Journal articles on the topic 'Monolithic tank'

The clean water tank discussed consists of four reinforced concrete tanks. The structure is symmetrical for each of the tank pairs, which consist of two storage tanks and two water transfer tanks for the water supply network. All chambers are technologically connected with each other. The tanks are partially recessed in the ground, monolithic, and completely roofed. The projection of chambers within external walls is 96 x 96 m = 9,216 m2. The total capacity of internal chambers and external chambers is about 45,000 m3. The clean water tank was made as a reinforced concrete structure, monolithic. The owner of the facility observed significant losses of stored water, which translated into large financial losses of the company. In order to determine the current technical condition of the reservoir and the causes of its leakage, a comprehensive, multi-level analysis was carried out in terms of strength, stability and durability of the structure. A few dozens of samples were taken at random, and the compressive strength of the concrete, modulus of longitudinal deformation and degree of carbonatization were evaluated. For the assessment of the technical condition of the expansion joints, boreholes were also drilled through them. On the basis of the results obtained from the tests, numerical analysis of the stress on the structure and its deformations was performed in order to select the most stressed areas as well as to assess expansion deformations as potential spots of the largest leaks. The results of the analysis were used to prepare the concept of sealing repairs of the tank chambers.

Abstract The article presents the results of validation of static calculations carried out for a monolithic rectangular tank with walls of trapezoidal cross-section. Static calculations were made with the use of software based on the finite element method (FEM) and the finite difference method (FDM) in terms of energy (including spatial static work of the tank). Validation of the results was conducted on a concrete tank model using an innovative measurement tool, i.e. a coordinate measuring arm with a touch probe.

The exploitation time and reliability of monolithic reinforced concrete structures largely depend on concreting technology and process influence during concreting and early setting stages. Different types of cracks in monolithic reinforced concrete structures appear due to internal and external effects. Cracks appear when the technology of structure concreting is damaged, when formwork is removed during the further setting and structures loaded period. In order to avoid micro and macro cracks in monolithic structures, it is important to measure the particular setting time moment and technological process moment when stresses that exceed the permissible values appear in concrete. The article analyses the processes that appear when horizontal, sloping and vertical monolithic reinforced concrete structures are concreted. The analysis of concrete mixture pressure on formwork is performed. The pressure which is calculated according to different countries’ methodology is different: the smallest pressure is obtained calculating according to the British recommendations, and the largest pressure is obtained according to French CIB recommendations. In Lithuania, it is recommended to follow the German DIN 18218 standard. The balance conditions of concrete mixture concreting on slope surface are described. The main concreting technology parameters and their interaction are analysed; the speed, intensity and time of continuous concreting technology are presented. When the process of continuous concreting is performed, it is necessary to evaluate the interaction and values of parameters properly. Methodical theoretical calculation is presented. Practical solutions for industrial building construction applying the modern sliding formwork technology are presented. The impact of cement type, superplasticizers and temperature over the concrete mixture mobility, changes, fresh concrete structural strength and concrete setting kinetics are analysed. The main characteristics of the initial setting — the beginning of structure formation, when concrete mixture turns into concrete state — is analysed applying the ultrasonic method. The beginning of structure formation influences the regulated time of concrete mixture laying and compaction. The requirements for structural strength (permissible strength limits) and concreting rate (formwork movement) of freshly formed concrete are set when the construction is performed applying the continuous concreting technology method. The analysis is implemented performing the construction of cylindrical sludge tank with slipping formwork. While performing the analysis during concreting, it was stated that the concrete setting kinetics corresponds to the sludge tank concreting rate. The analysis performed after concreting and in 28 days of hardening revealed that there are no surface defects or cracks, and concrete strength exceeds the required sludge tank design strength. Santrauka Monolitinių gelžbetoninių statinių konstrukcijų eksploatacijos trukmė ir patikimumas daugiausia priklauso nuo betonavimo technologijos ir procesų poveikių betonavimo bei pradinio kietėjimo metu. Straipsnyje nagrinėjami procesai, vykstantys betonuojant horizontaliąsias, nuožulniąsias ir vertikaliąsias monolitines gelžbetonines konstrukcijas. Atlikta betono mišinio slėgio į formas analizė. Tiriami pagrindiniai betonavimo technologijos parametrai, analizuojamas jų ryšys, pateikiamas nepertraukiamo betonavimo technologijos betonavimo greitis, intensyvumas, trukmė. Atlikti teoriniai skaičiavimai ir siūlomi praktiniai sprendimai pramoninių statinių statybai, naudojant šiuolaikinę slankiųjų klojinių technologiją. Ištirta cemento tipo, superplastiklių, temperatūros įtaka šviežiai suformuoto betono struktūriniam stipriui ir betono kietėjimo kinetikai. Nustatyti reikalavimai šviežiai suformuoto betono struktūriniam stipriui, betonavimo greičiui (klojinių kėlimui), vykdant statybą nepertraukiamos betonavimo technologijos metodu. Tyrimai pritaikyti vykdant cilindrinio dumblo pūdytuvo statybą slankiaisiais klojiniais.

Septic tank systems have been widely used to separate and digest solid matter in the household wastewater for a long time. However, they contaminate groundwater with pathogens and nutrients and deprive agriculture of valuable nutrients and soil conditioner from human excreta. Compared with septic tank systems the filter–composter (Rottebehaelter), which usually consists of an underground monolithic concrete tank having two filter beds at its bottom or two filter bags that are hung side by side and used alternately at intervals of 6–12 months, is an efficient component for solid–liquid separation, pre-treatment and collection/storage of solid matter in household wastewater. The solids are retained and decompose in the filter bags or on the filter bed while the liquid filters through. However, because of the high moisture content of the retained solids decomposition is slow. Therefore, secondary treatment of the retained solids is required for sanitisation. The breakthrough was the combination of vermicomposting with the filter-composter system. Relatively dry and stable retained materials were obtained in the filter bags in about 3 months only. No secondary treatment is required as the human excreta will be converted to vermicastings, which are hygienically safe and can be reused as soil conditioner. Therefore, further development of the filter–composter with vermicomposting is worthwhile, especially the aspects of sanitisation of the faecal matter and its reuse as a soil conditioner.

This work presents a one-dimensional reactor model for a tubular reactor packed with a catalytically active foam packing with a pore density of 30 PPI in cocurrent upward flow in the example of hydrogenation reaction ofα-methylstyrene to cumene. This model includes material, enthalpy, and momentum balances as well as continuity equations. The model was solved within the parameter space applied for experimental studies under assumption of a bubbly flow. The method of orthogonal collocation on finite elements was applied. For isothermal and polytropic processes and steady state conditions, axial profiles for concentration, temperature, fluid velocities, pressure, and liquid holdup were computed and the conversions for various gas and liquid flow rates were validated with experimental results. The obtained results were also compared in terms of space time yield and catalytic activity with experimental results and stirred tank and also with random packed bed reactor. The comparison shows that the application of solid foams as reactor packing is advantageous compared to the monolithic honeycombs and random packed beds.

Porous adsorbents are currently investigated for hydrogen storage application. From a practical point of view, in addition to high porosity developments, high material densities are required, in order to confine as much material as possible in a tank device. In this study, we use different measured sample densities (tap, packing, compacted and monolith) for analyzing the hydrogen adsorption behavior of activated carbon fibres (ACFs) and activated carbon nanofibres (ACNFs) which were prepared by KOH and CO2 activations, respectively. Hydrogen adsorption isotherms are measured for all of the adsorbents at room temperature and under high pressures (up to 20 MPa). The obtained results confirm that (i) gravimetric H2 adsorption is directly related to the porosity of the adsorbent, (ii) volumetric H2 adsorption depends on the adsorbent porosity and importantly also on the material density, (iii) the density of the adsorbent can be improved by packing the original adsorbents under mechanical pressure or synthesizing monoliths from them, (iv) both ways (packing under pressure or preparing monoliths) considerably improve the storage capacity of the starting adsorbents, and (v) the preparation of monoliths, in addition to avoid engineering constrains of packing under mechanical pressure, has the advantage of providing high mechanical resistance and easy handling of the adsorbent.

The article is devoted to the general patterns of political parties formation in Russia at the beginning of the 20th century. They were preceded by proto-party organizations that were far from being ideologically monolithic. Under the conditions of rapid differentiation of political forces, the existing alliances were often accidental and situational. They hung on to the legacy of the pre-revolutionary era, when the public was just “learning” to talk about politics, and the boundaries between different ideological structures were quite rather relative.

