Serbian Orthodox fundamentals: The quest for an eternal identity.

This study addresses the following research questions: what makes a Serb? What particular properties" or "fundamentals," could and should be attributed to this identity? Are meaningful assumptions possible by introducing Serbian Orthodoxy as the primal point of reference? Why does religion appear to have an especially strong appeal? Does this "appeal" originate in the nature of the Orthodox faith, or rather arise from the societal framework, within which the Serbian identity is articulated? These issues have been principally explored by means of an analytical appraisal of bibliographical material -regional sources and additional treatises on Orthodoxy (doctrinal and functional). Orthodoxy is identified as the sacralisation of the Serbian national identity (the primary hypothesis of this thesis): upon which perceptions of collective belonging are forged; moral preferences and principles of social conduct are delineated; a mythopoeic content -the national imaginary- is constructed; and a sense of historical, diachronic, continuity is established. A notional thread of a primordial existence nurtures the lives of the Serbian being and his society, sanctified within the Orthodox cosmology of venerated patriots, good and evil, liturgical cycles and worshipping practices. In this context, the fundamentalist discourse is used to decipher the depth and scope of the processes by which, the Serbian individual establishes a mode of national belonging and reinforces a differentiation between himself and his diverse ethno-religious periphery. It should be noted that the concept of fundamentalism is applied, as an evaluative perspective of religion and not for the derogatory purposes, customarily associated with its excessive and uncritical usage

Digital twins from smart manufacturing to smart cities: a survey

Digital twins are quickly becoming a popular tool in several domains, taking advantage of recent advancements in the Internet of Things, Machine Learning and Big Data, while being used by both the industry sector and the research community. In this paper, we review the current research landscape as regards digital twins in the field of smart cities, while also attempting to draw parallels with the application of digital twins in Industry 4.0. Although digital twins have received considerable attention in the Industrial Internet of Things domain, their utilization in smart cities has not been as popular thus far. We discuss here the open challenges in the field and argue that digital twins in smart cities should be treated differently and be considered as cyber-physical "systems of systems", due to the vastly different system size, complexity and requirements, when compared to other recent applications of digital twins. We also argue that researchers should utilize established tools and methods of the smart city community, such as co-creation, to better handle the specificities of this domain in practice.This work was supported in part by the Project ‘‘I3T—Innovative Application of Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) in Smart Environments’’ (MIS 5002434) implemented under the ‘‘Action for the Strategic Development on the Research and Technological Sector,’’ funded by the Operational Programme ‘‘Competitiveness, Entrepreneurship and Innovation’’ (NSRF 2014–2020), and in part by Greece and the European Union (European Regional Development Fund)

Investigating Machine Learning Attacks on Financial Time Series Models

Machine learning and Artificial Intelligence (AI) already support human decision-making and complement professional roles, and are expected in the future to be sufficiently trusted to make autonomous decisions. To trust AI systems with such tasks, a high degree of confidence in their behaviour is needed. However, such systems can make drastically different decisions if the input data is modified, in a way that would be imperceptible to humans. The field of Adversarial Machine Learning studies how this feature could be exploited by an attacker and the countermeasures to defend against them. This work examines the Fast Gradient Signed Method (FGSM) attack, a novel Single Value attack and the Label Flip attack on a trending architecture, namely a 1-Dimensional Convolutional Neural Network model used for time series classification. The results show that the architecture was susceptible to these attacks and that, in their face, the classifier accuracy was significantly impacted

Wheat Landraces Are Better Qualified as Potential Gene Pools at Ultraspaced rather than Densely Grown Conditions

The negative relationship between the yield potential of a genotype and its competitive ability may constitute an obstacle to recognize outstanding genotypes within heterogeneous populations. This issue was investigated by growing six heterogeneous wheat landraces along with a pure-line commercial cultivar under both dense and widely spaced conditions. The performance of two landraces showed a perfect match to the above relationship. Although they lagged behind the cultivar by 64 and 38% at the dense stand, the reverse was true with spaced plants where they succeeded in out-yielding the cultivar by 58 and 73%, respectively. It was concluded that dense stand might undervalue a landrace as potential gene pool in order to apply single-plant selection targeting pure-line cultivars, attributable to inability of plants representing high yielding genotypes to exhibit their capacity due to competitive disadvantage. On the other side, the yield expression of individuals is optimized when density is low enough to preclude interplant competition. Therefore, the latter condition appears ideal to identify the most promising landrace for breeding and subsequently recognize the individuals representing the most outstanding genotypes

Evaluation of physiological characteristics as selection criteria for drought tolerance in maize inbred lines and their hybrids

Improvement for maize drought tolerance has always been a significantobjective for breeders and plant physiologists. Nowadays, climate change sets new challenges to major crop adaptation at stressful environments. For such a purpose, the measurement of physiological traits related to maize response to drought might prove to be useful indices. The objective of the present study was to establish whether the physiological traits can be used as reliable physiological markers to evaluate the performance of parental genotypes and their hybrids under both dry and normally watered conditions, and under two densities an ultra-low density (ULD) and a normal dense stand (DS). Thirty (30) maize inbred lines and 30 single-crosses among them were evaluated across three diverse locations in Greece. The ULD was 0.74 plants/m-2, while the DS comprised 4.44 plants m-2 in the water deficitregime, and 6.67 and 7.84 plants m-2 in the normal water treatment for lines and hybrids, respectively. There was a very good association between the physiological characteristics studied and grain yield under the ultra-low density and especially for inbred lines. It was shown that the physiological characteristics can facilitate the selection of stress-adaptive genotypes under the low-density conditions and may permit modern maize to be grown at a wider range of environments. At the normal densities such a possibility was not evidenced since physiological parameters and yield did not correlate for either parents or hybrid

