bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Magnetic properties and microstructural homogeneity in NdFeAl bulk metallic glasses
Authors: Ortega‐Zempoalteca R. , Valenzuela R. , Betancourt I.
Published: June 2011

Bulk metallic glasses of nominal composition Nd60Fe30Al10 were prepared by copper mold casting in the form of rods of 3 mm in diameter and 50 mm in length. Preparation conditions were varied to assess the effects of the injection distance and the injection pressure of the melt. In order to determine their microstructure, disk‐shaped samples were obtained from different cut zones along the axis rod. A non‐homogeneous phase distribution was observed, which resulted from the heat transfer regime during the cooling of the melt in the copper mold. As expected, the nature, distribution and volumetric fraction of the various phases produced play an important role on the resulting magnetic properties. Among the main observed phases are Fe‐rich rod‐like crystals, Nd‐rich dendritic crystals and a “like‐amorphous” matrix. The hard magnetic properties of these materials can be associated with this matrix. In these cooling regimes, the coercive field increases as the cooling rate of the amorphous matrix increases. Hysteresis loops showed a high degree of coupling between phases with different magnetic order. Both the coercive field and the magnetization showed a significant variation along the rod axis; a maximum appeared as a function of the axis length. In order to gather more information about the coupling between the observed phases, δM (or Henkel) plots were obtained, showing an exchange character for interactions (© 2011 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)
Analytical potential energy surface for the reaction with intermediate complexes NH3 + Cl → NH2 + HCl: Application to the kinetics study
Authors: MONGE‐PALACIOS M. , RANGEL C. , CORCHADO J. C. , Espinosa‐GarcÍA J.
Published: June 2011

We present for the first time an analytical potential energy surface (PES) for the reaction of hydrogen abstraction from ammonia by a chlorine atom. It has a very complicated shape with various maxima and minima. The functional form used in the development of the PES considered the stretching and bending nuclear motions, and the parameters in the calibration process were fitted to reproduce exclusively high‐level ab initio electronic structure calculations obtained at the CCSD(T) = FULL/aug‐cc‐pVTZ//CCSD(T) = FC/cc‐pVTZ single point level. Thus, the surface is completely symmetric with respect to the permutation of the three ammonia hydrogen atoms, and no experimental information is used in the process. The ab initio information used in the fit includes a wide spectrum of properties (equilibrium geometries, relative energies, and vibrational frequencies) of the reactants, products, saddle point, intermediate complexes in the entry and exit channels, points on the reaction path, and points on the reaction swath. By comparison with the reference results, we show that the resulting PES reproduces not only the ab initio data used in the fitting procedure but also other thermochemical and kinetics results computed at the same ab initio level, which were not used in the fit—equilibrium constants, rate constants, and kinetic isotope effects. This represents a severe test for the new surface. As a first application, we perform an extensive kinetics study using variational transition‐state theory with semiclassical transmission coefficients over a wide temperature range, 200–2000 K, on this analytical PES. The forward rate constants reproduce the sparse experimental measurements, while the reverse ones reproduce the change of activation energy with temperature reported in another theoretical study, although unfortunately there are no experimental data for comparison. Finally, we analyze the influence of the intermediate complexes and the spin–orbit correction on the kinetics results. In summary, these results indicate that the PES adequately describes this reaction, and the reasonable agreement with experiment lends further confidence to this new surface. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J Quantum Chem, 2011
Zinc Deficiency in Patients Undergoing Pancreatoduodenectomy for Periampullary Tumors Is Associated with Pancreatic Exocrine Insufficiency
Authors: Yu Hsin‐Hsien , Yang Ta‐Ming , Shan Yan‐Shen , Lin Pin‐Wen
Published: June 2011

Background and purpose

The present study was done to investigate the prevalence of zinc deficiency after pancreatoduodenectomy (PD) and its correlation with pancreatic exocrine insufficiency.

Materials and methods

Patients were included in this study if they had undergone PD for periampullary tumors without recurrence and had received follow‐up for more than 6 months between February 2006 and June 2007. Serum levels of zinc, fasting glucose, albumin, and iron were obtained. The pancreatic exocrine function was evaluated by a fecal elastase‐1 assay, stool fat assessment, and a pancreatic duct‐parenchymal ratio (DPR) at the L1 level using abdominal computed tomography (CT). The quality of life was estimated with a questionnaire of EORTC QLQ‐C30 and PAN26. All of these patients were then supplemented with oral pancreatic enzymes for 4 weeks to evaluate the effect of these enzymes on zinc deficiency.

