WorldWideScience

Sample records for formal investigation procedure

  1. New procedure for departure formalities

    CERN Multimedia

    HR & GS Departments

    2011-01-01

    As part of the process of simplifying procedures and rationalising administrative processes, the HR and GS Departments have introduced new personalised departure formalities on EDH. These new formalities have applied to students leaving CERN since last year and from 17 October 2011 this procedure will be extended to the following categories of CERN personnel: Staff members, Fellows and Associates. It is planned to extend this electronic procedure to the users in due course. What purpose do departure formalities serve? The departure formalities are designed to ensure that members of the personnel contact all the relevant services in order to return any necessary items (equipment, cards, keys, dosimeter, electronic equipment, books, etc.) and are aware of all the benefits to which they are entitled on termination of their contract. The new departure formalities on EDH have the advantage of tailoring the list of services that each member of the personnel must visit to suit his individual contractual and p...

  2. Formalizing physical security procedures

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Meadows, C.; Pavlovic, Dusko

    Although the problems of physical security emerged more than 10,000 years before the problems of computer security, no formal methods have been developed for them, and the solutions have been evolving slowly, mostly through social procedures. But as the traffic on physical and social networks is now

  3. Procedural Formalism and Social Networks in the Housing Market

    OpenAIRE

    Bonleu, Antoine

    2014-01-01

    Why do some OECD countries have high levels of procedural formalism (PF) in the housing market? We provide an explanation based upon complementarities between the strength of social networks and the stringency of procedural formalism. The interest of social networks is that conflict resolution is independent of the law. When local people belong to social networks whereas foreigners do not, PF may facilitate housing search for locals at the expense of foreigners. To illustrate this mechanism w...

  4. Formal Verification of Computerized Procedure with Colored Petri Nets

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kim, Yun Goo; Shin, Yeong Cheol

    2008-01-01

    Computerized Procedure System (CPS) supports nuclear power plant operators in performing operating procedures which are instructions to guide in monitoring, decision making and controlling nuclear power plants. Computerized Procedure (CP) should be loaded to CPS. Due to its execution characteristic, computerized procedure acts like a software in CPS. For example, procedure flows are determined by operator evaluation and computerized procedure logic which are pre-defined. So the verification of Computerized Procedure logic and execution flow is needed before computerized procedures are installed in the system. Formal verification methods are proposed and the modeling of operating procedures with Coloured Petri Nets(CP-nets) is presented

  5. 28 CFR 16.203 - Closed meetings-Formal procedure.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-07-01

    ... 28 Judicial Administration 1 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Closed meetings-Formal procedure. 16.203 Section 16.203 Judicial Administration DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE PRODUCTION OR DISCLOSURE OF MATERIAL OR... involvement of any person in the commission of a crime, but only to the extent that the production of such...

  6. Formalizing the Austrian Procedure Catalogue: A 4-step methodological analysis approach.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Neururer, Sabrina Barbara; Lasierra, Nelia; Peiffer, Karl Peter; Fensel, Dieter

    2016-04-01

    Due to the lack of an internationally accepted and adopted standard for coding health interventions, Austria has established its own country-specific procedure classification system - the Austrian Procedure Catalogue (APC). Even though the APC is an elaborate coding standard for medical procedures, it has shortcomings that limit its usability. In order to enhance usability and usefulness, especially for research purposes and e-health applications, we developed an ontologized version of the APC. In this paper we present a novel four-step approach for the ontology engineering process, which enables accurate extraction of relevant concepts for medical ontologies from written text. The proposed approach for formalizing the APC consists of the following four steps: (1) comparative pre-analysis, (2) definition analysis, (3) typological analysis, and (4) ontology implementation. The first step contained a comparison of the APC to other well-established or elaborate health intervention coding systems in order to identify strengths and weaknesses of the APC. In the second step, a list of definitions of medical terminology used in the APC was obtained. This list of definitions was used as input for Step 3, in which we identified the most important concepts to describe medical procedures using the qualitative typological analysis approach. The definition analysis as well as the typological analysis are well-known and effective methods used in social sciences, but not commonly employed in the computer science or ontology engineering domain. Finally, this list of concepts was used in Step 4 to formalize the APC. The pre-analysis highlighted the major shortcomings of the APC, such as the lack of formal definition, leading to implicitly available, but not directly accessible information (hidden data), or the poor procedural type classification. After performing the definition and subsequent typological analyses, we were able to identify the following main characteristics of

  7. Acquisition of Formal Operations: The Effects of Two Training Procedures.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rosenthal, Doreen A.

    1979-01-01

    A study of 11- and 12-year-old girls indicates that either of two training procedures, method training or dimension training, can aid in the transition from concrete operational to formal operational thought by promoting a hypothesis-testing attitude. (BH)

  8. The Assignment of Judging in the New Code of Civil Procedure: The Interactions Between the Legal Formalism and Democratic Formalism

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Alan Da Silva Esteves Da Silva Esteves

    2016-10-01

    Full Text Available The assignment of judging in the new Code of Civil Procedure starts with the interactions between classical formalism and democratic formalism. The theories of constitutional hermeneutics, of civil adjectival law and of traditional Positivism are used in order to reaffirm the requirement of motivating the judgment in the higher degree of quality. It is necessary to understand the changes of the standards on the legal interpretation and the act of judging. The concept of jurisdiction in the Constitutional State connects to the constitutional principles of justice and fundamental rights, and approach the formal aspects of materials.

  9. State Token Petri Net modeling method for formal verification of computerized procedure including operator's interruptions of procedure execution flow

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kim, Yun Goo; Seong, Poong Hyun

    2012-01-01

    The Computerized Procedure System (CPS) is one of the primary operating support systems in the digital Main Control Room. The CPS displays procedure on the computer screen in the form of a flow chart, and displays plant operating information along with procedure instructions. It also supports operator decision making by providing a system decision. A procedure flow should be correct and reliable, as an error would lead to operator misjudgement and inadequate control. In this paper we present a modeling for the CPS that enables formal verification based on Petri nets. The proposed State Token Petri Nets (STPN) also support modeling of a procedure flow that has various interruptions by the operator, according to the plant condition. STPN modeling is compared with Coloured Petri net when they are applied to Emergency Operating Computerized Procedure. A converting program for Computerized Procedure (CP) to STPN has been also developed. The formal verification and validation methods of CP with STPN increase the safety of a nuclear power plant and provide digital quality assurance means that are needed when the role and function of the CPS is increasing.

  10. Qualitative Parameters for Evaluation Procedures of Non-Formal and Informal Learning Achievements

    Science.gov (United States)

    Stasiunaitiene, Egle; Kaminskiene, Lina

    2009-01-01

    The article introduces evaluation principles of non-formal and informal learning that determine the quality of evaluation, describes stages of the evaluation procedure, differentiates their qualitative parameters and defines their criteria and indicators. It also brings in the discussion that consideration of qualitative parameters for the…

  11. Cultivating the Capacity for Formal Reasoning: Objectives and Procedures in an Introductory Physical Science Course

    Science.gov (United States)

    Arons, A. B.

    1976-01-01

    Describes special factors and procedures which are utilized in an introductory physical science course for nonscience majors. It is designed to enable students who are at a concrete or transitional stage to attain the formal operational level of development. (Author/SL)

  12. 12 CFR 19.181 - Confidentiality of formal investigations.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-01-01

    ... 12 Banks and Banking 1 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Confidentiality of formal investigations. 19.181 Section 19.181 Banks and Banking COMPTROLLER OF THE CURRENCY, DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY RULES OF... only in accordance with the provisions of part 4 of this chapter. ...

  13. 37 CFR 251.41 - Formal hearings.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-07-01

    ... ARBITRATION ROYALTY PANEL RULES AND PROCEDURES COPYRIGHT ARBITRATION ROYALTY PANEL RULES OF PROCEDURE Procedures of Copyright Arbitration Royalty Panels § 251.41 Formal hearings. (a) The formal hearings that will be conducted under the rules of this subpart are rate adjustment hearings and royalty fee...

  14. Use of Formal Procedures in Developing Dialogue Between Operator and Regulator on Radioactive Waste Disposal

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Yearsley, Roger; Duerden, Susan; Bennett, David

    2001-01-01

    The Environment Agency (the Agency) is responsible, in England and Wales, for authorisation of radioactive waste disposal under the Radioactive Substances Act 1993. British Nuclear Fuels plc (BNFL) is currently authorised to dispose of solid low level radioactive waste at its Drigg site near Sellafield in Cumbria. Drigg is the primary site for the disposal of solid low level radioactive waste generated by the UK nuclear industry. A small facility operated by United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) at Dounreay on the north coast of Scotland is used solely for wastes arising on the UKAEA site. Drigg also offers a disposal route for smaller users of radioactive substances, such as hospitals and universities. Significant benefits have been derived from implementing a formal Issue Resolution Procedure as part of a soundly based process for dialogue between the Agency and BNFL. Benefits include improved understanding of the Agency's expectations, which has in turn led to improvements in BNFL's documentation and technical approach. The Agency considers the use of a formal Issue Resolution Procedure has placed the dialogue with BNFL on firm foundations for the planned assessment of the PostClosure Safety Case for Drigg when it is submitted in September 2002

  15. Development of a computerized procedure system on the basis of formalized action and check

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Jung, Y. S.; Shin, Y. C.; Jung, K. H.; Sung, C. H.

    1999-01-01

    A computerized procedure system was developed on the basis of formalized action and check. The actions and checks are rendered into two dimensional flowchart with foldable, dynamic, and interactive functions. The action and check are evaluated by computer automatically, and can be overridden by operator if necessary. Detail of each action and check is described in the logic tree with several boolean instruction set and n out m of mathematical operator. Computer supports operators to execute the boolean instruction providing relevant process parameters and control devices. In spite of all these computer support, its inner logic is simple and transparent to operators to keep them in the control loop. The boolean instruction can have 3 states. And n out m operator is defined on the 3 states. The definition minimizes not only number of context switching in procedure execution, but also enables evaluation of the action and check. The process parameters are presented in both text label and graphical symbol to improve readability. Moreover, new mechanism to access any part of a procedure is devised while keeping the main stream of procedure execution

  16. Qualitative simulation in formal process modelling

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Sivertsen, Elin R.

    1999-01-01

    In relation to several different research activities at the OECD Halden Reactor Project, the usefulness of formal process models has been identified. Being represented in some appropriate representation language, the purpose of these models is to model process plants and plant automatics in a unified way to allow verification and computer aided design of control strategies. The present report discusses qualitative simulation and the tool QSIM as one approach to formal process models. In particular, the report aims at investigating how recent improvements of the tool facilitate the use of the approach in areas like process system analysis, procedure verification, and control software safety analysis. An important long term goal is to provide a basis for using qualitative reasoning in combination with other techniques to facilitate the treatment of embedded programmable systems in Probabilistic Safety Analysis (PSA). This is motivated from the potential of such a combination in safety analysis based on models comprising both software, hardware, and operator. It is anticipated that the research results from this activity will benefit V and V in a wide variety of applications where formal process models can be utilized. Examples are operator procedures, intelligent decision support systems, and common model repositories (author) (ml)

  17. Procedures for ground-water investigations

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1989-09-01

    This manual was developed by the Pacific Northwest Laboratory (PNL) to document the procedures used to carry out and control the technical aspects of ground-water investigations at the PNL. Ground-water investigations are carried out to fulfill the requirements for the US Department of Energy (DOE) to meet the requirements of DOE Orders. Investigations are also performed for various clients to meet the requirements of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act of 1976 (RCRA) and the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act of 1980 (CERCLA). National standards including procedures published by the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) and the US Geological Survey were utilized in developing the procedures contained in this manual

  18. Transforming Existing Procedural Business Processes into a Constraint-Based Formalism

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    dr. Martijn Zoet; Eline de Haan; Floor Vermeer; Jeroen van Grondelle; Slinger Jansen

    2013-01-01

    Many organizations use business process management to manage and model their processes. Currently, flow-based process formalisms, such as BPMN, are considered the standard for modeling processes. However, recent literature describes several limitations of this type of formalism that can be solved by

  19. Formal analysis and evaluation of the back-off procedure in IEEE802.11P VANET

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jin, Li; Zhang, Guoan; Zhu, Xiaojun

    2017-07-01

    The back-off procedure is one of the media access control technologies in 802.11P communication protocol. It plays an important role in avoiding message collisions and allocating channel resources. Formal methods are effective approaches for studying the performances of communication systems. In this paper, we establish a discrete time model for the back-off procedure. We use Markov Decision Processes (MDPs) to model the non-deterministic and probabilistic behaviors of the procedure, and use the probabilistic computation tree logic (PCTL) language to express different properties, which ensure that the discrete time model performs their basic functionality. Based on the model and PCTL specifications, we study the effect of contention window length on the number of senders in the neighborhood of given receivers, and that on the station’s expected cost required by the back-off procedure to successfully send packets. The variation of the window length may increase or decrease the maximum probability of correct transmissions within a time contention unit. We propose to use PRISM model checker to describe our proposed back-off procedure for IEEE802.11P protocol in vehicle network, and define different probability properties formulas to automatically verify the model and derive numerical results. The obtained results are helpful for justifying the values of the time contention unit.

  20. 20 CFR 702.336 - Formal hearings; new issues.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-04-01

    ... 20 Employees' Benefits 3 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Formal hearings; new issues. 702.336 Section... Procedures Formal Hearings § 702.336 Formal hearings; new issues. (a) If, during the course of the formal hearing, the evidence presented warrants consideration of an issue or issues not previously considered...

  1. Software Formal Inspections Guidebook

    Science.gov (United States)

    1993-01-01

    The Software Formal Inspections Guidebook is designed to support the inspection process of software developed by and for NASA. This document provides information on how to implement a recommended and proven method for conducting formal inspections of NASA software. This Guidebook is a companion document to NASA Standard 2202-93, Software Formal Inspections Standard, approved April 1993, which provides the rules, procedures, and specific requirements for conducting software formal inspections. Application of the Formal Inspections Standard is optional to NASA program or project management. In cases where program or project management decide to use the formal inspections method, this Guidebook provides additional information on how to establish and implement the process. The goal of the formal inspections process as documented in the above-mentioned Standard and this Guidebook is to provide a framework and model for an inspection process that will enable the detection and elimination of defects as early as possible in the software life cycle. An ancillary aspect of the formal inspection process incorporates the collection and analysis of inspection data to effect continual improvement in the inspection process and the quality of the software subjected to the process.

  2. Formal Methods for Life-Critical Software

    Science.gov (United States)

    Butler, Ricky W.; Johnson, Sally C.

    1993-01-01

    The use of computer software in life-critical applications, such as for civil air transports, demands the use of rigorous formal mathematical verification procedures. This paper demonstrates how to apply formal methods to the development and verification of software by leading the reader step-by-step through requirements analysis, design, implementation, and verification of an electronic phone book application. The current maturity and limitations of formal methods tools and techniques are then discussed, and a number of examples of the successful use of formal methods by industry are cited.

  3. Procedures for ground-water investigations

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1992-12-01

    This manual was developed by the Pacific Northwest Laboratory (PNL) to document the procedures used to carry out and control the technical aspects of ground-water investigations at the PNL. Ground-water monitoring procedures are developed and used in accordance with the PNL Quality Assurance Program

  4. A Synthesized Framework for Formal Verification of Computing Systems

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Nikola Bogunovic

    2003-12-01

    Full Text Available Design process of computing systems gradually evolved to a level that encompasses formal verification techniques. However, the integration of formal verification techniques into a methodical design procedure has many inherent miscomprehensions and problems. The paper explicates the discrepancy between the real system implementation and the abstracted model that is actually used in the formal verification procedure. Particular attention is paid to the seamless integration of all phases of the verification procedure that encompasses definition of the specification language and denotation and execution of conformance relation between the abstracted model and its intended behavior. The concealed obstacles are exposed, computationally expensive steps identified and possible improvements proposed.

  5. Towards a Dialectic Perspective on Formalization in Interorganizational Relationships: How Alliance Managers Capitalize on the Duality Inherent in Contracts, Rules, and Procedures.

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Vlaar, P.W.L.; van den Bosch, F.A.J.

    2007-01-01

    The mainstream literature on contracts, rules and procedures presumes that formalization is directed at coordination and control, and that its influence on performance is contingent upon firm, transaction and contextual characteristics. In response to recent calls for inquiries into dialectics in

  6. 77 FR 51943 - Procedures for Safety Investigations

    Science.gov (United States)

    2012-08-28

    ... rule, Procedures for Safety Investigations, which published July 27, 2012 in the Federal Register, 77... DEFENSE NUCLEAR FACILITIES SAFETY BOARD 10 CFR Part 1708 Procedures for Safety Investigations AGENCY: Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board. ACTION: Proposed rule; extension of comment period...

  7. A formal expert judgment procedure for performance assessments of the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Trauth, K.M.; Guzowski, R.V.; Hora, S.C.

    1994-09-01

    The Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) is an experimental facility located in southeastern New Mexico. It has been designed to determine the feasibility of the geologic disposal of defense-generated transuranic waste in a deep bedded-salt formation. The WIPP was also designed for disposal and will operate in that capacity if approved. The WIPP Performance Assessment Department at Sandia National Laboratories has been conducting analyses to assess the long-term performance of the WIPP. These analyses sometimes require the use of expert judgment. This Department has convened several expert-judgment panels and from that experience has developed an internal quality-assurance procedure to guide the formal elicitation of expert judgment. This protocol is based on the principles found in the decision-analysis literature

  8. A formal expert judgment procedure for performance assessments of the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Trauth, K.M. [Sandia National Labs., Albuquerque, NM (United States); Guzowski, R.V. [Science Applications International Corp., Albuquerque, NM (United States); Hora, S.C. [Univ. of Hawaii, Hilo, HI (United States). Business Administration & Economics Div.

    1994-09-01

    The Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) is an experimental facility located in southeastern New Mexico. It has been designed to determine the feasibility of the geologic disposal of defense-generated transuranic waste in a deep bedded-salt formation. The WIPP was also designed for disposal and will operate in that capacity if approved. The WIPP Performance Assessment Department at Sandia National Laboratories has been conducting analyses to assess the long-term performance of the WIPP. These analyses sometimes require the use of expert judgment. This Department has convened several expert-judgment panels and from that experience has developed an internal quality-assurance procedure to guide the formal elicitation of expert judgment. This protocol is based on the principles found in the decision-analysis literature.

  9. A formal expert judgment procedure for performance assessments of the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Trauth, K.M.; Guzowski, R.V.; Hora, S.C.

    1993-01-01

    The Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) is an experimental facility located in southeastern New Mexico. It has been designed to determine the feasibility of the geologic disposal of defense-generated transuranic waste in a deep bedded-salt formation. The WIPP was also designed for disposal and will operate in that capacity if approved. The WIPP Performance Assessment Department at Sandia National Laboratories has been conducting analyses to assess the long-term performance of the WIPP. These analyses sometimes require the use of expert judgment. This Department has convened several expert-judgment panels and from that experience has developed an internal quality-assurance procedure to guide the formal elicitation of expert judgment. This protocol is based on the principles found in the decision-analysis literature

  10. Formal, Non-Formal and Informal Learning in the Sciences

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ainsworth, Heather L.; Eaton, Sarah Elaine

    2010-01-01

    This research report investigates the links between formal, non-formal and informal learning and the differences between them. In particular, the report aims to link these notions of learning to the field of sciences and engineering in Canada and the United States, including professional development of adults working in these fields. It offers…

  11. On the Equivalence of Formal Grammars and Machines.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lund, Bruce

    1991-01-01

    Explores concepts of formal language and automata theory underlying computational linguistics. A computational formalism is described known as a "logic grammar," with which computational systems process linguistic data, with examples in declarative and procedural semantics and definite clause grammars. (13 references) (CB)

  12. Is adolescence a critical period for learning formal thinking skills? A case study investigating the development of formal thinking skills in a short-term inquiry-based intervention program

    Science.gov (United States)

    Towne, Forrest S.

    Current domestic and international comparative studies of student achievement in science are demonstrating that the U.S. needs to improve science education if it wants to remain competitive in the global economy. One of the causes of the poor performance of U.S. science education is the lack of students who have developed the formal thinking skills that are necessary to obtain scientific literacy. Previous studies have demonstrated that formal thinking skills can be taught to adolescents, however only 25% of incoming college freshman have these necessary skills. There is some evidence that adolescence (girls aged 11-13, boys aged 12-14) is a critical period where students must learn formal thinking skills, similar to the critical period that exists for young children learning languages. It is not known whether it is more difficult for students to learn formal thinking skills either prior to or following adolescence. The purpose of this quantitative case study is to determine whether adolescence is a critical period for students to learn formal thinking skills. The study also investigates whether a formal thinking skills focused program can improve students' intelligence. In this study 32 students who had not developed any formal thinking skills, ranging in age from 10-16, underwent an intensive four-week, inquiry-based, formal thinking skill intervention program that focused on two formal thinking skills: (1) the ability to control and exclude variables; and (2) the ability to manipulate ratios and proportionalities. The students undergoing the training were matched with control students by age, gender, formal thinking skill ability, and intelligence. The control group attended their traditional science course during the intervention periods. The results of the study showed that the intervention program was successful in developing students' formal thinking skills. The pre-adolescents (males, age 10-11, females, age 10) were unable to learn formal thinking skills

  13. multiPDEVS: A Parallel Multicomponent System Specification Formalism

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Damien Foures

    2018-01-01

    Full Text Available Based on multiDEVS formalism, we introduce multiPDEVS, a parallel and nonmodular formalism for discrete event system specification. This formalism provides combined advantages of PDEVS and multiDEVS approaches, such as excellent simulation capabilities for simultaneously scheduled events and components able to influence each other using exclusively their state transitions. We next show the soundness of the formalism by giving a construction showing that any multiPDEVS model is equivalent to a PDEVS atomic model. We then present the simulation procedure associated, usually called abstract simulator. As a well-adapted formalism to express cellular automata, we finally propose to compare an implementation of multiPDEVS formalism with a more classical Cell-DEVS implementation through a fire spread application.

  14. Inequality and Procedural Justice in Social Dilemmas

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Aksoy, Ozan; Weesie, Jeroen

    2009-01-01

    This study investigates the influence of resource inequality and the fairness of the allocation procedure of unequal resources on cooperative behavior in social dilemmas. We propose a simple formal behavioral model that incorporates conflicting selfish and social motivations. This model allows us to

  15. Model checking as an aid to procedure design

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Zhang, Wenhu

    2001-01-01

    The OECD Halden Reactor Project has been actively working on computer assisted operating procedures for many years. The objective of the research has been to provide computerised assistance for procedure design, verification and validation, implementation and maintenance. For the verification purpose, the application of formal methods has been considered in several reports. The recent formal verification activity conducted at the Halden Project is based on using model checking to the verification of procedures. This report presents verification approaches based on different model checking techniques and tools for the formalization and verification of operating procedures. Possible problems and relative merits of the different approaches are discussed. A case study of one of the approaches is presented to show the practical application of formal verification. Application of formal verification in the traditional procedure design process can reduce the human resources involved in reviews and simulations, and hence reduce the cost of verification and validation. A discussion of the integration of the formal verification with the traditional procedure design process is given at the end of this report. (Author)

  16. A diagrammatic construction of formal E-independent model hamiltonian

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kvasnicka, V.

    1977-01-01

    A diagrammatic construction of formal E-independent model interaction (i.e., without second-quantization formalism) is suggested. The construction starts from the quasi-degenerate Brillouin-Wigner perturbation theory, in the framework of which an E-dependent model Hamiltonian is simply constructed. Applying the ''E-removing'' procedure to this E-dependent model Hamiltonian, the E-independent formal model Hamiltonian either Hermitian or non-Hermitian can diagrammatically be easily derived. For the formal E-independent model Hamiltonian the separability theorem is proved, which can be profitably used for a rather ''formalistic ''construction of a many-body E-independent model Hamiltonian

  17. Investigation of anomalous Schwinger terms based on the Batalin-Fradkin-Vilkovisky formalism

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Fujiwara, T.; Igarashi, Y.; Kubo, J.

    1991-01-01

    On the basis of the generalized hamiltonian formalism of Batalin, Fradkin and Vilkovisky, we investigate the algebraic structure of the anomalous Schwinger terms that appear in the nilpotency condition and/or the time development of the BRST charge in Yang-Mills theory. These anomalies are shown to satisfy a set of consistency conditions which originate from the (super-)Jacobi identities among (anti-)commutation relations. The consistency conditions are solved in an exhaustive fashion to order h- 2 and our results are independent of a wide class of regularization schemes and gauge choices. (orig.)

  18. Can formal language planning link to grassroots cultural initiatives? An informal investigation

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Wright, Laurence

    2002-12-01

    Full Text Available Formal language planning is inevitably a top-down, highly technical process. Success for such planning would seem to depend on engaging productively with existing or readily developed social motivation within the society. This article reports on an informal investigation into how ordinary language practitioners and cultural workers in South Africa view the possibilities of contributing to the country's emerging language dispensation, what they regard as their most useful possible contributions, and what they expect from the language planners and 'government' in support of South Africa's Language Policy and Plan.

  19. Quality procedure management for improved nuclear safety

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Forzano, P.; Castagna, P.

    1995-01-01

    Emergency Operating Procedures and Accident Management Procedures are the next step in the computerization of NPP control rooms. Different improvements are presently conceivable for this operator aid tool, and research activities are in development. Undergoing activities regard especially formal aspects of knowledge representation, Human-Machine interface and procedure life cycle management. These aspects have been investigated deeply by Ansaldo, and partially incorporated in the DIAM prototype. Nuclear Power Plant Procedures can be seen from essentially two viewpoints: the process and the information management. From the first point of view, it is important to supply the knowledge apt to solve problems connected with the control of the process, from the second one the focus of attention is on the knowledge representation, its structure, elicitation and maintenance, and formal quality assurance. These two aspects of procedure representation can be considered and solved separately. In particular, methodological, formal and management issues require long and tedious activities, that in most cases constitute a great barrier for procedures development and upgrade. To solve these problems, Ansaldo is developing DIAM, a wide integrated tool for procedure management to support in procedure writing, updating, usage, and documentation. One of the most challenging features of DIAM is AUTO-LAY, a CASE sub-tool that, in a complete automatical way, structures parts or complete flow diagram. This is the feature that is partial present in some other CASE products, that, anyway, do not allow complex graph handling and isomorphism between video and paper representation. AUTO-LAY has the unique prerogative to draw graphs of any complexity to section them in pages, and to automatically compose a document. This has been recognized in the literature as the most important a second-generation CASE improvement. (Author) 9 Figs., 5 Refs

  20. 77 FR 44174 - Procedures for Safety Investigations

    Science.gov (United States)

    2012-07-27

    ... of safety investigations. The rule is intended to state clearly the Board's policy and procedures for... statutory authority, when appropriate, following standard safety investigation policies, practices, and... has adhered to the regulatory philosophy and the applicable principles of regulation as set forth in...

  1. 25 CFR 42.6 - When does due process require a formal disciplinary hearing?

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-04-01

    ... 25 Indians 1 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false When does due process require a formal disciplinary... RIGHTS § 42.6 When does due process require a formal disciplinary hearing? Unless local school policies and procedures provide for less, a formal disciplinary hearing is required before a suspension in...

  2. Investigative procedures in thyroid cancer

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Samuel, A.M.

    1999-01-01

    One of the main objectives of the procedures is to establish the likelihood of malignancy in the thyroid gland prior to surgery and detect metastases after surgery. Thyroid imaging is discussed in the context of (a) its role in the diagnosis of the primary disease (b) in the investigation of post-operative residual disease and (c) its role in the follow-up of patients after radioiodine therapy

  3. Finite anticanonical transformations in field-antifield formalism

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Batalin, Igor A.; Tyutin, Igor V. [P.N. Lebedev Physical Institute, Moscow (Russian Federation); Tomsk State Pedagogical University, Tomsk (Russian Federation); Lavrov, Peter M. [Tomsk State Pedagogical University, Tomsk (Russian Federation); National Research Tomsk State University, Tomsk (Russian Federation)

    2015-06-15

    We study the role of arbitrary (finite) anticanonical transformations in the field-antifield formalism and the gauge-fixing procedure based on the use of these transformations. The properties of the generating functionals of the Green functions subjected to finite anticanonical transformations are considered. (orig.)

  4. Formal Engineering Hybrid Systems: Semantic Underpinnings

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Bujorianu, M.C.; Bujorianu, L.M.

