Theory Of Conversion Research Articles

Metasurface wave in planar nano-photonics

Development of optical systems is toward smaller sizes, more new functions and improved device performance. However, traditional optical systems face many fundamental limits. For example, the Abbe’s diffraction limit sets a minimal value at which the optical microscopy, telescopy and lithography resolution can be achieved. On the other hand, the Snell’s law states that one can only change the shape or materials of optical elements to realize different optical functionalities. Recently, metasurfaces based on artificially structured thin films with unique optical properties are thought to be a promising alternative to traditional optical materials. The thickness of these structures is far smaller than light wavelength, allowing the miniaturization and integration of several optical components and systems together. But there is still not a universal theory available for the understanding and design of metasurface-based devices. Luo et al. [1] systematically brought forward a new concept of metasurface wave (M-wave), which is quite different from the traditional bulk electromagnetic wave. The M-wave is a special electromagnetic excitation, either propagating along the surface or tunneling through the surface with abrupt phase and amplitude changes, which provides a general theory to describe the principles of ‘‘planar nanophotonics’’. They used the M-wave to extend the traditional laws of diffraction, refraction, reflection and absorption. In particular, they revealed that the M-wave has three unique optical properties: extremely short wavelength, locally tunable phase shift and tunable chromatic dispersion. Based on these three characteristics, several important theories and laws to further elaborate the M-wave theory have been presented, such as the metasurface-assisted diffraction theory (MDT), metasurface-assisted law of refraction and reflection (MLRR), metasurface-assisted law of polarization conversion (MLPC) and metasurface-assisted absorption theory (MAT). These theories would pave the way in the design of novel electromagnetic devices with various improved performance [2–6]. On the basis of the extremely short wavelength property and the MDT which emerged through the M-wave, the authors proposed a plasmonic lithography technique. It was shown that a sub-22 nm resolution can be achieved by using a light source at 365 nm. These results demonstrated that both the Abbe’s diffraction limit and the near-field diffraction limit can be surpassed. Unlike the super-resolved fluorescence microscopy (The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2014), which only applies well to fluorescence samples, this new technique does not rely on any fluorescent materials and thus has no limitation to applications, in principle. With the locally tunable phase shift property and the MLRR, Luo et al. [1] demonstrated a set of flat optical devices, including lenses, prisms, axicons and spiral phase plates. The author extended the super-resolution ability to far-field imaging systems. It was shown that a 10-m metasurface-based telescope can achieve the performance of a normal 16-m one. This is also a big improvement and contributes to revise the text book of Optics. For instance, Born and Wolf [2] have written in their Principle of Optics that the primary diffraction-limited images of an objective lens would not be observed in more detail by the following eyepiece. On the contrary, the new results show that deep sub-diffraction features absent in the diffraction-limited images of objective lens can be optically restored in the relayed system by taking advantage of the exotic properties M. Hong (&) Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore e-mail: elehmh@nus.edu.sg

Explicit-implicit Distinction: A Review of Related Literature

This paper sketches out the main views of the major pragmatic approaches (i.e., Grice’s theory of conversation, Relevance Theory, and Neo-Gricean pragmatic theory) on explicit-implicit distinction. It makes clear how this distinction has been differently drawn for utterance interpretation. Additionally, it highlights several corresponding problems that have arisen within such approaches. It demonstrates ultimately that no consensus has been reached on the dividing lines of the dichotomy of this distinction. Keywords : explicit-implicit distinction, Grice’s theory of conversation, Relevance Theory, Neo-Gricean pragmatic theory

Asymptotic compatibility between local-operations-and-classical-communication conversion and recovery

Recently, entanglement concentration was explicitly shown to be irreversible. However, it is still not clear what kind of states can be reversibly converted in the asymptotic setting by LOCC when neither the initial nor the target state is maximally entangled. We derive the necessary and sufficient condition for the reversibility of LOCC conversions between two bipartite pure entangled states in the asymptotic setting. In addition, we show that conversion can be achieved perfectly with only local unitary operation under such condition except for special cases. Interestingly, our result implies that an error-free reversible conversion is asymptotically possible even between states whose copies can never be locally unitarily equivalent with any finite numbers of copies, although such a conversion is impossible in the finite setting. In fact, we show such an example. Moreover, we establish how to overcome the irreversibility of LOCC conversion in two ways. As for the first method, we evaluate how many copies of the initial state is to be lost to overcome the irreversibility of LOCC conversion. The second method is to add a supplementary state appropriately, which also works for LU conversion unlike the first method. Especially, for the qubit system, any non-maximally pure entangled state can be a universal resource for the asymptotic reversibility when copies of the state is sufficiently many. More interestingly, our analysis implies that far-from-maximally entangled states can be better than nearly maximally entangled states as this type of resource. This fact brings new insight to the resource theory of state conversion.