Results

Forty‐eight eligible patients, 27 men and 21 women, were included. The mean age was 61.3 ± 1.7 years. Thirty‐three (68%) patients had a zinc deficiency with a mean zinc level of 72.3 ± 2.9 mcg/dl (normal range: 80–120 mcg/dl). Patients with lower serum zinc levels tended to have typical presentations of zinc deficiency (P = 0.039, χ2). The serum zinc level was significantly negatively correlated with pancreatic duct diameter, DPR, and positive stool fat during the late follow‐up period. The most common presentations of patients with lower serum zinc levels were skin rash, photophobia, and glossitis. These gastrointestinal disorders, as well as symptoms of zinc deficiency, improved after pancreatic enzyme supplementation.

Conclusions

Zinc deficiency after PD was a common phenomenon and correlated with pancreatic exocrine insufficiency.
Stent selection and tips on placement technique of EUS‐guided biliary drainage: transduodenal and transgastric stenting
Authors: Itoi Takao , Isayama Hiroyuki , Sofuni Atsushi , Itokawa Fumihide , Kurihara Toshio , Tsuchiya Takayoshi , Tsuji Shujiro , Ishii Kentaro , Ikeuchi Nobuhito , Tanaka Reina , Umeda Junko , Moriyasu Fuminori , Kawakami Hiroshi
Published: June 2011

Endoscopic ultrasonography‐guided biliary drainage (EUS‐BD) has been carried out as an alternative to the percutaneous or surgical approach when endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography fails. However, there is no standard technique or device for EUS‐BD. In this review, we focus on how we choose the stents and described our tips on this EUS‐BD technique. The plastic stent (PS) and the self‐expandable metallic stent (SEMS) are used for EUS‐BD. The latter is further divided into the fully covered SEMS (FCSEMS), partially covered SEMS (PCSEMS), and uncovered SEMS (UCSEMS) types. Although PS is not expensive, the duration of stent patency is short. SEMS is expensive but the duration of stent patency is long. With UCSEMS, basically there is no stent malpositioning; however, if the gap between the bile duct and the GI tract becomes displaced, bile leakage from the mesh of the stent is likely to occur. Though there is no bile leakage with FCSEMS, the side branch of the bile duct may become occluded, and migration and dislocation sometimes occur. PCSEMS is basically similar to FCSEMS. When EUS‐BD was first developed, drainage by PS was common, although reports on drainage by SEMS have increased recently.
Tiller hierarchy and defoliation frequency determine bud viability in the grass Poa ligularis
Authors: Busso C. A. , Gittins C. , Becker G. F. , Ghermandi L.
Published: June 2011

Bud viability after various defoliation frequency treatments was determined in the perennial bunchgrass Poa ligularis under arid field conditions from 2002 to 2005. Bud respiratory activity was examined on various stem base hierarchies using the tetrazolium test, as validated with the vital stain Evan's blue. The hypothesis of this work was that the total and viable axillary bud numbers on stem bases of all study stem base hierarchies are reduced as defoliation frequency increases. Interpretation of the results differed when they were expressed as a percentage rather than on a number per stem base basis. The total number of axillary buds per stem base was similar in all defoliation frequencies. When the results were expressed on a percentage basis, the order on stem bases having metabolically active buds was daughter tillers > stem bases with green tillers > stem bases without green tillers in all defoliation frequencies. The reverse order was found when considering dead buds. How the results are expressed thus deserves our attention when reporting results on bud viability in perennial grasses. An increased defoliation frequency increased the percentage of dead and dormant buds after the third or fourth defoliation of P. ligularis during the 1st study year. These percentages of bud viability, however, increased after the first defoliation during the 2nd study year. Bud viability was affected not only by the cumulative effects of defoliation but also by climatic variables throughout the seasons. However, our results show that P. ligularis can be defoliated up to twice a year without affecting bud viability, and thus its potential capacity for regrowth after defoliation.
Physical Properties of Nutritive Shortenings Produced from Regioselective Hardening of Soybean Oil with Pt Containing Zeolite
Authors: Philippaerts An , Breesch Annika , De Cremer Gert , Kayaert Pieterjan , Hofkens Johan , Van den Mooter Guy , Jacobs Pierre , Sels Bert
Published: June 2011

Soybean oil was partially hydrogenated using Pt supported in microporous zeolite ZSM‐5 and on mesoporous alumina at various IV. Their fatty acid and triacylglycerol composition were determined with GC and HPLC, respectively, and their physical characteristics were monitored by the slip melting point, solid fat content, melting and crystallization thermograms, polymorphism behavior, and the crystal and solid fat network formation. Both the chemical and physical properties were compared with commercial fat samples. Usage of Pt instead of Ni results in a significant reduction in trans fatty acids in the hardened fat. Moreover, the catalyst support of Pt, viz. zeolite ZSM‐5 versus γ‐alumina, markedly affects the TAG composition. Pt/alumina fats contain large amounts of SSS and polyunsaturates (PUFA), making them unsuitable for shortening application. Because of the (regio)selective hydrogenation property of Pt/ZSM‐5, sn‐2 unsaturates are hydrogenated faster, yielding an enrichment of intermediately reduced TAG. In addition, this unique fat composition shows a high nutritional added‐value (high content of oleate, very low content of trans fatty acids, and low content of cholesterol‐raising palmitate and myristate) and high thermal stability (very low in linolenate). Moreover, their melting characteristics perfectly match those of commercial shortenings. Pt/zeolite hardened soybean oil contains spherulitic crystals with orthorhombic β′ molecular packing, arranged in an open, flexible solid network, in accordance with their high plasticity.
Bend theory of river meanders with spatial width variations
Authors: LUCHI ROSSELLA , ZOLEZZI GUIDO , TUBINO MARCO
Published: June 2011

