A denotational semantics for the generalized ER model and a simple ER algebra

The recent spurt of research activities in Entity-Relationship Approach to databases calls for a close scrutiny of the semantics of the underlying Entity-Relationship models, data manipulation languages, data definition languages, etc. For reasons well known, it is very desirable and sometimes imperative to give formal description of the semantics. In this paper, we consider a specific ER model, the generalized Entity-Relationship model (without attributes on relationships) and give denotational semantics for the model as well as a simple ER algebra based on the model. Our formalism is based on the Vienna Development Method—the meta language (VDM). We also discuss the salient features of the given semantics in detail and suggest directions for further work.

Gauge theory of a group of diffeomorphisms. III. The fiber bundle description

A new fiber bundle approach to the gauge theory of a group G that involves space‐time symmetries as well as internal symmetries is presented. The ungauged group G is regarded as the group of left translations on a fiber bundle G(G/H,H), where H is a closed subgroup and G/H is space‐time. The Yang–Mills potential is the pullback of the Maurer–Cartan form and the Yang–Mills fields are zero. More general diffeomorphisms on the bundle space are then identified as the appropriate gauged generalizations of the left translations, and the Yang–Mills potential is identified as the pullback of the dual of a certain kind of vielbein on the group manifold. The Yang–Mills fields include a torsion on space‐time.

On Application Of The Method Of Kinetic Invariants To The Description Of Dissolution Accompanied By A Chemical Reaction

The dissolution, accompanied by chemical reaction, of monodisperse solid particles has been analysed. The resulting model, which accounts for the variation of mass transfer coefficient with the size of the dissolving particles, yields an approximate analytical form of a kinetic function. Rigorous numerical and approximate analytical solutions have been obtained for the governing system of nonlinear ordinary differential equations. The transient nature of the dissolution process as well as the accuracy of the analytical solution is brought out by the rigorous numerical solution. The analytical solution is fairly accurate for the major part of the range of operational times encountered in practice.

Why Don't Students Talk? Causes of Foreign Language Communication Apprehension in English Classes: A Comparison of High Apprehensive and Low Apprehensive Upper Secondary Students.

OBJECTIVES. Oral foreign language skills are an integral part of one's social, academic and professional competence. This can be problematic for those suffering from foreign language communication apprehension (CA), or a fear of speaking a foreign language. CA manifests itself, for example, through feelings of anxiety and tension, physical arousal and avoidance of foreign language communication situations. According to scholars, foreign language CA may impede the language learning process significantly and have detrimental effects on one's language learning, academic achievement and career prospects. Drawing on upper secondary students' subjective experiences of communication situations in English as a foreign language, this study seeks, first, to describe, analyze and interpret why upper secondary students experience English language communication apprehension in English as a foreign language (EFL) classes. Second, this study seeks to analyse what the most anxiety-arousing oral production tasks in EFL classes are, and which features of different oral production tasks arouse English language communication apprehension and why. The ultimate objectives of the present study are to raise teachers' awareness of foreign language CA and its features, manifestations and impacts in foreign language classes as well as to suggest possible ways to minimize the anxiety-arousing features in foreign language classes. METHODS. The data was collected in two phases by means of six-part Likert-type questionnaires and theme interviews, and analysed using both quantitative and qualitative methods. The questionnaire data was collected in spring 2008. The respondents were 122 first-year upper secondary students, 68 % of whom were girls and 31 % of whom were boys. The data was analysed by statistical methods using SPSS software. The theme interviews were conducted in spring 2009. The interviewees were 11 second-year upper secondary students aged 17 to 19, who were chosen by purposeful selection on the basis of their English language CA level measured in the questionnaires. Six interviewees were classified as high apprehensives and five as low apprehensives according to their score in the foreign language CA scale in the questionnaires. The interview data was coded and thematized using the technique of content analysis. The analysis and interpretation of the data drew on a comparison of the self-reports of the highly apprehensive and low apprehensive upper secondary students. RESULTS. The causes of English language CA in EFL classes as reported by the students were both internal and external in nature. The most notable causes were a low self-assessed English proficiency, a concern over errors, a concern over evaluation, and a concern over the impression made on others. Other causes related to a high English language CA were a lack of authentic oral practise in EFL classes, discouraging teachers and negative experiences of learning English, unrealistic internal demands for oral English performance, high external demands and expectations for oral English performance, the conversation partner's higher English proficiency, and the audience's large size and unfamiliarity. The most anxiety-arousing oral production tasks in EFL classes were presentations or speeches with or without notes in front of the class, acting in front of the class, pair debates with the class as audience, expressing thoughts and ideas to the class, presentations or speeches without notes while seated, group debates with the class as audience, and answering to the teacher's questions involuntarily. The main features affecting the anxiety-arousing potential of an oral production task were a high degree of attention, a large audience, a high degree of evaluation, little time for preparation, little linguistic support, and a long duration.

