Robotics

Robotics course materials

Seeing eye to eye

Aus der Sicht der byzantinischen Quellen scheint ein religiöser Konfrontationsansatz mit dem Islam oft zu fehlen; dort werden die Muslime als “Araber”, “Sarazenen”, “Ismaeliten” oder “Hagarener” genannt, wie man die vorislamischen Araber auch bezeichnet hatte. Es ist damit nicht ganz klar, wie die universalistische Ansprüche des frühen Islam von Byzanz aus zu verstehen sind. Es gibt andererseits deutliche Hinweise, dass das junge Kalifat seine kurz zuvor noch römischen Untertanen in erheblichem Ausmaß einzubinden suchte. Diese Bestrebungen scheiterten spätestens 717/718, als in Byzanz Leo III an die Macht kam, was von christlich-messianischen Erwartungen begleitet wurde. Dreissig Jahre später fielen die ‘Umayyaden selbst der ‘Abbasidischen Revolution zum Opfer, und die islamische Welt orientierte sich – tatsächlich – ostwärts, gefördert von einer steigenden Zahl nicht-arabischer (vor allem iranischer) Konvertiten. Eine strukturalistische Analyse von Glaubensvorstellungen in der Grenzzone zwischen Byzanz und dem Kalifat zeigt die Grenzen einer strikt konstruktivistischen Annäherung an das Thema auf. Gleichzeitig wird aber deutlich, dass eine universalistisch dimensionierte Religion ohne festen geographischen Kontext, sich historisch gesehen, wenn überhaupt, nur schwierig durchsetzen kann. Um die Entwicklung theologischer Grenzen als politischer Trennwände zu verstehen wird die Entwicklung einer religiös-universalistisch geprägten Historiographie untersucht. Dabei geht es nicht um eine Literatur wie die frühchristliche oder frühislamische, die von eschatologischen Erwartungen mit jüdisch-monotheistischem Charakter geprägt war, sondern, darüber hinausgehend, um die systematische Integration älterer Geschichts-, Literatur- und Wissenschaftstraditionen in die geschichtsepistemologischen Felder der jüngeren Weltreligionen.Byzantine sources often seem to ignore the religious cause of controversy with Islam: they refer to Muslims as “Arabs”, “Saracens”, “Ismaelites” or “Hagarenes”, names which had already been used to denote the pre-Islamic Arabs. The Byzantine point of observation on the universalist claims of Early Islam is, thus, not quite clear. There are, however, several clues to the assumption that the early Caliphate aimed at the integration of the former Roman subjects in the Near East. These efforts suffered a final blow at the gates of Constantinople in 717/718, when the new emperor Leo III took power, accompanied by Messianic expectations. Thirty years later, the ‘Umayyads fell victims to the ‘Abbasid Revolution, and the Islamic world oriented itself, literally speaking, towards the East, enhanced by a rising number of non-Arab converts in Iran and beyond. A structuralist analysis of beliefs and religious practices in the borderlands between Byzantium and the Caliphate point at the limits of a strictly constructivist approach to the subject but also make it clear that a religion with universalist claims will find it difficult, not to say impossible, to make a lasting historical impact if it lacks a stable geographical context. To understand the identification of theological distinctions with political borders it is necessary to consider the emergence of historiographical traditions distanced themselves from early Christian and Muslim eschatological view upon the world, and instead struggled to integrate the ancient historical, literary and scientific heritage of other cultures with their own religious epistemology of universal history

DEVELOPMENT OF AN UNDERWATER PLATFORM FOR MEASUREMENTS IN ALL COORDINATE AXES FOR BIOMECHANICAL APPLICATIONS

INTRODUCTION:The main objective of this work was the development of a new force platform for the measurement of forces and force moments related to the three orthogonal axis, for the using in biomechanics. This development was focused for applications related to hydrogymnastics, and because of that is a double platform and waterproof. METHODS AND PROCEDURE:Through the analysis of several types of platforms it was chosen the Lywood’(1987) model, a platform built for the three components of small forces. According to this, it was developed a couple of platforms of dimensions 500mm X 500mm, with a sensibility if 2N. Electrical strain gages were bounded to a bar structure whose strain is provided by flexion. These strain gages are connected as „four-arm wheatstone bridge“, for each component of force or force moment. To determinate the best position of the strain gages for higher sensibility and the less interference it was used the Finite Element Method. Each output signal was independent of the others, disregarding any mathematical operations to separate signals. The electrical signals were sent to a signal conditioner linked to an A/D converter, witch was connected to a PC microcomputer for data acquisition and processing. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION: It was reported that the static calibration of the platforms and the linearity deviation were less than 1% and the cross-talk was less than 2%. The dynamic tests showed that the fundamental frequency of the platform is 25Hz. Some physical exercises were done by an athlete inside and outside the pool and the signal analysis at the frequency domain shows that the system is reliable for applications inside water. CONCLUSIONS: The results of the calibrations (including frequency domain analysis) and the tests realized with an athlete at the pool proved to be reliable and the platform can be used for such purposes. REFERENCES: Lywood, D. W., Vaneyken, A., Macpherson, J. M. Small. (1987). Triaxial Force Plate. Med. & Biol. Eng. & Comput. 25, 698-701. Roesler, H. (1997). Desenvolvimento de plataforma subaquática para medições de forças e momentos nos três eixos coordenados para utilização em biomecânica. PROMEC, UFRGS, tese de doutorado

Why do students choose to study Information and Communications Technology?

Abstract It is a worldwide problem that although many students are highly interested in Information and Communications Technology (ICT), they do not study it at the higher education level, or if they do then many of them eventually dropout. We studied the reasons student candidates choose to study ICT, in order to gather data that can be used for improving future ICT recruitment and retention. During the admissions procedure to three higher education institutions in Estonia, 1,464 student candidates were asked what reasons influenced them to apply to Informatics or Information Technology. On average, 2.6 candidates competed per available position at the institutions. Qualitative content analysis was used to code the candidates' open-ended answers and resulted inductively in 14 distinguishable categories. The most frequent reasons for studying ICT were general interest in ICT, previous experience in the field, need for personal professional development, and importance of the field in the future. Interestingly, only a few candidates expressed as a reason the importance of high salaries. Chi-square analysis showed that candidates were accepted with higher probability if they found ICT to be suitable for them, or expressed good opportunities in the labour market. These results are useful for planning effective admission procedures to recruit ICT students

THE USE OF COMPRESSED GASES IN THE CONVERTER TECHNOLOGY FOR THE RECOVERY OF PELLETS

The article describes the way to effectively use the regenerative properties of Converter gas. A calculation presented of the necessary shares on the compression process “Midrex” recovery of pellets.В статье рассмотрен способ эффективного использования восстановительных свойств конвертерного газа. Представлен расчет необходимой доли газов, направляемых на сжатие для процесса «Мидрекс» по восстановлению окатышей

Radiofrequency Ablation of Benign Thyroid Nodules and Recurrent Thyroid Cancers: Consensus Statement and Recommendations

Thermal ablation using radiofrequency is a new, minimally invasive modality employed as an alternative to surgery in patients with benign thyroid nodules and recurrent thyroid cancers. The Task Force Committee of the Korean Society of Thyroid Radiology has developed recommendations for the optimal use of radiofrequency ablation for thyroid nodules. These recommendations are based on a comprehensive analysis of the current literature, the results of multicenter studies, and expert consensus