Revised proposal for encoding the Mende script in the SMP of the UCS

This is a proposal to encode the Mende Kikakui script in the international character encoding standard Unicode. This script was published in Unicode Standard version 7.0 in June 2014. Mende Kikakui is used to write the Mende language, which is spoken in Sierra Leone. The script was largely replaced by a Latin-based writing system in the 1940s. The Mende numbers were separately proposed, see: . Users should refer to the code charts for the finalized version, which is accessible from:

Proposal for encoding additional Bamum characters in the SMP of the UCS

This is a proposal to encode the historic characters of the Bamum script in the international character encoding standard Unicode. This set of extensions, which appear in the Bamum Supplement block, was published in Unicode Standard version 6.0 in October 2010. The Bamum scripts developed through a series of phases. The characters in this proposal were used to write the Bamum language of the Cameroon in the earlier phases of the script. (The modern orthography uses characters in the main Bamum block and were proposed in .

Stabilité monétaire dans l'Egypte ottomane du XVIe siècle et commerce de l'or en poudre à partir du Bilâd al-Takrûr

International audienceDuring the 16th century, the Ottoman Province of Egypt and its dependencies (Yemen, Hedjaz and Habash) formed a monetary area, distinctively different from other parts of the Ottoman Empire. After a severe crisis, its monetary system recovered stability around 1525. The mamluk silver medin (nisf fidda) continued to be mint, but gold coins prevailed largely and Egypt remained unaffected by debasements until the very end of the sixteenth century. This was probably due to the influx of large quantities of gold powder carried into Egypt from Bilâd al-Takrûr by caravans.Durant le XVIe siècle, la province ottomane d'Egypte et ses dépendances (Hedjaz, Yémen et Habash) constituaient une zone monétaire notablement différente de celle des autres régions de l'Empire ottoman. Après une période de crise à partir de la fin du XVe siècle, le système monétaire égyptien retrouva sa stabilité aux alentours de 1525. Avec le maintien du médin mamelouk (nisf fidda), elle se distinguait par la place dominante occupée par les espèces or. L'Egypte semble aussi avoir échappé aux tensions monétaire jusqu'à l'extrême fin du XVIe siècle. Cette singularité était sans doute largement liée à l'afflux d'or en poudre en provenance du Bilâd al-Takrûr, grâce au trafic caravanier transsaharien

Calculator Controlled Robots: Hands-On Math and Science Discovery

This curriculum includes ten missions and three exploration extensions that provide activities for up to a semester and focus largely on the space exploration theme. It is designed to engage students in hands-on inquiry based learning. It addresses science and technology standards, and specifically focuses on math content and process standards. Although other models will work, the curriculum is geared towards using a Texas Instruments (IT) 83 or 84 series graphing calculator with a Norland research calculator robot. The curriculum can be used in math, science, technology, or after school classes. Students create programs in TI-BASIC to run their robots. Missions are sequentially built on the knowledge of previous activities. Step-by-step programming instructions are provided in the first missions, gradually leading students to create their own programs in later missions. Students use and apply math and science concepts to direct their robots through a variety of challenges. In addition to the detailed activities, teachers are given opportunities to draw on their students’ hands-on experience to reach a deeper understanding of mathematical concepts. Several open-ended questions and extension activities are included to encourage potential scientists, engineers, mathematicians, and computer programmers to explore their fields. Educational levels: Middle school, High school

Redesigning Protein Function: Towards Synthetic Vaccines and MHC Mimetics

Template Assembled Synthetic Proteins (TASP) approach has been applied to mimic 3D-conformations of the hen egg white lysozyme antigen (HEL) and the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) and some of their biological properties

Adverbial Clauses in 4th Grade Science Textbooks: A Structural and Functional Analysis