The present work revisits the classical, uniform-width bend theory with the aim to understand whether and how spatial width oscillations can affect the process of linear bend stability that initiates meander planform evolution. Although longitudinal oscillations of channel width are common along many meandering streams, little investigation of their properties and dynamic effects has been pursued so far. The theory therefore accounts for width variations as a geometrical forcing in a depth-averaged model of meander morphodynamics by assuming the potential interaction with the classical curvature forcing effect. A first quantification of width variations is made by referring to a freely evolving meandering river, which shows that the dimensionless amplitude of width variations is a ‘small’ parameter with comparable magnitude to that of curvature variations, thus suggesting the use of a two-parameter perturbation expansion. Moreover, it is reasonable to assume that channel width oscillates in space with a double frequency relative to curvature, which implies that one nonlinear interaction between the two forcing effects is enough to reproduce the effect of spatial width variations on the process of bend stability. Overall, width variations consistently promote the instability of shorter bends with respect to meanders with uniform width: on average, this predicted tendency is supported by analysis of field data referring to hundreds of natural meander bends. The effect on meander wavelength selection depends on the location of the widest section relative to the bend apex. Under typical formative conditions of gravel-bed rivers, with large-enough channel aspect ratios, two distinct most unstable longitudinal modes develop. Such behaviour is absent when the width is uniform, and suggests a mechanistic interpretation for the reach-scale occurrence of chute cutoffs that can be observed more frequently in wider-at-bends than in equiwidth meandering channels.
On the onset of dissipation thermal instability for the Poiseuille flow of a highly viscous fluid in a horizontal channel
Authors: BARLETTA A. , CELLI M. , NIELD D. A.
Published: June 2011

The thermal instability of the plane Poiseuille flow as a consequence of the effect of viscous dissipation is investigated. No external temperature difference is assumed in the environment; the lower boundary is considered adiabatic, while the upper boundary is isothermal. Thus, the sole cause of the unstable thermal stratification is the flow rate, through the volumetric heating induced by the viscous dissipation. A linear stability analysis is carried out numerically by the analysis of normal modes perturbing the basic flow with different inclinations. The study of cases with different Prandtl numbers and Gebhart numbers suggests that the most unstable perturbations are the longitudinal rolls, namely the normal modes with a wave vector perpendicular to the basic flow direction. A possible comparison with the hydrodynamic instability of the plane Poiseuille flow, described by the Orr–Sommerfeld eigenvalue problem is proposed. This comparison, when referred to high values of the Prandtl number, reveals that the dissipation instability may be effective at a Reynolds number smaller than that needed for the onset of the hydrodynamic instability.
Lawyers, State Officials and Significant Others: Symbiotic Exchange in the Chinese Legal Services Market
Authors: Liu Sida
Published: June 2011

In China's legal services market, lawyers face strong competition from a variety of alternative legal service providers. Based upon 256 interviews with law practitioners and public officials, three years of ethnographic work on a professional internet forum, and extensive archival research, this article develops a theory of symbiotic exchange to analyse the competition between lawyers, basic-level legal workers and other practitioners in ordinary legal work, as well as how the state regulates these competing occupational groups. It argues that the dynamics of professional competition in the Chinese legal services market can be explained by the symbiotic exchange between law practitioners in the market and their regulatory agencies and officials in the state. Chinese lawyers have a weak market position because their exchange with the state is often not as strong and stable as their competitors. The prevalence of symbiotic exchange leads to the structural isomorphism between market and state institutions in China's transitional economy.
Cultural Governance and Place-Making in Taiwan and China
Authors: Chan Selina Ching
Published: June 2011

This article compares cultural governance in Taiwan and China through their respective place-making processes. It investigates how cultural polices objectify tradition and popularize cultural landscape in local places for economic development and identity politics. Contrary to what would be commonly expected, the Chinese government adopted a minimalist approach while the Taiwanese government was much more hands-on. The sociopolitical histories of the two governments and their objectives are examined to understand this difference. In addition, the reactions of the locals to cultural policies in the two places are also contrasted. Finally, the different effects of cultural governance in China and Taiwan are examined. In particular, it was found that communal relations have deteriorated in China but strengthened in Taiwan as a result.
Karp–Sipser on Random Graphs with a Fixed Degree Sequence
Authors: BOHMAN TOM , FRIEZE ALAN
Published: June 2011