    2008-01-01

    In this work we investigate some issues in applying formal methods to hybrid system development and develop a categorical framework. We study the themes of stochastic reasoning, heterogeneous formal specification and retrenchment. Hybrid systems raise a rich pallets of aspects that need to be

  5. Noncommutativity and Duality through the Symplectic Embedding Formalism

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Everton M.C. Abreu

    2010-07-01

    Full Text Available This work is devoted to review the gauge embedding of either commutative and noncommutative (NC theories using the symplectic formalism framework. To sum up the main features of the method, during the process of embedding, the infinitesimal gauge generators of the gauge embedded theory are easily and directly chosen. Among other advantages, this enables a greater control over the final Lagrangian and brings some light on the so-called ''arbitrariness problem''. This alternative embedding formalism also presents a way to obtain a set of dynamically dual equivalent embedded Lagrangian densities which is obtained after a finite number of steps in the iterative symplectic process, oppositely to the result proposed using the BFFT formalism. On the other hand, we will see precisely that the symplectic embedding formalism can be seen as an alternative and an efficient procedure to the standard introduction of the Moyal product in order to produce in a natural way a NC theory. In order to construct a pedagogical explanation of the method to the nonspecialist we exemplify the formalism showing that the massive NC U(1 theory is embedded in a gauge theory using this alternative systematic path based on the symplectic framework. Further, as other applications of the method, we describe exactly how to obtain a Lagrangian description for the NC version of some systems reproducing well known theories. Naming some of them, we use the procedure in the Proca model, the irrotational fluid model and the noncommutative self-dual model in order to obtain dual equivalent actions for these theories. To illustrate the process of noncommutativity introduction we use the chiral oscillator and the nondegenerate mechanics.

  6. Actor-Network Procedures

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Pavlovic, Dusko; Meadows, Catherine; Ramanujam, R.; Ramaswamy, Srini

    2012-01-01

    In this paper we propose actor-networks as a formal model of computation in heterogenous networks of computers, humans and their devices, where these new procedures run; and we introduce Procedure Derivation Logic (PDL) as a framework for reasoning about security in actor-networks, as an extension

  7. 12 CFR 403.11 - Enforcement and investigation procedures.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-01-01

    ... 12 Banks and Banking 4 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Enforcement and investigation procedures. 403.11 Section 403.11 Banks and Banking EXPORT-IMPORT BANK OF THE UNITED STATES CLASSIFICATION, DECLASSIFICATION, AND SAFEGUARDING OF NATIONAL SECURITY INFORMATION § 403.11 Enforcement and investigation...

  8. Systematic errors in transport calculations of shear viscosity using the Green-Kubo formalism

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rose, J. B.; Torres-Rincon, J. M.; Oliinychenko, D.; Schäfer, A.; Petersen, H.

    2018-05-01

    The purpose of this study is to provide a reproducible framework in the use of the Green-Kubo formalism to extract transport coefficients. More specifically, in the case of shear viscosity, we investigate the limitations and technical details of fitting the auto-correlation function to a decaying exponential. This fitting procedure is found to be applicable for systems interacting both through constant and energy-dependent cross-sections, although this is only true for sufficiently dilute systems in the latter case. We find that the optimal fit technique consists in simultaneously fixing the intercept of the correlation function and use a fitting interval constrained by the relative error on the correlation function. The formalism is then applied to the full hadron gas, for which we obtain the shear viscosity to entropy ratio.

  9. Development of public inquiry procedures in relation to proposals for nuclear installations in the United Kingdom

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bell, B.H.J.; Lines, R.

    1983-01-01

    Following a description of the procedures followed for formal investigations on matters of public policy in the UK, this paper reviews public enquiry procedures regarding nuclear site licences and gives specific examples of such enquiries (Windscale, Sizewell), showing how the system has evolved over the years. (NEA) [fr

  10. Investigation of the atom-atom and structural relaxation in liquid alkali metals by means of the memory function formalism

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Blagoveshchenskii, N. M.; Novikov, A. G.; Savostin, V. V.

    2011-01-01

    An attempt is made to systematize the data on the relaxation characteristics of liquid alkali metals (Li, Na, and K), which were investigated based on neutron-scattering data with the application of the two-time memory function formalism.

  11. Formalization of Many-Valued Logics

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Villadsen, Jørgen; Schlichtkrull, Anders

    2017-01-01

    Partiality is a key challenge for computational approaches to artificial intelligence in general and natural language in particular. Various extensions of classical two-valued logic to many-valued logics have been investigated in order to meet this challenge. We use the proof assistant Isabelle...... to formalize the syntax and semantics of many-valued logics with determinate as well as indeterminate truth values. The formalization allows for a concise presentation and makes automated verification possible....

  12. The meaning of the administrative procedure

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Martín Loo Gutiérrez

    2017-06-01

    Full Text Available The article seeks to present a substantive notion of the ‘administrative procedure’, that is, an understanding that departs from the merely procedural or formal meaning that has been consolidated in Chile from the definition adopted by the Administrative Procedures Act (“lbpa” and analyses the institutional purposes that have been assigned to the administrative procedure by foreign literature. The paper develops an explanation about the origins of this formal understanding and exposes the doctrine that has been consolidated in Europe to explain the institution from a substantial point of view. It is argued that this substantive notion can also be constructed in Chile from a systematic reading of some of the provisions of the law on administrative procedures.

  13. A correctness proof of sorting by means of formal procedures

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Fokkinga, M.M.

    1987-01-01

    We consider a recursive sorting algorithm in which, in each invocation, a new variable and a new procedure (using the variable globally) are defined and the procedure is passed to recursive calls. This algorithm is proved correct with Hoare-style pre- and postassertions. We also discuss the same

  14. Formality of the Chinese collective leadership.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Li, Haiying; Graesser, Arthur C

    2016-09-01

    We investigated the linguistic patterns in the discourse of four generations of the collective leadership of the Communist Party of China (CPC) from 1921 to 2012. The texts of Mao Zedong, Deng Xiaoping, Jiang Zemin, and Hu Jintao were analyzed using computational linguistic techniques (a Chinese formality score) to explore the persuasive linguistic features of the leaders in the contexts of power phase, the nation's education level, power duration, and age. The study was guided by the elaboration likelihood model of persuasion, which includes a central route (represented by formal discourse) versus a peripheral route (represented by informal discourse) to persuasion. The results revealed that these leaders adopted the formal, central route more when they were in power than before they came into power. The nation's education level was a significant factor in the leaders' adoption of the persuasion strategy. The leaders' formality also decreased with their increasing age and in-power times. However, the predictability of these factors for formality had subtle differences among the different types of leaders. These results enhance our understanding of the Chinese collective leadership and the role of formality in politically persuasive messages.

  15. Components of formalized description of selecting tools for ensuring stability of banking system

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    N.P. Pogorelenko

    2015-09-01

    Full Text Available A banking system is one of the key elements of a financial market of any country. Effectiveness and functional orientation of a banking system provide continuous and targeted financial resources flowing between different sectors of economy and this allows to perform economic activities of various entities. Thus, a banking system plays an essential role in the formation of market relations. A question of stable functioning of a banking system can be defined as a key one. The basic task is to improve the management of a banking system by achieving its stability. The disclosure of formalized description of the definition of tools to influence the selection procedure for ensuring stability of a banking system should be determined as the primary objective. For reaching the goal a comparative study has been introduced and generalized concerning the concept definition of «banking system» and the ideology of its management according to the circumstances and factors of influence. The combination of individual components is to determine the instruments of influence on the banking system activity in the form of chain ties. On the base of the analysis carried out the article grounds the necessity of the generalized use of formalized description of the procedures for selecting instruments for ensuring stability of a banking system. For the purpose of this procedure the author has also grounded, determined and disclosed some of its components. To implement the relevant qualitative phase of formalization the author has proposed the use of chain patterns, and to quantify the individual parameters of such a procedure the methodology of border stochastic analysis has been offered. As a scientific novelty of the present research it is necessary to note the qualitative and quantitative phases for formal presentation of describing procedures for the selection of tools to ensure banking system stability as well as the introduction of chain schemes for the

  16. Formal specification and animation of a water level monitoring system

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Jackson, P.S.; Stokes, P.A.

    1993-03-01

    This report describes the Vienna Development Method (VDM), which is a formal method for software specification and development. VDM evolved out of attempts to use mathematics in programming language specifications in order to avoid ambiguities in specifications written in natural language. This report also describes the use of VDM for a real-time application, where it is used to formally specify the requirements of a water level monitoring system. The procedures and techniques used to produce an executable form (animation) of the specification are covered. (Author)

  17. Formal matrices

    CERN Document Server

    Krylov, Piotr

    2017-01-01

    This monograph is a comprehensive account of formal matrices, examining homological properties of modules over formal matrix rings and summarising the interplay between Morita contexts and K theory. While various special types of formal matrix rings have been studied for a long time from several points of view and appear in various textbooks, for instance to examine equivalences of module categories and to illustrate rings with one-sided non-symmetric properties, this particular class of rings has, so far, not been treated systematically. Exploring formal matrix rings of order 2 and introducing the notion of the determinant of a formal matrix over a commutative ring, this monograph further covers the Grothendieck and Whitehead groups of rings. Graduate students and researchers interested in ring theory, module theory and operator algebras will find this book particularly valuable. Containing numerous examples, Formal Matrices is a largely self-contained and accessible introduction to the topic, assuming a sol...

  18. A formal language to describe a wide class of failure detection and signal validation procedures

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Racz, A. [Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest (Hungary). Atomic Energy Research Inst.

    1996-01-01

    In the present article we make the first step towards the implementation of a user-friendly, object-oriented system devoted to failure detection and signal validation purposes. After overviewing different signal modelling, residual making and hypothesis testing procedures, a mathematical tool is suggested to describe a general failure detection problem. Three different levels of the abstraction are distinguished; direct examination, preliminary decision support mechanism and indirect examination. Possible scenarios are introduced depending both on the objective properties of the investigated signal and the particular requirements prescribed by the expert himself. Finally it is showed how to build up systematically a complete, general failure detection procedure. (author).

  19. Formal Verification of Continuous Systems

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Sloth, Christoffer

    2012-01-01

    and the verification procedures should be algorithmically synthesizable. Autonomous control plays an important role in many safety-critical systems. This implies that a malfunction in the control system can have catastrophic consequences, e.g., in space applications where a design flaw can result in large economic...... losses. Furthermore, a malfunction in the control system of a surgical robot may cause death of patients. The previous examples involve complex systems that are required to operate according to complex specifications. The systems cannot be formally verified by modern verification techniques, due...

  20. WSSDA's Guide to Parliamentary Procedures. Revised

    Science.gov (United States)

    Randolph, Mary

    2004-01-01

    This guide to parliamentary procedures is presented by the Washington State School Directors' Association (WSSDA) for use by local school boards within the State of Washington. Parliamentary law and parliamentary procedure is the key to order and to provide justice and fairness to all. Through both formal and informal parliamentary procedures,…

  1. Spinor formalism and complex-vector formalism of general relativity

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Han-ying, G.; Yong-shi, W.; Gendao, L.

    1974-01-01

    In this paper, using E. Cartan's exterior calculus, we give the spinor form of the structure equations, which leads naturally to the Newman--Penrose equations. Furthermore, starting from the spinor spaces and the el (2C) algebra, we construct the general complex-vector formalism of general relativity. We find that both the Cahen--Debever--Defrise complex-vector formalism and that of Brans are its special cases. Thus, the spinor formalism and the complex-vector formalism of general relativity are unified on the basis of the uni-modular group SL(2C) and its Lie algebra

  2. Using formal specification in the Guidance and Control Software (GCS) experiment. Formal design and verification technology for life critical systems

    Science.gov (United States)

    Weber, Doug; Jamsek, Damir

    1994-01-01

    The goal of this task was to investigate how formal methods could be incorporated into a software engineering process for flight-control systems under DO-178B and to demonstrate that process by developing a formal specification for NASA's Guidance and Controls Software (GCS) Experiment. GCS is software to control the descent of a spacecraft onto a planet's surface. The GCS example is simplified from a real example spacecraft, but exhibits the characteristics of realistic spacecraft control software. The formal specification is written in Larch.

  3. Investigating Instructional Strategies for Using Social Media in Formal and Informal Learning

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Baiyun Chen

    2012-01-01

    Full Text Available Despite the high popularity of personal use of online social media, a low percentage of students and instructors use them for educational purposes. This qualitative study explores the use of social media among faculty in the discipline of public administration in the United States. Eight instructors participated in telephone interviews about their experiences and perceptions of using social media for teaching and learning. Instructors perceive that informal learning using social media could be facilitated by instructors and integrated into formal learning environments for enriched discussions, increased engagement, and broad connections. This study provides qualitative empirical support for social learning theories while offering strategies for and examples of how social media can be used to connect formal and informal learning.

  4. SBME : Exploring boundaries between formal, non-formal, and informal learning

    OpenAIRE

    Shahoumian, Armineh; Parchoma, Gale; Saunders, Murray; Hanson, Jacky; Dickinson, Mike; Pimblett, Mark

    2013-01-01

    In medical education learning extends beyond university settings into practice. Non-formal and informal learning support learners’ efforts to meet externally set and learner-identified objectives. In SBME research, boundaries between formal, non-formal, and informal learning have not been widely explored. Whether SBME fits within or challenges these categories can make a contribution. Formal learning is described in relation to educational settings, planning, assessment, and accreditation. In...

  5. Formalization of Database Systems -- and a Formal Definition of {IMS}

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Bjørner, Dines; Løvengreen, Hans Henrik

    1982-01-01

    Drawing upon an analogy between Programming Language Systems and Database Systems we outline the requirements that architectural specifications of database systems must futfitl, and argue that only formal, mathematical definitions may 6atisfy these. Then we illustrate home aspects and touch upon...... come ueee of formal definitions of data models and databaee management systems. A formal model of INS will carry this discussion. Finally we survey some of the exkting literature on formal definitions of database systems. The emphasis will be on constructive definitions in the denotationul semantics...... style of the VCM: Vienna Development Nethd. The role of formal definitions in international standardiaation efforts is briefly mentioned....

  6. SELF-EFFICACY OF FORMALLY AND NON-FORMALLY TRAINED PUBLIC SECTOR TEACHERS

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Muhammad Nadeem ANWAR

    2009-07-01

    Full Text Available The main objective of the study was to compare the formally and non-formally trained in-service public sector teachers’ Self-efficacy. Five hypotheses were developed describing no difference in the self-efficacy of formally and non-formally trained teachers to influence decision making, influence school resources, instructional self-efficacy, disciplinary self-efficacy and create positive school climate. Teacher Efficacy Instrument (TSES developed by Bandura (2001 consisting of thirty 9-point items was used in the study. 342 formally trained and 255 non-formally trained respondents’ questionnaires were received out of 1500 mailed. The analysis of data revealed that the formally trained public sector teachers are high in their self-efficacy on all the five categories: to influence decision making, to influence school resources, instructional self-efficacy, disciplinary self-efficacy and self-efficacy to create positive school climate.

  7. Structural integrity investigations of feeder pipe ice plugging procedures

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Flaman, M.T.; Shah, N.N.

    1985-03-01

    A procedure involving the use of a liquid nitrogen cooled heat exchanger to form internal ice plugs in feeder pipes is routinely used in nuclear generating stations. The use of this procedure has caused concerns with regard to the safety of station maintenance personnel, and in regard to the integrity of the feeder pipes. This report describes the results of laboratory stress and pressure measurements which were performed on a feeder pipe section during ice plugging operations to investigate these concerns. From the results of this study, and from the results of previous studies of material behaviour at low temperatures, it has been determined that the ice plugging procedure can be performed on feeder pipes in a safe and effective manner

  8. Masses of Formal Philosophy

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Masses of Formal Philosophy is an outgrowth of Formal Philosophy. That book gathered the responses of some of the most prominent formal philosophers to five relatively open and broad questions initiating a discussion of metaphilosophical themes and problems surrounding the use of formal methods i...... in philosophy. Including contributions from a wide range of philosophers, Masses of Formal Philosophy contains important new responses to the original five questions.......Masses of Formal Philosophy is an outgrowth of Formal Philosophy. That book gathered the responses of some of the most prominent formal philosophers to five relatively open and broad questions initiating a discussion of metaphilosophical themes and problems surrounding the use of formal methods...

  9. Educational Process Reengineering and Diffusion of Innovation in Formal Learning Environment

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Khalid, Md. Saifuddin; Hossain, Mohammad Shahadat; Rongbutsri, Nikorn

    2011-01-01

    administration and evaluation and assessment. Educational environments are flexible and not governed by standard operating procedures, making technology use lithe. Theory of diffusion of innovations‟ is recommended to be integrated to reason and measure acceptance or rejection of EPR selected technology......In technology mediated learning while relative advantages of technologies is proven, lack of contextualization and process centric change, and lack of user driven change has kept intervention and adoption of educational technologies among individuals and organizations as challenges. Reviewing...... the formal, informal and non-formal learning environments, this study focuses on the formal part. This paper coins the term 'Educational Process Reengineering (EPR) based on the established concept of 'Business Process Reengineering (BPR) for process improvement of teaching learning activities, academic...

  10. Formal verification of Simulink/Stateflow diagrams a deductive approach

    CERN Document Server

    Zhan, Naijun; Zhao, Hengjun

    2017-01-01

    This book presents a state-of-the-art technique for formal verification of continuous-time Simulink/Stateflow diagrams, featuring an expressive hybrid system modelling language, a powerful specification logic and deduction-based verification approach, and some impressive, realistic case studies. Readers will learn the HCSP/HHL-based deductive method and the use of corresponding tools for formal verification of Simulink/Stateflow diagrams. They will also gain some basic ideas about fundamental elements of formal methods such as formal syntax and semantics, and especially the common techniques applied in formal modelling and verification of hybrid systems. By investigating the successful case studies, readers will realize how to apply the pure theory and techniques to real applications, and hopefully will be inspired to start to use the proposed approach, or even develop their own formal methods in their future work.

  11. Formalization, Conflict, and Change: Constructive and Destructive Consequences in Schools.

    Science.gov (United States)

    DiPaola, Michael F.; Hoy, Wayne K.

    2001-01-01

    Describes a typology of change drawn from conceptualizing conflict as cognitive or affective, and organizational formalization in terms of enabling or coercive procedures. The framework can predict the impact of change, from situations that catalyze and facilitate change to those that frustrate and inhibit it. Summarizes key factors for school…

  12. Formalizing Informal Logic

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Douglas Walton

    2015-12-01

    Full Text Available This paper presents a formalization of informal logic using the Carneades Argumentation System (CAS, a formal, computational model of argument that consists of a formal model of argument graphs and audiences. Conflicts between pro and con arguments are resolved using proof standards, such as preponderance of the evidence. CAS also formalizes argumentation schemes. Schemes can be used to check whether a given argument instantiates the types of argument deemed normatively appropriate for the type of dialogue.

  13. Recognizing "me" benefits "we": Investigating the positive spillover effects of formal individual recognition in teams.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Li, Ning; Zheng, Xiaoming; Harris, T Brad; Liu, Xin; Kirkman, Bradley L

    2016-07-01

    Many organizations use formal recognition programs (e.g., "employee of the month") as a way to publically acknowledge an individual employee's outstanding performance and motivate continued high performance. However, it remains unclear whether emphasizing individual achievement in a team context is beneficial or detrimental for recipients' teammates and, by extension, the team as a whole. Drawing on a social influence perspective, we examine potential spillover effects of individual formal recognition programs in teams. We hypothesize that a single team member's recognition will produce positive spillover effects on other team members' performance, as well as overall team performance, via social influence processes, especially when the award recipient is located in a central position in a team. Findings from 2 lab experiments of 24 teams and 40 teams (Study 1 and Study 2, respectively) and a field experiment of 52 manufacturing teams (Study 3) reveal that formally recognizing a team member leads to positive changes in her/his teammates' individual and collective performance. Thus, formal social recognition programs can potentially provide a motivational effect beyond individual recipients. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).

  14. Using the generalised invariant formalism: a class of conformally flat pure radiation metrics with a negative cosmological constant

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Edgar, S Brian [Department of Mathematics, Linkoepings Universitet Linkoeping, S-581 83 (Sweden); Ramos, M P Machado [Departamento de Matematica para a Ciencia e Tecnologia, Azurem 4800-058 Guimaraes, Universidade do Minho (Portugal)

    2007-05-15

    We demonstrate an integration procedure for the generalised invariant formalism by obtaining a subclass of conformally flat pure radiation spacetimes with a negative cosmological constant. The method used is a development of the methods used earlier for pure radiation spacetimes of Petrov types O and N respectively. This subclass of spacetimes turns out to have one degree of isotropy freedom, so in this paper we have extended the integration procedure for the generalised invariant formalism to spacetimes with isotropy freedom,.

  15. Using the generalised invariant formalism: a class of conformally flat pure radiation metrics with a negative cosmological constant

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Edgar, S Brian; Ramos, M P Machado

    2007-01-01

    We demonstrate an integration procedure for the generalised invariant formalism by obtaining a subclass of conformally flat pure radiation spacetimes with a negative cosmological constant. The method used is a development of the methods used earlier for pure radiation spacetimes of Petrov types O and N respectively. This subclass of spacetimes turns out to have one degree of isotropy freedom, so in this paper we have extended the integration procedure for the generalised invariant formalism to spacetimes with isotropy freedom,

  16. Contrasting lexical similarity and formal definitions in SNOMED CT: consistency and implications.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Agrawal, Ankur; Elhanan, Gai

    2014-02-01

    To quantify the presence of and evaluate an approach for detection of inconsistencies in the formal definitions of SNOMED CT (SCT) concepts utilizing a lexical method. Utilizing SCT's Procedure hierarchy, we algorithmically formulated similarity sets: groups of concepts with similar lexical structure of their fully specified name. We formulated five random samples, each with 50 similarity sets, based on the same parameter: number of parents, attributes, groups, all the former as well as a randomly selected control sample. All samples' sets were reviewed for types of formal definition inconsistencies: hierarchical, attribute assignment, attribute target values, groups, and definitional. For the Procedure hierarchy, 2111 similarity sets were formulated, covering 18.1% of eligible concepts. The evaluation revealed that 38 (Control) to 70% (Different relationships) of similarity sets within the samples exhibited significant inconsistencies. The rate of inconsistencies for the sample with different relationships was highly significant compared to Control, as well as the number of attribute assignment and hierarchical inconsistencies within their respective samples. While, at this time of the HITECH initiative, the formal definitions of SCT are only a minor consideration, in the grand scheme of sophisticated, meaningful use of captured clinical data, they are essential. However, significant portion of the concepts in the most semantically complex hierarchy of SCT, the Procedure hierarchy, are modeled inconsistently in a manner that affects their computability. Lexical methods can efficiently identify such inconsistencies and possibly allow for their algorithmic resolution. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  17. Non-Formal Education--A Worthwhile Alternative to the Formal Education in India? Case Studies from Ganjam, Orissa. Reprints and Miniprints, No. 757.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Svensson, Anna

    This report discusses the advantages and disadvantages of non-formal education (NFE) compared to the formal school system in Ganjam, a rural district on the east coast of Orissa, India. The aim of the research was to investigate whether or not NFE, would be a worthy target of aid from the Swedish aid organization SIDA (Swedish International…

  18. Formal specification and implementation of operations in information management systems

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Sandewall, E.

    1983-02-01

    Among information management systems we include general purpose systems, such as text editors and data editors (forms management systems), as well as special purpose systems such as mail systems and computer based calendars. Based on a method for formal specification of some aspects of IMS, namely the structure of the data base, the update operations, and the user dialogue, the paper shows how reasonable procedures for executing IMS operations can be written in the notation of a first-order theory, in such a way that the procedure is a logical consequence of the specification. (Author)

  19. Dirac - Kaehler formalism and the Yang-Mills model with Supersymmetry

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Goto, M.

    1985-01-01

    It is used the differential Dirac-Kahler's formalism for transposing supersymmetric models for the lattice. Such a formalism has shown itself extremely useful for these purposes because there exists a complete mathematical duality in its versions in the continuum and in the lattice. This work treats specifically the Yang-Mills, model with extended supersymmetry N = 2 in the adjoint representation; the procedure which is adopted here consists in to rewrite the essential of the model in question in the new language, first in the continuum, getting it adequate for the lattice, because it is from the property of the supercharges Q 2 = H that the lattice supersymmetric Hamiltonian will be obtained. By the way, it was constructed a lattice gauge theory within the formalism of Dirac-Kahler, it is almost a natural consequence of the adopted definitions for the lattice gauge transformations of the fields in the adjoint representation and of the two types of covariant derivatives which are necessary in the lattice. In order to carry out some calculations, it was put emphasis on the matrix representation of the Dirac-Kahler's formalism, it was also extended to a lattice. (author) [pt

  20. An XML Representation for Crew Procedures

    Science.gov (United States)

    Simpson, Richard C.

    2005-01-01

    NASA ensures safe operation of complex systems through the use of formally-documented procedures, which encode the operational knowledge of the system as derived from system experts. Crew members use procedure documentation on the ground for training purposes and on-board space shuttle and space station to guide their activities. Investigators at JSC are developing a new representation for procedures that is content-based (as opposed to display-based). Instead of specifying how a procedure should look on the printed page, the content-based representation will identify the components of a procedure and (more importantly) how the components are related (e.g., how the activities within a procedure are sequenced; what resources need to be available for each activity). This approach will allow different sets of rules to be created for displaying procedures on a computer screen, on a hand-held personal digital assistant (PDA), verbally, or on a printed page, and will also allow intelligent reasoning processes to automatically interpret and use procedure definitions. During his NASA fellowship, Dr. Simpson examined how various industries represent procedures (also called business processes or workflows), in areas such as manufacturing, accounting, shipping, or customer service. A useful method for designing and evaluating workflow representation languages is by determining their ability to encode various workflow patterns, which depict abstract relationships between the components of a procedure removed from the context of a specific procedure or industry. Investigators have used this type of analysis to evaluate how well-suited existing workflow representation languages are for various industries based on the workflow patterns that commonly arise across industry-specific procedures. Based on this type of analysis, it is already clear that existing workflow representations capture discrete flow of control (i.e., when one activity should start and stop based on when other

  1. Enhancing Formal E-Learning with Edutainment on Social Networks

    Science.gov (United States)

    Labus, A.; Despotovic-Zrakic, M.; Radenkovic, B.; Bogdanovic, Z.; Radenkovic, M.

    2015-01-01

    This paper reports on the investigation of the possibilities of enhancing the formal e-learning process by harnessing the potential of informal game-based learning on social networks. The goal of the research is to improve the outcomes of the formal learning process through the design and implementation of an educational game on a social network…

  2. Incremental guideline formalization with tool support

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Serban, Radu; Puig-Centelles, Anna; ten Teije, Annette

    2006-01-01

    Guideline formalization is recognized as an important component in improving computerized guidelines, which in turn leads to better informedness, lower inter-practician variability and, ultimately, to higher quality healthcare. By means of a modeling exercise, we investigate the role of guideline

  3. Formality in Brackets

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Garsten, Christina; Nyqvist, Anette

    Ethnographic work in formal organizations involves learning to recognize the many layers of front stage and back stage of organized life, and to bracket formality. It means to be alert to the fact that what is formal and front stage for one some actors, and in some situations, may in fact be back...... stage and informal for others. Walking the talk, donning the appropriate attire, wearing the proper suit, may be part of what is takes to figure out the code of formal organizational settings – an entrance ticket to the backstage, as it were. Oftentimes, it involves a degree of mimicry, of ‘following...... suits’ (Nyqvist 2013), and of doing ‘ethnography by failure’ (Garsten 2013). In this paper, we explore the layers of informality and formality in our fieldwork experiences among financial investors and policy experts, and discuss how to ethnographically represent embodied fieldwork practices. How do we...

  4. Canonical formalism for relativistic dynamics

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Penafiel-Nava, V.M.

    1982-01-01

    The possibility of a canonical formalism appropriate for a dynamical theory of isolated relativistic multiparticle systems involving scalar interactions is studied. It is shown that a single time-parameter structure satisfying the requirements of Poincare invariance and simultaneity of the constituents (global tranversality) can not be derived from a homogeneous Lagrangian. The dynamics is deduced initially from a non-homogeneous but singular Lagrangian designed to accommodate the global tranversality constraints with the equaltime plane associated to the total momentum of the system. An equivalent standard Lagrangian is used to generalize the parametrization procedure which is referred to an arbitrary geodesic in Minkowski space. The equations of motion and the definition of center of momentum are invariant with respect to the choice of geodesic and the entire formalism becomes separable. In the original 8N-dimensional phase-space, the symmetries of the Lagrangian give rise to a canonical realization of a fifteen-generator Lie algebra which is projected in the 6N dimensional hypersurface of dynamical motions. The time-component of the total momentum is thus reduced to a neutral element and the canonical Hamiltonian survives as the only generator for time-translations so that the no-interaction theorem becomes inapplicable

  5. Formal analysis of inelastic scattering in the coulomb-projected eikonal approximation

    CERN Document Server

    Qian, W J; Yan, S; Yang, Z S; Bo, D Y

    1998-01-01

    A formal procedure within the frame-work of the eikonal approximation for the inelastic scattering of many-electron atoms is formulated on the basis of the Racah algebra in the non-partial wave version, where an arbitrary complex wavefunction, including the contribution from all partial waves, can be used for the process calculations.

