43 research outputs found
Human identification using facial comparative descriptions
No full textEyewitness descriptions are vital for many criminal investigations, although typically still require manual discovery of possible suspects. Soft biometrics introduce a possibility to automatically search databases based on biometric features obtained from verbal descriptions. In this paper we introduce the use of comparative human descriptions for facial identification. Twenty-seven comparative traits are used to accurately describe facial features. The Elo rating system is utilized to determine continuous biometric features from multiple comparative descriptions. Experiments on the Soton gait database demonstrate a 96.7% identification accuracy with just three comparisons
The Ross's Gull (Rhodostethia rosea) in North America
No full textThe population, distribution and range of the Ross's gull in North America remain poorly understood, as does almost every aspect of its ecology and biology. It breeds at a few disparate locations in the Canadian Arctic and is an annual fall migrant in northern Alaska where tens of thousands occur in the nearshore waters of the Beaufort and Chukchi Seas, but little else is known about the distribution, habitat requirements, migratory routes and wintering areas used by this species.
In order to clarify the status of the Ross's gull in North America I sought to discover new breeding sites in the Canadian High Arctic in order to characterize nesting habitat requirements, develop a predictive model with which to identify suitable nesting habitat for Ross's gulls, and refresh outdated estimates of the number of individuals migrating past Point Barrow, Alaska. Taken together, my findings provide a comprehensive account of the current status of the Ross's gull in North America.Includes bibliographical references
Assessing regional populations of ground-nesting marine birds in the Canadian High Arctic
No full textThe Queens Channel region of Nunavut is an ecologically distinct area within the Canadian High Arctic consisting of an extensive archipelago of small, low-lying gravel islands throughout which form several localized but highly productive polynyas. We used aerial survey and colony-monitoring data to assess regional- and colony-level fluctuations in the number of birds in this region between 2002 and 2013. Regional and colony-specific monitoring suggested that common eider (Somateria mollissima) numbers are increasing, while numbers of Arctic terns (Sterna paradisaea) may be in decline. Based on these data, we suggest that even infrequent comprehensive surveys are more useful than annual monitoring at specific sites in generating an accurate assessment of ground-nesting seabird populations at the regional level, and that dramatic fluctuations at individual colonies probably belie the overall stability of regional populations
Nest usurpation by a common eider toward a long-tailed duck
No full textIntraspecific and non-obligate brood parasitism and nest takeover is well documented in common eiders (Somateria mollissima borealis) nesting in the Arctic. However, we report the takeover of a long-tailed duck (Clangula hyemalis) nest by a female common eider on Nasaruvaalik Island, Nunavut, Canada. The high nesting density due to limited habitat in the region may have contributed to this seemingly risky behaviour, which provides no clear benefits to the eider
INTERPOL’s Contribution and Prospective Roles in Tackling Migrant Smuggling Concerning Europe and Wider Area
No full textIllegal migration is a major ongoing crisis affecting Europe, but, also, a global one. While the causes determining people to leave their habitat are diverse (violent conflicts, social unrest, economic problems, effects of the climate change and so on), what is obvious is that the migrant smugglers ruthlessly try to take advantage on their plight for profit purposes. In this regard, INTERPOL’s assistance to the national authorities, as well as its cooperation with other international organisations and agencies operating in the field of law enforcement cooperation, in countering migrant smuggling, is hugely important. As migrant trafficking is one of the driving forces of illegal migration, in the author’s opinion, in order to better counter the complex migrant smuggling networks, it would be needed a more comprehensive, targeted and tailored approach meant to facilitate simultaneous, quicker and coordinated operations in multiple jurisdictions.
Aim: To describe the contribution of trafficking in migrants to the exacerbation of illegal migration, the role of INTERPOL in assisting European Union and its relevant agencies, as well as to contemplate to new ideas leading to solutions meant to tackle more effectively this scourge.
Methodology: Having a solid experience in combating migrant smuggling, both at the operational and strategic level, as well as in the field of international Police cooperation, the Author, using both an empirical and a descriptive approach, tries to highlight the main elements of the problem based on which to contribute to a debate aimed at finding ideas and solutions for improving the efficiency of the fight against this criminal phenomenon, concerning the European continent and a wider area.
Findings: The migrant smuggling networks are intrinsically connected to the phenomenon of illegal migration, looking to exploit its causes and take advantage on people’s vulnerabilities. These networks, which could be very dynamic and complex, easily spreads and infiltrates across national jurisdictions, requiring a strong response on behalf of the law enforcement agencies, which cannot be effective enough without ensuring a solid, smart and flexible international cooperation process, both at strategic and practical level. In this respect, INTERPOL’s role, alongside its partners at European and global level is essential.
