On-screen pre-deblurring of digital images using the wavefront aberration function of the human eye to improve computer access for the visually impaired

Traditional Optics has provided ways to compensate some common visual limitations (up to second order visual impairments) through spectacles or contact lenses. Recent developments in wavefront science make it possible to obtain an accurate model of the Point Spread Function (PSF) of the human eye. Through what is known as the "Wavefront Aberration Function" of the human eye, exact knowledge of the optical aberration of the human eye is possible, allowing a mathematical model of the PSF to be obtained. This model could be used to pre-compensate (inverse-filter) the images displayed on computer screens in order to counter the distortion in the user's eye. This project takes advantage of the fact that the wavefront aberration function, commonly expressed as a Zernike polynomial, can be generated from the ophthalmic prescription used to fit spectacles to a person. This allows the pre-compensation, or onscreen deblurring, to be done for various visual impairments, up to second order (commonly known as myopia, hyperopia, or astigmatism). The technique proposed towards that goal and results obtained using a lens, for which the PSF is known, that is introduced into the visual path of subjects without visual impairment will be presented. In addition to substituting the effect of spectacles or contact lenses in correcting the loworder visual limitations of the viewer, the significance of this approach is that it has the potential to address higher-order abnormalities in the eye, currently not correctable by simple means.

No Place Like Holme: Community Expectations and the Right to Buy

Peer reviewed

No Place Like Holme: Community Expectations and the Right to Buy

Peer reviewed

Ghosts, Memory and the Right to the Divided City : Resisting Amnesia in Beirut City Centre

Peer reviewed

Anti-choice "Right to Life" conference

General note: Title and date provided by Bettye Lane.

Anti-choice "Right to Life" at St. Patrick's Cathedral

General note: Title and date provided by Bettye Lane.

Anti-choice "Right to Life" at St. Patrick's Cathedral

General note: Title and date provided by Bettye Lane.

Expression of the retinoic acid catabolic enzyme CYP26B1 in the human brain to maintain signaling homeostasis

Funding was provided by the Wellcome Trust grant WT081633MA-NCE and Biological Sciences Research Council Grant BB/K001043/1. Prof Fragoso is the recipient of a Post Doctoral Science without Borders grant from the Brazilian National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq, 237450/2012-7).

A ‘right to have rights’ in the EU public sphere? An Arendtian justification for the application of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights

This paper discusses the Court’s reasoning in interpreting the EU Charter, using recent case law on horizontal effect as a case study. It identifies two possible means of interpreting the provisions of the Charter: firstly, an approach based on common values (e.g. equality or solidarity) and, secondly, an approach based on access to the public sphere. It argues in favour of the latter. Whereas an approach based on common values is more consonant with the development of the case law so far, it is conceptually problematic: it involves subjective assessments of the importance and degree of ‘sharedness’ of the value in question, which can undermine the equal constitutional status of different Charter provisions. Furthermore, it marginalises the Charter’s overall politically constructional character, which distinguishes it from other sources of rights protection listed in Art 6 TEU. The paper argues that, as the Charter’s provisions concretise the notion of political status in the EU, they have a primarily constitutional, rather than ethical, basis. Interpreting the Charter based on the very commitment to a process of sharing, drawing on Hannah Arendt’s idea of the ‘right to have rights’ (a right to access a political community on equal terms), is therefore preferable. This approach retains the pluralistic, post-national fabric of the EU polity, as it accommodates multiple narratives about its underlying values, while also having an inclusionary impact on previously underrepresented groups (e.g. non-market-active citizens or the sans-papiers) by recognising their equal political disposition.

On the Origin of the Right to Copy: Charting the Movement of Copyright Law in Eighteenth Century Britain (1695-1775)

Taking as its point of departure the lapse of the 1662 Licensing Act in 1695, this book examines the lead up to the passage of the Statute of Anne 1710 and charts the movement of copyright law throughout the eighteenth century, culminating in the House of Lords decision in Donaldson v Becket (1774). The established reading of copyright's development throughout this period, from the 1710 Act to the pronouncement in Donaldson, is that it was transformed from a publisher's right to an author's right; that is, legislation initially designed to regulate the marketplace of the bookseller and publisher evolved into an instrument that functioned to recognise the proprietary inevitability of an author's intellectual labour. The historical narrative which unfolds within this book presents a challenge to that accepted orthodoxy. The traditional analysis of the development of copyright in eighteenth-century Britain is revealed to exhibit the character of long-standing myth, and the centrality of the modern proprietary author as the raison d'etre of the modern copyright regime is displaced.

Rabbits, stoats and the predator problem: Why a strong animal rights position need not call for human intervention to protect prey from predators

Animal rights positions face the ‘predator problem’: the suggestion that if the rights of nonhuman animals are to be protected, then we are obliged to interfere in natural ecosystems to protect prey from predators. Generally, rather than embracing this conclusion, animal ethicists have rejected it, basing this objection on a number of different arguments. This paper considers but challenges three such arguments, before defending a fourth possibility. Rejected are Peter Singer’s suggestion that interference will lead to more harm than good, Sue Donaldson and Will Kymlicka’s suggestion that respect for nonhuman sovereignty necessitates non-interference in normal circumstances, and Alasdair Cochrane’s solution based on the claim that predators cannot survive without killing prey. The possibility defended builds upon Tom Regan’s suggestion that predators, as moral patients but not moral agents, cannot violate the rights of their prey, and so the rights of the prey, while they do exist, do not call for intervention. This idea is developed by a consideration of how moral agents can be more or less responsible for a given event, and defended against criticisms offered by thinkers including Alasdair Cochrane and Dale Jamieson.

Measuring children’s experience of their right to participate in school and community: a rights-based approach

This paper discusses the development of a children’s rights-based measure of participation and the findings from its use in a survey of 10 to 11 year old children (n= 3773). The measure, which was developed in collaboration with a group of children, had a high reliability (Cronbach’s alpha = .89). Findings suggest that children’s positive experience of their participation rights is higher in school than in community, and higher for girls compared to boys. It is argued that involving children in the ‘measurement’ of their own lives has the potential to generate more authentic data on children’s lived experiences.

Your Right to Get Information About Returning to the Community, September 7, 2010

You have the right to learn if you can live in the community and get the services and support you need. Includes some information and guidance.

Human exposure to particulate and gaseous pollutants in a bar.

There is increasing evidence of a causal link between airborne particles and ill health and this study examined the exposure to both airborne particles and the gas phase contaminants of environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) in a bar. The work reported here utilized concurrent and continuous monitoring using real-time optical scattering personal samplers to record particulate (PM10) concentrations at two internal locations. Very high episodes were observed in seating areas compared with the bar area. A photo-acoustic multi-gas analyser was used to record the gas phases (CO and CO2) at eight different locations throughout the bar and showed little spatial variation. This gave a clear indication of the problems associated with achieving acceptable Indoor Air Quality in a public space and identified a fundamental problem with the simplistic design approach taken to ventilate the space. Both gaseous and particulate concentrations within the bar were below maximum recommended levels although the time-series analysis illustrated the highly episodic nature of this exposure.