Geographic Frame Research Articles

Exploratory analysis of the potential impact of violence on HIV among female sex workers in Mombasa, Kenya: a mathematical modelling study

BackgroundUnderstanding the frequency of violence experienced by female sex workers (FSWs) and how violence contributes to HIV transmission can help improve HIV programs.MethodsUsing recent recommendations for modelling structural factors and associated causal pathways, we developed a HIV transmission dynamic model for FSWs and their clients in Mombasa, Kenya, mechanistically representing three types of violence (sexual violence, SV; physical violence, PV; police assault and arrest, PAA). Each type of violence affects HIV transmission through key mediators (condom non-use, HIV testing). We parameterized the model using data from a cross-sectional study of FSWs aged 15–24 recruited from a systematic geographical mapping sampling frame in Mombasa, Kenya (Cheuk E et al., Frontiers in Reproductive Health 2(7), 2020). Using this model, calibrated (and cross-validated) to HIV epidemiological and violence outcomes, we estimated the incidence of violence episodes, the contribution of violence to the HIV epidemic measured by the transmission population-attributable fraction, and the potential impact of possible violence interventions.ResultsThe median estimated incidence of PAA in 2023 among FSWs who had not previously experienced that type of violence was 0.20 (95% credible interval: 0.17–0.22) per person-year (ppy), about double the incidence of SV and PV (0.10 (0.09–0.11), 0.11 (0.09–0.12), respectively). The incidence of violence was higher among FSWs who had previously experienced violence: the incidence of recurrent PV was 2.65 (1.82–3.37) ppy, while the incidence of recurrent SV and PAA were 1.26 (0.80–1.67) and 1.37 (0.94–1.74 ppy, respectively. In this setting, we estimated that a median of 35.3% (3.4–55.8%) infections in FSWs and clients combined over the next 10 years may be due to all types of violence (and mediators), mainly through reduced condom use in FSWs who have ever experienced SV (34.6% (2.4–55.5%)). Interventions that prevent future violence without mitigating the effects of past violence may only prevent 8.8% (0.8–14.0%) infections over 10 years.ConclusionsFSWs in Mombasa experience violence frequently. In this population, we find that addressing sexual violence, including mitigating the effects of past violence, is potentially important in reducing HIV transmission in this population. However, the wide uncertainty range shows longitudinal studies are needed to strengthen the evidence of the influence of violence on HIV risk behavior. We find that the recommendations for modelling structural factors provide a useful framework for describing the model.

Poking holes in things: a view from the museum

ABSTRACT This paper is not intended as a conventional research report, but rather as an experimental ‘think piece’ that attempts to situate African beads in relation to alternative geographical, temporal and theoretical frames. Throughout the history of archaeology, museums have (re)assembled artefacts to create new contexts for them by establishing new associations and juxtapositions with other artefacts. In pursuing a similar approach, this paper attempts to constitute a ‘view from the museum’ rather than from any particular disciplinary field. Museum practice promises an alternative model of speculative ‘free association’ where artefactual form enables sometimes seemingly unlikely connections to be made. The paper’s intention is to highlight the theoretical richness with which beads can be approached as artefacts. In pursuing this agenda, it builds on David Graeber’s important work synthesising and advancing anthropological theories of economic, political and cultural value. A central aim of Graeber’s project was to put coins back in their place as rather peculiar denominators of value. Beads, with their considerably deeper history and wider geographical distribution, offer an alternative starting point from which to address questions of value in human lives.

An Algorithm for Strapdown Airborne Gravity Disturbance Vector Measurement Based on High-Precision Navigation and EGM2008.

Attitude errors, accelerometer bias, the gravity disturbance vector, and their coupling are the primary factors obstructing strapdown airborne vector gravimetry. This paper takes the geocentric inertial frame as a reference and solves the kinematic equations of its motion and its errors of the body frame and local geographic frame in the Lie group, respectively; the attitude accuracy is improved through a high-precision navigation algorithm. The constant accelerometer bias is estimated through Kalman filtering and is deducted from the accelerometer output to eliminate its influence. Based on the EGM2008 model, the low-frequency components of the gravity disturbance vector are corrected. The gravity disturbance vectors after model data fusion were low-pass filtered to obtain the ultimate results. This method was applied to flight experimental data in the South China Sea, and a gravity anomaly accuracy of better than 0.5 mGal, a northward gravity disturbance accuracy of 0.85 mGal, and an eastward gravity disturbance accuracy of 4.0 mGal were obtained, with a spatial resolution of approximately 4.8 km.

