Meanings in the Process of Signification of Lancôme's Beauty Serum Advertisements

Through this study, the writer aimed to find out how meanings are created in advertisements video. The three objectives of this study are to find out how meanings are created through verbal expressions, how the visual expressions of the advertisements support the verbal expressions and to find out the differences between the two advertisements. The data used to conduct this study were Lancôme Génifique Serum Advertisement (2009) and Lancôme Advanced Génifique Serum (2013). After analyzing the data with the research questions in mind, the writer found out that meanings in both advertisements are created through the verbal captions and what were visually shown on the advertisement videos. The writer also found out that there were a few differences between the first and second advertisements. The second advertisement provides more appealing visuals, more direct and convincing verbal expressions and more facts and needed information regarding the promoted product. These factors make the second advertisement an improved version of the first one

Consensus under general convexity

peer reviewedA method is proposed to characterize contraction of a set through orthogonal projections. For discrete-time multi-agent systems, quantitative estimates of convergence (to a consensus) rate are provided by means of contracting convex sets. Required convexity for the sets that should include the values that the transition maps of agents take is considered in a more general sense than that of Euclidean geometry

CONDITION AND PRODUCTION CHARACTERISTICS OF CATTLE BREEDING IN THE AREA OF THE BASIN OF RIVER BREGALNICA

In the Republic of Macedonia pastures take 50.8% from the total agricultural area. Feeding of cattle with grazing allows the cheapest production of meat and milk (Azderski & Jakimovski, 1996). Considering climate factors and conditions in the country, it is provided up to 6-7 months when the cattle is at pastures, starting from April to the end of October. The remaining period of the year cattle is feed with a partial supplement of the grazing, and in the winter period with conserved feed (silage, haulage and hay). Fifty year ago, the cattle in the country was universally used for labour in the agriculture and forestry, as well as for production of meat and milk. Busha was the largest and most common breed of cattle (Azderski, 2003, 1996). Today, the breed composition of the cattle breeding in the country is changed, so it is difficult to meet Busha in pure blood. General characteristics of the cattle breeding are:- Low milk yield per cow 2,152 litres;- Very early slaughter of the offspring, in average 124kg live weight;- Small land property per household 1-3ha;- Small size of the area under forage in terms of ploughed field, which is 7%, compared to the developed countries where that percentage is 34-40%;- Small percentage of cows covered with artificial insemination and parent bookkeeping, approximately 6-8% of the population, while before the transition period this percentage was more than 20%;- Big import of precious breeds, in the first place Holstein-Friesian breed, but after a short time period these breeds are quickly pulled out from production;- Low information and knowledge on the production technology for highly productive cattle;- Challenges in production of high quality voluminous feed;- Insufficient measures built by the country for supporting the farmers; and- Spending large financial assets to import livestock products and insemination material.The tendency in the world and in the country is to lower the number of farmers, to increase the number of cows per farm, and at the same time to increase the production per livestock head and to specialize the production in order to satisfy the needs of the population for meat and milk. Considering the economic importance of their products (meat, milk and manure), cattle comes to the first place in the livestock breeding in the Republic of Macedonia

Image Description Using a Multiplier-Less Operator

Cataloged from PDF version of article.A fast algorithm for image classification based on a computationally efficient operator forming a semigroup on real numbers is developed. The new operator does not require any multiplications. The co-difference matrix based on the new operator is defined and an image descriptor using the co-difference matrix is developed. In the proposed method, the multiplication operation of the well-known covariance method is replaced by the new operator. The proposed method is experimentally compared with the regular covariance matrix method. The proposed descriptor performs as well as the the regular covariance method without performing any multiplications. Texture recognition and licence plate identification examples are presented

A Complete Analysis for Pump Controlled Single Rod Actuators

In the current study a variable speed pump controlled hydrostatic circuit where an underlapped shuttle valve is utilized to compensate the unequal flow rate of a single rod actuator is analyzed. Parameters of the shuttle valve are included in the system analysis, rather than treating it as an ideal switching element as handled in literature. A linearized model of the system is obtained. An inverse kinematic model, which calculates the required pump drive speed for a desired actuator speed and given pilot pressure input, is formed. A numerical stability analysis program is developed, and the stability of all possible shuttle valve spool positons is determined. The theoretical findings are validated by non-linear simulation model responses

Torsional characteristics of carbon nanotubes: Micropolar elasticity models and molecular dynamics simulation

Efficient application of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) in nano-devices and nano-materials requires comprehensive understanding of their mechanical properties. As observations suggest size dependent behaviour, non-classical theories preserving the memory of body’s internal structure via additional material parameters offer great potential when a continuum modelling is to be preferred. In the present study, micropolar theory of elasticity is adopted due to its peculiar character allowing for incorporation of scale effects through additional kinematic descriptors and work-conjugated stress measures. An optimisation approach is presented to provide unified material parameters for two specific class of single-walled carbon nanotubes (e.g., armchair and zigzag) by minimizing the difference between the apparent shear modulus obtained from molecular dynamics (MD) simulation and micropolar beam model considering both solid and tubular cross-sections. The results clearly reveal that micropolar theory is more suitable compared to internally constraint couple stress theory, due to the essentiality of having skew-symmetric stress and strain measures, as well as to the classical local theory (Cauchy of Grade 1), which cannot accounts for scale effects. To the best of authors’ knowledge, this is the first time that unified material parameters of CNTs are derived through a combined MD-micropolar continuum theory

NEW CONCEPTS IN THE TECHNOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENT OF AGRICULTURE

Agriculture in the Republic of Macedonia is in a constant development crisis, based on structural agri-policy origin. Agricultural holdings occur in several structures, such as: very small individual holdings (farms) that use about 80% of the agricultural land; agricultural companies; and several cooperatives that use about 20% of the best quality agricultural land in the country. The industrial labor organization in the some of the agricultural corporations: disrupts the natural cycle of the plant and animal production, increases the input, decreases the production capacity of the land and creates environmental issues. The phases that include reproduction and milk production, as phases of the farming process, are especially expensive and require individual treatment of animals. The trend of development of village structure which can encompass the principles of agriculturalproduction is negative. The small land property structure, which is worsening each year, cause deprofessionalization, specially in the hilly and mountain regions. Therefore, strategy for technological development in agriculture is proposed in this paper. The strategy is expected to contribute in the development and strengthening of agriculture in the villages in accordance to the west European examples based on cooperative investment and ownership

Metatarsophalangeal joint pain in psoriatic arthritis: a cross-sectional study

Methods. Thirty-four consecutive patients with PsA (mean age 45.3 years, 65% female, mean disease duration 9.9 years) and 22 control participants (mean age 37.9 years, 64% female) underwent clinical and US examination to determine the presence of pain, swelling, synovitis, erosions, effusions and submetatarsal bursae at the MTP joints. Mean barefoot peak plantar pressures were determined at each MTP joint. Levels of pain, US-determined pathology and peak pressures were compared between groups. Binary logistic regression was used to identify demographic, clinical examination-derived, US-derived and plantar pressure predictors of pain at the MTP joints in the PsA group. Results. The presence of pain, deformity, synovitis, erosions (P < 0.001) and submetatarsal bursae and peak plantar pressure at MTP 3 (P < 0.05) were significantly higher in the PsA group. MTP joint pain in PsA was independently predicted by high BMI, female gender and the presence of joint subluxation, synovitis and erosion. Conclusion. These results suggest local inflammatory and structural factors, together with systemic factors (gender, BMI), are predominantly responsible for painful MTP joints in PsA, with no clear role for plantar pressure characteristics