Samuel de Champlain and the French Wars of Religion

Nearly all studies of Samuel de Champlain focus on his trials in New France due to the substantial number of available sources. His early life remains understudied because there are no such sources regarding these years. This essay attempts to alleviate that disparity by utilizing primary materials not typically associated with Champlain. Using late sixteenth-century France to contextualize Champlain\u27s youth, this essay surveys three critical areas of his early life: military experiences, ties of patronage, and religious convictions. Military experience, gained during the Wars of Religion, prepared Champlain for violent encounters with Native Americans. Ties of patronage, which he began building during the wars, secured future support for his North American endeavor. Finally, his religious convictions elucidate the social atmosphere in France during the Wars of Religion. Placing Champlain within this atmosphere further defines his early life. When combined, these three areas present a reasonable picture of the young Champlain

Assessment of the English remedial programme at a private university in Lebanon

This study investigates whether remedial courses in a private university in Lebanon affect the enrolment decisions of pre-admission students. This study also investigates the effectiveness of the remedial English courses on subsequent English and academic performance. Findings revealed that a large number of remedial placements discouraged students from enrolling in the university. It was also found that remedial courses were not effective in providing better performance on general academic subjects. This study is significant because remedial programmes at universities in Lebanon and the Middle East have been rarely assessed in terms of goals and general academic objectives. With the open admission policies in the majority of private universities in Lebanon, the quality of discussion on the effect of remediation at universities in Lebanon and the Middle East is almost non-existent. This paper provides a benchmark for a forum of discussion and further study to the effectiveness of general and remedial programmes in the Middle East.peer-reviewe

A Proposed Learner-Centered Mechatronics Engineering Instructional Program

This paper examines the need and requirements for a mechatronics degree program. The results of a survey of the few existing programs in this field are provided. Then, using a case study example for Virginia Tech, a proposed mechatronics curriculum based on a learner-centered paradigm is described. The curriculum combines existing courses in mechanical, electrical, and computer engineering with new, hands-on courses to provide students with a chance to practice and explore the subject matter in ways consistent with the demands of both industry and accreditation. This program, if implemented, could provide a university with a unique offering to attract top students by better preparing them for the types of problems they will encounter in the modern world

Sensitivity to ITD changes in a binaural detection model

In this contribution, we analyze the binaural model, proposed by Breebaart, van de Par and Kohlrausch in 2001, for its ability to predict just noticeable differences in interaural time differences (ITDs). This model is conceptually similar to crosscorrelation models, and the relevant model property for ITD detection is its internal delay line. We first study, which point along the internal delay axis changes most when the ITD of a sinusoidal stimulus changes. There are two candidate positions: First, the position where the crosscorrelation function of the reference stimulus has its maximum (e.g., zero ms for a stimulus without any ITD), and secondly a point at which the crosscorrelation function has its steepest slope, which is at a delay corresponding to a quarter period of the stimulus. With this analysis, we can also compare the model’s thresholds depending on the considered positions. A second question of interest is how the model deals with stimulus randomness in ITD experiments. From perception experiments it is known that the thresholds for sinusoidal stimuli and for narrowband random-noise stimuli with the same center frequency are very close

Magnetic Excitations in the Quasi-1D Ising-like Antiferromagnet TlCoCl3_3

Neutron inelastic scattering measurements have been performed in order to investigate the magnetic excitations in the quasi-1D Ising-like antiferromagnet TlCoCl$_3$. We observed the magnetic excitation, which corresponds to the spin-wave excitation continuum corresponding to the domain-wall pair excitation in the 1D Ising-like antiferromagnet. According to the Ishimura-Shiba theory, we analyzed the observed spin-wave excitation, and the exchange constant $2J$ and the anistropy $\epsilon$ were estimated as 14.7 meV and 0.14 in TlCoCl$_3$, respectively.Comment: 2 pages, 3 figures, jpsj2.cls, to be published in J. Phys. Soc. Jpn. Vol.75 (2006) No.

Polarized Neutron Inelastic Scattering Study of the Anisotropic Magnetic Fluctuations in the Quasi-1D Ising-like Antiferromagnet TlCoCl3_3

Polarized neutron inelastic scattering experiments have been carried out in the quasi-1D Ising-like antiferromagnet TlCoCl$_3$. We observed the longitudinal magnetic fluctuation $S_{zz} (Q, \omega)$ for the spin-wave excitation continuum, which has not been observed in the unpolarized neutron inelastic scattering experiments of the quasi-1D Ising-like antiferromagnets CsCoCl$_3$ and TlCoCl$_3$ so far, together with the transverse magnetic fluctuation $S_{xx} (Q, \omega)$. We compared both obtained intensities of $S_{xx} (Q, \omega)$ and $S_{zz} (Q, \omega)$ with the perturbation theory from the pure Ising limit by Ishimura and Shiba, and a semi-quantitative agreement was found.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figures, jpsj2.cls, to be published in J. Phys. Soc. Jpn. Vol. 75 (2006) No.

Meta-Data Objects as the Basis for System Evolution

One of the main factors driving object-oriented software development in the Web- age is the need for systems to evolve as user requirements change. A crucial factor in the creation of adaptable systems dealing with changing requirements is the suitability of the underlying technology in allowing the evolution of the system. A reflective system utilizes an open architecture where implicit system aspects are reified to become explicit first-class (meta-data) objects. These implicit system aspects are often fundamental structures which are inaccessible and immutable, and their reification as meta-data objects can serve as the basis for changes and extensions to the system, making it self- describing. To address the evolvability issue, this paper proposes a reflective architecture based on two orthogonal abstractions - model abstraction and information abstraction. In this architecture the modeling abstractions allow for the separation of the description meta-data from the system aspects they represent so that they can be managed and versioned independently, asynchronously and explicitly. A practical example of this philosophy, the CRISTAL project, is used to demonstrate the use of meta-data objects to handle system evolution