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Life cycle costing (LCC) is applied as an assessment tool to estimate the entire cost of typically large-scale assets, for example, buildings and infrastructure objects with a considerably long serviceable life. LCC needs to consider and accumulate all types of cost, and since these occur at different times they are typically discounted to a common point in time. Environmental LCC is a specific type of LCC, which was designed to be aligned with the ISO 14040 standard for Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and shares some key components with Environmental LCA to allow a consistent combination of both in one assessment. Societal LCC is another type of LCC, which includes externalities and attempts to provide a holistic assessment, thereby covering both economic and environmental aspects. For renewables, aspects such as feed-in tariffs and subsidies need to be considered in an LCC model. A case study for a combined heat and power plant is used to illustrate the application of Environmental LCC.

SUMMARY In this paper, we study distributed rotating consensus in networks of second-order agents using only local position information in three-dimensional space. We propose a protocol to make the multi-agent system finally move together around a common point and present corresponding conditions for rotating consensus of the system. Finally, a numerical example is provided to demonstrate the effectiveness of the theoretical results. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

This collection of articles examines diverse aspects of human subjects protection. All are authored by geographers actively engaged with human subjects, whether as administrators, active researchers, or both. The articles’ common point of departure is that human subjects protection is not a one-off event; rather, it is a process that is stretched out temporally and spatially, involving multiple actors. Our aim is pragmatic inasmuch as we focus on pushing beyond recounting “IRB horror stories” to engaging productively with conceptual, thematic, and operational aspects of human subjects protection across the research process from a geography-specific perspective.

This paper addresses collective rotating motions of second-order multi-agent systems in three-dimensional space (3D). Two distributed control protocols are proposed and sufficient conditions are derived under which all agents rotate around a common point with a specified formation structure. Simulation results are provided to illustrate the effectiveness of the theoretical results.

In 2006 Lenchner and Brönnimann [14] showed that in the affine plane, given n lines, not all parallel and not all passing through a common point, there have to be at least n6 ordinary points. The present paper improves on this result to show that there must be at least 2n−37 ordinary points, except for a single arrangement of 6 lines with one ordinary point.

The common point about many systems modeled as Bernoulli–Euler beams with attachments is that the own masses of the helical springs are neglected. Some researchers accounted for the masses of the springs during free vibrations of those systems. Further to these studies, the present study deals with the investigation of the effect of not taking into account the masses of the helical springs in damped combined systems during their forced vibrations. It is shown that the spring mass effect may be important in regions near to the resonance frequencies. Further, this effect influences the phase angles more than the amplitudes.

International audience; This paper presents and compares different approaches currently used to assess surface anomalies identified on a product. The common point between these methods is that they are based on a document presented in the form of a table, which is to help the inspector to assess the anomaly detected in a repeatable and reproducible way. We will present three types of table: criteria/level table, tree-like presentation table and an indexed table. As each of these tables presents certain limits when applied to the inspection of a product surface, we will describe the table proposed in order to help the inspector determine the intensity to attribute to the identified anomaly.

The present paper analyses the issue of liver trauma classification. Liver trauma classification is useful for many reasons and in particular because it establishes a common ground of communication with other specializations. The most significant attempts to classify liver trauma are presented, i.e. a) liver trauma classification according to the trauma mechanism. b) liver trauma classification based on anatomical segmentation according to Couinaud [1] and the surgery required [2] proposed in 1990. c) liver trauma classification based on vascular damage [3] proposed in 1994, and d) imaging classification of liver trauma proposed by Mirvis et al in 1989 [4]. The paper focuses in particular on the detailed presentation of the classification proposed by Moore et al in 1989 [5], as revised in 1994 by the American Association for the Surgery of Trauma (AAST). This classification is based on anatomical criteria that define the precise damage to the hepatic parenchyma and includes six grades of injury that are presented in detail. The paper concludes that the classification proposed by Moore et al, as revised in 1994 by the AAST, meets most of the criteria for a correct classification system making it today the most accepted and most common point of reference for all surgeons.