Bonding created by the tack coat allows the pavement system to carry heavy truck loads as a monolithic structure and improves the structural integrity. In Oregon and throughout the U.S.A., CSS-1H is the most commonly used tack coat type. However, field observations have revealed that new engineered tack coats, although more expensive, outperform the conventional types in relation to shear resistance. In this study, the impact of these new engineered emulsions on in-situ bond performance was quantified by laboratory testing and numerical modeling. Bonding damage performance of all tack coats was experimentally determined by using direct shear tests. Full-scale moving truck load models were developed and calibrated using the load-displacement parameters obtained from the laboratory shear tests. The impact of adverse construction conditions, such as dust, rain, and tack coat coverage, on tack coat bond damage under heavy truck loads was determined. It was concluded that the presence of dust had relatively the lowest contribution to shear damage. Rain during construction had the highest impact on the damage behavior and tack coat application on a wet surface increases the potential for damage by 20.1%. A 50% coverage of tack coat during construction resulted in 12.8% higher damage levels compared with 100% tack coat coverage of the surface area. Moving load models for heavy trucks caused 2.44 times more bonding damage at the bonded interface compared with the damage created by smaller trucks (F450).

Abstract. Accurate estimates of crop evapotranspiration (ET) are needed to effectively manage irrigation resources in the Arkansas River basin in Colorado and to maintain compliance with the Arkansas River compact with Kansas. This was a major impetus for the construction of a precision weighing lysimeter in the Arkansas River basin at the Colorado State University (CSU) Arkansas Valley Research Center (AVRC) near Rocky Ford, Colorado. The objective of this article is to describe the design and construction of the weighing lysimeter and characterize its performance and unique features. The main components of the lysimeter facility are the foundation, the scale system, the soil monolith tank, and the outer tank that houses the aforementioned components. The foundation, which was 4.12 m below the ground surface, consisted of a reinforced concrete slab 2.00 m wide by 6.31 m long and 0.20 m thick that was anchored to six square shaft helical anchors. The outer tank was secured onto the foundation and had a rectangular floor area of 6.10 m × 1.79 m (10.92 m2), an interior vertical clearance of 2.15 m, and walls made of reinforced 8 mm thick steel plates. The floor scale system (mechanical levers and load cell) was installed inside the outer tank and had a gross capacity of 17 Mg. The monolith tank (1.50 m × 1.50 m area, 2.44 m depth, 10 mm steel walls) containing an undisturbed soil profile was set on the scale system. The lysimeter facility was installed in the middle of a 3.5 ha field. Calibration of the scale system resulted in a linear response (R2 = 1.000), with an equivalent conversion coefficient (slope) of 151.09 mm H2O (mV V-1)-1. The sensitivity of the scale system was 0.023 mm of water, which is sufficient for measuring diurnal (15 min to hourly) changes in ET and soil water. Load cell readings taken at a frequency of 0.5 Hz were averaged in 15 min intervals (450 readings per 15 min) to filter out the measurement noise that was attributed to wind. The lysimeter was found to adequately detect ET, irrigation, and precipitation perturbations with an actively growing alfalfa hay crop ( L.) in 2011. The lysimeter facility is a state-of-the-art tool for quantifying ET of irrigated crops in the lower Arkansas basin in southeast Colorado. Keywords: Calibration, Evapotranspiration, Load cell, Weighing lysimeter.

The rate of signal transmission on or between monolithic integrated circuits is limited by the cross-talk and the dispersion due to the wired interconnects. The bandwidth limitations can be overcome by wireless chip-to-chip and on-chip interconnects via integrated antennas. In this work the utilization of the electronic circuit ground planes as radiating elements for the integrated antennas has been proposed. This allows for optimal usage of chip area, as the antennas share the same metallization structure as the circuits. By exciting the interconnects between the patch areas in transmission line modes as well as in antenna modes, the interference between signals from circuit to circuit and antenna excitation signals is minimized. This has been achieved by inserting a transformer in the antenna feeding network. Examples of possible antenna and feeding structures have been investigated numerically. Scaled prototypes of the integrated antennas have been manufactured and measured.

Terahertz radiation encompasses a wide band of the electromagnetic spectrum, spanning from microwaves to infrared light, and is a particularly powerful tool for both fundamental scientific research and applications such as security screening, communications, quality control, and medical imaging. Considerable information can be conveyed by the full polarization state of terahertz light, yet to date, most time-domain terahertz detectors are sensitive to just one polarization component. Here we demonstrate a nanotechnology-based semiconductor detector using cross-nanowire networks that records the full polarization state of terahertz pulses. The monolithic device allows simultaneous measurements of the orthogonal components of the terahertz electric field vector without cross-talk. Furthermore, we demonstrate the capabilities of the detector for the study of metamaterials.

Magnetic microrobots with versatile mechanical motion will enable many ex- and in vivo applications. Unfortunately, monolithic integration of multiple functions in a streamlined microrobotic body is still challenging due to the compromise between fabrication throughput, device footprints, and material choices. In this talk, I will present a unified framework architecture for microrobotic functionalization to enable magnetically steered locomotion, chemical sensing and in vivo tracking. This has been achieved through stratifying stimuli-responsive nanoparticles in a hydrogelmicro-disk. We uncovered the key mechanism of leveraging spatially alternating magnetic energy potential to control a Euler’s disk-like microrobot to locomote swiftly on its sidewall. The results suggest great potential for microrobots to locomote while cooperating a wide range of functions, tailorable for universal application scenarios.

AbstractFormwork systems are necessarily used in the implementation of the RC (reinforced concrete) structures. Formworks are required regardless of whether a construction is monolithic or prefabricated and used to form the engineering and general structures or structural elements, such as abutments, supports and decks of the bridges, tanks and retaining walls, but also industrial and accommodation facilities etc. Ensuring the OHS (occupational health and safety) during transport, assembly and disassembly of formworks is a necessary condition for the execution of RC works in a safe and economical way. The paper presents the analysis of the safety requirements for formworks. Furthermore, the general requirements for the execution of the formwork structures were discussed. The most common organizational and technological mistakes and cased of neglects related to the operation of the formwork which lead to infringement of the OHS regulations were also identified.

Field research in China often requires the researcher to cooperate with two kinds of actors: research collaborators, such as those at universities or official think tanks, and local officials. These actors facilitate or enhance field access, but such access comes at the price of a potential “pre-selection bias” in data collection. Some scholars have argued that dependence on these “gatekeepers” introduces a significant bias into research outcomes. I argue, however, that the constraints faced by China scholars in their field studies are not absolute, but function by degree. The CCP is monolithic neither in its organization nor in the thoughts of its agents, and close collaboration with local partners can help remove normative bias rather than necessarily introducing it. Most importantly, an argument built exclusively on the power of structural constraints discounts China scholars’ most crucial abilities: to learn, to think critically and to research holistically.

Are you a software engineer/developer/coder or maybe even a tech enthusiast who is thinking of agility, parallel development and reducing cost. In the early twentieth century, we witnessed the rise of Service Oriented Architecture (SOA), which is a software architecture pattern that allows us to construct large-scale enterprise applications that require us to integrate multiple services, each of which is made over different platforms and languages through a common communication mechanism, where we write code and multiple services talk to each other’s for a business use case, but sometimes we end up with one big monolithic code base whose maintenance becomes difficult. Nowadays clients are using cloud and paying for on-demand services without effectively utilizing resources. These problems invite micro-services. In this paper, I am going to discuss how one should use scale application in a production environment and local machine

A surge of diverse heritage language learners in American schools has contradicted the longstanding ideology that this population is monolithic. Previous theories about separating foreign language learners (FLLs) and heritage language learners (HLLs) are problematic because they fail to address the diversity of the HLLs that end up in schools today. This research report lends support for the claim that less proficient HLLs are more suitable for a heterogeneous beginning language class than those that are highly proficient. Placing a highly proficient HLL in a beginning level language course can actually be detrimental to both emergent learners' development and the educational outcomes of the entire classroom community. Moreover, the monumental task of teaching a heterogeneous class like the one analyzed here complicates and is complicated by an already-problematic school context. This study exhibits how the classroom talk privileged certain classmates while marginalizing others, halting educational progress.

This article uses a Foucauldian conceptualization of processes of subjectification to examine the everyday learning of a manager in and through their talk about work. A Foucauldian poststructuralist approach draws attention to the discursive mechanisms whereby people are turned into and turn themselves into subjects. This process is theorized by Foucault as the interplay of technologies of power with technologies of the self (Rose, 1996, 1999a). This perspective provides an account of subjectivity as integrally interrelated with power and knowledge, thereby challenging a prevailing view in much of the organizational learning and workplace learning literature of subjectivity as autonomous and essential. A Foucauldian perspective enables power to be introduced into accounts of everyday learning at work but in a way that avoids reproducing a top-down and monolithic view of power. Importantly, it provides the analytic space for re-presenting workplace learners as active in the ongoing negotiation of identity, rather than only acted on by top down forces.

