/benefit model

Science.gov (United States)

Scafetta, Nicola

2011-12-01

Probability distributions of human displacements have been fit with exponentially truncated Lévy flights or fat tailed Pareto inverse power law probability distributions. Thus, people usually stay within a given location (for example, the city of residence), but with a non-vanishing frequency they visit nearby or far locations too. Herein, we show that an important empirical distribution of human displacements (range: from 1 to 1000 km) can be well fit by three consecutive Pareto distributions with simple integer exponents equal to 1, 2, and (>≈) 3. These three exponents correspond to three displacement range zones of about 1km ≲Δr ≲10 km, 10km ≲Δr ≲300 km, and 300km ≲Δr ≲1000 km, respectively. These three zones can be geographically and physically well determined as displacements within a city, visits to nearby cities that may occur within just one-day trips, and visit to far locations that may require multi-days trips. The incremental integer values of the three exponents can be easily explained with a three-scale mobility cost/benefit model for human displacements based on simple geometrical constrains. Essentially, people would divide the space into three major regions (close, medium, and far distances) and would assume that the travel benefits are randomly/uniformly distributed mostly only within specific urban-like areas. The three displacement distribution zones appear to be characterized by an integer (1, 2, or >≈ 3) inverse power exponent because of the specific number (1, 2, or >≈ 3) of cost mechanisms (each of which is proportional to the displacement length). The distributions in the first two zones would be associated to Pareto distributions with exponent β = 1 and β = 2 because of simple geometrical statistical considerations due to the a priori assumption that most benefits are searched in the urban area of the city of residence or in the urban area of specific nearby cities. We also show, by using independent records of human

Shirataki obsidian exploitation and circulation in prehistoric northern Japan

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Miyuki Yakushige

2014-03-01

Full Text Available Presently, the total number of archaeological obsidian sources in Japan is more than 80, and among them, 21 are in Hokkaido, northern part of the Japanese archipelago (Izuho and Sato 2007. Obsidian was the dominant of lithic raw material in the Upper Paleolithic Hokkaido (35-10 ka cal BP. Out of 21 archaeological obsidian sources in Hokkaido, 4 sources: Shirataki, Oketo, Tokachi, and Akaigawa are the major obsidian sources and the others are minor sources. Shirataki is one of the largest obsidian sources in Northeast Asia and it is well known that Shirataki obsidian was transported outside Hokkaido to Sakhalin and the Paleo-Honshu Island from the Late Upper Paleolithic period.We compiled data of obsidian source analyses conducted to artefacts from Paleolithic sites in Hokkaido, and it became clear that the ratio of Shirataki obsidian in all analyzed materials is more than half (Sato and Yakushige in press.We examined how far Shirataki obsidian was transported in each period: the Early Upper Paleolithic (35-25 ka cal BP and the Late Upper Paleolithic (25-10 ka cal BP. The Late Upper Paleolithic is divided into three stage, the early Early Microblade Industry (Stage 1: 25-21 ka cal BP, the late Early Microblade Industry (Stage 2: 19-16 ka cal BP, and the Late Microblade Industry (Stage 3: 16-10 ka cal BP. As a result, it is revealed that the distribution areas of Shirataki obsidian did not expand gradually over time, but are different in different lithic industries. In the background of this situation lay the difference of ecological adaptation strategies adopted by the prehistoric people of the time and their movement behavioral strategies.

Genetic evidence of paleolithic colonization and neolithic expansion of modern humans on the tibetan plateau.

Science.gov (United States)

Qi, Xuebin; Cui, Chaoying; Peng, Yi; Zhang, Xiaoming; Yang, Zhaohui; Zhong, Hua; Zhang, Hui; Xiang, Kun; Cao, Xiangyu; Wang, Yi; Ouzhuluobu; Basang; Ciwangsangbu; Bianba; Gonggalanzi; Wu, Tianyi; Chen, Hua; Shi, Hong; Su, Bing

2013-08-01

Tibetans live on the highest plateau in the world, their current population size is approximately 5 million, and most of them live at an altitude exceeding 3,500 m. Therefore, the Tibetan Plateau is a remarkable area for cultural and biological studies of human population history. However, the chronological profile of the Tibetan Plateau's colonization remains an unsolved question of human prehistory. To reconstruct the prehistoric colonization and demographic history of modern humans on the Tibetan Plateau, we systematically sampled 6,109 Tibetan individuals from 41 geographic populations across the entire region of the Tibetan Plateau and analyzed the phylogeographic patterns of both paternal (n = 2,354) and maternal (n = 6,109) lineages as well as genome-wide single nucleotide polymorphism markers (n = 50) in Tibetan populations. We found that there have been two distinct, major prehistoric migrations of modern humans into the Tibetan Plateau. The first migration was marked by ancient Tibetan genetic signatures dated to approximately 30,000 years ago, indicating that the initial peopling of the Tibetan Plateau by modern humans occurred during the Upper Paleolithic rather than Neolithic. We also found evidences for relatively young (only 7-10 thousand years old) shared Y chromosome and mitochondrial DNA haplotypes between Tibetans and Han Chinese, suggesting a second wave of migration during the early Neolithic. Collectively, the genetic data indicate that Tibetans have been adapted to a high altitude environment since initial colonization of the Tibetan Plateau in the early Upper Paleolithic, before the last glacial maximum, followed by a rapid population expansion that coincided with the establishment of farming and yak pastoralism on the Plateau in the early Neolithic.

Energy-Efficient Real-Time Human Activity Recognition on Smart Mobile Devices

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Jin Lee

2016-01-01

Full Text Available Nowadays, human activity recognition (HAR plays an important role in wellness-care and context-aware systems. Human activities can be recognized in real-time by using sensory data collected from various sensors built in smart mobile devices. Recent studies have focused on HAR that is solely based on triaxial accelerometers, which is the most energy-efficient approach. However, such HAR approaches are still energy-inefficient because the accelerometer is required to run without stopping so that the physical activity of a user can be recognized in real-time. In this paper, we propose a novel approach for HAR process that controls the activity recognition duration for energy-efficient HAR. We investigated the impact of varying the acceleration-sampling frequency and window size for HAR by using the variable activity recognition duration (VARD strategy. We implemented our approach by using an Android platform and evaluated its performance in terms of energy efficiency and accuracy. The experimental results showed that our approach reduced energy consumption by a minimum of about 44.23% and maximum of about 78.85% compared to conventional HAR without sacrificing accuracy.

Microwaves from GSM mobile telephones affect 53BP1 and gamma-H2AX foci in human lymphocytes from hypersensitive and healthy persons.

Science.gov (United States)

Markovà, Eva; Hillert, Lena; Malmgren, Lars; Persson, Bertil R R; Belyaev, Igor Y

2005-09-01

The data on biologic effects of nonthermal microwaves (MWs) from mobile telephones are diverse, and these effects are presently ignored by safety standards of the International Commission for Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP). In the present study, we investigated effects of MWs of Global System for Mobile Communication (GSM) at different carrier frequencies on human lymphocytes from healthy persons and from persons reporting hypersensitivity to electromagnetic fields (EMFs). We measured the changes in chromatin conformation, which are indicative of stress response and genotoxic effects, by the method of anomalous viscosity time dependence, and we analyzed tumor suppressor p53-binding protein 1 (53BP1) and phosphorylated histone H2AX (gamma-H2AX), which have been shown to colocalize in distinct foci with DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs), using immunofluorescence confocal laser microscopy. We found that MWs from GSM mobile telephones affect chromatin conformation and 53BP1/gamma-H2AX foci similar to heat shock. For the first time, we report here that effects of MWs from mobile telephones on human lymphocytes are dependent on carrier frequency. On average, the same response was observed in lymphocytes from hypersensitive and healthy subjects.

Impact of radiofrequency radiation on DNA damage and antioxidants in peripheral blood lymphocytes of humans residing in the vicinity of mobile phone base stations.

Science.gov (United States)

Zothansiama; Zosangzuali, Mary; Lalramdinpuii, Miriam; Jagetia, Ganesh Chandra

2017-01-01

Radiofrequency radiations (RFRs) emitted by mobile phone base stations have raised concerns on its adverse impact on humans residing in the vicinity of mobile phone base stations. Therefore, the present study was envisaged to evaluate the effect of RFR on the DNA damage and antioxidant status in cultured human peripheral blood lymphocytes (HPBLs) of individuals residing in the vicinity of mobile phone base stations and comparing it with healthy controls. The study groups matched for various demographic data including age, gender, dietary pattern, smoking habit, alcohol consumption, duration of mobile phone use and average daily mobile phone use. The RF power density of the exposed individuals was significantly higher (p base stations, showed significantly (p base station/s. The analysis of various antioxidants in the plasma of exposed individuals revealed a significant attrition in glutathione (GSH) concentration (p < 0.01), activities of catalase (CAT) (p < 0.001) and superoxide dismutase (SOD) (p < 0.001) and rise in lipid peroxidation (LOO) when compared to controls. Multiple linear regression analyses revealed a significant association among reduced GSH concentration (p < 0.05), CAT (p < 0.001) and SOD (p < 0.001) activities and elevated MN frequency (p < 0.001) and LOO (p < 0.001) with increasing RF power density.

Volcanic ash in ancient Maya ceramics of the limestone lowlands: implications for prehistoric volcanic activity in the Guatemala highlands

Science.gov (United States)

Ford, Anabel; Rose, William I.

1995-07-01

In the spirit of collaborative research, Glicken and Ford embarked on the problem of identifying the source of volcanic ash used as temper in prehistoric Maya ceramics. Verification of the presence of glass shards and associated volcanic mineralogy in thin sections of Maya ceramics was straightforward and pointed to the Guatemala Highland volcanic chain. Considering seasonal wind rose patterns, target volcanoes include those from the area west of and including Guatemala City. Joint field research conducted in 1983 by Glicken and Ford in the limestone lowlands of Belize and neighboring Guatemala, 300 km north of the volcanic zone and 150 km from the nearest identified ash deposits, was unsuccessful in discovering local volcanic ash deposits. The abundance of the ash in common Maya ceramic vessels coupled with the difficulties of long-distance procurement without draft animals lead Glicken to suggest that ashfall into the lowlands would most parsimoniously explain prehistoric procurement; it literally dropped into their hands. A major archaeological problem with this explanation is that the use of volcanic ash occurring over several centuries of the Late Classic Period (ca. 600-900 AD). To accept the ashfall hypothesis for ancient Maya volcanic ash procurement, one would have to demonstrate a long span of consistent volcanic activity in the Guatemala Highlands for the last half of the first millennium AD. Should this be documented through careful petrographic, microprobe and tephrachronological studies, a number of related archaeological phenomena would be explained. In addition, the proposed model of volcanic activity has implications for understanding volcanism and potential volcanic hazards in Central America over a significantly longer time span than the historic period. These avenues are explored and a call for further collaborative research of this interdisciplinary problem is extended in this paper.

SAR and Mobile Phone Radiation Hazard. How Aware are College Students in Delhi?

OpenAIRE

Daminee Saini

2017-01-01

Mobile phones have become the most common gadget in the world today and are found in the hands of students most of the time. With advancement in mobile technology, usage of mobile phones has increased significantly. Mobile phone functioning uses electromagnetic radiation in the microwave range, which may be harmful to human health. Research has focused on this aspect since the invention of mobile phones and there seems to be a consensus that mobile phone radiations have an impact on human bei...

Mobility and language change in real time

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Monka, Malene

Diachronic studies of the interrelationship between mobility and language change leave us with some unanswered questions of causation. The most important question is whether language change is caused by mobility, or if mobile informants mark themselves linguistically different than their non-mobi...... mobile and non-mobile informants. I also suggest a human geographic approach to place to explain the differences between the language change of the mobile informants (e.g. Britain 2009; Johnstone 2004).......Diachronic studies of the interrelationship between mobility and language change leave us with some unanswered questions of causation. The most important question is whether language change is caused by mobility, or if mobile informants mark themselves linguistically different than their non......-mobile peers prior to being geographically and socially mobile (e.g. Andersson & Thelander 1994). In the presentation I discuss this question by presenting a real time panel-study of language change in 23 speakers from three municipalities in distinct dialect areas in Denmark. The language change of six mobile...

FY1995 community support by mobile agents; 1995 nendo mobile agent ni yoru community keisei shien

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

NONE

1997-03-01

The purpose is to develop fundamental technologies for navigation systems and mobile computing systems in museums, theme parks and cities. Concretely, we implement software agents into the mobile computing environment which consists of PHS, mobile computers and mobile robots, and realize various functions to access regional information. We have studied on Communityware which supports human activities and communities by using mobile agents implemented into mobile computers and town robots. The mobile agents, which intelligently process information obtained in physical and virtual worlds, access regional information which is omnipresent in the environment. With respect to the approach using mobile computers, we have provided one hundred mobile computers in the international conference on multiagent systems 1996 and carried out the first experimentation of mobile computing in the world. The mobile computer has two functions: Community Viewer which displays interactions between members of communities and Social Matchmaker which supports to hold meetings by searching for people who have common interests. With respect to the approach using town robots, we have developed a robot system which can robustly behave in a complex outdoor environment by using vision agents embedded in the environment. The system aims at support of people in streets. (NEDO)

A Computer Clone of Human Expert for Mobility Management Scheme (E-MMS): Step toward Green Transportation

Science.gov (United States)

Resdiansyah; O. K Rahmat, R. A.; Ismail, A.

2018-03-01

Green transportation refers to a sustainable transport that gives the least impact in terms of social and environmental but at the same time is able to supply energy sources globally that includes non-motorized transport strategies deployment to promote healthy lifestyles, also known as Mobility Management Scheme (MMS). As construction of road infrastructure cannot help solve the problem of congestion, past research has shown that MMS is an effective measure to mitigate congestion and to achieve green transportation. MMS consists of different strategies and policies that subdivided into categories according to how they are able to influence travel behaviour. Appropriate selection of mobility strategies will ensure its effectiveness in mitigating congestion problems. Nevertheless, determining appropriate strategies requires human expert and depends on a number of success factors. This research has successfully developed a computer clone system based on human expert, called E-MMS. The process of knowledge acquisition for MMS strategies and the next following process to selection of strategy has been encode in a knowledge-based system using a shell expert system. The newly developed computer cloning system was successfully verified, validated and evaluated (VV&E) by comparing the result output with the real transportation expert recommendation in which the findings suggested Introduction

Culture, mobility and human rights: considerations on social occupational therapy in the context of immigrants municipal policy

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Miki Takao Sato

2016-01-01

Full Text Available This article aims to discuss the need to revise education and professional action, in the context of social occupational therapy, facing the growing phenomenon of international migration, especially in the current construction of the municipal policy for immigrant populations in São Paulo, SP. The discussion is methodologically structured into three complementary lines of analysis results from documentary research accompanied by field study, visits, participations in meetings, inter-institutional forums, public hearings, thematic debates, in addition to literature review. In the first analysis axis, we discuss the current legislation in Brazil, the construction of migration policy at the municipal level and civil society articulations about human mobility, understood as a fundamental right. In the second, we discuss people care services, families and groups in migratory situation in São Paulo, SP. Finally, on the third axis, we discuss the cultural developments in social occupational therapy for professional action and training in the field of human mobility. As a result it was observed that the current panorama poses new professional challenges, forcing the occupational therapist to review its technical-political position face to the new realities of the contemporary world.

Mobile evolution insights on connectivity and service

CERN Document Server

Thalanany, Sebastian

2015-01-01

The purpose of this book is to provide information and guidelines pertaining to the strategies and technologies associated with the next-generation mobile ecosystem. The intersection of human communications, next-generation mobile technologies and IP multimedia services demand an identification and distillation of the characteristics of both the human dimension and the technology dimension to examine the unique enabling considerations in the formulation of a vision and a strategy that are relevant for communities, businesses and leadership.

Sensing expressive lips with a mobile phone

OpenAIRE

ur Réhman, Shafiq; Liu, Li

2008-01-01

Considering potential benefits of vibrations in mobile phones,we propose an intuitive method to render human emotions for the vi-sually impaired. A mobile phone is "synchronized" with emotional in-formation extracted from human lips dynamics. By holding the mobilephone, the user will be able to get on-line emotion information of others.Experimental results based on usability evaluation of the system are encouraging. The user studies show a perfect pattern recognition accuracy on the designed ...

International Mobility of Canadian Social Sciences and Humanities Doctoral Students

Science.gov (United States)

Knight, Jane; Madden, Meggan

2010-01-01

International academic mobility is an aspect of internationalization that is changing rapidly in terms of volume, scope, and impact. Although much of the attention and research on mobility has focused on undergraduate students participating in short-term study abroad, internships, and exchange experiences, the new push to develop international…

A bed of ochre : mortuary practices and social structure of a maritime archaic Indian society at Port au Choix, Newfoundland

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Jelsma, Johan

2000-01-01

Cemeteries are our most important source of information on the life ways of prehistoric people. Differences in mortuary practices can, to some extent, reflect social differences in a prehistoric society, and the study of human slteletal remains can provide information on the sex, age, trauma,

Four millennia of Iberian biomolecular prehistory illustrate the impact of prehistoric migrations at the far end of Eurasia.

Science.gov (United States)

Valdiosera, Cristina; Günther, Torsten; Vera-Rodríguez, Juan Carlos; Ureña, Irene; Iriarte, Eneko; Rodríguez-Varela, Ricardo; Simões, Luciana G; Martínez-Sánchez, Rafael M; Svensson, Emma M; Malmström, Helena; Rodríguez, Laura; Bermúdez de Castro, José-María; Carbonell, Eudald; Alday, Alfonso; Hernández Vera, José Antonio; Götherström, Anders; Carretero, José-Miguel; Arsuaga, Juan Luis; Smith, Colin I; Jakobsson, Mattias

2018-03-27

Population genomic studies of ancient human remains have shown how modern-day European population structure has been shaped by a number of prehistoric migrations. The Neolithization of Europe has been associated with large-scale migrations from Anatolia, which was followed by migrations of herders from the Pontic steppe at the onset of the Bronze Age. Southwestern Europe was one of the last parts of the continent reached by these migrations, and modern-day populations from this region show intriguing similarities to the initial Neolithic migrants. Partly due to climatic conditions that are unfavorable for DNA preservation, regional studies on the Mediterranean remain challenging. Here, we present genome-wide sequence data from 13 individuals combined with stable isotope analysis from the north and south of Iberia covering a four-millennial temporal transect (7,500-3,500 BP). Early Iberian farmers and Early Central European farmers exhibit significant genetic differences, suggesting two independent fronts of the Neolithic expansion. The first Neolithic migrants that arrived in Iberia had low levels of genetic diversity, potentially reflecting a small number of individuals; this diversity gradually increased over time from mixing with local hunter-gatherers and potential population expansion. The impact of post-Neolithic migrations on Iberia was much smaller than for the rest of the continent, showing little external influence from the Neolithic to the Bronze Age. Paleodietary reconstruction shows that these populations have a remarkable degree of dietary homogeneity across space and time, suggesting a strong reliance on terrestrial food resources despite changing culture and genetic make-up. Copyright © 2018 the Author(s). Published by PNAS.