  6. Fear of the Formal

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    du Gay, Paul; Lopdrup-Hjorth, Thomas

    Over recent decades, institutions exhibiting high degrees of formality have come in for severe criticism. From the private to the public sector, and across a whole spectrum of actors spanning from practitioners to academics, formal organization is viewed with increasing doubt and skepticism....... In a “Schumpetarian world” (Teece et al., 1997: 509) of dynamic competition and incessant reform, formal organization appears as well suited to survival as a fish out of water. Indeed, formal organization, and its closely overlapping semantic twin bureaucracy, are not only represented as ill suited to the realities...... is that formal organization is an obstacle to be overcome. For that very reason, critics, intellectuals and reformers alike have urged public and private organizations to break out of the stifling straightjacket of formality, to dispense with bureaucracy, and to tear down hierarchies. This could either be done...

  7. Applications of a formal approach to decipher discrete genetic networks.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Corblin, Fabien; Fanchon, Eric; Trilling, Laurent

    2010-07-20

    A growing demand for tools to assist the building and analysis of biological networks exists in systems biology. We argue that the use of a formal approach is relevant and applicable to address questions raised by biologists about such networks. The behaviour of these systems being complex, it is essential to exploit efficiently every bit of experimental information. In our approach, both the evolution rules and the partial knowledge about the structure and the behaviour of the network are formalized using a common constraint-based language. In this article our formal and declarative approach is applied to three biological applications. The software environment that we developed allows to specifically address each application through a new class of biologically relevant queries. We show that we can describe easily and in a formal manner the partial knowledge about a genetic network. Moreover we show that this environment, based on a constraint algorithmic approach, offers a wide variety of functionalities, going beyond simple simulations, such as proof of consistency, model revision, prediction of properties, search for minimal models relatively to specified criteria. The formal approach proposed here deeply changes the way to proceed in the exploration of genetic and biochemical networks, first by avoiding the usual trial-and-error procedure, and second by placing the emphasis on sets of solutions, rather than a single solution arbitrarily chosen among many others. Last, the constraint approach promotes an integration of model and experimental data in a single framework.

  8. Enhancing System Realisation in Formal Model Development

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Tran-Jørgensen, Peter Würtz Vinther

    and requirements of software extensions targeting Overture. The tools developed in this PhD project have successfully supported three case studies from externally funded projects. The feedback received from the case study work has further helped improve the code generation infrastructure and the tools built using...... implementation. One way to realise the system’s software is by automatically generating it from the formal specification – a technique referred to as code generation. However, in general it is difficult to make guarantees about the correctness of the generated code – especially while requiring automation...... of the steps involved in realising the formal specification. This PhD dissertation investigates ways to improve the automation of the steps involved in realising and validating a system based on a formal specification. The approach aims to develop properly designed software tools which support the integration...

  9. Formal Dismissal Procedures Under Illinois Teacher Tenure Laws. Revised Edition.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jenkins, Newell N.; And Others

    This handbook, an updated and revised version of the 1975 original, contains the new statutory requirements, state board of education rules, and court decisions pertaining to teacher dismissal in Illinois. This handbook is designed to acquaint Illinois school administrators and school board members with the legal procedures necessary in dismissal…

  10. Standardisation of heavy vehicle crash investigation procedures in South Africa

    CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

    Dube, S

    2015-07-01

    Full Text Available regarding accidents involving heavy vehicles and even less is known about the real cause of these accidents. This paper reports on the findings of a study on the status of heavy vehicle accident investigation procedures in South Africa. This study involved a...

  11. Investigation on a procedure for optimal axial depth of cut accuracy in micromilling

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Bissacco, Giuliano; Hansen, Hans Nørgaard; De Chiffre, Leonardo

    2005-01-01

    On the basis of a previously developed procedure for control of axial depth of cut in high accuracy micromilling operations, this paper presents an investigation on the estimation of the uncertainty of the set axial depth of cut.......On the basis of a previously developed procedure for control of axial depth of cut in high accuracy micromilling operations, this paper presents an investigation on the estimation of the uncertainty of the set axial depth of cut....

  12. Necessity of Integral Formalism

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Tao Yong

    2011-01-01

    To describe the physical reality, there are two ways of constructing the dynamical equation of field, differential formalism and integral formalism. The importance of this fact is firstly emphasized by Yang in case of gauge field [Phys. Rev. Lett. 33 (1974) 445], where the fact has given rise to a deeper understanding for Aharonov-Bohm phase and magnetic monopole [Phys. Rev. D 12 (1975) 3845]. In this paper we shall point out that such a fact also holds in general wave function of matter, it may give rise to a deeper understanding for Berry phase. Most importantly, we shall prove a point that, for general wave function of matter, in the adiabatic limit, there is an intrinsic difference between its integral formalism and differential formalism. It is neglect of this difference that leads to an inconsistency of quantum adiabatic theorem pointed out by Marzlin and Sanders [Phys. Rev. Lett. 93 (2004) 160408]. It has been widely accepted that there is no physical difference of using differential operator or integral operator to construct the dynamical equation of field. Nevertheless, our study shows that the Schrödinger differential equation (i.e., differential formalism for wave function) shall lead to vanishing Berry phase and that the Schrödinger integral equation (i.e., integral formalism for wave function), in the adiabatic limit, can satisfactorily give the Berry phase. Therefore, we reach a conclusion: There are two ways of describing physical reality, differential formalism and integral formalism; but the integral formalism is a unique way of complete description. (general)

  13. Integration over families of Lagrangian submanifolds in BV formalism

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mikhailov, Andrei

    2018-03-01

    Gauge fixing is interpreted in BV formalism as a choice of Lagrangian submanifold in an odd symplectic manifold (the BV phase space). A natural construction defines an integration procedure on families of Lagrangian submanifolds. In string perturbation theory, the moduli space integrals of higher genus amplitudes can be interpreted in this way. We discuss the role of gauge symmetries in this construction. We derive the conditions which should be imposed on gauge symmetries for the consistency of our integration procedure. We explain how these conditions behave under the deformations of the worldsheet theory. In particular, we show that integrated vertex operator is actually an inhomogeneous differential form on the space of Lagrangian submanifolds.

  14. Pragmatics for formal semantics

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Danvy, Olivier

    2011-01-01

    This tech talk describes how to write and how to inter-derive formal semantics for sequential programming languages. The progress reported here is (1) concrete guidelines to write each formal semantics to alleviate their proof obligations, and (2) simple calculational tools to obtain a formal...

  15. Formal psychological assessment in evaluating depression: a new methodology to build exhaustive and irredundant adaptive questionnaires.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Serra, Francesca; Spoto, Andrea; Ghisi, Marta; Vidotto, Giulio

    2015-01-01

    Psychological Assessment can be defined as a complex procedure of information collection, analysis and processing. Formal Psychological Assessment (FPA) tries to improve this procedure by providing a formal framework to build assessment tools. In this paper, FPA is applied to depression. Seven questionnaires widely used for the self-evaluation of depression were selected. Diagnostic criteria for major depressive disorder were derived from the DSM-5, literature and Seligman's and Beck's theories. A Boolean matrix was built, including 266 items from the questionnaires in the rows and 20 selected attributes, obtained through diagnostic criteria decomposition, in the columns. In the matrix, a 1 in a cell meant that the corresponding item investigated the specific attribute. It was thus possible to analyze the relationships between items and attributes and among items. While none of the considered questionnaires could alone cover all the criteria for the evaluation of depressive symptoms, we observed that a set of 30 items contained the same information that was obtained redundantly with 266 items. Another result highlighted by the matrix regards the relations among items. FPA allows in-depth analysis of currently used questionnaires based on the presence/absence of clinical elements. FPA allows for going beyond the mere score by differentiating the patients according to symptomatology. Furthermore, it allows for computerized-adaptive assessment.

  16. Industrial use of formal methods formal verification

    CERN Document Server

    Boulanger, Jean-Louis

    2012-01-01

    At present the literature gives students and researchers of the very general books on the formal technics. The purpose of this book is to present in a single book, a return of experience on the used of the "formal technics" (such proof and model-checking) on industrial examples for the transportation domain. This book is based on the experience of people which are completely involved in the realization and the evaluation of safety critical system software based.  The implication of the industrialists allows to raise the problems of confidentiality which could appear and so allow

  17. Perturbation theory and collision probability formalism. Vol. 2

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Nasr, M [National Center for Nuclear Safety and Radiation Control, Atomic Energy Authority, Cairo (Egypt)

    1996-03-01

    Perturbation theory is commonly used in evaluating the activity effects, particularly those resulting from small and localized perturbation in multiplying media., e.g. in small sample reactivity measurements. The Boltzmann integral transport equation is generally used for evaluating the direct and adjoint fluxes in the heterogenous lattice cells to be used in the perturbation equations. When applying perturbation theory in this formalism, a term involving the perturbation effects on the special transfer kernel arises. This term is difficult to evaluate correctly, since it involves an integration all over the entire system. The main advantage of the perturbation theory which is the limitation of the integration procedure on the perturbation region is found to be of no practical use in such cases. In the present work, the perturbation equation in the collision probability formalism is analyzed. A mathematical treatment of the term in question is performed. A new mathematical expression for this term is derived. The new expression which can be estimated easily is derived.

  18. The content and role of formal contracts in high-tech alliances

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    de Jong, Gjalt; Woolthuis, Rosalinde Ja Klein

    2009-01-01

    In this study we investigate the governance structure of innovation processes in high-tech alliances, focusing on the content and role of formal contracts. The design of a formal agreement is one of the most important strategic decisions for alliance partners. Drawing upon transaction cost arguments

  19. Formal Verification -26 ...

    Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

    by testing of the components and successful testing leads to the software being ... Formal verification is based on formal methods which are mathematically based ..... scenario under which a similar error could occur. There are various other ...

  20. Scalar formalism for non-Abelian gauge theory

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hostler, L.C.

    1986-01-01

    The gauge field theory of an N-dimensional multiplet of spin- 1/2 particles is investigated using the Klein--Gordon-type wave equation ]Pi x (1+isigma) x Pi+m 2 ]Phi = 0, Pi/sub μ/equivalentpartial/partialix/sub μ/-eA/sub μ/, investigated before by a number of authors, to describe the fermions. Here Phi is a 2 x 1 Pauli spinor, and sigma repesents a Lorentz spin tensor whose components sigma/sub μ//sub ν/ are ordinary 2 x 2 Pauli spin matrices. Feynman rules for the scalar formalism for non-Abelian gauge theory are derived starting from the conventional field theory of the multiplet and converting it to the new description. The equivalence of the new and the old formalism for arbitrary radiative processes is thereby established. The conversion to the scalar formalism is accomplished in a novel way by working in terms of the path integral representation of the generating functional of the vacuum tau-functions, tau(2,1, xxx 3 xxx)equivalent , where Psi/sub in/ is a Heisenberg operator belonging to a 4N x 1 Dirac wave function of the multiplet. The Feynman rules obtained generalize earlier results for the Abelian case of quantum electrodynamics

  1. A formal mentorship program for faculty development.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jackevicius, Cynthia A; Le, Jennifer; Nazer, Lama; Hess, Karl; Wang, Jeffrey; Law, Anandi V

    2014-06-17

    To describe the development, implementation, and evaluation of a formal mentorship program at a college of pharmacy. After extensive review of the mentorship literature within the health sciences, a formal mentorship program was developed between 2006 and 2008 to support and facilitate faculty development. The voluntary program was implemented after mentors received training, and mentors and protégés were matched and received an orientation. Evaluation consisted of conducting annual surveys and focus groups with mentors and protégés. Fifty-one mentor-protégé pairs were formed from 2009 to 2012. A large majority of the mentors (82.8%-96.9%) were satisfied with the mentorship program and its procedures. The majority of the protégés (≥70%) were satisfied with the mentorship program, mentor-protégé relationship, and program logistics. Both mentors and protégés reported that the protégés most needed guidance on time management, prioritization, and work-life balance. While there were no significant improvements in the proteges' number of grant submissions, retention rates, or success in promotion/tenure, the total number of peer-reviewed publications by junior faculty members was significantly higher after program implementation (mean of 7 per year vs 21 per year, p=0.03) in the college's pharmacy practice and administration department. A formal mentorship program was successful as measured by self-reported assessments of mentors and protégés.

  2. What is the method in applying formal methods to PLC applications?

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Mader, Angelika H.; Engel, S.; Wupper, Hanno; Kowalewski, S.; Zaytoon, J.

    2000-01-01

    The question we investigate is how to obtain PLC applications with confidence in their proper functioning. Especially, we are interested in the contribution that formal methods can provide for their development. Our maxim is that the place of a particular formal method in the total picture of system

  3. Promoting Democratic Citizenship Through Non-Formal Adult Education

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Milana, Marcella; Bernt Sørensen, Tore

    2009-01-01

    The article presents selected findings from in-depth case studies of two non-formal learning activities organized by the Danish Folk High Schools and Day High Schools, respectively. The purpose of the empirical study was to investigate how longstanding non-formal adult education institutions have...... worked to foster the acquisition of civic competencies among young adults, thus contributed to learning for democratic citizenship.The analysis highlights that negotiation of meaning is never value-free; nonetheless teachers play a key role in securing a learning environment that allows...

  4. Using Exemption Examinations to Assess Finnish Business Students' Non-Formal and Informal Learning of ESP: A Pilot Study

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tuomainen, Satu

    2014-01-01

    In recent years Finnish university language centres have increasingly developed procedures for assessing and recognising the skills in English for Specific Purposes (ESP) that students acquire in various non-formal and informal learning environments. This article describes the procedures developed by the University of Eastern Finland Language…

  5. A Comparison of Participation Patterns in Selected Formal, Non-Formal, and Informal Online Learning Environments

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schwier, Richard A.; Seaton, J. X.

    2013-01-01

    Does learner participation vary depending on the learning context? Are there characteristic features of participation evident in formal, non-formal, and informal online learning environments? Six online learning environments were chosen as epitomes of formal, non-formal, and informal learning contexts and compared. Transcripts of online…

  6. Application of the Ornstein-Zernike formalism to polymer and copolymer blends

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Benmouna, M.

    1988-09-01

    The Ornstein Zernike formalism is shown to be applicable to polymer and copolymer blends. Direct correlation functions are obtained from the solution problem by using a simple procedure which was suggested before (M. Benmouna, H. Benoit and W. Wu, to be published in Macromolecules). This procedure consists essentially of replacing the volume fraction of solvent by the quantity φ c N c P c (q) where φ c , N c and P c (q) are the volume fraction, the degree of polymerization and the form factor as a function of momentum transfer q, respectively. (author). 9 refs

  7. THE DISREGARD DOCTRINE IN NEW CIVIL PROCEDURE CODE

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Paulo Roberto Pegoraro Junior

    2015-12-01

    Full Text Available The new Civil Procedure Code sought to regulate the procedure for piercing the corporate veil in order to ensure the fullness of previus contradictory and admitting the reverse disregard. Innovation allows formal fitness for important tool material effectiveness in the civil process, although already identify some object points of controversy.

  8. Improving Learner Outcomes in Lifelong Education: Formal Pedagogies in Non-Formal Learning Contexts?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zepke, Nick; Leach, Linda

    2006-01-01

    This article explores how far research findings about successful pedagogies in formal post-school education might be used in non-formal learning contexts--settings where learning may not lead to formal qualifications. It does this by examining a learner outcomes model adapted from a synthesis of research into retention. The article first…

  9. Conceptual graph grammar--a simple formalism for sublanguage.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Johnson, S B

    1998-11-01

    There are a wide variety of computer applications that deal with various aspects of medical language: concept representation, controlled vocabulary, natural language processing, and information retrieval. While technical and theoretical methods appear to differ, all approaches investigate different aspects of the same phenomenon: medical sublanguage. This paper surveys the properties of medical sublanguage from a formal perspective, based on detailed analyses cited in the literature. A review of several computer systems based on sublanguage approaches shows some of the difficulties in addressing the interaction between the syntactic and semantic aspects of sublanguage. A formalism called Conceptual Graph Grammar is presented that attempts to combine both syntax and semantics into a single notation by extending standard Conceptual Graph notation. Examples from the domain of pathology diagnoses are provided to illustrate the use of this formalism in medical language analysis. The strengths and weaknesses of the approach are then considered. Conceptual Graph Grammar is an attempt to synthesize the common properties of different approaches to sublanguage into a single formalism, and to begin to define a common foundation for language-related research in medical informatics.

  10. Combining Formal, Non-Formal and Informal Learning for Workforce Skill Development

    Science.gov (United States)

    Misko, Josie

    2008-01-01

    This literature review, undertaken for Australian Industry Group, shows how multiple variations and combinations of formal, informal and non-formal learning, accompanied by various government incentives and organisational initiatives (including job redesign, cross-skilling, multi-skilling, diversified career pathways, action learning projects,…

  11. A decision support system-based procedure for evaluation and monitoring of protected areas sustainability for the Mediterranean region

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pediaditi, K.; Buono, F.; Pompigna, F.; Bogliotti, C.; Nurlu, E.; Ladisa, G.; Petropoulos, G. P.

    2011-10-01

    Despite common acknowledgement of the value of protected areas as instruments in ensuring sustainability, and their promotion for the achievement of policies on halting the loss of biodiversity, there is no common approach today for monitoring and evaluating them. This paper presents a novel integrated nature conservation management procedure developed to monitor and evaluate the sustainability of Mediterranean protected areas. This procedure was successfully implemented and formally evaluated by protected area managers in six Mediterranean countries, results of which are presented here together with an overview of the web-based Decision Support System (DSS) developed to facilitate its wide adoption. The DSS and procedure has been designed and evaluated by managers as a useful tool, which facilitates and provides needed procedural guidance for protected area monitoring whilst minimizing input requirements to do so. The procedure and DSS were developed following a review of existing protected area assessment tools and a detailed primary investigation of the needs and capacity of its intended users. Essentially, the procedure and DSS guides provide the facilities for protected area managers, in following a participatory approach to develop a context-specific sustainability monitoring strategy, for their protected area. Consequently, the procedure is, by design, participatory, context specific, holistic and relevant to protected area management and institutional procedures. The procedure was piloted and formally evaluated in Greece, Italy, Turkey, Egypt, Malta and Cyprus. Feedback collected from the pilot evaluations is also summarised herein.

  12. 22 CFR 61.7 - Review and appeal procedures.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-04-01

    ... 22 Foreign Relations 1 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Review and appeal procedures. 61.7 Section 61.7 Foreign Relations DEPARTMENT OF STATE PUBLIC DIPLOMACY AND EXCHANGES WORLD-WIDE FREE FLOW OF AUDIO-VISUAL MATERIALS § 61.7 Review and appeal procedures. (a) An applicant may request a formal review of any adverse...

  13. Informal Versus Formal Search : Which Yields a Better Pay?

    OpenAIRE

    Semih Tumen

    2015-01-01

    Estimates on the effect of job contact method – i.e., informal versus formal search – on wage offers vary considerably across studies, with some of them finding a positive correlation between getting help from informal connections and obtaining high-paying jobs, while others finding a negative one. In this paper, I theoretically investigate the sources of discrepancies in these empirical results. Using a formal job search framework, I derive an equilibrium wage distribution which reveals that...

  14. Land certification as a substitute or complement to local procedures ? Securing rural land transactions in the Malagasy highlands

    OpenAIRE

    Boué, C.; Colin, Jean-Philippe

    2018-01-01

    This text deals with the relationships between land transactions and the formalization of land rights in a Malagasy context, exploring the local procedures aiming at securing land transactions, while putting them in perspective with the legal formalization of land rights through land certification. Our research shows that (i) transactions are far from being limited to legally recorded plots of land, (ii) the local extra-legal procedures for formalizing transactions are highly standardized, (i...

  15. Data publication - policies and procedures from the PREPARDE project

    Science.gov (United States)

    Callaghan, Sarah; Murphy, Fiona; Tedds, Jonathan; Kunze, John; Lawrence, Rebecca; Mayernik, , Matthew S.; Whyte, Angus; Roberts, Timothy

    2013-04-01

    Data are widely acknowledged as a first class scientific output. Increases in researchers' abilities to create data need to be matched by corresponding infrastructures for them to manage and share their data. At the same time, the quality and persistence of the datasets need to be ensured, providing the dataset creators with the recognition they deserve for their efforts. Formal publication of data takes advantage of the processes and procedures already in place to publish academic articles about scientific results, enabling data to be reviewed and more broadly disseminated. Data are vastly more varied in format than papers, and so the policies required to manage and publish data must take into account the complexities associated with different data types, scientific fields, licensing rules etc. The Peer REview for Publication & Accreditation of Research Data in the Earth sciences (PREPARDE) project is JISC- and NERC-funded, and aims to investigate the policies and procedures required for the formal publication of research data. The project is investigating the whole workflow of data publication, from ingestion into a data repository, through to formal publication in a data journal. To limit the scope of the project, the focus is primarily on the policies required for the Royal Meteorological Society and Wiley's Geoscience Data Journal, though members of the project team include representatives from the life sciences (F1000Research), and will generalise the policies to other disciplines. PREPARDE addresses key issues arising in the data publication paradigm, such as: what criteria are needed for a repository to be considered objectively trustworthy; how does one peer-review a dataset; and how can datasets and journal publications be effectively cross-linked for the benefit of the wider research community and the completeness of the scientific record? To answer these questions, the project is hosting workshops addressing these issues, with interactions from key

  16. Beyond formalism

    Science.gov (United States)

    Denning, Peter J.

    1991-01-01

    The ongoing debate over the role of formalism and formal specifications in software features many speakers with diverse positions. Yet, in the end, they share the conviction that the requirements of a software system can be unambiguously specified, that acceptable software is a product demonstrably meeting the specifications, and that the design process can be carried out with little interaction between designers and users once the specification has been agreed to. This conviction is part of a larger paradigm prevalent in American management thinking, which holds that organizations are systems that can be precisely specified and optimized. This paradigm, which traces historically to the works of Frederick Taylor in the early 1900s, is no longer sufficient for organizations and software systems today. In the domain of software, a new paradigm, called user-centered design, overcomes the limitations of pure formalism. Pioneered in Scandinavia, user-centered design is spreading through Europe and is beginning to make its way into the U.S.

  17. FORMAL MODELLING OF BUSINESS RULES: WHAT KIND OF TOOL TO USE?

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sandra Lovrenčić

    2006-12-01

    Full Text Available Business rules are today essential parts of a business system model. But presently, there are still various approaches to, definitions and classifications of this concept. Similarly, there are also different approaches in business rules formalization and implementation. This paper investigates formalization using formal language in association with easy domain modelling. Two of the tools that enable such approach are described and compared according to several factors. They represent ontology modelling and UML, nowadays widely used standard for object-oriented modelling. A simple example is also presented.

  18. Peering is not a formal indicator of subordination in bonobos (Pan paniscus)

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Stevens, J.M.G.; Vervaecke, H.; Vries, Han de; Elsacker, L. van

    2005-01-01

    It has been suggested that peering behavior in bonobos is a formal signal acknowledging social dominance status. We investigated whether peering meets the published criteria for a formal signal of subordination in five captive groups of bonobos. The degree of linearity in the set of peering

  19. Integrated formal operations plan

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Cort, G.; Dearholt, W.; Donahue, S.; Frank, J.; Perkins, B.; Tyler, R.; Wrye, J.

    1994-01-05

    The concept of formal operations (that is, a collection of business practices to assure effective, accountable operations) has vexed the Laboratory for many years. To date most attempts at developing such programs have been based upon rigid, compliance-based interpretations of a veritable mountain of Department of Energy (DOE) orders, directives, notices, and standards. These DOE dictates seldom take the broad view but focus on highly specialized programs isolated from the overall context of formal operations. The result is a confusing array of specific, and often contradictory, requirements that produce a patchwork of overlapping niche programs. This unnecessary duplication wastes precious resources, dramatically increases the complexity of our work processes, and communicates a sense of confusion to our customers and regulators. Coupled with the artificial divisions that have historically existed among the Laboratory`s formal operations organizations (quality assurance, configuration management, records management, training, etc.), this approach has produced layers of increasingly vague and complex formal operations plans, each of which interprets its parent and adds additional requirements of its own. Organizational gridlock ensues whenever an activity attempts to implement these bureaucratic monstrosities. The integrated formal operations plan presented is to establish a set of requirements that must be met by an integrated formal operations program, assign responsibilities for implementation and operation of the program, and specify criteria against which the performance of the program will be measured. The accountable line manager specifies the items, processes, and information (the controlled elements) to which the formal operations program specified applies. The formal operations program is implemented using a graded approach based on the level of importance of the various controlled elements and the scope of the activities in which they are involved.

  20. Barriers to formal emergency obstetric care services' utilization.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Essendi, Hildah; Mills, Samuel; Fotso, Jean-Christophe

    2011-06-01

    Access to appropriate health care including skilled birth attendance at delivery and timely referrals to emergency obstetric care services can greatly reduce maternal deaths and disabilities, yet women in sub-Saharan Africa continue to face limited access to skilled delivery services. This study relies on qualitative data collected from residents of two slums in Nairobi, Kenya in 2006 to investigate views surrounding barriers to the uptake of formal obstetric services. Data indicate that slum dwellers prefer formal to informal obstetric services. However, their efforts to utilize formal emergency obstetric care services are constrained by various factors including ineffective health decision making at the family level, inadequate transport facilities to formal care facilities and insecurity at night, high cost of health services, and inhospitable formal service providers and poorly equipped health facilities in the slums. As a result, a majority of slum dwellers opt for delivery services offered by traditional birth attendants (TBAs) who lack essential skills and equipment, thereby increasing the risk of death and disability. Based on these findings, we maintain that urban poor women face barriers to access of formal obstetric services at family, community, and health facility levels, and efforts to reduce maternal morbidity and mortality among the urban poor must tackle the barriers, which operate at these different levels to hinder women's access to formal obstetric care services. We recommend continuous community education on symptoms of complications related to pregnancy and timely referral. A focus on training of health personnel on "public relations" could also restore confidence in the health-care system with this populace. Further, we recommend improving the health facilities in the slums, improving the services provided by TBAs through capacity building as well as involving TBAs in referral processes to make access to services timely. Measures can also be

  1. Criteria of benchmark selection for efficient flexible multibody system formalisms

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Valášek M.

    2007-10-01

    Full Text Available The paper deals with the selection process of benchmarks for testing and comparing efficient flexible multibody formalisms. The existing benchmarks are briefly summarized. The purposes for benchmark selection are investigated. The result of this analysis is the formulation of the criteria of benchmark selection for flexible multibody formalisms. Based on them the initial set of suitable benchmarks is described. Besides that the evaluation measures are revised and extended.

  2. Integrating semi-formal and formal requirements

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Wieringa, Roelf J.; Olivé, Antoni; Dubois, Eric; Pastor, Joan Antoni; Huyts, Sander

    1997-01-01

    In this paper, we report on the integration of informal, semiformal and formal requirements specification techniques. We present a framework for requirements specification called TRADE, within which several well-known semiformal specification techniques are placed. TRADE is based on an analysis of

  3. Effects of shape differences in the level densities of three formalisms on calculated cross-sections

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Fu, C.Y.; Larson, D.C.

    1998-01-01

    Effects of shape differences in the level densities of three formalisms on calculated cross-sections and particle emission spectra are described. Reactions for incident neutrons up to 20 MeV on 58 Ni are chosen for illustrations. Level density parameters for one of the formalisms are determined from the available neutron resonance data for one residual nuclide in the binary channels and from fitting the measured (n,n'), (n,p) and (n,α) cross-sections for the other two residual nuclides. Level density parameters for the other two formalisms are determined such that they yield the same values as the above one at two selected energies. This procedure forces the level densities from the three formalisms used for the binary pat of the calculation to be as close as possible. The remaining differences are in their energy dependences (shapes). It is shown that these shape differences alone are enough to cause the calculated cross-sections and particle emission spectra to be different by up to 60%. (author)

  4. Formal verification and validation of the safety-critical software in a digital reactor protection system

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kwon, K. C.; Park, G. Y.