Applications of ortho-para hydrogen catalyst

The underlying theory of hydrogen Ortho-Para conversion has long been known, but the specifics of non-linear heat of conversion from normal to para hydrogen have not been widely disseminated in the cryogenic literature. These factors are reviewed and thermally efficient applications in liquefiers and back conversion cooling systems are illustrated.

Threatening the patriarchy: teaching as performance

This article brings into conversation theories of performance and performativity to argue that the analogy of a teacher as a performer is a very complex discourse that both empowers and disempowers women teachers. As the field of teachers is increasingly comprised of women and the education policy and administrative leadership fields is increasingly comprised of men, there is an equally disturbing increase in the amount of disciplining, standardisation, and evaluation of teachers’ practices within schools in recent decades. The author argues that the perceived feminisation of the teaching field produces a situation in which teachers’ performance is threatening to the patriarchal institutions, causing further surveillance upon women and their role. Yet, in contrast, an analogy of performance also can allow teachers to subvert hegemonic patriarchal practices. Central to this discussion are notions of threat, corporeality, and temporality. The author concludes with examples of how teachers and researchers have successfully subverted and re-appropriated the teaching as performance analogy for the betterment of teachers, despite the complexity of this discourse.

An Examination of Leader-Member Dyadic Politeness of Exchange and Servant Leadership on Group Member Performance

Integrating conversational constraint theory and models of homophily and relational dyadic communication, this study investigates how leader-member politeness exchange and servant leadership influence group member performance in a Malaysian organizational context. Using hierarchical linear modeling with data obtained from a sample of 510 employees, 65 workgroups, and 3 organizations, a politeness of exchange-servant leadership model was tested. Results show that servant leadership was positively and significantly associated with workgroup manager’s ratings of group member’s performance. The positive association between servant leadership and group member performance is more pronounced when managers and members in workgroups are high in politeness of exchange in their interactions. As predicted, leader-member dyadic politeness of exchange within the workgroup manager-group member dyads moderated this positive association.

INTERACTIVE MULTIMEDIA-BASED MOBILE APPLICATION FOR LEARNING IBAN LANGUAGE

The emergence of mobile technological devices has brought along new possibilities to all walks of life in various communities. As mobile devices with highest capabilities extend into all areas of human life, they also affected language learning and mobile education. There are many mobile applications created for most of the major languages in the world and lesser amount is available for the far less used languages. Iban language is an example of those languages given far less attention as it is not as practical as other world languages. Iban language has been chosen to be implemented as a multimedia-based mobile application to promote language learning due to its richness in unique culture and language. The application, I-MMAPPS for learning Iban language was designed and developed by adopting conversational method and constructivism learning theory to provide learners a different approach in learning language based on various environments and situations. Since Iban pronunciations are different from any Malaysians local dialects, thus the correct pronunciations are vital to assist the learners. 30 non native speakers were chosen to test the application. The outcomes of this research shown that, most of the respondents were satisfied when they learn Iban language using the application. This application also has a promising development in future research.

Directness vs. Indirectness: A Study of the Linguistic Choices of Persian Speakers When Giving Advice

Considering lack of research in communication style in Persian and drawing upon Tannen’s conversational style theory (1984), this study aimed at investigating the degree of indirectness in Persian by focusing on the giving-advice speech act. To this end, the data were collected through a multiple choice Discourse Completion Test (DCT), developed and designed by the researchers. The results indicated that, except for gender, other variables such as age, status, and social distance of the interlocutors had a significant effect on the linguistic choices of the participants and on their directness score. The findings, thus confirmed the efficacy of Tannen’s conversational style theory in justifying the functions of indirectness in Persian.

Understanding Radicalization and Engagement in Terrorism through Religious Conversion Motifs

Although research into the processes and outcomes of radicalization has yielded significant discoveries regarding antecedent risk factors and the role played by societal circumstances and individual variables, research regarding the process of radical conversion remains in its infancy. We believe that the psychology of religion may hold the key to unlocking new insights into this conversion process. As a result of assessing both Lofland and Skonovd’s religious conversion motifs and Rambo’s integrative model of religious conversion, we suggest that issues of culture, society and the individual which are prevalent in first-hand accounts of conversion to terrorism provide crucial insight into the application of theories of religious conversion to the process of radicalization, and that this application is ripe for helping to further develop existing pyramid and staircase models of radicalization.