Ordered Ports – a Language Concept for High-level Distributed Programming

A new language concept for high-level distributed programming is proposed. Programs are organised as a collection of concurrently executing processes. Some of these processes, referred to as liaison processes, have a monitor-like structure and contain ports which may be invoked by other processes for the purposes of synchronisation and communication. Synchronisation is achieved by conditional activation of ports and also through port control constructs which may directly specify the execution ordering of ports. These constructs implement a path-expression-like mechanism for synchronisation and are also equipped with options to provide conditional, non-deterministic and priority ordering of ports. The usefulness and expressive power of the proposed concepts are illustrated through solutions of several representative programming problems. Some implementation issues are also considered.

After interpretation.

Using 58 audio recorded sessions of psychoanalysis (coming from two analysts and three patients) as data and conversation analysis as method, this paper shows how psychoanalysts deal with patients’ responses to interpretations. After the analyst offers an interpretation, the patient responds: at that point (in the “third position”), the analysts recurrently modify the tenor of the description from what it was in the patients’ responses. They intensify the emotional valence of the description, or they reveal layers of the patients’ experience other than those that the patient reported. Both are usually accomplished in an implicit, non-marked way, and they discreetly index possible opportunities for the patients to modify their understandings of the initial interpretation. Although the patients usually do not fully endorse these modifications, the data available suggests that during the sessions that follow, the participants do work with the aspects of patients’ experience that the analyst highlighted. In discussion, it is suggested that actions that the psychoanalysts produce in therapy, such as choices of turn design in third position, may be informed by working understanding of the minds and mental conflicts of individual patients, alongside the more general therapeutic model of mind they hold to.

Wigner distribution for angle coordinates in quantum mechanics

The method of Wigner distribution functions, and the Weyl correspondence between quantum and classical variables, are extended from the usual kind of canonically conjugate position and momentum operators to the case of an angle and angular momentum operator pair. The sense in which one has a description of quantum mechanics using classical phase‐space language is much clarified by this extension.

Publishing for the Masses : Early Modern English Witchcraft Pamphlets

This study is a pragmatic description of the evolution of the genre of English witchcraft pamphlets from the mid-sixteenth century to the end of the seventeenth century. Witchcraft pamphlets were produced for a new kind of readership semi-literate, uneducated masses and the central hypothesis of this study is that publishing for the masses entailed rethinking the ways of writing and printing texts. Analysis of the use of typographical variation and illustrations indicates how printers and publishers catered to the tastes and expectations of this new audience. Analysis of the language of witchcraft pamphlets shows how pamphlet writers took into account the new readership by transforming formal written source materials trial proceedings into more immediate ways of writing. The material for this study comes from the Corpus of Early Modern English Witchcraft Pamphlets, which has been compiled by the author. The multidisciplinary analysis incorporates both visual and linguistic aspects of the texts, with methodologies and theoretical insights adopted eclectically from historical pragmatics, genre studies, book history, corpus linguistics, systemic functional linguistics and cognitive psychology. The findings are anchored in the socio-historical context of early modern publishing, reading, literacy and witchcraft beliefs. The study shows not only how consideration of a new audience by both authors and printers influenced the development of a genre, but also the value of combining visual and linguistic features in pragmatic analyses of texts.