ICONES ORCHIDACEARUM MALAYENSIUM: ADDIT AMENTA

A few weeks after the publication of the final instalment of the late Dr J. J.Smith's "Icones Orchidacearum Malayensium," volume 2(Bulletin du Jardin Botanique de Buitenzorg, Serie III, Supplement:Volume 3.1949),a dozen more plates of this work were submitted to the Herbarium at Bogor (Buitenzorg) from the author's estate.As inclusion in the aforementioned volume,which was definitely closed last year,appeared undersirable for technical reasons,these addi- tional plates are now issued separately from the"Icones."They still represent an undoubtedly valuable contribution to the correct understand- ing of no less than 54 species of orchids all (except one) previously de- scribed by Dr Smith as new.The explanations were all prepared by the author himself.If the present plates had been incorporated in the main work (which ends with plate 176) in their proper sequence,they would have been numbered 178-189.Of plate 177 only the explanation could be found; the plate itself is missing.The species represented by it are:Liparis arcuata J. J. S., L.endertii J. J. S., L.lycopodioides J. J. S.,and L.biglobulifera J.J. S

Comment on "Absence versus Presence of Dissipative Quantum Phase Transition in Josephson Junctions''

In a recent Letter [Phys. Rev. Lett. 129, 087001, (2022)], Masuki, Sudo, Oshikawa, and Ashida studied a Josephson junction, with Josephson energy $E_{\rm J}$ and charging energy $E_{\rm C}$, shunted by an ohmic transmission line with conductance $\alpha (2e)^2/h$. Their model includes a realistic high frequency cutoff of order $\alpha E_c$, that is typically smaller than the plasma frequency $W$. The authors present a phase diagram showing surprising features, not anticipated in the established literature [eg. Sch\"on and Zaikin, Phys. Reports 198, 237, (1990)]. For $E_{\rm J}/E_{\rm C}$ above a certain value, they find that the junction remains superconducting for all $\alpha$, while below this value, they find that the insulating phase leads to re-entrant superconductivity at small $\alpha$. In this Comment, we show that their Numerical Renormalization Group (NRG) implementation is uncontrolled, and that there is no evidence for the re-entrant superconductivity in the phase diagram presented in Fig. 1a of PRL 129, 087001.Comment: 3 pages. Text of the version accepted for publication, plus an appendix with additional informatio

‘Breathing the air of a world so new’: Rewriting the Landscape of America in Toni Morrison’s A Mercy

This article explores Toni Morrison's preoccupation with, and reimagining of, the landscape of the so-called New World. Drawing on scholarship that has investigated dominant discourses about freedom, bounty, and possibility located within the Americas, it identifies various counternarratives in Morrison's fiction, tracing these through the earlier Song of Solomon (1977), Tar Baby (1981), and Beloved (1987), but primarily arguing for their centrality to A Mercy (2008). The mapping of seventeenth-century North America in the author's ninth novel both exposes colonial relations to place and probes African American experiences of the natural world. In particular, A Mercy is found to recalibrate definitions of “wilderness” with a sharpened sensitivity to the position of women and the racially othered within them. The dynamic between the perspectives towards the environment of Anglo-Dutch farmer and trader Jacob Vaark and Native American orphan and servant Lina, is examined, as well as the slave girl Florens's formative encounters in American space. Bringing together diverse narrative views, A Mercy is shown to trouble hegemonic settler and masculinist notions of the New World and, especially through Florens's voicing, shape an alternative engagement with landscape. The article goes some way towards meeting recent calls for attention to the intersections between postcolonial approaches and ecocriticism

Acerca de "Jasonia hesperia" Maire & Wilczek (Asteraceae) y las especies norteafricanas de este género

Se estudian las especies de Jasonia que viven en Marruecos, en especial J. hesperia. Se incluye una clave de identificación.The species of the genus Jasonia living in Morocco are studied, especially J. hesperia. A identification key is included.Peer reviewe

Amplitude and Sign Adjustment for Peak-to-Average-Power Reduction

In this letter, we propose a method to reduce the peak-to-mean-envelope-power ratio (PMEPR) of multicarrier signals by modifying the constellation. For$M$-ary phase-shift keying constellations, we minimize the maximum of the multicarrier signal over the sign and amplitude of each subcarrier. In order to find an efficient solution to the aforementioned nonconvex optimization problem, we present a suboptimal solution by first optimizing over the signs, and then optimizing over the amplitudes given the signs. We prove that the minimization of the maximum of a continuous multicarrier signal over the amplitude of each subcarrier can be written as a convex optimization problem with linear matrix inequality constraints. We also generalize the idea to other constellations such as 16-quadrature amplitude modulation. Simulation results show that by an average power increase of 0.21 dB, and not sending information over the sign of each subcarrier, PMEPR can be decreased by 5.1 dB for a system with 128 subcarriers

Effector

International audienceOne can distinguish between three uses (and related definitions) of the term effector: in human beings, in control systems and robotics (where it is sometimes synonymous of actuator), and in robotics (where it may also refers to the tool attached to the last point in a robotic chain)

Instrumental interaction : technology

International audienceTrying to implement the concepts of instrumental interaction / instrumental communication by using computers requires specific technologies. It leads, indeed, to the new technological paradigm of instrumental computer simulator

Incidents In The Life Of Slave Girls 2.0: Rememory And Patriarchal Bargaining In Toni Morrison’S A Mercy And Dolen Perkins-Valdez’S Wench

Through examining traditional slave narratives, such as Harriet Jacob’s Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, as well as neo-slave narratives with female protagonists, such as Wench and A Mercy, it becomes evident that participating in patriarchal bargaining in the antebellum South existed as a form of resistance and leverage not in a feminist sense, but one that is inherently womanist. Nearly twenty-five years ago, feminist Deniz Kandiyoti coined the term “patriarchal bargain†to describe the way in which women navigate within patriarchal societies: “Women strategize within a set of concrete constraints, which I identify as patriarchal bargains. Different forms of patriarchy present women with distinct ‘rules of the game’ and call for different strategies to maximize security and optimize life options with varying potential for active or passive resistance in the face of oppression†(Kandiyoti 274). Since its inception, research efforts on patriarchal bargaining have centered on women in patriarchal societies outside of the Western world. However, at its very core patriarchal bargaining can be seen throughout most of American history, especially the antebellum period