Let Δ ≥ 3 be an integer. Given a fixed z ∈ +Δ such that zΔ > 0, we consider a graph Gz drawn uniformly at random from the collection of graphs with zin vertices of degree i for i = 1,. . .,Δ. We study the performance of the Karp–Sipser algorithm when applied to Gz. If there is an index δ > 1 such that z1 = . . . = zδ−1 = 0 and δzδ,. . .,ΔzΔ is a log-concave sequence of positive reals, then with high probability the Karp–Sipser algorithm succeeds in finding a matching with n ∥ z ∥ 1/2 − o(n1−ε) edges in Gz, where ε = ε (Δ, z) is a constant.
Living in the Light of Religious Ideals
Authors: Carlisle Clare
Published: June 2011

As a ‘poet of the religious’, Søren Kierkegaard sets before his reader a constellation of spiritual ideals, exquisitely painted with words and images that evoke their luminous beauty. Among these poetic icons are ideals of purity of heart; love of the neighbour; radiant self-transparency; truthfulness to oneself, to another person, or to God. Such ideals are what the ‘restless heart’ desires, and in invoking them Kierkegaard refuses to compromise on their purity – while insisting also that they are impossible to attain. It is the human condition which makes them impossible, and he is willing to describe this in dogmatic terms as original sin – sin being the refusal and loss of God, and thus also the loss of a self that has its ontological ground in its relationship to God – but he is more concerned to explore it in psychological terms. The human condition is for Kierkegaard characterised not merely by ignorance, but by wilful self-deception.
Sacrifice, Transcendence and ‘Making Sacred’
Authors: Hedley Douglas
Published: June 2011

Despisers of religion throughout the centuries have poured scorn upon the idea of sacrifice, which they have targeted as an index of the irrational and wicked in religious practice. Lucretius saw the sacrifice of Iphigenia as an instance of the evils perpetrated by religion. But even religious reformers like Xenophanes or Empedocles rail against ‘bloody sacrifice’. What kind of God can demand sacrifice? Yet the language of sacrifice persists in a secular world. Nor does its secularised form seem much more appealing. One need only think of the appalling and grotesque cult of sacrifice in numerous totalitarian regimes of the twentieth century. The perversion of the Jihad in radical Islam in contemporary Europe would provide another sombre instance. Throughout Europe in the last few years we have seen the revival of a classical Enlightenment atheism, a movement that, far removed from Nietzsche's pathos for the Death of God, pursues a vigorous and relentless policy of Écrasez l'infâme! Indeed, contemporary polemicists like Dawkins and Hitchens wish to emphasise precisely this dimension of Christianity: not just false but nasty! The modern cultured despisers of religion are the self confessed descendants of Hume and Voltaire. Religion is the product of the period of ignorance in the superstitious and terrified fearful infancy of humanity, and is the crude attempt to face the natural human longing for knowledge, consolation and emotional support. How can one strive to defend the concept of sacrifice against such cultured despisers? I think we need to start by reflecting upon why the slaughter of an animal, say, makes holy – sacra facere? The root meaning of ‘sacrifice’ has a basis in ritual practice, as its Latin etymology suggests. Though in common parlance it communicates a giving up or rejection, the word as we are going to understand it signifies thesubstitution, or more perhapssublimation, of an item or interest for a higher value or principle. St Augustine speaks of the outward symbol of the true sacrifice of spiritual offering that God requires in the altar of the heart – a sacrifice of humility and praise. The metaphor works because his audience was familiar with the literal sense of the term.
Darwinism, Purpose and Meaning
Authors: Midgley Mary
Published: June 2011

Researchers report that people who are asked to give their reason for converting to Creationism often say that they have done so because they see it as the only possible alternative to ‘Darwinism’ – something which they find intolerable and equate with scientific atheism.
God as the Simplest Explanation of the Universe
Authors: Swinburne Richard
Published: June 2011

I have argued over many years that theism provides a probably true explanation of the existence and most general features of the universe. A major reason for this, I have claimed, is that it is simpler than other explanations. The present paper seeks to amplify and defend this latter claim in the light of some recent challenges.
Restoration of Uneven Illumination in Light Sheet Microscopy Images
Authors: Uddin Mohammad Shorif , Lee Hwee Kuan , Preibisch Stephan , Tomancak Pavel
Published: June 2011

Light microscopy images suffer from poor contrast due to light absorption and scattering by the media. The resulting decay in contrast varies exponentially across the image along the incident light path. Classical space invariant deconvolution approaches, while very effective in deblurring, are not designed for the restoration of uneven illumination in microscopy images. In this article, we present a modified radiative transfer theory approach to solve the contrast degradation problem of light sheet microscopy (LSM) images. We confirmed the effectiveness of our approach through simulation as well as real LSM images.
Indian farmers' experience with and perceptions of organic farming
Authors: Panneerselvam P. , Halberg Niels , Vaarst Mette , Hermansen John Erik
Published: June 2011