Oriented Bedrock Samples Drilled by the Perseverance Rover on Mars

AbstractA key objective of the Perseverance rover mission is to acquire samples of Martian rocks for future return to Earth. Eventual laboratory analyses of these samples would address key questions about the evolution of the Martian climate, interior, and habitability. Many such investigations would benefit greatly from samples of Martian bedrock that are oriented in absolute Martian geographic coordinates. However, the Mars 2020 mission was designed without a requirement for orienting the samples. Here we describe a methodology that we developed for orienting rover drill cores in the Martian geographic frame and its application to Perseverance's first 20 rock samples. To orient the cores, three angles were measured: the azimuth and hade of the core pointing vector (i.e., vector oriented along the core axis) and the core roll (i.e., the solid body angle of rotation around the pointing vector). We estimated the core pointing vector from the attitude of the rover's Coring Drill during drilling. To orient the core roll, we used oriented images of asymmetric markings on the bedrock surface acquired with the rover's Wide Angle Topographic Sensor for Operations and eNgineering (WATSON) camera. For most samples, these markings were in the form of natural features on the outcrop, while for four samples they were artificial ablation pits produced by the rover's SuperCam laser. These cores are the first geographically‐oriented (<2.7° 3σ total uncertainty) bedrock samples from another planetary body. This will enable a diversity of paleomagnetic, sedimentological, igneous, tectonic, and astrobiological studies on the returned samples.

Sports News in Five Arab Countries: A Comparative Study of Journalistic Role Performance Across Platforms and Sources

This study examines journalistic role performance in sports news in five Arab countries in relation to country, geographic frame, platforms, and sources. The comparative content analysis of three journalistic roles – loyal-facilitator, watchdog, and infotainment – in Egypt, Kuwait, Lebanon, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) relies on 874 sports news stories from 40 print, broadcast, and online outlets, sampled in 2020 through a constructed, two-week stratified-systematic approach. Results point to variations in all roles as a function of some predictors more than others. Specifically, the UAE tended to be the most loyal/cheerleader, whereas Qatar led in the infotainment role. Loyalty was also apparent across the region in domestic news that was more loyalist than foreign news. Sources mattered in that political sources tended to predict higher levels of loyalist content, while sports sources did not have any impact on any role. Sources’ viewpoint of diversity, on the other hand, revealed multiple perspectives to be associated with more infotainment and watchdog content. The results indicate the loyalist cheerleader role that sports journalists in the West have been associated with for decades also applies to the Arab region, suggesting sports journalists behave in a similar manner irrespective of their country of origin.

Association between Plasmodium Infection and Nitric Oxide Levels: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

Nitric oxide (NO) has been implicated in the pathology of malaria. This systematic review and meta-analysis describe the association between NO levels and malaria. Embase, Ovid, PubMed, Scopus, and Google Scholar were searched to identify studies evaluating NO levels in malaria patients and uninfected controls. Meta-regression and subgroup analyses were conducted to discern differences in NO levels between the groups. Of the 4517 records identified, 21 studies were included in the systematic review and meta-analysis. The findings illustrated significant disparities in NO levels based on geographic location and study time frames. Despite the fluctuations, such as higher NO levels in adults compared to children, no significant differences in mean NO levels between patients and uninfected controls (p = 0.25, Hedge's g: 0.35, 95% confidence interval (CI): -0.25-0.96, I2: 97.39%) or between severe and non-severe malaria cases (p = 0.09, Hedge's g: 0.71, 95% CI: -0.11-1.54, I2: 96.07%) were detected. The systematic review and meta-analysis highlighted inconsistencies in NO levels in malaria patients. Given the high heterogeneity of the results, further studies using standardized metrics for NO measurements and focusing on biochemical pathways dictating NO responses in malaria are imperative to understand the association between NO and malaria.