Accelerator mass spectrometry and the prehistoric occupation of the coast of rio de janeiro - brazil

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Damasio Macario, K.; Anjos, R.M.; Gomes, P.R.S.; Facure, A.D.; Elmore, M.; Coimbra, M.; Padron, I.; Najjar, R.; Kneip, L.; Lima, T.A.; Buarque, A.; Barbosa, M.; Seda, P.

2001-01-01

The Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (AMS) technique is a very attractive method for mass spectrometry, since it allows determination of concentrations with sensitivity down to 1 atom of isotope in 1015 atoms, using few milligrams samples. A Tandem accelerator is used as a magnetic and electrostatic analyzer. The determination of these extremely low concentrations of rare isotopes, accelerated to the MeV range, is measured by the direct counting of the atoms by nuclear detection techniques. The AMS technique has been implemented recently in Brazil, at the Pelletron 8UD Tandem accelerator (Sao Paulo), following many improvements on the ion source, VGM control, machine parameters control and detection system. In this contribution we report an important application on AMS on archaeological studies, performed at the Prime Lab (USA), on the dating of ceramics, bones, charcoals, nuts and shells samples of the of the coast of Rio de Janeiro. The main objective of this work is to improve the present knowledge on the occupation of Brazil by the Indians in the prehistoric period, studying archaeological sites located in Rio de Janeiro. Studies show that the Brazilian coast was first occupied in the beginning of the Holocene, with the settlements of the collectors of mollusk, builders of shell mounds, called S ambaquis . The word is of Tupi etymology, tamba meaning shellfish and ki to pile up. The Tupi were a horticultural/potter group who used to live on the Brazilian coast at the time of the European arrivals; they coined the term that describes the main characteristic of the sites - the accumulation of great quantities of mollusk shells. One of objectives of this research is to understand those societies functioning structure, spatial ordering, interaction in the environment and their transformation processes, from the study of their remains. It is intended to analyze the region occupation process dynamics and search for possible links between the pre-pottery population socio

Mobile and context: divide or conquer?

CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

Botha, Adèle

2010-05-01

Full Text Available The interdisciplinary field of Human Computer Interaction (HCI), having barely matured past its adolescent shoes, now faces the challenge of meaningfully integrating Mobile Human Computer Interaction (MHCI). MHCI however, when viewed as an emerging...

A Visual Analytics Approach for Extracting Spatio-Temporal Urban Mobility Information from Mobile Network Traffic

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Euro Beinat

2012-11-01

Full Text Available In this paper we present a visual analytics approach for deriving spatio-temporal patterns of collective human mobility from a vast mobile network traffic data set. More than 88 million movements between pairs of radio cells—so-called handovers—served as a proxy for more than two months of mobility within four urban test areas in Northern Italy. In contrast to previous work, our approach relies entirely on visualization and mapping techniques, implemented in several software applications. We purposefully avoid statistical or probabilistic modeling and, nonetheless, reveal characteristic and exceptional mobility patterns. The results show, for example, surprising similarities and symmetries amongst the total mobility and people flows between the test areas. Moreover, the exceptional patterns detected can be associated to real-world events such as soccer matches. We conclude that the visual analytics approach presented can shed new light on large-scale collective urban mobility behavior and thus helps to better understand the “pulse” of dynamic urban systems.

Security and Trust in Mobile Cloud Computing

OpenAIRE

Le Vinh , Thinh

2017-01-01

As living in the cyber era, we admit that a dozen of new technologies have been born every day with the promises that making a human life be more comfortable, convenient and safe. In the forest of new technologies, mobile computing is raise as an essential part of human life. Normally, mobile devices have become the best companions in daily activities. They have served us from the simple activities like entertainment to the complicated one as business operations. As playing the important role...

Atrial natriuretic peptide regulates lipid mobilization and oxygen consumption in human adipocytes by activating AMPK

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Souza, Sandra C. [Translational Sciences - Translational Medicine, Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research, Inc., 220 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02139 (United States); Chau, Mary D.L.; Yang, Qing [Cardiovascular and Metabolism Disease Area, Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research, Inc., 100 Technology Square, Cambridge, MA 02139 (United States); Gauthier, Marie-Soleil [Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Boston University School of Medicine, Boston, MA 02140 (United States); Clairmont, Kevin B.; Wu, Zhidan; Gromada, Jesper [Cardiovascular and Metabolism Disease Area, Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research, Inc., 100 Technology Square, Cambridge, MA 02139 (United States); Dole, William P., E-mail: bill.dole@novartis.com [Translational Sciences - Translational Medicine, Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research, Inc., 220 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02139 (United States)

2011-07-08

Highlights: {yields} Treatment of differentiated human adipocytes with atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP) increased lipolysis and oxygen consumption by activating AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK). {yields} ANP stimulated lipid mobilization by selective activation of the alpha2 subunit of AMPK and increased energy utilization through activation of both the alpha1 and alpha2 subunits of AMPK. {yields} ANP enhanced adipocyte mitochondrial oxidative capacity as evidenced by induction of oxidative mitochondrial genes and increase in oxygen consumption. {yields} Exposure of human adipocytes to fatty acids and (TNF{alpha}) induced insulin resistance and decreased expression of mitochondrial genes which was restored to normal by ANP. -- Abstract: Atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP) has been shown to regulate lipid and carbohydrate metabolism providing a possible link between cardiovascular function and metabolism by mediating the switch from carbohydrate to lipid mobilization and oxidation. ANP exerts a potent lipolytic effect via cGMP-dependent protein kinase (cGK)-I mediated-stimulation of AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK). Activation of the ANP/cGK signaling cascade also promotes muscle mitochondrial biogenesis and fat oxidation. Here we demonstrate that ANP regulates lipid metabolism and oxygen utilization in differentiated human adipocytes by activating the alpha2 subunit of AMPK. ANP treatment increased lipolysis by seven fold and oxygen consumption by two fold, both of which were attenuated by inhibition of AMPK activity. ANP-induced lipolysis was shown to be mediated by the alpha2 subunit of AMPK as introduction of dominant-negative alpha2 subunit of AMPK attenuated ANP effects on lipolysis. ANP-induced activation of AMPK enhanced mitochondrial oxidative capacity as evidenced by a two fold increase in oxygen consumption and induction of mitochondrial genes, including carnitine palmitoyltransferase 1A (CPT1a) by 1.4-fold, cytochrome C (CytC) by 1.3-fold, and

Atrial natriuretic peptide regulates lipid mobilization and oxygen consumption in human adipocytes by activating AMPK

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Souza, Sandra C.; Chau, Mary D.L.; Yang, Qing; Gauthier, Marie-Soleil; Clairmont, Kevin B.; Wu, Zhidan; Gromada, Jesper; Dole, William P.

2011-01-01

Highlights: → Treatment of differentiated human adipocytes with atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP) increased lipolysis and oxygen consumption by activating AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK). → ANP stimulated lipid mobilization by selective activation of the alpha2 subunit of AMPK and increased energy utilization through activation of both the alpha1 and alpha2 subunits of AMPK. → ANP enhanced adipocyte mitochondrial oxidative capacity as evidenced by induction of oxidative mitochondrial genes and increase in oxygen consumption. → Exposure of human adipocytes to fatty acids and (TNFα) induced insulin resistance and decreased expression of mitochondrial genes which was restored to normal by ANP. -- Abstract: Atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP) has been shown to regulate lipid and carbohydrate metabolism providing a possible link between cardiovascular function and metabolism by mediating the switch from carbohydrate to lipid mobilization and oxidation. ANP exerts a potent lipolytic effect via cGMP-dependent protein kinase (cGK)-I mediated-stimulation of AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK). Activation of the ANP/cGK signaling cascade also promotes muscle mitochondrial biogenesis and fat oxidation. Here we demonstrate that ANP regulates lipid metabolism and oxygen utilization in differentiated human adipocytes by activating the alpha2 subunit of AMPK. ANP treatment increased lipolysis by seven fold and oxygen consumption by two fold, both of which were attenuated by inhibition of AMPK activity. ANP-induced lipolysis was shown to be mediated by the alpha2 subunit of AMPK as introduction of dominant-negative alpha2 subunit of AMPK attenuated ANP effects on lipolysis. ANP-induced activation of AMPK enhanced mitochondrial oxidative capacity as evidenced by a two fold increase in oxygen consumption and induction of mitochondrial genes, including carnitine palmitoyltransferase 1A (CPT1a) by 1.4-fold, cytochrome C (CytC) by 1.3-fold, and peroxisome proliferator

Climate change with Korea as the center

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kim, Yeon Ok

1998-04-01

This book deals with climate change with Korea as the center, which is divided into ten chapters. It explain climate change by human life. The contents of this book are climate change, climate before human period, great ice age of prehistoric period, prehistoric times of last glacial era, climate change in historical era, change during observation time for 100 years, warming period, global environment period, the cause of climate change and climate and human. It has reference and an index.

Mobile social networking an innovative approach

CERN Document Server

Zhang, Daqing

2014-01-01

The use of contextually aware, pervasive, distributed computing, and sensor networks to bridge the gap between the physical and online worlds is the basis of mobile social networking. This book shows how applications can be built to provide mobile social networking, the research issues that need to be solved to enable this vision, and how mobile social networking can be used to provide computational intelligence that will improve daily life. With contributions from the fields of sociology, computer science, human-computer interaction and design, this book demonstrates how mobile social networks can be inferred from users' physical interactions both with the environment and with others, as well as how users behave around them and how their behavior differs on mobile vs. traditional online social networks.

On Population Mobility in Market Economy

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

Yu Xianzhong

2005-01-01

Regular and extensive social population mobility in natural economy is neither necessary nor possible while in a planned economic system, social population distribution is necessary but social population mobility is unlikely. Modern market economy as a highly mobile economy has a free-mobile population characteristic of market economy, which is fundamental to optimize human resource distribution. The rule for the modern market-based population movement is as follows: If the mobile population is the rational behavior choosers, under the permissive developmental environment as arranged by the social system, they tend to move from low profit-making fields to high income fields when there exists comparable difference of income in different regions and different industries, and various potential and practical profit-making chances. The degree of difference in comparable income is positively co-relative to the velocity and flux of mobile population.

Assessing Brain–Muscle Connectivity in Human Locomotion through Mobile Brain/Body Imaging: Opportunities, Pitfalls, and Future Directions

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Federico Gennaro

2018-02-01

Full Text Available Assessment of the cortical role during bipedalism has been a methodological challenge. While surface electroencephalography (EEG is capable of non-invasively measuring cortical activity during human locomotion, it is associated with movement artifacts obscuring cerebral sources of activity. Recently, statistical methods based on blind source separation revealed potential for resolving this issue, by segregating non-cerebral/artifactual from cerebral sources of activity. This step marked a new opportunity for the investigation of the brains’ role while moving and was tagged mobile brain/body imaging (MoBI. This methodology involves simultaneous mobile recording of brain activity with several other body behavioral variables (e.g., muscle activity and kinematics, through wireless recording wearable devices/sensors. Notably, several MoBI studies using EEG–EMG approaches recently showed that the brain is functionally connected to the muscles and active throughout the whole gait cycle and, thus, rejecting the long-lasting idea of a solely spinal-driven bipedalism. However, MoBI and brain/muscle connectivity assessments during human locomotion are still in their fledgling state of investigation. Mobile brain/body imaging approaches hint toward promising opportunities; however, there are some remaining pitfalls that need to be resolved before considering their routine clinical use. This article discusses several of these pitfalls and proposes research to address them. Examples relate to the validity, reliability, and reproducibility of this method in ecologically valid scenarios and in different populations. Furthermore, whether brain/muscle connectivity within the MoBI framework represents a potential biomarker in neuromuscular syndromes where gait disturbances are evident (e.g., age-related sarcopenia remains to be determined.

Human Being as a Communication Portal: The Construction of the Profile on Mobile Phones

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

J Canavilhas

2013-09-01

Full Text Available Introduction. The incorporation of mobile phones in the daily life of human being not only alters space and time dimensions, but it also changes the perception and the way we relate with the ecosystem. Methodology. The state of the art is analyzed from the technological concept of intimacy, used by Boyce and Hancock, which describes the levels of interaction between man and technology. Then, a methodology to explore issues increasingly pressing is proposed, especially, concerning the delimitation of public and private spheres and the interaction in the common space. Results and conclusions. Following in particular the theories of Castells, Heidegger, Meyrowitz and Habermas; a set of categories for deepening the concepts of spatialization, willingness and profile are articulated. These concepts are identified as key elements in this first stage of the project for the analysis of the human being as a communication portal.

HCI in Mobile and Ubiquitous Computing

OpenAIRE

椎尾, 一郎; 安村, 通晃; 福本, 雅明; 伊賀, 聡一郎; 増井, 俊之

2003-01-01

This paper provides some perspectives to human computer interaction in mobile and ubiquitous computing. The review covers overview of ubiquitous computing, mobile computing and wearable computing. It also summarizes HCI topics on these field, including real-world oriented interface, multi-modal interface, context awareness and in-visible computers. Finally we discuss killer applications for coming ubiquitous computing era.

Tracking urban human activity from mobile phone calling patterns.

Science.gov (United States)

Monsivais, Daniel; Ghosh, Asim; Bhattacharya, Kunal; Dunbar, Robin I M; Kaski, Kimmo

2017-11-01

Timings of human activities are marked by circadian clocks which in turn are entrained to different environmental signals. In an urban environment the presence of artificial lighting and various social cues tend to disrupt the natural entrainment with the sunlight. However, it is not completely understood to what extent this is the case. Here we exploit the large-scale data analysis techniques to study the mobile phone calling activity of people in large cities to infer the dynamics of urban daily rhythms. From the calling patterns of about 1,000,000 users spread over different cities but lying inside the same time-zone, we show that the onset and termination of the calling activity synchronizes with the east-west progression of the sun. We also find that the onset and termination of the calling activity of users follows a yearly dynamics, varying across seasons, and that its timings are entrained to solar midnight. Furthermore, we show that the average mid-sleep time of people living in urban areas depends on the age and gender of each cohort as a result of biological and social factors.

Tracking urban human activity from mobile phone calling patterns.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Daniel Monsivais

2017-11-01

Full Text Available Timings of human activities are marked by circadian clocks which in turn are entrained to different environmental signals. In an urban environment the presence of artificial lighting and various social cues tend to disrupt the natural entrainment with the sunlight. However, it is not completely understood to what extent this is the case. Here we exploit the large-scale data analysis techniques to study the mobile phone calling activity of people in large cities to infer the dynamics of urban daily rhythms. From the calling patterns of about 1,000,000 users spread over different cities but lying inside the same time-zone, we show that the onset and termination of the calling activity synchronizes with the east-west progression of the sun. We also find that the onset and termination of the calling activity of users follows a yearly dynamics, varying across seasons, and that its timings are entrained to solar midnight. Furthermore, we show that the average mid-sleep time of people living in urban areas depends on the age and gender of each cohort as a result of biological and social factors.

Mobilization of hematopoietic stem cells with highest self-renewal by G-CSF precedes clonogenic cell mobilization peak.

Science.gov (United States)

Winkler, Ingrid G; Wiercinska, Eliza; Barbier, Valerie; Nowlan, Bianca; Bonig, Halvard; Levesque, Jean-Pierre

2016-04-01

Harvest of granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF)-mobilized hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) begins at day 5 of G-CSF administration, when most donors have achieved maximal mobilization. This is based on surrogate markers for HSC mobilization, such as CD34(+) cells and colony-forming activity in blood. However, CD34(+) cells or colony-forming units in culture (CFU-C) are heterogeneous cell populations with hugely divergent long-term repopulation potential on transplantation. HSC behavior is influenced by the vascular bed in the vicinity of which they reside. We hypothesized that G-CSF may mobilize sequentially cells proximal and more distal to bone marrow venous sinuses where HSCs enter the blood. We addressed this question with functional serial transplantation assays using blood and bone marrow after specific time points of G-CSF treatment in mice. We found that in mice, blood collected after only 48 hours of G-CSF administration was as enriched in serially reconstituting HSCs as blood collected at 5 days of G-CSF treatment. Similarly, mobilized Lin(-)CD34(+) cells were relatively enriched in more primitive Lin(-)CD34(+)CD38(-) cells at day 2 of G-CSF treatment compared with later points in half of human donors tested (n = 6). This suggests that in both humans and mice, hematopoietic progenitor and stem cells do not mobilize uniformly according to their maturation stage, with most potent HSCs mobilizing as early as day 2 of G-CSF. Copyright © 2016 ISEH - International Society for Experimental Hematology. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Volcanoes and human history

Science.gov (United States)

Cashman, K. V.; Giordano, G.

2008-10-01

The study of volcanic hazards leads inevitably to questions of how past cultures have lived in volcanically active regions of the world. Here we summarize linkages between volcanological, archaeological and anthropological studies of historic and prehistoric volcanic eruptions, with the goal of evaluating the impact of past eruptions on human populations to better prepare for future events. We use examples from papers collected in this volume to illustrate ways in which volcanological studies aid archaeological investigations by providing basic stratigraphic markers and information about the nature and timing of specific volcanic events. We then turn to archaeological perspectives, which provide physical evidence of the direct impacts of volcanic eruptions, such as site abandonment and human migration, as well as indirect impacts on local cultures as reflected in human artifacts. Finally we review anthropological studies of societal responses to past and recent volcanic eruptions. We pay particular attention to both the psychological impact of catastrophic events and records of these impacts encoded within oral traditions. Taken together these studies record drastic short-term eruption impacts but adaptation to volcanic activity over the longer term, largely through strategies of adaptive land use.

