On well posed impulsive boundary value problems for p(t)-Laplacian's

In this paper we investigate via variational methods and critical point theory the existence of solutions, uniqueness and continuous dependence on parameters to impulsive problems with a p(t)-Laplacian and Dirichlet boundary value conditions

Stability and bistability in a one-dimensional model of coastal foredune height

On sandy coastlines, foredunes provide protection from coastal storms, potentially sheltering low areas—including human habitat—from elevated water level and wave erosion. In this contribution we develop and explore a one-dimensional model for coastal dune height based on an impulsive differential equation. In the model, coastal foredunes continuously grow in a logistic manner as the result of a biophysical feedback and they are destroyed by recurrent storm events that are discrete in time. Modeled dunes can be in one of two states: a high “resistant-dune” state or a low “overwash-flat” state. The number of stable states (equilibrium dune heights) depends on the value of two parameters, the nondimensional storm frequency (the ratio of storm frequency to the intrinsic growth rate of dunes) and nondimensional storm magnitude (the ratio of total water level during storms to the maximum theoretical dune height). Three regions of phase space exist (1) when nondimensional storm frequency is small, a single high resistant-dune attracting state exists; (2) when both the nondimensional storm frequency and magnitude are large, there is a single overwash-flat attracting state; (3) within a defined region of phase space model dunes exhibit bistable behavior—both the resistant-dune and the low overwash-flat states are stable. Comparisons to observational studies suggest that there is evidence for each state to exist independently, the coexistence of both states (i.e., segments of barrier islands consisting of overwash-flats and segments of islands having large dunes that resist erosion by storms), as well as transitions between states

Acoustic Emission Monitoring of the Turin Cathedral Bell Tower: Foreshock and Aftershock Discrimination

Historical churches, tall ancient masonry buildings, and bell towers are structures subjected to high risks due to their age, elevation, and small base-area-to-height ratio. In this paper, the results of an innovative monitoring technique for structural integrity assessment applied to a historical bell tower are reported. The emblematic case study of the monitoring of the Turin Cathedral bell tower (northwest Italy) is herein presented. First of all, the damage evolution in a portion of the structure localized in the lower levels of the tall masonry building is described by the evaluation of the cumulative number of acoustic emissions (AEs) and by different parameters able to predict the time dependence of the damage development, in addition to the 3D localization of the AE sources. The b-value analysis shows a decreasing trend down to values compatible with the growth of localized micro and macro-cracks in the portion of the structure close to the base of the tower. These results seem to be in good agreement with the static and dynamic analysis performed numerically by an accurate FEM (finite element model). Similar results were also obtained during the application of the AE monitoring to the wooden frame sustaining the bells in the tower cell. Finally, a statistical analysis based on the average values of the b-value are carried out at the scale of the monument and at the seismic regional scale. In particular, according to recent studies, a comparison between the b-value obtained by AE signal analysis and the regional activity is proposed in order to correlate the AE detected on the structure to the seismic activity, discriminating foreshock, and aftershock intervals in the analyzed time series

Writing Illness and Identity in Seventeenth-century Britain

This thesis begins from the observation that seventeenth-century life-writing appears to have little recourse to the age's revolutionary medical developments when describing personal illness. It therefore seeks to explore the available textual frameworks for writing autobiographical accounts of illness, and the rhetorical strategies that writers of such texts used for adapting their illnesses to those frameworks. My research is contextualised within discussions of early modern selfhood. Like a number of recent scholars, I reject the Burkhardtian assumption of a vibrant Renaissance self, born, fully formed, sometime during the Tudor age. I present examples of illnesses described both as self-obliterating and self-invigorating, but the moments of self-invigoration, I argue, are not evidence of a thoroughgoing subjectivity, but glimpses of a nascent, fragmentary and problematic selfhood, often kept forcibly in check by strict observance of religious routines and adherence to restrictive textual conventions for recording life events. Those textual conventions, I claim, are best uncovered by attending – where possible – to the material texts of the various autobiographical sources I consult. From predominantly manuscript sources, I present examples of writers, for instance, using prescriptive methods such as that of financial accounting, or collecting and adapting non-original material to account for their illnesses, neither of which techniques suggests an introspective and sustained expression of selfhood in sickness. I present chapters examining descriptions of personal illness in diaries, autobiography, letters and poetry, attending in each case to the ways in which illness and identity are written and rewritten. My evidence suggests that a sense of collectivity appears to dominate the life-writing of illness, one in which the subject is frequently defined by his or her participation in familial, social or religious networks, and in which material from other texts is collected and redeployed to account for events in an individual life. The textual frameworks examined in this thesis, I hold, are readily adaptable to accommodate and treat moments of personal crisis such as illness

A study of the independent plays of Philip Massinger

Not availabl

Visual scene recognition with biologically relevant generative models

This research focuses on developing visual object categorization methodologies that are based on machine learning techniques and biologically inspired generative models of visual scene recognition. Modelling the statistical variability in visual patterns, in the space of features extracted from them by an appropriate low level signal processing technique, is an important matter of investigation for both humans and machines. To study this problem, we have examined in detail two recent probabilistic models of vision: a simple multivariate Gaussian model as suggested by (Karklin & Lewicki, 2009) and a restricted Boltzmann machine (RBM) proposed by (Hinton, 2002). Both the models have been widely used for visual object classification and scene analysis tasks before. This research highlights that these models on their own are not plausible enough to perform the classification task, and suggests Fisher kernel as a means of inducing discrimination into these models for classification power. Our empirical results on standard benchmark data sets reveal that the classification performance of these generative models could be significantly boosted near to the state of the art performance, by drawing a Fisher kernel from compact generative models that computes the data labels in a fraction of total computation time. We compare the proposed technique with other distance based and kernel based classifiers to show how computationally efficient the Fisher kernels are. To the best of our knowledge, Fisher kernel has not been drawn from the RBM before, so the work presented in the thesis is novel in terms of its idea and application to vision problem

Acoustic Measurement of Snow

Instrumentation commonly used to measure snowpack stratigraphy, snow density, Snow Water Equivalent (SWE), temperature and liquid water content is usually invasive and requires disruption of the snowpack. Most measurement techniques modify the snow medium and more than one sample cannot be taken at the same location. This does not permit continuous monitoring of these parameters using a single measurement instrument. An acoustic wave sent into the snowpack was used to measure snow. To provide the theory required to make acoustic measurements, the Biot-Stoll model of sound wave propagation in porous media was modified using a mixture theory so that it was applicable to a multiphase porous medium. The combined model is called the Unified Thermoacoustic Model (UTAM) for snow. An acoustic measurement device, the System for the Acoustic Sensing of Snow (SAS2), was designed to send sound waves into snow and to receive the reflected sound waves using a loudspeaker and a microphone array. A stationary version of the SAS2 was deployed on a met station and a portable version of the SAS2 was placed on a roving ski-based platform. The systems were deployed at field sites in the Canadian Rocky Mountains, Alberta. The results showed that the SAS2 was able to measure snow density, temperature, and liquid water content and serve as a replacement technology for snowtube and snowpit measurements. Snow density was estimated more accurately by the SAS2 than from commonly-used snow tube techniques

Rebellion against authority in religious maturation

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Boston UniversityProblem: The problem of the dissertation was to make a preliminary, psychological assessment of rebellion against authority in relation to individual growth toward religious maturity. In approaching this problem, the dissertation relied on historical research and logical and psychological analysis [TRUNCATED

Winona Daily News

https://openriver.winona.edu/winonadailynews/2417/thumbnail.jp