<p>Ljubljana field aquifer is an important source of drinking water for the Ljubljana city and surrounding areas. Knowledge of the water balance and of the water flow dynamics through the unsaturated zone and recharge of Ljubljana field aquifer is crucial. The water balance assessment of the upper unsaturated zone provides an insight into groundwater recharge and renewal. With the help of build-in monolith weighing lysimeter in Kleče in Ljubljana we have assessed the water balance for hydrological year from March 2014 to February 2015. Water balance parameters, precipitation and evapotranspiration were determined from the changes in the mass of lysimeter and outflow tank. Precipitation events were evaluated based on their duration, intensity and the amount of precipitation. Evapotranspiration and the duration of precipitation were estimated based on the changes of the lysimeter mass. Results show that the chosen period was extremely wet. In the selected hydrological year, precipitation contributed to positive water balance of the upper unsaturated zone, as well as to the recharge of the aquifer.<strong></strong></p>

Because cross talk from electromagnetic coupling increases with frequency, it is difficult to design matrix switches for high-frequency electronic signals. Signals on optical carriers are easier to isolate but more difficult to switch. A hybrid technique exploiting passive optical-signal distribution and switching by optoelectronic effects shows good promise for high isolation matrices to handle signals in the dc to 10 GHz range. The key elements for such optoelectronic switches are optical detectors that have switchable sensitivity.Initial efforts in optoelectronic switching used silicon diode detectors and forward bias to establish the off-state. Recent work has turned primarily to photoconductors fabricated in GaAs or other compound semiconductors. Such photoconductors can have very wide response bandwidths and have the advantage of a zero-bias off-state. Efforts have also been made to develop bipolar detectors that do not need forward bias for the off-state.Experimental work has progressed to the demonstration of complete matrices capable of switching up to eight incoming signals to as many outgoing lines, at bandwidths up to 500 MHz and cross-talk levels below 50 dB. Results for individual switching devices give promise of matrices for many tens of lines and bandwidths to several gigahertz. Monolithic integration of GaAs photoconductor switch arrays has been demonstrated, and work progresses to include integrated control devices and amplifiers.Matrix switches of large dimension and very large bandwidth are expected to have significant applications in areas other than communications switching. In particular, such matrices can be used to set up patterns of delay and signal recombination, using fibre delay lines, to provide rapidly selectable wide-band delay for phasing and other applications, or for wide-band tapped delay-line filters that can be reconfigured rapidly.A review of the current status in optoelectronic matrix switching is given.

This article discusses the construction of Chinese-American identity in Maxine Hong Kingston’s The Woman Warrior. Kingston’s book reveals the role of storytelling in the construction of ethnic (and gendered) identity as the author narrates her personal experiences through the reconstruction of myths, legends, and ‘talk stories’ she inherited from her mother. The method Kingston uses to make sense of these stories is that of translation. Translation refers to a performance of ethnic and gendered identity in Kingston’s narrative. Here the complex identity known as Chinese-American is not an accumulation of discrete, distinct cultures, ‘Chinese and American’. As a result of translating between these different positions, Chinese-American in Kingston’s The Woman Warrior designates a new identity, one that exposes the fictions of any closed categories, either Chinese or American. This process of self-definition is represented in terms of Kingston’s rewriting of stories of her ethnic culture in an attempt to reclaim them as her own and to make their meaning relevant to her American context. This Chinese-American identity as a product of discursive practice transcends the monolithic conception of Chinese and American cultures. It is in Kingston’s struggle to find her own voice that she tentatively combines the two cultures and reconciles herself with her mother.

This article describes the relationship between political entities of the Bangsamoro or Muslims in Mindanao and of the Philippine government which may be said in a nadir since the cancellation of the MoA-AD (Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain) signing plans between MILF (Mindanao Islamic Liberation Front) and the GRP (Government of the Republic of the Philippines) by the Supreme Court of the country in October 2008. Now their relationship is only bound by the temporary cease-fire. While the actual MILF is the only one course of representation of Muslims in Mindanao in addition to the MNLF (Mindanao National Liberation Front) and Kelompok Datu or traditional leaders. This research deduces that the plurality in the Bangsamoro itself becomes an obstacle in the peace talk process as the absence of a common platform among them. While GRP tends to speak with the faction of it separately, so it was impressed monolithic, there should be efforts to build a joint platform among different groups within the Bangsamoro. Furthermore, the GRP should facilitate the communication and the dialogue among factions within Bangsamoro. Besides, the GRP should convince people in Philippines of how important the peace with Bangsamoro is on behalf of a national interest in a whole.

AbstractThis article builds on ethnographic research concerning the Italian pro-life movement and argues for the use of intersectionality theory in studying conservative women. The article suggests, first, that understanding conservative movements necessitates linking their political claims to the social identities of their activists, as would be the case for any other social movement (e.g., feminism). These social identities are as complex and intersectional as any other: a white, upper-class pro-life activist is no less intersectional than a black feminist from a poor background. Concomitantly, there is no unique feminism, but rather a plurality of feminisms, a diversity that intersectionality facilitates the identification of. The same is true for pro-life movements, but scholars tend to use the singular form to talk about conservatism; in this article, I explore the use of the plural to show that pro-life women do not constitute a monolithic group. On the contrary, these women are diverse in terms of their reproductive stories, their working status, and their class, race, and sexual practices, and this diversity translates into different ways of being pro-life. Second, recognizing this complexity does not suggest a natural link between feminism and conservatism. Alternatively, I suggest that a better understanding of conservative women can only be reached if they are studied on their own terms.

Nitroglycerin (TNG) transdermal drug delivery systems (TDDSs) with different acrylic pressure-sensitive adhesives (PSAs) and chemical permeation enhancers (CPEs) were prepared. The effects of PSAs and CPEs types and concentrations on skin permeation and in vitro drug release from devices were evaluated using the dissolution method as well as the modified-jacketed Franz diffusion cells fitted with excised rat abdominal skin. It was demonstrated that the permeation rate or steady state flux (Jss) of the drug through the excised rat skin was dependent on the viscosity and type of acrylic PSA as well as the type of CPE. Among different acrylic PSAs, Duro-Tak 2516 and Duro-Tak 2054 showed the highest and Duro-Tak 2051 showed the lowest Jss. Among the various CPEs, propylene glycol and cetyl alcohol showed the highest and the lowest enhancement of the skin permeation of TNG, respectively. The adhesion properties of devices such as 180° peel strength and probe tack values were obtained. It was shown that increasing the concentration of CPE led to reduction in the adhesion property of PSA. Moreover, after optimization of the formulation, it was found that the use of 10% PG as a CPE and 25% nitroglycerin loading in Duro-Tak 2054 is an effective monolithic DIAP for the development of a transdermal therapeutic system for nitroglycerin.

This paper was developed from a talk that I gave on heroes and heroines in Zimbabwean fiction at the now defunct Book Café in Harare, Zimbabwe. By the time they invited me, my hosts had already come up with a clearly demarcated guideline of who heroes and heroines are, and connected these heroes and heroines to what they called 'revered' values of 'our' society. My response was not to follow that template, but to create a separate deconstructionist taxonomy that questioned such an assumption. This deconstructionist adventure was based on the belief that heroes/heroines are not the same for everyone, especially in a post-independence Zimbabwean society characterised by conditions that are far removed from the promises of independence. Thus, in a country whose independence has been postponed because of various factors, including a leadership whose form of governance involves violence against its citizens in the name of protecting them, a monolithic view of heroes/heroines and revered values needs to be interrogated. Zimbabwean literature offers an inventory that refuses to pander to my hosts' template, and it is this inventory that I used to question the assumption that Zimbabwe was one, huge, happy and united national family because based on its many literary texts, what we have is a dystopian family still trying to find its way and define its heroes/heroines.

Abstract:This study focuses on the hegemonic struggles between two ethnic communities, the Mbo and the Bamiléké, in Santchou, West Cameroon. At issue is the sharing of political roles in this locality, which point to issues of political representation. In this district, these roles (mayor, representative, etc.) were under the single party rule of the ethnic minority Mbo, who are a majority in this area but a minority in the rest of the district, where the Bamileke are the majority. In this monolithic context, where all protests were banned, the Bamileke had given up and accepted this arrangement. With the advent of the multiparty system and democracy, in which mayors are now elected and no longer simply nominated, uncertainty has been hovering over this political stronghold of the Mbo. Nevertheless, the Mbo have been able to hold onto the post of mayor and acquire other political posts as well. However, unlike during the single party era, the situation created by the political liberalization has offered to the Bamileke a public space where they can discuss the allocation of local political positions, and manifest their disagreement with the hegemonic trend. In the footsteps of Habermas and many other authors such as Cottereau, this study underlines the need to talk about public spaces in a plural form, instead of a single public space, in order to put in context the internal dynamics of popular cultures engendering subcultural public spheres or places of emerging democracy.