Dietary ecology of human

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Minagawa, Masao

1990-01-01

The dietary life of humans varies with the environment where they live and has been changing with time. It has become possible to examine such changes by using stable carbon and nitrogen isotope composition as a chemical tool. The present report outlines recent developments in the application of this tool and compares the dietary ecologies of various human groups from the viewpoint of isotope geochemistry. The history of the application of this tool to dietary analysis is summarized first, and features of the carbon and nitrogen isotope composition in animals and their relations with the food chain are outlined. The dietary ecology of the current people is then discussed in relation to the isotope composition in food, the isotope composition in hair of the current people, and determination of food habit of specific groups of people from such isotope compositions. For prediction of dietary composition, the report presents a flow chart for an algorism which is based on the Monte Carlo method. It also outlines processes for analyzing food habits of people in the prehistoric age, focusing on distribution of isotope composition in humans over the world. (N.K.)

The problematic construction of 'Palaeolithic Man': The Old Stone Age and the difficulties of the comparative method, 1859-1914.

Science.gov (United States)

Manias, Chris

2015-06-01

The growth of a prehistoric timescale was one of the most dramatic developments in nineteenth-century ideas of humanity, massively extending the assumed course of human development and placing it within the deep chronologies of geological time. A dominant motif linking prehistory with wider studies of humanity and notions of historical change was the 'comparative method'-the idea that modern 'savages' were analogous to prehistoric Europeans, and that the two sets of peoples could explain one another. The importance of this mode of reasoning has been well-studied, and shown to have had great significance for concepts of progress and social evolution. What has been less investigated are cases when the comparative method broke down, and where 'modern savages' and 'prehistoric man' seemed to be dissimilar and analogies hard to make. This paper examines how a series of authors engaged with problems in the comparative method when they attempted to place human development within this deep prehistoric past. In doing so, it highlights the changing interactions between the Victorian deep time sciences and the 'sciences of man,' and how notions of European prehistory and modern 'primitives' often rested on a notion of variability in the 'savage' condition. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Intelligent Context-Aware and Adaptive Interface for Mobile LBS.

Science.gov (United States)

Feng, Jiangfan; Liu, Yanhong

2015-01-01

Context-aware user interface plays an important role in many human-computer Interaction tasks of location based services. Although spatial models for context-aware systems have been studied extensively, how to locate specific spatial information for users is still not well resolved, which is important in the mobile environment where location based services users are impeded by device limitations. Better context-aware human-computer interaction models of mobile location based services are needed not just to predict performance outcomes, such as whether people will be able to find the information needed to complete a human-computer interaction task, but to understand human processes that interact in spatial query, which will in turn inform the detailed design of better user interfaces in mobile location based services. In this study, a context-aware adaptive model for mobile location based services interface is proposed, which contains three major sections: purpose, adjustment, and adaptation. Based on this model we try to describe the process of user operation and interface adaptation clearly through the dynamic interaction between users and the interface. Then we show how the model applies users' demands in a complicated environment and suggested the feasibility by the experimental results.

Active and reactive behaviour in human mobility: the influence of attraction points on pedestrians

Science.gov (United States)

Gutiérrez-Roig, M.; Sagarra, O.; Oltra, A.; Palmer, J. R. B.; Bartumeus, F.; Díaz-Guilera, A.; Perelló, J.

2016-07-01

Human mobility is becoming an accessible field of study, thanks to the progress and availability of tracking technologies as a common feature of smart phones. We describe an example of a scalable experiment exploiting these circumstances at a public, outdoor fair in Barcelona (Spain). Participants were tracked while wandering through an open space with activity stands attracting their attention. We develop a general modelling framework based on Langevin dynamics, which allows us to test the influence of two distinct types of ingredients on mobility: reactive or context-dependent factors, modelled by means of a force field generated by attraction points in a given spatial configuration and active or inherent factors, modelled from intrinsic movement patterns of the subjects. The additive and constructive framework model accounts for some observed features. Starting with the simplest model (purely random walkers) as a reference, we progressively introduce different ingredients such as persistence, memory and perceptual landscape, aiming to untangle active and reactive contributions and quantify their respective relevance. The proposed approach may help in anticipating the spatial distribution of citizens in alternative scenarios and in improving the design of public events based on a facts-based approach.

Active and reactive behaviour in human mobility: the influence of attraction points on pedestrians.

Science.gov (United States)

Gutiérrez-Roig, M; Sagarra, O; Oltra, A; Palmer, J R B; Bartumeus, F; Díaz-Guilera, A; Perelló, J

2016-07-01

Human mobility is becoming an accessible field of study, thanks to the progress and availability of tracking technologies as a common feature of smart phones. We describe an example of a scalable experiment exploiting these circumstances at a public, outdoor fair in Barcelona (Spain). Participants were tracked while wandering through an open space with activity stands attracting their attention. We develop a general modelling framework based on Langevin dynamics, which allows us to test the influence of two distinct types of ingredients on mobility: reactive or context-dependent factors, modelled by means of a force field generated by attraction points in a given spatial configuration and active or inherent factors, modelled from intrinsic movement patterns of the subjects. The additive and constructive framework model accounts for some observed features. Starting with the simplest model (purely random walkers) as a reference, we progressively introduce different ingredients such as persistence, memory and perceptual landscape, aiming to untangle active and reactive contributions and quantify their respective relevance. The proposed approach may help in anticipating the spatial distribution of citizens in alternative scenarios and in improving the design of public events based on a facts-based approach.

Tracking Human Mobility Using WiFi Signals

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Sapiezynski, Piotr; Stopczynski, Arkadiusz; Gatej, Radu

2015-01-01

to WiFi access points based on a very small number of GPS samples and then use these access points as location beacons. Using just one GPS observation per day per person allows us to estimate the location of, and subsequently use, WiFi access points to account for 80% of mobility across a population...

The Evolution of the Age at Menarche from Prehistorical to Modern Times.

Science.gov (United States)

Papadimitriou, Anastasios

2016-12-01

Menarche denotes the onset of the female reproductive capacity. The age that menarche occurs is mostly attributed to the interaction of genetics and various environmental factors. Herein, the author describes the evolution of the age at menarche from prehistoric to the present times. Data from skeletal remains suggest that in the Paleolithic woman menarche occurred at an age between 7 and 13 years, early sexual maturation being a trade-off for reduced life expectancy. In the classical, as well as in the medieval years, the age at menarche was generally reported to be at approximately 14 years, with a range from 12 to 15 years. A significant retardation of the age at menarche occurred in the beginning of the modern times, soon after the industrial revolution, due to the deterioration of the living conditions, with most studies reporting menarche to occur at 15-16 years. In the 20th century, especially in the second half of it, in the industrialized countries, the age at menarche decreased significantly, as a result of the improvement of the socioeconomic conditions, occurring at 12-13 years. In the present times, in the developed countries, this trend seems to slow down or level off. Copyright © 2016 North American Society for Pediatric and Adolescent Gynecology. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Exploring the significance of human mobility patterns in social link prediction

KAUST Repository

Alharbi, Basma Mohammed

2014-01-01

Link prediction is a fundamental task in social networks. Recently, emphasis has been placed on forecasting new social ties using user mobility patterns, e.g., investigating physical and semantic co-locations for new proximity measure. This paper explores the effect of in-depth mobility patterns. Specifically, we study individuals\\' movement behavior, and quantify mobility on the basis of trip frequency, travel purpose and transportation mode. Our hybrid link prediction model is composed of two modules. The first module extracts mobility patterns, including travel purpose and mode, from raw trajectory data. The second module employs the extracted patterns for link prediction. We evaluate our method on two real data sets, GeoLife [15] and Reality Mining [5]. Experimental results show that our hybrid model significantly improves the accuracy of social link prediction, when comparing to primary topology-based solutions. Copyright 2014 ACM.

Mobile marketing for mobile games

OpenAIRE

Vu, Giang

2016-01-01

Highly developed mobile technology and devices enable the rise of mobile game industry and mobile marketing. Hence mobile marketing for mobile game is an essential key for a mobile game success. Even though there are many articles on marketing for mobile games, there is a need of highly understanding mobile marketing strategies, how to launch a mobile campaign for a mobile game. Besides that, it is essential to understand the relationship between mobile advertising and users behaviours. There...

A Lifelog Browser for Visualization and Search of Mobile Everyday-Life

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Keum-Sung Hwang

2014-01-01

Full Text Available Mobile devices can now handle a great deal of information thanks to the convergence of diverse functionalities. Mobile environments have already shown great potential in terms of providing customized service to users because they can record meaningful and private information continually for long periods of time. The research for understanding, searching and summarizing the everyday-life of human has received increasing attention in recent years due to the digital convergence. In this paper, we propose a mobile life browser, which visualizes and searches human's mobile life based on the contents and context of lifelog data. The mobile life browser is for searching the personal information effectively collected on his/her mobile device and for supporting the concept-based searching method by using concept networks and Bayesian networks. In the experiments, we collected the real mobile log data from three users for a month and visualized the mobile lives of the users with the mobile life browser developed. Some tests on searching tasks confirmed that the result using the proposed concept-based searching method is promising.

Environmental Approaches to Prehistory/Archaeology. Activities Designed to Supplement a Course in North American Prehistory/Archaeology at the Junior High or High School Level. Curriculum Series, Number 2.

Science.gov (United States)

Carpenter, James C.; Fraser, Kathryn M.

Presented are 17 activities designed to supplement junior or senior high school studies in prehistory and archaeology. Stressed throughout the manual is the changing relationship between humans and the environment. The learning experiences fall into three categories: (1) how we study prehistoric cultures, (2) how prehistoric peoples lived, and (3)…

A Study on Tracking and Augmentation in Mobile AR for e-Leisure

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Seong-Wook Jang

2018-01-01

Full Text Available Recently, a mobile augmented reality (AR system with AR technology that requires high performance has become popular due to the improved performance of smartphones. In particular, mobile AR that directly interacts with outdoor environments has been in development because of increasing interest in e-leisure due to improvements in living standards. Therefore, this paper aims to study tracking and augmentation in mobile AR for e-leisure. We analyzed the performance of human body tracking application implemented in a mobile system (smartphone using three methods (marker-based, markerless, and sensor-based for the feasibility examination of human body tracking in mobile AR. Furthermore, game information augmentation was examined through the implementation of mobile AR using two methods (marker- and sensor-based.

Chagas disease in prehistory.

Science.gov (United States)

Ferreira, Luiz F; Jansen, Ana M; Araújo, Adauto

2011-09-01

The classical hypothesis proposes that Chagas disease has been originated in the Andean region among prehistoric people when they started domesticating animals, changing to sedentary habits, and adopting agriculture. These changes in their way of life happened nearly 6,000 years ago. However, paleoparasitological data based on molecular tools showed that Trypanosoma cruzi infection and Chagas disease were commonly found both in South and North American prehistoric populations long before that time, suggesting that Chagas disease may be as old as the human presence in the American continent. The study of the origin and dispersion of Trypanosoma cruzi infection among prehistoric human populations may help in the comprehension of the clinical and epidemiological questions on Chagas disease that still remain unanswered.

Calling in sick: impacts of fever on intra-urban human mobility.

Science.gov (United States)

Perkins, T Alex; Paz-Soldan, Valerie A; Stoddard, Steven T; Morrison, Amy C; Forshey, Brett M; Long, Kanya C; Halsey, Eric S; Kochel, Tadeusz J; Elder, John P; Kitron, Uriel; Scott, Thomas W; Vazquez-Prokopec, Gonzalo M

2016-07-13

Pathogens inflict a wide variety of disease manifestations on their hosts, yet the impacts of disease on the behaviour of infected hosts are rarely studied empirically and are seldom accounted for in mathematical models of transmission dynamics. We explored the potential impacts of one of the most common disease manifestations, fever, on a key determinant of pathogen transmission, host mobility, in residents of the Amazonian city of Iquitos, Peru. We did so by comparing two groups of febrile individuals (dengue-positive and dengue-negative) with an afebrile control group. A retrospective, semi-structured interview allowed us to quantify multiple aspects of mobility during the two-week period preceding each interview. We fitted nested models of each aspect of mobility to data from interviews and compared models using likelihood ratio tests to determine whether there were statistically distinguishable differences in mobility attributable to fever or its aetiology. Compared with afebrile individuals, febrile study participants spent more time at home, visited fewer locations, and, in some cases, visited locations closer to home and spent less time at certain types of locations. These multifaceted impacts are consistent with the possibility that disease-mediated changes in host mobility generate dynamic and complex changes in host contact network structure. © 2016 The Author(s).

Mobile phone radiation as an inducer of human disease - a hypothesis

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

French, P.; Penny, R.

2001-01-01

There are several reports which indicate that electromagnetic radiation (such as from mobile phones) at non-thermal levels may elicit a biological effect in target cells or tissues. Whether or not these biological effects lead to adverse health effects, including cancer, is unclear. To date there is limited scientific evidence of health issues, and no mechanism by which mobile phone radiation could influence cancer development. In this paper, we develop a theoretical mechanism by which radiofrequency radiation from mobile phones could induce cancer, via the chronic activation of the heat shock response. Upregulation of heat shock proteins (Hsps) is a normal defence response to a cellular stress. However, chronic expression of Hsps is known to induce or promote oncogenesis, metastasis and/ or resistance to anti-cancer drugs. We propose that repeated exposure to mobile phone radiation acts as a repetitive stress leading to continuous expression of Hsps in exposed cells and tissues, which in turn affects their normal regulation, and cancer results. This hypothesis provides the possibility of a direct association between mobile phone use and cancer as well as other diseases of protein unfolding, and thus provides an important focus for future experimentation. Copyright (2001) Australasian Radiation Protection Society Inc

An On-Site Presentation of Invisible Prehistoric Landscapes

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jiri Unger

2017-03-01

Full Text Available The rapid development of information technology has enabled the creation of entirely new presentation frameworks and this article will attempt to explore the subject of on-site presentation of archaeological sites. The most frequently used environment currently has been in the form of a variety of virtual museums that are accessible on the Internet; in essence these keep their visitors stuck in front of a PC monitor. One option that allows leaving the monitor and stepping directly out-of-doors into a virtual open-air museum is by means of applications for mobile phones. Terms such as 'virtual' or 'augmented reality' no longer represent a million light-years away science-fiction concepts, but rather a new tool for public archaeology and for the preservation of the archaeological heritage. This article presents several projects that have been implemented by the Archaeological Institute in Prague, who, by using mobile applications, built virtual open-air museums directly in the locations of archaeological excavations.

Mobile speech and advanced natural language solutions

CERN Document Server

Markowitz, Judith

2013-01-01

Mobile Speech and Advanced Natural Language Solutions provides a comprehensive and forward-looking treatment of natural speech in the mobile environment. This fourteen-chapter anthology brings together lead scientists from Apple, Google, IBM, AT&T, Yahoo! Research and other companies, along with academicians, technology developers and market analysts.  They analyze the growing markets for mobile speech, new methodological approaches to the study of natural language, empirical research findings on natural language and mobility, and future trends in mobile speech.  Mobile Speech opens with a challenge to the industry to broaden the discussion about speech in mobile environments beyond the smartphone, to consider natural language applications across different domains.   Among the new natural language methods introduced in this book are Sequence Package Analysis, which locates and extracts valuable opinion-related data buried in online postings; microintonation as a way to make TTS truly human-like; and se...

Assessment of the radio-frequency electromagnetic fields induced in the human body from mobile phones used with hands-free kits

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kuehn, Sven; Cabot, Eugenia; Christ, Andreas; Capstick, Myles; Kuster, Niels [Foundation for Research on Information Technologies in Society (IT' IS), Zuerich (Switzerland)], E-mail: kuehn@itis.ethz.ch

2009-09-21

In this study, the radiation emission from mobile phones when used with wireless and wired hands-free kits (HFK) was evaluated to determine the necessity for a dedicated compliance procedure and the extent to which the use of wired and wireless HFK can reduce human exposure. The specific absorption rates (SAR) from wireless HFK were determined experimentally. Wired HFK were evaluated dosimetrically while connected to mobile phones (GSM900/1800, UMTS1950) under maximized current coupling onto the HFK cable and various wire routing configurations. In addition, experimentally validated simulations of a wired HFK and a mobile phone operating on anatomical whole-body models were performed. The maximum spatial peak SAR in the head when using wired HFK was more than five times lower than ICNIRP limits. The SAR in the head depends on the output power of the mobile phone, the coupling between the antenna and cable, external attenuation and potential cable specific attenuation. In general, a wired HFK considerably reduces the exposure of the entire head region compared to mobile phones operated at the head, even under unlikely worst-case coupling scenarios. However, wired HFK may cause a localized increase of the exposure in the region of the ear inside the head under worst-case conditions. Wireless HFK exhibit a low but constant exposure.

Assessment of the radio-frequency electromagnetic fields induced in the human body from mobile phones used with hands-free kits

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kuehn, Sven; Cabot, Eugenia; Christ, Andreas; Capstick, Myles; Kuster, Niels

2009-01-01

In this study, the radiation emission from mobile phones when used with wireless and wired hands-free kits (HFK) was evaluated to determine the necessity for a dedicated compliance procedure and the extent to which the use of wired and wireless HFK can reduce human exposure. The specific absorption rates (SAR) from wireless HFK were determined experimentally. Wired HFK were evaluated dosimetrically while connected to mobile phones (GSM900/1800, UMTS1950) under maximized current coupling onto the HFK cable and various wire routing configurations. In addition, experimentally validated simulations of a wired HFK and a mobile phone operating on anatomical whole-body models were performed. The maximum spatial peak SAR in the head when using wired HFK was more than five times lower than ICNIRP limits. The SAR in the head depends on the output power of the mobile phone, the coupling between the antenna and cable, external attenuation and potential cable specific attenuation. In general, a wired HFK considerably reduces the exposure of the entire head region compared to mobile phones operated at the head, even under unlikely worst-case coupling scenarios. However, wired HFK may cause a localized increase of the exposure in the region of the ear inside the head under worst-case conditions. Wireless HFK exhibit a low but constant exposure.

An on-site presentation of invisible prehistoric landscapes

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Unger, Jiří; Květina, Petr

2017-01-01

Roč. 2017, č. 43 (2017) ISSN 1363-5387 R&D Projects: GA MK(CZ) DF12P01OVV032 Keywords : archaeology * virtual and augmented reality * mobile applications Subject RIV: AC - Archeology, Anthropology, Ethnology OBOR OECD: Archaeology http://intarch.ac.uk/journal/issue43/13/index.html

The finding of Enterobius vermicularis eggs in pré-Columbian human coprolites

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

A. J. G. de Araújo

1985-06-01

Full Text Available Enterobius vermicularis eggs were found in human coprolites collected in the archaeological site of Caserones, Tarapaca Valley, Chile, dating from 400 BC to 800 AD. The human pinworm had already been found in other pre-historic archaeological sites in America, and its introduction in this continent is discussed.Ovos de Enterobius vermicularis foram encontrados em coprólitos humanos coletados no sítio arqueológico de Caserones, Vale da Tarapaca, no Chile, com datações de 400 BC a 800 AD. Este parasito humano já foi encontrado em outros sítios arqueológicios nas Américas e, a partir desses achados, discute-se a sua introdução neste continente.

