COMPLEX GEOMETRIC EVALUATION OF POLYMER MATERIALS QUALITY

A computational technique of comparative evaluation of polymer material quality in a homogeneous set of samples according to a complex geometric criterion is proposed. Samples of physical and mechanical parameters of samples of industrial impact-resistant polystyrene are used for calculation. The most averaged complex of physical and mechanical properties is used as the calculation base.

Discovery of 2716 hot emission-line stars from LAMOST DR5

We present a catalog of 3339 hot emission-line stars (ELSs) identified from 451 695 O, B and A type spectra, provided by LAMOST Data Release 5 (DR5). We developed an automated Python routine that identified 5437 spectra having a peak between 6561 and 6568 Å. False detections and bad spectra were removed, leaving 4138 good emission-line spectra of 3339 unique ELSs. We re-estimated the spectral types of 3307 spectra as the LAMOST Stellar Parameter Pipeline (LASP) did not provide accurate spectral types for these emission-line spectra. As Herbig Ae/Be stars exhibit higher excess in near-infrared and mid-infrared wavelengths than classical Ae/Be stars, we relied on 2MASS and WISE photometry to distinguish them. Finally, we report 1089 classical Be, 233 classical Ae and 56 Herbig Ae/Be stars identified from LAMOST DR5. In addition, 928 B[em]/A[em] stars and 240 CAe/CBe potential candidates are identified. From our sample of 3339 hot ELSs, 2716 ELSs identified in this work do not have any record in the SIMBAD database and they can be considered as new detections. Identification of such a large homogeneous set of emission-line spectra will help the community study the emission phenomenon in detail without worrying about the inherent biases when compiling from various sources.

THE DIVERGENCE OF ESG RATINGS: AN ANALYSIS OF ITALIAN LISTED COMPANIES

The increasing attention to sustainability issues in finance has brought a proliferation of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) metrics and rating providers that results in divergences among the ESG ratings. Based on a sample of Italian listed firms, this paper investigates these divergences through a framework that decomposes ESG ratings into a value and a weight component at the pillar (i.e. E, S, and G) and category (i.e. sub-pillar) levels. We find that weights divergence and social and governance indicators are the main drivers of rating divergences. The research contributes to develop a new tool for analyzing ESG divergences and provides a number of recommendations for researchers and practitioners, stressing the need to understand what is really measured by the ESG rating agencies and the need for standardization and transparency of ESG measurement to favor a more homogeneous set of indicators.

Propositions pour une psychosémiologie historique du français : quelques réflexions à partir de l’histoire du verbe français

While it is true that the linguistic theory of Gustave Guillaume (1883–1960) is generally designated under the name of psychomechanics because it postulates that the thought in the language action operates through a constantly repeated and formally homogeneous set of movements, which gives it its psychically systematic character, it does not ignore the semiological dimension of language, which also aims at a certain systematization. Hence a place for a psychosemiology, which this contribution aims to define and illustrate from examples taken in the morphological history of French.

Austerity, teleological ‘ends’ and the timespace practices of the state organisation

The impact of austerity on urban governance has become a key area of academic concern, but many studies tend to interpret the effect on individual urban state bodies through analysis of broader governance relations, whilst also framing austerity as an overarching and homogeneous set of ideas, values and practices. In response, this paper examines a city government’s economic development department as a means in which to understand how the heterogeneous agency of the organisation mitigates austerity. In examining the adaptation to austerity, the paper deploys the practice theory of Schatzki. This involves utilising his conceptualisation of the construction of practices through various elements in producing the organisation, and their related ‘timespaces’. In conclusion, examining practices are important in understanding the intricacies of the ‘agency’ of the organisation, with the paper elucidating the uneven reconfiguration of the case study towards forms of timespace governing based on entrepreneurial pro-growth practices.

Archaea: A Gold Mine for Topoisomerase Diversity

The control of DNA topology is a prerequisite for all the DNA transactions such as DNA replication, repair, recombination, and transcription. This global control is carried out by essential enzymes, named DNA-topoisomerases, that are mandatory for the genome stability. Since many decades, the Archaea provide a significant panel of new types of topoisomerases such as the reverse gyrase, the type IIB or the type IC. These more or less recent discoveries largely contributed to change the understanding of the role of the DNA topoisomerases in all the living world. Despite their very different life styles, Archaea share a quasi-homogeneous set of DNA-topoisomerases, except thermophilic organisms that possess at least one reverse gyrase that is considered a marker of the thermophily. Here, we discuss the effect of the life style of Archaea on DNA structure and topology and then we review the content of these essential enzymes within all the archaeal diversity based on complete sequenced genomes available. Finally, we discuss their roles, in particular in the processes involved in both the archaeal adaptation and the preservation of the genome stability.

