Disciplinary Anxieties in the Study of Religion

After remarking on some common worries that trouble the academic study of religion, the article presents an argument for an anthropocentric stance and analytic preference as the directional compass, or an intellectual alignment, in the disciplinary practices of Religious Studies. At the core of this stance is a ‘reductionist’ commitment to a corrigible theoretical monism, which is, however, compatible with plural analytics or methodologies. Keywords: Study of religion, theories of religion, disciplinarit

Generation of Sparse Jacobians for the Function Mock-Up Interface 2.0

Derivatives, or Jacobians, are commonly required by numerical algorithms. Access to accurate Jacobians often improves the performance and robustness of algorithms, and in addition, efficient implementation of Jacobian computations can reduce the over-all execution time. In this paper, we present methods for computing Jacobians in the context of the Functional Mock-up Interface (FMI), and Modelica. Two prototype implementations, in JModelica.org and OpenModelica are presented and compared in industrial benchmarks

Epitaxy on substrates with hexagonal lattice symmetry

A general description of epitaxy between thin films and substrates of any crystal symmetry was developed from a model in which both overgrowth and substrate are initially kept rigid (Chapter 3). The overgrowth-substrate interaction is described by Fourier series, usually truncated, defined on the surface reciprocal lattice vectors of the crystal faces in the interface (Chapter 2). Energy considerations lead directly to a criterion for the existence of epitaxial configurations which occur when a pair of surface reciprocal lattice vectors of the substrate and overgrowth coincide. This criterion is analogous to the von Laue criterion and Bragg equation in diffraction theory, and has a geometrical realization related to the Ewald construction. Generalized, the formulation allows the calculation of misfit strain, (Chapter 4) and the description of interfacial structures in terms of misfit dislocation arrays or verniers (Chapter 5) - the spacing, line sense and Burgers vectors are obtained from the reciprocal lattice for an interface between crystals of the most general and diverse symmetry. The most general structures can be treated with convenient unit cells by using structure factors. Parallel to the predictions from reciprocal space, the homogeneous misfit strain (Chapter 4), the interfacial atom positions after relaxation (Chapter 5) and misfit and strain energies (both chapters) were obtained by direct numerical minimization of the total interfacial energy of a large (1105 atoms) but finite system.Thesis (DSc)--University of Pretoria, 1987.PhysicsDScUnrestricte

On the importance of scaling in equation-based modelling

Equation-based modelling languages adopt a declarative modelling approach, focused on writing the model equations in a clear way and leaving the task of deriving efficient simulation code to the tool. One aspect of declarative modelling is that the use of dimensionally consistent SI units for the physical variables is preferrable; however, in many application areas this can lead to implicit nonlinear systems of equations which are badly scaled from a numerical point of view. This paper shows the negative impact of not dealing with this aspect on a benchmark test case, and then shows how the same performance of manually scaled models can be recovered by suitably exploiting information about the scaling of variables that can be declared by the modeller

Experimental verification and validation of a computer model for light–tissue interaction

Laser light is frequently used in both diagnostics and treatment of patients. For any laser treatment to be effective it is important to deliver the correct dose at the treatment site. Human skin scatters and absorbs laser light in the visible wavelength region, which results in a decrease in fluence some distance into the skin. Computer simulations can be used to predict the fluence at the treatment site. Liquid and solid phantoms were prepared and the optical properties were measured. These values were then used as input values to a commercial software package simulating the different layers of skin representing phantoms. The transmission and reflected fractions of the different phantoms were measured with an integrating sphere and compared with the computer simulations. The results showed very good agreement with the measured values and the model can therefore be used with confidence to predict fluence at any treatment site inside the skin.http://www.springer.com/medicine/journal/10103nf201

Theoretical investigation of the stability of crystalline silicon dicarbide

While Si, C and SiC are very well known materials that have been extensively studied in their multitude of structures and allotropes, there is, surprisingly, a dearth of reliable information for off-50:50 compounds involving Si and C. Do such compounds exist and, if so, what are the plausible structures for these compounds? Using first principles total energy methods, we generally explore these questions before investigating in some detail the structures involving silicon dicarbide. Of the structures considered, our results show that the tetragonal glitter phase is lowest in energy. Of the two higher energy cubic structures that we considered, we note that there is a continuous transition from the high energy fluorite structure to the lower energy pyrite structure. We predict the transition pressure from glitter to pyrite to be 24.7 GPa. We give detailed structural and electronic properties for these systems. Since diamond and SiC are known for their hardness properties, we compute the elastic properties of SiC2, and we make an assessment of its hardness properties. We propose the glitter structure to be a plausible phase for SiC2.National Institute for Theoretical Physicshttp://www.elsevier.com/locate/commatscinf201

