Potent kings and antisocial heroes: lion symbolism and elite masculinity in ancient Mesopotamia and Greece

In the great kingdoms of ancient Mesopotamia, the king’s power was often evoked by means of lion symbolism. This has led scholars to conclude that lion motifs, and especially that of the lion-slaying hero, in early Greek art and literature were cultural borrowings from the more populous and urbanised civilisations to the east. Yet it is also notable that the Greek tradition, at least from the time of the Homeric poems, tended to problematise the ethics of the leonine man. This article explores the function of lion imagery in narratives of elite masculinity in western Asia and early Greece respectively. It will argue that Greek myth and epic reflect on and problematise any potential equation between lions and kingly prestige, power and masculinity, instead drawing attention to the savagery and social isolation of the lion-like man-of-power, and his difficulty in conforming to the expectations of civilised society.

A Chemical Potential Equation for Modeling Triboelectrochemical Reactions on Solid–Liquid Interfaces

Triboelectrochemical reactions occur on solid–liquid interfaces in wide range of applications when an electric field strong enough and a frictional stress high enough are simultaneously imposed on the interfaces. A characteristic of triboelectrochemical reactions is that not only the thermal energy but also the electrical and mechanical energies can activate, assist, or mitigate the solid–liquid interface chemical reactions, the products of which affect electrical and tribological behavior of the interfaces inversely. In previous studies, we have found that the coupling of frictional and electric effects could physically change the migration, adsorption, and desorption behaviors of the polar molecules, ions, or charged particles included in aqueous or nonaqueous base lubricant toward or away from the interfaces and thus control the boundary lubrication. Recently, we have found that the friction coefficient and surface appearance of some kinds of metals could also be modulated to some extent even in pure water or pure base oils under external electric stimulations. We attribute these changes to the triboelectrochemical reactions occurred when a strong external electric field is imposed on. Based on the effective collision model of chemical reactions, a chemical potential equation, which includes both electrical and mechanical contributions, has been derived. The proposed chemical potential equation can be used to explain the observed triboelectrochemical phenomenon in experiments. Based on the model, a novel method for oxidation coloring of the selected areas in metal surfaces is proposed. Together with the physical adsorption and desorption model of lubricant additives, the triboelectrochemical reaction model can well explain the phenomena of potential-controlled boundary lubrication in different lubrication systems and also provides a theoretical basis for other solid–liquid interface processes under the effects of electromechanical coupling.

Airplane Vortices Evolution Near Ground

Airport traffic around the world has sharply increased over the years; as a result, airports need to be enlarged and the landing or taking off times between two consecutive airplanes must be reduced. To precisely determine the minimum time required between two consecutive airplanes, it is essential to understand the main physical characteristics of the vortices generated under airplanes’ wings and their evolution under different atmospheric conditions. In the present paper, such information is obtained through the complex potential equation of a vortex together with the potential Bernoulli equation. The process starts with the characteristic complex potential equation, which is simplified to find the velocity potential function. Then, the temporal movement of the vortices’ central core, the velocity and pressure fields around the vortical structures and the effect of the crosswind on the vortices’ displacement, velocity and pressure fields are obtained. The paper shows how optimizing the process of measuring and calculating the vortices’ behavior could save a certain amount of time between airplanes, therefore increasing airport throughput. This paper introduces a potential flow method, which is coupled with the temporal variation of the flow circulation, to predict the vortices’ behavior and movement over time. The inclusion of circulation decay over time is employed to simulate the viscosity effect over the vortical structures. The in-house code generates results in less than one minute and needs to be seen as a tool to determine, for each airport and crosswind condition, the minimum time needed between two consecutive airplanes.

Explicit solutions of the kinetic and potential matching conditions of the energy shaping method

<p style='text-indent:20px;'>In the context of underactuated Hamiltonian systems defined by simple Hamiltonian functions, the matching conditions of the energy shaping method split into two decoupled subsets of equations: the <i>kinetic</i> and <i>potential</i> equations. The unknown of the kinetic equation is a metric on the configuration space of the system, while the unknown of the potential equation are the same metric and a positive-definite function around some critical point of the Hamiltonian function. In this paper, assuming that a solution of the kinetic equation is given, we find conditions (in the <inline-formula><tex-math id="M1">\begin{document}$ C^{\infty} $\end{document}</tex-math></inline-formula> category) for the existence of positive-definite solutions of the potential equation and, moreover, we present a procedure to construct, up to quadratures, some of these solutions. In order to illustrate such a procedure, we consider the subclass of systems with one degree of underactuation, where we find in addition a concrete formula for the general solution of the kinetic equation. As a byproduct, new global and local expressions of the matching conditions are presented in the paper.</p>

Protonic conductor: better understanding neural resting and action potential

The newly formulated action potential equation provides biophysical insights for neuron electrophysiology, which may represent a complementary development to the classic Goldman–Hodgkin–Katz equation. The nonlinear curve of the localized protons/cations charge density in the real-time domain of an action potential spike appears as an inverse mirror image to the action potential. The biological significance of axon myelination is now elucidated as to provide protonic insulation and prevent any ions from interfering with action potential signal.

Effect of Coefficient of Variation on the Reliability of Collapse Potential's Equation Predicted by ANNs

In this paper, the Reliability Analysis with utilizing a Monte Carlo simulation (MCS) process was conducted on the equation of the collapse potential predicted by ANN to study its reliability when utilized in a situation of soil that has uncertainty in its properties. The prediction equation utilized in this study was developed previously by the authors. The probabilities of failure were then plotted against a range of uncertainties expressed in terms of coefficient of variation. As a result of reliability analysis, it was found that the collapse potential equation showed a high degree of reliability in case of uncertainty in gypseous sandy soil properties within the specified coefficient of variation (COV) for each property. When the COV ranges (0-100) for each soil properties under study, it was found also that the collapse potential equation is very well in predicting the collapse potential of gypseous sandy soils for all values of the COV lies between (0-100) % for initial water content and degree of saturation, and for values of the COV not exceed 11%, 19% for the initial dry unit weight and specific gravity respectively, as well as for the values of the COV not exceed 80%, 97% for the initial voids ratio and gypsum content respectively.