True Realization Research Articles

Special issue on Ambient Intelligence

Ambient Intelligence (AmI) refers to predominantly electronic solutions that allow environments to be sensitive, adaptive, and responsive to the presence of people (Aarts et al. 2002). This opens up a world of unprecedented experiences to people in their day to day surroundings. Building on the early ideas of ubiquitous computing by Marc Weiser (1991) who envisioned a digital world where electronic devices are embedded to form a fine grained distributed network, AmI aims to go further in integration by involving the entire environment and any physical object in the interaction with people, thus improving their well being, productivity, creativity, and leisure through enhanced user system interaction. Furthermore, beyond mere physical integration of electronics, this paradigm focuses on the creation of enhanced experiences, thereby having major cultural and business related implications (Aarts and Encarnacao 2006; Aarts and Marzano 2003). The notion ambience in Ambient Intelligence refers to the need for a large-scale embedding of technology in a way that it becomes unobtrusively integrated into every-day objects and environments. The notion intelligence reflects that the digital surroundings exhibit specific forms of social interaction, i.e., the environments should be able to recognize the people that live in it, personalize to individual preferences, adapt themselves to the users, learn from their behavior, and possibly act upon their behalf. This implies that embedding through miniaturization is the main systems design objective from a hardware point of view. From a software point of view we distinguish between the following major AmI functionalities, i.e., context awareness, ubiquitous access, and natural interaction. The user benefits of the AmI paradigm are aimed at improving the quality of peoples’ lives by creating the desired atmosphere and functionality via intelligent, personalized, interconnected systems and services. However simple this requirement may sound, its true realization is for the time being not within our reach. There are three global factors that enable the development of Ambient Intelligence, i.e., technology, global connectivity, and socio-economical aspects. Focusing on the technological factor, we use a well-known frame of reference provided by the developments in semiconductor industry, which is known as Moore’s law (Noyce 1977). This law states that the integration density of systems on silicon doubles every 18 months. This trend is going on for more than 30 years and provides a clear forecast for the development of semiconductor technology. Recently, some new angles have been opened which in conjunction with Moore’s law can be formulated as follows.

NOTES: because we can or because we should?

NOTES: because we can or because we should?

European values and the Muslim world: Turkish cases at the European Court of Human Rights

‘Europe’ is supposed to be an Enlightenment project that embodies the accumulated experiences of modernity. This project declares that secularism and human rights are the basic conditions for creating an ideal world that is expected to be embodied within the institution of the European Union. The integration of Europe has been based above all on the acceptance of standardized human rights that are the expression of the heritage of the Enlightenment. The realization of human rights requires political neutrality towards all religions, which in turn guarantees the legal equality of all citizens. It is only if secularism can be made the social and legal foundation of Europe that Turkey's accession to the EU as a Muslim country might be made possible. Otherwise the EU is most likely to remain a Christian-oriented union within a non-secular context. However, there seems to be some resistance to accepting Turkey on religious grounds. This in turn undermines the so-called ‘European values’ (at the top of which is secularism) and revives the religious memory of Europe. The cases investigated in the European Court of Human Rights demonstrate that religious differences are still taken into account within the European project and that this has become a new barrier to the true realization of ‘European values’. This paper aims to analyze the causes and effects of this encounter and the ways in which it is viewed within the Turkish–Islamic world with special references to its role in shaping a nationalist or Islamist identity that may work to counter Turkey's integration with Europe.

Seaweed micropropagation techniques and their potentials: an overview

The seaweed industry worldwide uses 7.5–8.0 million tonnes of wet seaweeds annually with a majority of it derived from cultivated farms, as the demand for seaweed based-products exceeds the supply of seaweed raw material from natural stocks. The main advantage of cultivation is that it not only obviates overexploitation of natural populations but also facilitates the selection of germplasm with desired traits. To enhance the economic prospects of seaweed cultivation, varied practices, such as simple and cost effective cultivation methods, use of select germplasm as seed stock coupled with good farm management practices, etc., are adopted. Nevertheless, in vitro cell culture techniques have also been employed as they facilitate development and propagation of genotypes of commercial importance. There are more than 85 species of seaweeds for which tissue culture aspects have been reported. Although the initial aim of these techniques focuses mostly on genetic improvement and clonal propagation of seaweeds for mariculture, recently the scope of these techniques has been extended for use in bioprocess technology for production of high value chemicals of immense importance in the pharmaceutical and nutraceutical sectors. Recently, there has been a phenomenal interest in intensifying seaweed tissue and cell culture research to maximize the add-on value of seaweed resources. This paper deals with the status of seaweed micropropagation techniques and their applications in the context of the marine biotech industry. Further, it also provides an analysis of the problems to be resolved for removing the barriers that are impeding the true realization of potentials offered by these techniques for sustainable development and utilization of seaweed resources.