Smarttelefon-sensorernas möjligheter - En studie om barometer-, GPS- och accelerometersensorer. The smartphone sensor possibilities - A case study featuring the barometer, GPS and accelerometer sensors

Denna rapport sammanfattar resultat av ett examensarbete på en högskoleingenjörsutbildning som utfördes av två studenter på Malmö högskola. Arbetets syfte var att genomföra en mängd olika experiment med accelerometer, barometer och GPS i en modern smarttelefon. Ett antal scenarier för en tänkbar sensoranvändning i applikationer formulerades för att vägleda olika experiment. Experimentdata dokumenterades noggrant och analyserades med avsikten att skapa en databank med information för framtida studier. Analys av data inkluderar höjdbestämning i naturen och i byggnader med hjälp av barometersensor, geografisk position med hjälp av GPS, hastighet och acceleration under en hissfärd med hjälp av accelerometer. Rapporten innehåller en omfattande litteraturstudie om användning av sensorer vid inomhuspositionering. Från analys av mätdata, kom vi fram till slutsatsen att är möjligt att beräkna höjden från barometerdata med bra noggrannhet under optimala omständigheter. GPS höjden från mätningarna har stor felmarginal jämfört med den verkliga höjden samt när den jämförs med den beräknade höjden från barometern. Genom att utföra en numerisk integration på accelerometer-data kom vi fram till att det är möjligt att beräkna ungefär hur långt man har färdats med en hiss, dock att vissa detaljer måste tas i beaktning.This report summarizes the results of a degree Bachelor of engineering in Computer Science conducted by two students at Malmo University. Work aim was to conduct a variety of experiments with accelerometer, barometer and GPS in a modern smartphone. A number of scenarios for a possible sensor use in applications formulated to guided experiments. Data is carefully documented and analyzed, with the intention to create a database of information for future studies. Analysis of the data includes the altitude determination in nature and in buildings using barometric sensor, geographic location using GPS, speed and acceleration during an elevator journey with the help of accelerometer. The report contains a comprehensive literature review on the use of sensors for indoorpositioning. From our analysis of the measurement data, we conclude that it is possible to calculate the altitude from barometric- information but good accuracy if there are optimum circumstances. GPS altitude from our measurements show faulty height by a large margin compared with the actual height and when it is compared with the calculated height of the barometer the barometric height is closer to the actual height. By performing a numerical integration of the accelerometer data, the results show that it is possible to calculate approximately how far you have traveled in meters in an elevator, however there are some things that must be taken into consideration

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During long-distance flights, birds catabolize not only fat but also protein, which results in structural or functional loss as protein is stored in organs. In this study we investigated breast muscle size in relation to body mass in garden warblers Sylvia borin before and after crossing the Sahara desert and the Mediterranean Sea in autumn and spring migration, respectively. Breast muscle size was measured by moulding the shape of the muscles of live birds. Samples were collected on the Greek island of Antikythira during spring after the barrier crossing and on Crete during autumn, where garden warblers prepare for barrier crossing on their southward migration. Breast muscle size on Antikythira was significantly smaller than the equivalent size measured on Crete. Breast muscle size followed the changes in total body mass when garden warblers had a low body mass while this relationship disappeared when body mass is above 17.5 g. The combination of low body masses and small breast muscle size of birds that have just crossed the Sahara desert and the Mediterranean Sea and landed on Antikythira indicates a severe protein break down. During extended flights, when fat reserves are insufficient, the use of protein can also be a lifeline to reach the destination. The weak association between body mass and breast muscle size during autumn implies that the increase of breast muscle, as a preparation for the barrier crossing, does not take place en route from breeding sites to the Mediterranean area

MRI-compatible positioning device for guiding a focused ultrasound system for transrectal treatment of prostate cancer

Background   : High-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) is a promising treatment method for many common cancers, including prostate cancer. Magnetic resonance image (MRI) guidance of HIFU permits targeting and monitoring of therapy. A prototype MRI-compatible positioning device that navigates a HIFU transducer was designed, fabricated and tested. Materials and methods   : The positioning device has two PC-controlled and one manually driven stage that allow endorectal access to the prostate. The positioning device was constructed using a 3-D rapid prototype manufacturing device. Software was developed that controls the motion of the positioning device and enables activation of a HIFU transducer. In vitro testing of the system was performed in a 1.5T MRI scanner using ex vivo turkey tissue. Optical encoders were employed to enhance the accuracy of this positioning device. Result   : The positioning device was successfully tested for MRI compatibility. The movement error of the positioning device is approximately 20 μm. The robot has the ability to accurately move the transducer for creation of discrete and overlapping lesions. Conclusion   : An MRI-compatible HIFU positioning system was developed that has the ability to create thermal lesions with MRI guidance for endorectal treatment of prostate cancer