α-Thalassemia (α-thal) is one of the most common monogenic diseases worldwide and is widely distributed in southern China. There are two types of this disease at the DNA level: deletional and nondeletional α-thal. Hb Constant Spring [Hb CS, α142, Term→Gln (α2) (α(CS)α/αα)], Hb Quong Sze [Hb QS, α125(H8)Leu→Pro (α2) (α(QS)α/αα/)] and Hb Westmead [α122(H5)His→Gln (α2) (α(122)α/αα)] are the three common nondeletional mutations in the Chinese population. In this study, we developed an optimized protocol for identification of the three point mutations by high-resolution melting (HRM) analysis using a LightScanner. We successfully detected all the mutant samples with α(CS)α/αα, α(CS)α/- -(SEA), α(CS)α/-α(3.7), α(CS)α/-α(4.2), α(QS)α/αα, α(QS)α/- -(SEA), α(QS)α/-α(4.2), α(QS)α/α(QS)α, and α(122)α/αα. High-resolution melting analysis is a time-saving and cost-effective technique, and the method established here could be applied to screen the three common point mutations, especially in individuals whose partners are a carrier of α⁰-thal.

O presente artigo visa uma breve explanação sobre a Arte Visionária, seu surgimento, algumas de suas características, alguns de seus representantes e suas possíveis relações com a arte surrealista. Por meio de pesquisa bibliográfica, apresentamos um breve estudo comparando os aspectos formais, temática e fonte de inspiração de representações tidas como surrealistas e outras como visionárias. Compreendemos que o interesse pelo desconhecido é um ponto em comum, e que as divergências entre a Arte Visionária e o Surrealismo estão, sobretudo, relacionadas a valorização do espiritual, por parte da arte visionária.

Many theorists acknowledge that Modern architecture denied the architect’s crafty gesture for the sake of pure formal and compositional status of a building. As well, modern technology in construction has been prevailing as the sole support for modern architecture. But there exists architects who proposed a dialectic development of traditional and modern techniques. This thought was prominent in Germanic circle where technological development was in advance. Throughout 20th century, the works of Adolf Loos, Mies Van der Rohe, and Peter Zumthor are representatives in each period. A common point begins from their apprenticeships as craftsmen: Loos and Mies as stonemasons, Zumthor as a cabinetmaker. More than this fact, their craftsmanship is embedded in their works and express creativity of architects. While mass production system raises non-participatory practice that merely require assemblage of products, the adjusted techniques with craftsmanship brings forth a participatory practice that does not limit the creativity of architects.

This paper approaches some aspects of organized crime and terrorism and demonstrates the symbiotic relationship between those forms of transnational criminality. It underlines the illicit markets as a common point for the consummation of both crimes, as well the major impact that both criminal and terrorist organizations cause on the global economy, and pins corruption as a powerful tool that allows the “criminal enterprises succeed”.

Six former U.S. State Department officials, all of whom were involved in U.S. foreign policy during the Carter administration, respond to the article by James Blight and janet Lang. Their reactions vary, but one common point of concern is whether Blight and Lang are correct in arguing that “empathy” as an organizing concept or analytical tool will be useful “not just in conferences in which the past is revisited, but also in the present and future, when it really matters.” Even though most of the commentators accept at least some of the points about the U.S.-Soviet détente in the late 1970s, they have questions about the conceptual underpinnings of the article. The forum ends with a response from Blight and Lang.

Six former U.S. State Department officials, all of whom were involved in U.S. foreign policy during the Carter administration, respond to the article by James Blight and janet Lang. Their reactions vary, but one common point of concern is whether Blight and Lang are correct in arguing that “empathy” as an organizing concept or analytical tool will be useful “not just in conferences in which the past is revisited, but also in the present and future, when it really matters.” Even though most of the commentators accept at least some of the points about the U.S.-Soviet détente in the late 1970s, they have questions about the conceptual underpinnings of the article. The forum ends with a response from Blight and Lang.