    2006-01-01

    This paper describes the Verification and Validation (V and V) activities for the safety-critical software in a Digital Reactor Protection System (DRPS) that is being developed through the Korea nuclear instrumentation and control system project. The main activities of the DRPS V and V process are a preparation of the software planning documentation, a verification of the software according to the software life cycle, a software safety analysis and a software configuration management. The verification works for the Software Requirement Specification (SRS) of the DRPS consist of a technical evaluation, a licensing suitability evaluation, a inspection and traceability analysis, a formal verification, and preparing a test plan and procedure. Especially, the SRS is specified by the formal specification method in the development phase, and the formal SRS is verified by a formal verification method. Through these activities, we believe we can achieve the functionality, performance, reliability, and safety that are the major V and V objectives of the nuclear safety-critical software in a DRPS. (authors)

  5. Formal System Verification - Extension 2

    Science.gov (United States)

    2012-08-08

    vision of truly trustworthy systems has been to provide a formally verified microkernel basis. We have previously developed the seL4 microkernel...together with a formal proof (in the theorem prover Isabelle/HOL) of its functional correctness [6]. This means that all the behaviours of the seL4 C...source code are included in the high-level, formal specification of the kernel. This work enabled us to provide further formal guarantees about seL4 , in

  6. Psychologist in non-formal education

    OpenAIRE

    Pavićević Miljana S.

    2011-01-01

    Learning is not limited to school time. It starts at birth and continues throughout the entire life. Equally important as formal education there are also non-formal and informal education. Any kind of learning outside the traditional school can be called informal. However, it is not easy to define non-formal education because it is being described differently, for example as an education movement, process, system… Projects and programs implemented under the name of non-formal education are of...

  7. Topical Roots of Formal Dialectic

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Krabbe, Erik C. W.

    Formal dialectic has its roots in ancient dialectic. We can trace this influence in Charles Hamblin's book on fallacies, in which he introduced his first formal dialectical systems. Earlier, Paul Lorenzen proposed systems of dialogical logic, which were in fact formal dialectical systems avant la

  8. Lending Policies of Informal, Formal, and Semi-formal Lenders: Evidence from Vietnam

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Lensink, B.W.; Pham, T.T.T.

    2007-01-01

    This paper compares lending policies of formal, informal and semiformal lenders with respect to household lending in Vietnam. The analysis suggests that the probability of using formal or semiformal credit increases if borrowers provide collateral, a guarantor and/or borrow for business-related

  9. Concepciones acerca de la maternidad en la educación formal y no formal

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Alvarado Calderón, Kathia

    2005-06-01

    Full Text Available Este artículo presenta algunos resultados de la investigación desarrollada en el Instituto de Investigación en Educación (INIE, bajo el nombre "Construcción del concepto de maternidad en la educación formal y no formal". Utilizando un enfoque cualitativo de investigación, recurrimos a las técnicas de elaboración de dibujos, entrevistas y grupo focal como recursos para la recolección de la información. De esta manera, podemos acercarnos a las concepciones de la maternidad que utilizan los participantes de las diferentes instancias educativas (formal y no formal con quienes se trabajó. This article presents some results the research developed in the Instituto de Investigación en Educación (INIE, named "Construcción del concepto de maternidad en la educación formal y no formal". It begins with a theoretical analysis about social conceptions regarding motherhood in the occidental societies. Among the techniques for gathering information were thematic drawing, interview and focus group, using a qualitative approach research method. This is followed by a brief summary of main findings. The article concludes with a proposal of future working lines for the deconstruction of the motherhood concept in formal and informal education contexts.

  10. Promoting Democratic Citizenship through Non-Formal Adult Education: The Case of Denmark

    Science.gov (United States)

    Milana, Marcella; Sorensen, Tore Bernt

    2009-01-01

    The article presents selected findings from in-depth case studies of two non-formal learning activities organized by the Danish Folk High Schools and Day High Schools, respectively. The purpose of the empirical study was to investigate how longstanding, non-formal, adult education institutions have worked to foster the acquisition of civic…

  11. Sexual Harassment in Public Schools: Policy Design, Policy Implementation, and the Perceptions of Employees Participating in Investigations

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bratge, Katrina

    2009-01-01

    This study of two cases of sexual harassment investigates employee perceptions and organizational characteristics associated with policy and implementation procedures in two public school districts in New York State which experienced different outcomes to litigation in response to formal complaints of sexual harassment. Using documentary evidence…

  12. Some properties for integro-differential operator defined by a fractional formal.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Abdulnaby, Zainab E; Ibrahim, Rabha W; Kılıçman, Adem

    2016-01-01

    Recently, the study of the fractional formal (operators, polynomials and classes of special functions) has been increased. This study not only in mathematics but extended to another topics. In this effort, we investigate a generalized integro-differential operator [Formula: see text] defined by a fractional formal (fractional differential operator) and study some its geometric properties by employing it in new subclasses of analytic univalent functions.

  13. Formalized Informal Learning

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Levinsen, Karin Tweddell; Sørensen, Birgitte Holm

    2013-01-01

    are examined and the relation between network society competences, learners’ informal learning strategies and ICT in formalized school settings over time is studied. The authors find that aspects of ICT like multimodality, intuitive interaction design and instant feedback invites an informal bricoleur approach....... When integrated into certain designs for teaching and learning, this allows for Formalized Informal Learning and support is found for network society competences building....

  14. INTERCULTURAL ISSUES IN FORMAL PARTNERSHIPS - DIAGNOSIS AND SOLUTIONS

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Irina MANOLESCU

    2014-04-01

    Full Text Available Today, collaboration, information and resource sharing with different (and sometimes even competing organizations have been viewed as key for success building. Encouraged by the European and national institutions, formal partnerships, whether temporary or permanent, such as grant writing agreements, clusters, regional working groups or networks have become more widespread in the socio-economic environment. This paper aims to investigate the most important intercultural issues in various types of formal partnerships built in Romanian public and private organizations and to identify solutions to these problems. In order to provide a solid, research-based approach to our study, we studied the evaluation reports of programs and projects involving partnerships and conducted interviews with people involved in the development and implementation of joint activities. The application of results is straightforward: the organizations will raise their awareness of the importance of an intercultural analysis when participating in a formal partnership and will take into account the implementation of appropriate methods in order to overcome intercultural challenges.

  15. The base of the iceberg: informal learning and its impact on formal and non-formal learning

    OpenAIRE

    Rogers, Alan

    2014-01-01

    The author looks at learning (formal, non-formal and informal) and examines the hidden world of informal (unconscious, unplanned) learning. He points out the importance of informal learning for creating tacit attitudes and values, knowledge and skills which influence (conscious, planned) learning - formal and non-formal. Moreover, he explores the implications of informal learning for educational planners and teachers in the context of lifelong learning. While mainly aimed at adult educators, ...

  16. 13 CFR 130.630 - Dispute resolution procedures.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-01-01

    ... organization has supplied the Committee with all requested documentation. (b) Programmatic (non-financial... DEVELOPMENT CENTERS § 130.630 Dispute resolution procedures. (a) Financial Disputes. (1) A recipient organization wishing to resolve a financial Dispute formally must submit a written statement describing the...

  17. Economic expansion and increase in labout market formality: a poaching approach

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Carlos Henrique L. Corseuil

    2012-06-01

    Full Text Available This paper investigates the relationship between economic expansion and the degree of formalization for the Brazilian labour market in the recent period. We present a theoretical framework that attempts to explain this relationship through the dynamics of firms hiring strategies. The main predictions are: the share of formal employment rises as the unemployment rate falls, and that the formal-informal wage gap increases, at least at the beginning of the economic expansion. In the empirical part, we use longitudinal microdata from a Brazilian household survey to check whether these two predictions are confirmed. To a large extent our results corroborate both predictions.

  18. Formal Nutritional Education Improves Weight Loss in Bariatric Patients Following Laparoscopic Sleeve Gastrectomy.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mangieri, Christopher Wesley; Strode, Matthew A

    2016-12-01

    Laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy (LSG) is an increasingly performed procedure in the bariatric surgery armamentarium. This study evaluates our experience with LSG at Dwight D. Eisenhower Army Medical Center (DDEAMC) during the time period of 2008-2010. We found that the inclusion of formal nutritional education significantly increased our weight loss results following LSG. This is a retrospective review from our LSG caseload from 2008 to 2010. During that time, we performed 159 LSG. In our review, we performed comparative data of all operative years during 2008-2010 for up to 3 years postoperatively. Our main focus was in regard to weight loss as measured by percentage of excess body weight loss (%EWL), percentage of total weight loss (%TWL), and percentage of excess BMI loss (%EBL). We also evaluated the effect of LSG on diabetes mellitus (DM) and hypertension (HTN) postoperatively. We found an improvement in our %EWL, %TWL, and %EBL rates in our LSG cases following the inclusion of formal nutritional education. There was a mean increase in %EWL of 15 %, %TWL of 7 %, and %EBL of 21 %, which were statistically significant, that was present at all postoperative years of follow-up. We determined the only variable that changed in our bariatric program starting in 2010 was the inclusion of formal nutritional education. We also found a statistically significant improvement in resolution of HTN with the inclusion of formal nutritional education. The addition of formal nutritional education can enhance weight loss following bariatric surgery. We have shown a significant improvement in weight loss results following LSG with the implementation of formal nutritional education; this is the only study to our knowledge evaluating formal nutritional education and LSG.

  19. A Formal Investigation of the Organization of Guidance Behavior: Implications for Humans and Autonomous Guidance

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kong, Zhaodan

    symmetries and interaction patterns, is then elaborated on with the example of Dubins' vehicle's guidance behavior. The dissertation then describes the details of the agile human guidance experiments using miniature helicopters, the technique that is developed for the analysis of the experimental data and the analysis results. The results confirm that human guidance behavior indeed exhibits invariance as defined by interaction patterns. Subsequently, the behavior in each interaction pattern is investigated using piecewise affine model identification. Combined, the results provide a natural and formal decomposition of the behavior that can be unified under a hierarchical hidden Markov model. By employing the languages of dynamical system and control and by adopting algorithms from system identification and machine learning, the framework presented in this dissertation provides a fertile ground where these different disciplines can meet. It also promises multiple potential directions where future research can be headed.

  20. Integrated site investigation procedure for environment protection toward sustainable development

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Omar, R C; Roslan, R; Baharuddin, I N Z

    2013-01-01

    The spatial configuration of cities and their relationship to the urban environment has recently been the subject of empirical, theoretical and policy research. An awareness of environmental issues can assist policy makers, planners, developers and others to recognize the constraints imposed upon development due the physical environment especially in areas, which are susceptible to erosion, flooding and landslide. This paper highlights the key requirements for considering an assessment to protect our urban environment by incorporating three main factor i.e. policy practice, planning process and engineering investigation. Base on this three main factor the framework of the assessment is carried out. The assessment can be divided into three different categories, namely as investigation for planning, investigation for urban development and specialized investigation and mitigation. The minimum requirements for the planning and urban development investigation are listed. These guidelines suggest the level at which the various types of investigation should be carried out as well as the range of application, the scope and methodology to be used for different investigation. It is hoped that this procedure will provide guidance in the establishment and protection of urban ecosystem toward sustainable development.

  1. Formalized Epistemology, Logic, and Grammar

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bitbol, Michel

    The task of a formal epistemology is defined. It appears that a formal epistemology must be a generalization of "logic" in the sense of Wittgenstein's Tractatus. The generalization is required because, whereas logic presupposes a strict relation between activity and language, this relation may be broken in some domains of experimental enquiry (e.g., in microscopic physics). However, a formal epistemology should also retain a major feature of Wittgenstein's "logic": It must not be a discourse about scientific knowledge, but rather a way of making manifest the structures usually implicit in knowledge-gaining activity. This strategy is applied to the formalism of quantum mechanics.

  2. Formal model-based development for safety-critical embedded software

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kim, Jin Hyun; Choi, Jin Young

    2005-01-01

    Safety-critical embedded software for nuclear I and C system is developed under the safety and reliability regulation. Programmable logic controller(PLC) is a computer system for instrumentation and control (I and C) system of nuclear power plants. PLC consists of various I and C logics in software, including real-time operating system (RTOS). Hence, errors related with RTOS should be detected and eliminated in development processes. Practically, the verification and validation for errors in RTOS is performed in test procedure, in which a lot of tasks for testing are embedded in RTOS and are running under a test environments. But the test process can not be enough to guarantee the safety and reliability of RTOS. Therefore, in this paper, we introduce to applying formal methods with the development of software for the PLC. We particularity apply formal methods to a development of RTOS for PLC, which is a safety critical level. In this development, we use the state charts of I-Logix to specify and verification and model checking to verify the specification

  3. Formal model-based development for safety-critical embedded software

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Kim, Jin Hyun; Choi, Jin Young [Korea University, seoul (Korea, Republic of)

    2005-11-15

    Safety-critical embedded software for nuclear I and C system is developed under the safety and reliability regulation. Programmable logic controller(PLC) is a computer system for instrumentation and control (I and C) system of nuclear power plants. PLC consists of various I and C logics in software, including real-time operating system (RTOS). Hence, errors related with RTOS should be detected and eliminated in development processes. Practically, the verification and validation for errors in RTOS is performed in test procedure, in which a lot of tasks for testing are embedded in RTOS and are running under a test environments. But the test process can not be enough to guarantee the safety and reliability of RTOS. Therefore, in this paper, we introduce to applying formal methods with the development of software for the PLC. We particularity apply formal methods to a development of RTOS for PLC, which is a safety critical level. In this development, we use the state charts of I-Logix to specify and verification and model checking to verify the specification.

  4. The development of symptoms-oriented operating procedures

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Colquhoun, R.

    1983-04-01

    Until recently the formal treatment of control room procedures for nuclear power plant upset conditions has been event-oriented. The demise of Three Mile Island, Unit 2, caused the American industry to recognize the pitfalls inherent in relying totally on event-oriented procedures, and led to the initiation of a program for the development of a symptoms-oriented approach for handling upset conditions. The U.S. program has been independently paralleled by a Canadian program. This paper describes the development of the Canadian symptoms-oriented philosophy and identifies the relevance of a generic symptoms based emergency procedure to current operating practices

  5. Formal Methods for Abstract Specifications – A Comparison of Concepts

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Instenberg, Martin; Schneider, Axel; Schnetter, Sabine

    2006-01-01

    In industry formal methods are becoming increasingly important for the verification of hardware and software designs. However current practice for specification of system and protocol functionality on high level of abstraction is textual description. For verification of the system behavior manual...... inspections and tests are usual means. To facilitate the introduction of formal methods in the development process of complex systems and protocols, two different tools evolved from research activities – UPPAAL and SpecEdit – have been investigated and compared regarding their concepts and functionality...

  6. Indigenous Knowledge and Education from the Quechua Community to School: Beyond the Formal/Non-Formal Dichotomy

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sumida Huaman, Elizabeth; Valdiviezo, Laura Alicia

    2014-01-01

    In this article, we propose to approach Indigenous education beyond the formal/non-formal dichotomy. We argue that there is a critical need to conscientiously include Indigenous knowledge in education processes from the school to the community; particularly, when formal systems exclude Indigenous cultures and languages. Based on ethnographic…

  7. Mimicry of the Legal: Translating de jure Land Formalization Processes Into de facto Local Action in Jambi Province, Sumatra

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yvonne Kunz

    2016-06-01

    Full Text Available In Indonesia, as in many other countries of the global South, processes to formalize rights over land have been implemented with the intention to reduce deforestation, decrease poverty and increase tenure security. Literature on de jure processes of land formalization is widely available. There is a gap, however, on the discrepancy of de jure land titling procedures and de facto strategies to legitimize land claims. Led by the theoretical concepts of “law as process” and “politics of scale”, this study closes this gap by analyzing the impact of national tenure formalization processes on de facto local patterns of land titling. Using empirical material from 16 villages in Jambi province, we show that the outcomes of the state-led land reforms and land tenure formalization processes are imitated and translated into locally feasible actions. We refer to these translation processes as “mimicry of the legal”. The land formalization endeavors fostering mimicry of the legal allow for resource exploitation and rent-seeking behavior.

  8. Concepts of formal concept analysis

    Science.gov (United States)

    Žáček, Martin; Homola, Dan; Miarka, Rostislav

    2017-07-01

    The aim of this article is apply of Formal Concept Analysis on concept of world. Formal concept analysis (FCA) as a methodology of data analysis, information management and knowledge representation has potential to be applied to a verity of linguistic problems. FCA is mathematical theory for concepts and concept hierarchies that reflects an understanding of concept. Formal concept analysis explicitly formalizes extension and intension of a concept, their mutual relationships. A distinguishing feature of FCA is an inherent integration of three components of conceptual processing of data and knowledge, namely, the discovery and reasoning with concepts in data, discovery and reasoning with dependencies in data, and visualization of data, concepts, and dependencies with folding/unfolding capabilities.

  9. Schwinger–Keldysh canonical formalism for electronic Raman scattering

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Su, Yuehua, E-mail: suyh@ytu.edu.cn

    2016-03-01

    Inelastic low-energy Raman and high-energy X-ray scatterings have made great progress in instrumentation to investigate the strong electronic correlations in matter. However, theoretical study of the relevant scattering spectrum is still a challenge. In this paper, we present a Schwinger–Keldysh canonical perturbation formalism for the electronic Raman scattering, where all the resonant, non-resonant and mixed responses are considered uniformly. We show how to use this formalism to evaluate the cross section of the electronic Raman scattering off an one-band superconductor. All the two-photon scattering processes from electrons, the non-resonant charge density response, the elastic Rayleigh scattering, the fluorescence, the intrinsic energy-shift Raman scattering and the mixed response, are included. In the mean-field superconducting state, Cooper pairs contribute only to the non-resonant response. All the other responses are dominated by the single-particle excitations and are strongly suppressed due to the opening of the superconducting gap. Our formalism for the electronic Raman scattering can be easily extended to study the high-energy resonant inelastic X-ray scattering.

  10. Critical formalism or digital biomorphology. The contemporary architecture formal dilema

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Beatriz Villanueva Cajide

    2018-05-01

    Full Text Available With the dawn of digital media the architecture’s formal possibilities reached a level unknown before. The Guggenheim Museo branch in Bilbao appears in 1993 as the materialisation of the possibilities of the use of digital tools in architecture’s design, starting the development of a digital based architecture which currently has reached an exhaustion level that is evident in the repetition biomorphologic shapes emerged from the digital determinism to which some contemporary architectural practices have converged. While the digitalisation of the architectural process is irreversible and desirable, it is necessary to rethink the terms of this collaboration beyond the possibilities of the digital tools themselves. This article proposes to analyse seven texts written in the very moment when digitalisation became a real possibility, between Gehry’s conception of the Guggenheim Museum in 1992 and the Congress on Morphogenesis hold in the Architectural Association in 2004, in order to explore the possibility of reversing the process that has led to the formal exhaustion of digital architecture, from the acceptance of incorporating strategies coming from a contemporary critical formalism.

  11. Y-formalism and b ghost in the non-minimal pure spinor formalism of superstrings

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Oda, Ichiro; Tonin, Mario

    2007-01-01

    We present the Y-formalism for the non-minimal pure spinor quantization of superstrings. In the framework of this formalism we compute, at the quantum level, the explicit form of the compound operators involved in the construction of the b ghost, their normal-ordering contributions and the relevant relations among them. We use these results to construct the quantum-mechanical b ghost in the non-minimal pure spinor formalism. Moreover we show that this non-minimal b ghost is cohomologically equivalent to the non-covariant b ghost

  12. Geometry and Formal Linguistics.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Huff, George A.

    This paper presents a method of encoding geometric line-drawings in a way which allows sets of such drawings to be interpreted as formal languages. A characterization of certain geometric predicates in terms of their properties as languages is obtained, and techniques usually associated with generative grammars and formal automata are then applied…

  13. Investigation of the Performance of Multidimensional Equating Procedures for Common-Item Nonequivalent Groups Design

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Burcu ATAR

    2017-12-01

    Full Text Available In this study, the performance of the multidimensional extentions of Stocking-Lord, mean/mean, and mean/sigma equating procedures under common-item nonequivalent groups design was investigated. The performance of those three equating procedures was examined under the combination of various conditions including sample size, ability distribution, correlation between two dimensions, and percentage of anchor items in the test. Item parameter recovery was evaluated calculating RMSE (root man squared error and BIAS values. It was found that Stocking-Lord procedure provided the smaller RMSE and BIAS values for both item discrimination and item difficulty parameter estimates across most conditions.

  14. Formal Testing of Correspondence Carrying Software

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Bujorianu, M.C.; Bujorianu, L.M.; Maharaj, S.

    2008-01-01

    Nowadays formal software development is characterised by use of multitude formal specification languages. Test case generation from formal specifications depends in general on a specific language, and, moreover, there are competing methods for each language. There is a need for a generic approach to

  15. 32 CFR 644.418 - Procedure for exchange.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-07-01

    ... 32 National Defense 4 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 true Procedure for exchange. 644.418 Section 644.418... for exchange. (a) Each agreement for the exchange of real property should be formalized by written contract specifying the terms and conditions of the exchange, including, by reference to exhibits...

  16. 33 CFR 20.1003 - Procedures for appeal.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-07-01

    ... OF PRACTICE, PROCEDURE, AND EVIDENCE FOR FORMAL ADMINISTRATIVE PROCEEDINGS OF THE COAST GUARD Appeals... appellate brief with the Commandant at the following address: U.S. Coast Guard Administrative Law Judge... refer to the pertinent parts of the record. (3) The appellate brief must reach the Docketing Center 60...

  17. Formal Women-only Networks

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Villesèche, Florence; Josserand, Emmanuel

    2017-01-01

    /organisations and the wider social group of women in business. Research limitations/implications: The authors focus on the distinction between external and internal formal women-only networks while also acknowledging the broader diversity that can characterise such networks. Their review provides the reader with an insight...... member level, the authors suggest that such networks can be of value for organisations and the wider social group of women in management and leadership positions.......Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to review the emerging literature on formal women-only business networks and outline propositions to develop this under-theorised area of knowledge and stimulate future research. Design/methodology/approach: The authors review the existing literature on formal...

  18. Predicate Transformers for Recursive Procedures with Local Variables

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Hesselink, Wim H.

    1999-01-01

    The weakest precondition semantics of recursive procedures with local variables are developed for an imperative language with demonic and angelic operators for unbounded nondeterminate choice. This does not require stacking of local variables. The formalism serves as a foundation for a proof rule

  19. The Law, Policy, and Politics of Formal Hypnosis in the Public Community College Classroom.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sachs, Steven Mark

    Information from printed sources, legal documents, and interviews with community college administrators formed the basis of an investigation of the legal, policy, and political implications of the use of formal hypnosis as an instructional augmentation in the community college classroom. Study findings included the following: (1) no formal policy…

  20. Influences of Formal Learning, Personal Learning Orientation, and Supportive Learning Environment on Informal Learning

    Science.gov (United States)

    Choi, Woojae; Jacobs, Ronald L.

    2011-01-01

    While workplace learning includes formal and informal learning, the relationship between the two has been overlooked, because they have been viewed as separate entities. This study investigated the effects of formal learning, personal learning orientation, and supportive learning environment on informal learning among 203 middle managers in Korean…

  1. A Preliminary Investigation of Self-Directed Learning Activities in a Non-Formal Blended Learning Environment

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schwier, Richard A.; Morrison, Dirk; Daniel, Ben K.

    2009-01-01

    This research considers how professional participants in a non-formal self-directed learning environment (NFSDL) made use of self-directed learning activities in a blended face-to-face and on line learning professional development course. The learning environment for the study was a professional development seminar on teaching in higher education…

  2. Formal analysis of design process dynamics

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Bosse, T.; Jonker, C.M.; Treur, J.

    2010-01-01

    This paper presents a formal analysis of design process dynamics. Such a formal analysis is a prerequisite to come to a formal theory of design and for the development of automated support for the dynamics of design processes. The analysis was geared toward the identification of dynamic design

  3. Formal Analysis of Design Process Dynamics

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Bosse, T.; Jonker, C.M.; Treur, J.

    2010-01-01

    This paper presents a formal analysis of design process dynamics. Such a formal analysis is a prerequisite to come to a formal theory of design and for the development of automated support for the dynamics of design processes. The analysis was geared toward the identification of dynamic design

  4. Formalizing the concept of sound.

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Kaper, H. G.; Tipei, S.

    1999-08-03

    The notion of formalized music implies that a musical composition can be described in mathematical terms. In this article we explore some formal aspects of music and propose a framework for an abstract approach.

  5. Formal Analysis of Domain Models

    National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

    Bharadwaj, Ramesh

    2002-01-01

    Recently, there has been a great deal of interest in the application of formal methods, in particular, precise formal notations and automatic analysis tools for the creation and analysis of requirements specifications (i.e...

  6. Investigation of a reinforcement-based toilet training procedure for children with autism.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cicero, Frank R; Pfadt, Al

    2002-01-01

    Independent toileting is an important developmental skill which individuals with developmental disabilities often find a challenge to master. Effective toilet training interventions have been designed which rely on a combination of basic operant principles of positive reinforcement and punishment. In the present study, the effectiveness of a reinforcement-based toilet training intervention was investigated with three children with a diagnosis of autism. Procedures included a combination of positive reinforcement, graduated guidance, scheduled practice trials and forward prompting. Results indicated that all procedures were implemented in response to urination accidents. A three participants reduced urination accidents to zero and learned to spontaneously request use of the bathroom within 7-11 days of training. Gains were maintained over 6-month and 1-year follow-ups. Findings suggest that the proposed procedure is an effective and rapid method of toilet training, which can be implemented within a structured school setting with generalization to the home environment.

  7. Scalable Techniques for Formal Verification

    CERN Document Server

    Ray, Sandip

    2010-01-01

    This book presents state-of-the-art approaches to formal verification techniques to seamlessly integrate different formal verification methods within a single logical foundation. It should benefit researchers and practitioners looking to get a broad overview of the spectrum of formal verification techniques, as well as approaches to combining such techniques within a single framework. Coverage includes a range of case studies showing how such combination is fruitful in developing a scalable verification methodology for industrial designs. This book outlines both theoretical and practical issue

  8. Potentiometric determination of the 'formal' hydrolysis ratio of aluminium species in aqueous solutions

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Fournier, Agathe C.; Shafran, Kirill L.; Perry, Carole C.

    2008-01-01

    The 'formal' hydrolysis ratio (h = C(OH - ) added /C(Al) total ) of hydrolysed aluminium-ions is an important parameter required for the exhaustive and quantitative speciation-fractionation of aluminium in aqueous solutions. This paper describes a potentiometric method for determination of the formal hydrolysis ratio based on an automated alkaline titration procedure. The method uses the point of precipitation of aluminium hydroxide as a reference (h = 3.0) in order to calculate the initial formal hydrolysis ratio of hydrolysed aluminium-ion solutions. Several solutions of pure hydrolytic species including aluminium monomers (AlCl 3 ), Al 13 polynuclear cluster ([Al 13 O 4 (OH) 24 (H 2 O) 12 ] 7+ ), Al 30 polynuclear cluster ([Al 30 O 8 (OH) 56 (H 2 O) 26 ] 18+ ) and a suspension of nanoparticulate aluminium hydroxide have been used as 'reference standards' to validate the proposed potentiometric method. Other important variables in the potentiometric determination of the hydrolysis ratio have also been optimised including the concentration of aluminium and the type and strength of alkali (Trizma-base, NH 3 , NaHCO 3 , Na 2 CO 3 and KOH). The results of the potentiometric analysis have been cross-verified by quantitative 27 Al solution nuclear magnetic resonance ( 27 Al NMR) measurements. The 'formal' hydrolysis ratio of a commercial basic aluminium chloride has been measured as an example of a practical application of the developed technique

  9. AUTO-LAY: automatic layout generation for procedure flow diagrams

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Forzano, P; Castagna, P [Ansaldo SpA, Genoa (Italy)

    1996-12-31

    Nuclear Power Plant Procedures can be seen from essentially two viewpoints: the process and the information management. From the first point of view, it is important to supply the knowledge apt to solve problems connected with the control of the process, from the second one the focus of attention is on the knowledge representation, its structure, elicitation and maintenance, formal quality assurance. These two aspects of procedure representation can be considered and solved separately. In particular, methodological, formal and management issues require long and tedious activities, that in most cases constitute a great barrier for procedures development and upgrade. To solve these problems, Ansaldo is developing DIAM, a wide integrated tool for procedure management to support in procedure writing, updating, usage and documentation. One of the most challenging features of DIAM is AUTO-LAY, a CASE sub-tool that, in a complete automatical way, structures parts or complete flow diagrams. This is a feature that is partially present in some other CASE products, that, anyway, do not allow complex graph handling and isomorphism between video and paper representation AUTO-LAY has the unique prerogative to draw graphs of any complexity, to section them in pages, and to automatically compose a document. This has been recognized in the literature as the most important second-generation CASE improvement. (author). 5 refs., 9 figs.