A Study of the Accuracy of a 3D Indoor Camera for Industrial Archaeology Applications

The paper aims to study the geometrical quality and opportunities of the state-of-the-art 3D camera Matterport Pro and examine its potential for industrial archaeology applications. The presented study consisted of two steps. In the first step, the geometrical quality of the camera-generated point cloud was investigated on the calibration test field. The geometrical quality was checked in two ways: (1) with distance comparison between reference targets and (2) with point cloud comparison. The coordinates of the reference targets were determined using a high-precision total station, while the FARO Scanner generated the reference point cloud. The study established that Matterport Pro has a scale systematic error that must be accounted for in 3D modeling and the inventory of archaeological objects. In the second step, the geometrical quality of the camera was checked for the actual archaeological object. As such an object, the historical copper-shaft Quincy Mine in Michigan State Upper Peninsula was considered. The specific subject of the study was one of the largest hoist engines in the world. The Matterport Pro camera scanned the indoor environment of the hoist engine house. The accuracy of the 3D model of the hoist engine was checked using additional linear measurements on-site. It was found that the accuracy of 1% showed that the camera specification can be improved through calibration. As an output of the second step, the accurately refined 3D model of the hoist engine’s interior was built. That model was embedded into a 3D model of the hoist engine’s house for usage in virtual tours of the Quincy Mine Museum. Finally, a virtual tour was created of the Quincy Mine house with exterior and interior models referenced to the geographical frame.

The colonial archive and its fictions

ABSTRACT The archive has played a crucial role in art historical scholarship in helping to flesh out the identities of colonial artists, scribes, and writers. But the vagaries of history, colonialist violences, and postcolonial regimes mean that the archives undergirding such study are particularly unstable. This essay treats the role of archives (their lacunae as well as their surpluses) in shaping the historical methods and scholarly desires around these actors. Case studies are organized around objects made of ink and paper, the same materials as colonial documentation. These cases span a wide temporal range, a broad geographic frame, and a diverse set of period actors. Set out in reverse chronological order, they capture the longing and lament that colonial archives produce. The essay then turns to archival gaps that have been or might be filled, focalizing a range or methods—from historically sanctioned modes of recovery to patently fraudulent fictions—to explore generative methods of probing archival limits.

André Wink. The Making of the Indo-Islamic World, c. 700–1800 CE.

Among the polities and cultures of Islam, the realms east of Baghdad have received increasing attention since the publication of Marshall Hodgson’s monumental Venture of Islam (1975), which offered an unprecedented panorama of the histories of the three “great empires” of the Ottomans, Safavids, and Mughals. Since then, historians have continuously reshaped the geographic frame of analysis beyond the boundaries of the contemporary national states in which the histories of these empires had heretofore been written, whether the “Balkans to Bengal” complex proposed by Shahab Ahmed or the “Persianate Cosmopolis” described by Richard Eaton. An inventive and exciting attempt in this vein is promised in the work under consideration, itself a distillation of the author’s monumental Al-Hind: The Making of the Indo-Islamic World (1990–), a five-volume history (three so far completed) of what the author has described as the Indo-Islamic world. The frame is not limited (as is conventional) to the Indian subcontinent but aims to integrate the diverse landscapes around the Bay of Bengal and maritime Southeast Asia. Wink argues that the region was recognized as integrally comprised of Indias of various numbers and designations by Hellenic, Arabic, and European geographers, and marked, before the advent of Islam c. 700 CE, by Hindu and Buddhist polities. It was defined by two great frontiers: one, an arid zone dominated by nomads from central to south-central Asia (present-day Afghanistan), and the other, more amorphous maritime frontier of the Indian Ocean. Dominated by these zones of fluidity and mobility lay the settled agrarian inland and island states of the region. The nomadic conquest of the subcontinent in the early second millennium and the seaborne expansion of itinerant traders led to the birth of postnomadic Islamic subcontinental polities and commercially oriented maritime Muslim kingdoms; both these great frontiers closed with the consolidation of colonial power in the region by the beginning of the nineteenth century.