Value: The author’s purpose is that of describing the complexity and the implications of migrant smuggling on Europe, as well as to propose a more pragmatic, tailored and coordinated approach for fighting this phenomenon
"Exactly the same story only it was different": Explorations into autobiography
No full textThis project is concerned with issues of multiplicity and truthfulness at the heart of autobiographical writing. Although main themes commingle and resurface throughout the thesis, each of the four chapters focuses on one of the following questions: What does it mean to write autobiographically truthfully, and who determines success or failure in this arena? How do we understand the author as a split identity, both in terms of the temporal distance between events and writing, and as a figure who features in the story as well as writes it? What are the possible effects of seeing memory as a tool authors can choose to use in order to access past events, and how is this complicated by the way our brain experiences the act of remembering? Can we divorce autobiographical writing from traditional fiction/nonfiction categorisation by understanding it as a totally new creation that relies on the past but is not bound by it?
I refer to Joan Didion’s The Year of Magical Thinking, Gertrude Stein’s The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas, Vladimir Nabokov’s Speak, Memory and Natalia Ginzburg’s The Things We Used to Say, as well as a number of other relevant texts and authors. I focus on authors who have written autobiography and also written about writing autobiographically; I do this in order to examine how the authors describe and understand some decisions (structural, stylistic, etc.), in combination with textual analysis of their work.
The thesis also includes an appendix of original writing. This consists of a collection of short stories that are autobiographical in nature. These stories represent the launch pad for the research and critical writing. They were written first, and writing them encouraged the above questions, and subsequent reading and research, to develop. They are therefore profoundly connected to the project but are also a body of work distinct from it. They do not need to be read in order to approach the main body of the thesis. They act something like scaffolding in the way that they enabled the critical reading and writing to develop, but are no longer essential in structuring or approaching the thesis
Camosun Showcase 2023: Professional, Scholarly & Creative Activity
No full textCamosun College values lifelong learning and faculty development. The faculty stories in this report highlight how the college enables development through scheduled development time, professional development funds, innovation and creativity grants and the supports provided by the Centre of Excellence for Teaching and Learning.Published in 2023 and released on July 18, 2023. Faculty profiled in this report include:
SCHOOL OF ACCESS
Diane Gilliland;
Valerie Neaves;
Allyson Butt
SCHOOL OF ARTS & SCIENCE
John G. Boehme;
Micaela Maftei;
Brooke Cameron;
Katie Waterhouse;
Bronwen Welch
SCHOOL OF BUSINESS
Bijan Ahmadi;
Julia Grav;
Rob Sorensen;
SCHOOL OF HEALTH & HUMAN SERVICES
Vara Hagreen;
Monique Brewer;
Kerry-Ann Dompierre;
Sue Doner;
Ann McIntosh;
Diane Nadeau;
Lindsay Lichty
SCHOOL OF TRADES & TECHNOLOGY WITH CAMOSUN INNOVATES
Imtehaze Heerah;
Jesse Dardengo
LEARNING SERVICES
Margie Clarke;
Patsy Scott;
Derek Murray;
Natasha Parrish;
Chrisa Hotchkiss;
Paul Cox;
Dirk MacKenzie;
Daymon Macmillan;
Janet Millar;
Martha McAlister;
Mavis Smith;
Gwenda Bryan
SOUTH ISLAND PARTNERSHIP
South Island Partnership Team
INTERDISCIPLINARY COLLABORAION/OPEN EDUCATION
Charlie Molnar;
Kristina Andrew;
Sue Doner
COPPERATIVE EDUCATION & CAREER SERVICES
Corrine Michel
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Deidre Murphy, Emily Schudel & Elizabeth West
Messages from Lane Trotter, Camosun President and Mary Burgess, Director of Learning Services are also featured. Cover art by Jesse Deutcher and Madelyn Kitteridge
The incarnation of the Word of God as work of salvation in Athanasius of Alexandria
