Current interpretations of Apuleius' 'Golden Ass' cover the entire spectrum from a religious autobiography to an incongruous collection of titillating stories. The goal of this book is to explain the ...extraordinary polyphony of Apuleius' novel as a product of the 2nd century CE context, in which elite culture (philosophy and sophistic oratory) and popular entertainment not only share the same venues and appeal to the same audiences but also engage in active exchange of subject matter and histrionic techniques. The book argues that Apuleius' narrative represents a mosaic of discourses each of which possesses a respectable pedigree in the world of Greco-Roman 'paideia'. It further traces the ensuing ambiguity to the Second Sophistic rhetoric and concludes that the particular thrill of reading the novel consists in the ironic frustration of any attempt to discover a centripetal force in an irreducibly multi-polar text.(Der Autor ist Preisträger des "Heidelberger Förderpreises für klassisch-philologische Theoriebildung" 2009)
Digital Channelizing Radio Frequency Receiver Gupta, D.; Filippov, T.V.; Kirichenko, A.F. ...
IEEE transactions on applied superconductivity,
06/2007, Letnik:
17, Številka:
2
Journal Article, Conference Proceeding
Recenzirano
HYPRES is developing a class of digital receivers featuring direct digitization at radio frequency (RF). Such a receiver consists of a wideband analog-to-digital converter (ADC) modulator and ...multiple digital channelizer units to extract different frequency bands-of-interest within the broad digitized spectrum. The single-bit oversampled data, from either a lowpass delta or bandpass delta-sigma modulator, are applied to one or more channelizers, each comprising digital in-phase and quadrature mixers and a pair of digital decimation filters. We perform channelization in two steps, the first at full ADC sampling clock frequency with rapid single flux quantum (RSFQ) digital circuits and the second at reduced (decimated) clock frequency with commercial field programmable gate array (FPGA) chips at room temperature. We have demonstrated lowpass and bandpass digital receivers by integrating an ADC modulator and a channelizer unit on the same chip at clock frequencies up to 20 GHz. These 1-cm 2 single-chip digital-RF receivers contain over 10,000 Josephson junctions. The channelizing receiver approach can be extended to include multiple ADC modulators and multiple channelizer units on a multi-chip module.
There is a lot of scientific papers that consider the efficiency of different container yard’s handling strategies. The methods of assessment vary from abstract mathematical calculations to ...aposterioric collection and analyses of practical data. This article deals with a new way of stacking strategy’s estimation. It postulates that investigations based on the extrapolation of existing strategies cannot be reliable due to rapid changes in terminals’ environment and restricted amount of data that can be collected within limited periods of the strategies’ application. The hypothesis of the study is that the only method that could provide robust comparative study of container stacking strategies is the simulation modelling. In the same time, any model is only a tool of analyses. The synthesis could be provided only by massive iterations of single simulation experiments with controlled searching procedure in the space of parameters. Consequently, the stress of the simulation study should be put not on the model itself, but on the way how to use it, i.e. on the experiments planning. Only a rationally constructed machine of simulation scenario generation could provide adequate and statistically reliable results. In order to demonstrate the importance of this ‘task setting’ machine, two example strategies are selected for comparison: (1) allocation of containers to slots with the minimum height and (2) stacking of containers in accordance with expected dwell time. It also shows that the objective function has a great impact on the optimal strategy implementation. In the study described in the paper the number of moves requested to select a container is opted as an optimization criterion.
The terminology and conceptual apparatus of modern logistics as a scientific discipline is far from being shaped. Researches and developers of legislative and norm-setting documents are obliged to ...use their own or barrowed terminology, in both case not shared ubiquitously. Consequently, the interpretations even of basic concepts differ significantly. In particular, there exists an academic and practical point of view that refuse the right for existence of the term “transportation logistics”. This clause is explained by the proclaimed omnipresence and universality of logistics, which has in its operational glossary the term “transportation”, treated as a local, subordinated and thus secondary function. This paper tries to set a decisive rule to distinguish between general logistics and transportation logistics, arguing that these two disciplines are well separated by the objects and methodology, knowledge and activities. In transportation logistics defined this way the authors examine two principal components of the transportation processes, storage (warehousing) and movement (shipping). This consideration lead to conclusions that the classical mathematical toolkit is not fitted for the design and management of modern global supply chains.