A Career with a View: Agentic Perspectives of Women Faculty

This study examined how women faculty in one research university enacted agency via perspectives that facilitated their career advancement amidst gendered organizational practices. Archer's (2003) critical realist theory of agency and inner conversations and Acker's (2006) work on gendered organizations guided analysis. Four perspectives adopted by women associate and full professors to achieve their goals are described and analyzed. These four perspectives contributed toward agentic actions, as well as women's satisfaction and well-being. The strengths and the limitations of supporting agentic perspectives as a way to advance gender equity and organizational change are presented.

Pragmatic Analysis of the Particle ʁadɪ in Najdi Arabic

<p>The ultimate goal of this paper is to investigate the pragmatic use of the particle ʁadɪ in Najdi Arabic. To do just this, both Grice’s Theory of Conversation and the Relevance Theory (RT) are used. In addition to indicating the speaker’s personal certainty of his/her utterance, ʁadɪ is assumed to encode the speaker’s lack of positive evidence to confirm the propositional content of his/her utterance, nonetheless. For Grice, ʁadɪ generates an implicature due to flouting the maxim of Quality ‘Try to make your contribution one that is true’. As a result, the hearer does not repose the speaker’s confidence of his/her utterance. Differently, for RT, ʁadɪ manifests a procedural meaning. This type of meaning guides the hearer not to rely heavily on the speaker’s own certainty which is, in principle, driven by anecdotal (nor conclusive) evidence. Additionally, this paper concludes that ʁadɪ fares better within the general framework of RT which provides a more robust account of its semantic import and pragmatic usage.</p>

Why do young people become Jihadists? A theoretical account on radical identity development

Identity status theory and Lofland and Starks' (1965, Becoming a world-saver: A theory of conversion to a deviant perspective, American Sociological Review, 30, 862–875) model of religious conversion were used to explain why young people become jihad fighters. Both theories maintain that young people with unclear commitments are vulnerable for radical identity change. A religious problem-solving perspective, along with a self-definition as religious seeker, steers this potential identity change into the direction of religious conversion. This may lead young Muslims or young people with an uncertain identity and a religious orientation to move closer to radical Islam and jihad. Also, research from both traditions found that absence of positive affective bonds with relevant others go together with unstable identity. A new group with a clear defined mission may therefore be able to solve their problems in two ways: it offers warm interpersonal bonds, as well as potential new personal goals and commitments. Groups of jihadists are perfectly fit to serve this twofold purpose.

A new stability result for nonlinear cascade time-delay system and its application in chaos control

Based on the converse Lyapunov stability theorem and invariant set theory, this paper presents a new theorem for the nonlinear cascade delay system. With this new proposed method, a lot of coupled items can be taken as zero items. So the whole system can be converted to a very simple form. Also, a simple chaos control technique is proposed for the uncertain time-delay Lorenz chaotic system via this new method. The controller designed is linear and easy to be implemented. Simulation results for uncertain chaotic systems are provided to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed scheme.

Language Use and Influence Among Minority, Majority, and Homogeneous Group Members

This article tests conversion theory through linguistic analysis of group discussions and also tests the effects of linguistic mimicry in homogeneous groups and minority/majority groups. Supporting conversion theory, majorities had a more interpersonal, outward focus as tested through use of more third person plural pronouns (“they”). Supporting conversion theory’s validation process, minority members who used a higher percentage of causation words were more influential. Majority members who used more second person pronouns (“you”) had less influence in the group, in support of previous research that found that “you” words were counterproductive with conflict. It was hypothesized that there would be a positive relationship between linguistic mimicry and discussion of information shared by all group members, but this was only found in homogeneous groups.

Similarity Theory of Withdrawn Water Temperature Experiment

Selective withdrawal from a thermal stratified reservoir has been widely utilized in managing reservoir water withdrawal. Besides theoretical analysis and numerical simulation, model test was also necessary in studying the temperature of withdrawn water. However, information on the similarity theory of the withdrawn water temperature model remains lacking. Considering flow features of selective withdrawal, the similarity theory of the withdrawn water temperature model was analyzed theoretically based on the modification of governing equations, the Boussinesq approximation, and some simplifications. The similarity conditions between the model and the prototype were suggested. The conversion of withdrawn water temperature between the model and the prototype was proposed. Meanwhile, the fundamental theory of temperature distribution conversion was firstly proposed, which could significantly improve the experiment efficiency when the basic temperature of the model was different from the prototype. Based on the similarity theory, an experiment was performed on the withdrawn water temperature which was verified by numerical method.

