Local Point Of View Research Articles

Generalized quadrangles from a local point of view

In this lecture, I will survey several recent results in the local theory of generalized quadrangles. Starting with a short introduction to the global automorphism theory, I will motivate as such the local viewpoint, and overview some of the most important local properties which are investigated nowadays. Recent results on skew translation quadrangles and forms will be described, including a solution of a question of Payne which generalizes work of Havas et al. (Finite geometries, groups, and computation, 2006; Adv Geom 26:389–396, 2006), and then I will mention parts of a classification of skew translation quadrangles which is being prepared by the author. Finally, I will consider conditions which are both global and local.

Performative Galleries: Integrating Applied Theatre and Digital Media Into Museum Settings

Many parallels exists between museum and theatre practices, as both fields work to become culturally and personally relevant and accessible, as well as competitive and compatible with rapidly developing media and technology. Through an exploration of mappingDESIRE, an applied digital media and performance project, this article examines the use of live performance and online story-mapping to (re)present marginalized narratives and local points of view. The author explores new approaches to actively engaging young audiences, and offers possibilities for re-imagining traditional structures of knowledge production in museum settings.

Piezoelectric coupling in energy-harvesting fluttering flexible plates: linear stability analysis and conversion efficiency

This paper investigates the energy harvested from the flutter of a plate in an axial flow by making use of piezoelectric materials. The equations for fully coupled linear dynamics of the fluid–solid and electrical systems are derived. The continuous limit is then considered, when the characteristic length of the plate's deformations is large compared to the piezoelectric patches' length. The linear stability analysis of the coupled system is addressed from both a local and global point of view. Piezoelectric energy harvesting adds rigidity and damping on the motion of the flexible plate, and destabilization by dissipation is observed for negative energy waves propagating in the medium. This result is confirmed in the global analysis of fluttering modes of a finite-length plate. It is finally observed that waves or modes destabilized by piezoelectric coupling maximize the energy conversion efficiency.

Geodesic congruences in warped spacetimes

In this article, we explore the kinematics of timelike geodesic congruences in warped five dimensional bulk spacetimes, with and without thick or thin branes. Beginning with geodesic flows in the Randall--Sundrum AdS (Anti de Sitter) geometry without and with branes we find analytical expressions for the expansion scalar and comment on the effects of including thin branes on its evolution. Later, we move on to congruences in more general warped bulk geometries with a cosmological thick brane and a time-dependent extra dimensional scale. Using analytical expressions for the velocity field, we interpret the expansion, shear and rotation (ESR) along the flows, as functions of the extra dimensional coordinate. The evolution of a cross-sectional area orthogonal to the congruence, as seen from a local observer's point of view, is also shown graphically. Finally, the Raychaudhuri and geodesic equations in backgrounds with a thick brane are solved numerically in order to figure out the role of initial conditions (prescribed on the ESR) and spacetime curvature on the evolution of the ESR.

Evolution of Effective Short Fatigue Cracks Density of LZ50 Axle Steel

Short fatigue crack density evolution on specimen surface of railway LZ50 axle steel is studied experimentally by local and overall viewpoints, respectively. Results indicate that the density of effective short fatigue cracks (ESFCs) around dominant crack, which results in the specimen failure, evolutes sensitively to the changes of the dominant crack size and tip locations. In accordance with the previous criterion of ESFCs, this density evolution is more suitable for describing the intrinsic and dynamic localization and randomization of fatigue damage. At the same time, statistical deriving is applied to address the randomness of the evolution behavior. It is revealed that the density data increases with the dominant crack growth in the micro-structural short crack (MSC) regime, and keeps declining in the physical short crack (PSC) regime. Coefficient-of-variations exhibit a contrary tendency. Appropriate distribution is further determined using a previous comprehensive statistical comparison method. Random characters and quantitative measurements of the density data have been well depicted.

Image Retargeting Quality Assessment

AbstractContent‐aware image retargeting is a technique that can flexibly display images with different aspect ratios and simultaneously preserve salient regions in images. Recently many image retargeting techniques have been proposed. To compare image quality by different retargeting methods fast and reliably, an objective metric simulating the human vision system (HVS) is presented in this paper. Different from traditional objective assessment methods that work in bottom‐up manner (i.e., assembling pixel‐level features in a local‐to‐global way), in this paper we propose to use a reverse order (top‐down manner) that organizes image features from global to local viewpoints, leading to a new objective assessment metric for retargeted images. A scale‐space matching method is designed to facilitate extraction of global geometric structures from retargeted images. By traversing the scale space from coarse to fine levels, local pixel correspondence is also established. The objective assessment metric is then based on both global geometric structures and local pixel correspondence. To evaluate color images, CIE L*a*b* color space is utilized. Experimental results are obtained to measure the performance of objective assessments with the proposed metric. The results show good consistency between the proposed objective metric and subjective assessment by human observers.

