Tracer-based assessment of flow paths, storage and runoff generation in northern catchments : a review

Peer reviewed

Romantic Catholics:France's postrevolutionary generation in search of a modern faith

Book review: Romantic Catholics: France’s Postrevolutionary Generation in Search of a Modern Faith. By Carol E. Harrison. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2014. 344 pp., ill.

Book Review of In Search of an Alternative Biopolitics

Book Review: Beilin, O.K. (2015). In Search of an Alternative Biopolitics. Anti-Bullfighting, Animality, and the Environment in Contemporary Spain. Columbus: State University Press.

Problems of optimal transportation on the circle and their mechanical applications

We consider a mechanical problem concerning a 2D axisymmetric body moving forward on the plane and making slow turns of fixed magnitude about its axis of symmetry. The body moves through a medium of non-interacting particles at rest, and collisions of particles with the body's boundary are perfectly elastic (billiard-like). The body has a blunt nose: a line segment orthogonal to the symmetry axis. It is required to make small cavities with special shape on the nose so as to minimize its aerodynamic resistance. This problem of optimizing the shape of the cavities amounts to a special case of the optimal mass transfer problem on the circle with the transportation cost being the squared Euclidean distance. We find the exact solution for this problem when the amplitude of rotation is smaller than a fixed critical value, and give a numerical solution otherwise. As a by-product, we get explicit description of the solution for a class of optimal transfer problems on the circle.

In search of community.

Community derives from the Latin root word communis (common), which itself breaks down into two possible derivations [...]. The first, com plus munis (what is indebted, bound, or obligated together), is thought to be more philologically accurate, while the second, com plus unus (what is together as one), carries the status of a folk- etymology.

Selected Violin Concertos: In Search of a Missing Link

My dissertation presented seven violin concertos in three recital programs. Three of these concertos are acknowledged masterpieces performed in established concert venues throughout the world. They are the concertos of Mozart, Beethoven and Tchaikovsky. The other four are less standard and are composed by Viotti, Kreutzer, Rode and Spohr. These less standard concertos were popular during their time yet they seem not to have stood the test of time. A curriculum devoted exclusively to the standard concertos creates problems for the young violinist. The Mozart violin concertos are often the first standard concertos that the young violin student encounters. They are considered to be the least technically demanding of the standard concertos. The next most advanced standard concertos that the student will usually encounter are Bruch’s G minor concerto, Wieniawski’s D minor concerto and Barber’s concerto. The trouble is that the work on Mozart concertos does not adequately prepare a student for the next most advanced standard concerto. There is a discontinuous leap in the progression of technical difficulty between the Mozart concertos and the next most advanced concertos. Likewise the standard concerto repertoire provides no smooth historical or stylistic progression between the Mozart concertos and the next most advanced concertos. If the young violinist is limited to the standard repertoire then she has no smooth progression either technical, historical or stylistic. I seek to demonstrate that, by adding concertos of Spohr, Viotti, Kreutzer, and Rode to the standard violin curriculum, one could remedy this problem. The first and third recitals were performed in the Gildenhorn Recital Hall and the second recital in the School of Music’s Smith Lecture Hall, both at the University of Maryland. All three recitals can be found in the Digital Repository at the University of Maryland (DRUM).

In Search of Social Justice: Current Developments in Higher Education and the Labour Market in Bulgaria

The discussions about social justice date from ancient times, but despite the enduring interest in the topic and the progress made, we are still witnessing injustices throughout the world. Thus, the search for social justice, under some form, is an inseparable part of our lives. In general, social justice may be considered as a critical idea that challenges us to reform our institutions and practices in the name of greater fairness (Miller 1999, p. x). In political and policy debates, social justice is often related to fair access (Brown, 2013) but at the same time its meanings seem to vary when we consider different definitions, perspectives and social theories (Zajda, Majhanovich, & Rust, 2006). When seen in the context of higher education, social justice appears in relevant literature as a buzzword (Patton, Shahjahan, Riyad, & Osei-Kofi, 2010). Within the recent studies of higher education and public debates related to the development of higher education, more emphasis is placed on the link between higher education and the economic growth and how higher education could be more responsive to the labour market demands, and little emphasis has been put on social justice. Given this, the present study attempts to at least partially fill the gap with regard to this apparently very topical issue, especially in the context of the unprecedented worldwide expansion of higher education in the last century (Schofer & Meyer, 2005), an expansion that is expected to continue in the next decades. More specifically, the expansion of higher education intensified in the second part of the 20th century, especially after World War II. It was seen as a result of the intertwined dynamics related to demographic, economic and political pressures (Goastellec, 2008a). This trend undoubtedly contributed to the increase of the size of the student body. To illustrate this trend, we may point out that in the period between 2000 and 2007, the number of tertiary students in the world increased from 98,303,539 to 150,656,459 (UNESCO, 2009, p. 205). This growth occurred in all regions of the world, including Central and Eastern Europe, North America and Western Europe, and contributed to raising the number of tertiary graduates. Thus, in the period between 2000 and 2008, the total number of tertiary graduates in the European Union (EU) 27 increased by a total of 35 percent (or 4.5 percent per year). However, this growth was very uneven, ranging from 21.1 percent in Romania to 0.7 percent in Hungary (European Commission working staff document, 2011). The increase of the number of students and graduates was seen as enhancing the social justice in higher education, since it is assumed that expansion “extends a valued good to a broader spectrum of the population” (Arum, Gamoran, & Shavit, 2007, p. 29). However, concerns for a deep contradiction for 21st-century higher education also emerged with regard to its expansion.