Six former U.S. State Department officials, all of whom were involved in U.S. foreign policy during the Carter administration, respond to the article by James Blight and janet Lang. Their reactions vary, but one common point of concern is whether Blight and Lang are correct in arguing that “empathy” as an organizing concept or analytical tool will be useful “not just in conferences in which the past is revisited, but also in the present and future, when it really matters.” Even though most of the commentators accept at least some of the points about the U.S.-Soviet détente in the late 1970s, they have questions about the conceptual underpinnings of the article. The forum ends with a response from Blight and Lang.

Let S be a simply connected orthogonal polygon in the plane, and let n be fixed, n ≥ 1. If every two points of S are visible via staircase n-paths from a common point of S, then S is starshaped via staircase (n + 1)-paths. Moreover, the associated staircase (n + 1)-kernel is staircase (n + 1)-convex. The number two is best possible, and the number n + 1 is best possible for n ≥ 2.

A simple topological graph T = ( V ( T ) , E ( T ) ) is a drawing of a graph in the plane, where every two edges have at most one common point (an end-point or a crossing) and no three edges pass through a single crossing. Topological graphs G and H are isomorphic if H can be obtained from G by a homeomorphism of the sphere, and weakly isomorphic if G and H have the same set of pairs of crossing edges. We prove that the number of isomorphism classes of simple complete topological graphs on n vertices is 2 Θ ( n 4 ) . We also show that the number weak isomorphism classes of simple complete topological graphs with n vertices and ( n 4 ) crossings is at least 2 n ( log n − O ( 1 ) ) , which improves the estimate of Harborth an Mengersen.

It is commonly argued that the international diffusion of post-socialist ‘coloured revolutions’ culminated in the overthrow of the Akaev government in Kyrgyzstan in March 2005. This raises an important theoretical debate about the nature of contagion, diffusion and emulation (how different cases are linked across space and time) in the context of the particular case of the Tulip revolution (what happened and is continuing to happen in Kyrgyzstan). These changes of regime were linked by a common point of reference, the idea of the ‘coloured revolution’, whereby participants in Kyrgyzstan were inspired by representations of the earlier uprisings. However, this link was symbolic and contingent rather than normative and determined. Rather than following a single model or innovating upon an objectively existing example, coloured revolutions were mediated by the power of representation.

I met Achille Ardigň at the establishment by the Minister Foschi (Minister of Labor and Social Security) of the National Commission on the issues of family, when I was still a young researcher of IRLES (Ligure Insitut for Economic and Social research). I was appointed in the National Commission Institute on Family in the group that had to analyze the evolutionary trends in the 80's of public social policies. Working with Prof. Sgritta of the Sapienza University in Rome, with Prof. Alba Dini of the Pontifical Gregorian University and Livio Labor chairman of the ACLI, I had to study the theories of Ardigň and Donati. Hence the encounter with Ardigň was decisive. From the methodological point of view: he taught me the need to combine several disciplines, to find a common point of view, with no hegemonic pretension.Keywords: family, maternity, Welfare, network, coresponsibility, social value.Parole chiave: famiglia, maternitÀ, Welfare, rete, corresponsabilitÀ, valore sociale.

Let S be a simply connected orthogonal polygon in the plane. A family of examples will establish the following result. For every n ≥ 2, there exists no Krasnosel’skii number h(n) which satisfies this property: If every h(n) points of S are visible via staircase n-paths from a common point, then S is starshaped via staircase n-paths.

This article discusses how key interactions between community members, teachers, and Latino counselors and advisers were integral in providing support, knowledge, and agency to marginalized, Mexican-descent students in their 1st year of college. Findings show that particular types of discourse and narrative exchanged between integral adult figures and the students helped to create a common point of cultural and personal understanding that fueled further efforts and motivation on the part of the students.