In India, the number of farmers converting to organic farming has increased in the recent past despite the lack of government support in providing knowledge and extension to the farmers. The aim of this article is to investigate the perceived relevance, benefits and barriers to a conversion to organic agriculture in three different Indian contexts—in Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh and Uttarakhand states. In each state, 40 farmers from both organic and conventional systems were interviewed. The findings indicated that conventional producers identified production and marketing barriers as the main constraints to adopting organic farming, while the age and education of the farmer were not deemed a problem. Lack of knowledge and lack of institutional support were other barriers to conversion. Some farmers were, however, interested in converting to organic farming in the near future in Madhya Pradesh due to the low cost of production, and in Tamil Nadu and Uttarakhand due to the price premium and health benefits. On the other hand, organic farmers were more concerned with health, environmental and production factors when institutional support was available. The years under conversion were positively associated with reduced input costs in all three states and with increased income in Tamil Nadu and increased yield in Madhya Pradesh. Both organic and conventional farmers found the two production factors, low yield and pest control, to be of major concern. However, organic farms in Madhya Pradesh and Uttarakhand experienced yield increases because most of the farms were in the post-conversion period, while the farms in Tamil Nadu were in the conversion period and experienced yield reduction. The study suggests that the government scheme for compensating yield loss during the conversion period and a price premium may help farmers adopt organic agriculture on a large scale in India.
Bargaining over power: when do shifts in power lead to war?
Authors: Chadefaux Thomas
Published: June 2011

Students of international relations have long argued that large and rapid shifts in relative power can lead to war. But then why does the rising state not alleviate the concerns of the declining one by reducing its expected future power, so that a commitment problem never emerges? For example, states often limit their ability to launch preemptive attacks by creating demilitarized zones, or they abandon armament programs to avoid preventive wars. In a model of complete information, I show that shifts in power never lead to war when countries can negotiate over the determinants of their power. If war occurs, then, it must be that negotiations over power are impossible or too costly. I then show how third parties, domestic politics, and problems of fungibility can increase the costs of such negotiations, and hence lead to war, even under complete information.
Visual consciousness tracked with direct intracranial recording from early visual cortex in humans
Authors: Tsuchiya Naotsugu , Chung Jeffrey , Eliashiv Dawn , Adolphs Ralph , Mamelak Adam
Published: June 2011

A fundamental question in cognitive neuroscience is how neuronal representations are related to conscious experience.Two key questions are: where in the brain such representations are located, and at what point in time they correlate with conscious experience. In line with this issue, a hotly debated question is whether primary visual cortex (V1) contributes to visual consciousness, or whether this depends only on higher-order cortices. Here we investigated this issue by recording directly from early visual cortex in two neurosurgical patients undergoing epilepsy monitoring with intracranial electrocorticogram (ECoG) electrodes that covered early visual cortices, including the dorsal and ventral banks of the calcarine sulcus. We used Continuous Flash Suppression (CFS)to investigate the time course of when ‘invisible’ stimuli broke interocular suppression. Participants were asked to watch faces presented under CFS, to push a button when they started to see any part of the face, and then to indicate its spatial location. This occurred over several seconds. During the task performance we recorded intracranial ECoG at high spatiotemporal resolution from all contacts in parallel. We used multivariate decoding techniques and found that the location of the invisible face stimulus became decodable from neuronal activity 1.8 sec before the subject’s button press. Counter-intuitively, the same cortical sites from which we were able to decode this predictive signal showed a decrease in activity immediately prior to the transition from invisibility to visibility. Furthermore, we observed an increase in coherence among widely separated electrodes during the invisible epoch, which collapsed to a focal ensemble when the stimulus became visible. These results suggest that diffuse coherent representation is insufficient for visual awareness and that locally specialized patterns of activation may be key to consciousness. Our findings are consistent with one recently proposed framework for understanding consciousness utilizing information integration theory (Tononi, 2008).
Fire and carbon dynamics under climate change in south-eastern Australia: insights from FullCAM and FIRESCAPE modelling
Authors: King Karen J. , de Ligt Robert M. , Cary Geoffrey J.
Published: June 2011