Afro-Catholic Festivals in the Americas: Performance, Representation, and the Making of Black Atlantic Tradition

Afro-Catholic Festivals in the Americas: Performance, Representation, and the Making of Black Atlantic Tradition

Analysis and compensation of residual gyro drifts on azimuth alignment accuracy in the RINS

The rotational inertial navigation system (INS) uses rotational alignment to improve azimuth alignment accuracy significantly. However, due to the existence of magnetic drifts in the fiber optic gyro, under the comprehensive influence of outside conditions, there will be residual drifts that cannot be averaged out along the body frame or the geographic frame, which will have a significant impact on azimuth alignment accuracy. An innovative and effective calibration compensation strategy is proposed by analyzing the generation mechanism of residual drifts and their influence on alignment accuracy, which can significantly improve azimuth alignment accuracy. With the aid of a high-precision total station, the experimental results of initial alignment in four directions show that the accuracy of azimuth alignment is improved from to by compensating residual drifts, which has significant theoretical significance and practical value in engineering applications for improving the overall performance of the INS.

A Novel SINS/SRS/CNS Multi-Information Fusion Global Autonomous Navigation Method

In order to improve the continuity and smoothness of transpolar flight and optimize autonomous navigation performance, a SINS/SRS/CNS (strapdown inertial navigation system/spectral redshift navigation system/celestial navigation system) multi-information fusion global autonomous navigation method based on parameter conversion was studied for this article. The global autonomous navigation scheme based on multi-information fusion was designed. The principle of spectral redshift navigation was studied. On this basis, the system equations of the SINS/SRS/CNS multi-information fusion global autonomous navigation system were established in the middle–low latitudes and high latitudes. Furthermore, the navigation and filter parameter conversion relationships between the geographic navigation coordinate frame and the grid navigation coordinate frame were derived. The simulation and experiment verified that the SINS/SRS/CNS multi-information fusion global autonomous navigation method with parameter conversion can effectively improve the accuracy and smoothness and realize non-oscillation switching in transpolar navigation. In the vehicle experiment, the proposed algorithm improved the horizontal position accuracy by more than 29% compared with the multi-information fusion global autonomous navigation method without filter parameter conversion.

Freedom at the Center

Of course it's brilliant. The Free World represents the hugely ambitious culmination of the efforts of a scholar of exceptional talent to explicate mid-century American culture, and to put it within a broad political and social context. With its immense attention to detail, The Free World frequently offers such fresh readings of a wide variety of topics that perhaps only subspecialists can profess to find familiar the evidence and interpretations that Louis Menand provides. It is emblazoned with bold personal opinions that keep the reader interested. At the Center is a very different book. It is a collective effort, and the authors seem to seek to avoid the kind of personalized style that Menand displays. But the effort that Casey Nelson Blake, Daniel H. Borus, and Howard Brick make to tie the disparate threads together distinguish At the Center from Menand's volume, and therefore offer an invaluable contrast. These books are aimed at different categories of reader, provide divergent temporal and geographic frames, and rarely overlap in attentiveness to the same material. Such variations can make for vigorous scholarly arguments about how to pack thought and culture into American historiography.

Geographic Structuring and Divergence Time Frame of Monkeypox Virus in the Endemic Region.

Monkeypox is an emerging zoonosis endemic to Central and West Africa. Monkeypox virus (MPXV) is genetically structured in 2 major clades (clades 1 and 2/3), but its evolution is poorly explored. We retrieved MPXV genomes from public repositories and we analyzed geographic patterns using STRUCTURE. Molecular dating was performed using a using a Bayesian approach. We show that the population transmitted in West Africa (clades 2/3) experienced limited drift. Conversely, clade 1 (transmitted in the Congo Basin) possibly underwent a bottleneck or founder effect. Depending on the model used, we estimated that the 2 clades separated ∼560-860 (highest posterior density: 450-960) years ago, a period characterized by expansions and contractions of rainforest areas, possibly creating the ecological conditions for the MPXV reservoir(s) to migrate. In the Congo Basin, MPXV diversity is characterized by 4 subpopulations that show no geographic structuring. Conversely, clades 2/3 are spatially structured with 2 populations located West and East of the Dahomey Gap. The distinct histories of the 2 clades may derive from differences in MPXV ecology in West and Central Africa.