In this paper we proposed two new variants of backpropagation algorithm. The common point of these two new algorithms is that the outputs of nodes in the hidden layers are controlled with the aim to solve the moving target problem and the distributed weights problem. One algorithm (AlgoRobust) is not so insensitive to the noises in the data, the second one (AlgoGS) is through using Gauss-Schmidt algorithm to determine in each epoch which weight should be updated, while the other weights are kept unchanged in this epoch. In this way a better generalization can be obtained. Some theoretical explanations are also provided. In addition, simulation comparisons are made between Gaussian regularizer, optimal brain damage (OBD) and the proposed algorithms. Simulation results confirm that the new proposed algorithms perform better than that of Gaussian regularizer, and the first algorithm AlgoRobust performs better than the second algorithm AlgoGS in the noisy data. On the other hand AlgoGS performs better than the AlgoRobust on the data without noise and the final structure obtained by two new algorithms is comparable to that obtained by using OBD.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the cyber ethnography- also called netnography- as a research tool in understanding and developing insights about virtual consumer communities. First of all, the “community,” “virtual community,” and the “virtual consumer communities” concepts are described. Following them, cyber ethnographic research is examined and the process of a cyber ethnographic research is discussed in details. In this section several research articles using cyber ethnographic method are presented in order to illustrate the research process and to develop a common point of view. In the conclusion, the pros and cons of cyber ethnographic research are discussed.

On the one hand the ideology could serve (more or less) as a common platform for any comparative art studies in Central‐Eastern Europe, a common point of departure, a sort of framework of art historical narrative there between 1945 and 1989. On the other hand, however, such an instrument is useless if we would like to go deeper and draw a sort of map of Central‐Eastern Europe. Aiming at the above‐mentioned tasks, it is argued, we should take into consideration particular political practices, rather than the ideological discourse, or at least that what Luis Althusser called Ideological State Apparatuses, understood as different processes in different countries, producing different meanings of comparable art in comparable historical moments in the region, rather than classical concept of ideology. To show how the problem works in analytical praxis three case studies have been chosen: Clara Mosch Gallery in the GDR, Foksal Gallery in Poland, and the Balatonboglar Gallery in Hungary.

This essay shows the influence of Roben Joseph Pothier, French jurist of the 18th century, pioneer in encoding related to the acceptance of the rule that limits the compensation of stipulated damages to those that have been foreseen to the expiration date of the agreement, both for the legal systems of the Continental Law tradition as for those of the Common Law, though through different ways: by encoded rules in the former and throughout famous legal precedents in the latter. The article exhibits differences and similarities and exposes that this common point can contribute to the effort currently being displayed to unify and agree on contract Law.

This article describes the relationship between the tracking error (TE) of the underlying portfolio in a large asset transition and of the residuals to be traded. It demonstrates that the issue, properly phrased, is really “what is the relationship between two linear functions?” Though seemingly obvious mathematically-the relationship is linear-in practice, too much trader and portfolio manager time is lost because of the difficulty in seeing to the heart of the question. With proofs and examples, the authors hope to settle the question for practitioners, making clear the common point between the two perspectives.

For a mapping f ∈ C r (I, I), r ≥ 0, we consider the problem of the existence of a mapping close to it that has periodic trajectories of given periods in common with f.

Dip isogons, drawn on the profile section of a fold by linking the points of equal dip on the inner and outer arcs, can be arranged in a rosette by displacing the isogons without changing their orientation until the mid-point of each isogon becomes the common point of intersection of all isogons. The end points of isogons in the rosette trace a characteristic curve that defines the fold geometry. This curve is a circle in parallel folds, an ellipse in flattened parallel folds, and it reduces to a pair of points in “similar” folds. Since isogons deform as material lines during flattening, the characteristic curve, namely, the ellipse, directly represents the strain ellipse in flattened parallel folds. The method is tested successfully on several examples of natural flattened parallel folds. The “isogon rosette” method allows representation of a given fold by a point on the Rs–θ plot, where Rs and θ are the two-dimensional strain ratio and the angle between the maximum principal strain and the fold axial trace, respectively.