Attacking quantum key distribution with single-photon two-qubit quantum logic

The Fuchs-Peres-Brandt (FPB) probe realizes the most powerful individual attack on Bennett-Brassard 1984 quantum key distribution (BB84 QKD) by means of a single controlled-NOT (CNOT) gate. This paper describes a complete physical simulation of the FPB-probe attack on polarization-based BB84 QKD using a deterministic CNOT constructed from single-photon two-qubit quantum logic. Adding polarization-preserving quantum nondemolition measurements of photon number to this configuration converts the physical simulation into a true deterministic realization of the FPB attack.

Operational and financial hedging for exporting firms

This paper examines the interaction between operational and financial hedging in the context of an internationally competitive but domestically monopolistic firm under exchange rate uncertainty. Operational hedging is modeled by letting the firm make its export decision after it has observed the true realization of the then prevailing spot exchange rate. Financial hedging, on the other hand, is modeled by allowing the firm to trade fairly priced exotic derivatives that are tailor-made for the firm's hedging need. We show that both operational and financial hedging unambiguously entice the firm into producing more. We further derive sufficient conditions under which operational hedging dominates (is dominated by) financial hedging in terms of promoting the firm's optimal output.

OPERATING LEVERAGE AND THE INTERACTION BETWEEN ABANDONMENT OPTIONS AND EXOTIC HEDGING

This paper examines the interaction between operational and financial hedging in the context of the competitive firm under output price uncertainty. The firm is endowed with an abandonment option in that its production decision is made after the true realization of the random output price has been observed. If the realized output price is less than its marginal cost, the firm optimally exercises its abandonment option and ceases from production. Otherwise, the firm lets its abandonment option extinguish and produces at its capacity. The existence of the abandonment option is shown to induce the firm to opt for a concave payoff risk-sharing rule that can be perfectly replicated by writing call options with a single strike price set equal to the marginal cost. We derive necessary and sufficient conditions that ensure a positive (negative) effect of operational hedging via the abandonment option on the firm's optimal operating leverage. In contrast, we show that the effect of financial hedging via customized exotic derivatives on the firm's optimal operating leverage is unambiguously positive. These results suggest that the interaction between abandonment options and exotic hedging is multi-dimensional and deserves further scrutiny.

Thermocline dynamics in a thermally stratified store

Analysis of a stratified store thermocline entrainment process is done by a side-by-side comparison of experiments and a direct numerical simulation. The experimental and numerical analyses are shown to be complementary; where the experiment is a true realisation of the thermocline entrainment process, the numerical simulation provides the temporal and spatial resolution for detailed analysis. The agreement between both is good. It appears that during collision of the buckling jet with the thermocline inhomogeneous penetration and back flow occur. At the point where the jet flows back into the bottom layer, upper-layer fluid is dragged into the bottom layer. After detachment, the dragged-down fluid filament becomes unstable due to overturning motions, resulting in Kelvin–Helmholtz-like waves. Subsequently the fluid filament is completely mixed with bottom-layer fluid by the action of stretching- and-folding stimulated diffusion. From a comparison between 2D- and 3D-simulation results it appeared that for store optimisation 2D-numerical simulations provide sufficient accuracy.

Currency Hedging For Export-Flexible Firms*

This paper examines the production and hedging decisions of a competitive exporting firm under exchange rate uncertainty. The firm possesses export flexibility in that it can distribute its output to either the domestic market or a foreign market, after observing the true realization of the exchange rate. It is shown that the separation theorem does not hold under export flexibility, i.e., the firm's optimal output depends on the firm's preference and on the underlying exchange rate uncertainty. Furthermore, the export- flexible firm underhedges its exchange rate risk exposure in a currency forward market where in the forward exchange rate contains a non-positive risk premium. [D21, F31]

The World in a Wafer: A Geography of the Eucharist as Resistance to Globalization

This essay explores Eucharist as resistance to late‐capitalist “globalization.” Globalization is often touted as the first true realization of catholicity. Globalization is seen as the demise of the nation‐state which has caused so much division among peoples. In contrast, I argue that globalization does not signal the decline of the nation‐state but the perfection of the modern state's subsumption of local communities under the universal. True catholicity is based in the practice of the Eucharist, which realizes a universal communion but does so only in local Eucharistic communities, thus overcoming the dichotomy of universal and particular.