Intelligent Context-Aware and Adaptive Interface for Mobile LBS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jiangfan Feng

2015-01-01

Full Text Available Context-aware user interface plays an important role in many human-computer Interaction tasks of location based services. Although spatial models for context-aware systems have been studied extensively, how to locate specific spatial information for users is still not well resolved, which is important in the mobile environment where location based services users are impeded by device limitations. Better context-aware human-computer interaction models of mobile location based services are needed not just to predict performance outcomes, such as whether people will be able to find the information needed to complete a human-computer interaction task, but to understand human processes that interact in spatial query, which will in turn inform the detailed design of better user interfaces in mobile location based services. In this study, a context-aware adaptive model for mobile location based services interface is proposed, which contains three major sections: purpose, adjustment, and adaptation. Based on this model we try to describe the process of user operation and interface adaptation clearly through the dynamic interaction between users and the interface. Then we show how the model applies users’ demands in a complicated environment and suggested the feasibility by the experimental results.

Cross-checking different sources of mobility information.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Maxime Lenormand

Full Text Available The pervasive use of new mobile devices has allowed a better characterization in space and time of human concentrations and mobility in general. Besides its theoretical interest, describing mobility is of great importance for a number of practical applications ranging from the forecast of disease spreading to the design of new spaces in urban environments. While classical data sources, such as surveys or census, have a limited level of geographical resolution (e.g., districts, municipalities, counties are typically used or are restricted to generic workdays or weekends, the data coming from mobile devices can be precisely located both in time and space. Most previous works have used a single data source to study human mobility patterns. Here we perform instead a cross-check analysis by comparing results obtained with data collected from three different sources: Twitter, census, and cell phones. The analysis is focused on the urban areas of Barcelona and Madrid, for which data of the three types is available. We assess the correlation between the datasets on different aspects: the spatial distribution of people concentration, the temporal evolution of people density, and the mobility patterns of individuals. Our results show that the three data sources are providing comparable information. Even though the representativeness of Twitter geolocated data is lower than that of mobile phone and census data, the correlations between the population density profiles and mobility patterns detected by the three datasets are close to one in a grid with cells of 2×2 and 1×1 square kilometers. This level of correlation supports the feasibility of interchanging the three data sources at the spatio-temporal scales considered.

Mobile Workforce, Mobile Technology, Mobile Threats

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Garcia, J.

2015-01-01

Mobile technologies' introduction into the world of safeguards business processes such as inspection creates tremendous opportunity for novel approaches and could result in a number of improvements to such processes. Mobile applications are certainly the wave of the future. The success of the application ecosystems has shown that users want full fidelity, highly-usable, simple purpose applications with simple installation, quick responses and, of course, access to network resources at all times. But the counterpart to opportunity is risk, and the widespread adoption of mobile technologies requires a deep understanding of the threats and vulnerabilities inherent in mobile technologies. Modern mobile devices can be characterized as small computers. As such, the threats against computing infrastructure apply to mobile devices. Meanwhile, the attributes of mobile technology that make it such an obvious benefit over traditional computing platforms all have elements of risk: pervasive, always-on networking; diverse ecosystems; lack of centralized control; constantly shifting technological foundations; intense competition among competitors in the marketplace; the scale of the installation base (from millions to billions); and many more. This paper will explore the diverse and massive environment of mobile, the number of attackers and vast opportunities for compromise. The paper will explain how mobile devices prove valuable targets to both advanced and persistent attackers as well as less-skilled casual hackers. Organized crime, national intelligence agencies, corporate espionage are all part of the landscape. (author)

Contribution of bioanthropology to the reconstruction of prehistoric productive processes. The external auditory exostoses in the prehispanic population of Gran Canaria

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Velasco Vázquez, Javier

2001-06-01

Full Text Available The aim of this paper is an approach to the role of bioanthropological studies in the reconstruction of the productive processes of past societies. This objective is obtained starting from the survey and valuation of the prevalence of bone exostoses in the auditory canal among the prehistoric inhabitants of Gran Canaria. The auditory exostose is a bone wound well documented through clinical and experimental studies, closely related to the exposure of the auditory canal to cold water. The estimation of this bone anomaly among the analysed population, leads to the definition of outstanding territorial variations in the economic strategies of these human groups.

En el presente trabajo se pretende abordar el papel de los estudios bioantropológicos en la reconstrucción de los procesos productivos de las sociedades del pasado. Esta finalidad es perseguida a partir del examen y valoración de la prevalencia de exostosis óseas en el canal auditivo en la población prehistórica de Gran Canaria. Las exostosis auditivas constituyen una lesión ósea, bien documentada en trabajos experimentales y clínicos, estrechamente relacionada con la exposición del canal auditivo al agua fría. La estimación de esta anormalidad ósea en el conjunto poblacional analizado permite la definición de importantes variaciones territoriales en las estrategias económicas emprendidas por estos grupos humanos.

Human mobility and the spatial transmission of influenza in the United States

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Charu, Vivek; Zeger, Scott; Gog, Julia

2017-01-01

Seasonal influenza epidemics offer unique opportunities to study the invasion and re-invasion waves of a pathogen in a partially immune population. Detailed patterns of spread remain elusive, however, due to lack of granular disease data. Here we model high-volume city-level medical claims data...... and human mobility proxies to explore the drivers of influenza spread in the US during 2002–2010. Although the speed and pathways of spread varied across seasons, seven of eight epidemics likely originated in the Southern US. Each epidemic was associated with 1–5 early long-range transmission events, half...... of which sparked onward transmission. Gravity model estimates indicate a sharp decay in influenza transmission with the distance between infectious and susceptible cities, consistent with spread dominated by work commutes rather than air traffic. Two early-onset seasons associated with antigenic novelty...

What did the Romans ever do for us? Putting humans in global land models

Science.gov (United States)

Bierkens, M. F.; Wada, Y.; Dermody, B.; Van Beek, L. P.

2016-12-01

During the late 1980s and early 1990s, awareness of the shortage of global water resources lead to the first detailed global water resources assessments using regional statistics of water use and observations of meteorological and hydrological variables. Shortly thereafter, the first macroscale hydrological models (MHM) appeared. In these models, blue water (i.e., surface water and renewable groundwater) availability was calculated by accumulating runoff over a stream network and comparing it with population densities or with estimated water demand for agriculture, industry and households. In this talk we review the evolution of human impact modelling in global land models with a focus on global water resources, touching upon developments of the last 15 years: i.e. calculating human water scarcity; estimating groundwater depletion; adding dams and reservoirs; fully integrating water use (abstraction, application, consumption, return flow) in the hydrology; simulating the effects of land use change. We identify four major challenges that hamper the further development of integrated water resources modelling and thus prohibit realistic projections of the future terrestrial water cycle in the Anthropocene. These are: 1) including the ability to model infrastructural changes and measures; 2) projecting future water demand and water use and associated measures; 3) including virtual water trade; 4) including land use change and landscape change. While all these challenges will likely benefit from hydro-economics and the newly developing field of socio-hydrology, we also show that especially for challenges 3 and 4 lessons can be drawn from the (pre)historic past. To make this point we provide two case studies: one modelling the virtual water trade in the Roman Empire and one modelling human-landscape interaction in prehistoric Calabria (Italy).

Low-level stored waste inspection using mobile robots

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Byrd, J.S.; Pettus, R.O.

1996-01-01

A mobile robot inspection system, ARIES (Autonomous Robotic Inspection Experimental System), has been developed for the U.S. Department of Energy to replace human inspectors in the routine, regulated inspection of radioactive waste stored in drums. The robot will roam the three-foot aisles of drums, stacked four high, making decisions about the surface condition of the drums and maintaining a database of information about each drum. A distributed system of onboard and offboard computers will provide versatile, friendly control of the inspection process. This mobile robot system, based on a commercial mobile platform, will improve the quality of inspection, generate required reports, and relieve human operators from low-level radioactive exposure. This paper describes and discusses primarily the computer and control processes for the system

Mobile usage and sleep patterns among medical students.

Science.gov (United States)

Yogesh, Saxena; Abha, Shrivastava; Priyanka, Singh

2014-01-01

Exposure of humans to radio frequency electromagnetic field (EMF) both during receiving and transmitting the signals has amplified public and scientific debate about possible adverse effects on human health. The study was designed with the objective of assessing the extent of mobile phone use amongst medical students and finding correlation if any between the hours of usage of mobile to sleep pattern and quality. hundred medical students grouped as cases (n = 57) (> 2 hours/day of mobile usage) and control (n = 43) (≤ 2 hours/day of mobile usage) were examined for their sleep quality & pattern by Pittsburg sleep Quality Index (PSQI). Differences between groups were examined with the Mann Whitney "U" test for proportions (Quantitative values) and with Student't' test for continuous variables. The association of variables was analyzed by Spearman Rank's correlation. Probability was set at usage and sleep indices were observed in both genders (males r = 0.25; p = 0.04, females r = 0.31; p = 0.009). Evening usage of mobile phone in cases showed a statistically significant negative association (-0.606; p = 0.042) with Sleep quality (higher PSQI means sleep deprivation). Students using mobile for > 2 hours/day may cause sleep deprivation and day sleepiness affecting cognitive and learning abilities of medical students.

The changing role of mammal life histories in Late Quaternary extinction vulnerability on continents and islands.

Science.gov (United States)

Lyons, S Kathleen; Miller, Joshua H; Fraser, Danielle; Smith, Felisa A; Boyer, Alison; Lindsey, Emily; Mychajliw, Alexis M

2016-06-01

Understanding extinction drivers in a human-dominated world is necessary to preserve biodiversity. We provide an overview of Quaternary extinctions and compare mammalian extinction events on continents and islands after human arrival in system-specific prehistoric and historic contexts. We highlight the role of body size and life-history traits in these extinctions. We find a significant size-bias except for extinctions on small islands in historic times. Using phylogenetic regression and classification trees, we find that while life-history traits are poor predictors of historic extinctions, those associated with difficulty in responding quickly to perturbations, such as small litter size, are good predictors of prehistoric extinctions. Our results are consistent with the idea that prehistoric and historic extinctions form a single continuing event with the same likely primary driver, humans, but the diversity of impacts and affected faunas is much greater in historic extinctions. © 2016 The Author(s).

Mobile health interventions in Indigenous populations

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Valerie Onyinyechi Umaefulam

2017-06-01

Full Text Available Humans are social beings and communication is vital and necessary for every cultural group which may be the primary motivator, why many populations worldwide have taken up mobile phones (1. Communication via mobile has significant cultural and identity implications for Indigenous people worldwide particularly those living in rural and hard to reach communities because due to globalization, a number of people now live away from their local communities for trade, employment, education, etc. Thus, mobile phones are devices for social networking and communication; and enables cultural connection and identification with family and friends. Its affordability, versatility of features, and portability create an opportunity for utilizing mobile technology to positively impact the health via health education, promotion, and provision of remote health services among others.

Art and human nature

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mirta Toledo

2008-06-01

Full Text Available This article presents a visual artist’s point of view about art. This view confronts the Eurocentric traditional cannon with some ignored, but valuable traditions, thus proposing a contra-canon. These ideas are examined on the light of a variety of sources, including prehistoric, pre-Columbian, and 20th century art expressions, in a variety of media, from sculpture to literature. Recent art expressions are characterized by their incorporation of minority values and perspectives that challenge “universal” views. Using samples of works from Latino and African American artists, the author shows that, even today, art is a means to know the world and its people, to exhibit personal life, to create personal symbolism, and to show one’s identity or the search for it. Like the human nature it represents, art has multiple faces.

User-independent accelerometer-based gesture recognition for mobile devices

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Eduardo METOLA

2013-07-01

Full Text Available Many mobile devices embed nowadays inertial sensors. This enables new forms of human-computer interaction through the use of gestures (movements performed with the mobile device as a way of communication. This paper presents an accelerometer-based gesture recognition system for mobile devices which is able to recognize a collection of 10 different hand gestures. The system was conceived to be light and to operate in a user-independent manner in real time. The recognition system was implemented in a smart phone and evaluated through a collection of user tests, which showed a recognition accuracy similar to other state-of-the art techniques and a lower computational complexity. The system was also used to build a human-robot interface that enables controlling a wheeled robot with the gestures made with the mobile phone

Building and Applying "Insularity Theory": Review on Knapp's Prehistoric and Protohistoric Cyprus, 2008.

Science.gov (United States)

Katsarou-Tzeveleki, Stella

the advantage of this suggestion is that it dispenses with the superior (Anatolia)-inferior (Cyprus) divide and it thus recognizes the contribution made to the formation of the final Cypriot identity by many identities, including the native one. However, I think that the reader would be interested to learn whether, behind the unified archaeological picture of the island, Cyprus does not have internal, human-geographical differences, differently reacting in external and internal interactions. In a work placing emphasis on individuality, an assessment of this spatial differentiation would be of interest. The social approach becomes socio-historical in the case of the protohistoric Bronze Age, for which Knapp records the formation of the Cypriot identity (that is, the completely distinct local identity) through a combined archaeological handling of text and object which is rare for prehistoric research. Knapp examines the character (local, Aegean, Levantine, Anatolian) of the island's material culture (urbanization, settlement patterns, monumentality, seals and objects connected with the organization of authority, mortuary practices, Cypro-Minoan script, copper trade, imports, defence works and weaponry, figurative representations and frescoes) in comparison with the valuable historical information contained in texts found in Ugarit (from the 13th c. BC) referring to the territory or kingdom of Alashia ruled by Kushmenshusha. After his prodigious analysis of the archaeological data, exhibiting the high level of his expertise on Cypriot archaeology, he demonstrates how much this island, unified into a large state with a strong presence in the eastern Mediterranean, was a hybrid product. To support his arguments the author introduces further theoretical concepts (for example, individuality and monumentality), again with recourse to the international theoretical bibliography. Let me note, however, that traditional archaeology's insistence on wealth as a criterion for social

Health and Safety in Mobile Telephony

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lipnjak, G.

2001-01-01

Full text: The paper deals with a description of mobile telephone network and the emitted radiation. The main focus is related to the potential health risks of mobile telephone radio waves. The international press has published articles warning of the risk of brain damage, hypersensitivity, eye damage, etc., if people use mobile telephones. The most important guidelines in the field of bioelectromagnetic and related to mobile telephony (ICNIRP, CENELEC and IEEE) are commented. Also, the problem of EMI of mobile telephone with other used electronic equipment by an impaired part of the human population has been elaborated. A lot of telecommunication companies provide expertise in a number of national and international standardisation groups, whose task is to monitor what is going on in the area of Health and Safety and to develop standardised measurement methods and equipment for radio-frequency electromagnetic exposure and interference. (author)

Rachel Crellin, Chris Fowler and Richard Tipping, eds. Prehistory without Borders: The Prehistoric Archaeology of the Tyne-Forth Region ( : Oxford: Oxbow Books, 2016, 244 pp., 124 b/w figs, 19 tables, hbk, ISBN 978-1-78-570199-3)

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Arnoldussen, Stijn

2017-01-01

Borders, in the sense of modern geopolitical boundaries, have no bearing on prehistoric realities, yet they do affect archaeology as a discipline―particularly when one is committed to thinking, working, and writing on regions that transcend administrative limits, whether regional or national. While

Enhanced identification of trace element fingerprint of prehistoric pigments by PIXE mapping

Science.gov (United States)

Lebon, M.; Pichon, L.; Beck, L.

2018-02-01

The elemental composition of Fe rich rocks used as pigment during prehistoric periods can provide valuable information about the type of material used and their geological origin. However, these materials present several analytical constraints since their patrimonial value involve using non-invasive techniques maintaining a high sensitivity of the detection and the quantification of trace elements. Micro-beam techniques also require to take into account the heterogeneity of these geomaterials from the macroscopic to microscopic scales. Several previous studies have demonstrated that PIXE analysis satisfies these analytical conditions. However, application of micro-PIXE analysis is still complex when thin and discontinuous layer of pigment is deposed on the surface of other materials such as rocks or bones. In such case, PIXE imaging could improve the ability to take into account the high heterogeneity of such archaeological objects. In study, we used PIXE imaging system developed at the NewAGLAE facility in order to visualize distribution of elements associated with iron-rich pigment phase. The results obtained show that PIXE maps can improve the identification of the main trace elements specific to the iron mineral phase. By grouping pixels of iron-rich areas and performing quantitative treatment, it was possible to reveal additional trace elements associated to pigment. This study highlights the contribution of PIXE imaging to the identification of elements associated with mineral phases of interest and to use them as proxies to discriminate different geological materials used in archaeological context.

Mobility management in mobile IP

Science.gov (United States)

Medidi, Sirisha; Golshani, Forouzan

2002-07-01

There is an emerging interest in integrating mobile wireless communication with the Internet based on the Ipv6 technology. Many issues introduced by the mobility of users arise when such an integration is attempted. This paper addresses the problem of mobility management, i.e., that of tracking the current IP addresses of mobile terminals and sustaining active IP connections as mobiles move. The paper presents some architectural and mobility management options for integrating wireless access to the Internet. We then present performance results for Mobile IPv4, route optimization and Mobile IPv6.

Exact Solution of the Gyration Radius of an Individual's Trajectory for a Simplified Human Regular Mobility Model

Science.gov (United States)

Yan, Xiao-Yong; Han, Xiao-Pu; Zhou, Tao; Wang, Bing-Hong

2011-12-01

We propose a simplified human regular mobility model to simulate an individual's daily travel with three sequential activities: commuting to workplace, going to do leisure activities and returning home. With the assumption that the individual has a constant travel speed and inferior limit of time at home and in work, we prove that the daily moving area of an individual is an ellipse, and finally obtain an exact solution of the gyration radius. The analytical solution captures the empirical observation well.