Defects in as-grown commercial zinc oxide (ZnO) substrates were studied by photoluminescence and optical detection of magnetic resonance (ODMR). In addition to the Zn vacancy and shallow donor centers, we observed several ODMR centers with spin S =1/2, labeled LU1–LU4. Among these, the axial LU3 and non-axial LU4 centers were detected in all studied samples. The ODMR signals of LU3/LU4 were found to be drastically increased after electron irradiation. The preliminary result indicates that these common ODMR centers in as-grown ZnO are related to intrinsic defects.

The aim of this study was to determine the presence and absence of acupuncture ear points in healthy neonates.This was a prospective observational study performed at a university teaching hospital.The subjects were healthy neonates. We compared male and female neonates, right and left lobe, term and preterm deliveries, and cesarean sections versus vaginal deliveries. Examinations took place on the fifth day after delivery and were performed by a neuronal pen (SVESA 1070, SVESA GmbH, Munich, Germany). An integrated optical signal detected the ear points that were assigned to the Chinese ear map.This study looked at the presence and absence of acupuncture ear points in neonates.There were 27 male neonates and 23 female neonates. In 66% of neonates, no points at all were found. We detected 0-4 points on the right lobe and 0-2 points on the left lobe. The psychovegetative rim was the most common point in 26% of all children. No psychic points were detected. No significant differences were found between right and left ear lobes, male and female neonates, or term and preterm deliveries with respect to numbers of points or access of points. Moreover, there were no differences among modes of delivery.Some ear points in healthy neonates are detectable and not dependent on side of the ear lobe. Females had significantly more acupuncture points. There was an extremely significant difference in the group with 2 active earpoints between cesarean and vaginally delivered neonates. The most important point was the psychovegetative rim and the absence of psychic points in favor of the organ points. Possibly, ear points in neonates could be used for diagnostic and therapeutic options in neonates in the future.

In this paper, we consider any two split Cayley generalized hexagons represented on the parabolic quadric Q(6,q) and determine their common point reguli. As an application of our results we investigate which 1-systems of Q(6,3) that are a derivation of the exceptional spread of H(3), see [A. De Wispelaere, J. Huizinga, H. Van Maldeghem, Ovoids and spreads of the generalized hexagon H(3), Discrete Math. 305 (1-3) (2005) 299-311], are a spread of some hexagon on this quadric.

In this paper we prove a special case of the transversal conjecture of Tverberg and Vrecica. We consider the case when the numbers of parts ri in this conjecture are powers of the same prime. We also prove some results on common transversals that generalize the classical nonembeddability theorems. We also prove an analogue of the colored Tverberg's theorem by Zivaljevic and Vrecica. Instead of multicolor simplices with a common point it gives multicolor simplices with a common m-transversal.

Let G be a non-trivial connected graph. A dominating set S⊆V is said to be a common point dominating set if γ(G)>1, then for every u∈S there exists a vertex v∈S such that N(u)∩N(v)∩(V−S)≠ϕ. The minimum cardinality of a common point dominating set is called the common point domination number and is denoted by γcpd. The maximum cardinality of a common point dominating set is called the upper common point domination number denoted by Γcpd. Further, when γ=1, we define γcpd = 1 and Γcpd=n−1 where n is the number of vertices of G. In this paper we begin to develop properties of the above new domination parameter. Some properties with other known parameters are also obtained.

Feature recognition techniques have been developed in the past that dealt with parameterizing regular features. In response to the availability of free form shape, researchers have turned to free form features. Some of the methods developed for features can be re-used in the free form domain, but many methods have to be developed anew. In this paper it is argued that there is a need for a general framework to provide a common point of reference for new methods and to increase the cohesion between such methods. An initial framework is proposed for the definition of features and for one of the possible applications of features, feature recognition. Two existing free form feature recognition methods are analysed with regard to the framework, in order to critically review the proposed framework as well as the two methods.

