The Philosophy of the Game in the American Ludic Novels of Pre-Digital and Digital Era

The Universal Baseball Association, Inc. by R. Coover and Remade by N. Stephenson offer differing views of the evolving concept of “game” in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. The purpose of the study is to reveal the implications of the game theme in these novels as well as the transformation of the game concept in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Coover’s novel analysis in parallel to Kant’s concepts of a man’s ability for reasoning reveals how the imaginary world of the game can become selfsufficient and reduce the creator of the game to no more than one of its participants. Having got out of control the game imposes its own logic on all participants including its creator. It no longer obeys the creators will and the decision center moved to the analogue of Kant’s hypothetical super intelligence phenomenon. Stephenson’s novel offers an example of the gaming reality creation in globalization era. Stephenson’s game presents a dialectical contradiction: it replaces reality but simultaneously serves as a tool for escaping to this reality. Advanced digital technologies create the necessary gaming infrastructure and provide users with the material culture, socio-economic mechanisms for the distribution of online and offline resources, and spiritual culture. This makes the game world as a multidimensional form of reality. The survey has revealed several tendencies of digital technological development such as the set of technological tools available to the designer of the virtual world, the less this game world will differ from authentic reality. In the digital era, the online game becomes a way of active and intensive interaction with the external world rather than an escape from reality. Keywords: game, digital technologies, American literatur

Pore-scale modelling of electrochemically reactive flow

Electrochemistry, a field revolving around charge transport, is omnipresent in our every-day life. It is found in batteries, water treatment, medicine, and food processing, to name a few. Water dissolves more substances than any other liquid and is consequently easily polluted. Self-evidently, drinking water quality is crucial to our health. Water disinfection refers to any process that removes pathogens from drinking water. Electrochemical treatments are one of the processes used for water disinfection and are advantageous wherewith required chemicals are formed in situ, while needing less and in some cases no other additional chemicals. Porous electrodes are becoming increasingly prevalent in electrochemical systems due to enhanced features such as reaction kinetics and mass transport. The arising complexity of the electrochemical processes at the pore-scale, involving multicomponent reactive flow, poses numerous challenges to the currently available experimental methods and the macro-continuum mathematical models. This work is aimed at the development of pore-scale numerical model using the Lattice Boltzmann Method and focuses on anodic oxidation under the aqueous condition. Historically, iodine has been used as a disinfectant for wounds as well as water. Excess consumption however can have adverse health effects such as thyroid disease. Using potassium iodide for water disinfection allows for iodine to be produced via anodic oxidation and then consumed through cathodic reduction. The relationship between concentrations, flow rates and potentials are investigated in a flow-through porous electrode. [...

Bulk Nanocrystalline Thermoelectrics Based on Bi-Sb-Te Solid Solution

A nanopowder from p-Bi-Sb-Te with particles ~ 10 nm were fabricated by the ball milling using different technological modes. Cold and hot pressing at different conditions and also SPS process were used for consolidation of the powder into a bulk nanostructure and nanocomposites. The main factors allowing slowing-down of the growth of nanograins as a result of recrystallization are the reduction of the temperature and of the duration of the pressing, the increase of the pressure, as well as addition of small value additives (like MoS2, thermally expanded graphite or fullerenes). It was reached the thermoelectric figure of merit ZT=1.22 (at 360 K) in the bulk nanostructure Bi0,4Sb1,6Te3 fabricated by SPS method. Some mechanisms of the improvement of the thermoelectric efficiency in bulk nanocrystalline semiconductors based on BixSb2-xTe3 are studied theoretically. The reduction of nanograin size can lead to improvement of the thermoelectric figure of merit. The theoretical dependence of the electric and heat conductivities and the thermoelectric power as the function of nanograins size in BixSb2-xTe3 bulk nanostructure are quite accurately correlates with the experimental data.Comment: 35 pages, 24 figures, 4 tables, 52 reference