The Harmony Concept between Government Program and Community Need to Achieve Sustainability

The background of research was conditions of settlement in slum area at Tallo which are most apprehensive; lack of facilities, the houses made of flammable materials, and some criminal action occurred in the density settlement. Upgrading Programs has been twice implemented in this area. However, those have the same aim, to improve street and drainage condition around the area. The different between of them is the using of material which are the first program used asphalt as street cover material and the second one used paving blok. Although the upgrading programs had done, the condition of the settlement did not improve significantly. The problems in settlement were not only leak in infrastructure condition and needs, but also lake of community welfare, unemployment, housing conditions, and the existence of the warehouses in the settlement. The flood problems also appeared in this area which closed with the water channel to the city disposal channel so when rainy season, the area is always flooded and enter into the entrance of the houses. The objective of this research was to find the root of the problems and find good solutions for the environment and how to meet the major needs of the settlement upgrading program into the local community point of view. Field research and questioners was conducted as research method to the research objectivities in the needs of community for good environment. Furthermore, the data from the field research was analyzed by making synchronization with the theory of environmental sustainability. Results from this research showed the comparison study between first and the last condition of the settlement area which had the upgrading program implementation. These findings could provide a new guideline for the government in policy related to slum upgrading.

MWeb

We present a principled framework for modular Web rule bases, called MWeb. According to this framework, each predicate defined in a rule base is characterized by its defining reasoning mode, scope, and exporting rule base list. Each predicate used in a rule base is characterized by its requesting reasoning mode and importing rule base list. For legal MWeb modular rule bases S , the MWebAS and MWebWFS semantics of each rule base s ∈ S with respect to S are defined model-theoretically. These semantics extend the answer set semantics (AS) and the well-founded semantics with explicit negation (WFSX) on ELPs, respectively, keeping all of their semantical and computational characteristics. Our framework supports: (1) local semantics and different points of view, (2) local closed-world and open-world assumptions, (3) scoped negation-as-failure, (4) restricted propagation of local inconsistencies, and (5) monotonicity of reasoning, for fully shared predicates.

Impact of Road Surface Conditions on Human Driving Behavior

Human factor is a major contributor in road traffic crashes. This paper reports a comparative study of human driving behavior under icy and slippery to dry road surface conditions. Extensive car-following experiments were conducted on a test track in Japan under icy and dry conditions using Real Time Kinematic (RTK) GPS receivers. These experiments replicated various uninterrupted driving conditions in winter and summer seasons. Several speed patterns were tested for the lead vehicle representing various levels of disturbance in the traffic flow. The responses of the following drivers were analyzed based on three important human factors, namely: perception response time, sensitivity factor, and stability factor. The response time was significantly higher in icy conditions compared with dry road surface conditions while the difference in sensitivity factor was not that significant. The stability of the platoon was also analyzed from both the local and asymptotic stability points of view.

Lattice- and network-structure in plastic ice

We have investigated structural and energetic characteristics of plastic ice, which was found in a high pressure region such as 10 GPa by molecular dynamics simulation and free energy calculation. It was predicted that plastic ice intervenes between ice VII and liquid water, in which diffusion is suppressed but rotation is allowed. In the present work, the structure in plastic ice is explored from both local and global view points and focus is placed on the local arrangement, the extent of deviation from the ideal lattice position, and the hydrogen-bonded patterns. The roles of the attractive interaction and the repulsive part of Lennard-Jones potential are also examined. It is found that the higher interaction energy in plastic ice induces a large dislocation of water molecules, which eventually conducts a facile rotation. There are a large amount of hydrogen-bonds which do not orient to the tetrahedral directions. These orientational defects give rise to fusion of the two interpenetrating sublattices of ice VII leading to a plastic phase rather than defect-containing ice VII, which results in a unique network structure of the plastic ice.

Hypertension and lifestyle modification: how useful are the guidelines?

