Working Through Colonial Collections

What are the possibilities and limits of engaging with colonialism in ethnological museums? This book addresses this question from within the Africa department of the Ethnological Museum in Berlin. It captures the Museum at a moment of substantial transformation, as it prepared the move of its exhibition to the Humboldt Forum, a newly built and contested cultural centre on Berlin’s Museum Island. The book discusses almost a decade of debate in which German colonialism was negotiated, and further recognised, through conflicts over colonial museum collections. Based on two years of ethnographic fieldwork examining the Museum’s various work practices, this book highlights the Museum’s embeddedness in colonial logics and shows how these unfold in the Museum’s everyday activity. It addresses the diverse areas of expertise in the Ethnological Museum – the preservation, storage, curation, and research of collections – and also draws on archival research and oral history interviews with current and former employees. Working through Colonial Collections unravels the ongoing and laborious processes of reckoning with colonialism in the Ethnological Museum’s present – processes from which other ethnological museums, as well as Western museums more generally, can learn.

An Attempt to Assess the Impact of Pandemic Restrictions on the Lifestyle, Diet, and Body Mass Index of Children with Endocrine Diseases—Preliminary Results

Background: Home isolation during the coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic lockdown strongly impacted everyday life, affecting, in particular, eating habits and everyday activity. The aim of this study was to analyze the impact of the pandemic on behaviors and subsequent changes in body mass index (BMI) in children from Southern Poland. Methods: The study included 206 participants (104 females and 102 males) with a complete analysis of 177 participants (96 females and 81 males) with a mean age of 12.8 ± 2.6 years admitted to three pediatric endocrinology clinics (Rzeszów, Kraków, and Katowice) due to simple obesity, type 1 diabetes mellitus, somatotropin pituitary deficiency on growth hormone replacement therapy, and other endocrine and metabolic disorders between June and September 2020. The study used a self-prepared questionnaire regarding eating habits, physical activity, screen time, and sleep before and during the lockdown. Anthropometric measurements were performed under clinical settings twice (before the pandemic in January–March 2020, and in June–September 2020). Results: During the lockdown, BMI z-scores increased over the whole group, especially in obese children (0.073 ± 0.18, p = 0.002). The number of children who declared low and high physical activity of more than 60 min per day declined from 41.2% and 18.6% to 31.1% and 6.2% (p = 0.03 and p < 0.001), respectively; sleep times over 8 h increased (46.9% vs. 60.4% p = 0.007); screen times over 5 h daily increased (14.7% to 46.9%, p < 0.001). Eating habits did not change significantly. Conclusions: Daily physical activity and sleep levels were affected by the pandemic leading to the increase of BMI, especially in obese patients with endocrine disorders. During the COVID-19 pandemic, forward-thinking strategies must be developed to prevent childhood obesity.

QUALITY OF SATELLITE COMMUNICATION IN SELECTED MOBILE ANDROID SMARTPHONES

Today, thanks to mobile devices, satellite communication is available to anyone and everywhere. Gaining information on one’s position using GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite Systems), particularly in unknown urban environments, had become an everyday activity. With the widespread of mobile devices, particularly smartphones, each person can obtain information considering his or her location anytime and everywhere. This paper is focused on a study, considering the quality of satellite communication in case of selected mobile terminals. It describes a measurement campaign carried out in varying urban environments, including a set of Android-powered smartphones coming from different manufacturers. Based on this, respective conclusions and remarks are given, which can aid consumers as well as device manufacturers and application developers.

Noise Resistant Multidimensional Data Fusion via Quasi-Cliques on Hypergraphs

Cross-matching data stored on separate files is an everyday activity in the scientific domain. However sometimes the relation between attributes may not be obvious. The discovery of foreign keys on relational databases is a similar problem. Thus techniques devised for this problem can be adapted. Nonetheless, given the different nature of the data, which can be subject to uncertainty, this adaptation is not trivial.<br>This paper firstly introduces the concept of Equally-Distributed Dependencies, which is similar to the Inclusion Dependencies from the relational domain. We describe a correspondence in order to bridge existing ideas. We then propose PresQ: a new algorithm based on the search of maximal quasi-cliques on hyper-graphs to make it more robust to the nature of uncertain numerical data. This algorithm has been tested on three public datasets, showing promising results both in its capacity to find multidimensional equally-distributed sets of attributes and in run-time.