Recognition of Mixed Facial Expressions by Neural Network.

Since the facial expressions of human emotions are usually not distinct, the development of a technique for machine recognition of mixed facial expressions is very crucial for the true realization of AHI (active human interface) between machine and human beings. This paper deals with a neural network method for machine recognition by decomposing mixed facial expressions into 2 or 3 components of 6 basic facial expressions. We obtain the images of mixed facial expressions from video tape which recorded continuous change in facial expressions, and using the information of the (x, y) coordinates of facial characteristic points (FCP) for 19 subjects, the neural network is trained. The recognition test is conducted by inputting facial information not used in training the neural network to the trained neural network. The neural network method is found to give a rather high agreement rate of about 70% compared with recognition results obtained by human beings.

The True Teaching, Practice and Realization of the Pure Land Way: A Translation of Shinran's Kyogyoshinsho, Volume IV.

The True Teaching, Practice and Realization of the Pure Land Way: A Translation of Shinran's Kyogyoshinsho, Volume IV.

China, June 1989: Dramas of Revolution on Street and Screen

China, June 1989: Dramas of Revolution on Street and Screen

Review of: Yoshifumi Ueda, ed., The True Teaching, Practice and Realization of the Pure Land Way. A Translation of Shinran’s Kyōgyōshinshō

Review of: Yoshifumi Ueda, ed., The True Teaching, Practice and Realization of the Pure Land Way. A Translation of Shinran’s Kyōgyōshinshō

The True Teaching, Practice and Realization of the Pure Land Way: A Translation of Shinran's Kyogyoshinsho, Volume III.

The True Teaching, Practice and Realization of the Pure Land Way: A Translation of Shinran's Kyogyoshinsho, Volume III.

The True Teaching, Practice and Realization of the Pure Land Way, A translation of Shinran's Kyogyoshinsho, Vol. 1.

The True Teaching, Practice and Realization of the Pure Land Way, A translation of Shinran's Kyogyoshinsho, Vol. 1. Shin Buddhism Translation Series, Hongwanji International Center, Kyoto 1983. 200 pp. N. P.

Precise realisation of an insensitive floating negative admittance convertor

A new floating negative admittance convenor (FNAC) network using the second-generation current conveyor (CCII) active devices has been proposed. The novelties of the scheme are no component matching requirements, use of only the nominal termination admittance under ideal device conditions, and practically active-insensitive network characteristics. Even with nonideal but matched devices, no extra matching component is required for a true FNAC realisation. However, with nonideal and nonidentical devices, insertion of a single compensating admittance yields a precise bilateral FNAC.

Novel floating negative immittance convertor

A network realisation for a floating negative immittance convertor (FNIC) using second generation current conveyor (CCII) elements has been proposed. The novelties of the scheme are no design constraints involving matched components, use of only the nominal termination component with ideal CCII devices. Even with nonideal but matched devices, a true FNIC realisation does not require any additional component matching. With nonideal and unmatched devices, a precise bilateral FNIC is realisable simply by connecting a single compensating component appropriately. The sensitivities of the elements of the [Y] matrix relative to active device deviations have been shown to be extremely low. A network synthesis application of the FNIC has also been suggested.

The Secretariat and the Local Organizations in the Russian Communist Party, 1921-1923

An acutely significant episode in the history of Soviet Russia, rendered no less important by the perspective of recent events, is the development of the organizational machinery of the Communist Party in the years immediately following the civil war. It was this period which witnessed the true realization of Lenin's prerevolutionary ideal of the monolithic party, despite the paradox that the model of conspiratorial discipline was designed for the accomplishment of the revolution, not the organization of the post-revolutionary society.

Series Construction of the Hurricane I

IT is a comparatively simple matter to settle down to the quantity production of an aeroplane in a brand new factory where expense is no object when considering the purchase of new machines and the ordering of tools, but it is far different when the factory already exists and has to be adapted to produce a much greater number of machines than had ever been contemplated by its original constructors and when the cost of the original design has to be added to that of tooling and overheads. The production of the Hawker Hurricane 1 affords a striking example of the successful solution of this problem. No one with any knowledge of the Kingston works can do anything but admit that they are not ideal. The buildings are old and at no time has work been slack enough to permit the closing of any one section for its complete rebuilding. Another handicapping feature was the lack of space in the immediate vicinity to allow for expansion. It is these facts that must be understood and appreciated for the true realisation of the work described in the following pages.