No full textLa présente thèse, intitulée «L’incarnation du Verbe de Dieu comme œuvre du salut chez Athanase d’Alexandrie» met en évidence un sujet qui a une connotation très forte pour l’histoire du christianisme et des pensées religieuses en général, à savoir l’action salvatrice du Fils de Dieu en faveur de l’homme, avec toutes les conséquences qui en résultent. Athanase a une conception assez originale sur la nature de l’homme, qu’il conçoit comme un être corruptible, issu du néant, mais destiné pourtant à une vie éternelle par la participation de Dieu, celui qui possède la vraie vie et qui lui communique cette vie si celui-ci reste en communion avec Dieu. Pour qu’il puisse réaliser cette relation très personnelle, Dieu l’a créé selon son image, le Logos-même et l’a doté de l’esprit, l’esprit qui lui permettait d’élever toujours sa pensée vers le monde intelligible et de voir Dieu selon l’image duquel il a été fait. A cause de son insouciance et de la tromperie du démon l’homme n’a pas réussi à garder la pureté de son esprit, pureté qui lui garantissait la contemplation de l’Image, s’est retourné par le péché vers les choses sensibles et a commencé à se contempler lui-même. Ainsi la séparation de Dieu, sa source de vie, renvoie l’homme à sa condition initiale de créature sortie du néant. Mais Dieu, dans son amour infini, n’a pas voulu laisser l’homme dans cet état déplorable et a envoyé dans le monde son propre Verbe pour qu’en sa qualité d’Image de Dieu, il renouvelle l’homme fait selon l’image et qu’en assumant une humanité réelle, il le libère du péché et de la mort par sa mort et sa résurrection. Pourtant l’œuvre salvatrice accomplie par l’incarnation du Verbe ne se limite pas seulement à une restauration de l’homme dans son état initial, mais suppose quelque chose de plus, à savoir une union si étroite de l’humanité et de la divinité dans la personne du Christ, de telle sorte que la nature humaine-même est rendue perméable à la divinité. Cette œuvre réalisée dans la personne du Christ se prolonge dans tous les hommes, grâce à leur parenté et incorporation en Christ. C’est ainsi que l’auteur conclut par sa célèbre phrase: «Dieu s’est fait homme pour que l’homme soit fait dieu», un dieu non par nature, mais par grâce.This thesis, entitled “The incarnation of the Word of God as work of salvation in Athanasius of Alexandria” emphasizes a topic that has very strong connotations in the history of Christianity and religious thoughts in general, namely the liberating action of the Son of God for man, with all the consequences that will result. Athanasius’ thinking of human nature is, in some degree, original. For him, the human being is a corruptible one, as originated in nothingness, but destined to an eternal life through the participation of God, who possesses the true life and who communicates it to him, if he remains in communion with God. To achieve this personal relationship, God created him after his image, the Logos himself, and endowed him with spirit, which enabled him to raise always his thought to the intelligible world and to see God in whose image he was made. Because of his recklessness and deceit of the devil, man failed to keep the purity of his spirit, purity that ensured his contemplation of the Image, he turned through sin to sensible things and began to contemplate himself. Thus, the separation from God, the source of his life, makes the man returning to his original condition as creature out of nothing. But God in his infinite love would not leave man in this deplorable state and sent into the world his own Word to renew, as Image of God, the man made after this Image and, by assuming a true humanity, deliver him from sin and death by his death and his resurrection. Yet the saving work accomplished by the incarnation of the Word is not limited only to a restoration of man to his original condition, but requires something more, namely a union so close of humanity and divinity in the person of Christ, so that the human nature itself is made permeable to the deity. This work accomplished in the Christ’ person extends to all men, through their similarity and their incorporation into Christ. Thus the author concludes by his famous phrase: “God became man so that man is made god”, a god, not by nature but by grace
New Europe, Old Jails: The European Integration of Romanian Penitentiary Culture and Civilization
No full textEn junio de 2004, Ionuţ Cristinel Maftei, de 24 años, prisionero durante 5 años por robar dos caballos, fue asesinado en la Penitenciaría Iaşi por el alcalde, Gabriel Geger. Irritado por el rebelde, sarcástico y comportamiento molesto, el guardián, de pie en el pasillo del departamento, tironeó violentamente del brazo de Maftei mientras el prisionero intentaba intercambiar mercancía (cigarrillos por latas) con otro prisionero de la celda vecina a través de una especie de mirilla, rompiéndole así la cabeza del prisionero contra la pared, dislocando su cráneo frente a docenas de otros prisioneros: una audiencia aterrorizada pero pasiva ante el crimen. Los los prisioneros fueron amenazados con un castigo similar si revelaban cualquier cosa sobre el incidente a la prensa, sus familias o a otros en el edificio; se les dijo que dijeran que Maftei fue