The research questions in this Capstone address the use of adverbial clauses in 4th grade science texts including their frequency, position within the sentence, and meanings. The researcher also did a comparison across texts to find differences and similarities in use between publishers. The research was conducted through a functional language analysis of four textbooks. Results indicate that although the use of adverbial clauses varies greatly from text to text, they do occur in 4th grade science texts and should be addressed by educators in order to help increase students’ scientific literacy

Strut-and-tie modeling of reinforced concrete deep beams : experiments and design provisions

textBridge bents (deep beams) in the State of Texas have experienced diagonal cracking problems with increasing frequency. These field related issues, taken in combination with discrepancies that exist between design provisions for strut and tie modeling (STM), were the impetus for the funding of the current project. The overall objective of the project was to develop safe and consistent design guidelines in regard to both the strength and serviceability of deep beams. In order to accomplish this research objective and related tasks, a database of 868 deep beam tests was assembled from previous research. Inadvertently, many of the beams in this database were considerably smaller, did not contain sufficient information, or contained very little shear reinforcement. As a result, filtering criteria were used to remove 724 tests from the database. The criteria were chosen to consider only beams that represent bent caps designed in the field. In addition to the 144 tests that remained in the database, 34 tests were conducted as part of the current experimental program resulting in 178 total tests available for evaluation purposes. Two additional tests were conducted on beams without shear reinforcement, thus they did not meet the filtering criteria. However, the results from these tests provided valuable information regarding deep beam behavior. Beams that were fabricated and tested as part of the current experimental program ranged in size from, 36"x48", 21"x75", 21"x42", and 21"x23". These tests represent some of the largest deep beam shear tests ever conducted. STM details that were investigated included: (i) the influence that triaxial confinement of the load or support plate has on strength and serviceability performance; and (ii) the influence that multiple stirrup legs distributed across the web has on strength and serviceability performance. Based on the findings of the experimental and analytical program, a new strut-and-tie modeling procedure was proposed for the design of deep beam regions. The procedure is based on an explicitly defined single-panel truss model with non-hydrostatic nodes. An important aspect of the new STM design methodology is that it was comprehensively derived based on all the stress checks that constitute an STM design. Thus, the new method considers every facet of a STM design. The newly proposed STM procedure is simple, more accurate, and more conservative in comparison with the ACI 318-08 and AASHTO LRFD (2008) STM design provisions. As such, the implementation of the new design provisions into ACI 318 and AASHTO LRFD is recommended.Civil, Architectural, and Environmental Engineerin

Improving the perfomance of elevator systems using exact reoptimization algorithms

The task of an elevator control is to schedule the elevators of a group such that small average and maximal waiting and travel times for the passengers are obtained. We present a novel exact reoptimization algorithm for this problem. A reoptimization algorithm computes a new optimal schedule for the elevator group each time a new passenger arrives. Our algorithm uses column generation techniques and is, to the best of our knowledge, the first exact reoptimization algorithm for a group of elevators. We use our algorithm to compare the potential performance that can be achieved for conventional (ie up/down buttons) and two variants of destination call systems, where a passenger enters his destination floor when calling an elevator. This research is part of an ongoing project with our industry partner Kollmorgen Steuerungstechnik

Toward the Design of Highly Efficient, Readily Accessible Peptide N-caps for the Induction of Helical Conformations

A series of novel peptide N-caps was designed with an emphasis on ease of synthesis and an abundance of hydrogen bond acceptors. Different scaffolds based on sugars, cyclic hydrocarbons, and amino acids are developed with a variety of hydrogen bond acceptors including esters, carboxyls, amides and a sulfonic acid. The efficient use in solid-phase peptide synthesis was demonstrated by incorporating the N-caps to a resin-bound model peptide. Their differential helix nucleating power in aqueous buffer was determined by CD studies. Increases in peptide helicity to a significant extent are observed, leading to a discussion of N-capping efficiency versus ease of synthesis. The potential of the elaborated N-caps for the reversal of β-sheet to α-helix conformations in the context of fibrillogenesis is discusse