On the typology and the worship status of sacred trees with a special reference to the Middle East

This article contains the reasons for the establishment of sacred trees in Israel based on a field study. It includes 97 interviews with Muslim and Druze informants. While Muslims (Arabs and Bedouins) consider sacred trees especially as an abode of righteous figures' (Wellis') souls or as having a connection to their graves, the Druze relate sacred trees especially to the events or deeds in the lives of prophets and religious leaders. A literary review shows the existence of 24 known reasons for the establishment of sacred trees worldwide, 11 of which are known in Israel one of these is reported here for the first time. We found different trends in monotheistic and polytheistic religions concerning their current worship of sacred trees

A model for bending and stretching of piezoelectric rods obtained by asymptotic analysis

"Published online 15 July 2014"The aim of this paper was to obtain a new model for the bending-stretching of an anisotropic heterogeneous linearly piezoelectric cantilever rod when the electric potential is applied on the both ends. The process is assumed to be static, and the piezoelectric material is monoclinic of class 2. To derive the model, we start with the corresponding three-dimensional problem, introduce a change of variable together with a scaling of the unknowns and then we use a passage to the limit procedure, based on arguments of asymptotic analysis taking the diameter of the cross-section as small parameter. Finally, we prove a result of strong convergence that justifies both the method and the one-dimensional model obtained. One of the most relevant features of this one-dimensional model is that the stretching is coupled with the electric potential, while the bendings are not.This research was partially financed by FEDER Funds through "Programa Operacional Factores de Competitividade-COMPETE", by Portuguese Funds through FCT-"Fundacao para a Ciencia e a Tecnologia", within the Project PEst-OE/MAT/UI0013/2014, and by the project "Modelizacion y simulacion numerica de solidos y fluidos en dominios con pequenas dimensiones. Aplicaciones en estructuras, biomecanica y aguas someras, MTM2012-36452-C02-01 financed by the Spanish Ministry of Economia y Competitividad

A pantropically introduced tree is followed by specific ectomycorrhizal symbionts due to pseudo-vertical transmission

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