A Career with a View: Agentic Perspectives of Women Faculty

This study examined how women faculty in one research university enacted agency via perspectives that facilitated their career advancement amidst gendered organizational practices. Archer’s (2003) critical realist theory of agency and inner conversations and Acker’s (2006) work on gendered organizations guided analysis. Four perspectives adopted by women associate and full professors to achieve their goals are described and analyzed. These four perspectives contributed toward agentic actions, as well as women’s satisfaction and well-being. The strengths and the limitations of supporting agentic perspectives as a way to advance gender equity and organizational change are presented.

Uterine malignant mixed müllerian tumor camouflaging as pelvic sarcoma

Malignant mixed Müllerian tumors (MMMTs) of the uterus are rare, aggressive tumors that present at an advanced stage and are associated with poor prognosis. They arise as a result of divergent carcinomatous and mesenchymal differentiation of tumor stem cells. Rarely one of the components may predominate contributing to diagnostic confusion. We present a rare case of uterine MMMT arising in endometrial adenocarcinoma, camouflaging as pelvic sarcoma with a major sarcomatous component. This case report highlights the importance of thorough tissue sampling and the role of immunohistochemistry (IHC) in arriving at an accurate diagnosis. This case also demonstrates the conversion theory of histogenesis of MMMTs.

Toward an Integrative Theory of Religious Conversion: A Review Essay of The Oxford Handbook of Religious Conversion by Lewis R. Rambo and Charles F. Farhadian (2014)

This paper, a review essay of The Oxford Handbook of Religious Conversion (2014), first summarizes some of its social scientific chapters and then attempts to begin building an integrative theory of religious conversion. This theory is based upon a critical realist perspective and draws on Paloutzian’s multi-level interdisciplinary paradigm of conversion research, recent developments in the cultural sociology of religion, and the language of conversion, and it could be extended to integrate additional levels. The paper ends with a brief discussion of human flourishing and the possible role of conversion in it.

Collapse of Narrative: A Study of Narrative Distance in the Confessional Narrative in Kazuo Ishiguro's Work

This paper is a prelude to another forthcoming paper which applies H P Grice's conversation theory to the study of the narrative in the postcolonial writing of Kazuo Ishiguro in finding out the ‘source of unreliability’ of the narrator. This paper aims to set off with the building of a theoretical framework for such discussion of the unreliability hidden in the confessional narrative in postcolonial writings. The primary goal of this essay is to examine the role of the narrator within the narrative discourse and his/her position in the story discourse through a stylistic analysis of Ishiguro's linguistic choice in shaping his narrator and characters. The analysis firstly focuses on the examination of mood and mode at the syntactic level of the narrative of A Pale View of the Hills (1982) and differentiates, if any, the ways the character-narrator (Etsuko) constructs her ‘Japanese’ voice and reveals her experience and secrets. The analysis is then further going into the examination of the variation of the tone used in the narrative and story discourses. Harnessing the discovery of the similarity of the linguistic markers used, the study will lead to a better understanding of the process of the blurring of the boundary between the narrator-self and the narrated-self. The ultimate goal of this paper is to uncover the separation yet confusion between self, language and voice in a narrative which contributes to the diminishing distance between the two levels of discourse and subsequently to the collapse of narrative in the confessional narrative in Ishiguro's novel.

Learning about learning: a cybernetic model of skill acquisition

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explain some phenomena observed in the acquisition of motor skills: the loss of conscious access to knowledge of the structure of a skill and the awareness that an error has been made prior to the receipt of knowledge of results. Although there are rich descriptive accounts of skill acquisition in the literature, there are no satisfactory explanatory models of the cognitive processes involved. The paper provides such a model. Design/methodology/approach – In the 1970s, the first author implemented a computer program model of the cognitive processes involved in learning and skill acquisition, based on a series of empirical investigations. Recently, with assistance from the second author, the model has been reviewed, updated and re-implemented. The paper sets this work in the broader context of a theory of learning and teaching, conversation theory. Findings – The model provides a constructivist account of skill acquisition and associated phenomena. The model provides theoretical foundations for conversation theory. Practical implications – The model adds to the understanding of motor skill acquisition and to the understanding of processes of learning and teaching in general. Originality/value – The model and its interpretation are an original contribution to the skills acquisition literature.