[Book review] Instruction Paintings

Tony Mann provides a review of the book: Yoko Ono, Instruction Paintings, Weatherhill Inc., 1996, ISBN 0-8348-0348-8, £12.99

Hermeneutics, accreting receptions, hypermedia: A tool for reference versus a tool for instruction

We provide a select overview of tools supporting traditional Jewish learning. Then we go on to discuss our own HyperJoseph/HyperIsaac project in instructional hypermedia. Its application is to teaching, teacher training, and self-instruction in given Bible passages. The treatment of two narratives has been developed thus far. The tool enables an analysis of the text in several respects: linguistic, narratological, etc. Moreover, the Scriptures' focality throughout the cultural history makes this domain of application particularly challenging, in that there is a requirement for the tool to encompass the accretion of receptions in the cultural repertoire, i.e., several layers of textual traditions—either hermeneutic (i.e., interpretive), or appropriations—related to the given core passage, thus including "secondary" texts (i.e., such that are responding or derivative) from as disparate realms as Roman-age and later homiletics, Medieval and later commentaries or supercommentaries, literary appropriations, references to the arts and modern scholarship, etc. in particular, the Midrash (homiletic expansions) is adept at narrative gap filling, so the narratives mushroom at the interstices where the primary text is silent. The genealogy of the project is rooted in Weiss' index of novelist Agnon's writings, which was eventually upgraded into a hypertextual tool, including Agnon's full-text and ancillary materials. Those early tools being intended primarily for reference and research-support in literary studies, the Agnon hypertext system was initially emulated in the conception of HyperJoseph, which is applied to the Joseph story from Genesis. Then, the transition from a tool for reference to an instructional tool required a thorough reconception in an educational perspective, which led to HyperIsaac, on the sacrifice of Isaac, and to a redesign and upgrade of HyperJoseph as patterned after HyperIsaac.

Group technology approach to the open shop scheduling problem with batch setup times

This paper studies the problem of scheduling jobs in a two-machine open shop to minimize the makespan. Jobs are grouped into batches and are processed without preemption. A batch setup time on each machine is required before the first job is processed, and when a machine switches from processing a job in some batch to a job of another batch. For this NP-hard problem, we propose a linear-time heuristic algorithm that creates a group technology schedule, in which no batch is split into sub-batches. We demonstrate that our heuristic is a -approximation algorithm. Moreover, we show that no group technology algorithm can guarantee a worst-case performance ratio less than 5/4.

The recovery mechanism of platinum group metals from catalytic converters in spent automotive exhaust systems

The recovery of platinum group metals (PGMs) from catalytic converters of spent exhaust systems is considered in this paper. To be cost-effective, recovery processes must be well over 90% efficient and so the optimisation of their operation is vital. Effective optimisation requires a sound understanding of the operation and the underlying process mechanisms. This paper focuses on pyrometallurgical recovery operations used and typified by the Johnson–Matthey process. Analysis of this process reveals that it cannot be simply explained by the gravity model that is normally assumed. The analysis reveals that the affinity of PGM particles for the melted collector metal is a key factor in the behaviour of the process. A rational explanation of the key issues that govern the process behaviour is proposed and shown to be consistent with available operational data. The results generated would be applicable to other similar processes.

Collector-metal behaviour in the recovery of platinum-group metals from catalytic converters

A commercial pyrometallurgical process for the extraction of platinum-group metals (PGM) from a feedstock slag was analysed with the use of a model based on computational fluid dynamics. The results of the modelling indicate that recovery depends on the behaviour of the collector phase. A possible method is proposed for estimation of the rate at which PGM particles in slag are absorbed into an iron collector droplet that falls through it. Nanoscale modelling techniques (for particle migration or capture) are combined with a diffusion-controlled mass-transfer model to determine the iron collector droplet size needed for >95% PGM recovery in a typical process bath (70 mm deep) in a realistic time-scale (<1 h). The results show that an iron droplet having a diameter in the range 0.1–0.3 mm gives good recovery (>90%) within a reasonable time. This finding is compatible with published experimental data. Pyrometallurgical processes similar to that investigated should be applicable to other types of waste that contain low levels of potentially valuable metals.