Purpose With the changing demographics, speech-language pathologists are increasingly supporting diverse caseloads. Research and discussion within the profession often look at culturally and linguistically diverse populations as a monolith and may provide heightened focus on the complexity of bi/multilingual communicators who require augmentative and alternative communication (AAC); however, an exclusive focus on African Americans who use AAC is limited within the published body of research. This article aims to open discussion around the unique and specific supports needed to provide ethical services for African Americans who require AAC systems. Method A review of published literature across disciplines, including communication disorders, health and medicine, education, and social sciences across the last two decades was synergized with analysis of government and professional organization data sets, and professional reflection based upon clinical experience. Results Speech-language pathologists developing a practice embedded with cultural competence and client advocacy will support not only just the AAC user but also their family as primary communication partners. Analysis of the institutional barriers, and how to mitigate the impact, will lead the clinician to culturally responsive intervention strategies. Conclusions It is imperative to use culturally responsive techniques from the stage of referral through the assessment and into intervention. Clinicians engaging in a culturally responsive practice will help reduce institutional barriers for African Americans using AAC, while also increasing the participation and engagement of both the person who uses AAC and their family communication partners. Evidence-based practices already being implemented for supporting African Americans with communication disorders can be extrapolated to support the specific subgroup who require AAC for functional communication.

Monolithic imagers contain the photosensitive elements as well as the read-out IC (ROIC) on the same substrate. Backside thinning on carrier enables efficient collection of photo-generated carriers through back illumination, resulting in almost 100% fill factor. This contrary to front side illumination where light loss is introduced by reflection on metal interconnects. Together with an optimized backside ARC coating, high quantum efficiency (QE) can be achieved. Hybrid imagers consist of a detector array that is produced separately and hybridized on a ROIC. A fully-hybrid backside illuminated imager has more flexibility because the detector array and the ROIC can be separately optimized to the needs of the application leading towards further improvement on QE and inter pixel cross talk. Fully processed thinned diode arrays were flip-chipped onto the ROIC by means of an Indium bump per pixel. The choice of the bump type is very critical for yielding imager assemblies, or more in general, 3D assemblies. The Indium bump process has however limited fab compatibility to evolve towards a production mature hybrid imager process. Therefore an alternative electroplated CuSn micro bump process is described. We report an average daisy chain yield above 90% for die-to-die assemblies with CuSn bumps. Measurements were performed on a dedicated 1M bump area array test design with very long daisy chains of bumps on a 20μm pitch. Processing aspects like choice of plating seed layer, the influence of cleaning agents and seed layer etchants on the micro bump performance are being discussed. Finally, the impact on the daisy chain yield after thermal cycling is shown.

Traditional scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) detectors are monolithic and integrate a subset of the transmitted electron beam signal scattered from each electron probe position. These convergent beam electron diffraction patterns (CBED) are extremely rich in information, containing localized information on sample structure, composition, phonon spectra, three-dimensional defect crystallography and more. Many new imaging modes become possible if the full CBED pattern is recorded at many probe positions with millisecond dwell times. In this study, we have used a Gatan K2-IS direct electron detection camera installed on an uncorrected FEI Titan-class transmission electron microscope to record 4D-STEM probe diffraction patterns on a variety of samples at up to 1600 frames per second. As an example, a 4D-STEM dataset for a multilayer stack of epitaxial SrTiO3 and mixed LaMnO3-SrTiO3 is plotted in Figure 1. Figure 1A shows a HAADF micrograph of the multilayer along a (001) zone axis. Only the A sites (Sr and La) are visible in this micrograph and the composition can be roughly determined from the relative brightness. One possible 4D-STEM technique is position-averaged convergent beam electron diffraction (PACBED) described by LeBeau et al. [1]. We can easily construct ideal PACBED patterns by averaging the probe images over each unit cell fitted from Figure 1A, which is shown in Figure 1B. By matching these patterns to PACBED images simulated with the multislice method we can precisely determine parameters such as sample thickness and composition, the latter of which is plotted in Figure 1C. For comparison, the composition has also been determined with electron energy loss spectroscopy (EELS) in a separate experiment, shown in Figure 1D. The composition range of 0-85% LaMnO3 measured by PACBED is in good agreement with the EELS measurements. In this talk we will demonstrate several other possible uses for 4D-STEM datasets.

I make no apology for what is by now a hackneyed title. It derives, of course, from Croce’s book on Hegel, and I choose it because I want to suggest that the question ‘What is living and what is dead in Marxism?’ is the right question to ask. The analytical approach is appropriate if it means distinguishing and discriminating between different aspects of Marxism, and refusing to reject or embrace it en bloc as a monolithic creed. However, this does not mean that Marxism can be chopped up into a number of disconnected theses, with a view to producing an inventory of those which are true and those which are false. Marxism claims to be a systematic theory, whose various elements hang together in an organised way. Some would say that this creates an unbridgeable gulf between Marxist and analytical philosophies. Nevertheless, though Marxism’s claim to be systematic should be taken seriously, there are different readings of the theory and of how its components are connected, and different versions will see different elements as central. This is where the careful discrimination of meanings and interpretations is needed. It is not simply a question of deciding whether each of the various elements, in isolation, is true or false, more a matter of deciding where the emphasis should lie if Marxism is to continue to illuminate our understanding of the social world. It is in this sense that we can talk about Marxism or any other theory as ‘living’ — not just as containing true assertions, but as being capable of playing a vital and creative role in human thought and action. In what version, then, if any, is Marxism a living philosophy?

In the Earth sciences (e.g. soil sciences, geochemistry, geology, paleogeography, geomorphology) the analysis of ironand calcite-pedofeatures or iron and carbonate content in soils and rocks is the usual source of information about environmental conditions of their sedimentation and different types of changes. But it doesn't apply to the Liesegang rings. The Liesegang rings are not well-known phenomenon if we talk about loose sediments, including loess and paleosols. These mainly round structures present a specific type of spreading in sediment layers the iron- and calcite-bearing pedofeatures. In 1970s and 1980s for unofficial use were made some geotechnical tests of Upper Pleistocene loess and paleosols monoliths from Khmelnytskyi plateau area, and first of all they had shown a difference in results of subsidence evaluation (in this case as compaction caused by first-time wetting of moisture-deficient clay or silty soils) between the ordinary samples and sample with iron-bearing Liesegang rings. According to recent research of samples from boreholes and pit excavation, iron-bearing rings occur in Upper Pleistocene loess and paleosols, calcite-bearing rings occur in Middle Pleistocene paleosols. In both cases they have rare representation, diameter up to 10 cm. There are not only geological and geotechnical engineering reasons for bigger scientific interest in the Liesegang rings, but also paleogeographic, for example, to answer the question, when and why these structures appeared if groundwater table lies more than 12 m deeper, and opposite to modern fertile soils, oversaturation seemly is not here a cause of forming of iron-bearing pedofeatures. This study is primarily an attempt to engage colleagues in research of Liesegang rings phenomenon in loose sediments, especially in the loess-paleosol sequence, as well as the invitation to discussion.