Geographic structuring and divergence time frame of monkeypox virus in the endemic region

Geographic structuring and divergence time frame of monkeypox virus in the endemic region

The politics of Arctic scales

ABSTRACT Many representations and narratives about the Arctic and Arctic politics carry misconceptions and flawed generalisations. Usually, the term ‘Arctic’ is used as an unproblematized – by default – geographical frame, without considering why this particular ‘Arctic’ framing was chosen and what this choice entails. Yet, considering geographical framing is important as the very choice behind it already carries a political agenda. This paper argues that focussing on the interplay between the different ‘scales’ of the Arctic can shed light on the politics of Arctic scales and resulting discourses. To that end, I analysed every Arctic strategy published by both Arctic and non-Arctic actors. I concentrated on strategies that specifically focused on the Arctic region as a whole, to draw comparisons from these framings. Using thematic analysis, I examined how the Arctic is construed and how the scale at which Arctic issues are framed comes with political consequences. In doing so, I wish to underline the interplay scales and underlying political processes. I conclude by stressing that recognising and attending to the production of ‘scale’ as an inherently political process greatly improves our understanding of regional politics.

Variable Observability Constrained Visual-Inertial-GNSS EKF-Based Navigation

Visual-Inertial Odometry (VIO) is an approach to give high-accuracy pose estimation in GNSS(Global Navigation Satellite System)-denied environments. However, visual-inertial navigation slowly drifts on its four unobservable directions, namely the translations and yaw in the world frame. The visual and inertial sensors are unable to provide information about how the world frame is aligned with global geographic coordinates. In this letter, g-MSCKF, a Multi-State Constraint Kalman Filter based approach, is developed to combine visual, inertial and GNSS raw measurements. With GNSS raw measurements, g-MSCKF has the ability to use GNSS information even when the number of satellites is below 4. An alignment filter between the local world frame and the global geographic frame is proposed and serves as the initializer for g-MSCKF. Furthermore, unobservable directions may exist and vary when the number of satellites, the satellite-receiver spatial geometry and the receiver motion follow specific patterns. Inconsistency of the estimator may happen under those variable-unobservable circumstances and a variable observability constrained method is provided to avoid inconsistency. Our algorithm is evaluated on real-world open datasets where the sensors traverse indoors and outdoors. The results show that our solution gives globally smooth trajectories in GNSS-intermittent situations with full exploitation of sensor potentials.

Operational Gaps in Implementing the COVID-19 Case Investigation and Contact Tracing in Madhesh Province of Nepal, May-July 2021.

In Nepal, case investigation and contact tracing (CICT) was adopted as an important public health measure to reduce COVID-19 transmission. In this study, we assessed the performance of CICT in Madhesh Province of Nepal against national benchmarks, using routine programmatic data reported by district CICT teams. Between May and July 2021, 17,943 COVID-19 cases were declared in the province, among which case investigation was performed for 30% (95% CI: 29.6–31.0%) within 24 h (against 80% benchmark). As a result of case investigations, 6067 contacts were identified (3 contacts per 10 cases), of which 40% were traced and tested for SARS-CoV-2 infection (against 100% benchmark). About 60% of the contacts tested positive. At most 14% (95% CI: 13.1% to 14.9%) of traced contacts underwent a 14-day follow-up assessment (against 100% benchmark). We found the performance of the CICT program in Madhesh Province to be sub-optimal and call for corrective measures to strengthen CICT in the province and the country at large. Similar studies with wider geographical scope and longer time frames are needed to identify and address deficiencies in data recording and reporting systems for COVID-19, in low- and middle-income countries like Nepal and others.

Feature fusion-based registration of satellite images to airborne LiDAR bathymetry in island area

Airborne laser bathymetry (ALB) and satellite imagery, as two different types of remote sensing (RS) data sources, have been widely used in coastal zone dynamic monitoring by virtue of unique advantages. However, ALB data and optical imagery collected in island areas generally have offsets due to various error sources, lack of distinctive features and scarce control. The feasibility and efficiency of existed models exist significant limitations, since these methods mainly extracts the form of prominent feature or pixel bias. To better serve policy makers, it is necessary to register heterogeneous data into a unified geographic reference frame. In this work, a feature fusion-based registration approach (FFBR) of satellite images to airborne LiDAR bathymetry is proposed for island change detection. It mainly attempts to accomplish the following two tasks: (a) maximize the utilization of features from heterogeneous data in the island area through underwater feature enhancement and feature fusion based on deep convolutional neural networks; (b) solve the mis-registration caused by the pixel difference source, by employing an improved active demons registration method that integrates cluster analysis, modal transformation and range constraints. Through comparative analysis with the SIFT-RANSAC and demons algorithm, the proposed approach is proved to have higher registration accuracy. Finally, the new model demonstrated the ability to detect changes in island cover and coastline.