Hypertension is a significant risk factor for coronary artery disease and stroke, a leading cause of death and disability worldwide, and a major risk for dementia, chronic kidney disease, coronary heart disease, and heart failure. The prevalence of hypertension-related events is increasing, with the majority occurring among pre-hypertensives (120–139 mmHg systolic; 80–89 mmHg diastolic) and stage-1 hypertensives (140–159 mmHg systolic; 90–99 mmHg diastolic). In the UK it was estimated that there are 62 000 needless deaths per year due to uncontrolled blood pressure,1 with the condition presenting a particular problem among Asian immigrant communities. There has been some discussion in this Journal of the helpfulness of guidelines for a number of conditions. One editorial has highlighted the possible mismatch between guidelines and internationally-agreed quality criteria, the lack of a concise set of concrete recommendations, and a risk of bias in that, notwithstanding the availability of scientific evidence, the guidelines may in fact largely reflect local culture or personal viewpoints.2 It is with this in mind that we intend to examine the guidelines for control of hypertension with respect to diet/behavioural modification. The hypertension clinical guideline from the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) usefully recommends regular aerobic exercise and reduction of salt, alcohol, and smoking, and advocates ‘healthy, low-calorie diets' for ‘overweight individuals with raised blood pressure’, but gives a rather negative comment about its ‘modest effect’ …

Spontaneous supersymmetry breaking in matrix models from the viewpoints of localization and Nicolai mapping

In the previous work, it was shown that, in supersymmetric (matrix) discretized quantum mechanics, inclusion of an external field twisting the boundary condition of fermions enables us to discuss spontaneous breaking of supersymmetry (SUSY) in the path-integral formalism in a well-defined way. In the present work, we continue investigating the same systems from the points of view of localization and Nicolai mapping. The localization is studied by changing of integration variables in the path integral, which is applicable whether or not SUSY is explicitly broken. We examine in detail how the integrand of the partition function with respect to the integral over the auxiliary field behaves as the auxiliary field vanishes, which clarifies a mechanism of the localization. In SUSY matrix models, we obtain a matrix-model generalization of the localization formula. In terms of eigenvalues of matrix variables, we observe that eigenvalues' dynamics is governed by balance of attractive force from the localization and repulsive force from the Vandermonde determinant. The approach of the Nicolai mapping works even in the presence of the external field. It enables us to compute the partition function of SUSY matrix models for finite N ( N is the rank of matrices) with arbitrary superpotential at least in the leading nontrivial order of an expansion with respect to the small external field. We confirm the restoration of SUSY in the large- N limit of a SUSY matrix model with a double-well scalar potential observed in the previous work.

ChemInform Abstract: Detection and Use of Small J Couplings in Solid State NMR Experiments

AbstractReview: 103 refs.

ChemInform Abstract: μSR and NMR Measurements on High Tc Oxides

Abstract Muons and NMR determine the phase diagram of high Tc oxides. At the magnetic end they probe magnetization curves and the effect of hole doping on the order from a local point of view. In the superconducting phase they measure the London penetration depth, its temperature dependence and its correlation with the concentration of carriers.

Stakeholder perspectives on land-use strategies for adapting to climate-change-enhanced coastal hazards: Sarasota, Florida

Sustainable land-use planning requires decision makers to balance community growth with resilience to natural hazards. This balance is especially difficult in many coastal communities where planners must grapple with significant growth projections, the persistent threat of extreme events (e.g., hurricanes), and climate-change-driven sea level rise that not only presents a chronic hazard but also alters the spatial extent of sudden-onset hazards such as hurricanes. We examine these stressors on coastal, long-term land-use planning by reporting the results of a one-day community workshop held in Sarasota County, Florida that included focus groups and participatory mapping exercises. Workshop participants reflected various political agendas and socioeconomic interests of five local knowledge domains: business, environment, emergency management and infrastructure, government, and planning. Through a series of alternating domain-specific focus groups and interactive plenary sessions, participants compared the county 2050 comprehensive land-use plan to maps of contemporary hurricane storm-surge hazard zones and projected storm-surge hazard zones enlarged by sea level rise scenarios. This interactive, collaborative approach provided each group of domain experts the opportunity to combine geographically-specific, scientific knowledge on natural hazards and climate change with local viewpoints and concerns. Despite different agendas, interests, and proposed adaptation strategies, there was common agreement among participants for the need to increase community resilience to contemporary hurricane storm-surge hazards and to explore adaptation strategies to combat the projected, enlarged storm-surge hazard zones.