NPR is the area of research which does the image creation of the impression where the hazard person who creates made a human intimate image by the hand in objective. NPR in Cartoon-Rendering when the human being recognizes a thing, it is a technique which expresses a thing to use an appearance and the line which are a means of basic and intuitional expression. Also Cartoon the person probably is, the hazard which helps, raises the efficiency of namely meaning delivery and a simplification technique with the means for it uses. Is like this cartoon basic rules where the simplification and omission are life, from modeling, the low of LOD technique which it is using specially actively from game and one pulse communication is having a common point. The research which it sees Cartoon effects of GPU bases which use DirectX Shader programs LOD it leads and it applies the method for about under presenting it expresses Cartoon effects in exterior.

In three experiments, two independent samples of 12 observers each visually inspected modified versions of Titchener’s ⊥ from which the T-junctions had been deleted. For Experiment 1, the ⊥’s two lines had been replaced by dashed lines not meeting in a common point; for Experiment 2, the ⊥ had been reduced to five dots, representing the original lines’ end- and midpoints; and for Experiment 3 (in which the second sample of observers served), the ⊥ had been dissected into two separate lines, differently spaced from each other. Observers haptically indicated the lengths of the two orthogonal lines of the modified ⊥s and verbally judged their relative lengths or the distances between the corresponding dots. The common perceptual illusions persisted in Experiments 1 and 2, but were markedly weakened in Experiment 3. Implications for a neurophysiological account of the illusions in terms of bottom-up, long-range interactions between orientation-sensitive mechanisms versus top-down activation of a figural schema are spelled out.

The suture-tendon interface remains the most common point of failure in rotator cuff repairs via suture pullout. Several high-strength braided sutures are available for rotator cuff surgery and are more abrasive than monofilaments. However, a comparison of these sutures has not been performed in a tissue model.Ninety infraspinatus sheep tendons were randomized among 9 groups of sutures (n = 10), including FiberWire (Arthrex, Naples, FL, USA), Collagen Coated FiberWire (Arthrex), Orthocord (DePuy Mitek, Raynham, MA, USA), MaxBraid (Biomet, Warsaw, IN, USA), Force Fiber (Teleflex, Research Triangle Park, NC, USA), ULTRABRAID (SmithNephew, Memphis, TN, USA), Phantom Fiber BioFiber (Tornier, Bloomington, MN, USA), and Ti-Cron (Syneture, Mansfield, MA), with Surgipro (Syneture) monofilament as a control. Each suture was cycled 50 times through the tendon, which was fixed to a mechanical testing system under a constant load in saline solution. The distance cut through the tendon was measured and divided by the distance of suture sliding to determine displacement (mm/cm). Twist angle and picks per inch of each suture were measured using digital photography. One-way analysis of variance was used to compare the displacement and twist angle between sutures.Collagen Coated FiberWire was the most abrasive of the high-strength sutures. Four of the sutures (Collagen Coated FiberWire, Phantom Fiber BioFiber, FiberWire, Ti-Cron) had a mean displacement rate greater than 0.150 mm/cm. The remainder of the sutures had a mean displacement rate less than 0.050 mm/cm (Orthocord, Force Fiber, MaxBraid, ULTRABRAID). The difference in the displacement rates between these 2 groups was significant (P.0001) and was related to both the twist angle and the picks per inch.Significant differences in suture abrasiveness were identified among high-strength braided sutures and correlated with lower twist angle and lower picks per inch.

We validate the usage of the calculated, linear response Hubbard U for evaluating accurate electronic and chemical properties of bulk 3d transition metal oxides. We find calculated values of U lead to improved band gaps. For the evaluation of accurate reaction energies, we first identify and eliminate contributions to the reaction energies of bulk systems due only to changes in U and construct a thermodynamic cycle that references the total energies of unique U systems to a common point using a DFT + U(V ) method, which we recast from a recently introduced DFT + U(R) method for molecular systems. We then introduce a semi-empirical method based on weighted DFT/DFT + U cohesive energies to calculate bulk oxidation energies of transition metal oxides using density functional theory and linear response calculated U values. We validate this method by calculating 14 reactions energies involving V, Cr, Mn, Fe, and Co oxides. We find up to an 85% reduction of the mean average error (MAE) compared to energies calculated with the Perdew-Burke-Ernzerhof functional. When our method is compared with DFT + U with empirically derived U values and the HSE06 hybrid functional, we find up to 65% and 39% reductions in the MAE, respectively.