Integral Equations for Heat Kernel in Compound Media

By making use of the potentials of the heat conduction equation the integral equations are derived which determine the heat kernel for the Laplace operator $-a^2\Delta$ in the case of compound media. In each of the media the parameter $a^2$ acquires a certain constant value. At the interface of the media the conditions are imposed which demand the continuity of the `temperature' and the `heat flows'. The integration in the equations is spread out only over the interface of the media. As a result the dimension of the initial problem is reduced by 1. The perturbation series for the integral equations derived are nothing else as the multiple scattering expansions for the relevant heat kernels. Thus a rigorous derivation of these expansions is given. In the one dimensional case the integral equations at hand are solved explicitly (Abel equations) and the exact expressions for the regarding heat kernels are obtained for diverse matching conditions. Derivation of the asymptotic expansion of the integrated heat kernel for a compound media is considered by making use of the perturbation series for the integral equations obtained. The method proposed is also applicable to the configurations when the same medium is divided, by a smooth compact surface, into internal and external regions, or when only the region inside (or outside) this surface is considered with appropriate boundary conditions.Comment: 26 pages, no figures, no tables, REVTeX4; two items are added into the Reference List; a new section is added, a version that will be published in J. Math. Phy

Interaction of Reggeized Gluons in the Baxter-Sklyanin Representation

We investigate the Baxter equation for the Heisenberg spin model corresponding to a generalized BFKL equation describing composite states of n Reggeized gluons in the multi-color limit of QCD. The Sklyanin approach is used to find an unitary transformation from the impact parameter representation to the representation in which the wave function factorizes as a product of Baxter functions and a pseudo-vacuum state. We show that the solution of the Baxter equation is a meromorphic function with poles (lambda - i r)^{-(n-1)} (r= 0, 1,...) and that the intercept for the composite Reggeon states is expressed through the behavior of the Baxter function around the pole at lambda = i . The absence of pole singularities in the two complex dimensional lambda-plane for the bilinear combination of holomorphic and anti-holomorphic Baxter functions leads to the quantization of the integrals of motion because the holomorphic energy should be the same for all independent Baxter functions.Comment: LaTex, 48 pages, 1 .ps figure, to appear in Phys. Rev.

Quasi-classical approximation in vortex filament dynamics. Integrable systems, gradient catastrophe and flutter

Quasiclassical approximation in the intrinsic description of the vortex filament dynamics is discussed. Within this approximation the governing equations are given by elliptic system of quasi-linear PDEs of the first order. Dispersionless Da Rios system and dispersionless Hirota equation are among them. They describe motion of vortex filament with slow varying curvature and torsion without or with axial flow. Gradient catastrophe for governing equations is studied. It is shown that geometrically this catastrophe manifests as a fast oscillation of a filament curve around the rectifying plane which resembles the flutter of airfoils. Analytically it is the elliptic umbilic singularity in the terminology of the catastrophe theory. It is demonstrated that its double scaling regularization is governed by the Painleve' I equation.Comment: 25 pages, 5 figures, minor typos correcte

Layered nanomaterials for renewable energy generation and storage

This study focuses on potential applications of two-dimensional (2D) materials in renewable energy research.</jats:p

Экстракорпоральная резекция аневризмы почечной артерии с раздельным аутовенозным протезированием ветвей у больной с ретроаортальной почечной веной

