A Proof of the S-m-n theorem in Coq

This report describes the implementation of a mechanisation of the theory of computation in the Coq proof assistant which leads to a proof of the Smn theorem. This mechanisation is based on a model of computation similar to the partial recursive function model and includes the definition of a computable function, proofs of the computability of a number of functions and the definition of an effective coding from the set of partial recursive functions to natural numbers. This work forms part of a comparative study of the HOL and Coq proof assistants

Jewish Tourism to Malta: A Nostalgic Pilgrimage?

The good air transport links with most major European cities and Malta, has led to an increase in tourists from all over the world. This has also led to an increase in tourists of the Jewish faith. These tend to be mainly coming from North America, and the cultural tours that are planned for them, always provide a number of visits to Jewish related historical and cultural locations. The itineraries that are planned make sure that the Jewish heritage on the islands is visited. What are these locations that attract the attention of Jewish visitors to Malta? The earliest mention of a Jewish community in Malta is securely dated to the first centuries of the Common Era. In various underground burial places, around the old capital city of Malta, there are catacombs with Jewish symbols carved on the walls of burial places. These tend to confirm the presence of a substantial Jewish community in Malta. The fate of this community is not known. The 13th century sees Abraham Abulafia, considered as a prophet, living in Malta and presumably dying here. Documentary evidence from the 13th century, point to a small Jewish community living here. By the 15th century it is clearly evident that there was a Jewish community, forming part, and taking part within the everyday life of Medieval Malta. Jews were to be recorded in Malta throughout the following centuries. There are cemeteries dating from the 4th and 6th centuries, and others from the 19th century onwards. There is an indication of where the Jewish Silk Market was located during the Medieval times. Nowadays, pilgrimages are taking on a different aspect. The religious aspect of such a visit is not of great importance, while visiting places associated with the Jewish communities in Malta throughout the centuries, is of great significance. This can be referred to as nostalgic pilgrimage, and not necessarily a religious and spiritual pilgrimage. This is part of a cultural type of pilgrimage, identifying with previous communities of the same religious views

Roles and Responsibilities of a Tourist Guide and their Trainers: Reflections and Recommendations

My first ever guiding experience, was telling stories to my siblings and cousins, and other friends who would bother to come with me around the streets of my home-town, Valletta. I remember my first visit to an exhibition, back in 1970. As a 15-year old I was impressed with all the exhibits, coming from all over the world. I also remember reading the captions and wondering how was it possible to remember all that information. Maybe the seeds of guiding were already there. Interest in visiting places and guiding continued. For thirteen years I worked as a guide with the then Museums Department (nowadays renamed Heritage Malta). The joy of reading, studying the artefacts and even guiding visitors was my real initiation into the world of professional guiding. This contribution to the first issue of the International Journal of Tour Guiding Research (initially presented at the 6th International Research Forum on Guided Tours) looks back at some of the most important developments that I experienced as a guide lecturer at the Institute of Tourism Studies and to share some thoughts about the Tourist Guide course presently offered by the Institute of Tourism Studies

The Effects of COVID-19 on Religious Activity in Malta

The unexpected COVID-19 pandemic that struck the world has negatively affected all kinds of everyday activities. Besides the effects that this pandemic has had on the economy, social life and political scene, it has affected religion in various ways. The effects on religion are manifold. The immediate regulations issued by the local government for social distancing, the prohibition of mass gatherings, and the closure of all religious places has disrupted all aspects of everyday religious life. Meanwhile, tourism has suffered immensely, and this has also negatively impacted the international aspect of religious tourism. The negative impact on religion is wide ranging – from all churches being closed, all religious services being suspended, to no baptisms, holy communion or confirmation, weddings or funerals being held. The drastic decision of suspending all popular parish feasts this year has also been taken. The disruption that has come, practically unexpectedly, to the communities has led to innovative activities being organised by individuals, street communities and even the church itself. In this paper I aim to look at some of the changes that have affected Malta and its local communities regarding religious aspects due to the COVID-19 pandemic

Editorial: pilgrimage-induced transformations: the 12th Annual International Religious Tourism & Pilgrimage Conference in Braga

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Orthogeriatrics in Malta : a 3 year experience

The orthogeriatric service in Malta started in 2012 and expanded in 2014. From admission, the patient is offered a ward based hip fracture programme that includes orthogeriatric assessment, management and co-ordinated multidisciplinary review. 457 patients were seen by the orthogeriatric service when this study was done. Mean age was 83 and 69% of patients were female. The Nottingham Hip Fracture Score (NHFS) is a scoring system that reliably predicts 30-day and 1-year mortality for patients after hip fracture. It is made up of seven independent predictors of postoperative mortality that have been incorporated into a risk score. The score ranges from 0-10 and the mean score for this cohort was 5.1. There was a statistically significant correlation between age and high NHFS scores. 30 day mortality was 5.9% and 1 year mortality was 24.4%. Compared with the Nottingham data both 30 day and 1 year mortality were less for the orthogeriatric department in Malta. The orthogeriatric service in Malta achieved better results when comparing mortality with the UK. In the future expansion of data collected should be considered to better evaluate standards of care in the department.peer-reviewe

On the readability of machine checkable formal proofs

It is possible to implement mathematical proofs in a machine-readable language. Indeed, certain proofs, especially those deriving properties of safety-critical systems, are often required to be checked by machine in order to avoid human errors. However, machine checkable proofs are very hard to follow by a human reader. Because of their unreadability, such proofs are hard to implement, and more difficult still to maintain and modify. In this thesis we study the possibility of implementing machine checkable proofs in a more readable format. We design a declarative proof language, SPL, which is based on the Mizar language. We also implement a proof checker for SPL which derives theorems in the HOL system from SPL proof scripts. The language and its proof checker are extensible, in the sense that the user can modify and extend the syntax of the language and the deductive power of the proof checker during the mechanisation of a theory. A deductive database of trivial knowledge is used by the proof checker to derive facts which are considered trivial by the developer of mechanised theories so that the proofs of such facts can be omitted. We also introduce the notion of structured straightforward justifications, in which simple facts, or conclusions, are justified by a number of premises together with a number of inferences which are used in deriving the conclusion from the given premises. A tableau prover for first-order logic with equality is implemented as a HOL derived rule and used during the proof checking of SPL scripts. The work presented in this thesis also includes a case study involving the mechanisation of a number of results in group theory in SPL, in which the deductive power of the SPL proof checker is extended throughout the development of the theory

Constitutive expression of Yes-associated protein (Yap) in adult skeletal muscle fibres induces muscle atrophy and myopathy

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