Noise Resistant Multidimensional Data Fusion via Quasi-Cliques on Hypergraphs

Cross-matching data stored on separate files is an everyday activity in the scientific domain. However sometimes the relation between attributes may not be obvious. The discovery of foreign keys on relational databases is a similar problem. Thus techniques devised for this problem can be adapted. Nonetheless, given the different nature of the data, which can be subject to uncertainty, this adaptation is not trivial.<br>This paper firstly introduces the concept of Equally-Distributed Dependencies, which is similar to the Inclusion Dependencies from the relational domain. We describe a correspondence in order to bridge existing ideas. We then propose PresQ: a new algorithm based on the search of maximal quasi-cliques on hyper-graphs to make it more robust to the nature of uncertain numerical data. This algorithm has been tested on three public datasets, showing promising results both in its capacity to find multidimensional equally-distributed sets of attributes and in run-time.

PECULIARITIES OF GERIATRIC STATUS OF PATIENTS WITH AGE-AGE MACULAR DEGENERATION

В пожилом возрасте вследствие иволютивных процессов и соматической патологии происходит ухудшение гериатрического статуса и преждевременное старение. Присоединение зрительного дефицита, вызванного возрастной макулярной дегенерацией, еще в большей cтепени снижает функциональную активность пациентов. Цель исследования - изучение особенностей гериатрического статуса пациентов с возрастной макулярной дегенерацией. На базе офтальмологического центра проведено обследование свыше 200 пациентов с возрастной макулярной дегенерацией. Контролем служили пациенты с отсутствием данной офтальмологии. Всем пациентам выполнено комплексное офтальмологическое и гериатрическое обследование, включающее оценку зрительных функций и основных клинических гериатрических синдромов. В ходе исследования установлено, что возрастная макулярная дегенерация статистически значимо ухудшает гериатрический статус пациентов по таким позициям как личностная и ситуативная тревожность синдром гипомобильности, ограничения в бытовой активности по шкале Гронингена. У пациентов с возрастной макулярной дегенерацией гериатрический статус отягощен также синдромом полиморбидности, представленным преимущественно артериальной гипертензией, ишемической болезнью сердца, сопутствующий офтальмологической патологией. Среди пациентов пожилого возраста с возрастающей макулярной дегенерацией статистически значимо выше распространённость. Все это указывает на важность оценки гериатрического статуса для его корреляции In old age, due to evolutive processes and somatic pathology, there is a deterioration in geriatric status and premature aging. The addition of visual deficit caused by age-related macular degeneration further reduces the functional activity of patients. The aim of the study was to study the features of the geriatric status of patients with age-related macular degeneration. On the basis of the ophthalmological center, more than 200 patients with age-related macular degeneration were examined. Patients with the absence of this ophthalmology served as control. All patients underwent a comprehensive ophthalmological and geriatric examination, including an assessment of visual functions and the main clinical geriatric syndromes. In the course of the study, it was found that age-related macular degeneration statistically significantly worsens the geriatric status of patients in such positions as personal and situational anxiety, hypomobility syndrome, limitations in everyday activity according to the Groningen scale. In patients with age-related macular degeneration, the geriatric status is also aggravated by polymorbidity syndrome, represented mainly by arterial hypertension, ischemic heart disease, concomitant ophthalmic pathology. Among elderly patients with increasing macular degeneration, the prevalence is statistically significantly higher. All this points to the importance of assessing geriatric status for its correlation

USED CAR PRICE PREDICTION

Cars have become a necessity in this modern world. Every middle class family needs a vehicle or a mode of transport in order to move from one place to another. Not everyone is able to afford a new vehicle as they are costly and there’s an added cost of taxes and various other expenses by both the provider/company of the car as well as the government. Moreover, not every customer is sure of spending a sum of their wealth on a certain car. The product might not meet their needs. The solution to this problem of having a car despite not being able to afford one is met by buying and selling second hand cars. It has become its own market now. There are already numerous companies and websites and app based services that serve as a mediator or a platform for the dealing of second hand or used cars and other vehicles. Establishment of such places is easy but there is another problem that still remains- How to price the used car appropriately at a price comfortable for both the seller and the buyer? Luckily, the Used Car Price Prediction systems exist and can be developed. Users might think that it’s easy to determine the price of a used car, and whether there is even a need to have such a system. In truth, there are a lot of factors that are important in determining the price of a second hand vehicle. The quality of a vehicle deteriorates with age1 of course but that is not all. Every single vehicle is different even when it is manufactured and sold as a new product and even more so when the same vehicle is used over time. Different people may use their vehicles more or less depending on their everyday activity, making kilometers driven as one of the important factors for the price prediction. It is obvious that a vehicle which is driven for 2000 kilometers in 1 year would be priced less than a vehicle which has been driven for only 500 kilometers in 2 years. This is just one of the factors that determine the price of a used car. In our Car Price Prediction System, we have used the Year of Manufacturing (used to determine the age of the vehicle by subtracting this from the date of selling), the original maximum retail price of the vehicle (the price at which the vehicle was sold at from the manufacturing company/garage), the fuel type of the vehicle (Petrol, Diesel, CNG, Electric ; This affects the pricing severely as different fuel type engines have different prime performance periods and different rates of deterioration), Seller Type (Individual or Dealership), Transmission (Manual or Automatic), Number of past owners of the vehicle. Using all these factors2, we are going to determine which model is best to determine a price for the used vehicle. For the Car Price Prediction System, Regression models3are used since these models give the results as a continuous curve instead of a categorized value as a result. Due to this, we can use the continuous curve to determine an accurate price for each and every scenario which won’t be possible if the results obtained were in the form of a range. The final model of the system will implement the best suited algorithm and have a UI (User Interface) which make it possible for a user to be able to enter the values of these deciding factors and the system will predict the price for them. Keywords: Car price prediction, machine learning, regression analysis, linear regression, correlation analysis

