Circular critical exponents for Thue-Morse factors

We prove various results about the largest exponent of a repetition in a factor of the Thue-Morse word, when that factor is considered as a circular word. Our results confirm and generalize previous results of Fitzpatrick and Aberkane & Currie

A survey on tasks performed in eldercare

In the Netherlands, a vast increase of the expenses on eldercare is expected for the future. Currently, an IT system is under development that aims to assist care providers with their tasks in providing care services. Before such a system can be used in practice, insight is needed on the current work situation in eldercare. This paper presents interview surveys on tasks currently performed by professionals in two nursing houses. Both the professional population and details on how it spends its time are described. Little room is observed for automating tasks in nursing and/or caring houses

Flexible home care automation adapting to the personal and evolving needs and situations of the patient

Health monitoring and healthcare provisioning at home (i.e., outside the hospital) have received increasingly attention as a possible and partial solution for addressing the problems of an aging population. There are still many technological issues that need to be solved before home healthcare systems can be really cost-effective and efficient. However, in this paper we will highlight another category of issues which we call architectural challenges. Each patient is unique, and each patient has a unique lifestyle, living environment and course of life. Therefore it should be possible to personalize the services provided by home healthcare systems according to the needs and preferences of each individual patient, and it should be possible to make incremental adaptations at later points in time if this is necessary due to, for example, a changing health condition. The architectural challenges and solution directions related to this has been discussed in this paper

Asymptotic Capacity and Optimal Precoding Strategy of Multi-Level Precode & Forward in Correlated Channels

We analyze a multi-level MIMO relaying system where a multiple-antenna transmitter sends data to a multipleantenna receiver through several relay levels, also equipped with multiple antennas. Assuming correlated fading in each hop, each relay receives a faded version of the signal transmitted by the previous level, performs precoding on the received signal and retransmits it to the next level. Using free probability theory and assuming that the noise power at the relay levels - but not at the receiver - is negligible, a closed-form expression of the end-to-end asymptotic instantaneous mutual information is derived as the number of antennas in all levels grow large with the same rate. This asymptotic expression is shown to be independent from the channel realizations, to only depend on the channel statistics and to also serve as the asymptotic value of the end-to-end average mutual information. We also provide the optimal singular vectors of the precoding matrices that maximize the asymptotic mutual information : the optimal transmit directions represented by the singular vectors of the precoding matrices are aligned on the eigenvectors of the channel correlation matrices, therefore they can be determined only using the known statistics of the channel matrices and do not depend on a particular channel realization.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, to be published in proceedings of IEEE Information Theory Workshop 200

Effect of pressure on the electronic structure of hcp Titanium

The effect of pressure on the hexagonal close-packed structure of titanium is investigated. The lattice parameters of the equilibrium structure were determined in terms of the Gibbs free energy using the Epitaxial Bain Path method. When this process was repeated for several pressures, the effect of pressure on the lattice parameters was revealed. The calculated lattice parameters were in good agreement with the experimental and theoretical results. The effects of pressure on parameters depending on the electronic structure such as conductivity and resistivity in the ground state were also investigated up to 30 GPa using density functional theory.Comment: 7 pages, 7 figure

Using Natural Sciences for Cultural Expansion: The National Socialist Agenda for the Balkans

This article highlights the political merit natural sciences were awarded under the totalitarian regime of Nazi Germany and their propagandistic role in Hitler's foreign policy agenda for the Balkans, a region which was expected to replace Germany's colonies lost in World War I. It accounts further for the policies and strategies National Socialists used to exert cultural influence on the countries of South-East Europe, namely through a number of institutions with which natural sciences were in one way or another involved in order to promote German culture abroad. The promotion of the German language and, to a certain degree, the Nazi ideology was a precondition for familiarising the Balkan countries with German scientific achievements, which would pave the way for an economic and political infiltration in that region. Therefore, natural sciences, as part of the German intellect, acquired political and economic connotations hidden behind the euphemistic term of cultural policy, designed for this region of geopolitical importance. The article is based almost exclusively on unpublished German records.