This chapter examines the issue of suicide during the German Enlightenment in the second half of the eighteenth century. It detects a fundamental model: In taking his own life, Christian Friedrich Illing obeyed the voice of a 'tender' conscience which had condemned him to death for his moral offences. The chapter attempts to explain this paradox of the scrupulous suicide. It examines the principle of self-condemnation on the basis of self-narratives in which Enlightened authors in Germany offered justifications as to why they had decided to take their own lives. The common point of reference in debates about the right to 'voluntary death' was not what it initially appeared to be, that is, it was not the act of suicide itself, but rather the possibility of a fatal moral condemnation of the self. Keywords: Christian Friedrich Illing; German Enlightenment; Germany; self-narratives; suicide; voluntary death

With the growing concern of both corporations and their stakeholders towards social responsibility reporting, CSR standards and guidelines have become a common point of reference for practitioners, regulating bodies and scholars alike. However, research in the business ethics field seems to have given less attention to the way ethical concepts and models relate to such CSR standards.

While using Electronic Total Station to measure the deflection of the pressure hull, the measurement error was influenced by different selection of common points. To solve this problem, the coordinate values of pressure hull profiles were established at two different coordinate measuring stations. Selecting different position and number of common points to solve the analog circle initial deflection, we obtained the variation of the initial deflection calculation affected by analyzing the initial deflection and middle error of the measure point. The Simulation results show that the common point should be evenly distributed on the pressure hull, and the number of common points should be controlled at 4-7.

Ordnungstheorie (~ system theory, ordo theory) and New Institutional Economics have opposing objectives: The objective of Ordnungstheorie is the “…scientific understanding of real economic life”, given the institutional framework (economic system or “order”) within which economic life happens, while the objective of the New Institutional Economics is the economic analysis of the institutional framework of the economy itself (its “order”). That is, in spite of their different objectives, the two approaches have one common point of interest: the institutional framework of economic life. For that reason it may be of interest to neoinstitutionalists to have a closer look at German Ordnungstheorie.

Heart failure represents the leading cause of death, especially among the elderly. Despite the development of numerous therapeutic strategies, heart failure prevalence is still increasing. Ergo, exploring the molecular mechanisms underlying aging-related heart failure seems to be of particular relevance. Intriguingly, the fields of cardiovascular disease and aging, which have remained largely separate hitherto, seem to have a common point in the sympathetic nervous system. Indeed, mounting evidence indicates that adrenergic receptors are functionally involved in numerous processes underlying both aging and cardiovascular disease. This chapter will review the pathophysiological role of the sympathetic nervous system in heart failure and cardiac aging.

EnglishThis article intends to present, firstly, a critic reflection on school crisis, having as context the questioning of meanings in the light of the mission of school, focusing the grammar of school. Secondly, the reflective analysis falls upon the (re) thinking of another school under the perspective of globalization considering the dilemma and challenges of contemporaneity, stressing the change and the innovation as a path to tread in the construction of a good school – equitable, inclusive and democratic. Finally, the sociologic meaning of democratic school is emphasized, revisiting the epistemological legacy of three great pedagogues of the 20 st century, John Dewey, Celestin Freinet and Paulo Freire, with the purpose of clarifying the following issue: Can school be something else? The common point in analysis is focused on the discovering of new paths and on the rescuing the epistemological meaning of the social function of school as a place of possibilities for all, in the respect for human diversity and in the spreading of universal values portuguesEste artigo pretende apresentar, num primeiro momento, uma reflexao critica acerca da crise da escola, tendo como enquadramento a problematizacao de significados a luz da missao da escola enfocando a gramatica da escola. Num segundo momento, a analise reflexiva recai sobre o (re) pensar de uma outra escola sob o prisma da globalizacao fase aos dilemas e desafios da contemporaneidade, ressaltando a mudanca e a inovacao como o caminho a trilhar na construcao de uma boa escola – equitativa, inclusiva e democratica. Por ultimo, enfatiza-se o sentido sociologico das escolas democraticas, revisitando o legado epistemologico de tres grandes pedagogos do seculo XX, Jonh Dewey, Celestin Freinet e Paulo Freire, com o objectivo de clarificar a questao: Pode a escola ser outra coisa? (Lima, 2006). O ponto comum em analise centra-se no descobrir de novos caminhos e no resgatar do sentido epistemologico da funcao social da escola como espaco de possibilidades para todos no respeito pela diversidade humana e na difusao de valores universais.