Autopsy and intravital studies have reported the incidence of renal artery aneurysms (RAA) in 0.01 to 0.97% of the population. Fibromuscular dysplasia (FMD) and atherosclerosis are the main etiological factors for the development of RAA. The presence of abnormalities of the veins such as a retroaortic renal vein can significantly complicate the implementation of surgical interventions. The main methods to treat RAA are RAA resection with prosthetic repair, embolization of aneurysm cavities, and placement of an endograph. When aneurysm spreads to involve the renal artery branches or RAA is located in the kidney gates, the extracorporeal renal artery reconstruction is the only method to restore the renal vessels and keep a kidney. The article provides a rare observation of a patient suffering from renal artery fibromuscular dysplasia, left renal artery aneurysm with the development of vasorenal hypertension. The features of this clinical observation were the retroaortic left renal vein and the renal artery aneurysm located in the kidney gates. The patient underwent ureter-sparing extracorporeal autogenous vein graft repair of left renal artery branches. The surgery was performed using custodial solution for kidney pharmaco-hypothermic protection. Renal artery aneurysm was resected with the creation of a common junction of the renal artery branches followed by autogenous vein graft repair. The two lower segmental branches of the renal artery were separately prosthetized using the reversed autovein sections. Parietal injury to the left ureter was diagnosed in the patient in the postoperative period. A percutaneous needle-guided urine drainage bag was superimposed under ultrasound guidance with the placement of an integral stent in the injury area. The patient was discharged to outpatient care on Day 11. The urine drainage bag was removed two months after the control CTA. The integral stent was removed a month later, normal urine output was restored in the upper urinary tract. After 6 months, the control CTA showed that all reconstructed renal artery branches were completely patent, and blood pressure readings were within normal range.Аневризмы почечных артерий (АПА), согласно данным аутопсий и прижизненным исследованиям, встречаются от 0,01 до 0,97% в популяции. Основными этиологическими факторами развития АПА являются фиброзно-мышечная дисплазия (ФМД) и атеросклероз. Наличие аномального строения вен в виде ретроаортальной почечной вены может существенно усложнять выполнение оперативных вмешательств. К основным методам лечения АПА относятся резекция АПА с протезированием, эмболизация полости аневризмы, а также установка эндографта. При распространении аневризмы на ветви почечной артерии или расположении АПА в воротах почки экстракорпоральный метод реконструкции почечных артерий является единственным методом, позволяющим восстановить почечные сосуды и сохранить почку. В статье приведено редкое наблюдение больной, страдающей ФМД почечных артерий, аневризмой левой почечной артерии с развитием вазоренальной гипертензии. Особенностями данного клинического наблюдения явилось ретроаортальное расположение левой почечной вены и расположение аневризмы почечной артерии в воротах почки. Больной было выполнено экстракорпоральное аутовенозное протезирование ветвей левой почечной артерии с сохранением мочеточника. Операцию выполняли с фармакохолодовой защитой почки раствором кустодиола. Аневризма почечной артерии была резецирована с созданием общего соустья ветвей почечной артерии с последующим аутовенозным протезированием. Две нижние сегментарные ветви почечной артерии раздельно протезировали участками реверсированной аутовены. В послеоперационном периоде у больной было диагностировано пристеночное повреждение левого мочеточника. Пациентке произведено наложение чрескожной пункционной нефростомы под контролем УЗИ с установкой интегрального стента в область повреждения. На 11-е сутки больная выписана на амбулаторное лечение. Через 2 месяца после контрольной КГА нефростома была удалена. Еще через месяц - удален интегральный стент, восстановлен нормальный пассаж мочи в верхних мочевыводящих путях. Через 6 месяцев при контрольной КГА все реконструированные ветви почечной артерии полностью проходимы, показатели артериального давления в пределах нормальных значений

ВЛИЯНИЕ ПАРАМЕТРОВ ПЛАСТИЧЕСКОГО ФОРМОВАНИЯ НА СТРУКТУРНЫЕ ХАРАКТЕРИСТИКИ ТЕРМОЭЛЕКТРИЧЕСКОГО МАТЕРИАЛА В ПРОЦЕССЕ ГОРЯЧЕЙ ЭКСТРУЗИИ

We used mathematical modeling to compare the stress and deformation in a Bi0.4Sb1.6Te3 solid solution base thermoelectric material for extrusion through different diameter dies. The results show that extrusion through a 20 mm diameter die produces a more inhomogeneous deformation compared with extrusion through a 30 mm diameter die. Extrusion through a die of a larger diameter produces a structure that is coarser but has a more homogeneous grain size distribution. The degree of preferential grain orientation is higher for extrusion through a larger diameter die. We found a change in the lattice parameter of the solid solution along the extruded rod, correlating with detect formation during extrusion. The concentration of vacancies is higher for extrusion through a smaller diameter die. This difference between the structures results from a more intense dynamic recrystallization for a smaller diameter die. Increasing the die diameter and lowering the extrusion temperature allow retaining the thermoelectric properties of the material due to a better texture.С помощью математического моделирования проведено сравнение напряжений и деформаций в термоэлектрическом материале на основе твердого раствора Bi0,4Sb1,6Te3 при экструзии через фильеры с разным диаметром. Показано, что при экструзии через фильеру диаметром 20 мм возникает более неоднородная деформация, чем при экструзии через фильеру 30 мм. Установлено, что при увеличении диаметра фильеры структура материала получается менее дисперсная, но более однородная по размерам. Степень преимущественной ориентации зерен при экструзии через фильеру большего диаметра более высокая. Обнаружено изменение параметра решетки твердого раствора по длине экструдированного стержня, связанного с дефектообразованием в процессе экструзии. Выявлено, что концентрация вакансий больше при экструзии через фильеру меньшего диаметра. Это является следствием более интенсивного протекания процессов динамической рекристаллизации. При переходе к большему диаметру фильеры и более низкой температуре экструзии термоэлектрические свойства материала сохраняются за счет лучшей текстуры