Ent‐Kaurene Diterpenoids from Blepharispermum hirtum

The twigs and leaves of Blepharispermum hirtum Oliver (Asteraceae) were investigated for their larvicidal and antimicrobial activity. Fractionation of the extracts of the twigs, directed by brine shrimp test and antibacterial activities, led to the isolation of compounds 1-4; two of which are new ent-kaurene diterpenoids, blepharispins A and B (1 and 2, resp.). The structures of compounds 1 and 2 were established from spectral data. The absolute configuration at C(15) in 1 was inferred from Mosher ester analysis and relative configurations were suggested by a NOESY experiment. Compound 4 was significantly larvicidal to newly hatched naupleii of Artemia salina L. (BST LC(50)=1.3 (3.7-0.0) microg/ml), but the blepharispins were not (BST LC(50) > 500 microg/ml). Nevertheless, compound 1 inhibited the growth of Staphylococcus aureus and Bacillus subtilis at a MIC value of 62.5 microg/ml. The significance of the bioactivity results and the presence of ent-kaurene diterpenoids in B. hirtum are discussed from biosynthetic and local utilization viewpoints.

Implications of flexible work systems for work studies.

The relationship between changing work systems and work study methods is discussed by focusing on a recent trend toward more flexible work systems in different countries. These systems are commonly characterized by (a) uncoupling of working hours from business hours, (b) combining different atypical work forms and (c) individualized work patterns. Increased flexibility in working patterns is demanded because business hours may be covered by different workers and because special arrangements become necessary for unpopular shifts or linking separate jobs. Changes in work systems seem more successful when they are associated with (a) multiskilled work, (b) independent task implementation, (c) networked communication, (d) balanced or adjusted workload, and (e) accommodation of workers' preferences. Special attention is drawn to safety and health concerns and work-life effects. Many intervention studies done for work improvement are paying attention to multifaceted work aspects, locally available options, and participation by people. All these elements are important because prepackaged solutions do not exist. The following three views seem especially useful for action-oriented work studies: 1) Look at multiple aspects of the work, including work content and atypical work forms; 2) Know worker preferences and available options; and 3) Take into account work elements that may not be well defined, but important from local points of view. It is envisioned that these studies can provide support for a well-informed participatory process of work system changes in each local context.

Mechanical characterization of liver capsule through uniaxial quasi-static tensile tests until failure

Accidentology data showed that liver is often injured in car crashes; three types of injuries occur: hematoma, laceration and vessel failure. This paper focuses on surface laceration, which involves liver capsule and hepatic parenchyma. Liver capsule behavior has been studied but its failure properties are still unclear, particularly on a local point of view. In the present study, tensile quasi-static tests are run on parenchyma and capsule samples until failure to characterize capsule failure. Normalized load as well as failure properties—ultimate load per width unit and ultimate strain—are determined. Digital image correlation is used to measure the full local strain field on the capsule. Mean values of failure characteristics for hepatic capsule are 47±29% for the ultimate local strain and 0.3±0.3 N/mm for the ultimate load per width unit. A comparison between human and porcine tissues is conducted based on Mann–Whitney statistical test; it reveals that capsule characteristics are close between these two species; however, freezing preservation significantly affects porcine capsule failure properties. Therefore using porcine instead of human tissue to determine failure characteristics of liver capsule seems satisfactory only on fresh tissues.

Optimal control to modelling motorcycle rider steering: local versus global coordinate systems in rider preview

The response of a motorcycle is heavily dependent on the rider’s control actions, and consequently a means of replicating the rider’s behaviour provides an important extension to motorcycle dynamics. The primary objective here is to develop effective path-following simulations and to understand how riders control motorcycles. Optimal control theory is applied to the tracking of roadway by a motorcycle, using a non-linear motorcycle model operating in free control by steering torque input. A path-following controller with road preview is designed by minimising tracking errors and control effort. Tight controls with high weightings on performance and loose controls with high weightings on control power are defined. Special attention is paid to the modelling of multipoint preview in local and global coordinate systems. The controller model is simulated over a standard single lane-change manoeuvre. It is argued that the local coordinates point of view is more representative of the way that a human rider operates and interprets information. The simulations suggest that for accurate path following, using optimal control, the problem must be solved by the local coordinates approach in order to achieve accurate results with short preview horizons. Furthermore, some weaknesses of the optimal control approach are highlighted here.

EFFECTIVE REGULARITY CRITERIA FOR ANALYTIC MAPPINGS

We survey recent developments in the study of singularities of complex-analytic mappings from a local algebraic viewpoint. We present several effective criteria for various modes of regularity of complex-analytic mappings in terms of vertical components in fibred powers of the mappings.