To be a woman here is to be invisible: in search of the dispossessed femininity in Middle-earth

In my thesis I examine J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings (1954-55), the fantasy epic written on the basis of a fictional universe created by Tolkien, complete with elves, dwarves and other mystical creatures – with languages, alphabets and grammar created for all. While rich linguistically, Tolkien writes a decidedly male description of his world, often neglecting any acknowledgement of female existence. Tolkien’s monolithic stature amongst other fantasy authors made me conduct a feminist reading of The Lord of the Rings, with an eye for the way female experience is marginalized to the point of omission. Tolkien’s linguistic accomplishments have overshadowed the illogical aspects of his work, namely the omission of genders, societal classes and features of society necessary for the fictional universe to retain its cohesion. This cohesion suffers from a totally male experience in the novel which is willfully blind to these features I listed. My theoretical framework is built on ideas in Toril Moi’s Sex, Gender and the Body (2005) and bell hook’s Feminism is For Everybody (2000). Michel Foucault’s ideas of power and hidden histories assist in performing a close reading of the source text and interpreting the results. My thesis focuses on the transformation that the values associated with the concept of equality have undergone. This is best illustrated in the treatment of the few female characters in the novel – Galadriel, Éowyn and Arwen – as their beauty and existence interferes with the ordering of the male-dominated world.

Strategic knowledge management: In search of a knowledge-based organizational model

This paper discusses the results and propositions of organizational knowledge management research conducted in the period 2001-2007. This longitudinal study had the unique goal of investigating and analyzing “Knowledge Management” (KM) processes effectively implemented in world class organizations. The main objective was to investigate and analyze the conceptions, motivations, practices, metrics and results of KM processes implemented in different industries. The first set of studies involved 20 world cases related in the literature and served as a basis for a theoretical framework entitled “KM Integrative Conceptual Mapping Proposition”. This theoretical proposal was then tested in a qualitative study in three large organizations in Brazil. The results of the qualitative study validated the mapping proposition and left questions for new research concerning the implementation of a knowledge-based organizational model strategy.

Selection of optimal operating conditions based on minimum energy consumption for an acrylonitrile recovery unit

The selection of the optimal operating conditions for an industrial acrylonitrile recovery unit was conducted by the systematic application of the response surface methodology, based on the minimum energy consumption and products specifications as process constraints. Unit models and plant simulation were validated against operating data and information. A sensitivity analysis was carried out in order to identify the set of parameters that strongly affect the trajectories of the system while keeping products specifications. The results suggest that energy savings of up to 10% are possible by systematically adjusting operating conditions.

Search of symmetric composition methods of symmetric integrators

Composition methods are useful when solving Ordinary Differential Equations (ODEs) as they increase the order of accuracy of a given basic numerical integration scheme. We will focus on sy-mmetric composition methods involving some basic second order symmetric integrator with different step sizes [17]. The introduction of symmetries into these methods simplifies the order conditions and reduces the number of unknowns. Several authors have worked in the search of the coefficients of these type of methods: the best method of order 8 has 17 stages [24], methods of order 8 and 15 stages were given in [29, 39, 40], 10-order methods of 31, 33 and 35 stages have been also found [24, 34]. In this work some techniques that we have built to obtain 10-order symmetric composition methods of symmetric integrators of s = 31 stages (16 order conditions) are explored. Given some starting coefficients that satisfy the simplest five order conditions, the process followed to obtain the coefficients that satisfy the sixteen order conditions is provided.

Publishing and impact criteria, and their bearing on Translation Studies: In search of comparability

This paper questions the current concept of quality as used in research assessment rankings and peer review, with special reference to the link often established between impact and the way this impact is measured in the form of citation counting. Taking translation studies as a case study, we will offer a two-level approach to reveal both the macro- and micro-level biases that exist in this regard. We will first review three key aspects related to the idea of the quality of publications, namely peer review, journal indexing, and journal impact factor. We will then pinpoint some of the main macro-level problems regarding current practices and criteria as applied to translation studies, such as Thomson Reuters World of Science's journal coverage, citation patterns, and publication format. Next we will provide a micro-textual and practical perspective, focusing on citation counts and suggesting a series of corrective measures to increase comparability.

In Search of Sovereignty: Central and Eastern Europe, 1956-1989

International theory is replete with contested concepts, none more than state sovereignty. Although embodied in the UN Charter, it came under continuous strain during the early Cold War, culminating in the crucial year of 1956. Subsequent Soviet ideologists sought to justify the invasion of Czechoslovakia as „limited sovereignty”, dubbed by US analysts the "Brezhnev Doctrine". A few Western scholars thought this ended with the "non-invasion" of Poland in 1980-1981, but Russian archives reveal that it was not annulled until spring 1989.

In search of a social science research methods pedagogy for the digital era: the story so far

Presentation given at the 2016 British Educational Research Association (BERA) conference