<p align="JUSTIFY"><span style="color: #000000;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="color: #000000;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span>During the outgoing year, successful events took place, as Latin American and Caribbean Seismological Commission Assembly, on July 23, 24, 25, in Bogotá, Colombia. In that academic event, the relevant results associated with the seismotectonic behavior of the Latin America and Caribbean region were addressed, as well as the implications of active exploration of the tectonic conditions, the socio-economic impacts of exploration and extraction of economic resources, and the implementation of non-conventional techniques for exploring and mining that can contribute to sustainable development. </span></span></span></span></span></span></p><p align="JUSTIFY"><span style="color: #000000;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="color: #000000;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span>Another event was the Shale Colombia 2014, unconventional oil and gas development congress, aimed to determine the next steps towards the commercialization of unconventional oil and gas development for the country. The event hosted case studies from some of the pioneers in Colombian development, using the latest reservoir data fiscal updates and global scale technology case studies, to evaluate real potential Colombia holds for unconventional development. </span></span></span></span></span></span></p><p align="JUSTIFY"><span style="color: #000000;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="color: #000000;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span>In the outlook of 2015, one of the main events is the 26th International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics General Assembly, to be realized between June 22 and July 2, in Prague, Czech Republic. You are on time to participate in this event yet. </span></span></span></span></span></span></p><p align="JUSTIFY"><span style="color: #000000;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="color: #000000;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span>In Colombia will take place the XV Colombian Congress of Geology on 31 August to 5 September. This event is a bi-annual meeting gathering scientists, academicians, and researchers from the region, with an extensive participation of international guests. The Congress wants to provide a scenery to discuss the perspectives of mineral resources, new exploration techniques related to energy supply, proposals for optimized management of mining and mineral resources, between other topics.</span></span></span></span></span></span></p><p align="JUSTIFY"><span style="color: #000000;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="color: #000000;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span>Finally, we want to introduce you the manuscripts selected for this edition. There is a broad range of information about seismology with four papers coming from different countries. The first one is an analysis of the elastic structure beneath Australia shown by means of S-velocity maps and determined by the regionalization and inversion of Rayleigh wave dispersion. The obtained S-velocity models suggest the existence of lateral and vertical heterogeneity in the structure.</span></span></span></span></span></span></p><p align="JUSTIFY"><span style="color: #000000;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="color: #000000;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span>From Turkey, the second manuscript presents a site response analysis and estimation of S-wave velocity depending on acceleration data. The other two articles in seismology for this edition are based on improving accuracy and reliability of the first arrival times through Cross Correlation Technique, and in the characterization of seismic events using only one seismological station. </span></span></span></span></span></span></p><p align="JUSTIFY"><span style="color: #000000;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="color: #000000;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span>In other knowledge field, it is presented a mineralization potential study of the intrusive bodies in Valis, northwest of Iran. </span></span></span></span></span></span></p><p align="JUSTIFY"><span style="color: #000000;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="color: #000000;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span>A very graphical manuscript coming from the Gaza strip shows a study in sand dunes, from morphology, textural characteristics, and associated environmental impacts. </span></span></span></span></span></span></p><p align="JUSTIFY"><span style="color: #000000;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="color: #000000;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span>From Morocco, a study aimed to evaluate geostatistical methods for delimitation of anomalies detected in the phosphatic series of Sidi Chenane found that the exponential model is the best one to represent the spatial variability of their geoelectric data; models of the geology were successfully obtained from geostatistical method, which help mapping the phosphate deposit inclusions and the estimations of phosphate reserves were improved and better constrained. </span></span></span></span></span></span></p><p align="JUSTIFY"><span style="color: #000000;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="color: #000000;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span>In geotechnics, three important works are displayed. One is about the experimental triaxial tests developed to estimate undrained critical shear strength under monolithic loadings; the second one reads about classification of caving depth by feature extraction in cutting images, and the other is a simulation using artificial neural network and adaptative neuro-fuzzy system of compression ratio in a municipal solid waste. </span></span></span></span></span></span></p><p align="JUSTIFY"><span style="color: #000000;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="color: #000000;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span>Last two works talk about GIS and Kriging techniques applied to map a spatial distribution of sediments pollution in the Khajeh Kory river and an assessment of the land ecological security for Yancheng city, in China. </span></span></span></span></span></span></p><p align="JUSTIFY"><span style="color: #000000;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="color: #000000;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span>We hope you may find interesting information in our ESRJ. </span></span></span></span></span></span></p><p align="JUSTIFY"> </p><p align="JUSTIFY"><span style="color: #000000;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="color: #000000;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span>Carlos Alberto Vargas </span></span></span></span></span></span></p><p align="JUSTIFY"><span style="color: #000000;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="color: #000000;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span>Earth Sciences Research Journal </span></span></span></span></span></span></p><p align="JUSTIFY"><span style="color: #000000;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="color: #000000;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span>Editor in Chief </span></span></span></span></span></span></p>

Mines, specifically as Anti-Tank (AT) mines are a significant threat for defence vehicles. While approaches such as v-shaped hulls are currently used to deflect the blast products from such threats, such a solution is not always usable when hull standoff is limited. As such the development of a low profile, energy absorbing solution is desirable. One approach that has potential to achieve these requirements are sandwich panels. While sandwich panel cores can be constructed from various materials, one material of particular interest are auxetics. Auxetic are materials that exhibit a negative Poisson’s ratio. This material has potential to be an efficient an impact energy absorber by increasing stiffness at local deformation by gathering mass at the impact location. This study investigates the effectiveness of novel auxetic core infills alongside three other panel types (monolithic, air gap, polymer foam sandwich) against buried charges. 160 grams of PE4 were buried in 100 mm depth and 500 mm stand off the target. Laser and High Speed Video (HSV) system were used to capture the deflection-time profile and load cell sensors were used to record the loading profile received by the panels. Experimental works were compared with numerical model. Explicit model were generated in LSDYNA software as ‘initial impulse mine’ keyword. The result found that the auxetic and foam core panels were effective in reducing peak structural loading and impulse by up to 33% and 34% respectively. Air-filled panels were the most effective to reduce the deflection of the rear of the plate, however variation between capture methods (HSV and Laser system) were reported, while numerical modelling provided comparable plate deflections responses. When normalised against panel weight, the air filled panels were experimentally the most efficient per unit mass system with the auxetics being the least effective.

This study demonstrates the optimization of different Biofilm applications in wastewater treatment for a cost-effective solution. The increase of wastewater treatment cost because of high treatment efficiency requested and energy consumption makes such applications very interested in this field. Therefore, aerated reactors for wastewater treatment units were designed to work as Submerged Fixed Biofilm Bed, on the basis of biofilm-microorganisms attached to monolithic plastic supports to increase the treatment efficiency. This application depends on the aerobic process and achieved by the aeration in BOD reduction and Nitrifications reactors (Oxidation of organic compounds and nitrification). This was implemented by mixing and transport treatment processes within the biofilm attached to the plastic fixed media. The anaerobic reactor in this study was designed also to be simultaneous the de-nitrification stage by the application of a moving bed de-nitrification reactor which was considered as a part of the wastewater treatment process to achieve high treatment efficiency for the study pilot plant. The one-year-scientific evaluation was conducted onsite for the municipal wastewater pilot plant includes a test series with well-defined treatment parameters (soft mixing of the suspending the moving bed carriers; intermediate solids removal unit prior to the nitrification reactors; the mechanism for preventing the carriers to move with the flow into the subsequent reactor) such as waste-water-flow, quality, temperature, salinity, organic and hydraulic load and extensive sampling). The above application of the compact-container-system is considered as a typical field of application, for the following reasons: Need of quality improvements discharged into water body, which is often in the vicinity of bathing beaches; Need for Nutrient-Removal-Systems to avoid algae growth going into water bodies and; Space limitations in a resort and saving the implementation capital cost). The comparison between the application of the biofilm concept and the activated sludge system saved more than 40% tank size; 85% space/area; and up to 30% construction cost.

AbstractAn overview is given of the development of advanced nanoporous carbons as storage ma-terials for natural gas (methane) and molecular hydrogen in on-board fuel tanks for next-generation clean automobiles. The carbons are produced in a multi-step process from corncob, have surface areas of up to 3500 m2/g, porosities of up to 0.8, and reversibly store, by physisorp-tion, record amounts of methane and hydrogen. Current best gravimetric and volumetric storage capacities are: 250 g CH4/kg carbon and 130 g CH4/liter carbon (199 V/V) at 35 bar and 293 K; and 80 g H2/kg carbon and 47 g H2/liter carbon at 47 bar and 77 K. This is the first time the DOE methane storage target of 180 V/V at 35 bar and ambient temperature has been reached and exceeded. The hydrogen values compare favorably with the 2010 DOE gravimetric and volu-metric targets for hydrogen. A prototype adsorbed natural gas (ANG) tank, loaded with carbon monoliths produced accordingly and currently undergoing a road test in Kansas City, is de-scribed. A preliminary analysis of the surface and pore structure is given that may shed light on the mechanisms leading to the extraordinary storage capacities of these materials. The analysis includes pore-size distributions from nitrogen adsorption isotherms; spatial organization of pores across the entire solid from small-angle x-ray scattering (SAXS); pore entrances from scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM); H2 binding energies from temperature-programmed desorption (TPD); and analysis of surface defects from Raman spectra. For future materials, expected to have higher H2 binding energies via appropriate sur-face functionalization, preliminary projections of H2 storage capacities based on molecular dy-namics simulations of adsorption of H2 on graphite, are reported.

Для возведения резервуаров питьевой воды наиболее часто используют железобетон, который имеет существенные преимущества по сравнению с другими материалами: экологичность (монолитный и сборный железобетон не выделяет в воду токсичные вещества) долговечность (при грамотной эксплуатации резервуары из железобетона надежно служат не менее 100 лет с сохранением эксплуатационных свойств) возможность возведения резервуаров разного объема и различной формы доступная стоимость. Приведен вариант ремонта и гидроизоляции резервуаров воды из сборного железобетона в системе хозяйственно-питьевого водоснабжения при наличии дефектных участков. К таким дефектам относятся: разрушение защитного слоя бетона с оголением арматуры, нарушение гидроизоляции примыканий стеновых панелей к фундаменту, статичных стыков между стеновыми панелями, примыканий стеновых панелей к ребристым плитам покрытия. Ремонт и гидроизоляция осуществляются с помощью материалов системы Пенетрон и Скрепа , которые имеют необходимые разрешения для применения в системе хозяйственно-питьевого водоснабжения.For the construction of drinking water tanks reinforced concrete is most often used that has significant advantages compared to other materials, e.g. environmental friendliness (monolithic and precast concrete does not release toxic substances into water) durability (with proper operation, tanks made of reinforced concrete reliably serve at least 100 years while maintaining operational properties) the possibility of building tanks of different capacity and shape affordable cost. The option of repair and waterproofing of prefabricated reinforced concrete water tanks in a drinking water supply system in the presence of defective areas is given. Such defects include: destruction of the protective layer of concrete with reinforcement baring, damage of the waterproofing of the wall panels adjoining the foundation, static joints between wall panels, wall panels adjoining ribbed floor slabs. Repair and waterproofing are carried out using Penetron and Skrepa materials that have the required permissions for being used in drinking water supply systems.

