Portraits of Grand Duke Ludwig of Hesse: Return after Neglect

The article is dedicated to the attribution of two portraits of an unknown German general in the Tsarskoye Selo Museum collection. One of them is a ceremonial knee-high portrait, the other is a small head portrait of the same general. In addition, one portrait was purchased in 1997 at the “Lenfilm” stage properties, the other has always been in the museum. It was believed that the head portrait, by an unknown artist, depicted Grand Duke Ludwig of Hesse-Darmstadt — father of future Russian Empress Alexandra Feodorovna. The weak inscription at the bottom of the knee-high portrait states that it is a copy done by Heinrich R.Kröh in 1896 in Darmstadt, based on Heinrich von Angeli`s original. On the backs of both canvases, monograms from the personal collection of Empress Alexandra Feodorovna were found: the interwoven Russian letters “A” and “F” under a crown and “№ 8” (ceremonial knee-high portrait) and “№ 65” (head portrait). Both images date back to the famous “Family portrait of Grand Duke Ludwig of Hesse”, commissioned by Queen Victoria for the Drawing-room of her Osborne-House in London. In the queen’s letters, it is noted that Angeli had started to work on the head sketches immediately upon his arrival in 1878. Alexandra Feodorovna brought one of them, her father’s head sketch, with her to Russia. Also, in the year of 1878 Angeli painted the knee-high ceremonial portrait with the same regalia for Grand Duke Ludwig’s residence in Darmstadt. The portrait is known in copies executed by Ludwig Hofmann-Zeitz (Royal Collections, London) and Heinrich Kröh (now in Tsarskoye Selo Museum). The fate of Kröh’s replica happened to be tragic. First it was seen in a photograph of the Empress’s study in the Winter Palace of the 1900s made by St. Petersburg photographer Karl Kubesh. The photo shows companion portraits of the Empress’s parents. Both portraits disappeared after the 1917 Revolution. The knee-high portrait of Ludwig was badly damaged and as a result was included into the stage props of the studio as it was deemed unnecessary. After many decades, the portrait was returned to the Tsarskoye Selo Museum collection.

Monitoring Hydraulic Fracture Volume using Borehole to Surface EM and Conductive Proppant

Numerical modeling of a North American hydraulic fracture experiment is done to demonstrate the accuracy with which the volume containing proppant could be estimated when electrically conductive proppant is used. An electromagnetic (EM) acquisition system with surface electric and magnetic field receivers and a grounded electric dipole source is simulated. The source has one electrode on the surface and one down a steel-cased well lateral that is adjacent to the lateral being hydraulically fractured. The simulations are preformed using measured EM noise at the site during hydraulic fracturing. A 3D OcTree finite-difference code is used that allows very fine meshing around the steel casings and fractures that can expand rapidly to the boundaries keeping memory requirements within available resources. The steel well casings are modeled in the forward and inverse solutions. Possible scenarios for source-receiver configurations, proppant conductivity, number of perforations per frac stage, variations in the steel casing properties as well as geometric errors in the locations of receivers and placement of the well laterals are considered. Hydraulic fracture stages are modeled as 3D geobodies with variability in the direction perpendicular to the well. Frac stages are embedded in a layered background model built from logged resistivities. The inversion of the EM data is first done on the pre-frac data for the anisotropic layered background resistivities, steel casing electrical conductivity and magnetic susceptibility. Next, data-differencing between the frac stage and the background or between successive frac stages is used for inversion of frac stage properties. A parametric box model is fit to each stage to estimate volume, length, height and mean stage conductivity. Hundreds of inversions starting from random parameter values are done to calculate parameter mean and standard deviations. The mean values of volume, length, and height are all within 20% of the true values.

Scaling of planetary gear stages according to gear excitation similarity

There are several cases where it is not possible to test a gearbox in its actual size. Consequently, planetary gear stages with an actual size, that does not fit, need to be scaled. Unfortunately, scaling a gear stage in general, especially a planetary gear stage, leads to a conflict between the various gear stage properties. Therefore, it is necessary to develop a scaling process of a planetary gear stage, with the purpose of maintaining excitation similarity between the original and the scaled gearbox. Finally, the scaling process is illustrated by scaling down a wind turbine gearbox.

Hamlet and Arabic Literary Networks

This chapter examines the intercultural resonance between William Shakespeare’s Hamlet and Arabic literature and thus with Malay literature. Hamlet is memorable for its graveyard scene which features skulls as stage properties and is linked to the tradition of European memento mori in the visual arts. The play has surprising intercultural resonances with the Arabic cosmopolis of the East Indies in the age of European exploration, and therefore necessitates a reconfiguration of early modern global literary networks. This chapter considers the graveyard scene’s allusion to Alexander the Great and how the anecdote of Alexander and the skulls traveled to England in the form of Naṣīḥat al-mulūk. It suggests that Hamlet’s literary exemplars may derive from an overlooked narrative tradition of young men discoursing on skulls from Arabic mirrors. It also argues for a spatial and temporal realignment of Hamlet as part of global Arabic literary networks.

Stage Props and Shakespeare’s Comedies

While they might seem like ‘toys’ or ‘trifles’, stage properties in Shakespeare’s comedies subtly unsettle the relationship between human subject and non-human object. Even such seemingly innocuous comedic props as letters (in Two Gentlemen of Verona and Love’s Labour’s Lost) and rings (in The Merchant of Venice) can be given incommensurate weight by the comic plot. Drawing on both semiotic and phenomenological accounts of stage props as well as the synthesis of these approaches in the work of Erika Lin and Andrew Sofer, this essay explores the broad continuum between the comically disruptive misdirected letter and absent, irreplaceable objects like Shylock’s turquoise ring and demonstrates just how rigorously Shakespeare’s comic props test our investment in comedic narrative and the comic resolution.

Improving the Rolling Technology at Mill 450 OJSC "MMK" to Reduce the Level of Alloying of 09G2S Steel Designed for Strength Class up to 440 MPa

Nowadays, the technology of shape-rolled steel production defines the quality and strength of common purpose and critical building structures. To provide for all the necessary mechanical characteristics, it is necessary to pay attention to each phase of steel production: melting, casting, reheating, rolling and cooling. Often, due to poor production equipment and lack of appropriate technologies steel alloying is applied. This deteriorates steel weldability and significantly increases the cost of the rolled product. The article reviews the final stage properties formation – water quenching stage after the rolling mill. Now, at mill 450 of OJSC Magnitogorsk Iron and Steel Works (MMK) vanadium is used for microalloying during the production from 09G2S steel, which provides for the specified technical properties of steel. The developed quenching technology provides for a possibility to decrease the level of microalloying. The following mathematical simulation was carried-out: steel section cooling down during quenching; heat treatment of section steel using DEFORM 3D + Heat Treatment software and further physical simulation to define convective heat transfer temperature coefficients, find tendencies to hardening and dynamics analysis which made it possible to develop a three section module located after dividing shears consisting of 176 nozzles (44 nozzle blocks). As for the proposed design of water cooling line, regimes which provides strength classes 345, 390 and 440 MPa are developed for L-steel with sizes from 40x40x4 to 125x125x16 mm, channel steel from 50 to 180 mm web length and strip (of equivalent thickness).