Ontology of the Digital Culture: World Trends and Chinese Advanced Experience

The concept of digital culture defines a set of values, practices, and expectations regarding the format of human interaction in today’s online society. Predictions of digital culture describe the specifics of the online environment and the general context of social life. The range of interpretations of digital culture varies between two poles: from the recognition of digital technologies as a way of presenting libraries, museums, historical monuments, etc., to the concepts of digital culture as a new socio-anthropological reality, the content of which is not limited to ICT. Culture as a phenomenon means the semantic unity of human activity, the desire to format social life following ideas and values, the movement from existing to obligatory, from actual to potential, and digital culture is an adequate response to the demands and challenges. People worldwide change their placement of everyday activity, and we could admit such huge transformation in the Chinese People’s Republic exactly obvious.

An intelligent fuzzy-based emergency alert generation for persons with episodic memory decline problems

Many humans deal with problems that concern episodic memory decline. These problems can cause annoying, and sometimes, dangerous incidents, like failing to recall the name of a friend or forgetting to take a medicine or turn off the cooker. Concerning the above, this paper presents a fuzzy rule-based mechanism that generates emergency alerts when a dangerous situation is caused by an inconsistency in the human’s actions in the home environment. In such a way, the system protects persons with episodic memory decline problems or lapses of attention from dangerous situations that may be caused by their memory disorder and allows them to complete an everyday activity. For the paper’s needs the application of the presented mechanism is limited to the usage of a cooker. The system takes as input the time, the size and the content of the pot that is used to the cooker, calculates the degree of emergency and describes it using fuzzy sets and, finally, applies rules over the fuzzy sets to generate alert messages that notify the monitored person about the next action that s/he has to do in order to complete a particular activity. For the evaluation of the system, we have developed a simulation program that asks users to complete some activities during a specific time period. The system embeds the presented fuzzy rule-based mechanism and monitors the user’s actions and generated alerts, which concern the usage of the stove burner. The simulation software was used by 15 users. Their reactions and opinions about the system’s alerts and the assistance it offers, are positive.

How do people with knee osteoarthritis perceive and manage flares? A qualitative study

BackgroundAcute flares in people with osteoarthritis (OA) are poorly understood. There is uncertainty around the nature of flares, their impact, and how these are managed.AimExplore understandings and experiences of flares in people with knee OA, describe self-management and help-seeking strategiesDesign & settingQualitative interview study of people with knee OA in England, United Kingdom.MethodSemi-structured interviews with 15 people with knee OA. Thematic analysis using constant comparison methods.ResultsWe identified four main themes: experiencing pain, consequences of acute pain, predicting and avoiding acute pain, and response to acute pain. People with OA described minor episodes which were frequent, fleeting, occurred during everyday activity, had minimal impact, and were generally predictable. This contrasted with severe episodes which were infrequent, had greater impact, and were less likely to be predictable. The latter generally led to feelings of low confidence, vulnerability and of being a burden. The term ‘flare’ was often used to describe the severe events but this was applied inconsistently and some would describe a flare as any increase in pain.Participants used numerous self-management strategies but tended to seek help when these had been exhausted, their symptoms led to emotional distress, disturbed sleep, or pain experience worse than usual. Previous experiences shaped whether people sought help and who they sought help from.ConclusionSevere episodes of pain are likely to be synonymous with flares. Developing a common language about flares will allow a shared understanding of these events, early identification and appropriate management.