  10. AUTO-LAY: automatic layout generation for procedure flow diagrams

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Forzano, P.; Castagna, P.

    1995-01-01

    Nuclear Power Plant Procedures can be seen from essentially two viewpoints: the process and the information management. From the first point of view, it is important to supply the knowledge apt to solve problems connected with the control of the process, from the second one the focus of attention is on the knowledge representation, its structure, elicitation and maintenance, formal quality assurance. These two aspects of procedure representation can be considered and solved separately. In particular, methodological, formal and management issues require long and tedious activities, that in most cases constitute a great barrier for procedures development and upgrade. To solve these problems, Ansaldo is developing DIAM, a wide integrated tool for procedure management to support in procedure writing, updating, usage and documentation. One of the most challenging features of DIAM is AUTO-LAY, a CASE sub-tool that, in a complete automatical way, structures parts or complete flow diagrams. This is a feature that is partially present in some other CASE products, that, anyway, do not allow complex graph handling and isomorphism between video and paper representation AUTO-LAY has the unique prerogative to draw graphs of any complexity, to section them in pages, and to automatically compose a document. This has been recognized in the literature as the most important second-generation CASE improvement. (author). 5 refs., 9 figs

  11. A Survey of Formal Methods in Software Development

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Bjørner, Dines

    2012-01-01

    The use of formal methods and formal techniques in industry is steadily growing. In this survey we shall characterise what we mean by software development and by a formal method; briefly overview a history of formal specification languages - some of which are: VDM (Vienna Development Method, 1974...... need for multi-language formalisation (Petri Nets, MSC, StateChart, Temporal Logics); the sociology of university and industry acceptance of formal methods; the inevitability of the use of formal software development methods; while referring to seminal monographs and textbooks on formal methods....

  12. Identification procedures as a part of death investigation in Turkey.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Uzün, Ibrahim; Daregenli, Oner; Sirin, Gözde; Müslümanoğlu, Omer

    2012-03-01

    Forensic identification techniques include the examination of ID cards, the decedent's private belongings, fingerprints, footprints, lip marks, dental findings, red blood cell enzymes, performing photograph matching, facial reconstruction, visual identification, and DNA "fingerprinting." As part of forensic examinations, the identification of corpses that are fresh, decomposed, fragmented, or skeletonized as well as individual body parts and human remains can be requested. Identification becomes a challenging task for forensic terms particularly in mass-disaster situations. Each identification case should be considered to its own merit and the way to do that should be based on the effectiveness and cost of each method used. In Turkey, one of the major duties of the medicolegal system on the investigation of deaths is to identify the deceased if unknown.This study is undertaken to investigate the procedures, as well as their validities, used to deal with individualization of dismembered bodies directly sent to the Council of Forensic Medicine, Ministry of Justice, for autopsy and/or visual identification, as well as those received from peripheral districts for forensic identification. According to the Turkish Penal Procedural Law, a positive identification of the deceased is mandatory before performing an autopsy. According to the law, the ID cards are not taken to be sufficient for recognition of the deceased, and the major way of identification in daily practice is visual identification by a relative or any recognizant person to approve the identification to the prosecutor. If visual identification fails, fingerprints, dental x-rays or body x-rays, and DNA "fingerprinting" can be used to establish identity when compared with known records of the individual obtained by law enforcement.This retrospective study was carried out into 421 dismembered bodies, among 3063 autopsies performed in year 2002 by the Department of Morgue at the Council of Forensic Medicine, with

  13. The Integration of Formal and Non-formal Education: The Dutch “brede school”

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    du Bois-Reymond, Manuela

    2009-12-01

    Full Text Available The Dutch “brede school” (BS development originates in the 1990s and has spread unevenly since: quicker in the primary than secondary educational sector. In 2007, there were about 1000 primary and 350 secondary BS schools and it is the intention of the government as well as the individual municipalities to extend that number and make the BS the dominant school form of the near future. In the primary sector, a BS cooperates with crèche and preschool facilities, besides possible other neighborhood partners. The main targets are, first, to enhance educational opportunities, particularly for children with little (western- cultural capital, and secondly to increase women’s labor market participation by providing extra familial care for babies and small children. All primary schools are now obliged to provide such care. In the secondary sector, a BS is less neighborhood-orientated than a primary BS because those schools are bigger and more often located in different buildings. As in the primary sector, there are broad and more narrow BS, the first profile cooperating with many non-formal and other partners and facilities and the second with few. On the whole, there is a wide variety of BS schools, with different profiles and objectives, dependent on the needs and wishes of the initiators and the neighborhood. A BS is always the result of initiatives of the respective school and its partners: parents, other neighborhood associations, municipality etc. BS schools are not enforced by the government although the general trend will be that existing school organizations transform into BS. The integration of formal and non-formal education and learning is more advanced in primary than secondary schools. In secondary education, vocational as well as general, there is a clear dominance of formal education; the non-formal curriculum serves mainly two lines and objectives: first, provide attractive leisure activities and second provide compensatory

  14. Representations of spacetime: Formalism and ontological commitment

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bain, Jonathan Stanley

    This dissertation consists of two parts. The first is on the relation between formalism and ontological commitment in the context of theories of spacetime, and the second is on scientific realism. The first part begins with a look at how the substantivalist/relationist debate over the ontological status of spacetime has been influenced by a particular mathematical formalism, that of tensor analysis on differential manifolds (TADM). This formalism has motivated the substantivalist position known as manifold substantivalism. Chapter 1 focuses on the hole argument which maintains that manifold substantivalism is incompatible with determinism. I claim that the realist motivations underlying manifold substantivalism can be upheld, and the hole argument avoided, by adopting structural realism with respect to spacetime. In this context, this is the claim that it is the structure that spacetime points enter into that warrants belief and not the points themselves. In Chapter 2, an elimination principle is defined by means of which a distinction can be made between surplus structure and essential structure with respect to formulations of a theory in two distinct mathematical formulations and some prior ontological commitments. This principle is then used to demonstrate that manifold points may be considered surplus structure in the formulation of field theories. This suggests that, if we are disposed to read field theories literally, then, at most, it should be the essential structure common to all alternative formulations of such theories that should be taken literally. I also investigate how the adoption of alternative formalisms informs other issues in the philosophy of spacetime. Chapter 3 offers a realist position which takes a semantic moral from the preceding investigation and an epistemic moral from work done on reliability. The semantic moral advises us to read only the essential structure of our theories literally. The epistemic moral shows us that such structure

  15. Isoscalar and isovector pairing in a formalism of quartets

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Sambataro, M., E-mail: michelangelo.sambataro@ct.infn.it [Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare – Sezione di Catania, Via S. Sofia 64, I-95123 Catania (Italy); Sandulescu, N., E-mail: sandulescu@theory.nipne.ro [National Institute of Physics and Nuclear Engineering, P.O. Box MG-6, Magurele, Bucharest (Romania); Johnson, C.W., E-mail: cjohnson@mail.sdsu.edu [Department of Physics, San Diego State University, 5500 Campanile Drive, San Diego, CA 92182-1233 (United States)

    2015-01-05

    Isoscalar (T=0, J=1) and isovector (T=1, J=0) pairing correlations in the ground state of self-conjugate nuclei are treated in terms of alpha-like quartets built by two protons and two neutrons coupled to total isospin T=0 and total angular momentum J=0. Quartets are constructed dynamically via an iterative variational procedure and the ground state is represented as a product of such quartets. It is shown that the quartet formalism describes accurately the ground state energies of realistic isovector plus isoscalar pairing Hamiltonians in nuclei with valence particles outside the {sup 16}O, {sup 40}Ca and {sup 100}Sn cores. Within the quartet formalism we analyze the competition between isovector and isoscalar pairing correlations and find that for nuclei with the valence nucleons above the cores {sup 40}Ca and {sup 100}Sn the isovector correlations account for the largest fraction of the total pairing correlations. This is not the case for sd-shell nuclei for which isoscalar correlations prevail. Contrary to many mean-field studies, isovector and isoscalar pairing correlations mix significantly in the quartet approach.

  16. Preliminary Investigation of Time Remaining Display on the Computer-based Emergency Operating Procedure

    Science.gov (United States)

    Suryono, T. J.; Gofuku, A.

    2018-02-01

    One of the important thing in the mitigation of accidents in nuclear power plant accidents is time management. The accidents should be resolved as soon as possible in order to prevent the core melting and the release of radioactive material to the environment. In this case, operators should follow the emergency operating procedure related with the accident, in step by step order and in allowable time. Nowadays, the advanced main control rooms are equipped with computer-based procedures (CBPs) which is make it easier for operators to do their tasks of monitoring and controlling the reactor. However, most of the CBPs do not include the time remaining display feature which informs operators of time available for them to execute procedure steps and warns them if the they reach the time limit. Furthermore, the feature will increase the awareness of operators about their current situation in the procedure. This paper investigates this issue. The simplified of emergency operating procedure (EOP) of steam generator tube rupture (SGTR) accident of PWR plant is applied. In addition, the sequence of actions on each step of the procedure is modelled using multilevel flow modelling (MFM) and influenced propagation rule. The prediction of action time on each step is acquired based on similar case accidents and the Support Vector Regression. The derived time will be processed and then displayed on a CBP user interface.

  17. Formalizing Probabilistic Safety Claims

    Science.gov (United States)

    Herencia-Zapana, Heber; Hagen, George E.; Narkawicz, Anthony J.

    2011-01-01

    A safety claim for a system is a statement that the system, which is subject to hazardous conditions, satisfies a given set of properties. Following work by John Rushby and Bev Littlewood, this paper presents a mathematical framework that can be used to state and formally prove probabilistic safety claims. It also enables hazardous conditions, their uncertainties, and their interactions to be integrated into the safety claim. This framework provides a formal description of the probabilistic composition of an arbitrary number of hazardous conditions and their effects on system behavior. An example is given of a probabilistic safety claim for a conflict detection algorithm for aircraft in a 2D airspace. The motivation for developing this mathematical framework is that it can be used in an automated theorem prover to formally verify safety claims.

  18. Augmenting Reality and Formality of Informal and Non-Formal Settings to Enhance Blended Learning

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pérez-Sanagustin, Mar; Hernández-Leo, Davinia; Santos, Patricia; Kloos, Carlos Delgado; Blat, Josep

    2014-01-01

    Visits to museums and city tours have been part of higher and secondary education curriculum activities for many years. However these activities are typically considered "less formal" when compared to those carried out in the classroom, mainly because they take place in informal or non-formal settings. Augmented Reality (AR) technologies…

  19. Investigation of some formal aspects of the boson expansion technique in nuclear theory

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Pedrocchi, V.G.

    1982-01-01

    The use of the boson expansion theory (BET) in nuclear physics now has about twenty years history, and a large number of papers is available in the literature. Some of them emphasize BET's practical use, successfully showing that it is in fact a very powerful, practical tool to understand the collective properties in nuclei. Others, on the other hand, concentrated more on formal aspects of the BET, and it is these formal aspects we deal with in this dissertation. The BET is not unique, and thus a variety of methods has been proposed. It was felt that it was desirable to see whether they were in fact different theories, or the difference was only apparent. Actually, at the surface, many theories look different from each other, having various merits and demerits. However, it is possible that they are more closely related than they appear; and, if so, it may be attempted to unify them in such a way that a new BET can be constructed which embodies all the merits of the various theories that have been known so far. With this goal in mind, every detailed comparison of two methods was explored: the commutator method (CM) and the Marumori-Yamamura-Tokunaga (MYT) method, which have been discussed most popularly in the past, though often with controversy. It was found that they are, in fact, equivalent theories if looked at from a particular point of view, although they are not necessarily exactly the same in every aspect. Similar comparison was also made with the generalized Holstein-Primakoff (GHP) and the Dyson methods

  20. Superfield formalism

    Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

    dimensional superfields, is a clear signature of the presence of the (anti-)BRST invariance in the original. 4D theory. Keywords. Non-Abelian 1-form gauge theory; Dirac fields; (anti-)Becchi–Roucet–Stora–. Tyutin invariance; superfield formalism; ...

  1. MOOC & B-Learning: Students' Barriers and Satisfaction in Formal and Non-Formal Learning Environments

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gutiérrez-Santiuste, Elba; Gámiz-Sánchez, Vanesa-M.; Gutiérrez-Pérez, Jose

    2015-01-01

    The study presents a comparative analysis of two virtual learning formats: one non-formal through a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) and the other formal through b-learning. We compare the communication barriers and the satisfaction perceived by the students (N = 249) by developing a qualitative analysis using semi-structured questionnaires and…

  2. Formal reconstruction of attack scenarios in mobile ad hoc and sensor networks

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Rekhis Slim

    2011-01-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Several techniques of theoretical digital investigation are presented in the literature but most of them are unsuitable to cope with attacks in wireless networks, especially in Mobile Ad hoc and Sensor Networks (MASNets. In this article, we propose a formal approach for digital investigation of security attacks in wireless networks. We provide a model for describing attack scenarios in a wireless environment, and system and network evidence generated consequently. The use of formal approaches is motivated by the need to avoid ad hoc generation of results that impedes the accuracy of analysis and integrity of investigation. We develop an inference system that integrates the two types of evidence, handles incompleteness and duplication of information in them, and allows possible and provable actions and attack scenarios to be generated. To illustrate the proposal, we consider a case study dealing with the investigation of a remote buffer overflow attack.

  3. 40 years of formal methods

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Bjørner, Dines; Havelund, Klaus

    2014-01-01

    In this "40 years of formal methods" essay we shall first delineate, Sect. 1, what we mean by method, formal method, computer science, computing science, software engineering, and model-oriented and algebraic methods. Based on this, we shall characterize a spectrum from specification-oriented met...

  4. A formal process for elicitation and validation of expert judgments for safety case in the context of spent nuclear fuel management

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hukki, K.

    2008-09-01

    The report introduces a proposal for a formal expert judgment elicitation and validation process for Posiva in the construction of the safety case of the spent fuel disposal facility at Olkiluoto. The procedure has been developed by adopting a systemic, interaction-based approach to elicitation and validation. By taking this view the approach differs from other approaches to formal expert judgment. The concept for the formal procedure has been developed by taking the support for collaboration as the primary requirement for the development. The procedure provides systematic practices and a forum for joint assessment and makes it possible for the domain experts to participate in the discussions and decisions on the validity of the input data. In addition to the experts, also the safety analysts are elicited, in a way. The two-way elicitation enhances mutual understanding between the participants and assures collaboration of equal parties. The procedure provides also conceptual tools that support decision making in validation by enhancing transparency of reasoning. The predefined forms and descriptions serve as shared frames of references and enhance the comprehension of, e.g., the nature and impact of the uncertainties of the input data, the ways of thinking underlying the different disciplines and the significance of one's role as part of the construction of the safety case. Enhanced motivation and transparency of reasoning contribute to improved transfer and integration of knowledge across the disciplinary boundaries and, as a consequence, makes it easier to reach a consensus between the participants. (orig.)

  5. Project Management Effectiveness: the choice - formal or informal controls

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jon Heales

    2007-12-01

    Full Text Available Development failures and runaway projects in the information systems (IS area can result in substantial losses to organizations, either financially or to a company’s reputation. One important strategy in mitigating risk is the use of effective controls over IS projects. This research investigates the effectiveness of control mechanisms in IS projects, i.e., how they have been established, applied, and how they have evolved throughout the project. We conducted an in-depth study of six information systems projects with six different project managers. We found that formal controls were adopted on project elements with clearly defined project outcomes and informal controls were adopted mainly on project elements that were unclear and often related to people. Furthermore, formal controls were dominant at project initiation and in most cases these controls became less dominant over the project duration. These formal controls were more rigorously applied in external IS projects while informal controls increased in importance throughout the project duration in internally developed projects. We found the existence of informal controls to be very important in helping ensure successful project outcomes.

  6. Thermodynamic treatment of nonphysical systems: formalism and an example (single-lane traffic)

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Reiss, H.; Hammerich, A.D.; Montroll, E.W.

    1986-01-01

    An effort is made to introduce thermodynamic and statistical thermodynamic methods into the treatment of nonphysical (e.g., social, economic, etc.) systems. Emphasis is placed on the use of the entire thermodynamic framework, not merely entropy. Entropy arises naturally, related in a simple manner to other measurables, but does not occupy a primary position in the theory. However, the maximum entropy formalism is a convenient procedure for deriving the thermodynamic analog framework in which undetermined multipliers are thermodynamic-like variables which summarize the collective behavior of the system. The authors discuss the analysis of Levine and his coworkers showing that the maximum entropy formalism is the unique algorithm for achieving consistent inference of probabilities. The thermodynamic-like formalism for treating a single lane of vehicular traffic is developed and applied to traffic in which the interaction between cars is chosen to be a particular form of the ''follow-the-leader'' type. The equation of state of the traffic, the distributions of velocity and headway, and the various thermodynamic-like parameters, e.g., temperature (collective sensitivity), pressure, etc. are determined for the example of the Holland Tunnel. Nearest-neighbor and pair correlation functions for the vehicles are also determined. Interesting and suggestive results are obtained

  7. A system for deduction-based formal verification of workflow-oriented software models

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Klimek Radosław

    2014-12-01

    Full Text Available The work concerns formal verification of workflow-oriented software models using the deductive approach. The formal correctness of a model’s behaviour is considered. Manually building logical specifications, which are regarded as a set of temporal logic formulas, seems to be a significant obstacle for an inexperienced user when applying the deductive approach. A system, along with its architecture, for deduction-based verification of workflow-oriented models is proposed. The process inference is based on the semantic tableaux method, which has some advantages when compared with traditional deduction strategies. The algorithm for automatic generation of logical specifications is proposed. The generation procedure is based on predefined workflow patterns for BPMN, which is a standard and dominant notation for the modeling of business processes. The main idea behind the approach is to consider patterns, defined in terms of temporal logic, as a kind of (logical primitives which enable the transformation of models to temporal logic formulas constituting a logical specification. Automation of the generation process is crucial for bridging the gap between the intuitiveness of deductive reasoning and the difficulty of its practical application when logical specifications are built manually. This approach has gone some way towards supporting, hopefully enhancing, our understanding of deduction-based formal verification of workflow-oriented models.

  8. Procedures for Calculating Residential Dehumidification Loads

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Winkler, Jon [National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Booten, Chuck [National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)

    2016-06-01

    Residential building codes and voluntary labeling programs are continually increasing the energy efficiency requirements of residential buildings. Improving a building's thermal enclosure and installing energy-efficient appliances and lighting can result in significant reductions in sensible cooling loads leading to smaller air conditioners and shorter cooling seasons. However due to fresh air ventilation requirements and internal gains, latent cooling loads are not reduced by the same proportion. Thus, it's becoming more challenging for conventional cooling equipment to control indoor humidity at part-load cooling conditions and using conventional cooling equipment in a non-conventional building poses the potential risk of high indoor humidity. The objective of this project was to investigate the impact the chosen design condition has on the calculated part-load cooling moisture load, and compare calculated moisture loads and the required dehumidification capacity to whole-building simulations. Procedures for sizing whole-house supplemental dehumidification equipment have yet to be formalized; however minor modifications to current Air-Conditioner Contractors of America (ACCA) Manual J load calculation procedures are appropriate for calculating residential part-load cooling moisture loads. Though ASHRAE 1% DP design conditions are commonly used to determine the dehumidification requirements for commercial buildings, an appropriate DP design condition for residential buildings has not been investigated. Two methods for sizing supplemental dehumidification equipment were developed and tested. The first method closely followed Manual J cooling load calculations; whereas the second method made more conservative assumptions impacting both sensible and latent loads.

  9. A Formalization of Linkage Analysis

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Ingolfsdottir, Anna; Christensen, A.I.; Hansen, Jens A.

    In this report a formalization of genetic linkage analysis is introduced. Linkage analysis is a computationally hard biomathematical method, which purpose is to locate genes on the human genome. It is rooted in the new area of bioinformatics and no formalization of the method has previously been ...

  10. Fundamentals of the Pure Spinor Formalism

    CERN Document Server

    Hoogeveen, Joost

    2010-01-01

    This thesis presents recent developments within the pure spinor formalism, which has simplified amplitude computations in perturbative string theory, especially when spacetime fermions are involved. Firstly the worldsheet action of both the minimal and the non-minimal pure spinor formalism is derived from first principles, i.e. from an action with two dimensional diffeomorphism and Weyl invariance. Secondly the decoupling of unphysical states in the minimal pure spinor formalism is proved

  11. Formal Test Automation: The Conference protocol with TGV/TorX

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Ural, Hasan; Du Bousquet, Lydie; Ramangalahy, Solofo; Probert, Robert L.; von Bochmann, Gregor; Simon, Severine; Viho, Cesar; Belinfante, Axel; de Vries, R.G.

    We present an experiment of automated formal conformance testing of the Conference Protocol Entity as reported in [2]. Our approach differs from other experiments, since it investigates the combination of the tools TGV for abstract test generation and TorX for test execution.

  12. Recursion organization of interactive experiment control systems in distributed multi-level automated systems for scientific investigations

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Putilov, V.A.

    1985-01-01

    Problems of organization of multilevel distributed systems for complex investigations of different objects, phenomena and processes are discussed. Priori uncertainty of organization procedures of these investigations assumes compulsory presence of interactive means of communication of an investigator with the system at all the levels of solving complex problems. Recurrent models which assume detailed representation of the solved problem using decomposition tree of research purposes should be used as formal apparatus when developing the considered systems. Recurrent derivation of an algorithm of the problem solution is exercised using the problem-oriented LEADER language

  13. Leibniz' First Formalization of Syllogistics

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Robering, Klaus

    2014-01-01

    of letters just those which belong to the useful, i.e., valid, modes. The set of codes of valid modes turns out to be a so-called "regular" language (in the sense of formal-language-theory). Leibniz' formalization of syllogistics in his Dissertatio thus contains an estimation of the computational complexity...

  14. Formalizing the concept phase of product development

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Schuts, M.; Hooman, J.

    2015-01-01

    We discuss the use of formal techniques to improve the concept phase of product realisation. As an industrial application, a new concept of interventional X-ray systems has been formalized, using model checking techniques and the simulation of formal models. cop. Springer International Publishing

  15. Does formal complexity reflect cognitive complexity? Investigating aspects of the Chomsky Hierarchy in an artificial language learning study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Öttl, Birgit; Jäger, Gerhard; Kaup, Barbara

    2015-01-01

    This study investigated whether formal complexity, as described by the Chomsky Hierarchy, corresponds to cognitive complexity during language learning. According to the Chomsky Hierarchy, nested dependencies (context-free) are less complex than cross-serial dependencies (mildly context-sensitive). In two artificial grammar learning (AGL) experiments participants were presented with a language containing either nested or cross-serial dependencies. A learning effect for both types of dependencies could be observed, but no difference between dependency types emerged. These behavioral findings do not seem to reflect complexity differences as described in the Chomsky Hierarchy. This study extends previous findings in demonstrating learning effects for nested and cross-serial dependencies with more natural stimulus materials in a classical AGL paradigm after only one hour of exposure. The current findings can be taken as a starting point for further exploring the degree to which the Chomsky Hierarchy reflects cognitive processes.

  16. Learning Conditions for Non-Formal and Informal Workplace Learning

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kyndt, Eva; Dochy, Filip; Nijs, Hanne

    2009-01-01

    Purpose: The purpose of this research paper is to investigate the presence of learning conditions for non-formal and informal workplace learning in relation to the characteristics of the employee and the organisation he or she works for. Design/methodology/approach: The questionnaire developed by Clauwaert and Van Bree on learning conditions was…

  17. Formal and Legal Aspects of Buying and Commissioning Flats

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dubas, Sebastian; Nowotarski, Piotr; Milwicz, Roman

    2017-10-01

    Formal and legal aspects of buying flats and their reception is very current topic and touches wide group of buyers. Annually in Poland great amount of flats is being sold and put to use. However, the case of housing purchase requires knowledge of both the construction and the legal aspects each buyer has to encounter. The paper faces the subject of formal and legal aspects, and analyses accompanying procedure of purchase and reception of housing in Poland. The article presents principles associated with the acquisition of a dwelling, process of works reception, removal of detected faults, fault-free reception, transfer of ownership, warranties, guarantees and possibilities of their enforcement. Contracting parties of the developer agreement were revealed. In addition, the entities present in the course of works such as general contractor were mentioned, due to the fact of his direct influence on the results of a contract terms between developer and buyer. Logical connection between three parties (buyer-developer-general contractor) were shown and direct and indirect dependencies were revealed. Existing laws and regulations that govern the relationship between the developer and the buyer of a dwelling were determined showing basic rights and responsibilities of each. The article also presents problems resulting from delaying the completion of works by developer’s fault and indicates possible legal paths to follow in order claim their rights. Due to the fact, that many of discussed formal and legal aspects in this subject have their origin connected to construction works and design issues, author suggests increased quality control and efficient work organization in order to solve problems before appearance.

  18. A survey of formal languages for contracts

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Hvitved, Tom

    2010-01-01

    In this short paper we present the current status on formal languages and models for contracts. By a formal model is meant an unambiguous and rigorous representation of contracts, in order to enable their automatic validation, execution, and analysis — activates that are collectively referred...... to as contract lifecycle management (CLM). We present a set of formalism requirements, which represent features that any ideal contract model should support, based on which we present a comparative survey of existing contract formalisms....

  19. From Safety Analysis to Formal Specification

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Hansen, Kirsten Mark; Ravn, Anders P.; Stavridou, Victoria

    1998-01-01

    Software for safety critical systems must deal with the hazards identified bysafety analysis. This paper investigates, how the results of onesafety analysis technique, fault trees, are interpreted as software safetyrequirements to be used in the program design process. We propose thatfault tree...... analysis and program development use the samesystem model. This model is formalized in areal-time, interval logic, based on a conventional dynamic systems modelwith state evolving over time. Fault trees are interpreted astemporal formulas, and it is shown how such formulas can be usedfor deriving safety...

  20. The Interrelatedness of Formal, Non-Formal and Informal Learning: Evidence from Labour Market Program Participants

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cameron, Roslyn; Harrison, Jennifer L.

    2012-01-01

    Definitions, differences and relationships between formal, non-formal and informal learning have long been contentious. There has been a significant change in language and reference from adult education to what amounts to forms of learning categorised by their modes of facilitation. Nonetheless, there is currently a renewed interest in the…

  1. Digital Resource Developments for Mathematics Education Involving Homework across Formal, Non-Formal and Informal Settings

    Science.gov (United States)

    Radovic, Slaviša; Passey, Don

    2016-01-01

    The aim of this paper is to explore further an under-developed area--how drivers of curriculum, pedagogy and assessment conceptions and practices shape the creation and uses of technologically based resources to support mathematics learning across informal, non-formal and formal learning environments. The paper considers: the importance of…

  2. NON-FORMAL EDUCATION, OVEREDUCATION AND WAGES

    OpenAIRE

    SANDRA NIETO; RAÚL RAMOS

    2013-01-01

    Why do overeducated workers participate in non-formal education activities? Do not they suffer from an excess of education? Using microdata from the Spanish sample of the 2007 Adult Education Survey, we have found that overeducated workers participate more than the rest in non-formal education and that they earn higher wages than overeducated workers who did not participate. This result can be interpreted as evidence that non-formal education allows overeducated workers to acquire new abiliti...

  3. An approach for investigation of secure access processes at a combined e-learning environment

    Science.gov (United States)

    Romansky, Radi; Noninska, Irina

    2017-12-01

    The article discuses an approach to investigate processes for regulation the security and privacy control at a heterogenous e-learning environment realized as a combination of traditional and cloud means and tools. Authors' proposal for combined architecture of e-learning system is presented and main subsystems and procedures are discussed. A formalization of the processes for using different types resources (public, private internal and private external) is proposed. The apparatus of Markovian chains (MC) is used for modeling and analytical investigation of the secure access to the resources is used and some assessments are presented.

  4. 40 CFR 35.938-4 - Formal advertising.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-07-01

    ... 40 Protection of Environment 1 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Formal advertising. 35.938-4 Section 35... advertising. Each contract shall be awarded after formal advertising, unless negotiation is permitted in accordance with § 35.936-18. Formal advertising shall be in accordance with the following: (a) Adequate...

  5. Usability test of the ImPRO, computer-based procedure system

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Jung, Y.; Lee, J.

