Construction of the transcomplex numbers from the complex numbers

A geometrical construction of the transcomplex numbers was given elsewhere. Here we simplify the transcomplex plane and construct the set of transcomplex numbers from the set of complex numbers. Thus transcomplex numbers and their arithmetic arise as consequences of their construction, not by an axiomatic development. This simplifes transcom- plex arithmetic, compared to the previous treatment, but retains totality so that every arithmetical operation can be applied to any transcomplex number(s) such that the result is a transcomplex number. Our proof establishes the consistency of transcomplex and transreal arithmetic and establishes the expected containment relationships amongst transcomplex, complex, transreal and real numbers. We discuss some of the advantages the transarithmetics have over their partial counterparts.

Building WF16: construction of a PPNA pisé structure in Southern Jordan

The Pre-Pottery Neolithic A (PPNA) period in Southwest Asia is essential for our understanding of the transition to sedentary, agricultural communities. Developments in architecture are key to understanding this transition, but many aspects of PPNA architecture remain elusive, such as construction techniques, the selection of building materials, and the functional use of space. The primary aim of the research described within this contribution was to build a PPNA-like structure in order to answer questions about PPNA architecture in general, while specifically addressing issues raised by the excavation of structures at the site of WF16, Southern Jordan. The second aim was to display a ‘PPNA’ building to visitors in Wadi Faynan to enhance their understanding of the period. The experimental construction based on one of the WF16 structures showed that 1) required materials can be acquired locally; 2) a construction technique using mud layers as described in this paper was likely used; 3) flat, or very slightly dome-shaped, roofs are functional and can also be used as a solid working platform; 4) the WF16 small semi-subterranean buildings appear inappropriate for housing a nuclear family unit.

Faith and protection: the construction of hope by parents of children with leukemia and their oncologists

Background. Oncologists are criticized for fostering unrealistic hope in patients and families, but criticisms reflect a perspective that is oversimplified and “expert” guidance that is ambiguous or impractical. Our aim was to understand how pediatric oncologists manage parents' hope in practice and to evaluate how they address parents' needs. Methods. Participants were 53 parents and 12 oncologists whom they consulted across six U.K. centers. We audio recorded consultations approximately 1–2, 6, and 12 months after diagnosis. Parents were interviewed after each consultation to elicit their perspectives on the consultation and clinical relationship. Transcripts of consultations and interviews were analyzed qualitatively. Results. Parents needed hope in order to function effectively in the face of despair, and all wanted the oncologists to help them be hopeful. Most parents focused hope on the short term. They therefore needed oncologists to be authoritative in taking responsibility for the child's long-term survival while cushioning parents from information about longer-term uncertainties and being positive in providing information about short-term progress. A few parents who could not fully trust their oncologist were unable to hope. Conclusion. Oncologists' pivotal role in sustaining hope was one that parents gave them. Most parents' “faith” in the oncologist allowed them to set aside, rather than deny, their fears about survival while investing their hopes in short-term milestones. Oncologists' behavior generally matched parents' needs, contradicting common criticisms of oncologists. Nevertheless, oncologists need to identify and address the difficulty that some parents have in fully trusting the oncologist and, consequently, being hopeful.

Generic construction of monitors for floating point unit designs

This paper proposes a set of well defined steps to design functional verification monitors intended to verify Floating Point Units (FPU) described in HDL. The first step consists on defining the input and output domain coverage. Next, the corner cases are defined. Finally, an already verified reference model is used in order to test the correctness of the Device Under Verification (DUV). As a case study a monitor for an IEEE754-2008 compliant design is implemented. This monitor is built to be easily instantiated into verification frameworks such as OVM. Two different designs were verified reaching complete input coverage and successful compliant results.

Two Faces of AIDS in Hong Kong: Culture and the Construction of the `AIDS Celebrity'

Since the first reported case of HIV infection in Hong Kong in 1985, only two HIV-positive individuals in the territory have voluntarily made public their seropositivity: a British dentist named Mike Sinclair, who disclosed his condition to the media in 1992 and died in 1995, and J.J. Chan, a local Chinese disc-jockey, who came forward in 1995 and died just a few months later. When they made their revelations, both became instant media personalities and were invited by the Hong Kong Government to act as spokespeople for AIDS awareness and prevention. Mike Sinclair worked as an education officer for the Hong Kong AIDS Foundation, and J.J. Chan appeared in Government television commercials about AIDS. This article explores how the public identities of these two figures were constructed in the cultural context of Hong Kong where both Eastern and Western values exist side by side and interact. It argues that the construction of `AIDS celebrities' is a kind of `identity project' negotiated among the players involved: the media, the Government, the public, and the person with AIDS (PWA) himself, each bringing to the construction their own `theories' regarding the self and communication. When the players in the construction hold shared assumptions about the nature of the self and the role of communication in enacting it, harmonious discourses arise, but when cultural models among the players differ, contradictory or ambiguous constructions result. The effect of culture on the way `AIDS celebrities' are constructed has implications for the way societies view the issue of AIDS and treat those who have it. It also helps reveal possible sites of difficulty when individuals of different cultures communicate about the issue.