The Idea of Sport in Western Culture from Antiquity to the Contemporary Era

Saverio Battente's book is a bold, fascinating, and too often exasperating investigation into the longue durée links between Greek, Roman, and modern European sport. He aims to “reflect on the idea of sport in the contemporary era through synchronic and diachronic comparisons among various locations and time periods, attempting to identify longues durées as well as original and innovative aspects” (ix). Battente argues that there are significant continuities in the way that Europeans used sport to educate elites and popular classes, prepare for war, and as leisure. He considers how sportspeople across the continent played with these continuities and ruptures to continually redefine sport and its purposes.Battente's work is brash; he takes on some of the most prominent voices in the field, hoping to offer correctives to Norbert Elias, Eric Dunning, and Allen Guttmann, whose oeuvre argue for what the author calls a “clear break between the ancient and the modern” (xv). Battente takes the opposite view, providing new ways of thinking about what sports were and are; indeed, he poses interesting questions. The field desperately needs to think about what constitutes sport in the past and now and the limits of our definitions, so Battente's ambition to redefine the very center of the subject is admirable.His work also takes on a commendable scope. It is divided into two sections: the first three chapters deal with sport in ancient Greece, Rome, and the Middle Ages. Here he shows considerable skill working with ancient languages, drawing synthetic connections between practices in each place. The second half of the book looks at sport spatially in the United Kingdom, France, Germany, the United States, Russia, and Italy. He makes efforts to draw out the links across time and geographic space.Battente relies heavily on textual and linguistic analysis to delve into the differences between terms such as paideion, agòn, and ludus. Language allows him to show the ways in which modern Europeans referred to the past when constructing their own cultural pastimes. Medieval Italian books on physical education, for example, emphasized their shared educational and spiritual virtues with earlier eras, creating the “link between past and future . . . that form the basis of Western tradition” (41).Battente's close reading of texts and linguistic analysis, however, does not lead him to abandon an essential definition of sport. He persists in writing about sports in normative ways, concluding that “the idea of sport sprang and springs from a few universal elements at the basis of human social-anthropological relations” (xxiv). He never applies this same deconstructive analysis to his own definition of sport (or education), thus producing a seemingly self-serving redefinition of the objects that he studies.In other words, for someone so interested in the fluidity of language, careful with the ways that people ancient and modern played with the definition of words like play and game, he settles on a very normative definition of sports that privileges its educational, military, and leisure values.The dangers of this approach become apparent when one considers his unwillingness to think about the artificiality of other terms. Here I am thinking explicitly about the broader geographical frame of sport in Western culture. I remain unconvinced that there is any longue durée, Continent-wide sporting mentality before the nineteenth century. Indeed, Battente's linguistic and cultural analysis could quite easily have been reshaped to make instead an argument for how later-day Europeans constructed the West through their reimagination of sport rather than its practice.When he argues, as he does in his introduction, that non-Western sports tended to devalue education and military training (xxiv), he is completely wrong. Sports like cuju in China were explicitly military. He similarly seems to collapse all non-Western sport into elite sport. The Meso-American ball game in all its varieties encompassed the same themes of elite education, popular entertainment, and military preparation as Greek and Roman sport.What is European sport? Is it just a set of practices, or is there something particularly civilizational at work? Here I wish Battente had engaged less with historians of sport and more with scholars interested in challenging the idea of Europe.There are flaws throughout that further detract from Battente's work: repetitiveness, infelicitous phrases, and spelling mistakes, including a misspelling of Pierre de Coubertin's name on page six.Overall, this is an equally fascinating and frustrating work that will appeal to readers interested in a thoughtful account of European sport since the Greeks.