This study used simulation modelling to investigate fire and carbon dynamics for projected warmer and drier climates in the south-eastern Australian high country. A carbon accounting model FullCAM and the landscape fire regime simulator FIRESCAPE were combined and used to simulate several fire management options under three climate scenarios – the recent climate (1975–2005); a moderate climate projected for 2070 (B1); and a more extreme climate projected for 2070 (A1FI). For warmer and drier climates, model simulations predicted (i) an increase in fire incidence; (ii) larger areas burned; (iii) higher mean fire intensities; (iv) shorter fire cycle lengths; (v) a greater proportion of fires burning earlier in the fire season; (vi) a reduction in carbon stores; (vii) a reduction in carbon sequestration rates; and (viii) an increase in the proportion of stored carbon emitted to the atmosphere. Prescribed burning at historical or twice historical levels had no effect on fire or carbon dynamics. In contrast, increasing the initial attack success (a surrogate for suppression) partially offset the adverse effects of warmer and drier climates on fire activity, but not on carbon dynamics. For the south-eastern Australian high country, simulations indicated that fire and carbon dynamics are sensitive to climate change, with simulated fire management only being able to partially offset the adverse effects of warmer and drier climate.
Relative importance of weather and climate on wildfire growth in interior Alaska
Authors: Abatzoglou John T. , Kolden Crystal A.
Published: June 2011

Efforts to quantify relationships between climate and wildfire in Alaska have not yet explored the role of higher-frequency meteorological conditions on individual wildfire ignition and growth. To address this gap, meteorological data for 665 large fires that burned across the Alaskan interior between 1980 and 2007 were assessed to determine the respective influence of higher-frequency weather and lower-frequency climate, in terms of both antecedent and post-ignition conditions on fire growth. Antecedent climate exhibited no discernable influence on eventual fire size. In contrast, fire size was sensitive to weather in the days to weeks following ignition, particularly the post-ignition timing of precipitation. Prolonged periods of warm and dry conditions coincident with blocking that persists for several weeks after ignition enabled growth of large wildfires, whereas the return of wetting precipitation generally within a week after ignition inhibited growth of smaller wildfires. These results suggest that daily weather data are a critical predictor of fire growth and large fire potential and encourage their use in fire management and modelling.
Have computation, animatronics, and robotic art anything to say about emotion, compassion, and how to model them?
Authors: Nissan Ephraim , Cassinis Ricardo , Morelli Laura Maria
Published: June 2011

We discuss robotic art, emotion in robotic art, and compassion in the philosophy of art. We discuss a particular animated artwork, survivor, the walking chair, symbolising survivors of landmine blasts, learning to use crutches, and maimed emotionally as well as physically. Its control incorporates mutual relations between very rudimentary representations of distinct emotions. This artwork is intended for sensitising viewers to the horror experienced by those who survive, and those who don’t. We can only give a small sample, here, of the reactions of viewers on various occasions when survivor was exhibited. Regardless of how much which pertains to human mental functions the tool embodies or doesn’t (actually, such replication is minimalist), it is the effect on the human perceivers which matters most to us, and enables us to understand something more about human cognition. Arguably this project is instructive in respect of the ethical-social implications of the synthetic method, i.e. the construction of inorganic systems in order to understand autonomous intentional action; in this project, the latter pertains to the humans involved.
The ontology of conflict
Authors: Greco Morasso Sara
Published: June 2011

This paper aims at clarifying the ontology of conflict as a preliminary for constructing a conflict mapping guide (Wehr 1979). After recalling the main definitions elaborated in different disciplines, the meaning of conflict is elicited through semantic analysis based on corpus evidence. Two fundamental meanings emerge: conflict as an interpersonal hostility between two or more human subjects, and conflict as a propositional incompatibility. These two states of affairs are significantly related, because the latter tends to generate the former whenever the incompatible positions are embodied by as many parties who feel personally questioned. The semantic analysis allows to sketch the ontology of the conflictual situation that can serve to generate a conflict mapping guide, and to face several crucial aspects that are relevant both to the study and to the management of conflicts. In the former perspective, it allows for a comparison of the situation of interpersonal conflict with the seemingly similar process of controversy.
The place of nonconceptual information in university education with special reference to teaching literature
Authors: Tsur Reuven
Published: June 2011

This paper assumes that crucial mental activities involved in scientific discovery and literary reponse are nonconceptual. Some of the greatest scientific discoveries were made in states of extreme mental passivity induced in “the Bus, the Bath, or the Bed”(Köhler 1972: 163). Universities usually teach techniques and conceptual systems required for scientific research, but have no courses in achieving moments of extreme mental passivity, that is, taking a hot bath or dozing off on a rocking bus. I have adopted from the psychology of perception-and-personality the notion of “delayed closure” (here applied as “delayed categorization”). Delayed closure is an essential condition for adequate adjustment to reality in everyday life, as well as in scientific research and literary response. Some people display intolerance of delayed closure, whereas rapid closure may involve loss of important precategorial information. The problems of “teaching” delayed closure are explored in the context of teaching literature in a university setting.
Activating, seeking, and creating common ground
Authors: Kecskes Istvan , Zhang Fenghui
Published: June 2011