The container yard is the key element of any modern container terminal. The huge amount of boxes dwelling on the operational areas of the terminals could occupy a lot of space, since one-time storage ...capacity of the container mega terminal handling over one million TEUs annually is something around 20 000 TEUs. The ecological pressure imposed on modern container terminal does not permit to allocate for this storage large land areas, thus forcing the box stacks grow high. The selection of the individual boxes becomes a complex and time-consuming procedure, demanding a lot of technological resources and deteriorating the service quality. The predicted combinatorial growth of redundant moves needed to clear the access to the individual container is aggravated by the well-known and widely discussed ‘sinking effect’, when containers arrived earlier are gradually covered by the ones arriving afterwards. While the random selection could be adequately assessed by combinatorial methods, the ‘sinking effect’ allows neither intuitive consideration, nor any traditional mathematical means. The only practical way to treat this problem today is in simulation, but the simulation itself causes yet another problem: the problem of model adequacy. This study deals with one possible approach to the problem designated to prove its validity and adequacy, without which the simulation has naught gnoseological value.
Anal canal squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) is managed definitively with chemoradiation, reserving surgery for salvage. The dosage of radiation has varied from 30 Gy to in excess of 60 Gy. RTOG 0529 ...established intensity modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) as standard of care for anal canal SCC with doses of 50.4 to 54 Gy. We sought to use the National Cancer Database to examine trends in dose selection and radiation technique over time.
We queried the National Cancer Database from 2004 to 2015 for cases of anal cancer stage groups 1 to 3, treated with definitive doses of radiation with chemotherapy. Dose escalation was defined as >54 Gy. Univariable and multivariable analyses were performed to identify factors predictive of dose, IMRT, and overall survival. Propensity-adjusted Cox proportional hazard ratios for survival were used to account for indication bias.
We identified 7792 patients meeting the eligibility criteria, with 4269 treated to doses of 45 to 54 Gy and 3163 treated to doses >54 Gy. Patients who were older, had government or private insurance, IMRT treatment, treatment at an academic center, or more recent years were less likely to get dose escalation. The use of dose escalation decreased over time, from 50% in 2005 to 30% in 2015. IMRT use increased over time from 2% to 63%. On multivariable analysis with propensity score included it was found that increased age, higher comorbidity score, lower income, shorter distance to facility, and male sex were predictive of decreased overall survival. In addition, escalated dose was associated with a lower survival (hazard ratio: 1.10, 95% confidence interval: 1.01-1.20, P=0.03).
The results of this analysis show a steady increase in the use of IMRT, with corresponding decrease in dose escalation. These findings correlate with the results of RTOG 0529 establishing IMRT as standard of care for anal SCC, using doses of 50.4 to 54 Gy.
Superconductor Digital-RF Receiver Systems MUKHANOV, Oleg A.; KIRICHENKO, Dmitri; VERNIK, Igor V. ...
IEICE Transactions on Electronics,
03/2008, Letnik:
E91.C, Številka:
3
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Digital superconductor electronics has been experiencing rapid maturation with the emergence of smaller-scale, lower-cost communications applications which became the major technology drivers. These ...applications are primarily in the area of wireless communications, radar, and surveillance as well as in imaging and sensor systems. In these areas, the fundamental advantages of superconductivity translate into system benefits through novel Digital-RF architectures with direct digitization of wide band, high frequency radio frequency (RF) signals. At the same time the availability of relatively small 4K cryocoolers has lowered the foremost market barrier for cryogenically-cooled digital electronic systems. Recently, we have achieved a major breakthrough in the development, demonstration, and successful delivery of the cryocooled superconductor digital-RF receivers directly digitizing signals in a broad range from kilohertz to gigahertz. These essentially hybrid-technology systems combine a variety of superconductor and semiconductor technologies packaged with two-stage commercial cryocoolers: cryogenic Nb mixed-signal and digital circuits based on Rapid Single Flux Quantum (RSFQ) technology, room-temperature amplifiers, FPGA processing and control circuitry. The demonstrated cryocooled digital-RF systems are the world's first and fastest directly digitizing receivers operating with live satellite signals in X-band and performing signal acquisition in HF to L-band at ∼30GHz clock frequencies.
