Contemporary Art in Applied Dimensions: A Reflective Review of Art as Therapeutic Process

A common perception about contemporary art is the perception that it excludes a majority of people as being its legitimate viewers or judges, by virtue of the fact that it contains exclusive or encrypted messages. A small, privileged group of experts grant value, acceptance and endow public popularity of such works for the market and media. In this research we seek to provide an insight into a cluster of contemporary abstract art forms and show how such art forms anticipate closer and more common sensory and hermeneutic experience. Art like that of Hamish Fulton is built on experiences that enables us to connect with them, thereby redefining the concepts and ideas of these arts through an alternative phenomenological experience of their methods and processes of making art. Fulton’s art is based on a visual translation of his experiences of healing walks through mountainous terrain. We may build a personal, general methodology of interpretation by building personal synergistic links with the methods of creation – that could in turn generate therapeutic effects both in the viewer or in the interpreter of such art, through self-reflection and re-construction of the concepts proposed in the framing. Likewise, we will reflect briefly on art therapeutic projects that we studied for patients with ADHD. We analyze the expressions and suggest a method of therapeutic art creation based on similar processes as in Fulton.

Performance Evaluation of Selected Encryption Algorithms

Data security is a key aspect of today’s communication trend and growth. Various mechanisms have been developed to achieve this security. One is cryptography, which represents a most effective method of enhancing security and confidentiality of data. In this work, a hybrid based 136bit key algorithm involving a sequential combination of XOR (Exclusive –Or) encryption and AES (Advanced Encryption Standard) algorithm to enhance the security strength is developed. The hybrid algorithm performance is matched with XOR encryption and AES algorithm using encryption and decryption time, throughput of encryption, space complexity and CPU process time.

Unbalanced, Unfair, Unhappy, or Unable? Theoretical Integration of Multiple Processes Underlying the Leader Mistreatment-Employee CWB Relationship with Meta-Analytic Methods

Although a litany of theoretical accounts exists to explain why mistreated employees engage in counterproductive work behaviors (CWBs), little is known about whether these mechanisms are complementary or mutually exclusive, or the effect of context on their explanatory strength. To address these gaps, this meta-analytic investigation tests four theoretically-derived mechanisms simultaneously to explain the robust relationship between leader mistreatment and employee CWB: (1) a social exchange perspective, which argues that mistreated employees engage in negative reciprocal behaviors to counterbalance experienced mistreatment; (2) a justice perspective, whereby mistreated employees experience moral outrage and engage in retributive behaviors against the organization and its members; (3) a stressor-emotion perspective, which suggests that mistreated employees engage in CWBs to cope with their negative affect; and (4) a self-regulatory perspective, which proposes that mistreated employees are simply unable to inhibit undesirable behaviors. Moreover, we also examine whether the above model holds across cultures that vary on power distance. Our meta-analytic structural equation model demonstrated that all but the justice mechanism significantly mediated the relationship between leader mistreatment and employee CWBs, with negative affect emerging as the strongest explanatory mechanism in both high and low power distance cultures. Given these surprising results, as the stressor-emotion perspective is less frequently invoked in the literature, this paper highlights not only the importance of investigating multiple mechanisms together when examining the leader mistreatment-employee CWB relationship, but also the need to develop more nuanced theorizing about these mechanisms, particularly for negative affect.

The ‘uncorrupted’ Paradise: Religion and imperial epistemic violence on Pitcairn Island

This article analyses chapters from Amasa Delano’s Narrative of Voyages and Travels in the Northern and Southern Hemispheres (1817) and Rosalind Amelia Young’s Mutiny of the Bounty and Story of Pitcairn Island, 1790–1894 (1894) in the context of US American perception of Pitcairn Island’s cultural identity. It envisions both Delano’s account of the island and the Californian Seventh-day Adventists’ missionary work, as described by Young, as examples of epistemic violence. The latter derives from imperial misrepresentations of the islanders as well as an imposition of US American cultural identity upon them. The violence committed against Pitcairn’s community is discussed in connection to Delano’s self-proclaimed approach of non-intervention and his depiction of the islanders as Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s ‘children of nature’, as well as to the direct involvement of the Adventists who converted the islanders. This article tests whether Delano’s and the Adventists’ approaches are mutually exclusive or whether they represent two different visions of the same imperialist project to constitute Pitcairn Islanders as the colonial ‘Other’.

Development of a device for multiplying numbers by means of FPGA

The authors propose the description of the development of a device for multiplying numbers. The device for multiplying numbers on the field-programmable gate array (FPGA) includes two input and one output registers, fifty-six single-digit adders, sixty four logic elements AND, one exclusive OR gate. The main scientific and technical task in developing a device for multiplying numbers is to reduce hardware complexity using single-bit adders and logic elements. Introduction includes description of works of scientists and researchers whose publications are devoted to design and development of multiplier construction methods, multiplier FIR performance improvement by right-shift and addition method on FPGA (field-programmable gate array) basis. The implementation of MAC-block, hardware implementation of binary multiplier on the basis of multi operand adder, multiplier design by right-sliding and addition with control automaton in the FPGA basis is the actual research tasks presented in a number of papers. The description of features of multiplier implementation, high-speed multipliers with variable bit rate, studies of approaches for designing modular multipliers, FPGA image processing using Brown multiplier for performing convolution operation find application in problems of performance and speed. Also, a number of authors describe implementation of conveyorization method, design of dual multiplier, construction method of 8-bit multiplier with reduced delay, 8-bit high-density systolic multiplier arrays on FPGA and development of high-performance 8-bit multiplier using McCMOS technology. A fragment of a developed device for multiplying numbers is presented in the work by the authors. The principle of operation of a device for multiplication is described. The description of connected elements of the device is given. The timing diagrams of operation of a device for multiplication of numbers are presented.

