The Weil Algebra and the Weil Model

This chapter evaluates the Weil algebra and the Weil model. The Weil algebra of a Lie algebra g is a g-differential graded algebra that in a definite sense models the total space EG of a universal bundle when g is the Lie algebra of a Lie group G. The Weil algebra of the Lie algebra g and the map f is called the Weil map. The Weil map f is a graded-algebra homomorphism. The chapter then shows that the Weil algebra W(g) is a g-differential graded algebra. The chapter then looks at the cohomology of the Weil algebra; studies algebraic models for the universal bundle and the homotopy quotient; and considers the functoriality of the Weil model.

Solution of Fault Accommodation Problem in Nonlinear Systems by Methods of Linear Algebra

Solution of the problem of fault accommodation in nonlinear dynamic systems is related to constructing the control law which provides full decoupling with respect to fault effects. The possibility of this solution is strictly limited by the demand on the system state vector availability (this vector is immediately included into control law description). As a rule, not all components of the state vector are immediately measurable at practice. Also, it is impossible to estimate full state vector for the system with unknown (affected by the faults) dynamics. The purpose of this article is to solve the problem of full decoupling by constructing a compensator that is independent of the fault effects a nd is based on a new control law. A solution is based on so-called logic-dynamic approach using only linear methods to solve the problem for nonlinear systems. The implementation of this method does not require a preliminary estimation of the parameters. It is assumed that fault detection and isolation procedure is performed by known methods. Assume the fault occurred and detected, then a solution of the control problem is performed on the basis of additional system that corresponding in a definite sense to the initial model. To solve the problem of accommodation, an efficient algorithm based on a logical-dynamic approach is presented, as a result of which a compensator is constructed. Additional system does not contain unknown vector that describes defects. As a result, fault accommodation effect is achieved. Theoretical results are demonstrated by illustrative and illustrative example.

Limit distributions of the maximal distance to the nearest neighbour

For sets of iid random points having a uniform (in a definite sense) distribution on the arbitrary metric space a maximal distance to the nearest neighbour is considered. By means of the Chen–Stein method new limit theorems for this random variable is proved. For random uniform samples from the set of binary cube vertices analogous results are obtained by the methods of moments.

How Long is Now? A New Perspective on the Specious Present

What is the Specious Present? Which is its duration? And why, ultimately, do we need it to figure in our phenomenological account of temporal perception? In this paper, after introducing the role of the Specious Present in the main models that account for our phenomenological present, and after considering the deflationary objection by Dennett (that the debate relies on the fallacy of the Cartesian Theatre of Mind, the idea that it is meaningful to ask where and when an experience becomes conscious), I claim—thanks to a spatial analogy—that there could be a good criterion to distinguish between a present experience and a past experience, that there are good reasons to sustain the Specious Present (while snapshots are in no sense part of our phenomenological life), and that there could be a precise way to define the nature—and to measure the duration—of the Specious Present; as I will clarify, our capability and possibility to act and react are central in this perspective. If we accept this change of perspective, there is a definite sense in which the Specious Present is part of our temporal phenomenology.

Optimal Hardy inequalities in cones

Let Ω be an open connected cone in ℝn with vertex at the origin. Assume that the Operatoris subcritical in Ω, where δΩ is the distance function to the boundary of Ω and μ ⩽ 1/4. We show that under some smoothness assumption on Ω the improved Hardy-type inequalityholds true, and the Hardy-weight λ(μ)|x|–2 is optimal in a certain definite sense. The constant λ(μ) > 0 is given explicitly.

Partnerorientierung zwischen Realität und Imagination: Anmerkungen zu einem zentralen Konzept der Dialogtheorie

This paper attempts a critique of the notion of ‘dialogue’ in dialogue theory as espoused by Linell, Markova, and others building on Bakhtin’s writings. According to them, human communication, culture, language, and even cognition are dialogical in nature. This implies that these domains work by principles of other-orientation and interaction.In our paper, we reject accepting other-orientation as an a priori condition of every semiotic action. Instead, we claim that in order to be an empirically useful concept for the social sciences, it must be shown if and how observable action is other-oriented. This leads us to the following questions: how can we methodically account for other-orientation of semiotic action? Does other-orientation always imply interaction? Is every human expression oriented towards others? How does the other, as s/he is represented in semiotic action, relate to the properties which the other can be seen to exhibit as indexed by their observable behavior?We study these questions by asking how the orientation towards others becomes evident in different forms of communication. For this concern, we introduce ‘recipient design’, ‘positioning’ and ‘intersubjectivity’ as concepts which allow us to inquire how semiotic action both takes the other into account and, reflexively, shapes him/her as an addressee having certain properties. We then specifically focus on actions and situations in which other-orientation is particularly problematic, such as interactions with children, animals, machines, or communication with unknown recipients via mass media.These borderline cases are scrutinized in order to delineate both limits and constitutive properties of other-orientation. We show that there are varieties of meaningful actions which do not exhibit an orientation towards the other, which do not rest on (the possibility of) interaction with the other or which even disregard what their producer can be taken to know about the other. Available knowledge about the other may be ignored in order to reach interactional goals, e. g. in strategical interactions or for concerns of socialization. If semiotic action is other-orientated, its design depends on how the other is available to and matters for their producer. Other-orientation may build on shared biographical experiences with the other, knowledge about the other as an individual and close attention to their situated conduct. However, other-orientation may also rest on (stereo-)typification with respect to institutional roles or group membership. In any case, others as they are represented in semiotic action can never be just others-as-such, but only others-as-perceived-by-the-actor.We conclude that the strong emphasis which dialogue theories put on other-orientation obscures that other-orientation is neither universal in semiotic action, that it must be distinguished from an interactive relationship, and that the ways in which the other figures in semiotic actions is not homogeneous in any of its most general properties. Instead, there is a huge variation in the ways in which the other can be taken into account. Therefore close scrutiny of how the other precisely figures in a certain kind of semiotic action is needed in order to lend the concept of ‘other-orientation’ empirical substance and a definite sense.

