East-meets-West: How the Dhammapada Influenced the New Thought Movement

New Thought teachings are based on a variety of pre-existing traditions as well as on information new to the human consciousness. While the exact source of specific New Thought concepts is unclear, evidence suggests that the movement benefited from eastern religious traditions including Buddhism. New Thought metaphysical principles including the Law of Attraction, the practice of meditation, and the Law of Cause and Effect can be found in the Buddhist text, the Dhammapada. These principles are described in detail throughout the Dhammapada, providing strong evidence that early New Thought thinkers were influenced by the contents of the Dhammapada and Buddhist practices

Contrasting Compile-Time Meta-Programming in Metalua and Converge

Powerful, safe macro systems allow programs to be programatically constructed by the user at compile-time. Such systems have traditionally been largely confined to LISP-like languages and their successors. In this paper we describe and compare two modern, dynamically typed languages Converge and Metalua, which both have macro-like systems. We show how, in different ways, they build upon traditional macro systems to explore new ways of constructing programs

An exploratory survey of current practice in the medical device industry

This article is (c) Emerald Group Publishing and permission has been granted for this version to appear here. Emerald does not grant permission for this article to be further copied/distributed or hosted elsewhere without the express permission from Emerald Group Publishing Limited.Purpose – This study seeks to examine the extent to which mainstream tools and strategies are applied in the medical devices sector, which is highly fragmented and contains a high percentage of small companies, and to determine if company size impacts on manufacturing strategy selection. Design/methodology/approach – A questionnaire was developed and disseminated through a number of channels. Responses were received from 38 companies in the UK and Ireland, describing 68 products taken to market in the past five years. Findings – Because of the limited scope of the survey, the findings are indicative rather than conclusive, and interesting trends have emerged. New to the world products were much more likely to exceed company expectations of market success compared to derivative products. It was found that the majority of these innovative products were developed by small companies. Large companies appear to favour minor upgrades over major upgrades even though these prove – on the data presented – to be less successful overall. Practical implications – These results provide those engaged in this sector with comparative information and some insights for further improvement. The reported trends with respect to company size and product complexity (or degree of novelty) are particularly illuminating. Academically, this sets some expected trends on a firmer footing and unearths one or two unexpected findings. Originality/value – It is believed that this is the largest survey of determinants of success in UK medical device companies and it provides a comparison with other sectors

Can space station software be specified through Ada?

Programming of the space station is to be done in the Ada programming language. A breadboard of selected parts of the work package for Marshall Space Flight Center is to be built, and programming this small part will be a good testing ground for Ada. One coding of the upper levels of the design brings out several problems with top-down design when it is to be carried out strictly within the language. Ada is evaluated on the basis of this experience, and the points raised are compared with other experience as related in the literature. Rapid prototyping is another approach to the initial programming; several different types of prototypes are discussed, and compared with the art of specification. Some solutions are proposed and a number of recommendations presented

Context sensitive formulations of antenna pattern correction and side lobe compensation for NOSS/LAMMR real time processing

Large antenna multi-channel microwave radiometer (LAMMR) software specifications were written for LAMMR ground processing. There is a need to determine more computationally-efficient antenna temperature correction methods in compensating side lobe contributions especially near continents, islands and weather fronts. One of the major conclusions was that the antenna pattern corrections (APC) processes did not accomplish the implied goals of compensating for the antenna side lobe influences on brightness temperature. A-priori knowledge of land/water locations was shown to be needed and had to be incorporated in a context sensitive APC process if the artifacts caused by land presence is to be avoided. The high temperatures in land regions can severely bias the lower ocean response

Bridging the gap: building better tools for game development

The following thesis is about questioning how we design game making tools, and how developers may build easier tools to use. It is about the highlighting the inadequacies of current game making programs as well as introducing Goal-Oriented Design as a possible solution. It is also about the processes of digital product development, and reflecting on the necessity for both design and development methods to work cohesively for meaningful results. Interaction Design is in essence the abstracting of key relations that matter to the contextual environment. The result of attempting to tie the Interaction Design principles, Game Design issues together with Software Development practices has led to the production of the User-Centred game engine, PlayBoard

Practice-based doctorates and questions of academic legitimacy

Over the last six years there has been a massive increase in the number of students studying for practice-based doctorates in Art and Design. It is now possible to do a practice-based PhD in over forty departments, although what is expected from doctoral students varies considerably across institutions. In 1997 the United Kingdom Council for Graduate Education (UKCGE) addressed the variance between practice-based doctorates in the report Practice-Based Doctorates in the Creative and Performing Arts and Design. This paper examines the recommendations made by the report and asks to what extent does it acknowledge art as a legitimate research practice within the university. The UKCGE report recommends that all practice-based PhDs have a substantial theoretical and contextualising element that will demonstrate general scholarly requirements and render the artwork accessible to judgement. I argue that this proposal is problematic on several counts; it draws a firm line between theory and practice, places academic research in opposition to practice generally and artwork specifically, maintains the stereotype of art as anti-intellectual and forgets the degree to which theory is itself a practice. In addition it suggests that art practice can only be legitimised as research when it is framed by a conventionally academic enquiry. I suggest that instead of trying to make art practice fit academic regulations it would be more productive to use the practice-based PhDs as a way of re-thinking academic conventions and scholarly requirements