The concept of black boyhood has always been marked with negative associations. American media usually portray black boys as a potential threat. Rather than focusing on their future, they treat black boyhood as an experience “in the now,” failing to consider the historical context of African American communities. Thus, they create a monolithic picture of young black men, which highlights only their faults. This way of imagining black boyhood has inspired African American authors and illustrators to talk back and join the national debate. Their picture books reject the public rhetoric of crisis and replace it with a new black narrative, which reconstructs the black male identity. The aim of this article is to analyze selected images of black boyhood included in the books, as well as to compare them with the message of today’s media.

The resurgent interest in cyberpunk in video game cultures centers the genre's historical and racially problematic themes. Moreover, competitive/online play and the attending toxicity, along with recent Covid-19 based anti-Asian sentiments center the need to theorize the discursive patterns in which these phenomena appear. Taking the recurring talk on various video game forums of isolating Asian servers because "Asians cheat" as a site of inquiry, this project argues that the sentiment of isolating Asian players to region locked servers relies on three entangled discourses: the on-again, off-again collapsing of various Asian identities to a monolithic Pan-Asia (Duara, 2001), Korean and Japanese "expertise" through acquired skill viz. their assumed video game "obsessiveness" (Groen, 2013), and the cheating technological Other seeking to supplant Whiteness at the privileged center of video games (see Nakamura, 2002, 2009). By highlighting these discourses and how they function, this project hopes to lend theoretical nuance to understanding racism in contemporary video game cultures.

The purpose of this research was to prepare and evaluate monolithic drug-in-adhesive type patches of Rasagiline Mesylate (RM) containing penetration enhancer and having seven day wear property. Preformulation studies like solubility in permeation enhancers, compatibility study, transmission study, uptake study and crystallization study of Rasagiline Mesylate in various pressure sensitive adhesive polymers were performed. Transdermal system was prepared by solvent casting method. The effects of various permeation enhancers (Propylene Glycol, Oleic Acid, Isopropyl Palmitate, and lauryl lactate) on the ex-vivo transcutaneous absorption of Rasagiline Mesylate through human cadaver skin were evaluated by modified Franz diffusion cell system. Ex-vivo transcutaneous absorption of prepared transdermal patch was performed using different concentration of Lauryl lactate (3%, 5%, and 7%). In-vitro Adhesion testing (Peel, tack shear etc.) was performed on different dry GSM (Grams per Square Meter) of patch like 80GSM, 100 GSM and 150 GSM. The final transdermal patches were tested for appearance, weight of matrix, thickness, % assay of drug content, in-vitro adhesion testing, cold flow study and ex-vivo skin permeation studies. Based on crystallization study and adhesion testing, Durotak-4098 (14% drug concentration) was selected as pressure sensitive adhesive. Patch containing Lauryl lactate showed highest cumulative permeation compared to other permeation enhancers. The patch containing 5% laurel lactate showed greater transdermal flux (2.36 µg/cm2 /hr). Patch with 150 dry GSM showing promising adhesion properties. Backing film Scotchpak 9723 and release liner Saint Gobain 8310 was selected based on transmission and uptake study of Rasagiline Mesylate. Stability study indicates that developed formulation remains stable. In conclusion, the present research confirms the practicability of developing Rasagiline Mesylate transdermal system.

This contribution offers a commentary on Neil Selwyn’s write up of his keynote talk from the Learning Analytics and Knowledge Conference in 2018 (Selwyn, this issue). The article has three main sections, namely an account of what Learning Analytics has done, an account of the values behind Learning Analytics, and some ideas for moving forward. Thus, this reflection will also address aspects of each of these.

ABSTRACTPhotostructurable glass-ceramics are a promising class of materials for MEMS devices. Previous work micromachining these materials used conventional photolithography equipment and masking techniques; however, we use direct-write CAM tools and a pulsed UV laser micromachining station for rapid prototyping and enhanced depth control. We have already used this class of materials to build components for MEMS thrusters, including fuel tanks and nozzles: structures that would prove difficult to build by standard microfabrication techniques.A series of experiments was performed to characterize process parameters and establish the processing trade-offs in the laser exposure step. The hypothesis that there exists a critical dose of UV light for the growth of an etchable crystalline phase was tested by exposing the material to a fluence gradient for a variety of pulse train lengths, and then processing as usual. By measuring the dimensions of the etched region, we were able to determine the dose. We found that the dose is proportional to the square of the per-pulse fluence. This has allowed us to create not only embedded structures, but also stacked embedded structures. This also implies that we can embed tubes and tunnels with a single exposure inside a monolithic glass sample. We feel that this technique has promise for a number of applications, including microfluidics.

ABSTRACTThe Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) Waste Handling and Packaging Plant is developing a microwave process to reduce and solidify remote-handled transuranic (RH-TRU) liquids and sludges presently stored in large tanks at ORNL. Testing has recently begun on an in-drum microwave process using nonradioactive RH-TRU surrogates. The microwave process development effort has focused on an in-drum process to dry the RH-TRU liquids and sludges in the final storage container and then melt the salt residues to form a solid monolith. A 1/3-scale proprietary microwave applicator was designed, fabricated, and tested to demonstrate the essential features of the microwave design and to provide input into the design of the fullscale applicator. Conductivity cell measurements suggest that the microwave energy heats near the surface of the surrogate over a wide range of temperatures. The final wasteform meets the waste acceptance criteria for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, a federal repository for defense transuranic wastes near Carlsbad, New Mexico.

While most archaeological research is focused on the reasons for starting cultural activities (such as building a house, setting up a settlement, starting to produce a groundstone), my PhD project “Neolithic ways of life” is concerned with the end of settlements. Within the framework of the study fields Landscape Archaeology and Archaeology of Abandonment, I analyse the processes of abandonment at the PPN A+B hill site Göbekli Tepe in southeastern Anatolia. With the slow advent of agriculture and animal husbandry during the Neolithization, the site was abandoned at the end of the 9th millennium BCE.The site is famous for its large circular structures which are equipped with monolithic T-shaped pillars that were built by groups who lived from foraging. Far less is known about Göbekli Tepe as a settlement, nine hectares densely covered with round and rectangular buildings with sets of domestic activities of daily life.My research focuses on architectural analysis such as re-modelling and re-use of buildings, a detailed study of the room fills in combination with the development of a systematic sampling strategy, to examine continuities and discontinuities of abandonment practices in Göbekli Tepe.In my presentation, I will stress the importance of abandonment studies inarchaeology and give methodological examples for how I identify abandonment in the archaeological record. The importance of small-scale excavations cannot be overestimated in this context. Furthermore, I will provide insights into my dissertation project, my fieldwork at Göbekli Tepe and first preliminary results.The talk has the aim to discuss the potential of small-scale or micro-archaeology and its contribution to questions concerning the end of habitations and whole settlements. By examining these processes in detail, the diversity of and the (in-)stability in settlement practices can be reconstructed, refining our understanding of past societies.