Simulation Model of Container Land Terminals Kuznetsov, Alexander; Kirichenko, Alexander; Eglit, J.J.
TransNav (Gdynia, Poland ),
06/2018, Letnik:
12, Številka:
2
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
The simulation as a tool for the design of port and terminals has emerged as an answer for the demand to enhance the quality and reliability of the project results. Very high costs of the project ...solution implementation and practically total lack of liquidity of transport infrastructure objects always induced the immense commercial risks in the terminal business. Lately these risks have multiplied significantly due to rapid changes on the global and regional markets of transport services. Today, many experts come to see this volatility as an indicator of the next phase in development of the global trade system and the derivative cargo transportation system, specifically the state of temporal saturation. The shift of the global goods volumes from quick and steady growth to relatively small fluctuations around constant values causes quick oscillations in re-distribution of demand over the oversized supply. This new business and economic environment seriously affected the paradigm of transport terminal design and development techniques. The new operational environment of terminals put a request for the designers to arrange the results not in terms of “point”, but in terms of “functions”. Eventually it resulted in development of the modern object-oriented model approach. The wide spread of this approach witnesses the objective demand for this discipline, while in many aspects it remains in the intuitive (pre-paradigmal) phase of its development. The main reason for it is in the problem definition itself, which usually is formulated as the simulation of a given terminal. At the same time, the task is to assess the operational characteristics of the terminal engaged in processing of a given combination of cargo flows. Consequently, it is not the terminal that should be simulated, but the processes of cargo flows handling performed by this terminal under investigation. Another problem that restricts the practical spread of simulation is in the model adequacy. A model which adequacy is not proved has no gnoseological value at all. The paper describes the approach aimed at development of the models with the features discussed above.
This article analyses the power dynamics that Ovid stages in the Metamorphoses as interplay of rhetoric, monumental art, and poetry. It argues that (1) the transformations of gods can be read as a ...metaphor of rhetoric subjecting the audience to the speaker's will; (2) that the products of the transformations of humans can be regarded as notional monuments to divine power; (3) that, for Ovid, all successful ideological constructs are based on a similar combination of rhetorical manipulation and "monumentalization"; (4) that, at the same time, Ovid casts metamorphosis as a product of the ability of the human imagination to recognize a human presence behind every non-human object, including the "monuments" constructed by superhuman powers; (5) that Ovid conceives of the "re-humanizing" effect of poetry as a function of its ability to make the audience recognize themselves in it; and (6) that the immortality that Ovid attributes to his own text is a function of his writing producing a similar effect on the readers.
•The standard treatment for squamous cell cancer of the anal canal is combined chemoradiation.•It's postulated that omitting chemotherapy could reduce toxicity without affecting survival.•Survival ...outcomes remain worse without chemotherapy, even in early stages.
The standard of care for non-metastatic squamous cell carcinoma of the anal canal (SCCA) is concurrent chemoradiotherapy. It is postulated that chemotherapy could be omitted for the earliest stages without worsening outcomes.
We queried the NCDB from 2004–2016 for patients with cT1N0M0 SCCA treated non-operatively with radiation, with and without chemotherapy, and at least two months of follow-up. Of the 2,959 patients meeting eligibility, 92% received chemotherapy (n = 2722) and 8% (n = 237) did not. Most patients were white (n = 2676), female (n = 2019), had private insurance (n = 1507) and were treated in a comprehensive cancer center (n = 1389). Average age was 58.5 years.
Predictors of chemotherapy omission were age > 58 years (OR 0.66, 95% CI 0.49–0.90, P = 0.0087), higher comorbidity score (OR 0.62, 95% CI 0.38–0.99, P = 0.0442), African American race (OR 0.57, 95% CI 0.36–0.90, P = 0.0156) and treatment at the start of the study period (OR 1 for years 2004–2006). HR for single-agent chemotherapy was 0.70 (95% CI 0.50–0.96, P = 0.0288) and 0.48 for multi-agent (95% CI 0.38–0.62, P <0.0001). Overall survival was 86% in those that received chemotherapy vs 65% in those who did not (P <0.0001).
In conclusion, patients with early-stage squamous cell cancer of the anus who are treated with combination chemoradiation continue to demonstrate better overall survival than those who undergo radiotherapy alone.
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