The Human ABCG1 Transporter Mobilizes Plasma Membrane and Late Endosomal Non-Sphingomyelin-Associated-Cholesterol for Efflux and Esterification

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Edward B. Neufeld

2014-12-01

Full Text Available We have previously shown that GFP-tagged human ABCG1 on the plasma membrane (PM and in late endosomes (LE mobilizes sterol on both sides of the membrane lipid bilayer, thereby increasing cellular cholesterol efflux to lipid surfaces. In the present study, we examined ABCG1-induced changes in membrane cholesterol distribution, organization, and mobility. ABCG1-GFP expression increased the amount of mobile, non-sphingomyelin(SM-associated cholesterol at the PM and LE, but not the amount of SM-associated-cholesterol or SM. ABCG1-mobilized non-SM-associated-cholesterol rapidly cycled between the PM and LE and effluxed from the PM to extracellular acceptors, or, relocated to intracellular sites of esterification. ABCG1 increased detergent-soluble pools of PM and LE cholesterol, generated detergent-resistant, non-SM-associated PM cholesterol, and increased resistance to both amphotericin B-induced (cholesterol-mediated and lysenin-induced (SM-mediated cytolysis, consistent with altered organization of both PM cholesterol and SM. ABCG1 itself resided in detergent-soluble membrane domains. We propose that PM and LE ABCG1 residing at the phase boundary between ordered (Lo and disordered (Ld membrane lipid domains alters SM and cholesterol organization thereby increasing cholesterol flux between Lo and Ld, and hence, the amount of cholesterol available for removal by acceptors on either side of the membrane bilayer for either efflux or esterification.

Effect of Mobile Phone-Induced Electromagnetic Field on Brain Hemodynamics and Human Stem Cell Functioning: Possible Mechanistic Link to Cancer Risk and Early Diagnostic Value of Electronphotonic Imaging.

Science.gov (United States)

Bhargav, Hemant; Srinivasan, T M; Varambally, S; Gangadhar, B N; Koka, Prasad

2015-01-01

The mobile phones (MP) are low power radio devices which work on electromagnetic fields (EMFs), in the frequency range of 900-1800 MHz. Exposure to MPEMFs may affect brain physiology and lead to various health hazards including brain tumors. Earlier studies with positron emission tomography (PET) have found alterations in cerebral blood flow (CBF) after acute exposure to MPEMFs. It is widely accepted that DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs) and their misrepair in stem cells are critical events in the multistage origination of various leukemia and tumors, including brain tumors such as gliomas. Both significant misbalance in DSB repair and severe stress response have been triggered by MPEMFs and EMFs from cell towers. It has been shown that stem cells are most sensitive to microwave exposure and react to more frequencies than do differentiated cells. This may be important for cancer risk assessment and indicates that stem cells are the most relevant cellular model for validating safe mobile communication signals. Recently developed technology for recording the human bio-electromagnetic (BEM) field using Electron photonic Imaging (EPI) or Gas Discharge Visualisation (GDV) technique provides useful information about the human BEM. Studies have recorded acute effects of Mobile Phone Electromagnetic Fields (MPEMFs) using EPI and found quantifiable effects on human BEM field. Present manuscript reviews evidences of altered brain physiology and stem cell functioning due to mobile phone/cell tower radiations, its association with increased cancer risk and explores early diagnostic value of EPI imaging in detecting EMF induced changes on human BEM.

Effect of viewing distance on 3D fatigue caused by viewing mobile 3D content

Science.gov (United States)

Mun, Sungchul; Lee, Dong-Su; Park, Min-Chul; Yano, Sumio

2013-05-01

With an advent of autostereoscopic display technique and increased needs for smart phones, there has been a significant growth in mobile TV markets. The rapid growth in technical, economical, and social aspects has encouraged 3D TV manufacturers to apply 3D rendering technology to mobile devices so that people have more opportunities to come into contact with many 3D content anytime and anywhere. Even if the mobile 3D technology leads to the current market growth, there is an important thing to consider for consistent development and growth in the display market. To put it briefly, human factors linked to mobile 3D viewing should be taken into consideration before developing mobile 3D technology. Many studies have investigated whether mobile 3D viewing causes undesirable biomedical effects such as motion sickness and visual fatigue, but few have examined main factors adversely affecting human health. Viewing distance is considered one of the main factors to establish optimized viewing environments from a viewer's point of view. Thus, in an effort to determine human-friendly viewing environments, this study aims to investigate the effect of viewing distance on human visual system when exposing to mobile 3D environments. Recording and analyzing brainwaves before and after watching mobile 3D content, we explore how viewing distance affects viewing experience from physiological and psychological perspectives. Results obtained in this study are expected to provide viewing guidelines for viewers, help ensure viewers against undesirable 3D effects, and lead to make gradual progress towards a human-friendly mobile 3D viewing.

High school students’ usage behavior and views about mobile phones

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ahmet Ergin

2014-09-01

Full Text Available Objective: The aim of this study was to determine high school students’ usage behavior and views about mobile phones. Methods:Totally 253 (85.5% students educated at Honaz High School within the academic year 2010-2011, participated to this cross-sectional study and a questionnaire consisting of 42 questions which aimed to determine usage behavior and views about mobile phones was administered to the students. Results:The mean age of the students was 16.1 ± 1.1 years, and 56.9% of them were girl. 79.8% of students have mobile phone and 53.9% of them make daily average of over 30 minutes mobile phone calls. 76.1% of participants stated that they did not use headphones, 78.1% did not turn off their mobile phones when they are sleeping and 67.3% put it right next to them or under the pillow. 83.1% of students think mobile phones are harmful for human health, 56.7% think the base stations are harmful to human health and the environment, 91.3% think mobile phones are harmful for children, pregnant women and elderly people. Conclusion: It is found that students’ mobile phone ownership is widespread, the age of starting to use mobile phone and headphones usage is low, knowledge about the base stations is not adequate.

Mobile phone types and SAR characteristics of the human brain

Science.gov (United States)

Lee, Ae-Kyoung; Hong, Seon-Eui; Kwon, Jong-Hwa; Choi, Hyung-Do; Cardis, Elisabeth

2017-04-01

Mobile phones differ in terms of their operating frequency, outer shape, and form and location of the antennae, all of which affect the spatial distributions of their electromagnetic field and the level of electromagnetic absorption in the human head or brain. For this paper, the specific absorption rate (SAR) was calculated for four anatomical head models at different ages using 11 numerical phone models of different shapes and antenna configurations. The 11 models represent phone types accounting for around 86% of the approximately 1400 commercial phone models released into the Korean market since 2002. Seven of the phone models selected have an internal dual-band antenna, and the remaining four possess an external antenna. Each model was intended to generate an average absorption level equivalent to that of the same type of commercial phone model operating at the maximum available output power. The 1 g peak spatial SAR and ipsilateral and contralateral brain-averaged SARs were reported for all 11 phone models. The effects of the phone type, phone position, operating frequency, and age of head models on the brain SAR were comprehensively determined.

The gender gap in mobility: a global cross-sectional study.

Science.gov (United States)

Mechakra-Tahiri, Samia Djemâa; Freeman, Ellen E; Haddad, Slim; Samson, Elodie; Zunzunegui, Maria Victoria

2012-08-02

Several studies have demonstrated that women have greater mobility disability than men. The goals of this research were: 1) to assess the gender gap in mobility difficulty in 70 countries; 2) to determine whether the gender gap is explained by sociodemographic and health factors; 3) to determine whether the gender gap differs across 6 regions of the world with different degrees of gender equality according to United Nations data. Population-based data were used from the World Health Survey (WHS) conducted in 70 countries throughout the world. 276,647 adults aged 18 years and over were recruited from 6 world regions. Mobility was measured by asking the level of difficulty people had moving around in the last 30 days and then creating a dichotomous measure (no difficulty, difficulty). The human development index and the gender-related development index for each country were obtained from the United Nations Development Program website. Poisson regression with Taylor series linearized variance estimation was used. Women were more likely than men to report mobility difficulty (38% versus 27%, P gap in mobility difficulty, while the Western Pacific region, with the smallest loss of human development due to gender inequality, had the smallest gender gap in mobility difficulty. These are the first world-wide data to examine the gender gap in mobility. Differences in chronic diseases are the main reasons for this gender gap. The gender gap seems to be greater in regions with the largest loss of human development due to gender inequality.

Structural Mobility, Exchange Mobility and Subgroup Consistent Mobility Measurement – US–German Mobility Measurements Revisited

OpenAIRE

C. SCHLUTER; D. VAN DE GAER

2008-01-01

We formalize the concept of structural mobility and use the framework of subgroup consistent mobility measurement to derive a relative and an absolute measure of mobility that is increasing both in upward structural mobility and exchange mobility. In our empirical illustration, we contribute substantively to the ongoing debate about mobility rankings between the USA and Germany.

A Decentralized Interactive Architecture for Aerial and Ground Mobile Robots Cooperation

OpenAIRE

Harik, El Houssein Chouaib; Guérin, François; Guinand, Frédéric; Brethé, Jean-François; Pelvillain, Hervé

2014-01-01

International audience; —This paper presents a novel decentralized interactive architecture for aerial and ground mobile robots cooperation. The aerial mobile robot is used to provide a global coverage during an area inspection, while the ground mobile robot is used to provide a local coverage of ground features. We include a human-in-the-loop to provide waypoints for the ground mobile robot to progress safely in the inspected area. The aerial mobile robot follows continuously the ground mobi...

Resource Management in Mobile Cloud Computing

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Andrei IONESCU

2015-01-01

Full Text Available Mobile cloud computing is a major research topic in Information Technology & Communications. It integrates cloud computing, mobile computing and wireless networks. While mainly built on cloud computing, it has to operate using more heterogeneous resources with implications on how these resources are managed and used. Managing the resources of a mobile cloud is not a trivial task, involving vastly different architectures. The process is outside the scope of human users. Using the resources by the applications at both platform and software tiers come with its own challenges. This paper presents different approaches in use for managing cloud resources at infrastructure and platform levels.

Human intestinal parasites in the past: new findings and a review

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Marcelo Luiz Carvalho Gonçalves

2003-01-01

Full Text Available Almost all known human specific parasites have been found in ancient feces. A review of the paleoparasitological helminth and intestinal protozoa findings available in the literature is presented. We also report the new paleoparasitologic findings from the examination performed in samples collected in New and Old World archaeological sites. New finds of ancylostomid, Ascaris lumbricoides, Trichuris trichiura, Enterobius vermicularis, Trichostrongylus spp., Diphyllobothrium latum, Hymenolepis nana and Acantocephalan eggs are reported. According to the findings, it is probable that A. lumbricoides was originally a human parasite. Human ancylostomids, A. lumbricoides and T. trichiura, found in the New World in pre-Columbian times, have not been introduced into the Americas by land via Beringia. These parasites could not supported the cold climate of the region. Nomadic prehistoric humans that have crossed the Bering Land Bridge from Asia to the Americas in the last glaciation, probably during generations, would have lost these parasites, which life cycles need warm temperatures in the soil to be transmitted from host to host. Alternative routes are discussed for human parasite introduction into the Americas.

Lake sediments record prehistoric lead pollution related to early copper production in North America.

Science.gov (United States)

Pompeani, David P; Abbott, Mark B; Steinman, Byron A; Bain, Daniel J

2013-06-04

The mining and use of copper by prehistoric people on Michigan's Keweenaw Peninsula is one of the oldest examples of metalworking. We analyzed the concentration of lead, titanium, magnesium, iron, and organic matter in sediment cores recovered from three lakes located near mine pits to investigate the timing, location, and magnitude of ancient copper mining pollution. Lead concentrations were normalized to lithogenic metals and organic matter to account for processes that can influence natural (or background) lead delivery. Nearly simultaneous lead enrichments occurred at Lake Manganese and Copper Falls Lake ∼8000 and 7000 years before present (yr BP), indicating that copper extraction occurred concurrently in at least two locations on the peninsula. The poor temporal coherence among the lead enrichments from ∼6300 to 5000 yr BP at each lake suggests that the focus of copper mining and annealing shifted through time. In sediment younger than ∼5000 yr BP, lead concentrations remain at background levels at all three lakes, excluding historic lead increases starting ∼150 yr BP. Our work demonstrates that lead emissions associated with both the historic and Old Copper Complex tradition are detectable and can be used to determine the temporal and geographic pattern of metal pollution.

The Implementation of the Idea in Development of Future Specialists Professional Mobility in the Practice-Oriented Training in the Izmail State University for Humanities

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Iaroslav Kichuk

2016-08-01

Full Text Available The European integration processes in the Ukrainian educational field actualized practiceoriented training of students aimed at the implementation of such principles as the mobility of educational space parties, the attractiveness of educational services, employment opportunities. In this context Izmail State University for Humanities initiates interactive forms of participation in international programmes of such projects TEMPUS-TACIS as «Сreation of All-Ukrainian System of Regional Advisory Items ECNS» and «Development of Strategy of Ukrainian Students International Mobility within the Framework of ECNS».

Urban search mobile platform modeling in hindered access conditions

Science.gov (United States)

Barankova, I. I.; Mikhailova, U. V.; Kalugina, O. B.; Barankov, V. V.

2018-05-01

The article explores the control system simulation and the design of the experimental model of the rescue robot mobile platform. The functional interface, a structural functional diagram of the mobile platform control unit, and a functional control scheme for the mobile platform of secure robot were modeled. The task of design a mobile platform for urban searching in hindered access conditions is realized through the use of a mechanical basis with a chassis and crawler drive, a warning device, human heat sensors and a microcontroller based on Arduino platforms.

Enhancing Artificial Intelligence on a Real Mobile Game

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Fabio Aiolli

2009-01-01

enabling AI improvements for imperfect information games even on mobile phones. We created a mobile phone-based version of a game called Ghosts and present results which clearly show the ability of our algorithm to quickly improve its own predictive performance as far as the number of games against the same human opponent increases.

Mobile Learning Using Mobile Phones

Science.gov (United States)

Vicente, Paula

2013-01-01

The participation in mobile learning programs is conditioned by having/using mobile communication technology. Those who do not have or use such technology cannot participate in mobile learning programs. This study evaluates who are the most likely participants of mobile learning programs by examining the demographic profile and mobile phone usage…

The presence of Fasciola hepatica (Liver-fluke in humans and cattle from a 4,500 Year old archaeological site in the Saale-Unstrut Valley, Germany

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Dittmar K

2003-01-01

Full Text Available During an excavation of a site of the corded ware culture in the Saale-Unstrut-Valley (ca. 3000 BC in Germany, a soil sample from the pelvis of a human skeleton was studied under palaeoparasitological aspects. Eggs of the trematode Fasciola hepatica and of the nematode genus Capillaria were found. This is the first case of a direct association of a F. hepatica-infestation to both a prehistoric human skeleton and domesticated animal remains. Sheep and cattle bones were present at the same site and F. hepatica eggs were found in bovine samples. This strongly points toward an existing infection cycle, involving humans as a final host.

Hide-Scrapers from Arukhlo I Settlement in Georgia (on correspondence of the shape and function of prehistoric implements

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Esakia Ketevan M.

2017-09-01

Full Text Available The article analyses one of the primary categories of the implement complex discovered at Arukhlo I Neolithic settlement (Georgia, Kvemo Kartli Region. The stone implements discovered at the site are characterized by their great variety. Comprehensive functional research conducted by the authors demonstrated that the typological and morphological characteristics of the various categories of stone implements do not always correspond to their functions. Thus, the shapes and functions of the hide-scrapers were fully identical for 18 of 39 implements only, whereas the other tools were used for different purposes and did not feature traces of utilization. A microanalysis of their working parts allowed to determine the types of processed raw material, means of processing, and in certain cases the type of obtained articles as well. The authors made a conclusion on the importance of the comprehensive research of production inventory for the reconstruction of the characteristic features of prehistoric economy.

Precise isotope ratio and multielement determination in prehistoric and historic human skeletal remains by HR-ICPMS - a novel application to shed light onto anthropological and archaeological questions

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Watkins, M.

2000-12-01

The primary aim of the presented work was the analytical setup for fast (including high sample throughput for statistical evaluation), precise and accurate measurement of strontium isotope ratios using HR-ICPMS (high-resolution inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry) and their application to ancient human skeletal remains from different localities for the reconstruction of migration processes. Soils and plants are in isotopic equilibrium with local source rock and show therefore the same isotopic ratios for strontium (87Sr/86Sr). Dietary strontium incorporation varies for different body materials (teeth, muscle, bone, etc.) and repository periods depend on the different strontium turnover rates. Accordingly, strontium isotope analysis can provide important data for studying human or animal migration and mobility. An important issue will be addressed: the problem of strontium isotope ratio measurement reliability and the problem of post-mortem alterations. Thus a basic part of this interdisciplinary project is dealing with the systematic evaluation of diagenetic changes of the microstructure in human bone samples - including sample uptake and preparation. Different invasive histological techniques will be applied for further clarification. Newly developed chemical methods give us the opportunity to obtain details on ancient population mobility also in skeletal series of extreme fragmentary character, which usually restricts the macro-morphological approach. Since it is evident that strontium in teeth is only incorporated during childhood whereas strontium uptake in bones is constant, an intra-individual comparison of bone and teeth samples will answer the question whether teeth are indeed 'archives of the childhood'. The introduction of an analytical system allowing online matrix separation by High Performance Ion Chromatography (HPIC) and subsequent measurement of strontium isotope ratios by means of HR-ICPMS is presented, optimized and established as method

Precise Isotope ratio and multielement determination in prehistoric and historic human skeletal remains by HR-ICPMS - a novel application to shed light onto anthropological and archaeological questions

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Watkins, M.

2000-12-01

The primary aim of the presented work was the analytical setup for fast (including high sample throughput for statistical evaluation), precise and accurate measurement of strontium isotope ratios using HR-ICPMS (high-resolution inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry) and their application to ancient human skeletal remains from different localities for the reconstruction of migration processes. Soils and plants are in isotopic equilibrium with local source rock and show therefore the same isotopic ratios for strontium (87Sr/86Sr). Dietary strontium incorporation varies for different body materials (teeth, muscle, bone, etc.) and repository periods depend on the different strontium turnover rates. Accordingly, strontium isotope analysis can provide important data for studying human or animal migration and mobility. An important issue will be addressed: the problem of strontium isotope ratio measurement reliability and the problem of post-mortem alterations. Thus a basic part of this interdisciplinary project is dealing with the systematic evaluation of diagenetic changes of the microstructure in human bone samples - including sample uptake and preparation. Different invasive histological techniques will be applied for further clarification. Newly developed chemical methods give us the opportunity to obtain details on ancient population mobility also in skeletal series of extreme fragmentary character, which usually restricts the macro-morphological approach. Since it is evident that strontium in teeth is only incorporated during childhood whereas strontium uptake in bones is constant, an intra-individual comparison of bone and teeth samples will answer the question whether teeth are indeed 'archives of the childhood'. The introduction of an analytical system allowing online matrix separation by High Performance Ion Chromatography (HPIC) and subsequent measurement of strontium isotope ratios by means of HR-ICPMS is presented, optimized and established as method

Mobile technologies for disease surveillance in humans and animals.