Znak językowy i dychotomia significans : significatum a morfosemantem i funkcja morfosemantyczna

Artykuł dotyczy teorii znaku językowego, w tym rozróżnienia elementów: znaczący (significans) i znaczony (significatum). Rozważania skupione są na dwóch przeciwstawnych teoriach: jednej ‒ bilateralnej i psychologistycznej (mentalistycznej), pochodzącej od Ferdinanda de Saussure’a (CLG) i drugiej ‒ unilateralnej i obiektywistycznej autorstwa Leona Zawadowskiego (LTJ). Autor artykułu teorie te porównuje i ocenia, zestawiając je z przedstawianą już w swoich wcześniejszych pracach (m.in. Sroka 2016a i 2016b) własną koncepcją morfosemantemu i funkcji morfosemantycznej. Znak (fr. signe) w ujęciu de Saussure’a składa się z wyobrażenia akustycznego (fr. image acoustique) jako elementu znaczącego (fr. signifiant) i pojęcia (fr. concept) jako elementu znaczonego (fr. signifié), podczas gdy w ujęciu Zawadowskiego obejmuje on tylko będący na płaszczyźnie elementu znaczącego element tekstu (jako zjawisko fizyczne) w jego cechach inherentnych, a poza znakiem pozostaje element rzeczywistości pozatekstowej jako element znaczony. Pojęcie morfosemantemu jest uogólnieniem, modyfikacją i rozwinięciem pojęć znaku językowego wypracowanych przez de Saussure’a i Zawadowskiego. Morfosemantem jest elementem tekstu, definiowanym według trzech kategorii, do których należą: forma (F) (segment tekstu w jego cechach inherentnych), sygnifikacja czynna (S) (fakt, że segment tekstu reprezentuje wybrany element rzeczywistości pozasegmentalnej) i lokacja (L) (występowanie segmentu tekstu w danym otoczeniu). Funkcja morfosemantyczna (o kierunkach: sygnifikacja/lokacja => forma; forma/lokacja => sygnifikacja; forma/sygnifikacja => lokacja) jest rozpięta nad strukturalnie homogenicznym zbiorem morfosemantemów. Zaproponowane pojęcie morfosemantemu jako odpowiednika znaku językowego nie jest ani w pełni bilateralne, gdyż element znaczony (reprezentowany element rzeczywistości pozasegmentalnej (RR)) nie jest częścią morfosemantemu, ani też w pełni unilateralne, ponieważ obok formy (F), tj. kategorii, której wartościami są zespoły cech inherentnych segmentu tekstu, do istoty morfosemantemu należą również kategorie relacyjne: sygnifikacja czynna (S) oraz lokacja (L). Przedstawiona koncepcja morfosemantemu i funkcji morfosemantycznej jest obiektywistyczna, lecz obok niej można też stworzyć interpretację psychologistyczną (mentalistyczną), zakładając, że przedmiot poznania ma swoje odbicie (reprezentację) w umyśle poznającego podmiotu. Language sign and the dichotomy significans : significatum in relation to morphosemanteme and the morphosemantic function. Summary: The paper deals with the theory of language sign and with the distinction between the elements: signifying/signifier (significans) and signified (significatum). The discussion focuses on two opposite theories: one – bilateral and psychologistic (mentalistic) ‒ coming from Ferdinand de Saussure (CLG) and the other ‒ unilateral and objectivistic ‒ authored by Leon Zawadowski (LTJ). The present author compares and evaluates these theories, juxtaposing them with his own conception of morphosemanteme and the morphosemantic function, proposed in his earlier studies (e.g. Sroka 2016a and 2016b). According to de Saussure, a linguistic sign (Fr. signe) consists of the acoustic image (Fr. image acoustique) as the signifying element (Fr. signifiant) and of the concept (Fr. concept) as the signified element (Fr. signifié). According to Zawadowski, the sign includes only the textual element (as a physical phenomenon) in its inherent features, which belongs to the plane of the signifying element, and outside of the sign there is the element of the extratextual reality as the signified element. The concept of the morphosemanteme is a generalization, modification and development of de Saussure’s and Zawadowski’s concepts of the language sign. The morphosemanteme is an element of text defined according to three categories, namely: form (F) (textual segment in its inherent features), active signification (S) (the fact that a textual segment represents a given element of the extrasegmental reality), and location (L) (occurrence of a textual segment in a given environment). The morphosemantic function (of the directions: signification/location => form; form/location => signification; and form/signification => location) expands over a structurally homogeneous set of morphosemantemes. The proposed concept of the morphosemanteme as a counterpart of the language sign is neither fully bilateral, since the signified element (represented element of the extrasegmental reality (RR)) is not part of the morphosemanteme, nor fully unilateral, since in its essence the morphosemanteme includes not only form (F), i.e. the category whose values are sets of the inherent features of the textual segment, but also relational categories: active signification (S) and location (L). The conception of the morphosemanteme and morphosemantic function described here is objectivistic but it is also possible to create its psychologistic (mentalistic) interpretation, assuming that the object of cognition has its reflection (representation) in the mind of the conceiving subject. Keywords: F. de Saussure, Leon Zawadowski, element of text, language sign, signifying element (significans), signified element (significatum), morphosemanteme, form, signification, location, morphosemantic function

