A powerful computational crystallography method to study ice polymorphism

Classical Molecular Dynamics (MD) simulations are employed as a tool to investigate structural properties of ice crystals under several temperature and pressure conditions. All ice crystal phases are analyzed by means of a computational protocol based on a clustering approach following standard MD simulations. The MD simulations are performed by using a recently published classical interaction potential for oxygen and hydrogen in bulk water, derived from neutron scattering data, able to successfully describe complex phenomena such as proton hopping and bond formation/breaking. The present study demonstrates the ability of the interaction potential model to well describe most ice structures found in the phase diagram of water and to estimate the relative stability of sixteen known phases through a cluster analysis of simulated powder diagrams of polymorphs obtained from MD simulations. The proposed computational protocol is suited for automated crystal structure identification.Comment: RevTex 4.1, 7 figures - to be published in the Journal of Chemical Physic

French erudités and the construction of Merovingian history

This article addresses the ways in which scholars of history who worked in France in the 16th century attempted to describe and consider early medieval history and how in the course of this process they made slight adaptations to the image of the early medieval Frankish history that corresponded to the needs of the educated community and the emerging French monarchy. Thus, the article compares how the scholars Claude Fauchet, Bernards de Girarnd Sieur Du Haillan and others looked at the process of construction of the Frankish kingdom and how they addressed the relationship between the Mediterranean core of the Late Roman Empire and the diocese of Gaul which had long attracted the attention of the Franks, who became Roman soldiers and foederati. It is suggested that the bifurcation in historical knowledge took place in the 1570s in the works of Claude Fauchet and Bernard Du Haillan, one of which may still be ascribed to the earlier group of humanists who operated within the framework created by Leonardo Bruni and Flavio Biondo, whereas Bernard Du Haillan, on the other hand, sought to overcome the ideas and terms used by them and conceived of Frankish history in different terms. He emphasized the discontinuity between the Roman Empire and the Frankish Gaul, but at the same time sought to avoid the use of the discourse of national self-identification that permeated the works of earlier humanists

FUZZY ROBUST ESTIMATES OF LOCATION AND SCALE PARAMETERS OF A FUZZY RANDOM VARIABLE

A random variable is a variable whose components are random values. To characterise a random variable, the arithmetic mean is widely used as an estimate of the location parameter, and variation as an estimate of the scale parameter. The disadvantage of the arithmetic mean is that it is sensitive to extreme values, outliers in the data. Due to that, to characterise random variables, robust estimates of the location and scale parameters are widely used: the median and median absolute deviation from the median. In real situations, the components of a random variable cannot always be estimated in a deterministic way. One way to model the initial data uncertainty is to use fuzzy estimates of the components of a random variable. Such variables are called fuzzy random variables. In this paper, we examine fuzzy robust estimates of location and scale parameters of a fuzzy random variable: fuzzy median and fuzzy median of the deviations of fuzzy component values from the fuzzy median.

PROPERTY INSURANCE DECISION-MAKING ON THE BASIS OF UTILITY FUNCTIONS

Property and other valuables insurance is widespread all over the world. An insurance company assumes the risk of damage or total destruction of the insured property. When this kind of damage or destruction is established, the company pays its client compensation (insurance premium) up to the amount specified in the insurance contract. For his part, the insured must pay a certain amount to the firm for the provision of insurance services. In any property insurance process, the question arises as to whether it is appropriate to insure the property for the price offered by the firm. The paper considers an approach to solving this problem based on expected utility theory

PROBABILISTIC INFERENCE FOR INTERVAL PROBABILITIES IN DECISION-MAKING PROCESSES

The present paper considers one approach to Bayes’ formula based probabilistic inference under interval values of relevant probabilities; the necessity of it is caused by the impossibility to obtain reliable deterministic values of the required probabilistic evaluations. The paper shows that the approach proves to be the best from the viewpoint of the required amount of calculations and visual representation of the results. The execution of the algorithm of probabilistic inference is illustrated using a classical task of decision making related to oil mining. For visualisation purposes, the state of initial and target information is modelled using probability trees.

Using the Concept of Fuzzy Random Events in the Assessment and Analysis of Ecological Risks

In many cases, the assessment and analysis of ecological risks is a complicated task, which is first of all related to obtaining reliable initial information. As a rule, ecological risks are due to unrepeated unique situations; from this it follows that sufficient statistical data on whose basis reliable evaluation of specific risks is made, are not available. On the other hand, unfavourable impacts on the external environment can affect the components of an ecosystem differently. The complexity of correlations among the components of an ecosystem significantly complicates an analysis of possible impacts on the components of a specific system.When statistical data are missing or insufficient, experts who perform the required assessment on the basis of their knowledge and experience but often also using their intuition, are the only source of initial data. Here, however, the problem of reliability of expert evaluations arises. If other sources of information are missing, we have to accept subjective evaluations of experts as a basis, without an opportunity to evaluate the degree of their confidence.In this kind of situation, it seems to be validated to introduce the extent of uncertainty into the evaluations of parameters of ecological risks. This can be accomplished by using fuzzy initial evaluations. This paper focuses on the concept of fuzzy random events and shows favourable chances of using that concept in the assessment and analysis of ecological risks.

The Prospects of Using Fuzzy Approaches to Ecological Risk Assessment

The issue of environmental quality improvement has been receiving much attention in the developed countries in recent years. Due to that, the role of assessment of ecological risks associated both with natural events and technogene activity of humans is increasing. Previous approaches to the assessment of ecological risks were fully based on statistical data and expert evaluation of potential losses and probabilities of unfavourable consequences. When this kind of assessment is carried out, it is assumed explicitly that experts are able to evaluate point probabilities. However, such assumptions are far from being true. As a result, fuzzy approaches to ecological risk assessment became popular lately. This paper focuses on two practical approaches of that kind. The paper is aimed at attracting practical attention to new up-to-date techniques that could be successfully applied to assess ecological risks in Latvia

Day mode as one of the factors of health technologies for students with mental retardation at the level of preschool education

The article is devoted to problems of organization of day regimen of preschool children with mental retardation. Features of organization of protective day regimen of preschool children with mental retardation are described in detailРассмотрена организация режима дня для обучающихся с умственной отсталостью на уровне дошкольного образования. Подробно описаны особенности организации охранительного режима дн

Event-technologies in the cultural-educational space of the university

В статье раскрывается роль event-маркетинга в культурном-образовательном пространстве, выявляются примеры использования event-технологий.The article reveals the role of event-marketing in the cultural-educational space and gives examples of the use of event-technologies