Science.gov (United States)

Mwabukusi, Mpoki; Karimuribo, Esron D; Rweyemamu, Mark M; Beda, Eric

2014-04-23

A paper-based disease reporting system has been associated with a number of challenges. These include difficulties to submit hard copies of the disease surveillance forms because of poor road infrastructure, weather conditions or challenging terrain, particularly in the developing countries. The system demands re-entry of the data at data processing and analysis points, thus making it prone to introduction of errors during this process. All these challenges contribute to delayed acquisition, processing and response to disease events occurring in remote hard to reach areas. Our study piloted the use of mobile phones in order to transmit near to real-time data from remote districts in Tanzania (Ngorongoro and Ngara), Burundi (Muyinga) and Zambia (Kazungula and Sesheke). Two technologies namely, digital and short messaging services were used to capture and transmit disease event data in the animal and human health sectors in the study areas based on a server-client model. Smart phones running the Android operating system (minimum required version: Android 1.6), and which supported open source application, Epicollect, as well as the Open Data Kit application, were used in the study. These phones allowed collection of geo-tagged data, with the opportunity of including static and moving images related to disease events. The project supported routine disease surveillance systems in the ministries responsible for animal and human health in Burundi, Tanzania and Zambia, as well as data collection for researchers at the Sokoine University of Agriculture, Tanzania. During the project implementation period between 2011 and 2013, a total number of 1651 diseases event-related forms were submitted, which allowed reporters to include GPS coordinates and photographs related to the events captured. It was concluded that the new technology-based surveillance system is useful in providing near to real-time data, with potential for enhancing timely response in rural remote areas of

Mobility Network and Safety

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Adriana Galderisi

2010-04-01

Full Text Available Mobility network is crucial for ensuring territorial safety with respect to natural and technological hazards. They represent a basic support to community’s everyday life although being exposed elements often characterized by high vulnerability to different hazards and, in the meanwhile, strategic equipments for emergency management. Physical damages or the lack in functioning of those networks may greatly increase the loss of human lives caused by hazardous events as well as produce relevant economic damages at medium and long term. Although the relevance of the mobility networks in assuring territorial safety is at present largely recognized, risk analyses have been long focused on buildings’ vulnerability or, even where they have paid attention to mobility network, they have been mainly focused on the physical damages that a given hazard could may induce on individual elements of such network. It is recent the awareness that mobility network represents a system, characterized by relevant interdependences both among its elements and among network infrastructures and urban systems. Based on these assumptions, this paper points out the heterogeneous aspects of the mobility network vulnerability and their relevance in increasing the overall territorial or urban vulnerability to hazardous events. Therefore, an in-depth investigation of the concept of mobility network vulnerability is provided, in order to highlight the aspects mostly investigated and more recent research perspectives. Finally, a case study in the Campania Region is presented in order to point out how traditional risk analyses, generally referred to individual hazards, can sometimes led to invest in the mobility network improvement or development which, targeted to increase the security of a territory result, on the opposite, in an increase of the territorial vulnerability.

Disease Containment Strategies based on Mobility and Information Dissemination.

Science.gov (United States)

Lima, A; De Domenico, M; Pejovic, V; Musolesi, M

2015-06-02

Human mobility and social structure are at the basis of disease spreading. Disease containment strategies are usually devised from coarse-grained assumptions about human mobility. Cellular networks data, however, provides finer-grained information, not only about how people move, but also about how they communicate. In this paper we analyze the behavior of a large number of individuals in Ivory Coast using cellular network data. We model mobility and communication between individuals by means of an interconnected multiplex structure where each node represents the population in a geographic area (i.e., a sous-préfecture, a third-level administrative region). We present a model that describes how diseases circulate around the country as people move between regions. We extend the model with a concurrent process of relevant information spreading. This process corresponds to people disseminating disease prevention information, e.g., hygiene practices, vaccination campaign notices and other, within their social network. Thus, this process interferes with the epidemic. We then evaluate how restricting the mobility or using preventive information spreading process affects the epidemic. We find that restricting mobility does not delay the occurrence of an endemic state and that an information campaign might be an effective countermeasure.

Mobilization of primitive and committed hematopoietic progenitors in nonhuman primates treated with defibrotide and recombinant human granulocyte colony-stimulating factor.

Science.gov (United States)

Carlo-Stella, Carmelo; Di Nicola, Massimo; Longoni, Paolo; Milani, Raffaella; Milanesi, Marco; Guidetti, Anna; Haanstra, Krista; Jonker, Margaret; Cleris, Loredana; Magni, Michele; Formelli, Franca; Gianni, Alesssandro M

2004-01-01

The aim of this study was to evaluate the capacity of defibrotide in enhancing cytokine-induced hematopoietic mobilization in rhesus monkeys. Animals received recombinant human granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (rhG-CSF, 100 microg/kg/day SC for 5 days) and, after a 4- to 6-week washout period, were remobilized with defibrotide (15 mg/kg/hour continuous intravenous for 5 days) plus rhG-CSF. Hematopoietic mobilization was evaluated by complete blood counts, differential counts, as well as frequency and absolute numbers of colony-forming cells (CFCs), high-proliferative potential CFCs (HPP-CFCs), and long-term culture-initiating cells (LTC-ICs). Compared to baseline values, rhG-CSF increased circulating CFCs, HPP-CFCs, and LTC-ICs by 158-, 125-, and 67-fold, respectively; the same figures for defibrotide/rhG-CSF were 299-, 1452-, and 295-fold, respectively. Defibrotide/rhG-CSF treatment compared to rhG-CSF alone increased CFCs, HPP-CFCs, and LTC-ICs by 1.4- (35,089 vs 25,825, pdefibrotide treatment associated with a 5-day rhG-CSF treatment. Compared to rhG-CSF, defibrotide/rhG-CSF increased the mobilization of CFCs, HPP-CFCs, and LTC-ICs by 2- (31,128 vs 15,527, pdefibrotide enhances rhG-CSF-elicited mobilization of primitive and committed progenitors; and 2) a 2-day defibrotide injection is as effective as a 5-day injection.

FAZENDINHA I: DESCOBERTA DE UM NOVO SÍTIO PRÉ-HISTÓRICO E DESCRIÇÃO PRELIMINAR DE SUAS INSCRIÇÕES RUPESTRES E PROBLEMAS DE CONSERVAÇÃO (Fazendinha I: Discovery of a New Prehistoric Site, Preliminary Description from its Rock Inscriptions, and Conservation Problems

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Luis Carlos Duarte Cavalcante

2016-06-01

Full Text Available O sítio arqueológico conhecido como Fazendinha I, descoberto em 2010, é um abrigo de arenito com inscrições pré-históricas, localizado na área rural de Piripiri, estado do Piauí, Brasil. O abrigo sob-rocha contém uma coleção excepcional de 141 pinturas rupestres e 65 gravuras rupestres. As pinturas rupestres consistem de grafismos geométricos abstratos, carimbos de mãos humanas, zoomorfos (lagartos e ornitomorfos, antropomorfos e fitomorfos, pintados predominantemente em diferentes tonalidades de vermelho, mas também em preto, alaranjado, vinho, púrpura-escuro e marrom-alaranjado. As gravuras rupestres (feitas por picotagem; algumas com acabamento por abrasão representam principalmente cúpules, mas também figuras abstratas e um lagarto (único animal gravado conhecido em todos os sítios pré-históricos da região arqueológica de Piripiri. A vasta maioria das gravuras foi também pintada. Além da elevada densidade de inscrições rupestres, há sobreposições e recorrências dos motivos pintados e gravados. Vegetação, fauna e estado de conservação das inscrições pré-históricas e do abrigo sob-rocha, são mencionados. ENGLISH: The archaeological site known as Fazendinha I, discovered in 2010, is a sandstone shelter with prehistoric inscriptions located in the rural area of Piripiri, in the state of Piauí, Brazil. The rockshelter contains an exceptional collection of 141 rock paintings and 65 rock engravings. The rock paintings consist of abstract geometric graphisms, human handprints, zoomorphs (lizards and ornithomorphs, anthropomorphs and phytomorphs, painted predominantly in different tonalities of red, but also in black, orangish, wine, dark-purple, and orangish brown. The rock engravings (made by pecking; some finished by abrading represent mainly cupules, but also abstract figures and a lizard (the only engraved animal known in all prehistoric sites of the archaeological region from Piripiri. The vast

Scalable and privacy-respectful interactive discovery of place semantics from human mobility traces

OpenAIRE

Andrienko, Natalia; Andrienko, Gennady; Fuchs, Georg; Jankowski, Piotr

2016-01-01

Mobility diaries of a large number of people are needed for assessing transportation infrastructure and for spatial development planning. Acquisition of personal mobility diaries through population surveys is a costly and error-prone endeavour. We examine an alternative approach to obtaining similar information from episodic digital traces of people’s presence in various locations, which appear when people use their mobile devices for making phone calls, accessing the internet, or posting geo...

Setting up a mobile dental practice within your present office structure.

Science.gov (United States)

Morreale, James P; Dimitry, Susan; Morreale, Mark; Fattore, Isabella

2005-02-01

Different service models have emerged in Canada and the United States to address the issue of senior citizens' lack of access to comprehensive dental care. Over the past decade, one such model, the use of mobile dental service units, has emerged as a practical strategy. This article describes a mobile unit, operated as an adjunct to the general practitioner's office and relying mainly on existing office resources, both human and capital, to deliver services at long-term care institutions. The essential components of a profitable geriatric mobile unit are described, including education, equipment, marketing research and development, and human resource management. Issues related to patient consent and operating expenditures are also discussed. Data from one practitioner's mobile dental unit, in Hamilton, Ontario, are presented to demonstrate the feasibility and profitability of this approach.

Mobile Probes in Mobile Learning

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Ørngreen, Rikke; Blomhøj, Ulla; Duvaa, Uffe

In this paper experiences from using mobile probes in educational design of a mobile learning application is presented. The probing process stems from the cultural probe method, and was influenced by qualitative interview and inquiry approaches. In the project, the mobile phone was not only acting...... as an agent for acquiring empirical data (as the situation in hitherto mobile probe settings) but was also the technological medium for which data should say something about (mobile learning). Consequently, not only the content of the data but also the ways in which data was delivered and handled, provided...... a valuable dimension for investigating mobile use. The data was collected at the same time as design activities took place and the collective data was analysed based on user experience goals and cognitive processes from interaction design and mobile learning. The mobile probe increased the knowledge base...

Mobile cosmetics advisor: an imaging based mobile service

Science.gov (United States)

Bhatti, Nina; Baker, Harlyn; Chao, Hui; Clearwater, Scott; Harville, Mike; Jain, Jhilmil; Lyons, Nic; Marguier, Joanna; Schettino, John; Süsstrunk, Sabine

2010-01-01

Selecting cosmetics requires visual information and often benefits from the assessments of a cosmetics expert. In this paper we present a unique mobile imaging application that enables women to use their cell phones to get immediate expert advice when selecting personal cosmetic products. We derive the visual information from analysis of camera phone images, and provide the judgment of the cosmetics specialist through use of an expert system. The result is a new paradigm for mobile interactions-image-based information services exploiting the ubiquity of camera phones. The application is designed to work with any handset over any cellular carrier using commonly available MMS and SMS features. Targeted at the unsophisticated consumer, it must be quick and easy to use, not requiring download capabilities or preplanning. Thus, all application processing occurs in the back-end system and not on the handset itself. We present the imaging pipeline technology and a comparison of the services' accuracy with respect to human experts.

Monitoring of selected skin- and breath-borne volatile organic compounds emitted from the human body using gas chromatography ion mobility spectrometry (GC-IMS).

Science.gov (United States)

Mochalski, Paweł; Wiesenhofer, Helmut; Allers, Maria; Zimmermann, Stefan; Güntner, Andreas T; Pineau, Nicolay J; Lederer, Wolfgang; Agapiou, Agapios; Mayhew, Christopher A; Ruzsanyi, Veronika

2018-02-15

Human smuggling and associated cross-border crimes have evolved as a major challenge for the European Union in recent years. Of particular concern is the increasing trend of smuggling migrants hidden inside shipping containers or trucks. Therefore, there is a growing demand for portable security devices for the non-intrusive and rapid monitoring of containers to detect people hiding inside. In this context, chemical analysis of volatiles organic compounds (VOCs) emitted from the human body is proposed as a locating tool. In the present study, an in-house made ion mobility spectrometer coupled with gas chromatography (GC-IMS) was used to monitor the volatile moieties released from the human body under conditions that mimic entrapment. A total of 17 omnipresent volatile compounds were identified and quantified from 35 ion mobility peaks corresponding to human presence. These are 7 aldehydes (acrolein, 2-methylpropanal, 3-methylbutanal, 2-ethacrolein, n-hexanal, n-heptanal, benzaldehyde), 3 ketones (acetone, 2-pentanone, 4-methyl-2-pentanone), 5 esters (ethyl formate, ethyl propionate, vinyl butyrate, butyl acetate, ethyl isovalerate), one alcohol (2-methyl-1-propanol) and one organic acid (acetic acid). The limits of detection (0.05-7.2 ppb) and relative standard deviations (0.6-11%) should be sufficient for detecting these markers of human presence in field conditions. This study shows that GC-IMS can be used as a portable field detector of hidden or entrapped people. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Isotopic evidence of human mobility and diet in a prehistoric/protohistoric Fijian coastal environment (c. 750-150 BP).

Science.gov (United States)

Stantis, Christina; Buckley, Hallie R; Kinaston, Rebecca L; Nunn, Patrick D; Jaouen, Klervia; Richards, Michael P

2016-03-01

Bourewa, on the southwest coast of Viti Levu in Fiji, is a multi-period site that contained burials dated to the later Vuda Phase (750-150 BP), a period of climatic fluctuations that potentially impacted the availability of food resources. We aim to investigate diet and movement at this site during a time of possible ecological pressure and political change. We analyzed δ(13) C, δ(15) N, and (87) Sr/(86) Sr of these Vuda Phase individuals (n = 25) interred at the site. By analyzing dentin and bone, both childhood diet and the diet within the past few years of adults' lives were examined. The paleodietary results suggested that adult diets consisted largely of low trophic level marine organisms. Dentin and bone isotopic values differed significantly: childhood diet involved consumption of more higher trophic level terrestrial foods. Most individuals displayed (87) Sr/(86) Sr ratios expected of people living along a marine coastline. However, a few individuals displayed (87) Sr/(86) Sr ratios and paleodietary values (δ(13) Cdentin , δ(15) Ndentin ) suggestive of living further inland or consuming a more terrestrial-based childhood diet. The results are compared with past studies of sites from Fiji and nearby archipelagoes, placing our interpretations into a wider regional context. The Bourewa community appears to have consumed more low trophic level marine foods than any nearby site, possibly because terrestrial foods were more difficult to acquire. Interpreting the childhood diet is challenging due to the paucity of ethnohistoric literature on Fijian childhood; small meals outside of communal mealtimes or feeding children terrestrial animal protein as a means of cultural buffering are potential explanations. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

On-the-job-training, job search and job mobility

OpenAIRE

Josef Zweimüller; Rudolf Winter-Ebmer

2003-01-01

This paper analyzes the impact of formal training on worker mobility. Using data from the Swiss Labor Force Survey, we find that both general and specific training significantly affects on-the-job search activities. The effect of training on actual job mobility differs between searchers and non-searchers. In line with human capital theory, we find that specific (general) training has a negative (positive) impact on job mobility for previous non-searchers. For individuals who have been looking...

Mobile phone and my health

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Surducan, Aneta; Dabala, Dana; Neamtu, Camelia; Surducan, Vasile; Surducan, Emanoil

2013-01-01

The interaction of the microwave radiation emitted by mobile phones with the user's body is analyzed from the International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP) recommendations perspective as a correlation between the specific absorption ratio (SAR) of the mobile phone and the call duration. The relative position of the cell phone to the user's body, the dielectric properties of the exposed body parts, the SAR value and the call duration are considered in the local body temperature rise due to the microwave heating effect. The recommended local temperature rise limit in the human body is evaluated according to standards. The aim of this study is to disseminate information to young people, especially high school students, about the microwave thermal effects on the human body, to make them aware of the environmental electromagnetic pollution and to offer them a simple method of biological self protection

Mobile phone and my health

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Surducan, Aneta [Nicolae Balcescu High School, 6 Constanta St., 400158 Cluj-Napoca (Romania); Dabala, Dana [National Railways Medical Clinic,, Occupational Medicine Department, 16-20 Republicii St., 400015 Cluj-Napoca (Romania); Neamtu, Camelia, E-mail: emanoil.surducan@itim-cj.ro; Surducan, Vasile, E-mail: emanoil.surducan@itim-cj.ro; Surducan, Emanoil, E-mail: emanoil.surducan@itim-cj.ro [National Institute for Research and Development of Isotopic and Molecular Technologies, 65-103 Donath St., 400293 Cluj-Napoca (Romania)

2013-11-13

The interaction of the microwave radiation emitted by mobile phones with the user's body is analyzed from the International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP) recommendations perspective as a correlation between the specific absorption ratio (SAR) of the mobile phone and the call duration. The relative position of the cell phone to the user's body, the dielectric properties of the exposed body parts, the SAR value and the call duration are considered in the local body temperature rise due to the microwave heating effect. The recommended local temperature rise limit in the human body is evaluated according to standards. The aim of this study is to disseminate information to young people, especially high school students, about the microwave thermal effects on the human body, to make them aware of the environmental electromagnetic pollution and to offer them a simple method of biological self protection.

Mobile phone and my health

Science.gov (United States)

Surducan, Aneta; Dabala, Dana; Neamtu, Camelia; Surducan, Vasile; Surducan, Emanoil

2013-11-01

The interaction of the microwave radiation emitted by mobile phones with the user's body is analyzed from the International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP) recommendations perspective as a correlation between the specific absorption ratio (SAR) of the mobile phone and the call duration. The relative position of the cell phone to the user's body, the dielectric properties of the exposed body parts, the SAR value and the call duration are considered in the local body temperature rise due to the microwave heating effect. The recommended local temperature rise limit in the human body is evaluated according to standards. The aim of this study is to disseminate information to young people, especially high school students, about the microwave thermal effects on the human body, to make them aware of the environmental electromagnetic pollution and to offer them a simple method of biological self protection.