Marketing the Damaged Self: The Construction of Identity in Advertisements Directed Towards People with HIV/AIDS

This paper explores the identities projected in advertisements directed towards HIV positive individuals and people with AIDS. Fifty such advertisements were collected from three popular American magazines for gay men over a period of seven months. Analysis of the ads reveals a paradoxical presentation of people with HIV/AIDS, which offers simultaneous conflicting images of hope and fear, power and weakness, innocence and guilt. An interactive sociolinguistic model through which this contradictory discourse might be understood is presented, drawing on Goffman’s insights on stigma management and the presentation of the self in social interaction. Advertisements directed towards people with HIV/AIDS, it is suggested, present a contradictory discourse in which the advertisers are positioned as ‘the wise’, offering to mediate the conflicting identities of the stigmatized. The identity values enacted in this contradictory discourse are further measured against American conceptions of communication and the self as observed by Carbaugh and others. The possible consequences of these positionings on the roles made available to people with HIV/AIDS in the wider social context are discussed.

Construction of Hamiltonian-Minimal Lagrangian submanifolds in Complex Euclidean Space

We describe several families of Lagrangian submanifolds in complex Euclidean space which are H-minimal, i.e. critical points of the volume functional restricted to Hamiltonian variations. We make use of various constructions involving planar, spherical and hyperbolic curves, as well as Legendrian submanifolds of the odd-dimensional unit sphere.

Optimization of incubation time of protein Tc85 in the construction of biosensor: Is the EIS a good tool?

Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) in pH 6.9 phosphate buffer solution was used to investigate each step of the procedure employed to modify a screen-printed electrode (SPE). The SPE was modified with self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) of cystamine (CYS, deposited from 20 mM solution), followed by glutaraldehyde (GA, 0.3 M solution). The Trypanosoma cruzi antigen was immobilized using different deposition times. The influence of incubation time (2-18 h) of protein was also investigated. The topography of modified electrode with this protein was investigated by atomic force microscopy (AFM). Interpretation of impedance data was based on physical and chemical adsorption, and degradation of the layer at high and meddle frequencies, and charge transfer reaction involving mainly the reduction of oxygen at low frequencies. EIS studies on modified electrodes with Tc85 protein immobilized for different incubation times indicated that the optimum incubation time was 6-8 h. It was demonstrated that EIS is a good technique to evaluate the different steps and the integrity of the surface modifications, and to optimize the incubation time of protein in the development of biosensors. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Have You Met Miss Jones? : Identity Construction of a Chick Lit Heroine

Take a random woman in her mid-twenties, with a crazy mother, a lousy job and no sex life, add some insecurity and a lot of alcohol and wrap her up in pink, and congratulations, you have just created your own chick lit heroine.The question is whether a chick lit heroine is this simplistic, or if she carries an important message to the readers. The most important traits in a chick lit novel are the complicated mother-daughter relationship, the career and the love life.Thus, this essay will outline to what extent the postfeminist features are depicted in theidentity of Bridget Jones, as an epitome of later chick lit heroines.

The Construction of Identity in Edwidge Danticat's The Farming of Bones

The Farming of Bones deals with issues surrounding the dynamic connections between identity and boundary construction in post-colonial context. It will present an analysis of how the novelist problematizes and communicates her idea of social and national identity construction to her readers and how the readers can identify themselves with the struggles and challenges of the protagonist Amabelle who is trying to find her own identity. This essay will show how Danticat’s novel contributes to an understanding of national identity beyond borders and makes the reader take the role of an individual who constructs her identity by uncovering moments of raw humanness. Until now, no literary scholar has examined the protagonist’s therapeutic role in bridging this social and national gap. Instead critics have discussed other issues of the novel like crossing and re-crossing the border, love, dreams, etc. Although this scholarship has been very effective and rewarding, it lacks any focus on the complexity of the characters’ identity construction. Therefore, this paper will reconsider Danticat’s The Farming of Bones with a closer attention to the question of identity.

Overexpression and Purification of the Oat (Avena Fatua) Protein AFN1 and Construction of a pMAL/AFN1 Expression Plasmid

Abscisic acid (ABA) is an important phytohormone with regulatory roles in many physiological processes. ABA expression is induced by environmental stresses such as drought and it is known to be an inhibitor of seed germination. A wild oat (Avena fatua) called AFN1 has been hypothesized to initiate the early stages of germination as its mRNA accumulates in nondormant seed embryos during imbibition. The polypeptide sequence of AFN1 suggests that it is an ABA glucosyl transferase. Glucosylation by AFN1 and thereby inactivation of ABA could lead to seed germination. In order to understand the role of AFN1 in germination, an ample quantity of AFN1 polypeptide is needed to test for enzymatic ABA glucosylase activity. My work has been to overexpress recombinant AFN1containing a (His)6 tag using a pRSETC E.coli expression system followed by Purification of the AFN1 protein by means of a nickel-affinity column that bind to the (His)6 tag. Due to the insufficient yield of AFN1 fusion protein obtained with this procedure, another method using a pMAL-c2x vector is now being employed. The pMAL expression system provides a method for expressing and purifying protein by tagging proteins with maltose-binding protein (MBP). It is anticipated that MBP tag will be advantageous as it can make the fusion protein more soluble and thereby yield a larger quantity of protein. Currently, work is underway on the construction of pMAL/AFN1 plasmid.