This paper argues that current pragmatic theories fail to describe common ground in its complexity because they usually retain a communication-as-transfer-between-minds view of language, and disregard the fact that disagreement and egocentrism of speaker-hearers are as fundamental parts of communication as agreement and cooperation. On the other hand, current cognitive research has overestimated the egocentric behavior of the dyads and argued for the dynamic emergent property of common ground while devaluing the overall significance of cooperation in the process of verbal communication. The paper attempts to eliminate this conflict and proposes to combine the two views into an integrated concept of common ground, in which both core common ground (assumed shared knowledge, a priori mental representation) and emergent common ground (emergent participant resource, a post facto emergence through use) converge to construct a dialectical socio-cultural background for communication. Both cognitive and pragmatic considerations are central to this issue. While attention (through salience, which is the cause for interlocutors’ egocentrism) explains why emergent property unfolds, intention (through relevance, which is expressed in cooperation) explains why presumed shared knowledge is needed. Based on this, common ground is perceived as an effort to converge the mental representation of shared knowledge present as memory that we can activate, shared knowledge that we can seek, and rapport, as well as knowledge that we can create in the communicative process. The socio-cognitive approach emphasizes that common ground is a dynamic construct that is mutually constructed by interlocutors throughout the communicative process. The core and emergent components join in the construction of common ground in all stages, although they may contribute to the construction process in different ways, to different extents, and in different phases of the communicative process.
Mental diversity and unity
Authors: Dascal Marcelo
Published: June 2011

Geoffrey Lloyd, in his book Cognitive Variations (2007), addresses the puzzle of cognitive diversity vs. cognitive unity of our mental life by analyzing a number of debates related to it. Accounting for the fact that human mental life across cultures both shares many of its fundamental features and differs in many others, no less fundamental ones, apparently cannot but engender a dilemma, as long as only reductionist solutions are considered, for neither radical diversity is reducible to unity nor vice versa. The situation is further complicated by the fact that ‘division of labor’ solutions involving a sort of schizophrenic fragmentation of the mind, are also unlikely, since even the most diverse mental tasks complement each other in what appears to be a seamless unity. In this review article, I undertake to highlight what I take to be the cornerstone of Lloyd’s account, namely an approach that rejects the dichotomy ‘diversity vs. unity’ and thus creates an alternative, ‘pragmatic’ path for their essential cooperation-through- opposition. This proposal is supported by an analysis of Lloyd’s treatment of several of the debates discussed in the book’s chapters, as well as by references to my own work in pragmatics and controversies.
Some aspects of pragmatics
Authors: Xie Chaoqun , House Juliane
Published: June 2011

Part of current pragmatics research aims at opening up new avenues of inquiry by revisiting and revising some of its central topics and keywords, such as implicature, explicature, truth, varieties of meaning, meaning inference, relevance, politeness, and face. This review article attempts to contribute to this endeavor by making some comments on and beyond Kecskes and Horn’s (2007) Explorations in Pragmatics: Linguistic, Cognitive and Intercultural Aspects. With reference to certain Chinese linguistic and interactional actualities, this paper argues, among other things, that a speaker who conveys some truth to a hearer does not necessarily mean that the speaker is committed to that truth, that people with little social power may also manipulate the power of words in actual interaction, and that when it comes to making politeness evaluations, what one does may turn out to be more important and decisive than what one says.
Cognitive, cultural, and constructional motivations of polysemy and semantic change
Authors: Marmaridou Sophia
Published: June 2011

Within the framework of cognitive linguistics and construction grammar (as in Lakoff 1987; Langacker 2000; Goldberg 1995; and Fried and Östman 2004), it is claimed in this paper that the semantics of psuche (psyche) is motivated by cognitive, cultural, and constructional parameters of meaning. More specifically, it is argued that psyche, as the immaterial nature of a human being, and the seat of emotions and feelings in particular, is understood in terms of image-based metaphors, a cultural model of the self, and a cultural narrative of existence. It is also argued that the frequent occurrence of psyche in a number of collocations and idioms motivates and constrains constructional meaning. At the same time, constructions motivate extended senses of this word, thereby contributing to its polysemy and ultimately to semantic change. The evidence presented within this framework argues against a fixed borderline between lexical and constructional meaning. This view, long and tacitly adopted in lexicographic practice by necessity, is gaining further support within current research in the framework of lexicography (Fillmore 2008; Hanks 2008), corpus linguistics (Fellbaum 2007), lexical semantics (Taylor et al. 2003), language change (Bybee 2006a), and construction grammar (Boas 2008).
Mathematical and numerical model for nonlinear viscoplasticity
Authors: Favrie N. , Gavrilyuk S.
Published: June 2011

A macroscopic model describing elastic–plastic solids is derived in a special case of the internal specific energy taken in separable form: it is the sum of a hydrodynamic part depending only on the density and entropy, and a shear part depending on other invariants of the Finger tensor. In particular, the relaxation terms are constructed compatible with the von Mises yield criteria. In addition, Maxwell-type material behaviour is shown up: the deviatoric part of the stress tensor decays during plastic deformations. Numerical examples show the ability of this model to deal with real physical phenomena.
Hydroelastic wave diffraction by a vertical cylinder
Authors: Brocklehurst Paul , Korobkin Alexander , Părău Emilian I.
Published: June 2011