Historical and Technical Notes on Aqueducts from Prehistoric to Medieval Times

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Giovanni De Feo

2013-11-01

Full Text Available The aim of this paper is to present the evolution of aqueduct technologies through the millennia, from prehistoric to medieval times. These hydraulic works were used by several civilizations to collect water from springs and to transport it to settlements, sanctuaries and other targets. Several civilizations, in China and the Americas, developed water transport systems independently, and brought these to high levels of sophistication. For the Mediterranean civilizations, one of the salient characteristics of cultural development, since the Minoan Era (ca. 3200–1100 BC, is the architectural and hydraulic function of aqueducts used for the water supply in palaces and other settlements. The Minoan hydrologists and engineers were aware of some of the basic principles of water sciences and the construction and operation of aqueducts. These technologies were further developed by subsequent civilizations. Advanced aqueducts were constructed by the Hellenes and, especially, by the Romans, who dramatically increased the application scale of these structures, in order to provide the extended quantities of water necessary for the Roman lifestyle of frequent bathing. The ancient practices and techniques were not improved but survived through Byzantine and early medieval times. Later, the Ottomans adapted older techniques, reintroducing large-scale aqueducts to supply their emerging towns with adequate water for religious and social needs. The scientific approach to engineering matters during the Renaissance further improved aqueduct technology. Some of these improvements were apparently also implemented in Ottoman waterworks. Finally the industrial revolution established mechanized techniques in water acquisition. Water is a common need of mankind, and several ancient civilizations developed simple but practical techniques from which we can still learn. Their experience and knowledge could still play an important role for sustainable water supply

Conceptual spatial representations for indoor mobile robots

OpenAIRE

Zender, Henrik; Mozos, Oscar Martinez; Jensfelt, Patric; Kruijff, Geert-Jan M.; Wolfram, Burgard

2008-01-01

We present an approach for creating conceptual representations of human-made indoor environments using mobile robots. The concepts refer to spatial and functional properties of typical indoor environments. Following findings in cognitive psychology, our model is composed of layers representing maps at different levels of abstraction. The complete system is integrated in a mobile robot endowed with laser and vision sensors for place and object recognition. The system also incorporate...

Mobile Watermarking against Geometrical Distortions

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jing Zhang

2015-08-01

Full Text Available Mobile watermarking robust to geometrical distortions is still a great challenge. In mobile watermarking, efficient computation is necessary because mobile devices have very limited resources due to power consumption. In this paper, we propose a low-complexity geometrically resilient watermarking approach based on the optimal tradeoff circular harmonic function (OTCHF correlation filter and the minimum average correlation energy Mellin radial harmonic (MACE-MRH correlation filter. By the rotation, translation and scale tolerance properties of the two kinds of filter, the proposed watermark detector can be robust to geometrical attacks. The embedded watermark is weighted by a perceptual mask which matches very well with the properties of the human visual system. Before correlation, a whitening process is utilized to improve watermark detection reliability. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed watermarking approach is computationally efficient and robust to geometrical distortions.

The opportunistic transmission of wireless worms between mobile devices

Science.gov (United States)

Rhodes, C. J.; Nekovee, M.

2008-12-01

The ubiquity of portable wireless-enabled computing and communications devices has stimulated the emergence of malicious codes (wireless worms) that are capable of spreading between spatially proximal devices. The potential exists for worms to be opportunistically transmitted between devices as they move around, so human mobility patterns will have an impact on epidemic spread. The scenario we address in this paper is proximity attacks from fleetingly in-contact wireless devices with short-range communication range, such as Bluetooth-enabled smart phones. An individual-based model of mobile devices is introduced and the effect of population characteristics and device behaviour on the outbreak dynamics is investigated. The model uses straight-line motion to achieve population, though it is recognised that this is a highly simplified representation of human mobility patterns. We show that the contact rate can be derived from the underlying mobility model and, through extensive simulation, that mass-action epidemic models remain applicable to worm spreading in the low density regime studied here. The model gives useful analytical expressions against which more refined simulations of worm spread can be developed and tested.

MOBILE GIS: A TOOL FOR INFORMAL SETTLEMENT OCCUPANCY AUDIT TO IMPROVE INTEGRATED HUMAN SETTLEMENT IMPLEMENTATION IN EKURHULENI, SOUTH AFRICA

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

B. T. Mokoena

2016-06-01

Full Text Available Upgrading and relocating people in informal settlements requires consistent commitment, good strategies and systems so as to improve the lives of those who live in them. In South Africa, in order to allocate subsidised housing to beneficiaries of an informal settlement, beneficiary administration needs to be completed to determine the number of people who qualify for a subsidised house. Conventional methods of occupancy audits are often unreliable, cumbersome and non-spatial. Accordingly, this study proposes the use of mobile GIS to conduct these audits to provide up-to-date, accurate, comprehensive and real-time data so as to facilitate the development of integrated human settlements. An occupancy audit was subsequently completed for one of the communities in the Ekurhuleni municipality, Gauteng province, using web-based mobile GIS as a solution to providing smart information through evidence based decision making. Fieldworkers accessed the off-line capturing module on a mobile device recording GPS coordinates, socio-economic information and photographs. The results of this audit indicated that only 56.86% of the households residing within the community could potentially benefit from receiving a subsidised house. Integrated residential development, which includes fully and partially subsidised housing, serviced stands and some fully bonded housing opportunities, would then be key to adequately providing access to suitable housing options within a project in a post-colonial South Africa, creating new post-1994 neighbourhoods, in line with policy. The use of mobile GIS therefore needs to be extended to other informal settlement upgrading projects in South Africa.

Abrechnung mobiler Dienste im Mobile-Payment-Referenzmodell

OpenAIRE

Pousttchi, Key; Wiedemann, Dietmar Georg

2005-01-01

The purpose of the paper is to analyze mobile payments in the mobile commerce scenario. Therefore, we first classify the mobile payment in the mobile commerce scenario by explaining general offer models, charging concepts, and intermediaries. Second, we describe the mobile payment reference model, especially, the mobile payment reference organization model and different mobile payment standard types. Finally, we conclude our findings.

Mobile health: the power of wearables, sensors, and apps to transform clinical trials.

Science.gov (United States)

Munos, Bernard; Baker, Pamela C; Bot, Brian M; Crouthamel, Michelle; de Vries, Glen; Ferguson, Ian; Hixson, John D; Malek, Linda A; Mastrototaro, John J; Misra, Veena; Ozcan, Aydogan; Sacks, Leonard; Wang, Pei

2016-07-01

Mobile technology has become a ubiquitous part of everyday life, and the practical utility of mobile devices for improving human health is only now being realized. Wireless medical sensors, or mobile biosensors, are one such technology that is allowing the accumulation of real-time biometric data that may hold valuable clues for treating even some of the most devastating human diseases. From wearable gadgets to sophisticated implantable medical devices, the information retrieved from mobile technology has the potential to revolutionize how clinical research is conducted and how disease therapies are delivered in the coming years. Encompassing the fields of science and engineering, analytics, health care, business, and government, this report explores the promise that wearable biosensors, along with integrated mobile apps, hold for improving the quality of patient care and clinical outcomes. The discussion focuses on groundbreaking device innovation, data optimization and validation, commercial platform integration, clinical implementation and regulation, and the broad societal implications of using mobile health technologies. © 2016 New York Academy of Sciences.

Cross-Cultural Design of Mobile Mathematics Learning Service for South African Schools

Science.gov (United States)

Walsh, Tanja; Vainio, Teija; Varsaluoma, Jari

2014-01-01

In the era of mobile devices and services, researchers in the educational domain have been interested in how to support learning with mobile technology in both local and global contexts. Recent human-computer interaction (HCI) research in the educational domain has particularly focused on how to develop mobile learning services and how to evaluate…

Autonomous navigation system for mobile robots of inspection

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Angulo S, P.; Segovia de los Rios, A.

2005-01-01

One of the goals in robotics is the human personnel's protection that work in dangerous areas or of difficult access, such it is the case of the nuclear industry where exist areas that, for their own nature, they are inaccessible for the human personnel, such as areas with high radiation level or high temperatures; it is in these cases where it is indispensable the use of an inspection system that is able to carry out a sampling of the area in order to determine if this areas can be accessible for the human personnel. In this situation it is possible to use an inspection system based on a mobile robot, of preference of autonomous navigation, for the realization of such inspection avoiding by this way the human personnel's exposure. The present work proposes a model of autonomous navigation for a mobile robot Pioneer 2-D Xe based on the algorithm of wall following using the paradigm of fuzzy logic. (Author)

A Survey on Security, Privacy and Trust in Mobile Crowdsourcing

OpenAIRE

Feng, Wei; Yan, Zheng; Zhang, Hengrun; Zeng, Kai; Xiao, Yu; Hou, Thomas

2017-01-01

With the popularity of sensor-rich mobile devices (e.g., smart phones and wearable devices), Mobile Crowdsourcing (MCS) has emerged as an effective method for data collection and processing. Compared with traditional Wireless Sensor Networking (WSN), MCS holds many advantages such as mobility, scalability, cost-efficiency, and human intelligence. However, MCS still faces many challenges with regard to security, privacy and trust. This paper provides a survey of these challenges and discusses ...

Smart Agent Based Mobile Tutoring and Querying System

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Suresh Sankaranarayanan

2012-08-01

Full Text Available With our busy schedules today and the rising cost of education there is a need to find a convenient and cost effective means of maximizing our educational/training experiences. New trends in the delivery/access of information are becoming more technology based in all areas of society with education being no exception. The ubiquitous use of mobile devices has led to a boom in m-commerce. Mobile devices provide many services in commercial environments such as mobile banking, mobile purchasing, mobile learning, etc. It is therefore fitting that we seek to use mobile devices as a platform in delivering our convenient and cost effective solution. The proposed agent based Mobile tutoring system seeks to provide a student with a rich learning experience that will provide them with the relevant reading material based on their stage of development which allows them to move at their own pace. The system will allow the user to be able to ask certain questions and get explanations as if they were interacting with a human tutor but with the added benefit of being able to do this anytime in any location via their mobile phone.

Mobile phone specific electromagnetic fields induce transient DNA damage and nucleotide excision repair in serum-deprived human glioblastoma cells.

Science.gov (United States)

Al-Serori, Halh; Ferk, Franziska; Kundi, Michael; Bileck, Andrea; Gerner, Christopher; Mišík, Miroslav; Nersesyan, Armen; Waldherr, Monika; Murbach, Manuel; Lah, Tamara T; Herold-Mende, Christel; Collins, Andrew R; Knasmüller, Siegfried

2018-01-01

Some epidemiological studies indicate that the use of mobile phones causes cancer in humans (in particular glioblastomas). It is known that DNA damage plays a key role in malignant transformation; therefore, we investigated the impact of the UMTS signal which is widely used in mobile telecommunications, on DNA stability in ten different human cell lines (six brain derived cell lines, lymphocytes, fibroblasts, liver and buccal tissue derived cells) under conditions relevant for users (SAR 0.25 to 1.00 W/kg). We found no evidence for induction of damage in single cell gel electrophoresis assays when the cells were cultivated with serum. However, clear positive effects were seen in a p53 proficient glioblastoma line (U87) when the cells were grown under serum free conditions, while no effects were found in p53 deficient glioblastoma cells (U251). Further experiments showed that the damage disappears rapidly in U87 and that exposure induced nucleotide excision repair (NER) and does not cause double strand breaks (DSBs). The observation of NER induction is supported by results of a proteome analysis indicating that several proteins involved in NER are up-regulated after exposure to UMTS; additionally, we found limited evidence for the activation of the γ-interferon pathway. The present findings show that the signal causes transient genetic instability in glioma derived cells and activates cellular defense systems.

How Dry was too Dry? Evaluating the Impact of Climatic Stress on Prehistoric Human Populations in southern Ethiopia.

Science.gov (United States)

Foerster, V. E.; Asrat, A.; Cohen, A. S.; Junginger, A.; Lamb, H. F.; Schaebitz, F.; Trauth, M. H.; Vogelsang, R.

2016-12-01

What role did abrupt climate shifts play in human evolution and the dispersal of Homo sapiens within and beyond the African continent? How did gradual climatic transitions on the other hand affect cultural and technological innovations in the source region of modern humans? In order to evaluate the effect of environmental instability on human evolution, with their cultural and technological innovations, and with their expansion out of Africa, it is essential to understand how the east African climate switches from dry to wet and back to dry. Determining the timespan of both long-term transitions and climate flickers eventually provides the much needed environmental information how much time early humans had to react (evolution, migration, adaption) to the profound changes in their living environment. As a contribution to providing an environmental context to these central questions on human-climate interaction, the Hominin Sites and Paleolakes Drilling Project (HSPDP) has successfully completed coring five fluvio-lacustrine archives of climate change during the last 3.5 Ma in East Africa. The five high-priority areas in Ethiopia and Kenya are located in close proximity to key paleoanthropological sites covering various steps in evolution. Here we present a comparison between the youngest part of our continuous climate reconstruction (temporal resolution of up to 3 years) from the Chew Bahir site in southern Ethiopia and the available archaeological record of human presence in the source region of modern humans for the past 20 ka. The results contribute to test hypotheses on the impact of climatic stress on migration, the role of human decision-making and environmental thresholds (Foerster et al., 2015, 2016). Furthermore, we match key technological innovations in the area with the profound environmental changes during the highly debated mid-Holocene wet-dry transition. Finally, we give a first overview over possible phases of climatic stress during the last >500 ka

Dwelling and Mobility in Postphenomenological Perspective

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Botin, Lars

where it can live within familiar frameworks where we have arranged the various elements in a way that makes it meaningful and appropriate in relation to our physical being. Contemporary globalized reality is characterized by a request of flexibility and mobility where the individual is envisioned...... as a puzzle-piece that can be moved and transformed in relation to which tasks are required. The late-capitalist commodification of humans, which has been the result of globalization, has deteriorated the intimate relationship in between humans and place, hence in a Heideggerian perspective preventing us from...... thinking and reflecting. The question is whether Post-phenomenology has potentials for re-installing the sense of place in relation to bodies, and furthermore can contribute on a tool level to appropriate solutions for design. The paper will present state of art research on mobility in a globalized world...

Climate and demography in early prehistory: using calibrated (14)C dates as population proxies.

Science.gov (United States)

Riede, Felix

2009-04-01

Although difficult to estimate for prehistoric hunter-gatherer populations, demographic variables-population size, density, and the connectedness of demes-are critical for a better understanding of the processes of material culture change, especially in deep prehistory. Demography is the middle-range link between climatic changes and both biological and cultural evolutionary trajectories of human populations. Much of human material culture functions as a buffer against climatic changes, and the study of prehistoric population dynamics, estimated through changing frequencies of calibrated radiocarbon dates, therefore affords insights into how effectively such buffers operated and when they failed. In reviewing a number of case studies (Mesolithic Ireland, the origin of the Bromme culture, and the earliest late glacial human recolonization of southern Scandinavia), I suggest that a greater awareness of demographic processes, and in particular of demographic declines, provides many fresh insights into what structured the archaeological record. I argue that we cannot sideline climatic and environmental factors or extreme geophysical events in our reconstructions of prehistoric culture change. The implications of accepting demographic variability as a departure point for evaluating the archaeological record are discussed.

Type W Human Endogenous Retrovirus (HERV-W) Integrations and Their Mobilization by L1 Machinery: Contribution to the Human Transcriptome and Impact on the Host Physiopathology.

Science.gov (United States)

Grandi, Nicole; Tramontano, Enzo

2017-06-27

Human Endogenous Retroviruses (HERVs) are ancient infection relics constituting ~8% of our DNA. While HERVs' genomic characterization is still ongoing, impressive amounts of data have been obtained regarding their general expression across tissues. Among HERVs, one of the most studied is the W group, which is the sole HERV group specifically mobilized by the long interspersed element-1 (LINE-1) machinery, providing a source of novel insertions by retrotransposition of HERV-W processed pseudogenes, and comprising a member encoding a functional envelope protein coopted for human placentation. The HERV-W group has been intensively investigated for its putative role in several diseases, such as cancer, inflammation, and autoimmunity. Despite major interest in the link between HERV-W expression and human pathogenesis, no conclusive correlation has been demonstrated so far. In general, (i) the absence of a proper identification of the specific HERV-W sequences expressed in a given condition, and (ii) the lack of studies attempting to connect the various observations in the same experimental conditions are the major problems preventing the definitive assessment of the HERV-W impact on human physiopathology. In this review, we summarize the current knowledge on the HERV-W group presence within the human genome and its expression in physiological tissues as well as in the main pathological contexts.

Aplikasi Pembelajaran Berbasis Mobile Untuk Tuna Aksara

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Muhammad Irwan Padli Nasution

2016-05-01

Full Text Available Abstract - Learning is a process of transformation that is initially not knowing to knowing. Has developed a lot of learning strategies from simple to more complex models even complicated and required a lot of tools in its application. Literacy is a basic of knowledge for humans.  They can read by improving their quality, which leads to the high intellect of a person. Especially at this time humanity has entered the information age. The phenomenon of globalization is happening now accelerating so quickly, as the impact of  application of Hi-tech society (high-tech society, which causes humans followed on interaction patterns very quickly. Using Information and Communication Technology (ICT could be developed multimedia teaching materials with the concept of learning by playing fun and implemented on a mobile based learning applications. The use of mobile devices that is easy and flexibility is very useful to support the learning process for the illiterate.

Mobile Customer Relationship Management and Mobile Security

Science.gov (United States)

Sanayei, Ali; Mirzaei, Abas

The purpose of this study is twofold. First, in order to guarantee a coherent discussion about mobile customer relationship management (mCRM), this paper presents a conceptualization of mCRM delineating its unique characteristics because of Among the variety of mobile services, considerable attention has been devoted to mobile marketing and in particular to mobile customer relationship management services. Second, the authors discusses the security risks in mobile computing in different level(user, mobile device, wireless network,...) and finally we focus on enterprise mobile security and it's subgroups with a series of suggestion and solution for improve mobile computing security.

Human-machine interface in mobile teleoperators

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Draper, J.V.