    2006-01-01

    ImPRO is a computer based procedure in both flowchart and success logic tree. It is evaluated on the basis of computer based procedure guidelines. It satisfies most requirements such as presentations and functionalities. Besides, SGTR has been performed with ImPRO to evaluate reading comprehension and situation awareness. ImPRO is a software engine which can interpret procedure script language, so that ImPRO is reliable by nature and verified with formal method. One bug, however, had hidden one year after release, but it was fixed. Finally backup paper procedures can be prepared on the same format as VDU in case of ImPRO failure. (authors)

  6. Seniority in projection operator formalism

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ullah, N.

    1976-01-01

    It is shown that the concept of seniority can be introduced in projection operator formalism through the use of the operator Q, which has been defined by de-Shalit and Talmi. The usefulness of seniority concept in projection operator formalism is discussed. An example of four nucleons in j=3/2 configuration is given for illustrative purposes

  7. A Mathematical Formalization Proposal for Business Growth

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Gheorghe BAILESTEANU

    2013-01-01

    Full Text Available Economic sciences have known a spectacular evolution in the last century; beginning to use axiomatic methods, applying mathematical instruments as a decision-making tool. The quest to formalization needs to be addressed from various different angles, reducing entry and operating formal costs, increasing the incentives for firms to operate formally, reducing obstacles to their growth, and searching for inexpensive approaches through which to enforce compliancy with government regulations. This paper proposes a formalized approach to business growth, based on mathematics and logics, taking into consideration the particularities of the economic sector.

  8. What Determines Firms’ Decisions to Formalize?

    OpenAIRE

    Neil McCulloch; Günther G. Schulze; Janina Voss

    2010-01-01

    In this paper we analyze the decision of small and micro firms to formalize, i.e. to obtain business and other licenses in rural Indonesia. We use the rural investment climate survey (RICS) that consists of non-farm rural enterprises, most of them microenterprises, and analyze the effect of formalization on tax payments, corruption, access to credit and revenue, taking into account the endogeneity of the formalization decision to such benefits and costs. We show, contrary to most of the liter...

  9. Lifelong Learning to Empowerment: Beyond Formal Education

    Science.gov (United States)

    Carr, Alexis; Balasubramanian, K.; Atieno, Rosemary; Onyango, James

    2018-01-01

    This paper discusses the relevance of lifelong learning vis-à-vis the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and stresses the need for an approach blending formal education, non-formal and informal learning. The role of Open and Distance Learning (ODL) in moving beyond formal education and the importance of integrating pedagogy, andragogy and…

  10. Formal modeling of virtual machines

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cremers, A. B.; Hibbard, T. N.

    1978-01-01

    Systematic software design can be based on the development of a 'hierarchy of virtual machines', each representing a 'level of abstraction' of the design process. The reported investigation presents the concept of 'data space' as a formal model for virtual machines. The presented model of a data space combines the notions of data type and mathematical machine to express the close interaction between data and control structures which takes place in a virtual machine. One of the main objectives of the investigation is to show that control-independent data type implementation is only of limited usefulness as an isolated tool of program development, and that the representation of data is generally dictated by the control context of a virtual machine. As a second objective, a better understanding is to be developed of virtual machine state structures than was heretofore provided by the view of the state space as a Cartesian product.

  11. Formal Symplectic Groupoid of a Deformation Quantization

    Science.gov (United States)

    Karabegov, Alexander V.

    2005-08-01

    We give a self-contained algebraic description of a formal symplectic groupoid over a Poisson manifold M. To each natural star product on M we then associate a canonical formal symplectic groupoid over M. Finally, we construct a unique formal symplectic groupoid ‘with separation of variables’ over an arbitrary Kähler-Poisson manifold.

  12. An exploration of student midwives' language to describe non-formal learning in professional practice.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Finnerty, Gina; Pope, Rosemary

    2005-05-01

    The essence of non-formal learning in midwifery practice has not been previously explored. This paper provides an in-depth analysis of the language of a sample of student midwives' descriptions of their practice learning in a range of clinical settings. The students submitted audio-diaries as part of a national study (Pope, R., Graham. L., Finnerty. G., Magnusson, C. 2003. An investigation of the preparation and assessment for midwifery practice within a range of settings. Project Report. University of Surrey). Participants detailed their learning activities and support obtained whilst working with their named mentors for approximately 10 days or shifts. The rich audio-diary data have been analysed using Discourse Analysis. A typology of non-formal learning (Eraut, M. 2000. Non-formal learning and implicit knowledge in professional work. British Journal of Educational Psychology 70, 113-136) has been used to provide a framework for the analysis. Non-formal learning is defined as any learning which does not take place within a formally organised learning programme (Eraut, M. 2000. Non-formal learning and implicit knowledge in professional work. British Journal of Educational Psychology 70, 113-136). Findings indicate that fear and ambiguity hindered students' learning. Recommendations include the protection of time by mentors within the clinical curriculum to guide and supervise students in both formal and non-formal elements of midwifery practice. This paper will explore the implications of the findings for practice-based education.

  13. The role of formal specifications

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    McHugh, J.

    1994-01-01

    The role of formal requirements specification is discussed under the premise that the primary purpose of such specifications is to facilitate clear and unambiguous communications among the communities of interest for a given project. An example is presented in which the failure to reach such an understanding resulted in an accident at a chemical plant. Following the example, specification languages based on logical formalisms and notations are considered. These are rejected as failing to serve the communications needs of diverse communities. The notion of a specification as a surrogate for a program is also considered and rejected. The paper ends with a discussion of the type of formal notation that will serve the communications role and several encouraging developments are noted

  14. Development of symptoms-oriented operating procedures

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Colquhoun, R.

    1984-01-01

    Until recently, the formal treatment of control room procedures for upset conditions in nuclear power plants has been event-oriented. This orientation was not so much a reflection of power plant operating practice as it was a reflection of design-oriented thinking - design-basis events, therefore event-oriented procedures. Event orientation is not common in other professions. In the medical profession, for example, the stabilization of vital functions through a symptoms-oriented approach has priority over diagnosis and prognosis. The American nuclear power industry has initiated programs for the development and application of a symptoms-oriented approach for handling upset conditions. Canadian programs have independently paralleled the US programs. This article describes the rationale and current applications of the Canadian programs and identifies the relevance of a generic symptoms-based emergency procedure to current operating practices

  15. The interplay between formal and informal contracting in integrated project delivery

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Bygballe, L.E.; Dewulf, Geert P.M.R.; Levitt, R.

    2015-01-01

    This research examines the interplay between formal and informal contracting in integrated project delivery (IPD). It investigates how the interplay enables parties in health-care construction projects to cope with uncertainty and complexities, due to, among others, changing demands. New delivery

  16. Bridging In-school and Out-of-school Learning: Formal, Non-Formal, and Informal Education

    Science.gov (United States)

    Eshach, Haim

    2007-04-01

    The present paper thoroughly examines how one can effectively bridge in-school and out-of-school learning. The first part discusses the difficulty in defining out-of-school learning. It proposes to distinguish three types of learning: formal, informal, and non-formal. The second part raises the question of whether out-of-school learning should be dealt with in the in-school system, in view of the fact that we experience informal learning anyway as well as considering the disadvantages and difficulties teachers are confronted with when planning and carrying out scientific fieldtrips. The voices of the teachers, the students, and the non-formal institution staff are heard to provide insights into the problem. The third part discusses the cognitive and affective aspects of non-formal learning. The fourth part presents some models explaining scientific fieldtrip learning and based on those models, suggests a novel explanation. The fifth part offers some recommendations of how to bridge in and out-of-school learning. The paper closes with some practical ideas as to how one can bring the theory described in the paper into practice. It is hoped that this paper will provide educators with an insight so that they will be able to fully exploit the great potential that scientific field trips may offer.

  17. Toward a formal ontology for narrative

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ciotti, Fabio

    2016-03-01

    Full Text Available In this paper the rationale and the first draft of a formal ontology for modeling narrative texts are presented. Building on the semiotic and structuralist narratology, and on the work carried out in the late 1980s by Giuseppe Gigliozzi in Italy, the focus of my research are the concepts of character and of narrative world/space. This formal model is expressed in the OWL 2 ontology language. The main reason to adopt a formal modeling approach is that I consider the purely probabilistic-quantitative methods (now widespread in digital literary studies inadequate. An ontology, on one hand provides a tool for the analysis of strictly literary texts. On the other hand (though beyond the scope of the present work, its formalization can also represent a significant contribution towards grounding the application of storytelling methods outside of scholarly contexts.

  18. Industrial Practice in Formal Methods : A Review

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Bicarregui, Juan C.; Fitzgerald, John; Larsen, Peter Gorm

    2009-01-01

    We examine the the industrial application of formal methods using data gathered in a review of 62 projects taking place over the last 25 years. The review suggests that formal methods are being applied in a wide range of application domains, with increasingly strong tool support. Significant chal...... challenges remain in providing usable tools that can be integrated into established development processes; in education and training; in taking formal methods from first use to second use, and in gathering and evidence to support informed selection of methods and tools.......We examine the the industrial application of formal methods using data gathered in a review of 62 projects taking place over the last 25 years. The review suggests that formal methods are being applied in a wide range of application domains, with increasingly strong tool support. Significant...

  19. Formal verification - Robust and efficient code: Introduction to Formal Verification

    CERN Multimedia

    CERN. Geneva

    2016-01-01

    In general, FV means "proving that certain properties hold for a given system using formal mathematics". This definition can certainly feel daunting, however, as we will learn, we can reap benefits from the paradigm without digging too deep into ...

  20. Formalization of the Resolution Calculus for First-Order Logic

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Schlichtkrull, Anders

    2016-01-01

    A formalization in Isabelle/HOL of the resolution calculus for first-order logic is presented. Its soundness and completeness are formally proven using the substitution lemma, semantic trees, Herbrand’s theorem, and the lifting lemma. In contrast to previous formalizations of resolution, it consi......A formalization in Isabelle/HOL of the resolution calculus for first-order logic is presented. Its soundness and completeness are formally proven using the substitution lemma, semantic trees, Herbrand’s theorem, and the lifting lemma. In contrast to previous formalizations of resolution...

  1. A Procedural Skills OSCE: Assessing Technical and Non-Technical Skills of Internal Medicine Residents

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pugh, Debra; Hamstra, Stanley J.; Wood, Timothy J.; Humphrey-Murto, Susan; Touchie, Claire; Yudkowsky, Rachel; Bordage, Georges

    2015-01-01

    Internists are required to perform a number of procedures that require mastery of technical and non-technical skills, however, formal assessment of these skills is often lacking. The purpose of this study was to develop, implement, and gather validity evidence for a procedural skills objective structured clinical examination (PS-OSCE) for internal…

  2. Decision making under uncertainty: An investigation into the application of formal decision-making methods to safety issue decisions

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bohn, M.P.

    1992-12-01

    As part of the NRC-sponsored program to study the implications of Generic Issue 57, ''Effects of Fire Protection System Actuation on Safety-Related Equipment,'' a subtask was performed to evaluate the applicability of formal decision analysis methods to generic issues cost/benefit-type decisions and to apply these methods to the GI-57 results. In this report, the numerical results obtained from the analysis of three plants (two PWRs and one BWR) as developed in the technical resolution program for GI-57 were studied. For each plant, these results included a calculation of the person-REM averted due to various accident scenarios and various proposed modifications to mitigate the accident scenarios identified. These results were recomputed to break out the benefit in terms of contributions due to random event scenarios, fire event scenarios, and seismic event scenarios. Furthermore, the benefits associated with risk (in terms of person-REM) averted from earthquakes at three different seismic ground motion levels were separately considered. Given this data, formal decision methodologies involving decision trees, value functions, and utility functions were applied to this basic data. It is shown that the formal decision methodology can be applied at several different levels. Examples are given in which the decision between several retrofits is changed from that resulting from a simple cost/benefit-ratio criterion by virtue of the decision-makinger's expressed (and assumed) preferences

  3. Asymmetrical peer interaction and formal operational development: Dialogue dimensions analysis

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Stepanović-Ilić Ivana

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available The main goal of the study is to define dialogue dimensions in order to describe the interaction within peer dyads and potentially connect them with formal operations development in the less competent participants. Its significance is related to rare investigations of this subject in the context of formal operations development and to practical implications regarding peer involvement in education process. The sample included 316 students aged 12 and 14. The research had an experimental design: pre-test, intervention and post-test. In the pre-test and the post-test phases students solved the formal operations test BLOT. According to the pre-test results, 47 dyads were formed where less and more competent students jointly solved tasks from BLOT. Their dialogues were coded by 14 dimensions operationalized for this purpose. Correlations between the dialogue dimensions indicate clearly distinguished positive and negative interaction patterns. There are no connections between dialogue dimensions and progress of less competent adolescents on BLOT in the entire sample, but several are found in the subsamples. Arguments exchange seems to be the most encouraging dialogue feature regarding formal operations development, particularly in older students. This confirms relevant research data and the expectations about peers’ constructive role in fostering cognitive development. [Projekat Ministarstva nauke Republike Srbije, br. 179018: Identification, measurement and development of cognitive and emotional competences important for a society oriented towards European integrations

  4. New Serbian criminal procedure: New reasons for harmonization with European legal standards

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Đurđić Vojislav

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available The new criminal procedure, set forth in 2011, represents a compilation of the inquisitive model of preliminary proceedings, on the one hand, and adversarial trial of the Anglo-American type of criminal procedure on the other. Introduction of the public prosecutor's investigation required a subtle legislative approach to the protection of human rights in criminal proceedings, in order to establish equilibrium between efficient and just procedure. Instead of the expected, the erroneous conception based on the ideas that the public prosecutor's investigation should be strictly formal as that of a court, that evidence taken by the non-judicial authorities should have the same bearing as those taken by the courts, and that the court should have no role in conducting investigation, resulted in an overly inferior position of the accuses compared to that of the public prosecutor. Beside the fact that such conception can not pass the ECJ test, the specific legal solutions referring the investigation open the question of harmonization with the European legal standards. The provisions on initiation of this phase of the proceedings, not being legally sanctioned, put in question the right of the accused to access justice, as well as his right to an effective legal remedy, and the introduced investigation against the unknown perpetrator, the right to be present at one's own trial is being jeopardized. Neither do all procedural rules pertaining to the trial support the fair procedure principle: the indirect extortion of evidence from the defense is discordant with the rule that the burden of proof lies on the prosecutor, as one of the main pillars of the assumption of innocence; as well as the broad opportunity to use non-judicial evidence at the hearing without any major legal obstacles, have demolished the principles of directness and contradictoriness. Even some of the minimal right of the defense as well as the guarantees of personal freedom in the course

  5. A matrix formalism to solve interface condition equations in a reactor system

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Matausek, M V [Boris Kidric Institute of Nuclear Sciences Vinca, Beograd (Yugoslavia)

    1970-05-15

    When a nuclear reactor or a reactor lattice cell is treated by an approximate procedure to solve the neutron transport equation, as the last computational step often appears a problem of solving systems of algebraic equations stating the interface and boundary conditions for the neutron flux moments. These systems have usually the coefficient matrices of the block-bi diagonal type, containing thus a large number of zero elements. In the present report it is shown how such a system can be solved efficiently accounting for all the zero elements both in the coefficient matrix and in the free term vector. The procedure is presented here for the case of multigroup P{sub 3} calculation of neutron flux distribution in a cylindrical reactor lattice cell. Compared with the standard gaussian elimination method, this procedure is more advantageous both in respect to the number of operations needed to solve a given problem and in respect to the computer memory storage requirements. A similar formalism can also be applied for other approximate methods, for instance for multigroup diffusion treatment of a multi zone reactor. (author)

  6. Formalizing Evaluation in Music Information Retrieval

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Sturm, Bob L.

    2013-01-01

    We develop a formalism to disambiguate the evaluation of music information retrieval systems. We define a ``system,'' what it means to ``analyze'' one, and make clear the aims, parts, design, execution, interpretation, and assumptions of its ``evaluation.'' We apply this formalism to discuss...

  7. A computational formalization for partial evaluation

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Hatcliff, John; Danvy, Olivier

    1997-01-01

    We formalize a partial evaluator for Eugenio Moggi's computational metalanguage. This formalization gives an evaluation-order independent view of binding-time analysis and program specialization, including a proper treatment of call unfolding. It also enables us to express the essence of `control...

  8. Educação não-formal, participação da sociedade civil e estruturas colegiadas nas escolas Educación no-formal, participación de la sociedad civil y estructuras de consejos en las escuelas Non-formal education, civil society participation and councils structures in the schools

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Maria da Glória Gohn

    2006-03-01

    informal education categories. The second one investigates the non-formal category in the councils of the schools and in the social movements acting in the educational area.

  9. Informal work and formal plans

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Dalsted, Rikke Juul; Hølge-Hazelton, Bibi; Kousgaard, Marius Brostrøm

    2012-01-01

    INTRODUCTION: Formal pathways models outline that patients should receive information in order to experience a coherent journey but do not describe an active role for patients or their relatives. The aim of this is paper is to articulate and discuss the active role of patients during their cancer...... trajectories. METHODS AND THEORY: An in-depth case study of patient trajectories at a Danish hospital and surrounding municipality using individual interviews with patients. Theory about trajectory and work by Strauss was included. RESULTS: Patients continuously took initiatives to organize their treatment....... The patients' requests were not sufficiently supported in the professional organisation of work or formal planning. Patients' insertion and use of information in their trajectories challenged professional views and working processes. And the design of the formal pathway models limits the patients' active...

  10. Formalisms for reuse and systems integration

    CERN Document Server

    Rubin, Stuart

    2015-01-01

    Reuse and integration are defined as synergistic concepts, where reuse addresses how to minimize redundancy in the creation of components; while, integration focuses on component composition. Integration supports reuse and vice versa. These related concepts support the design of software and systems for maximizing performance while minimizing cost. Knowledge, like data, is subject to reuse; and, each can be interpreted as the other. This means that inherent complexity, a measure of the potential utility of a system, is directly proportional to the extent to which it maximizes reuse and integration. Formal methods can provide an appropriate context for the rigorous handling of these synergistic concepts. Furthermore, formal languages allow for non ambiguous model specification; and, formal verification techniques provide support for insuring the validity of reuse and integration mechanisms.   This edited book includes 12 high quality research papers written by experts in formal aspects of reuse and integratio...

  11. State or nature? Endogenous formal versus informal sanctions in the voluntary provision of public goods

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Kamei, Kenju; Putterman, Louis; Tyran, Jean-Robert Karl

    2015-01-01

    We investigate the endogenous formation of sanctioning institutions supposed to improve efficiency in the voluntary provision of public goods. Our paper parallels Markussen et al. (Rev Econ Stud 81:301–324, 2014) in that our experimental subjects vote over formal versus informal sanctions......, but it goes beyond that paper by endogenizing the formal sanction scheme. We find that self-determined formal sanctions schemes are popular and efficient when they carry no up-front cost, but as in Markussen et al. informal sanctions are more popular and efficient than formal sanctions when adopting...... the latter entails such a cost. Practice improves the performance of sanction schemes: they become more targeted and deterrent with learning. Voters’ characteristics, including their tendency to engage in perverse informal sanctioning, help to predict individual voting....

  12. Operational circular No.10 – Principles and procedures governing investigation of fraud

    CERN Multimedia

    2013-01-01

    Operational Circular No. 10 entitled “Principles and procedures governing investigation of Fraud”, approved by the Director-General following discussion at the Standing Concertation Committee meeting of 4 December 2012 and entering into force on 1 January 2013, is available on the intranet site of the Human Resources Department.   This circular is applicable to all persons working at or on behalf of CERN. The purpose of this new operational circular is to specify the definition of fraud and to lay down the Organization’s fraud investigation process pursuant to the CERN Anti-fraud Policy and in accordance with the principles of due process. Department Head Office HR Department

  13. The effects of attachment components on formal-operational thinking

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Vukčević Branimir

    2010-01-01

    Full Text Available In this work our aim is to examine how the components of attachment influence the thinking development of adolescents in familial context. We investigated the components of attachment: unresolved family traumatisation, the use of external security base, fear of loss of external security base, negative self concept, negative other concept, capacity for mentalisation, low control of anger. We used a revised Questionnaire for Assessment of Adult and Adolescent Attachment (in original: UPIPAV-R. Formal operations were tested by Bond's Logical Operations Test. We examined the cultural-pedagogical status of the family, the parental mediation characteristic for the development of formal operations, and family property as the aspects of familial context. The sample consisted of 200 pupils aged 14 to 19. According to the attachment theory, secure attachment provides the feel of security in environment exploration, which is the ground of personality development. We assumed that components of attachment contribute formal-operational thinking development and change the influence of familial cultural-supportive tools. The findings show us that the culturalpedagogical status of the family improves formal operations development and unresolved family traumatisation has negative influence. Capacity for mentalisation has a positive indirect effect on thinking development through the influence of the cultural-pedagogical status of the family. The low control of anger has a negative indirect effect on thinking development; it increases the influence of unresolved family traumatisation. Negative self concept has indirect effects on thinking development through increasing this negative influence of unresolved family traumatisation and decreasing the role of familial cultural-supportive tools.

  14. Formal Analysis Of Use Case Diagrams

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Radosław Klimek

    2010-01-01

    Full Text Available Use case diagrams play an important role in modeling with UML. Careful modeling is crucialin obtaining a correct and efficient system architecture. The paper refers to the formalanalysis of the use case diagrams. A formal model of use cases is proposed and its constructionfor typical relationships between use cases is described. Two methods of formal analysis andverification are presented. The first one based on a states’ exploration represents a modelchecking approach. The second one refers to the symbolic reasoning using formal methodsof temporal logic. Simple but representative example of the use case scenario verification isdiscussed.

  15. Formal specification is an experimental science

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Bjorner, D. [Technical Univ., Lyngby (Denmark)

    1992-09-01

    Traditionally, abstract models of large, complex systems have been given in free-form mathematics, combining - often in ad-hoc, not formally supported ways - notions from the disciplines of partial differential equations, functional analysis, mathematical statistics, etc. Such models have been very useful for assimilation of information, analysis (investigation), and prediction (simulation). These models have, however, usually not been helpful in deriving computer representations of the modelled systems - for the purposes of computerized monitoring and control, Computing science, concerned with how to construct objects that can exist within the computer, offers ways of complementing, and in some cases, replacing or combining traditional mathematical models. Formal, model-, as well as property-oriented, specifications in the styles of denotational (respectively, algebraic semantics) represent major approaches to such modelling. In this expository, discursive paper we illustrate what we mean by model-oriented specifications of large, complex technological computing systems. The three modelling examples covers the introvert programming methodological subject of SDEs: software development environments, the distributed computing system subject of wfs`s: (transaction) work flow systems, and the extrovert subject of robots: robotics! the thesis is, just as for mathematical modelling, that we can derive much understanding, etc., from experimentally creating such formally specified models - on paper - and that we gain little in additionally building ad-hoc prototypes. Our models are expressed in a model-oriented style using the VDM specification language Meta-IV In this paper the models only reflect the {open_quotes}data modelling{close_quotes} aspects. We observe that such data models are more easily captured in the model-oriented siyle than in the algebraic semantics property-oriented style which originally was built of the abstraction of operations. 101 refs., 4 figs.

  16. Contraction of broken symmetries via Kac-Moody formalism

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Daboul, Jamil

    2006-01-01

    I investigate contractions via Kac-Moody formalism. In particular, I show how the symmetry algebra of the standard two-dimensional Kepler system, which was identified by Daboul and Slodowy as an infinite-dimensional Kac-Moody loop algebra, and was denoted by H 2 , gets reduced by the symmetry breaking term, defined by the Hamiltonian H(β)=(1/2m)(p 1 2 +p 2 2 )-α/r-βr -1/2 cos((φ-γ)/2). For this H(β) I define two symmetry loop algebras L i (β), i=1,2, by choosing the 'basic generators' differently. These L i (β) can be mapped isomorphically onto subalgebras of H 2 , of codimension two or three, revealing the reduction of symmetry. Both factor algebras L i (β)/I i (E,β), relative to the corresponding energy-dependent ideals I i (E,β), are isomorphic to so(3) and so(2,1) for E 0, respectively, just as for the pure Kepler case. However, they yield two different nonstandard contractions as E→0, namely to the Heisenberg-Weyl algebra h 3 =w 1 or to an Abelian Lie algebra, instead of the Euclidean algebra e(2) for the pure Kepler case. The above-noted example suggests a general procedure for defining generalized contractions, and also illustrates the 'deformation contraction hysteresis', where contraction which involves two contraction parameters can yield different contracted algebras, if the limits are carried out in different order

  17. NASA Langley's Formal Methods Research in Support of the Next Generation Air Transportation System

    Science.gov (United States)

    Butler, Ricky W.; Munoz, Cesar A.

    2008-01-01

    This talk will provide a brief introduction to the formal methods developed at NASA Langley and the National Institute for Aerospace (NIA) for air traffic management applications. NASA Langley's formal methods research supports the Interagency Joint Planning and Development Office (JPDO) effort to define and develop the 2025 Next Generation Air Transportation System (NGATS). The JPDO was created by the passage of the Vision 100 Century of Aviation Reauthorization Act in Dec 2003. The NGATS vision calls for a major transformation of the nation s air transportation system that will enable growth to 3 times the traffic of the current system. The transformation will require an unprecedented level of safety-critical automation used in complex procedural operations based on 4-dimensional (4D) trajectories that enable dynamic reconfiguration of airspace scalable to geographic and temporal demand. The goal of our formal methods research is to provide verification methods that can be used to insure the safety of the NGATS system. Our work has focused on the safety assessment of concepts of operation and fundamental algorithms for conflict detection and resolution (CD&R) and self- spacing in the terminal area. Formal analysis of a concept of operations is a novel area of application of formal methods. Here one must establish that a system concept involving aircraft, pilots, and ground resources is safe. The formal analysis of algorithms is a more traditional endeavor. However, the formal analysis of ATM algorithms involves reasoning about the interaction of algorithmic logic and aircraft trajectories defined over an airspace. These trajectories are described using 2D and 3D vectors and are often constrained by trigonometric relations. Thus, in many cases it has been necessary to unload the full power of an advanced theorem prover. The verification challenge is to establish that the safety-critical algorithms produce valid solutions that are guaranteed to maintain separation

  18. Formal balancing of chemical reaction networks

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    van der Schaft, Abraham; Rao, S.; Jayawardhana, B.

    2016-01-01

    In this paper we recall and extend the main results of Van der Schaft, Rao, Jayawardhana (2015) concerning the use of Kirchhoff’s Matrix Tree theorem in the explicit characterization of complex-balanced reaction networks and the notion of formal balancing. The notion of formal balancing corresponds

  19. Formal methods in software development: A road less travelled

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    John A van der Poll

    2010-08-01

    Full Text Available An integration of traditional verification techniques and formal specifications in software engineering is presented. Advocates of such techniques claim that mathematical formalisms allow them to produce quality, verifiably correct, or at least highly dependable software and that the testing and maintenance phases are shortened. Critics on the other hand maintain that software formalisms are hard to master, tedious to use and not well suited for the fast turnaround times demanded by industry. In this paper some popular formalisms and the advantages of using these during the early phases of the software development life cycle are presented. Employing the Floyd-Hoare verification principles during the formal specification phase facilitates reasoning about the properties of a specification. Some observations that may help to alleviate the formal-methods controversy are established and a number of formal methods successes is presented. Possible conditions for an increased acceptance of formalisms in oftware development are discussed.

  20. Statistical Survey of Non-Formal Education

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ondřej Nývlt

    2012-12-01

    Full Text Available focused on a programme within a regular education system. Labour market flexibility and new requirements on employees create a new domain of education called non-formal education. Is there a reliable statistical source with a good methodological definition for the Czech Republic? Labour Force Survey (LFS has been the basic statistical source for time comparison of non-formal education for the last ten years. Furthermore, a special Adult Education Survey (AES in 2011 was focused on individual components of non-formal education in a detailed way. In general, the goal of the EU is to use data from both internationally comparable surveys for analyses of the particular fields of lifelong learning in the way, that annual LFS data could be enlarged by detailed information from AES in five years periods. This article describes reliability of statistical data aboutnon-formal education. This analysis is usually connected with sampling and non-sampling errors.