Online-Exclusive or Hybrid? Channel Merchandising Strategies for Ship-to-Store Implementation

We study how merchandising products as online-exclusive (i.e., products available only online) versus hybrid (i.e., products available both online and offline) can improve the performance of ship-to-store (STS) services, an omnichannel retail fulfillment initiative that allows customers to pick up their online orders in-store. First, using a stylized model, we theoretically demonstrate that although STS is likely to increase sales, it may also entail the risk of losing some customers by exposing them to alternative products at nearby competitors during in-store pickup visits. Online-exclusive products and hybrid products are subject to this tradeoff at different degrees. To minimize the risk of STS, we theoretically propose a channel merchandising strategy for the STS implementation. Next, we empirically test our theoretical predictions using data from an omnichannel retailer that launched the STS functionality. We also conduct an empirical counterfactual analysis to quantify the benefits of our proposed channel merchandising strategy. Overall, our theoretical model coupled with the empirical analysis suggests that to improve the performance of STS implementation, an omnichannel retailer should offer (i) products that are somewhat generic, low-priced, and with high in-store availability as online-exclusive and (ii) products that are somewhat unique, high-priced, and with low in-store availability as hybrid. The counterfactual analysis reveals that the proposed channel merchandising strategy can improve STS performance by increasing overall retail sales by another 2.7% for the focal retailer. This paper was accepted by Vishal Gaur, operations management.

Nuclear morphology is a deep learning biomarker of senescence across tissues and species

Cellular senescence is a critical component of aging and many age-related diseases, but understanding its role in human health is challenging in part due to the lack of exclusive or universal markers. Using neural networks, we achieve high accuracy in predicting senescence state and type from the nuclear morphology of DAPI-stained human fibroblasts, murine astrocytes, murine neurons, and fibroblasts derived from premature aging diseases in culture. After generalizing this approach, the predictor recognizes an increasing rate of senescent cells with age in H&E-stained murine liver tissue and human dermal biopsies, suggesting that alterations in nuclear morphology is a universal feature of senescence. Evaluating corresponding medical records reveals that individuals with a higher rate of senescent cells have a significantly decreased rate of malignant neoplasms, lending support for the protective role of senescence in limiting cancer development. Additionally, we find a positive association with lower significance for other conditions, including osteoporosis, osteoarthritis, hypertension, cerebral infarction, hyperlipidemia, and hypercholesteremia. In sum, we introduce a predictor of cellular senescence based on nuclear morphology that is applicable across tissues and species and is associated with health outcomes in humans.

In-Memory Hamming Error-Correcting Code in Memristor Crossbar

This paper proposes a in-memory Hamming error-correcting code (ECC) in memristor crossbar array (CBA). Based on unique I-V characteristic of complementary resistive switching (CRS) memristor, this work discovers that a combination of three memristors behaves as a stateful exclusive-OR (XOR) logic device. In addition, a two-step (build-up and fire) current-mode CBA driving scheme is proposed to realize a linear increment of the build-up voltage that is proportional to the number of low-resistance state (LRS) memristors in the array. Combining the proposed XOR logic device and the driving scheme, we realize a complete stateful XOR logic, which enables a fully functional in-memory Hamming ECC, including parity bit generation and storage followed by syndrome vector calculation/readout. The proposed technique is verified by simulation program with integrated circuit emphasis (SPICE) simulations, with a Verilog-A CRS memristor model and a commercial 45-nm CMOS process design kit (PDK). The verification results prove that the proposed in-memory ECC perfectly detects error regardless of data patterns and error locations with enough margin.

In-Memory Hamming Error-Correcting Code in Memristor Crossbar

This paper proposes a in-memory Hamming error-correcting code (ECC) in memristor crossbar array (CBA). Based on unique I-V characteristic of complementary resistive switching (CRS) memristor, this work discovers that a combination of three memristors behaves as a stateful exclusive-OR (XOR) logic device. In addition, a two-step (build-up and fire) current-mode CBA driving scheme is proposed to realize a linear increment of the build-up voltage that is proportional to the number of low-resistance state (LRS) memristors in the array. Combining the proposed XOR logic device and the driving scheme, we realize a complete stateful XOR logic, which enables a fully functional in-memory Hamming ECC, including parity bit generation and storage followed by syndrome vector calculation/readout. The proposed technique is verified by simulation program with integrated circuit emphasis (SPICE) simulations, with a Verilog-A CRS memristor model and a commercial 45-nm CMOS process design kit (PDK). The verification results prove that the proposed in-memory ECC perfectly detects error regardless of data patterns and error locations with enough margin.