The art world changed forever when Jackson Pollock picked up a can and poured paint onto a vast canvas rolled across the floor of his windswept barn. Fifty years on, art theorists recognize his patterns as being a revolutionary approach to aesthetics. A significant step forward in understanding Pollock’s aesthetics occurred in 1999 when my scientific analysis showed that his paintings are fract...

This paper presents a new framework for asynchrony. This has its origins in our attempts to better harness the internal decision-making process of cellular automata (CA). Thus, we show that a max-plus algebraic model of asynchrony arises naturally from the CA requirement that a cell receive the state of each neighbor before updating. The significant result is the existence of a bijective mappin...

The study pertains to the economic issues of risk and uncertainties associated with financing hill agriculture from the twin angles of risk of farmers to utilize the credit and of bankers to disburse the agricultural loan. The issues discussed are: first, why the financial institutions are reluctant to lend agricultural advances? Second, whether the farm income or rate of return on equity and n...

It is widely recognised that microhabitats are important for a variety of marine organisms, yet this knowledge has rarely been applied in the construction of engineered structures as a means of enhancing biodiversity or populations of species at risk. Here we examined the influence of microhabitats on the distribution and survival of the exploited limpet Patella candei on natural shores before ...

The growing demanding from consumers for healthier foods, produced using environmentally friendly farming practices has resulted in the rapid expansion of organic farming. There are numerous studies about the importance of organic farming but the majority of the results are sometimes contradictory, inconsistent and show no clear link between organic farming practices and enhancement of the nutr...

respect Respect for nature Abstract liking Expressing a positive but abstract attitude towards nature (e.g. "I enjoy nature" vs. the moreliking Expressing a positive but abstract attitude towards nature (e.g. "I enjoy nature" vs. the more concrete, "I enjoy walks in the woods") Abstract knowledge Expressing learning goals abstractly (e.g. "I want to learn about nature" vs. the more concrete, "I...

Coral-associated gobies are highly specialized reef fishes with high host-coral fidelity. Flexibility in habitat choice, however, is important to compensate for potential habitat alteration or loss, but detailed information about the postsettlement movement behavior of such gobies is lacking. We examined movement patterns in Gobiodon histrio, both under natural conditions and during subsequent ...

OBJECTIVES To compare aspiration and sclerotherapy using sodium tetradecylsulfate (STDS) with open hydrocelectomy in the treatment of hydroceles with regard to safety, efficacy, and cost-effectiveness. METHODS Patients with symptomatic hydroceles were prospectively enrolled in an aspiration and sclerotherapy protocol between October 1998 and June 2000. Patients in this group underwent percuta...

Dysphagia, the impairment of any part of the swallowing process, increases the risk of aspiration. Dysphagia and aspiration are associated with the development of aspiration pneumonia. While some changes in swallowing may be a natural result of aging, dysphagia is especially prevalent among older adults with neurologic impairment or dementia, leading to an increased risk of aspiration and aspir...

BACKGROUND Aspiration can cause a diverse spectrum of pulmonary disorders some of which can lead to death but can be difficult to diagnose. PATIENTS AND METHODS The medical records and autopsy findings of 57 consecutive patients in whom aspiration was the immediate cause of death at Mayo Clinic (Rochester, MN, USA) over a 9-yr period, from January 1 2004 to December 31 2012 were analyzed. R...