  1. Non-formal learning and tacit knowledge in professional work.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Eraut, M

    2000-03-01

    This paper explores the conceptual and methodological problems arising from several empirical investigations of professional education and learning in the workplace. 1. To clarify the multiple meanings accorded to terms such as 'non-formal learning', 'implicit learning' and 'tacit knowledge', their theoretical assumptions and the range of phenomena to which they refer. 2. To discuss their implications for professional practice. A largely theoretical analysis of issues and phenomena arising from empirical investigations. The author's typology of non-formal learning distinguishes between implicit learning, reactive on-the-spot learning and deliberative learning. The significance of the last is commonly overemphasized. The problematic nature of tacit knowledge is discussed with respect to both detecting it and representing it. Three types of tacit knowledge are discussed: tacit understanding of people and situations, routinized actions and the tacit rules that underpin intuitive decision-making. They come together when professional performance involves sequences of routinized action punctuated by rapid intuitive decisions based on tacit understanding of the situation. Four types of process are involved--reading the situation, making decisions, overt activity and metacognition--and three modes of cognition--intuitive, analytic and deliberative. The balance between these modes depends on time, experience and complexity. Where rapid action dominates, periods of deliberation are needed to maintain critical control. Finally the role of both formal and informal social knowledge is discussed; and it is argued that situated learning often leads not to local conformity but to greater individual variation as people's careers take them through a series of different contexts. This abstract necessarily simplifies a more complex analysis in the paper itself.

  2. Formal Ontologies and Uncertainty. In Geographical Knowledge

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Matteo Caglioni

    2014-05-01

    Full Text Available Formal ontologies have proved to be a very useful tool to manage interoperability among data, systems and knowledge. In this paper we will show how formal ontologies can evolve from a crisp, deterministic framework (ontologies of hard knowledge to new probabilistic, fuzzy or possibilistic frameworks (ontologies of soft knowledge. This can considerably enlarge the application potential of formal ontologies in geographic analysis and planning, where soft knowledge is intrinsically linked to the complexity of the phenomena under study.  The paper briefly presents these new uncertainty-based formal ontologies. It then highlights how ontologies are formal tools to define both concepts and relations among concepts. An example from the domain of urban geography finally shows how the cause-to-effect relation between household preferences and urban sprawl can be encoded within a crisp, a probabilistic and a possibilistic ontology, respectively. The ontology formalism will also determine the kind of reasoning that can be developed from available knowledge. Uncertain ontologies can be seen as the preliminary phase of more complex uncertainty-based models. The advantages of moving to uncertainty-based models is evident: whether it is in the analysis of geographic space or in decision support for planning, reasoning on geographic space is almost always reasoning with uncertain knowledge of geographic phenomena.

  3. Helicity formalism and spin effects

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Anselmino, M.; Caruso, F.; Piovano, U.

    1990-01-01

    The helicity formalism and the technique to compute amplitudes for interaction processes involving leptons, quarks, photons and gluons are reviewed. Explicit calculations and examples of exploitation of symmetry properties are shown. The formalism is then applied to the discussion of several hadronic processes and spin effects: the experimental data, when related to the properties of the elementary constituent interactions, show many not understood features. Also the nucleon spin problem is briefly reviewed. (author)

  4. Formal caregivers of older adults: reflection about their practice

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Marina Picazzio Perez Batista

    2014-10-01

    Full Text Available OBJECTIVE To understand the job function of caregivers of older adults and contribute to the debate on the consolidation of this professional practice. METHODOLOGICAL PROCEDURES This is a descriptive, qualitative, and exploratory study. Four focal group sessions were performed in 2011 with 11 elderly companions, formal caregivers of older adults in the Programa Acompanhante de Idosos (Program for Caregivers of Older Adults, Sao Paulo, SP, Southeastern Brazil. These sessions, guided by a semi-structured script, were audio-recorded and fully transcribed. Data were analyzed using the Content Analysis technique, Thematic Modality. RESULTS In view of considering the caregivers of older adults as a new category of workers, it was difficult to define their duties. The elderly companions themselves as well as the care receivers, their families, and the professionals that comprised the team were unclear about their duties. The professional practice of these formal caregivers has been built on the basis of constant discussions and negotiations among them and other team members in Programa Acompanhante de Idosos during daily work. This was achieved via a recognition process of their job functions and by setting apart other workers’ exclusive responsibilities. CONCLUSIONS The delimitation of specific job functions for elderly companions is currently one of the greatest challenges faced by these workers to develop and consolidate their professional role as well as improve Programa Acompanhante de Idosos.

  5. The role of the commutator equations in integration methods in tetrad formalisms in general relativity

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Edgar, S.B.

    1990-01-01

    The structures of the N.P. and G.H.P formalisms are reviewed in order to understand and demonstrate the important role played by the commutator equations in the associated integration procedures. Particular attention is focused on how the commutator equations are to be satisfied, or checked for consistency. It is shown that Held's integration method will only guarantee genuine solutions of Einstein's equations when all the commutator equations are correctly and completely satisfied. (authors)

  6. A method of formal requirements analysis for NPP I and C systems based on object-oriented visual modeling with SCR

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Koo, S. R.; Seong, P. H.

    1999-01-01

    In this work, a formal requirements analysis method for Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) I and C systems is suggested. This method uses Unified Modeling Language (UML) for modeling systems visually and Software Cost Reduction (SCR) formalism for checking the system models. Since object-oriented method can analyze a document by the objects in a real system, UML models that use object-oriented method are useful for understanding problems and communicating with everyone involved in the project. In order to analyze the requirement more formally, SCR tabular notations is converted from UML models. To help flow-through from UML models to SCR specifications, additional syntactic extensions for UML notation and a converting procedure are defined. The combined method has been applied to Dynamic Safety System (DSS). From this application, three kinds of errors were detected in the existing DSS requirements

  7. Influence of Formal Education on Cognitive Reserve in Patients with Multiple Sclerosis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Luerding, Ralf; Gebel, Sophie; Gebel, Eva-Maria; Schwab-Malek, Susanne; Weissert, Robert

    2016-01-01

    The concept of cognitive reserve (CR) and its influence on cognitive impairment has attracted increasing interest. One hundred twenty-eight patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) from Southern Germany were evaluated during the years 2000 to 2012. Twenty-seven neuropsychological (NP) tests were applied regarding basic cognitive functions, attention, executive functions, visual perception and construction, memory and learning, problem solving, and language. By this retrospective approach, a comprehensive NP profile of the investigated individuals was established. An effect of timespan of formal education on CR was observed. Enrichment by reading, physical activities, and challenging vocational practices had more profound effects in patients who had undergone a shorter educational period compared to a longer educational period. In summary, our study demonstrates that the advantage of longer formal education periods, compared to shorter formal education periods, can be counterbalanced by high frequencies of reading, physical activities, and challenging vocational practices in patients with MS.

  8. Influence of formal education on cognitive reserve in patients with multiple sclerosis

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ralf eLürding

    2016-03-01

    Full Text Available The concept of cognitive reserve (CR and its influence on cognitive impairment (CI has attracted increasing interest. 128 patients with multiple sclerosis (MS from Southern Germany were evaluated during the years 2000 to 2012. 27 neuropsychological (NP tests were applied regarding Basic Cognitive Functions, Attention, Executive Functions, Visual Perception and Construction, Memory and Learning, Problem Solving, and Language. By this retrospective approach, a comprehensive neuropsychological profile of the investigated individuals was established. An effect of timespan of formal education on CR was observed. Enrichment by reading, physical activities, and challenging vocational practices had more profound effects in patients who had undergone a shorter educational period compared to a longer educational period. In summary, our study demonstrates that the advantage of longer formal education periods, compared to shorter formal education periods, can be counterbalanced by high frequencies of reading, physical activities, and challenging vocational practices in patients with MS.

  9. Formalized search strategies for human risk contributions

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Rasmussen, J.; Pedersen, O.M.

    1982-07-01

    For risk management, the results of a probabilistic risk analysis (PRA) as well as the underlying assumptions can be used as references in a closed-loop risk control; and the analyses of operational experiences as a means of feedback. In this context, the need for explicit definition and documentation of the PRA coverage, including the search strategies applied, is discussed and aids are proposed such as plant description in terms of a formal abstraction hierarchy and use of cause-consequence-charts for the documentation of not only the results of PRA but also of its coverage. Typical human risk contributions are described on the basis of general plant design features relevant for risk and accident analysis. With this background, search strategies for human risk contributions are treated: Under the designation ''work analysis'', procedures for the analysis of familiar, well trained, planned tasks are proposed. Strategies for identifying human risk contributions outside this category are outlined. (author)

  10. Towards Formal Implementation of PUS Standard

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ilić, D.

    2009-05-01

    As an effort to promote the reuse of on-board and ground systems ESA developed a standard for packet telemetry and telecommand - PUS. It defines a set of standard service models with the corresponding structures of the associated telemetry and telecommand packets. Various missions then can choose to implement those standard PUS services that best conform to their specific requirements. In this paper we propose a formal development (based on the Event-B method) of reusable service patterns, which can be instantiated for concrete application. Our formal models allow us to formally express and verify specific service properties including various telecommand and telemetry packet structure validation.

  11. Closing the gap between formalism and application

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Christensen, Ole Ravn

    2008-01-01

    A common problem in learning mathematics concerns the gap between, on the one hand, doing the formalisms and calculations of abstract mathematics and, on the other hand, applying these in a specific contextualized setting for example the engineering world. The skills acquired through problem......-based learning (PBL), in the special model used at Aalborg University, Denmark, may give us some idea of how to bridge this gap. Through an investigation of a series of examples of student projects concerning the application of mathematical subjects-such as matrices, differential equations, cluster analysis...

  12. Assessment of national systems for obtaining local siting acceptance of nuclear waste management facilities (October 1, 1985). Volume I. Political structure and formal system for obtaining approvals for siting waste management facilities

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Paige, H.W.; Numark, N.J.

    1985-01-01

    This report is the fourth in a series of periodic surveys of approaches and progress in other countries in dealing with the problems of obtaining local acceptance for siting of waste management facilities. This volume contains the following sections: Nation's political/industrial structure for obtaining waste management siting decisions; and Nation's formal legal procedure for obtaining necessary approvals for siting nuclear waste management facilities. Two of the countries visited, Finland and Sweden, have had major changes in the past two years in their formal/legal procedures for obtaining waste management siting decisions. (LM)

  13. Survey of Existing Tools for Formal Verification.

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Punnoose, Ratish J.; Armstrong, Robert C.; Wong, Matthew H.; Jackson, Mayo

    2014-12-01

    Formal methods have come into wide use because of their effectiveness in verifying "safety and security" requirements of digital systems; a set of requirements for which testing is mostly ineffective. Formal methods are routinely used in the design and verification of high-consequence digital systems in industry. This report outlines our work in assessing the capabilities of commercial and open source formal tools and the ways in which they can be leveraged in digital design workflows.

  14. Multiverse in the Third Quantized Formalism

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Faizal Mir

    2014-01-01

    In this paper we will analyze the third quantization of gravity in path integral formalism. We will use the time-dependent version of Wheeler—DeWitt equation to analyze the multiverse in this formalism. We will propose a mechanism for baryogenesis to occur in the multiverse, without violating the baryon number conservation. (general)

  15. Neutron activation analysis with k0-standardisation : general formalism and procedure

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Pomme, S.; Hardeman, F.; Robouch, P.; Etxebarria, N.; Arana, G.

    1997-09-01

    Instrumental neutron activation analysis (INAA) with k 0 -standardisation is a powerful tool for multi-element analysis at a broad range of trace element concentrations. An overview is given of the basic principles, fundamental equations, and general procedure of this method. Different aspects of the description of the neutron activation reaction rate are discussed, applying the Hogdahl convention. A general activation-decay formula is derived and its application to INAA is demonstrated. Relevant k 0 -definitions for different activation decay schemes are summarised and upgraded to cases of extremely high fluxes. The main standardisation techniques for INAA are discussed, emphasizing the k 0 -standardisation. Some general aspects of the basic equipment and its calibration are discussed, such as the characterisation of the neutron field and the tuning of the spectrometry part. A method for the prediction and optimisation of the analytical performance of INAA is presented

  16. The Formalization of Cultural Psychology. Reasons and Functions.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Salvatore, Sergio

    2017-03-01

    In this paper I discuss two basic theses about the formalization of cultural psychology. First, I claim that formalization is a relevant, even necessary stage of development of this domain of science. This is so because formalization allows the scientific language to achieve a much needed autonomy from the commonsensical language of the phenomena that this science deals with. Second, I envisage the two main functions that formalization has to perform in the field of cultural psychology: on the one hand, it has to provide formal rules grounding and constraining the deductive construction of the general theory; on the other hand, it has to provide the devices for supporting the interpretation of local phenomena, in terms of the abductive reconstruction of the network of linkages among empirical occurrences comprising the local phenomena.

  17. Formal specifications for safety grade systems

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Chisholm, G.H.; Smith, B.T.; Wojcik, A.S.

    1992-01-01

    The authors describe the findings of a study into the application of formal methods to the specification of a safety system for an operating nuclear reactor. They developed a formal specification that is used to verify and validate that no unsafe condition will result from action or inaction of the system. For this reason, the specification must facilitate thinking about, talking about, and implementing the system. In fact, the specification must provide a bridge between people (designers, engineers, policy makers) and diverse implementations (hardware, software, sensors, power supplies) at all levels. For a specification to serve as an effective linkage, it must have the following properties: (1) completeness, (2) conciseness, (3) unambiguity, and (4) communicativeness. In this paper they describe the development of a specification that has three properties. This development is based on the use of formal methods, i.e., methods that add mathematical rigor to the development, analysis and operation of computer systems and to applications based thereon (Neumann). They demonstrate that a specification derived from a formal basis facilitates development of the design and its subsequent verification

  18. Formal truncations of connected kernel equations

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Dixon, R.M.

    1977-01-01

    The Connected Kernel Equations (CKE) of Alt, Grassberger and Sandhas (AGS); Kouri, Levin and Tobocman (KLT); and Bencze, Redish and Sloan (BRS) are compared against reaction theory criteria after formal channel space and/or operator truncations have been introduced. The Channel Coupling Class concept is used to study the structure of these CKE's. The related wave function formalism of Sandhas, of L'Huillier, Redish and Tandy and of Kouri, Krueger and Levin are also presented. New N-body connected kernel equations which are generalizations of the Lovelace three-body equations are derived. A method for systematically constructing fewer body models from the N-body BRS and generalized Lovelace (GL) equations is developed. The formally truncated AGS, BRS, KLT and GL equations are analyzed by employing the criteria of reciprocity and two-cluster unitarity. Reciprocity considerations suggest that formal truncations of BRS, KLT and GL equations can lead to reciprocity-violating results. This study suggests that atomic problems should employ three-cluster connected truncations and that the two-cluster connected truncations should be a useful starting point for nuclear systems

  19. Formalizing Implementation Strategies for First-Class Continuations

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Danvy, Olivier

    1999-01-01

    We present the first formalization of implementation strategies for first-class continuations. The formalization hinges on abstract machines for continuation-passing style (CPS) programs with a special treatment for the current continuation, accounting for the essence of first-class continuations......-class continuations and that second-class continuations are stackable. A large body of work exists on implementing continuations, but it is predominantly empirical and implementation-oriented. In contrast, our formalization abstracts the essence of first-class continuations and provides a uniform setting...

  20. Formalizing Implementation Strategies for First-Class Continuations

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Danvy, Olivier

    2000-01-01

    We present the first formalization of implementation strategies for first-class continuations. The formalization hinges on abstract machines for continuation-passing style (CPS) programs with a special treatment for the current continuation, accounting for the essence of first-class continuations......-class continuations and that second-class continuations are stackable. A large body of work exists on implementing continuations, but it is predominantly empirical and implementation-oriented. In contrast, our formalization abstracts the essence of first-class continuations and provides a uniform setting...

  1. Impact of formal training on agreement of videofluoroscopic swallowing study interpretation across and within disciplines.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Silbergleit, Alice K; Cook, Diana; Kienzle, Scott; Boettcher, Erica; Myers, Daniel; Collins, Denise; Peterson, Edward; Silbergleit, Matthew A; Silbergleit, Richard

    2018-04-04

    Formal agreement studies on interpretation of the videofluoroscopic swallowing study (VFSS) procedure among speech-language pathologists, radiology house officers, and staff radiologists have not been pursued. Each of these professions participates in the procedure, interprets the examination, and writes separate reports on the findings. The aim of this study was to determine reliability of interpretation between and within the disciplines and to determine if structured training improved reliability. Thirteen speech-language pathologists (SLPs), ten diagnostic radiologists (RADs) and twenty-one diagnostic radiology house officers (HOs) participated in this study. Each group viewed 24 VFSS samples and rated the presence or absence of seven aberrant swallowing features as well as the presence of dysphagia and identification of oral dysphagia, pharyngeal dysphagia, or both. During part two, the groups were provided with a training session on normal and abnormal swallowing, using different VFSS samples from those in part one, followed by re-rating of the original 24 VFSS samples. A generalized estimating equations (GEE) approach with a binomial link function was used to examine each question separately. For each cluster of tests, as example, all pairwise comparisons between the three groups in the pretraining period, a Hochberg's correction for multiple testing was used to determine significance. A GEE approach with a binomial link function was used to compare the premeasure to postmeasure for each of the three groups of raters stratified by experience. The primary result revealed that the HO group scored significantly lower than the SLP and RAD group on identification of the presence of dysphagia (p = 0.008; p = 0.001, respectively), identification of oral phase dysphagia (p = 0.003; p = 0.001, respectively), and identification of both oral and pharyngeal phase dysphagia, (p = 0.014, p = 0.001, respectively) pretraining. Post training there was

  2. New Technologies and Learning Environments: A Perspective from Formal and Non-Formal Education in Baja California, Mexico

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zamora, Julieta Lopez; Reynaga, Francisco Javier Arriaga

    2010-01-01

    This paper presents results of two research works, the first approaches non-formal education and the second addresses formal education. In both studies in-depth interview techniques were used. There were some points of convergence between them on aspects such as the implementation of learning environments and the integration of ICT. The interview…

  3. Formal verification of industrial control systems

    CERN Multimedia

    CERN. Geneva

    2015-01-01

    Verification of critical software is a high priority but a challenging task for industrial control systems. For many kinds of problems, testing is not an efficient method. Formal methods, such as model checking appears to be an appropriate complementary method. However, it is not common to use model checking in industry yet, as this method needs typically formal methods expertise and huge computing power. In the EN-ICE-PLC section, we are working on a [methodology][1] and a tool ([PLCverif][2]) to overcome these challenges and to integrate formal verification in the development process of our PLC-based control systems. [1]: http://cern.ch/project-plc-formalmethods [2]: http://cern.ch/plcverif

  4. Towards a Formal Model of Social Data

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Mukkamala, Raghava Rao; Vatrapu, Ravi; Hussain, Abid

    , transform, analyse, and report social data from social media platforms such as Facebook and twitter. Formal methods, models and tools for social data are largely limited to graph theoretical approaches informing conceptual developments in relational sociology and methodological developments in social...... network analysis. As far as we know, there are no integrated modeling approaches to social data across the conceptual, formal and software realms. Social media analytics can be undertaken in two main ways - ”Social Graph Analytics” and ”Social Text Analytics” (Vatrapu, in press/2013). Social graph......, we exemplify the semantics of the formal model with real-world social data examples. Third, we briefly present and discuss the Social Data Analytics Tool (SODATO) that realizes the conceptual model in software and provisions social data for computational social science analysis based on the formal...

  5. Structuring Formal Requirements Specifications for Reuse and Product Families

    Science.gov (United States)

    Heimdahl, Mats P. E.

    2001-01-01

    In this project we have investigated how formal specifications should be structured to allow for requirements reuse, product family engineering, and ease of requirements change, The contributions of this work include (1) a requirements specification methodology specifically targeted for critical avionics applications, (2) guidelines for how to structure state-based specifications to facilitate ease of change and reuse, and (3) examples from the avionics domain demonstrating the proposed approach.

  6. "Passing It On": Beyond Formal or Informal Pedagogies

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cain, Tim

    2013-01-01

    Informal pedagogies are a subject of debate in music education, and there is some evidence of teachers abandoning formal pedagogies in favour of informal ones. This article presents a case of one teacher's formal pedagogy and theorises it by comparing it with a case of informal pedagogy. The comparison reveals affordances of formal pedagogies…

  7. An approach of requirements tracing in formal refinement

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Jastram, Michael; Hallerstede, Stefan; Leuschel, Michael

    2010-01-01

    Formal modeling of computing systems yields models that are intended to be correct with respect to the requirements that have been formalized. The complexity of typical computing systems can be addressed by formal refinement introducing all the necessary details piecemeal. We report on preliminar...... changes, making use of corresponding techniques already built into the Event-B method....

  8. A efetividade do treinamento auditivo formal em idosos usuários de próteses auditivas no período de aclimatização Formal auditory training efficiency in elderly during the acclimatization period

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Elisiane de Crestani Miranda

    2007-12-01

    Full Text Available OBJETIVO: Verificar a efetividade de um programa de treinamento auditivo formal em idosos usuários de próteses auditivas intraaurais no período de aclimatização. MÉTODOS: A amostra foi composta por 18 idosos (idade média: 71, 38 anos, de ambos os sexos, adaptados há uma semana com próteses auditivas intra-aurais binaurais. Os participantes foram randomizados em dois grupos: Grupo Experimental (submetidos ao treinamento auditivo e Grupo Controle (não submetidos ao treinamento auditivo. O Grupo Experimental participou de sete sessões de treinamento auditivo em cabina acústica, uma sessão por semana, com duração de 50 minutos cada. Os procedimentos de avaliação incluíram testes de reconhecimento de fala e questionário de auto-avaliação do handicap auditivo. Estes foram aplicados em duas oportunidades, antes (1ª avaliação e depois (2ª avaliação do treinamento auditivo no Grupo Experimental e na avaliação inicial e final do estudo no Grupo Controle. RESULTADOS: No Grupo Experimental, o Índice de Reconhecimento de Fala e Fala com Ruído Branco foram significantemente melhores após o treinamento auditivo (2ª avaliação. Já o estudo das relações sinal/ruído no teste de reconhecimento de sentenças no ruído revelou uma tendência (p-valor próximo a 0,05 de melhora na avaliação pós-treinamento. Observou-se nos idosos do Grupo Experimental que os resultados obtidos na 2ª avaliação não foram significantemente melhores aos obtidos no Grupo Controle em todos os testes. CONCLUSÃO: Pode-se concluir que um programa de reabilitação aural, incluindo treinamento auditivo formal beneficia os idosos no período de adaptação das próteses auditivas, bem como modifica o comportamento auditivo destes indivíduos.PURPOSE: To investigate the efficiency of a formal auditory training program in hearing aid wearers during the acclimatization period. METHODS: Eighteen subjects (mean age of 71.38 years old, male and female

  9. Preferences for (In)Formal Language: Correlations with Attitudes toward Linguistic Variation, Multilingualism, Tolerance of Ambiguity, and Residence Abroad

    Science.gov (United States)

    van Compernolle, Rémi A.

    2017-01-01

    Drawing on data collected via a web-based survey, the study investigates the relationship between preferences for (in)formal language and attitudes toward linguistic variation among a large group of monolingual and multilingual adults (n = 379). Also explored are the links between preferences for (in)formal language and several secondary…

  10. Phase 2 environmental site investigation procedures and technologies for property transfer and PS and E development

    Science.gov (United States)

    1999-05-01

    The purpose of this project is to provide TxDOT with an improved procedure for conducting environmental site investigations at various stages during transportation infrastructure development. The project seeks to identify modern assessment technologi...

  11. Higher order temporal finite element methods through mixed formalisms.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kim, Jinkyu

    2014-01-01

    The extended framework of Hamilton's principle and the mixed convolved action principle provide new rigorous weak variational formalism for a broad range of initial boundary value problems in mathematical physics and mechanics. In this paper, their potential when adopting temporally higher order approximations is investigated. The classical single-degree-of-freedom dynamical systems are primarily considered to validate and to investigate the performance of the numerical algorithms developed from both formulations. For the undamped system, all the algorithms are symplectic and unconditionally stable with respect to the time step. For the damped system, they are shown to be accurate with good convergence characteristics.

  12. The Higgs mechanism in a covariant-gauge formalism

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Yokoyama, Kan-ichi; Kubo, Reijiro.

    1975-02-01

    In a covariant-gauge formalism for gauge fields the Higgs mechanism is investigated under a spontaneous breakdown of gauge invariance. It is shown that the Goldstone bosons are in general described by a dipole-ghost field and can be consistently eliminated from the physical state-vector space by supplementary conditions. By an asymptotic condition for the relevant fields, field equations and commutators of asymptotic fields are determined. A renormalization problem and an aspect concerning gauge transformations are also discussed. (auth.)

  13. Y-formalism and curved {beta}-{gamma} systems

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Grassi, Pietro Antonio [DISTA, Universita del Piemonte Orientale, via Bellini 25/g, 15100 Alessandria (Italy); INFN - Sezione di Torino (Italy)], E-mail: antonio.pietro.grassi@cern.ch; Oda, Ichiro [Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, University of the Ryukyus, Nishihara, Okinawa 903-0213 (Japan); Tonin, Mario [Dipartimento di Fisica, Universita degli Studi di Padova, INFN, Sezionedi Padova, Via F. Marzolo 8, 35131 Padova (Italy)

    2009-01-01

    We adopt the Y-formalism to study {beta}-{gamma} systems on hypersurfaces. We compute the operator product expansions of gauge-invariant currents and we discuss some applications of the Y-formalism to model on Calabi-Yau spaces.

  14. Y-formalism and curved β-γ systems

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Grassi, Pietro Antonio; Oda, Ichiro; Tonin, Mario

    2009-01-01

    We adopt the Y-formalism to study β-γ systems on hypersurfaces. We compute the operator product expansions of gauge-invariant currents and we discuss some applications of the Y-formalism to model on Calabi-Yau spaces

  15. Reconciling taxonomy and phylogenetic inference: formalism and algorithms for describing discord and inferring taxonomic roots

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Matsen Frederick A

    2012-05-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Although taxonomy is often used informally to evaluate the results of phylogenetic inference and the root of phylogenetic trees, algorithmic methods to do so are lacking. Results In this paper we formalize these procedures and develop algorithms to solve the relevant problems. In particular, we introduce a new algorithm that solves a "subcoloring" problem to express the difference between a taxonomy and a phylogeny at a given rank. This algorithm improves upon the current best algorithm in terms of asymptotic complexity for the parameter regime of interest; we also describe a branch-and-bound algorithm that saves orders of magnitude in computation on real data sets. We also develop a formalism and an algorithm for rooting phylogenetic trees according to a taxonomy. Conclusions The algorithms in this paper, and the associated freely-available software, will help biologists better use and understand taxonomically labeled phylogenetic trees.

  16. The formal operations: Piaget’s concept, researches and main critics

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Stepanović Ivana Ž.

    2004-01-01

    Full Text Available This paper deals with Piaget's concept of formal operations, formal operations researches and critics related to the concept. The first part of the work is dedicated to the formal operations concept. The main characteristics of formal operational thought and formal operations structure, as well as structure logical model are presented in that part of the work. The second part is a review of formal operational researches and it is divided in three parts: (1 problems of researches (2 characteristics of applied methodology and (3 author approaches as a specific research context. In the last part of the work the main critics of formal operations concept are presented and discussed.

  17. Application of Formal Methods in Software Engineering

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Adriana Morales

    2011-12-01

    Full Text Available The purpose of this research work is to examine: (1 why are necessary the formal methods for software systems today, (2 high integrity systems through the methodology C-by-C –Correctness-by-Construction–, and (3 an affordable methodology to apply formal methods in software engineering. The research process included reviews of the literature through Internet, in publications and presentations in events. Among the Research results found that: (1 there is increasing the dependence that the nations have, the companies and people of software systems, (2 there is growing demand for software Engineering to increase social trust in the software systems, (3 exist methodologies, as C-by-C, that can provide that level of trust, (4 Formal Methods constitute a principle of computer science that can be applied software engineering to perform reliable process in software development, (5 software users have the responsibility to demand reliable software products, and (6 software engineers have the responsibility to develop reliable software products. Furthermore, it is concluded that: (1 it takes more research to identify and analyze other methodologies and tools that provide process to apply the Formal Software Engineering methods, (2 Formal Methods provide an unprecedented ability to increase the trust in the exactitude of the software products and (3 by development of new methodologies and tools is being achieved costs are not more a disadvantage for application of formal methods.

  18. Formal Analysis of Graphical Security Models

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Aslanyan, Zaruhi

    , software components and human actors interacting with each other to form so-called socio-technical systems. The importance of socio-technical systems to modern societies requires verifying their security properties formally, while their inherent complexity makes manual analyses impracticable. Graphical...... models for security offer an unrivalled opportunity to describe socio-technical systems, for they allow to represent different aspects like human behaviour, computation and physical phenomena in an abstract yet uniform manner. Moreover, these models can be assigned a formal semantics, thereby allowing...... formal verification of their properties. Finally, their appealing graphical notations enable to communicate security concerns in an understandable way also to non-experts, often in charge of the decision making. This dissertation argues that automated techniques can be developed on graphical security...