Populist communication, in this entry, refers to the occurrence of a) specific messages that are seen as the expression of populist ideology and b) characteristic style elements that are often associated with these messages expressing populist ideology in political actors’ (or other actors such as journalists’ or citizens’) communication (Ernst et al., 2019; De Vreese et al., 2018). Field of application/theoretical foundation: Populism has been defined in various terms; e.g., as Ideology (Canovan, 1999; Mudde, 2004), set of ideas (Hawkins et al., 2018, Taggart, 2000), discourse (Laclau, 2005; Mouffe, 2018), political style (Moffit, 2016), communication style (Jagers & Walgrave, 2007), or political strategy (Weyland, 2017). Thus, there have been numerous operationalizations of populism or populist communication in content analyses that cannot all be accounted for here. This entry specifically follows a communication-centered perspective (Stanyer et al., 2016; De Vreese et al., 2018). Jagers & Walgrave (2007), in a pioneer study on populist communication, define populism as a political communication style “essentially displaying proximity of the people, while at the same time taking an anti-establishment stance and stressing the (ideal) homogeneity of the people by excluding specific population segments.” In a more recent study, Ernst et al. (2019) differentiate between populist communication content and populist communication style. Populist communication content refers to the communicative representation of the populist ideology (what is being said) that can be expressed in the form of populist key messages. Depending on the parsimony of the definition, populist ideology comprises three or four dimensions: people-centrism, anti-elitism, restoring sovereignty, and exclusion (e.g., De Vreese et al., 2018; Mudde, 2004; Jagers & Walgrave, 2007; Wirth et al., 2016). In distinction to the content, Ernst et al. (2019) define populist communication style as the use of populism-related style elements (how something is said) (see also De Vreese et al., 2018; Bracciale & Martella, 2018). Communication-centered content analyses of populist communication are often carried out in three steps. First, specific characteristics of populist communication (e.g., populist key messages or stylistic elements) are identified. Second, the occurrence of these individual elements is then coded either on the statement level (e.g. Ernst et al., 2019; Wirth et al., 2016), excerpts level (Jagers & Walgrave, 2007), or on the text/article level (e.g. Blassnig et al, 2019). Third, the level of populism is determined using different indices for populist communication as a whole (e.g. maximum indices; Blassnig et al., 2019; Ernst et al., 2019) or for the individual dimensions separately (e.g., Jagers & Walgrave, 2007). Populism indices can be calculated at the statement level, text level, or actor level. References/combination with other methods of data collection: Whereas this entry focuses on quantitative and deductive approaches, populist communication has also been investigated using qualitative or inductive approaches (e.g., Wodak, 2015), especially in studies following a more actor-centered approach (Stanyer et al., 2016). Most studies on populist communication have used manual content analysis. Yet, some analyses have also applied automated approaches to investigate the occurrence of populist communication in texts (e.g., Hawkins & Castanho Silva, 2018). Example studies: Blassnig et al., (2019); Bracialle & Martella (2017); Ernst et al., (2019); Jagers & Walgrave, (2007) Table 2: Summary of a selection of studies on populist communication Author(s) Sample Unit of Analysis Values Reliability Jagers & Walgrave, 2007 Content type: political party broadcasts (PPB) Country: Belgium (Flemish part) Political actors: six Belgian-Flemish parties Outlets: 20 PPBs per party Sampling period: 1999 - 2001 Sample size: 1,200 PPB excerpts Unit of analysis: excerpts including ‘thin’ populism (references to the people) Level of analysis: excerpt level and actor level People-index: multiplication of the proportion and intensity of references to the people for each party Anti-state-index: number of anti-state excerpts * average intension anti-state excerpts (1-5) per party Anti-politics-index: number of anti-politics excerpts * average intension anti-politics excerpts (1-5) per party Anti-media-index: number of anti-media excerpts * average intension anti-media excerpts (1-5) per party Anti-establishment-index: anti-state + anti-politics + anti-media per party Exclusivity-index: J-scores; (positive – negative evaluations) / (positive + neutral + negative evaluations of specific population categories) References to the people: terms referring to the population (as a whole or population categories), that cover the people “in political terms”, meaning the “political entity” Anti-state: failure of the state with regard to (1) single failure, (2) systematic failure, (3) public service should be abolished, (4) all public services are criticized at once, (5) the system Anti-politics: criticism directed towards (1) policy measure or present situation, (2) policy, (3) politician, (4) party, (5) group of parties, (6) all parties. (7) the system Anti-media: media targets of criticism; (1) newspaper/ magazine/ tv channel, (2) group of media, (3) all (the) media Evaluation of specific population categories: positive, neutral, negative (for further restrictions for the individual variables and more detailed instructions see the methodological appendix by Jagers & Walgrave, 2007) Reliability is not reported Ernst, Blassnig, Engesser, Büchel, & Esser (2019) (See also Ernst et al., 2018; Ernst, Esser et al., 2019; Wirth et al., 2016) Content type: statements by politicians expressing either a political position, an elaboration on a political issue, or an evaluation/ attribution of a target actor Countries: CH, DE, IT, FR, UK, US Political actors: 98 politicians from 31 parties Outlets: political talk shows (2 per country), politicians’ Facebook and Twitter accounts Sampling period: April through May 2015 Sample size: n = 2’067 (n = 969 talk show statements, n = 734 Facebook posts, and n = 364 Tweets Unit of analysis: a single statement by a politician on a target actor or an issue Level of analysis: statement level and actor level Populism index: Maximum index based on the nine populist key messages and seven stylistic elements (0/1) Populist key messages: Anti-elitism: discrediting the elite, blaming the elite, detaching the elite from the people People-centrism: stressing the people’s virtues, praising the people’s achievements, stating a monolithic people, demonstrating closeness to the people Restoring sovereignty: demanding popular sovereignty, denying elite sovereignty Populist style elements: Negativity: negativism, crisis rhetoric Emotionality: emotional tone, absolutism, patriotism) Sociability: colloquialism, intimization (all items were coded as dummy variables based on more detailed sub-categories) Brennan & Prediger’s kappa average = 0.91 (³0.65) Blassnig, Ernst, Büchel, Engesser, & Esser (2019) Content type: election news coverage about immigration and adjacent reader comments Countries: CH, FR, UK Actors/Speakers: politicians, journalists, and citizens Outlets: 6 online news outlets per country Sampling period: six weeks before the respective election days. CH: September to October 2015; FR: April to May 2017; UK: April to May 2015 Sample size: n = 493 news articles and n = 2904 reader comments Unit of analysis: news article / reader comment Level of analysis: article level Populism index: Maximum index based on the twelve populist key messages (0/1) Populist key messages: Anti-elitism: discrediting the elite, blaming the elite, detaching the elite from the people People-centrism: praising the people’s virtues, praising the people’s achievements, describing the people as homogenous, demonstrating closeness to the people Restoring sovereignty: demanding popular sovereignty, denying elite sovereignty Exclusion: discrediting specific social groups, blaming specific social groups, excluding specific social groups from the people (all items were coded as dummy variables) Brennan & Prediger’s kappa average = 0.75 Bracciale & Martella (2017) Content type: politicians’ tweets Country: Italy Political actors: 5 party leaders Outlets: leaders’ Twiter timelines Sampling period: 1 January 2015 to 1 July 2016 Sample size: n = 7,772 Unit of analysis: tweets Level of analysis: tweets, actors Indices: Populist ideology: three additive synthetic dichotomous indices adding together the indicators for each of the three dimensions of populism (sovereignty of the people, attacking the elite, ostracizing others) The variables for political communication style were summarized using multiple correspondence analysis (MCA) into two dimensions: communicative mode (positive vs. negative) and communicative focus (personalization vs. political/ campaign) Political communication style: Stagecraft: emotionalisation; informality, instrumental actualization, intimisation, negative affect, simplification, storytelling, taboo breaker, vulgarism Register (communicative tone): referential/ neutral, aggressive/ provocative, humorous/ ironic, conversational/ participatory Topic: political issues, policy issues, campaign issues, personal issues, current affairs Function: campaign updating, self-promotion, setting the agenda, position-taking, call to action, opposition/ violence, endorsement, irony, request for interaction, pointless babble Populist ideology: Emphasizing sovereignty of the people: refers to the people, refers to ‘ad hoc’ people, direct representation Attacking the elite: generic anti-establishment, political anti-establishment, economic anti-establishment, EU anti-establishment, institutional anti-establishment, anti-elitism media, anti-elitism intellectuals Ostracizing others: dangerous others, authoritarianism (all individual indicators were coded as dummy variables) Krippendorff's Alpha > .83 References Blassnig, S., Ernst, N., Büchel, F., Engesser, S., & Esser, F. (2019). Populism in online election coverage. Journalism Studies, 20(8), 1110–1129. https://doi.org/10.1080/1461670X.2018.1487802 Bracciale, R., & Martella, A. (2017). Define the populist political communication style: the case of Italian political leaders on Twitter. Information, Communication & Society, 20(9), 1310–1329. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2017.1328522 Canovan, M. (1999). Trust the people! Populism and the two faces of democracy. Political Studies, 47(1), 2–16. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9248.00184 Cranmer, M. (2011). Populist communication and publicity: An empirical study of contextual differences in Switzerland. Swiss Political Science Review, 17(3), 286–307. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1662-6370.2011.02019.x De Vreese, C. H., Esser, F., Aalberg, T., Reinemann, C., & Stanyer, J. (2018). Populism as an expression of political communication content and style: A new perspective. The International Journal of Press/Politics, 23(4), 423-438. https://doi.org/10.1177/1940161218790035 Engesser, S., Fawzi, N., & Larsson, A. O. (2017). Populist online communication: Introduction to the special issue. Information, Communication & Society, 20(9), 1279–1292. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2017.1328525 Ernst, N., Blassnig, S., Engesser, S., Büchel, F., & Esser, F. (2019). Populists prefer social media over talk shows: An analysis of populist messages and stylistic elements across six countries. Social Media + Society, 5(1), 1-14. https://doi.org/10.1177/2056305118823358 Hawkins, K. A., Carlin, R. E., Littvay, L., & Rovira Kaltwasser, C. (Eds.). (2018). Extremism and democracy. The ideational approach to populism: Concept, theory, and analysis. Routledge. Haswkins, K. A., & Castanho Silva, B. (2018). Textual analysis: big data approaches. In K. A. Hawkins, R. E. Carlin, L. Littvay, & C. Rovira Kaltwasser (Eds.). Extremism and democracy. The ideational approach to populism: Concept, theory, and analysis (pp. 27-48). Routledge. Jagers, J., & Walgrave, S. (2007). Populism as political communication style: An empirical study of political parties' discourse in Belgium. European Journal of Political Research, 46(3), 319–345. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1475-6765.2006.00690.x Laclau, E. (2005). On populist reason. London: Verso. Moffitt, B. (2016). The global rise of populism: Performance, political style, and representation. Stanford University Press. Mudde, C. (2004). The populist Zeitgeist. Government and Opposition, 39(4), 542–563. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1477-7053.2004.00135.x Stanyer, J., Salgado, S., & Strömbäck, J. (2017). Populist actors as communicators or political actors as populist communicators: Cross-national findings and perspectives. In T. Aalberg, F. Esser, C. Reinemann, J. Strömbäck, & C. H. de Vreese (Eds.), Populist political communication in Europe (pp. 353–364). Routledge. Taggart, P. (2000). Populism. Concepts in the social sciences. Open University Press. Wirth, W., Esser, F., Engesser, S., Wirz, D. S., Schulz, A., Ernst, N., . . . Schemer, C. (2016). The appeal of populist ideas, strategies and styles: A theoretical model and research design for analyzing populist political communication. Zurich: NCCR Democracy, Working Paper No. 88, pp. 1–60. https://doi.org/10.5167/uzh-127461 Wodak, R. (2015). The Politics of Fear: What Right-Wing Populist Discourses Mean. SAGE Publications.