A linear three-dimensional problem of hydroelastic wave diffraction by a bottom-mounted circular cylinder is analysed. The fluid is of finite depth and is covered by an ice sheet, which is clamped to the cylinder surface. The ice stretches from the cylinder to infinity in all lateral directions. The hydroelastic behaviour of the ice sheet is described by linear elastic plate theory, and the fluid flow by a potential flow model. The two-dimensional incident wave is regular and has small amplitude. An analytical solution of the coupled problem of hydroelasticity is found by using a Weber transform. We determine the ice deflection and the vertical and horizontal forces acting on the cylinder and analyse the strain in the ice sheet caused by the incident wave.
Three-dimensional waves beneath an ice sheet due to a steadily moving pressure
Authors: Părău Emilian I. , Vanden-Broeck Jean-Marc
Published: June 2011

Solutions of the nonlinear water wave equations under an ice sheet are computed using a boundary integral equation method. The ice sheet is modelled as a thin elastic plate and the fluid equations are nonlinear. Depending on the velocity of the moving disturbance generating the flow, different types of responses of the floating ice sheet are discussed.
Evolution of time-keeping mechanisms: early emergence and adaptation to photoperiod
Authors: Hut R. A. , Beersma D. G. M.
Published: June 2011

Virtually all species have developed cellular oscillations and mechanisms that synchronize these cellular oscillations to environmental cycles. Such environmental cycles in biotic (e.g. food availability and predation risk) or abiotic (e.g. temperature and light) factors may occur on a daily, annual or tidal time scale. Internal timing mechanisms may facilitate behavioural or physiological adaptation to such changes in environmental conditions. These timing mechanisms commonly involve an internal molecular oscillator (a ‘clock’) that is synchronized (‘entrained’) to the environmental cycle by receptor mechanisms responding to relevant environmental signals (‘Zeitgeber’, i.e. German for time-giver). To understand the evolution of such timing mechanisms, we have to understand the mechanisms leading to selective advantage. Although major advances have been made in our understanding of the physiological and molecular mechanisms driving internal cycles (proximatequestions), studies identifying mechanisms of natural selection on clock systems (ultimatequestions) are rather limited. Here, we discuss the selective advantage of a circadian system and how its adaptation to day length variation may have a functional role in optimizing seasonal timing. We discuss various cases where selective advantages of circadian timing mechanisms have been shown and cases where temporarily loss of circadian timing may cause selective advantage. We suggest an explanation for why a circadian timing system has emerged in primitive life forms like cyanobacteria and we evaluate a possible molecular mechanism that enabled these bacteria to adapt to seasonal variation in day length. We further discuss how the role of the circadian system in photoperiodic time measurement may explain differential selection pressures on circadian period when species are exposed to changing climatic conditions (e.g. global warming) or when they expand their geographical range to different latitudes or altitudes.
Nursing home caregivers’ explanations for and coping strategies with residents’ aggression: a qualitative study
Authors: Zeller Adelheid , Dassen Theo , Kok Gerjo , Needham Ian , Halfens Ruud JG
Published: June 2011

Aims and objectives.  This study explored caregivers’ perspectives regarding the conditions and situations of resident aggression and practical strategies caregivers use to deal with aggression.

Background.  Working in a nursing home is associated with a high risk to experience aggression from residents or patients. Despite existing recommendations for dealing with aggression there is a lack of information about caregivers’ ways of dealing with it in practice.

Design.  A qualitative study with focus group method was conducted.

Method.  Five focus group interviews, with a total of 30 participants, from nursing homes in Switzerland were undertaken employing a semi‐structured interview guideline. For analysing the data, qualitative content analysis was employed.

Results.  Analysis of the data produced three themes with additional sub‐themes. One main theme concerns the explanations of the caregivers in regard to the occurrence of aggressive behaviour. This theme is subdivided into two areas, the contributory resident related factors and the caregiver related factors. The measures for handling aggressive behaviour are illustrated in the second theme ‘dealing with residents’. The third theme refers to the strategies of the caregivers when confronted with aggressive behaviour –‘self‐protection’ and ‘coping with the situation’.

Conclusion.  Caregivers use a broad spectrum of interventions for reducing aggression, some of which are recommended by guidelines but often ignore the link between aggressive behaviour and physiological issues like pain or elimination. The caregivers only very rarely linked their practical knowledge about aggressive behaviour with theoretical knowledge.

Relevance to clinical practice.  The results give insight into the caregivers’ perspectives on factors leading to aggression and their coping strategies. Caregivers are informed about relevant reasons for aggressive behaviour and its management, but do not apply a systematic approach. Furthermore, the anxiety of caregivers involved in aggression incidents is an under examined area.