1985-01-01

In this document the following point has been made: human-machine interface is not ideal, and may be improved upon: telepresence is ideal but not required; current interfaces degrade normal human inputs/outputs; available and developing technology can improve interfaces

An Efficient and Secure m-IPS Scheme of Mobile Devices for Human-Centric Computing

OpenAIRE

Jeong, Young-Sik; Lee, Jae Dong; Lee, Jeong-Bae; Jung, Jai-Jin; Park, Jong Hyuk

2014-01-01

Recent rapid developments in wireless and mobile IT technologies have led to their application in many real-life areas, such as disasters, home networks, mobile social networks, medical services, industry, schools, and the military. Business/work environments have become wire/wireless, integrated with wireless networks. Although the increase in the use of mobile devices that can use wireless networks increases work efficiency and provides greater convenience, wireless access to networks repre...

Mobile Payments : Comparison of Mobile Wallet Concepts

OpenAIRE

Narayan, Srikant

2013-01-01

Mobile payments are an emerging trend and an alternative to traditional payment methods. Mobile payments involve the usage of the mobile phone to handle credit transfers during purchase of goods and peer to peer money transfers referred to as mobile wallet service, instead of depending on bank cards and cash. In this scenario, while the mobile wallet industry still being in its infancy there exist a few drivers of mobile wallet solutions aiming to create a de-facto standard in the mobile mark...

Risks of carcinogenesis from electromagnetic radiation of mobile telephony devices.

Science.gov (United States)

Yakymenko, I; Sidorik, E

2010-07-01

Intensive implementation of mobile telephony technology in everyday human life during last two decades has given a possibility for epidemiological estimation of long-term effects of chronic exposure of human organism to low-intensive microwave (MW) radiation. Latest epidemiological data reveal a significant increase in risk of development of some types of tumors in chronic (over 10 years) users of mobile phone. It was detected a significant increase in incidence of brain tumors (glioma, acoustic neuroma, meningioma), parotid gland tumor, seminoma in long-term users of mobile phone, especially in cases of ipsilateral use (case-control odds ratios from 1.3 up to 6.1). Two epidemiological studies have indicated a significant increase of cancer incidence in people living close to the mobile telephony base station as compared with the population from distant area. These data raise a question of adequacy of modern safety limits of electromagnetic radiation (EMR) exposure for humans. For today the limits were based solely on the conception of thermal mechanism of biological effects of RF/MW radiation. Meantime the latest experimental data indicate the significant metabolic changes in living cell under the low-intensive (non-thermal) EMR exposure. Among reproducible biological effects of low-intensive MWs are reactive oxygen species overproduction, heat shock proteins expression, DNA damages, apoptosis. The lack of generally accepted mechanism of biological effects of low-intensive non-ionizing radiation doesn't permit to disregard the obvious epidemiological and experimental data of its biological activity. Practical steps must be done for reasonable limitation of excessive EMR exposure, along with the implementation of new safety limits of mobile telephony devices radiation, and new technological decisions, which would take out the source of radiation from human brain.

Pathoecology of Chiribaya parasitism

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Martinson Elizabeth

2003-01-01

Full Text Available The excavations of Chiribaya culture sites in the Osmore drainage of southern Peru focused on the recovery of information about prehistoric disease, including parasitism. The archaeologists excavated human, dog, guinea pig, and llama mummies. These mummies were analyzed for internal and external parasites. The results of the analysis and reconstruction of prehistoric life from the excavations allows us to interpret the pathoecology of the Chiribaya culture.

Mobile technologies for disease surveillance in humans and animals

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mpoki Mwabukusi

2014-04-01

Full Text Available A paper-based disease reporting system has been associated with a number of challenges. These include difficulties to submit hard copies of the disease surveillance forms because of poor road infrastructure, weather conditions or challenging terrain, particularly in the developing countries. The system demands re-entry of the data at data processing and analysis points, thus making it prone to introduction of errors during this process. All these challenges contribute to delayed acquisition, processing and response to disease events occurring in remote hard to reach areas. Our study piloted the use of mobile phones in order to transmit near to real-time data from remote districts in Tanzania (Ngorongoro and Ngara, Burundi (Muyinga and Zambia (Kazungula and Sesheke. Two technologies namely, digital and short messaging services were used to capture and transmit disease event data in the animal and human health sectors in the study areas based on a server–client model. Smart phones running the Android operating system (minimum required version: Android 1.6, and which supported open source application, Epicollect, as well as the Open Data Kit application, were used in the study. These phones allowed collection of geo-tagged data, with the opportunity of including static and moving images related to disease events. The project supported routine disease surveillance systems in the ministries responsible for animal and human health in Burundi, Tanzania and Zambia, as well as data collection for researchers at the Sokoine University of Agriculture, Tanzania. During the project implementation period between 2011 and 2013, a total number of 1651 diseases event-related forms were submitted, which allowed reporters to include GPS coordinates and photographs related to the events captured. It was concluded that the new technology-based surveillance system is useful in providing near to real-time data, with potential for enhancing

Mobile video with mobile IPv6

CERN Document Server

Minoli, Daniel

2012-01-01

Increased reliance on mobile devices and streaming of video content are two of the most recent changes that have led those in the video distribution industry to be concerned about the shifting or erosion of traditional advertising revenues. Infrastructure providers also need to position themselves to take advantage of these trends. Mobile Video with Mobile IPv6provides an overview of the current mobile landscape, then delves specifically into the capabilities and operational details of IPv6. The book also addresses 3G and 4G services, the application of Mobile IPv6 to streaming and other mobil

Soft Mobility and Urban Transformation

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Rosa Anna La Rocca

2010-04-01

Full Text Available This paper examines some European cases referred to promotion of soft mobility as a new lifestyle aimed to improve benefits on environment and urban liveability. Soft mobility includes any non-motorized transport (human powered mobility. According to this, soft mobility refers to pedestrian, bicycle, roller skate and skateboard transfers. It could be indented as “zeroimpact” mobility too. As a matter of fact, the words to define this way of moving have not been codified yet, therefore mobilitè douce, soft mobility, slow traffic are synonymous in referring mainly to pedestrians and cyclists to indicate alternative to car use. Soft mobility, indeed, can be defined as a special form of sustainable mobility able to optimize urban liveability, by keeping the individual right to move. At present, cities are engaged in defining policies, procedures and interventions to further “slow traffic”, both to relieve the traffic congestion, and to work for regeneration and environmental improvements. This asks for an in-depth cooperation between different political and administrative levels to achieve common objectives of development more attentive to environmental concerns. Despite this increasing attention, the idea of a “network” for soft mobility has not been yet achieved and the supply of integrated facilities and services as an alternative to the car use seems to be still difficult of accomplishment. High disparity characterizes European countries in promoting soft mobility: despite a prolific production of laws and roles referred to emergency of adopting alternative ways of moving to minimize negatives impacts (especially air and noise pollution as very threat to health due to car dependence for urban short distance too. And yet, soft mobility could represent a real occasion of urban and territorial regeneration aimed to rehabilitate some disused paths and routes (greenways. Some successful European cases show how it is possible to

Spatial Heterogeneity and Population Mobility in India

OpenAIRE

Jajati Keshari Parida; S Madheswaran

2010-01-01

Mobility is one of the important aspects of human nature, which is often guided by socio-economic, political as well as environmental factors. The nature, pattern and direction of population mobility may vary across the space. The dynamics of internal migration in India plays an important role in the process of economic development and social transformation and shows an increasing trend of rural to urban flow over the years. At the same time, it shows falling trends in all other streams of mi...

Sport mobilities across borders: postcolonial perspectives

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Besnier, N.

2015-01-01

The circulation of mobile professional athletes, a phenomenon whose visibility increased exponentially in the last couple of decades of the twentieth century, poses important questions for postcolonial approaches to the human condition. At first glance, the orientation of entire segments of the

Parameter Scaling for Epidemic Size in a Spatial Epidemic Model with Mobile Individuals.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Chiyori T Urabe

Full Text Available In recent years, serious infectious diseases tend to transcend national borders and widely spread in a global scale. The incidence and prevalence of epidemics are highly influenced not only by pathogen-dependent disease characteristics such as the force of infection, the latent period, and the infectious period, but also by human mobility and contact patterns. However, the effect of heterogeneous mobility of individuals on epidemic outcomes is not fully understood. Here, we aim to elucidate how spatial mobility of individuals contributes to the final epidemic size in a spatial susceptible-exposed-infectious-recovered (SEIR model with mobile individuals in a square lattice. After illustrating the interplay between the mobility parameters and the other parameters on the spatial epidemic spreading, we propose an index as a function of system parameters, which largely governs the final epidemic size. The main contribution of this study is to show that the proposed index is useful for estimating how parameter scaling affects the final epidemic size. To demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed index, we show that there is a positive correlation between the proposed index computed with the real data of human airline travels and the actual number of positive incident cases of influenza B in the entire world, implying that the growing incidence of influenza B is attributed to increased human mobility.

An architecture to support design of context-aware mobile applications

OpenAIRE

Stoica, George Adrian

2010-01-01

This thesis deals with the problem of interaction with context-aware mobile applications in digitally augmented physical spaces. The term "mobile application" is used as an umbrella term for any piece of software that can run on a mobile device in order to support a human task. “Context-aware” refers to the ability of such applications to use information about the environment or the user to adapt their behaviour accordingly. A "physical hyperlink" is a mechanism that associates a physical obj...

Mobile phones and mobile communication

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Ling, Richard; Donner, Jonathan

With staggering swiftness, the mobile phone has become a fixture of daily life in almost every society on earth. In 2007, the world had over 3 billion mobile subscriptions. Prosperous nations boast of having more subscriptions than people. In the developing world, hundreds of millions of people who...... could never afford a landline telephone now have a mobile number of their own. With a mobile in our hand many of us feel safer, more productive, and more connected to loved ones, but perhaps also more distracted and less involved with things happening immediately around us. Written by two leading...... researchers in the field, this volume presents an overview of the mobile telephone as a social and cultural phenomenon. Research is summarized and made accessible though detailed descriptions of ten mobile users from around the world. These illustrate popular debates, as well as deeper social forces at work...

Mobile social phonebooks - Mobile phone user perceptions and practical implications for mobile operators

OpenAIRE

Karikoski, Juuso; Mäkinen, Olli

2012-01-01

Julkaisun kokoteksti on luettavissa vain Aalto-tunnuksilla. Please note that access to the fulltext is limited to Aalto staff and students. We introduce a term called mobile social phonebook, which refers to the integration of traditional mobile phone contacts with contacts from mobile Internet communication services that is happening in the mobile device’s phonebook. First, mobile phone user perceptions towards mobile social phonebooks are studied by means of semi-structured interviews...

33 CFR 165.835 - Security Zone; Port of Mobile, Mobile Ship Channel, Mobile, AL.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-07-01

... 33 Navigation and Navigable Waters 2 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Security Zone; Port of Mobile, Mobile Ship Channel, Mobile, AL. 165.835 Section 165.835 Navigation and Navigable Waters COAST GUARD... § 165.835 Security Zone; Port of Mobile, Mobile Ship Channel, Mobile, AL. (a) Definition. As used in...

Treatment of human and livestock helminth infections in a mobile pastoralist setting at Lake Chad: Attitudes to health and analysis of active pharmaceutical ingredients of locally available anthelminthic drugs.

Science.gov (United States)

Greter, Helena; Cowan, Noemi; Ngandolo, Bongo N; Kessely, Hamit; Alfaroukh, Idriss O; Utzinger, Jürg; Keiser, Jennifer; Zinsstag, Jakob

2017-11-01

Mobile pastoralists face challenges in accessing quality health care and medication for managing human and animal diseases. We determined livestock disease priorities, health seeking behaviour of people bearing helminthiases and - placing particular emphasis on trematode infections - treatment strategies and outcome satisfaction among mobile pastoralists of four ethnic groups in the Lake Chad area using focus group discussions. People suffering from schistosomiasis were interviewed about symptoms, health seeking behaviour and their satisfaction with respect to the provided treatment. Anthelminthic drugs for human and veterinary use obtained from various health care structures were analysed for active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) and quantity, using high pressure liquid chromatography-UV and liquid chromatography combined with tandem mass spectrometry. Most people suffering from schistosomiasis sought treatment at health care centres. Yet, they also consulted informal providers without medical training. Regarding animal health, self-mediated therapy was common to manage suspected livestock fascioliasis. Self-reported treatment satisfaction for human schistosomiasis and trematodiasis treatment outcome in livestock were low. Mobile pastoralists perceived the purchased drugs to be of low quality. Among 33 products locally sold as anthelminthic drugs for human or veterinary use, 27 contained albendazole or mebendazole, varying between 91% and 159% of the labelled amount. Six products were sold loosely with incomplete information and their API could not be identified. No counterfeit anthelminthic drugs were detected. None of the samples contained praziquantel or triclabendazole, the drugs of choice against schistosomiasis and fascioliasis, respectively. The perceived unsatisfactory treatment outcomes in humans and animals infected with trematodes are most likely due to empiric diagnosis and the resulting use of inadequate therapy for human schistosomiasis and the

Autonomous Industrial Mobile Manipulation (AIMM)

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hvilshøj, Mads; Bøgh, Simon; Nielsen, Oluf Skov

2012-01-01

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to provide a review of the interdisciplinary research field Autonomous Industrial Mobile Manipulation (AIMM), with an emphasis on physical implementations and applications. Design/methodology/approach - Following an introduction to AIMM, this paper investiga......Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to provide a review of the interdisciplinary research field Autonomous Industrial Mobile Manipulation (AIMM), with an emphasis on physical implementations and applications. Design/methodology/approach - Following an introduction to AIMM, this paper......; sustainability, configuration, adaptation, autonomy, positioning, manipulation and grasping, robot-robot interaction, human-robot interaction, process quality, dependability, and physical properties. Findings - The concise yet comprehensive review provides both researchers (academia) and practitioners (industry......) with a quick and gentle overview of AIMM. Furthermore, the paper identifies key open issues and promising research directions to realize real-world integration and maturation of the AIMM technology. Originality/value - This paper reviews the interdisciplinary research field Autonomous Industrial Mobile...

Mobility in pictures: a participatory photovoice narrative study exploring powered mobility provision for children and families.

Science.gov (United States)

Feldner, Heather A; Logan, Samuel W; Galloway, James C

2018-03-09

Rehabilitation professionals are increasingly recognizing mobility as a basic human right and endorsing the efficacy of early powered mobility for children with mobility impairments to foster independence, promote socialization with peers and facilitate participation in family and community life. However, the relationship between mobility and technology provision, when considered in the context of lived experiences of children with mobility impairments and their families, is complex and understudied. Perceptions of these experiences from children's own points of view are especially limited, as is the use of participatory research methods in describing these experiences. The purpose of this study was to empower children and families as co-researchers, investigating their experiences and perspectives of powered mobility provision processes and early use of their mobility technology in their own words and images.  Methods: Two families in a major Midwest metropolitan area- one who was receiving a powered wheelchair and one who was receiving a modified powered ride-on toy car- participated as co-researchers from 2015-2016, documenting their experiences with a research camera and narrating their photos to describe meaningful or important aspects of their respective powered mobility provision processes and early use of their devices. Four themes emerged: (1) Dys/Function of Mobility Technology; (2) Daily Life, Play and Participation; (3) Emerging Self/Advocacy and (4) Complex Family/Industry Interplay.  Conclusions: These themes and experiences may inform further innovation in powered mobility practices, generate new hypotheses about the role of technology in shaping disability identity and demonstrate the feasibility and impact of using participatory methods more broadly in rehabilitation research. Implications for Rehabilitation Participatory methods may be a useful and underutilized research tool in describing the impact of powered mobility provision processes on

Mobile Semiotics - signs and mobilities

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jensen, Ole B.

a potential for mobilities studies if the awareness of seeing the environment as a semiotic layer and system can be sensitized to the insights of the ‘mobilities turn’. Empirically the paper tentatively explores the usefulness of a mobile semiotics approach to cases such as street signage, airport design...

X-ray image segmentation for vertebral mobility analysis

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Benjelloun, Mohammed; Mahmoudi, Said

2008-01-01

The goal of this work is to extract the parameters determining vertebral motion and its variation during flexion-extension movements using a computer vision tool for estimating and analyzing vertebral mobility. To compute vertebral body motion parameters we propose a comparative study between two segmentation methods proposed and applied to lateral X-ray images of the cervical spine. The two vertebra contour detection methods include (1) a discrete dynamic contour model (DDCM) and (2) a template matching process associated with a polar signature system. These two methods not only enable vertebra segmentation but also extract parameters that can be used to evaluate vertebral mobility. Lateral cervical spine views including 100 views in flexion, extension and neutral orientations were available for evaluation. Vertebral body motion was evaluated by human observers and using automatic methods. The results provided by the automated approaches were consistent with manual measures obtained by 15 human observers. The automated techniques provide acceptable results for the assessment of vertebral body mobility in flexion and extension on lateral views of the cervical spine. (orig.)

The History and the Technological Study of Traditional Tibetan Painting Pigment

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

DanbaRabden; Ngawang; SonamRechen; ChimeDorje; ZhuHong

2003-01-01

Like all societies whose origins predate the invention of the written word, many aspects of prehistoric Tibet are lost in a blur of mystery. Yet archeologists are digging into the ruins left by Tibet's earliest human inhabitants to help carve away the lack of knowledge,just as art historians are examining ancient paintings left inside Tibetan caves to sketch out the contours of prehistoric life and art on the Roof of the World.

Navigation Algorithm Using Fuzzy Control Method in Mobile Robotics

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Cviklovič Vladimír

2016-03-01

Full Text Available The issue of navigation methods is being continuously developed globally. The aim of this article is to test the fuzzy control algorithm for track finding in mobile robotics. The concept of an autonomous mobile robot EN20 has been designed to test its behaviour. The odometry navigation method was used. The benefits of fuzzy control are in the evidence of mobile robot’s behaviour. These benefits are obtained when more physical variables on the base of more input variables are controlled at the same time. In our case, there are two input variables - heading angle and distance, and two output variables - the angular velocity of the left and right wheel. The autonomous mobile robot is moving with human logic.

Using Mobility to Enhance the Routing Process in the MIS System

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Elkoutbi Mohammed

2009-10-01

Full Text Available In this paper, we introduce the original Mobile Intelligent System (MIS in embedded FPGA architecture. This node will allow the construction of autonomous mobile network units which can move in unknowns, inaccessible or hostile environnement for human being, in order to collect data by various sensors and transmits them by routing to a unit of distant process. In the sake of improving the performance of routing unit, we propose a measure of mobility. Each node measure its own mobility in the network, based on the change of the links state in his neighboring. This measure of mobility has no unit, and it is calculated by quantification in regular time intervals.

Characterization of ancient teeth and bones from animal and pre-historic human by nuclear methods

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)