The VISCACHA survey – II. Structure of star clusters in the Magellanic Clouds periphery

ABSTRACT We provide a homogeneous set of structural parameters of 83 star clusters located at the periphery of the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) and the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC). The clusters’ stellar density and surface brightness profiles were built from deep, AO assisted optical images, and uniform analysis techniques. The structural parameters were obtained from King and Elson et al. model fittings. Integrated magnitudes and masses (for a subsample) are also provided. The sample contains mostly low surface brightness clusters with distances between 4.5 and 6.5 kpc and between 1 and 6.5 kpc from the LMC and SMC centres, respectively. We analysed their spatial distribution and structural properties, comparing them with those of inner clusters. Half-light and Jacobi radii were estimated, allowing an evaluation of the Roche volume tidal filling. We found that: (i) for our sample of LMC clusters, the tidal radii are, on average, larger than those of inner clusters from previous studies; (ii) the core radii dispersion tends to be greater for LMC clusters located towards the southwest, with position angles of ∼200° and about ∼5° from the LMC centre, i.e. those LMC clusters nearer to the SMC; (iii) the core radius evolution for clusters with known age is similar to that of inner clusters; (iv) SMC clusters with galactocentric distances closer than 4 kpc are overfilling; (v) the recent Clouds collision did not leave marks on the LMC clusters’ structure that our analysis could reveal.

Calibrating the surface brightness – color relation for late-type red giants stars in the visible domain using VEGA/CHARA interferometric observations

Context. The surface brightness – color relationship (SBCR) is a poweful tool for determining the angular diameter of stars from photometry. It was for instance used to derive the distance of eclipsing binaries in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), which led to its distance determination with an accuracy of 1%. Aims. We calibrate the SBCR for red giant stars in the 2.1 ≤ V − K ≤ 2.5 color range using homogeneous VEGA/CHARA interferometric data secured in the visible domain, and compare it to the relation based on infrared interferometric observations, which were used to derive the distance to the LMC. Methods. Observations of eight G–K giants were obtained with the VEGA/CHARA instrument. The derived limb-darkened angular diameters were combined with a homogeneous set of infrared magnitudes in order to constrain the SBCR. Results. The average precision we obtain on the limb-darkened angular diameters of the eight stars in our sample is 2.4%. For the four stars in common observed by both VEGA/CHARA and PIONIER/VLTI, we find a 1σ agreement for the angular diameters. The SBCR we obtain in the visible has a dispersion of 0.04 magnitude and is consistent with the one derived in the infrared (0.018 magnitude). Conclusions. The consistency of the infrared and visible angular diameters and SBCR reinforces the result of 1% precision and accuracy recently achieved on the distance of the LMC using the eclipsing-binary technique. It also indicates that it is possible to combine interferometric observations at different wavelengths when the SBCR is calibrated.

Museum of Russian Cosmosophy:V.N. Muravyov’s Philosophy of Action

The article deals with a part of scientific and philosophical heritage of Valerian Nikolaevich Muravyov (1885‒1930), a thinker and a representative of Russian cosmism. The author of the article undertakes an attempt to explicate the major notions of the philosophy of action as the active principle of the common cause project by N.F. Fyodorov. In the theoretical system of Muravyov action is a uni­versal notion which unites various connections and relations among objects of different nature. Basing on philosophy of Parmenides and mathematical set theo­ry of G. Cantor Muravyov believes a possibility of action to be determined by the structure of the system: to possess the action capacity the system has to be a non-homogeneous set. The article reviews the general scheme of interaction of the active system elements which are defined as hypostases in the philosophy of action. The work also reveals the hierarchy of rational action points. Time is in­separably connected with set and action in the philosophical concept of Mu­ravyov. The paper observes Mouraviov’s logical approach to understanding time genesis and structure resting on the ideas of H. Bergson. Defining time as an ac­tion subject, its obligatory output the philosophy of action sets a task of time takeover.