Language engineering - a champion for European culture

Language is key to culture. It is a direct cultural medium as well as a means of recording and providing access to non-lingual elements of culture. Language is also fundamental to a sense of cultural identity. For this reason, it is vital, in a changing Europe, that we preserve the multi-lingual character of our society in order to move successfully towards closer co-operation at a political, economic, and social level. Language engineering is the application of knowledge of language to the development of computer software which can recognise, understand, interpret, and generate human language in all its forms. The paper provides a high level view of the ‘state of the art’ in language engineering and indicates ways in which it will have a profound impact on our culture in the future. It shows how advances in language engineering are an important aid in maintaining cultural diversity in a multi-lingual European society, while enabling the development of social cohesion across cultural and national divides. It addresses issues raised by the prospect of the Multi-lingual Information Society, including education, human communication with technology and information management, as well as aspects of digital cities such as tele-presence in digital libraries, virtual art galleries and electronic museums. The paper raises the issue of language as a factor in cultural domination, showing the contribution that language engineering can make towards countering it. The paper also raises a number of controversial issues concerning the likely benefits arising from the ways in which language is likely to influence the culture of Europe

LM cathode thruster system Quarterly progress report, 4 Jan. 1969 - 4 Apr. 1970

Development of 20 cm liquid metal cathode thruster syste

On the interactions of lipids and proteins in the red blood cell membrane

The effects of temperature and of the action of a purified phospholipase C enzyme preparation on human red blood cell membranes has been investigated by chemical analyses, circular dichroism, and proton magnetic resonance measurements. The results indicate that a substantial fraction of the phospholipids and the proteins of the membranes can change structure independently of one another, suggesting a mosaic pattern for the organization of the lipids and proteins in membranes

Financial reporting standards for the public sector: New Zealand’s 21st-century experience

New Zealand was seen as world-leading when public sector financial reports were prepared using sector-neutral accounting standards from 1995 onwards. The decision in 2002 to adopt IFRS was disruptive, effecting new understandings of ‘sector- neutral’, and the standard-setter’s approach was unsuccessful in meeting public sector users’ needs. The development of a new strategy finalized in 2012 has created a multi- standards framework, including adapted IPSASB standards applicable from 1 July 2014. While neutrality is still prized, it is within a framework of meeting users’ needs. This paper traces the influences expediting these changes

A theoretical and semiemprical correction to the long-range dispersion power law of stretched graphite

In recent years intercalated and pillared graphitic systems have come under increasing scrutiny because of their potential for modern energy technologies. While traditional \emph{ab initio} methods such as the LDA give accurate geometries for graphite they are poorer at predicting physicial properties such as cohesive energies and elastic constants perpendicular to the layers because of the strong dependence on long-range dispersion forces. `Stretching' the layers via pillars or intercalation further highlights these weaknesses. We use the ideas developed by [J. F. Dobson et al, Phys. Rev. Lett. {\bf 96}, 073201 (2006)] as a starting point to show that the asymptotic $C_3 D^{-3}$ dependence of the cohesive energy on layer spacing $D$ in bigraphene is universal to all graphitic systems with evenly spaced layers. At spacings appropriate to intercalates, this differs from and begins to dominate the $C_4 D^{-4}$ power law for dispersion that has been widely used previously. The corrected power law (and a calculated $C_3$ coefficient) is then unsuccesfully employed in the semiempirical approach of [M. Hasegawa and K. Nishidate, Phys. Rev. B {\bf 70}, 205431 (2004)] (HN). A modified, physicially motivated semiempirical method including some $C_4 D^{-4}$ effects allows the HN method to be used successfully and gives an absolute increase of about $2-3$ to the predicted cohesive energy, while still maintaining the correct $C_3 D^{-3}$ asymptotics

Magnetic flux flow and superconductor stabilization Quarterly report, 1 Jan. - 31 Mar. 1968

Magnetic flux flow and stability of superconducting niobium titanium strip

Queen discrimination by honeybee (Apis mellifera L) workers

A simple new technique for testing worker honeybees' ability to distinguish between honeybee queens is presented. Two queens were caged separately with groups of young sibling workers which were the daughters of another queen. The cages were exposed to the same environmental odours for 10 days. When placed in the test apparatus and given a choice of both queens, workers segregated towards the queen with which they had been caged. This provides further evidence that the distinctive odour of an individual queen is probably partly inherited and is learned by workers. The nature and functioning of queen odours are discussed

The role of facial appearance in gender categorization

Of the many systems of social organization which members of US society use to categorize other members, gender is one of the most important. The gender system operates to place members of US society into categories, and then allocate labor and resources to those members on the basis of their category membership. In order to better understand the gender system, this study examines the methods by which members of US society use the gender system to place other members into a gender category. First, full facial photographs were taken of a group of participants of varying gender, race, ethnicity, and age. Then, parts of each participant\u27s face were isolated digitally and shown to a second group of participants. This second group was asked to identify the sex and/or gender of the individual in the image, indicate how confident they were in this identification, and then write a brief explanation for why they identified the individual in the image as they did. The analysis conducted by this study supports three findings. First, though the gender categories male and female are still widely predominant, other categories such as genderqueer are seeing use as well. Second, the mouth and lips tend to be seen as more important indicators of gender than other facial features. Finally, while the race and gender category membership of the member doing the categorizing has little or no interaction with the gender categorization process, the race and gender category membership of the member being categorized does have a significant interaction

Value engineering in government and private sector construction

CIVINS (Civilian Institutions) Thesis documentValue engineering enjoys widespread use throughout the Federal Government and in the private sector. The many billions of dollars saved over the years is a tribute to the effectiveness of applying value engineering methodology to construction projects. The Federal Axquisition Regulations require the use of value engineering in all Federal construction contracts with working estimates of $100,000.00 or more. Many private construction management firms offer value engineering as a part of their pre-construction package of services. This report looks at the similarities and differences of value management programs practiced in the construction management industry today through a comparative look at three major Federal Government acquisition agencies with construction management responsibilities and three large scale private construction firms in the southeastern United States offering Construction Management (CM) services to their clients. The Federal Government has very stringent regulation and guidelines for executing their value management programs. The private firms in this study, on the other hand, appear to do a great job in the area of value management but do not rely as much on regulations and guidelines and more on practical experience and lessons learned. One area in which the Navy is utilizing value management methodology in a unique way is with the Functional Analysis Concept Development (FACD) workshops. These workshops use VE techniques to better define the scope of a proposed project prior to any design efforts. The FACD team consist of representatives of the owner, A&E firm, end user, and the construction management agency. The workshops can be used in conjuction with any acquisition strategy including design-build and have produced award winning designs and completed projects for the clients and customers of Naval Facilities Engineering Command (NAVFACENGCOM). Value engineering propsal databases are capturing a tremendous amount of value added construction materials and methods that can be used on projects of similar scope. With this information at the designers' fingertips, the result should be higher quality designs leaving the drafting tables. This could be especially useful in projects of smaller dollar value that do not justify a full-blown VE study. Value Engineering has been around, in America. since the 1940s and it is still evolving and being improved upon, which should not be surprising since process improvement is at the heart of any value management philosophy.http://archive.org/details/valueengineering1094537783Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited

Theme Overview: Agriculture and Water Quality in the Cornbelt: Overview of Issues and Approaches

Resource /Energy Economics and Policy, Q25,