Emplaced writing figuring as a manifestation of an ecocentric mindset in the narrative art of Petra Müller

The human-earth connection is a sustained theme in Petra Müller’s oeuvre. The article focuses on this connection as reflected in her narrative art, specifically in accounts that have an autobiographical proclivity. The aim of this article is to outline the nature-centred disposition of Müller’s narrative art in a more definite sense. This is achieved by paying attention to the manner in which the author (the ‘I’ in accounts where the narrator can be identified as the author herself) becomes part of the natural environment – whether on a sensory, an emotive, or an intellectual level – where she finds herself and the way she responds to it. At the core of the investigation are the ways in which this reactive engagement is manifested in Müller’s prose work by the implied author and the technique ofemplaced writing. Emplaced writing, a concept created by Linda Russo, was integrated by Susan Smith with Lawrence Buell’s concept of emplacement. This term refers to the technique allowing an active awareness of self and the place physically occupied by the author, as well as how that body fits into this place, to find expression. A broader perspective and greater appreciation of Müller’s work are drawn from the insight into how her close coexistence with the earth is reflected in her narrative art by means of the technique of emplaced writing which is explored in this article as it gives voice to a strong ecocentric disposition.

Sovereignty and Socialism in Tanzania: The Historiography of an African State

Observers of the Tanzanian political scene would point out that the country makes its own decisions on matters of internal and international importance. The policy ofUjamaa Vijijini[African socialism in the villages], it would be argued, was formulated here and not at the dictate of any foreign power.In an edited volume entitledThe State in Tanzania, published in 1980 just before the precipitous denouement of President Julius Nyerere's philosophy of African socialism known asUjamaa, Haroub Othman began with the question of the sub-title, “Who Controls it and Whose Interest Does it Serve?” The cover featured a large black question mark on a red background. Provocatively Othman asked, “can one say in a specific and definite sense that Tanzania is building socialism?” Exhibiting a remarkable level of open criticism of the government in a one-party state, the essays framed their issues in the Marxist terms that were long predominant in literature on the Tanzanian state. The book dealt with an ongoing concern that Tanzania's ambitious goals for democracy and development were not being met and the overarching nationalist question of which sovereign defined those goals. It was a question that continues to vex political scientists of Africa today who seek to reconcile Westphalian concepts of sovereignty with the layered realities of African polities struggling to exert sovereign authority both internally and externally.Reviewing a representative sample of nearly fifty years of scholarship on the postcolonial Tanzanian state, one is struck by the tension enervating Othman's essays. Scholars are torn between the impulse to understand the theoretical implications of Tanzania's experience for socialism and a more pragmatic concern to evaluate the country's claim to sovereign authority.

A Standard Terminology for Occupational Therapy

A standard terminology is the authorised system of words and phrases used in a definite sense within a science or subject. The need for a standard terminology for occupational therapy in the United Kingdom was identified in relation to three projects: the Garner Project (College of Occupational Therapists 1999), the Systematised Nomenclature of Human and Veterinary Medicine — Clinical Terms (SNOMED-CT) and Occupational Therapy Defined as a Complex Intervention (Creek 2003). In May 2004, the College of Occupational Therapists commissioned the development of a standard terminology for occupational therapy, to include definitions of between 5 and 12 key terms plus the term occupational therapy. Two sources of data were used: occupational therapy literature and a panel of expert practitioners. The primary literature sources were the College of Occupational Therapists' publications, the European Network of Occupational Therapists in Higher Education's website and the World Federation of Occupational Therapists' website. A Delphi approach was chosen as an appropriate method for obtaining consensus on the definitions among 42 expert occupational therapists. It was found that the Delphi approach, whilst appropriate for producing a set of six definitions of key terms, failed to produce a single definition of occupational therapy. Instead of the number of possible definitions decreasing in each round, it expanded as panel members struggled to find a way of capturing the complexity of occupational therapy within a short definition.

Partial balance, insensitivity and weak coupling

The idea is developed of imbedding a given Markov process in a more general Markov process in a definite sense, the sense of weak coupling. It is shown that this gives a natural theory of insensitivity in that, the stronger the balance conditions satisfied by the imbedded process, the weaker the conditions that are required of the imbedding process. The imbeddings associated with a range of balance conditions are discussed.