asesinado en un altercado con un compañero de celda mentalmente enfermo.InterAcademic PressÍNDICE | INTRODUCTION 5 | Defining culture 8 | Defining civilization 13 | Methodology 19 | ELEMENTS OF PENITENTIARY CULTURE 24 | Symbols 24 | Space 30 | Time 36 | Language 44 | Folklore 72 | Rituals 83 | Initiation rituals 92 | Adaptation rituals 103 | Contestation rituals 111 | Heroes and social structures 121 | Prisoner society 126 | Prison staff community 133 | Values 138 | Categorical values and prison life 140 | A typology of personal and interpersonal values in prison 144 | Final and instrumental values in prison society 148 | The systems of values and formal and informal norms 151 | DIMENSIONS OF PENITENTIARY CIVILIZATION 155 | Penitentiary Population 155 | Number of prisoners and rate of imprisonment 155 | Demographic facts about the prison population of Romania 157 | The legal status of prisoners 160 | Prison population distribution by types of crime 162 | Punishment types and lengths 167 | Prison Escapes 169 | Suicides and deaths 172 | Penitentiary staff 174 | Possible future trends for Romanian jail population 178 | Penitentiaries 179 | Punishment establishments 179 | Degree of institutional occupancy 183 | Inhabitable surface 187 | The prison air 190 | Personal convenience and the resilience of black markets 192 | Romanian jails as military spaces 194 | Administrative space 196 | Summative thoughts about prison space 198 | Sanctions and Punishments 202 | Prison Services 204 | Food in Prison 204 | Medical Care 208 | Free time 212 | Education 224 | Work 229 | Other indicators regarding services 236 | CONCLUSIONS: THE FUTURE OF THE ROMANIAN PENITENTIARY SYSTEM 243 | AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY 252
Mathieu Larnaudie, Les Effondrés: Le pouvoir, l’argent et le romanesque...
No full textThis paper analyses Mathieu Larnaudie's novel Les Effondrés, which was published by Éditions Actes Sud in 2010. Its aim is to show that his novel is built around two perspectives, literary and economic, but also to emphasize the belonging of Mathieu Larnaudie to the Inculte collective. This membership assures him a unique place. The Incultes are implementing a new way of looking at the real: it is the multifaceted nature of the interpretation of the real that interests them. As Les Effondrés illustrates perfectly, it is about a kind of de-totalization practised by the novel since the author leaves to the reader the possibility of reconstructing the text in his own way. The Incultes no longer have ideological force. Larnaudie's novel is not a personalized denunciation, much less a chronicle of the economic crisis that began in 2007, but a treatment of information already known by all his contemporaries, in a manner that is specific for a writer belonging to the Inculte collective. The analysis of Larnaudie's text shows us the very good knowledge the writer has of the economic problems caused by the subprime crisis and it confirms his strong membership of the Inculte collective. Consequently, it can once again be concluded that a literary work is indeed the product of a socio-economic, political, and cultural context, belonging to which plays a determining role in the constitution of a work.Cet article s’attache à analyser le roman de Mathieu Larnaudie, Les Effondrés,
sorti aux Éditions Actes Sud en 2010. Son but et de montrer que ce roman est construit
autour de deux perspectives, littéraire et économique, mais aussi d’insister sur l’appartenance de Mathieu Larnaudie au collectif Inculte. Cette appartenance lui réserve une
place unique. Les Incultes disposent d’une nouvelle manière d’envisager le réel : c’est le caractère protéiforme de l’interprétation du réel qui les intéresse. Comme Les Effondrés l’illustre parfaitement, il s’agit d’une sorte de dé-totalisation pratiquée par le roman puisque
l’auteur laisse au lecteur un travail de recomposition du texte à sa façon. Les Incultes n’ont
plus de force idéologique. Le roman de Larnaudie n’est pas une dénonciation personnalisée, encore moins une chronique de la crise économique qui débute en 2007, mais le traitement d’une information connue par tous les contemporains à la manière d’un écrivain
appartenant au collectif Inculte. L’analyse du texte de Larnaudie nous montre d’un côté la
très bonne connaissance qu’a l’écrivain des problèmes économiques engendrés par la crise
des subprimes et confirme par ailleurs la forte appartenance de celui-ci au collectif Inculte.
Par conséquent, nous pouvons conclure qu’une œuvre littéraire est bien le produit d’un
contexte socio-économique, politique et culturel. Il s’agit d’une intégration qui joue un rôle
déterminant dans la constitution d’une œuvre