BSHM meetings: BMS History of Mathematics Splinter Group

Introduction to abstracts from papers given at BMS History of Mathematics Splinter Group, held 17 April 2007, in Swansea.

Research and perspectives on processing instruction

This volume tracks the impact processing instruction has made since its conception. It provides an overview of new research trends on measuring the relative effects of processing instruction. Firstly, the authors explain processing instruction, both its main theoretical underpinnings as well as the guidelines for developing structured input practices. Secondly, they review the empirical research conducted, to date, so that readers have an overview of new research carried out on the effects of processing instruction. The authors finally reflect on the generalizability and limits of the research on processing instruction and offer future directions for processing instruction research.

Delivering processing instruction in classroom and virtual contexts

Processing Instruction (PI) is an approach to grammar instruction for second language learning. It derives its name from the fact that the instruction (both the explicit explanation as well as the practices) attempt to influence, alter, and/or improve the way learners process input. PI contrasts with traditional grammar instruction in many ways, most principally in its focus on input whereas traditional grammar instruction focuses on learners' output. The greatest contribution of PI to both theory and practice is the concept of "structured input", a form of comprehensible input that has been manipulated to maximize learners' benefit of exposure to input. This volume focuses on a new issue for PI, the role of technology in language learning. It examines empirically the differential effects of delivering PI in classrooms with an instructor and students interacting (with each other and with the instructor) versus on computers to students working individually. It also contributes to the growing body of research on the effects of PI on different languages as well as different linguistic items: preterite/imperfect aspectual contrast and negative informal commands in Spanish, the subjunctive of doubt and opinion in Italian, and the subjunctive of doubt in French. Further research contributions are made by comparing PI with other types of instruction, specifically, with meaning-oriented output instruction.

Grammar acquisition and processing instruction: Secondary and cumulative effects

Research on Processing Instruction has so far investigated the primary effects of Processing Instruction. In this book, the results of a series of experimental studies investigating possible secondary and cumulative effects of Processing Instruction on the acquisition of French, Italian and English as a second language will be presented. The results of the three experiments have demonstrated that Processing Instruction not only provides learners the direct or primary benefit of learning to process and produce the morphological form on which they received instruction, but also a secondary benefit in that they transferred that training to processing and producing another morphological form on which they had received no instruction.

Horsham Properties Group Ltd v Clark: possession - mortgagee's right or discretionary remedy?

Comments on the Chancery Division decision in Horsham Properties Group Ltd v Clark on whether a mortgagee's exercise of its contractual right, on the mortgagor falling into arrears, to appoint receivers such that the property could be sold and possession obtained without triggering the court's discretionary powers pursuant to the Administration of Justice Act 1970 s.36 infringed the mortgagor's rights under the European Convention on Human Rights 1950 Protocol 1 art.1. Considers the implications of proposed reforms recasting the mortgagee's right to possession as a discretionary remedy. [From Legal Journals Index]

Exploring knowledge and skills on HIV in student nurses and midwives

A cross-sectional survey design using a self-administered questionnaire was sent to a sample of 62 final-year student nurses and midwives to describe their knowledge of, skills related to, and attitudes towards, human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immune deficiency syndrome. Out of the 47 respondents who return the questionnaire, only 53% stated that they had received class instruction on the topic and 63.8% claimed to have increased their knowledge mainly from reading professional journals. Although only 32% said that they had cared for a patient or knew of a family member or another person with the disease, 91% indicated that they were willing to care for such patients. Overall, the respondents demonstrated positive attitudes towards this group of patients and a good level of knowledge about the subject, although some gaps were evident. However, a large majority stated that their skills to cater for the physical and psychological needs of this group of patients were deficient and would like further training.