The Concept of Self in Buddhism and Brahmanism: Some Remarks

I contrast briefly the Buddhist concept of Self as a process and a conditional reality with the concept of the substantial metaphysical concept of Self in Brahmanism and Hinduism. I present the criticism of the Buddhist thinkers, such as Nāgārjuna, who criticize any idea of the metaphysical Self. They deny the idea of the Self as its own being or as a possessor of its mental acts. However, they do not reject all sense of Self; they allow a pure process of knowledge (first of all, Self-knowledge) without a fixed subject or “owner” of knowledge. This idea is in a deep accord with some Chan stories and paradoxes of the Self and knowledge.

On recursive operations over logic LTS

Recently, in order to mix algebraic and logic styles of specification in a uniform framework, the notion of a logic labelled transition system (Logic LTS or LLTS for short) has been introduced and explored. A variety of constructors over LLTS, including usual process-algebraic operators, logic connectives (conjunction and disjunction) and standard temporal modalities (always and unless), have been given. However, no attempt has been made so far to develop the general theory concerning (nested) recursive operations over LLTS and a few fundamental problems are still open. This paper intends to study this issue in a pure process-algebraic style. A few fundamental properties, including precongruence and the uniqueness of consistent solutions of equations, will be established.

ARE COMPLEX INNOVATORS MORE PERSISTENT THAN SINGLE INNOVATORS? AN EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS OF INNOVATION PERSISTENCE DRIVERS

This paper examines the persistence of innovation behaviour at the firm level (in the manufacturing and services sectors). We attempt to answer the question of whether being successful in past innovation activities increase the probability of being successful in current innovation activities. We contribute to the literature by explicitly distinguishing between single and complex innovation strategies. Using two waves of the Community Innovation Survey (2002–2004, 2006–2008) conducted in Luxembourg, the regressions show that complex innovators are more inclined to remain persistent rather than single innovators. Within the group of single innovators, pure product innovators have an advantage over pure process innovators. The results support the idea that the differences in innovation strategies across firms are important for understanding the firm's innovation dynamics.

Biological treatment of sludge digester liquids

Nitrogen removal in side stream processes offers a good potential for upgrading wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) that need to meet stricter effluent standards. Removing nutrients from these internal process flows significantly reduces the N-load to the main treatment plant. These internal flows mainly result from the sludge processing and have a high temperature and a high concentration of ammonia. Therefore, the required reactor volumes as well as the required aerobic SRT are small. Generally, biological treatment processes are more economical and preferred over physical–chemical processes. Recently, several biological treatment processes have been introduced for sludge water treatment. These processes are available now on the activated sludge market (e.g. SHARON®, ANAMMOX® and BABE® processes). The technologies differ in concept and in the limitations guiding the application of these processes for upgrading WWTPs. This paper reviews and compares different biological alternatives for nitrogen removal in side streams. The limitations for selecting a technology from the available ones in the activated sludge market are noted and analysed. It is stressed that the choice for a certain process is based on more aspects than pure process engineering arguments.