The spam, the spam…like a meteor shower it comes, unceasing like the tides, unrelenting in its desire to save me, to lift me from my slumber, misfit that I am, sitting in the darkness waiting to be delivered from my faltering biology, my feeble credit rating, my meagre education. It comes every day, unbidden, from the Outside, from the Interior, from some networked techno-Badland where the righteous fear to tread. I don’t know who it comes from, they have never met me, they will never meet me. Their addresses are botched, their names are fake, Orientalized, Africanized, garbled beyond decryption. Their websites are down, their phones are off the hook, they route their missals through hapless foreign email servers whose gatekeepers have foolishly left their relays open. As soon as I set up filters to innoculate myself, their algorithms mutate and new strains develop, more wily and Protean than the last. And now, the hybrids are everywhere. Hungry free-ranging email-bots blithely pillaging the websites of the world for valuable identity-capital. Virtual Nigerian millionaires, who despite their legitimate business practices have become trapped in hostile economic ghettos. HGH addicts, greedily sucking back, mugwump-like, the life-juices of virtual human nervous-systems produced in suburban hormone-banks across the United States and Eastern Europe. A revitalized Third-Age, the golf courses of the world reeling under the onslaught of this new breed of energized, radiant octogenarians. A vast and growing horde of new entrants to the ranks of the stupendously well-endowed. How many others are there like me, out there, weltering under the unceasing weight of this crazed cyborgian storm, this cornucopia of inventiveness and perversion? We number in our millions, we unwitting receivers of the raw and bleeding edge of quackery; we are an Us, and they are a Them. We span the globe, worlds virtual and real, from the towering heights of corporate monoliths to the crumbling edges of the Hotmail slums. It doesn’t matter who we are! We are all equal here, we are all equal under Spam. Spam is the Great Leveller. Together, we are end-points, we are destinations, we are enormous potential-capital, we are a great numbers-game, we are fantastic odds. Here we all sit, crammed together in identical folders on $49 CD-ROMs. We toil together at the coal-face of the Trash bin, fingertips worn bare, Delete buttons sticky with the blood of the unwanted. And you know what? We outnumber them millions to one! These blond beasts of prey, these feeders on the bandwidth of the oppressed, these wanton exploiters of Microsoft’s Achilles heels, these teenage manipulators of the inviolable principles of global finance. Their margins so low, their reach so vast, their frequency irrelevant; they hardly even need to exist to do their job, their numbers are so small. They could so easily just be a glitch in the system, a forgotten semicolon here, a missing bracket there, and suddenly WHAM, zinging across the datasphere; Increase Your Bust Size! Prevent Employment Stagnation! All Natural Pheromones, Attract Sex! But isn’t it about time I gave in? Surely I could do with a larger penis. 23-67% larger in 6 months. An extra ¾” of girth in 10 months. Shoot 16 feet! Impress your friends! Surely now is a good time to start imbibing daily doses of Human Growth Hormone, in some weirdly cannibalistic ritual of geno-pharmacology. Surely now is the time to deal with my incipient baldness. Surely now is the time to develop a taste for teen barnyard frolics. I want to meet them, these machine-writers , these Home Based Workers. I want to meet a spammer, I want to check their palms. I want to look into their eyes and guage the soul of this particular brand of Internet Entrepreneur. I want to meet them for their blatant idiocy. I want to meet them because their business model is perfect. I want to meet them because they want to rip me off and they’ve never even seen my face. I want to meet them because they seem to know my name. I want to meet them to see if anything they say is true: “I was approached many times before but each time I passed on it. I am so glad I finally joined just to see what one could expect in return for the minimal effort and money required. To my astonishment, I received total $610,470.00 in 21 weeks, with money still coming in.” “We have been on the spray for just 3 weeks now, and besides the tremendous energy we both feel, my husband’s allergies and spells of depression have lifted. I am healing extremely fast after an accident and have lost 7 lbs. without trying!” “Got to tell ya I really was impressed with the results after a month - I didn’t have any problems to speak of but was interested in improving my control and size. I went from a 6.5/7.0” length to a full 8.0” - the big deal was not the size increase but the improved circulation I received - the head increased a full inch in diameter and along with this more enjoyment with every stroke as it is hyper sensitive when erect due to the increased surface area. The program was worth every penny - feel sorry for those that don’t know about this information.” But who are these people? It’s getting very personal. They call me by name, they tell me stories about their lives, inspiring stories of amazing success, of against-all-odds, of business miracles, of youth regained, balding abated, penises sprouting anew like fresh corn from good soil. What kind of subjectivity can we assign to these chimeras, these fictions of a hopeful science? They materialize only on-screen, they inhabit a realm yet-to-come. Their hawking cries hail me from beyond the abyss of faith; they have already leapt, already broken through. Doppelgängers of the net.art avant-garde, these over-people, these reachers-forth, their lives played out on a lightning stage between the soaring peaks and the Trash bin. Are they authors? Are they artists? Are they…real? Pah! What was I thinking?! Reality is a tool of the bureaucrats, of the biologically homeostatic, of the devious puppetmasters of offline media. No reality for them, these dare-devils of the multi-level marketing scheme, re-programmers of genetic destiny, they who write the future of the Human in bold red 18-point font. And no reality for us either, the potential consumers, demographically profound, fundamentally troubled; aging, lonely, single, furiously masturbating, high cholestorol, high blood pressure, overweight, in debt, badly mortgaged, un-insured, uneducated, exercise hating, impotent, suspicious, broke, balding, poorly endowed, small breasted and dog, dog tired. So perhaps we are all a little fictional, all a little speculative. But so what! A full inch in diameter! $620,000 in 6 months! Who would not sacrifice a little verifiability for such riches? This magnificent spray that decelerates Time and accelerates Body and Mind. This mystical information that increases Control and Size. How could my current state not be found wanting? How can I ignore the call? And with such a mainline into the future, what need have I of the machinations of the mainstream dot-economy? What difference does it make to me whether the nano-agents busily connecting synapses in the Amazon.com brain-in-a-tank can predict my favourite books and music? What difference do any of these massively-funded personalisation programs make, when daily I receive exhortations to feed fetishes I never even dreamed I had? I am interpellated anew, I have received messages from the Enlightened, the joyful consumers of the Word; once cynical, once suspicious, now laughing. Take me, I’m yours, de-subject me, re-subject me, I’m bubbling over, I’m full to the brim, I’m ready to suck the juice out of life and stay on to get the marrow. I’m right around the corner from just handing over my credit card details to the first one who asks nicely: “Fill out all requested information. You need to enter your credit card number for age verification - this protects under 18's from accessing explicit hardcore pornography. We have only listed the largest, most publicly operated porn sites that we KNOW can be trusted with this information. YOU WILL NOT BE CHARGED FOR THE FREE PASSWORD. If you don't believe me, just read their terms and conditions.” Citation reference for this article Substitute your date of access for Dn Month Year etc... MLA Style Cooke, Grayson. "A Spam Scam Slam" M/C: A Journal of Media and Culture< http://www.media-culture.org.au/0308/08-spamscam.php>. APA Style Cooke, G. (2003, Aug 26). A Spam Scam Slam. M/C: A Journal of Media and Culture, 6,< http://www.media-culture.org.au/0308/08-spamscam.php>