Gray scale transformation is a common image enhancement technology in digital image processing. It can facilitate operations such as strengthening and stretching image contrast, layering gray levels, and inversing pictures so as to highlight image characters and image contrast. Image point operation is a preferable method to transform grey level of images and with various transformation functions, image point operation can be categorized linear functions and non-linear ones. The article sums up circumstances where common point operations are applied and conducts simulation experiment by using MATLAB software before it provides the experiment results. Keywords—gray scale transformation of images; image point operation; matlab

Este trabalho consiste no estudo de caso de um terreiro de Umbanda, localizado no Rio de Janeiro, onde se constata a união com a religião do Santo Daime. Este terreiro possui características peculiares que, por um lado, comprovam a visão geral que se tem da Umbanda como sendo um sistema religioso sincrético, maleável e inclusivo. Por outro lado, reflete a visão de mundo de um grupo de indivíduos pertencentes, em sua grande maioria, às camadas médias intelectualizadas do Rio de Janeiro. O objetivo do trabalho foi buscar o sentido da experiência religiosa não-convencional presente nos rituais da Umbanda e do Santo Daime. Constatou-se que a procura por estas práticas simbólico-religiosas, na maior parte dos casos, está inserida em uma busca de autoconhecimento que inclui diferentes práticas terapêuticas alternativas.

This paper provides a real life case study on usage of Next Generation Networks (NGN) and innovative regulatory approach leading to collaboration among competing operators to solve a complex interconnection problem in Bangladesh. It provides background into the existing interconnection regime in a fast developing telecom scenario, intricacies of the interconnection challenges as well as technological and regulatory options available for such situation. It provides details of a collaborative project taken up by mobile operators including incumbent & regulator with the consultancy support from ITU and UNDP to set up a common Point of Interconnect (POI) using NGN technology at Chittagong. The salient features of regulatory approach and innovative technology used for this project as well as action points for further utilization and improvements have also been suggested.

The aim of a variable step size normalized least-mean-square (VSS-NLMS) algorithm is to try to solve the conflicting requirement of fast convergence and low misadjustment of the NLMS algorithm. Numerous VSS-NLMS algorithms can be found in the literature with a common point for most of them: they may not work very reliably since they depend on several parameters that are not simple to tune in practice. The objective of this letter is twofold. First, we explain a simple and elegant way to derive VSS-NLMS-type algorithms. Second, a new nonparametric VSS-NLMS is proposed that is easy to control and gives good performances in the context of acoustic echo cancellation

In one of his early papers Claude Berge proved a Helly-type theorem, which replaces the usual “nonempty intersection” condition with a “convex union” condition. Inspired by this we prove a fractional Helly-type result, where we assume that many (d+1)-tuples of a family of convex sets have a star-shaped union, and the conclusion is that many of the sets have a common point. We also investigate somewhat related art-gallery problems. In particular, we prove a (p,3)-theorem for guarding planar art galleries with a bounded number of holes, completing a result of Kalai and Matoušek, who obtained such a result for galleries without holes. On the other hand, we show that if the number of holes is unbounded, then no (p,q)-theorem of this kind holds with p⩾2q-1.