Past practices: rethinking individuals and agents in archaeology

Archaeologists who seek to examine people's roles in past societies have long assumed, consciously or unconsciously, the existence of individuals. In this study, we explore various concepts and dimensions of ‘the individual’, both ethnographic and archaeological. We show that many protagonists in the debate over the existence of ‘individuals’ in prehistory use the same ethnographic examples to argue their positions. These positions range from the claim that any suggestion of individuals prior to 500 years ago simply projects a construct of western modernity onto the past, to the view that individual identities are culturally specific social constructs, both past and present. Like most contributors to the debate, we too are sceptical of an unchanging humanity in the past, but we feel that thinking on the topic has become somewhat inflexible. As a counterpoint to this debate, therefore, we discuss Bourdieu's concept of habitus in association with Foucault's notion of power. We conclude that experiencing oneself as a living individual is part of human nature, and that archaeologists should reconsider the individual's social, spatial and ideological importance, as well as the existence of individual, embodied lives in prehistoric as well as historical contexts

Active clearance control system for a turbomachine

An axial compressor is provided with a cooling air manifold surrounding a portion of the shroud, and means for bleeding air from the compressor to the manifold for selectively flowing it in a modulating manner axially along the outer side of the stator/shroud to cool and shrink it during steady state operating conditions so as to obtain minimum shroud/rotor clearance conditions. Provision is also made to selectively divert the flow of cooling air from the manifold during transient periods of operation so as to alter the thermal growth or shrink rate of the stator/shroud and result in adequate clearance with the compressor rotor

Large diameter astromast development, phase 1

Coilable-longeron lattice columns called Astromasts (trademark) were manufactured for a variety of spacecraft missions. These flight structures varied in diameter from 0.2 to 0.5 meter (9 to 19 in.), and the longest Astromast of this type deploys to a length of 30 meters (100 feet). A double-laced diagonal Astromast design referred to as the Supermast (trademark) which, because it has shorter baylengths than an Astromast, is approximately four times as strong. The longeron cross section and composite material selection for these structures are limited by the maximum strain associated with stowage and deployment. As a result, future requirements for deployable columns with high stiffness and strength require the development of both structures in larger diameters. The design, development, and manufacture of a 6.1-m-long (20-ft), 0.75-m-diameter (30-in.), double-laced diagonal version of the Astromast is described

Nonlinear stability of the Taub-NUT soliton in 6+1 dimensions

Using mixed numerical and analytical methods we give evidence that the 6+1 dimensional Taub-NUT soliton is asymptotically nonlinearly stable against small perturbations preserving biaxial Bianchi IX symmetry. We also show that for sufficiently strong perturbations the soliton collapses to a warped black hole. Since this black hole solution is not known in closed form, for completeness of the exposition we prove its existence and determine its properties. In particular, the mass of the black hole is computed.Comment: 19 pages, 5 figure

An Institutional Framework for Heterogeneous Formal Development in UML

We present a framework for formal software development with UML. In contrast to previous approaches that equip UML with a formal semantics, we follow an institution based heterogeneous approach. This can express suitable formal semantics of the different UML diagram types directly, without the need to map everything to one specific formalism (let it be first-order logic or graph grammars). We show how different aspects of the formal development process can be coherently formalised, ranging from requirements over design and Hoare-style conditions on code to the implementation itself. The framework can be used to verify consistency of different UML diagrams both horizontally (e.g., consistency among various requirements) as well as vertically (e.g., correctness of design or implementation w.r.t. the requirements)

Artin’s Conjecture for Forms of Degree 7 and 11

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/135203/1/jlms0268.pd

Systems of Diagonal Equations Over p‐Adic Fields

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/135491/1/jlms0257.pd

Optimised patient information materials and recruitment to a study of behavioural activation in older adults : an embedded study within a trial [version 1; peer review: awaiting peer review]

YesPrinted participant information about randomised controlled trials is often long, technical and difficult to navigate. Improving information materials is possible through optimisation and user-testing, and may impact on participant understanding and rates of recruitment. Methods: A study within a trial (SWAT) was undertaken within the CASPER trial. Potential CASPER participants were randomised to receive either the standard trial information or revised information that had been optimised through information design and user testing. Results: A total of 11,531 patients were randomised in the SWAT. Rates of recruitment to the CASPER trial were 2.0% in the optimised information group and 1.9% in the standard information group (odds ratio 1.027; 95% CI 0.79 to 1.33; p=0.202). Conclusions: Participant information that had been optimised through information design and user testing did not result in any change to rate of recruitment to the host trial. Registration: ISRCTN ID ISRCTN02202951; registered on 3 June 2009.UK National Institute of Health Research Health Technology Assessment Programme (project number 08/19/04)This article is included in the Studies Within A Trial (SWAT) collection (https://f1000research.com/collections/swat

PALP - a User Manual

This article provides a complete user's guide to version 2.1 of the toric geometry package PALP by Maximilian Kreuzer and others. In particular, previously undocumented applications such as the program nef.x are discussed in detail. New features of PALP 2.1 include an extension of the program mori.x which can now compute Mori cones and intersection rings of arbitrary dimension and can also take specific triangulations of reflexive polytopes as input. Furthermore, the program nef.x is enhanced by an option that allows the user to enter reflexive Gorenstein cones as input. The present documentation is complemented by a Wiki which is available online.Comment: 71 pages, to appear in "Strings, Gauge Fields, and the Geometry Behind - The Legacy of Maximilian Kreuzer". PALP Wiki available at http://palp.itp.tuwien.ac.at/wiki/index.php/Main_Pag

Photovoltaic system test facility electromagnetic interference measurements

Field strength measurements on a single row of panels indicates that the operational mode of the array as configured presents no radiated EMI problems. Only one relatively significant frequency band near 200 kHz showed any degree of intensity (9 muV/m including a background level of 5 muV/m). The level was measured very near the array (at 20 ft distance) while Federal Communications Commission (FCC) regulations limit spurious emissions to 15 muV/m at 1,000 ft. No field strength readings could be obtained even at 35 ft distant