Knowledge and cognitive process dimensions of technology teachers’ lesson objectives

A clearly stated lesson objective is considered an essential component of a well-planned lesson. Many teachers of Technology, a relatively new subject in South African schools, teach Technology with rather limited training both in content and methodological approaches. This study sought to investigate and classify lesson objectives framed or implied by teachers in their lesson plans according to knowledge and cognitive process dimensions. The two-dimensional Taxonomy Table introduced by Krathwohl was adapted for Technology and formed the framework for this study. It was found that most of the directly stated objectives are directed to the lower level of the cognitive process dimension and address mainly factual knowledge, while no activities or lesson components address meta-cognitive knowledge. Some lesson objectives inferred from planned assessment activities placed higher demands on learners’ cognitive domain. A recommendation flowing from the study is that, during pre-service training and in-service teacher support processes, the importance of clear lesson objectives should be emphasised and that assessments planned for such lessons should closely match the lesson objectives. Further research is also needed on the reasons why low cognitive demands are made in the teaching of Technology.http://www.sajournalofeducation.co.zaam201

The OpenModelica integrated environment for modeling, simulation, and model-based development

OpenModelica is a unique large-scale integrated open-source Modelica- and FMI-based modeling, simulation, optimization, model-based analysis and development environment. Moreover, the OpenModelica environment provides a number of facilities such as debugging; optimization; visualization and 3D animation; web-based model editing and simulation; scripting from Modelica, Python, Julia, and Matlab; efficient simulation and co-simulation of FMI-based models; compilation for embedded systems; Modelica- UML integration; requirement verification; and generation of parallel code for multi-core architectures. The environment is based on the equation-based object-oriented Modelica language and currently uses the MetaModelica extended version of Modelica for its model compiler implementation. This overview paper gives an up-to-date description of the capabilities of the system, short overviews of used open source symbolic and numeric algorithms with pointers to published literature, tool integration aspects, some lessons learned, and the main vision behind its development.Fil: Fritzson, Peter. Linköping University; SueciaFil: Pop, Adrian. Linköping University; SueciaFil: Abdelhak, Karim. Fachhochschule Bielefeld; AlemaniaFil: Asghar, Adeel. Linköping University; SueciaFil: Bachmann, Bernhard. Fachhochschule Bielefeld; AlemaniaFil: Braun, Willi. Fachhochschule Bielefeld; AlemaniaFil: Bouskela, Daniel. Electricité de France; FranciaFil: Braun, Robert. Linköping University; SueciaFil: Buffoni, Lena. Linköping University; SueciaFil: Casella, Francesco. Politecnico di Milano; ItaliaFil: Castro, Rodrigo Daniel. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Ciudad Universitaria. Instituto de Investigación en Ciencias de la Computación. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Instituto de Investigación en Ciencias de la Computación; ArgentinaFil: Franke, Rüdiger. Abb Group; AlemaniaFil: Fritzson, Dag. Linköping University; SueciaFil: Gebremedhin, Mahder. Linköping University; SueciaFil: Heuermann, Andreas. Linköping University; SueciaFil: Lie, Bernt. University of South-Eastern Norway; NoruegaFil: Mengist, Alachew. Linköping University; SueciaFil: Mikelsons, Lars. Linköping University; SueciaFil: Moudgalya, Kannan. Indian Institute Of Technology Bombay; IndiaFil: Ochel, Lennart. Linköping University; SueciaFil: Palanisamy, Arunkumar. Linköping University; SueciaFil: Ruge, Vitalij. Fachhochschule Bielefeld; AlemaniaFil: Schamai, Wladimir. Danfoss Power Solutions GmbH & Co; AlemaniaFil: Sjolund, Martin. Linköping University; SueciaFil: Thiele, Bernhard. Linköping University; SueciaFil: Tinnerholm, John. Linköping University; SueciaFil: Ostlund, Per. Linköping University; Sueci