  19. Steps forward in plant operation. From guidelines to a well-structured, usable and maintainable procedure system

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Forzano, P.; Castagna, P.

    1998-01-01

    The know-how of plant operation, in normal or emergency situations, and maintenance, is typically written in the form of guidelines. Although technical literature is structured in chapters and paragraphs, this type of formalization is still to the level of a 'good practice'. It is informal and subject to individual ability and competence. For many human activities that have intrinsically an high level of formalization, like procedures, it is advisable to analyze the formalism, to extract a set of rules from it, and to collect all the rules in a standard, that should be applicable to a range of specific situations. This papers presents DIAM, a methodology and a tool for procedure management, inspired by practical day-by-day issues: it embeds drawing and documentation standards and offers some new features like automatic flow diagramming and the structuring of large diagrams into pages, the congruence of step names and line paths, and the automatic printout of the procedure book. The automation of many activities offered by DIAM leads to a dramatic reduction in time for drawing productions and think document management in a completely new mode, allowing to abandon the old era of document patching and opening the new era of top quality drawings. (author)

  20. Adolescent thinking ála Piaget: The formal stage.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dulit, E

    1972-12-01

    Two of the formal-stage experiments of Piaget and Inhelder, selected largely for their closeness to the concepts defining the stage, were replicated with groups of average and gifted adolescents. This report describes the relevant Piagetian concepts (formal stage, concrete stage) in context, gives the methods and findings of this study, and concludes with a section discussing implications and making some reformulations which generally support but significantly qualify some of the central themes of the Piaget-Inhelder work. Fully developed formal-stage thinking emerges as far from commonplace among normal or average adolescents (by marked contrast with the impression created by the Piaget-Inhelder text, which chooses to report no middle or older adolescents who function at less than fully formal levels). In this respect, the formal stage differs appreciably from the earlier Piagetian stages, and early adolescence emerges as the age for which a "single path" model of cognitive development becomes seriously inadequate and a more complex model becomes essential. Formal-stage thinking seems best conceptualized, like most other aspects of psychological maturity, as a potentiality only partially attained by most and fully attained only by some.

  1. Formal connections in deformation quantization

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Masulli, Paolo

    The field of this thesis is deformation quantization, and we consider mainly symplectic manifolds equipped with a star product. After reviewing basics in complex geometry, we introduce quantization, focusing on geometric quantization and deformation quantization. The latter is defined as a star...... characteristic class, and that formal connections form an affine space over the derivations of the star products. Moreover, if the parameter space for the family of star products is contractible, we obtain that any two flat formal connections are gauge equivalent via a self-equivalence of the family of star...

  2. Formalizing the Process of Constructing Chains of Lexical Units

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Grigorij Chetverikov

    2015-06-01

    Full Text Available Formalizing the Process of Constructing Chains of Lexical Units The paper investigates mathematical aspects of describing the construction of chains of lexical units on the basis of finite-predicate algebra. Analyzing the construction peculiarities is carried out and application of the method of finding the power of linear logical transformation for removing characteristic words of a dictionary entry is given. Analysis and perspectives of the results of the study are provided.

  3. A Conceptual Formalization of Crosscutting in AOSD

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    van den Berg, Klaas; Conejero, J.M.

    2005-01-01

    We propose a formalization of crosscutting based on a conceptual framework for AOSD. Crosscutting is clearly distinguished from the related concepts scattering and tangling. The definitions of these concepts are formalized and visualized with matrices and matrix operations. This allows more precise

  4. The Reform of the Procedural Religious Court Law Based on Islamic Law in Indonesian Legal System

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Abdullah Gofar

    2017-07-01

    Full Text Available The history of the development of religious courts and the inner atmosphere struggle of Muslims in Indonesia which faced the state’s political force in the New Order era has brought forth the religious procedural law. Article 54 of The 1989 Law No.7 stated that "the applicable law in the Religious Courts are applicable procedural law in the General Court, except those specifically regulated in this law." Philosophically, the Western law both civil substantive law (Burgerlijke Wetboek and formal law/civil procedure (HIR and Rbg, prepared using the approach of individualism, secular, the optical properties of the nature legal dispute was seen as objects (Zaak which is sheer material. While the substantive law in religious courts is the law derived from Islamic law that stem from philosophical values of Islam. So, the presence of the Religious Courts in the scope of judicial in Indonesia still raises problems, including: Why is the western law of civil procedure which promote the value of materialism and formal correctness adopted into religious procedural law, whereas the philosophical orientation is not aligned with the substantive law based on Islamic law, and what are the efforts to reform the reformulation of procedural law of religious courts.

  5. Registration of civil status: formal link between family and succession intestate

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Malena Proenza-Reyes

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available The work presented to assess the main issues of the registration procedure in the field of civil status to inheritance effects, regard certificates issued by the Civil Registry official proof of family status as the main requirement to have place intestate succession; advertising of the facts and acts which constitute the formal link between this family and inheritance law on registration insufficient treatment, generates the violation of subjective rights that can be a starter. Supported the present methods of social research and analysis-synthesis and analysis of content, make important results in the national context from the characteristics presented Cuban society today and especially the Registers of Civil Status in the country.

  6. An exact formalism for Doppler-broadened neutron cross-sections

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Catsaros, Nicolas.

    1985-07-01

    An exact formalism (Ψ, Φ) is proposed for the calculation of Breit-Wigner or Adler-Adler Doppler-broadened neutron cross-sections. The well-known (Ψ, Φ) formalism is shown to be a zero-order approximation of the generalized (Ψ, Φ) formalism. (author)

  7. Formalization of treatment guidelines using Fuzzy Cognitive Maps and semantic web tools.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Papageorgiou, Elpiniki I; Roo, Jos De; Huszka, Csaba; Colaert, Dirk

    2012-02-01

    Therapy decision making and support in medicine deals with uncertainty and needs to take into account the patient's clinical parameters, the context of illness and the medical knowledge of the physician and guidelines to recommend a treatment therapy. This research study is focused on the formalization of medical knowledge using a cognitive process, called Fuzzy Cognitive Maps (FCMs) and semantic web approach. The FCM technique is capable of dealing with situations including uncertain descriptions using similar procedure such as human reasoning does. Thus, it was selected for the case of modeling and knowledge integration of clinical practice guidelines. The semantic web tools were established to implement the FCM approach. The knowledge base was constructed from the clinical guidelines as the form of if-then fuzzy rules. These fuzzy rules were transferred to FCM modeling technique and, through the semantic web tools, the whole formalization was accomplished. The problem of urinary tract infection (UTI) in adult community was examined for the proposed approach. Forty-seven clinical concepts and eight therapy concepts were identified for the antibiotic treatment therapy problem of UTIs. A preliminary pilot-evaluation study with 55 patient cases showed interesting findings; 91% of the antibiotic treatments proposed by the implemented approach were in fully agreement with the guidelines and physicians' opinions. The results have shown that the suggested approach formalizes medical knowledge efficiently and gives a front-end decision on antibiotics' suggestion for cystitis. Concluding, modeling medical knowledge/therapeutic guidelines using cognitive methods and web semantic tools is both reliable and useful. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  8. User Interface Technology for Formal Specification Development

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lowry, Michael; Philpot, Andrew; Pressburger, Thomas; Underwood, Ian; Lum, Henry, Jr. (Technical Monitor)

    1994-01-01

    Formal specification development and modification are an essential component of the knowledge-based software life cycle. User interface technology is needed to empower end-users to create their own formal specifications. This paper describes the advanced user interface for AMPHION1 a knowledge-based software engineering system that targets scientific subroutine libraries. AMPHION is a generic, domain-independent architecture that is specialized to an application domain through a declarative domain theory. Formal specification development and reuse is made accessible to end-users through an intuitive graphical interface that provides semantic guidance in creating diagrams denoting formal specifications in an application domain. The diagrams also serve to document the specifications. Automatic deductive program synthesis ensures that end-user specifications are correctly implemented. The tables that drive AMPHION's user interface are automatically compiled from a domain theory; portions of the interface can be customized by the end-user. The user interface facilitates formal specification development by hiding syntactic details, such as logical notation. It also turns some of the barriers for end-user specification development associated with strongly typed formal languages into active sources of guidance, without restricting advanced users. The interface is especially suited for specification modification. AMPHION has been applied to the domain of solar system kinematics through the development of a declarative domain theory. Testing over six months with planetary scientists indicates that AMPHION's interactive specification acquisition paradigm enables users to develop, modify, and reuse specifications at least an order of magnitude more rapidly than manual program development.

  9. NON-FORMAL EDUCATION WITHIN THE FUNCTION OF RESPONSIBLE PARENTING

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Dragana Bogavac

    2017-06-01

    Full Text Available The aim of this survey was to discover to what degree parental non-formal education is present within the function of responsible parenting. The questionnaire research method was used in the survey. For the purpose of this research a questionnaire of 13 questions was constructed relating to the forms of non-formal education, and another questionnaire of 10 questions relating to the parents’ expectations of non-formal education. The sample included 198 parents. Examination of the scores concerning the presence of certain forms of parental non-formal education realized in cooperation with the school leads to the conclusion that the parents possess a positive attitude towards non-formal education. The analysis showed that the parents’ expectations were not on a satisfactory level. According to the results, the fathers displayed a greater interest towards non-formal education (7.72±1.35 than the mothers (6.93±1.85, (p<0.05. Unemployed parents had a greater score (7.85±1.30 than the employed parents (7.22±1.71, (p<0.05. A difference in the acceptance of non-formal education in accordance with the level of formal education was also noticeable (p<0.001. Respondents with a high school degree displayed the highest level of acceptance (7.97±0.78, while the lowest interest was seen in respondents with an associate degree (6.41±2.29. Univariate linear regression analysis showed that statistically important predictors were: gender (OR: -0.23 (-1.24 – -0.33, p< 0.001, work status (OR: -0.14 (-1.24 – -0.01, < 0.05 and the level of formal education (OR: -0.33 (-0.81 – -0.34, p< 0.001. The final results lead to the conclusion that parental non-formal education supports the concept of lifelong education.

  10. Photon wave function formalism for analysis of Mach–Zehnder interferometer and sum-frequency generation

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Ritboon, Atirach, E-mail: atirach.3.14@gmail.com [School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, G12 8QQ (United Kingdom); Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, Prince of Songkla University, Hat Yai 90112 (Thailand); Daengngam, Chalongrat, E-mail: chalongrat.d@psu.ac.th [Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, Prince of Songkla University, Hat Yai 90112 (Thailand); Pengpan, Teparksorn, E-mail: teparksorn.p@psu.ac.th [Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, Prince of Songkla University, Hat Yai 90112 (Thailand)

    2016-08-15

    Biakynicki-Birula introduced a photon wave function similar to the matter wave function that satisfies the Schrödinger equation. Its second quantization form can be applied to investigate nonlinear optics at nearly full quantum level. In this paper, we applied the photon wave function formalism to analyze both linear optical processes in the well-known Mach–Zehnder interferometer and nonlinear optical processes for sum-frequency generation in dispersive and lossless medium. Results by photon wave function formalism agree with the well-established Maxwell treatments and existing experimental verifications.

  11. Photon wave function formalism for analysis of Mach–Zehnder interferometer and sum-frequency generation

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ritboon, Atirach; Daengngam, Chalongrat; Pengpan, Teparksorn

    2016-01-01

    Biakynicki-Birula introduced a photon wave function similar to the matter wave function that satisfies the Schrödinger equation. Its second quantization form can be applied to investigate nonlinear optics at nearly full quantum level. In this paper, we applied the photon wave function formalism to analyze both linear optical processes in the well-known Mach–Zehnder interferometer and nonlinear optical processes for sum-frequency generation in dispersive and lossless medium. Results by photon wave function formalism agree with the well-established Maxwell treatments and existing experimental verifications.

  12. DNA expressions - A formal notation for DNA

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Vliet, Rudy van

    2015-01-01

    We describe a formal notation for DNA molecules that may contain nicks and gaps. The resulting DNA expressions denote formal DNA molecules. Different DNA expressions may denote the same molecule. Such DNA expressions are called equivalent. We examine which DNA expressions are minimal, which

  13. Opinion dynamics model based on quantum formalism

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Artawan, I. Nengah, E-mail: nengahartawan@gmail.com [Theoretical Physics Division, Department of Physics, Udayana University (Indonesia); Trisnawati, N. L. P., E-mail: nlptrisnawati@gmail.com [Biophysics, Department of Physics, Udayana University (Indonesia)

    2016-03-11

    Opinion dynamics model based on quantum formalism is proposed. The core of the quantum formalism is on the half spin dynamics system. In this research the implicit time evolution operators are derived. The analogy between the model with Deffuant dan Sznajd models is discussed.

  14. Formal analysis of a fair payment protocol

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    J.G. Cederquist; M.T. Dashti (Mohammad)

    2004-01-01

    textabstractWe formally specify a payment protocol. This protocol is intended for fair exchange of time-sensitive data. Here the ?-CRL language is used to formalize the protocol. Fair exchange properties are expressed in the regular alternation-free ?-calculus. These properties are then verified

  15. Formal methods for dependable real-time systems

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rushby, John

    1993-01-01

    The motivation for using formal methods to specify and reason about real time properties is outlined and approaches that were proposed and used are sketched. The formal verifications of clock synchronization algorithms are concluded as showing that mechanically supported reasoning about complex real time behavior is feasible. However, there was significant increase in the effectiveness of verification systems since those verifications were performed, at it is to be expected that verifications of comparable difficulty will become fairly routine. The current challenge lies in developing perspicuous and economical approaches to the formalization and specification of real time properties.

  16. General many-body formalism for composite quantum particles.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Combescot, M; Betbeder-Matibet, O

    2010-05-21

    This Letter provides a formalism capable of exactly treating Pauli blocking between n-fermion particles. This formalism is based on an operator algebra made of commutators and anticommutators which contrasts with the usual scalar formalism of Green functions developed half a century ago for elementary quantum particles. We also provide the diagrams which visualize the very specific many-body physics induced by fermion exchanges between composite quantum particles.

  17. Propagator formalism and computer simulation of restricted diffusion behaviors of inter-molecular multiple-quantum coherences

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Cai Congbo; Chen Zhong; Cai Shuhui; Zhong Jianhui

    2005-01-01

    In this paper, behaviors of single-quantum coherences and inter-molecular multiple-quantum coherences under restricted diffusion in nuclear magnetic resonance experiments were investigated. The propagator formalism based on the loss of spin phase memory during random motion was applied to describe the diffusion-induced signal attenuation. The exact expression of the signal attenuation under the short gradient pulse approximation for restricted diffusion between two parallel plates was obtained using this propagator method. For long gradient pulses, a modified formalism was proposed. The simulated signal attenuation under the effects of gradient pulses of different width based on the Monte Carlo method agrees with the theoretical predictions. The propagator formalism and computer simulation can provide convenient, intuitive and precise methods for the study of the diffusion behaviors

  18. Formal Methods Applications in Air Transportation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Farley, Todd

    2009-01-01

    The U.S. air transportation system is the most productive in the world, moving far more people and goods than any other. It is also the safest system in the world, thanks in part to its venerable air traffic control system. But as demand for air travel continues to grow, the air traffic control system s aging infrastructure and labor-intensive procedures are impinging on its ability to keep pace with demand. And that impinges on the growth of our economy. Air traffic control modernization has long held the promise of a more efficient air transportation system. Part of NASA s current mission is to develop advanced automation and operational concepts that will expand the capacity of our national airspace system while still maintaining its excellent record for safety. It is a challenging mission, as efforts to modernize have, for decades, been hamstrung by the inability to assure safety to the satisfaction of system operators, system regulators, and/or the traveling public. In this talk, we ll provide a brief history of air traffic control, focusing on the tension between efficiency and safety assurance, and the promise of formal methods going forward.

  19. [Procedural learning disorder: neuropsychological characteristics].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Crespo-Eguílaz, N; Narbona, J

    This research aims at neurocognitive delineation of the core features of procedural learning disorder (PLD), otherwise labeled as motor coordination disorder or non-verbal learning disorder. A sample of 209 correlative outpatients (73% males), aged 6-12 years, all of them having QI ranging from 81 to 120, was clustered into the following neurobehavioural groups: PLD (n = 16), PLD plus attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) (n = 37), ADHD combined type (n = 47), ADHD predominantly inattentive type (n = 23), specific language impairment (n = 68), and semantic-pragmatic language impairment (n = 18). Two additional groups of patients were included for some comparisons: children with periventricular leukomalacia (PVL) without learning disability (n = 8) or associating PLD (n = 17). A set of behavioural scales and neurocognitive tests was used to evaluate verbal and non-verbal IQ, attention, impulsivity control, visuo-motor coordination, declarative memory, procedural memory and learning, formal and functional dimensions of language, peer relationships and academic achievement. Parametric analysis were used to test the differences and similarities of neurobehavioural variables between groups. Our results allow us to conclude that PLD implies a difficult acquisition of automatized motor, cognitive and communicative abilities required in school work and peer social relationships. PLD is different from autistic spectrum disorders. It is frequently associated to inattentive ADHD. Operational criteria for diagnosis of PLD are proposed, according to our results. A bilateral posterior parietal dysfunction is a plausible explanation of its physiopathology. Preserved general intelligence and formal linguistic abilities are the clues for intervention designs.

  20. Systemic-institutional approach to solving the problems of prejudgement in the criminal court procedure

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Bulat Raisovich Burganov

    2015-09-01

    Full Text Available Objective to consider the historical and legal aspects of the use of prejudgement in the criminal procedure and to allocate its characteristic features as of a systemic object to disclose the key system elements of the mechanism of legal regulation of prejudgement in the criminal procedure. Methods the basis of the research was historicallegal method and systemicinstitutional approach to the analysis of regulatory processes as well as special and private law research methods elements of structuralfunctional approach with formal logical analysis. Results the evolution is shown of formation and development of the prejudgement institution the necessity is grounded of systemicholistic analysis of prejudgement legal regulation in the criminal procedure. According to the author it is a systematic approach that will allow to create the effectively functioning prejudgement institution. The article investigates the content side of the prejudgement institution in the criminalprocedural law. Scientific novelty for the first time the article discusses the prejudgement institution as a system of interrelated elements. In this context the substantial side of this system is characterized. Practical significance the research results and conclusions can be used in research legislative and applied activity for the effective application of the principles of prejudgement opportunities in the criminal procedure. nbsp

  1. The simplest formal argument for fitness optimization

    Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

    The Formal Darwinism Project aims to provide a formal argument linking population genetics to fitness optimization, which of necessity includes defining fitness. This bridges the gulf between those biologists who assume that natural selection leads to something close to fitness optimization and those biologists who believe ...

  2. Formal Analysis of a Fair Payment Protocol

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Cederquist, J.G.; Dashti, M.T.

    2004-01-01

    We formally specify a payment protocol. This protocol is intended for fair exchange of timesensitive data. Here the μCRL language is used to formalize the protocol. Fair exchange properties are expressed in the regular alternation-free μ-calculus. These properties are then verified using the finite

  3. Land grabbing and formalization in Africa : a critical inquiry

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Stein, H.; Cunningham, S.

    2015-01-01

    Two developments in Africa have generated an extensive literature. The first focuses on investment and land grabbing and the second on the formalization of rural property rights. Less has been written on the impact of formalization on land grabbing and of land grabbing on formalization. Recently,

  4. A computational formalization for partial evaluation

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Hatcliff, John; Danvy, Olivier

    1996-01-01

    We formalize a partial evaluator for Eugenio Moggi's computational metalanguage. This formalization gives an evaluation-order independent view of binding-time analysis and program specialization, including a proper treatment of call unfolding. It also enables us to express the essence of `control......-based binding-time improvements' for let expressions. Specically, we prove that the binding-time improvements given by `continuation-based specialization' can be expressed in the metalanguage via monadic laws....

  5. Infinitesimal Deformations of a Formal Symplectic Groupoid

    Science.gov (United States)

    Karabegov, Alexander

    2011-09-01

    Given a formal symplectic groupoid G over a Poisson manifold ( M, π 0), we define a new object, an infinitesimal deformation of G, which can be thought of as a formal symplectic groupoid over the manifold M equipped with an infinitesimal deformation {π_0 + \\varepsilon π_1} of the Poisson bivector field π 0. To any pair of natural star products {(ast,tildeast)} having the same formal symplectic groupoid G we relate an infinitesimal deformation of G. We call it the deformation groupoid of the pair {(ast,tildeast)} . To each star product with separation of variables {ast} on a Kähler-Poisson manifold M we relate another star product with separation of variables {hatast} on M. We build an algorithm for calculating the principal symbols of the components of the logarithm of the formal Berezin transform of a star product with separation of variables {ast} . This algorithm is based upon the deformation groupoid of the pair {(ast,hatast)}.

  6. Formal verification of algorithms for critical systems

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rushby, John M.; Von Henke, Friedrich

    1993-01-01

    We describe our experience with formal, machine-checked verification of algorithms for critical applications, concentrating on a Byzantine fault-tolerant algorithm for synchronizing the clocks in the replicated computers of a digital flight control system. First, we explain the problems encountered in unsynchronized systems and the necessity, and criticality, of fault-tolerant synchronization. We give an overview of one such algorithm, and of the arguments for its correctness. Next, we describe a verification of the algorithm that we performed using our EHDM system for formal specification and verification. We indicate the errors we found in the published analysis of the algorithm, and other benefits that we derived from the verification. Based on our experience, we derive some key requirements for a formal specification and verification system adequate to the task of verifying algorithms of the type considered. Finally, we summarize our conclusions regarding the benefits of formal verification in this domain, and the capabilities required of verification systems in order to realize those benefits.

  7. Matching biomedical ontologies based on formal concept analysis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhao, Mengyi; Zhang, Songmao; Li, Weizhuo; Chen, Guowei

    2018-03-19

    The goal of ontology matching is to identify correspondences between entities from different yet overlapping ontologies so as to facilitate semantic integration, reuse and interoperability. As a well developed mathematical model for analyzing individuals and structuring concepts, Formal Concept Analysis (FCA) has been applied to ontology matching (OM) tasks since the beginning of OM research, whereas ontological knowledge exploited in FCA-based methods is limited. This motivates the study in this paper, i.e., to empower FCA with as much as ontological knowledge as possible for identifying mappings across ontologies. We propose a method based on Formal Concept Analysis to identify and validate mappings across ontologies, including one-to-one mappings, complex mappings and correspondences between object properties. Our method, called FCA-Map, incrementally generates a total of five types of formal contexts and extracts mappings from the lattices derived. First, the token-based formal context describes how class names, labels and synonyms share lexical tokens, leading to lexical mappings (anchors) across ontologies. Second, the relation-based formal context describes how classes are in taxonomic, partonomic and disjoint relationships with the anchors, leading to positive and negative structural evidence for validating the lexical matching. Third, the positive relation-based context can be used to discover structural mappings. Afterwards, the property-based formal context describes how object properties are used in axioms to connect anchor classes across ontologies, leading to property mappings. Last, the restriction-based formal context describes co-occurrence of classes across ontologies in anonymous ancestors of anchors, from which extended structural mappings and complex mappings can be identified. Evaluation on the Anatomy, the Large Biomedical Ontologies, and the Disease and Phenotype track of the 2016 Ontology Alignment Evaluation Initiative campaign

  8. Non-Formal Educational Empowerment of Nigeria Youths for ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Religion Dept

    discussed the concept of non-formal education, entrepreneurship and development, non-formal ... introducing some developmental programmes such as poverty alleviation .... aesthetic, cultural and civic education for public enlightenment.

  9. Procedural Skills Education – Colonoscopy as a Model

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Maitreyi Raman

    2008-01-01

    Full Text Available Traditionally, surgical and procedural apprenticeship has been an assumed activity of students, without a formal educational context. With increasing barriers to patient and operating room access such as shorter work week hours for residents, and operating room and endoscopy time at a premium, alternate strategies to maximizing procedural skill development are being considered. Recently, the traditional surgical apprenticeship model has been challenged, with greater emphasis on the need for surgical and procedural skills training to be more transparent and for alternatives to patient-based training to be considered. Colonoscopy performance is a complex psychomotor skill requiring practioners to integrate multiple sensory inputs, and involves higher cortical centres for optimal performance. Colonoscopy skills involve mastery in the cognitive, technical and process domains. In the present review, we propose a model for teaching colonoscopy to the novice trainee based on educational theory.

  10. Sound Computational Interpretation of Formal Encryption with Composed Keys

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Laud, P.; Corin, R.J.; In Lim, J.; Hoon Lee, D.

    2003-01-01

    The formal and computational views of cryptography have been related by the seminal work of Abadi and Rogaway. In their work, a formal treatment of encryption that uses atomic keys is justified in the computational world. However, many proposed formal approaches allow the use of composed keys, where

  11. Educación no formal

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tignanelli, H.

    Se comentan en esta comunicación, las principales contribuciones realizadas en el campo de la educación en astronomía en los niveles primario, secundario y terciario, como punto de partida para la discusión de la actual inserción de los contenidos astronómicos en los nuevos contenidos curriculares de la EGB - Educación General Básica- y Polimodal, de la Reforma Educativa. En particular, se discuten los alcances de la educación formal y no formal, su importancia para la capacitación de profesores y maestros, y perspectivas a futuro.

  12. Restorative Practices as Formal and Informal Education

    Science.gov (United States)

    Carter, Candice C.

    2013-01-01

    This article reviews restorative practices (RP) as education in formal and informal contexts of learning that are fertile sites for cultivating peace. Formal practices involve instruction about response to conflict, while informal learning occurs beyond academic lessons. The research incorporated content analysis and a critical examination of the…

  13. Formal Analysis of a Fair Payment Protocol

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Cederquist, J.G.; Dashti, Muhammad Torabi; Dimitrakos, Theo; Martinelli, Fabio

    We formally specify a payment protocol described by Vogt et al. This protocol is intended for fair exchange of time-sensitive data. Here the mCRL language is used to formalize the protocol. Fair exchange properties are expressed in the regular alternation-free mu-calculus. These properties are then

  14. A Comparitive Study of Subject Knowledge of B.Ed Graduates of Formal and Non-Formal Teacher Education Systems

    Science.gov (United States)

    Saif, Perveen; Reba, Amjad; ud Din, Jalal

    2017-01-01

    This study was designed to compare the subject knowledge of B.Ed graduates of formal and non-formal teacher education systems. The population of the study included all teachers from Girls High and Higher Secondary Schools both from private and public sectors from the district of Peshawar. Out of the total population, twenty schools were randomly…

  15. First order formalism for quantum gravity

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Gleiser, M.; Holman, R.; Neto, N.P.

    1987-05-01

    We develop a first order formalism for the quantization of gravity. We take as canonical variables both the induced metric and the extrinsic curvature of the (d - 1) -dimensional hypersurfaces obtained by the foliation of the d - dimensional spacetime. After solving the constraint algebra we use the Dirac formalism to quantize the theory and obtain a new representation for the Wheeler-DeWitt equation, defined in the functional space of the extrinsic curvature. We also show how to obtain several different representations of the Wheeler-DeWitt equation by considering actions differing by a total divergence. In particular, the intrinsic and extrinsic time approaches appear in a natural way, as do equivalent representations obtained by functional Fourier transforms of appropriate variables. We conclude with some remarks about the construction of the Hilbert space within the first order formalism. 10 refs

  16. Formalization of the Resolution Calculus for First-Order Logic

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Schlichtkrull, Anders

    2018-01-01

    between unsatisfiable sets of clauses and finite semantic trees is formalized in Herbrand’s theorem. I discuss the difficulties that I had formalizing proofs of the lifting lemma found in the literature, and I formalize a correct proof. The completeness proof is by induction on the size of a finite...

  17. Investigation Procedure of Magnetic Performances of NdFeB Permanent Magnets

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Calin, Marius-Daniel; Helerea, Elena; Ritchie, Ewen

    2011-01-01

    The permanent magnet applications based on carbon steel magnets, hard ferrites and AlNiCo magnets classes are renewed with new classes of advanced magnetic materials based on rare earth elements, the Sm-Co and NdFeB types. Performance increase of the hard magnetic materials and their use in speci......The permanent magnet applications based on carbon steel magnets, hard ferrites and AlNiCo magnets classes are renewed with new classes of advanced magnetic materials based on rare earth elements, the Sm-Co and NdFeB types. Performance increase of the hard magnetic materials and their use...... in specific applications impose also great advances in the field of magnetic measurement. New researches need to be validated in order to investigate the NdFeB permanent magnets performances, including their stability under different thermal operational regimes. In this paper a specific investigation...... procedure of magnetic performances of NdFeB permanent magnets in correlation with the range of operating temperature is proposed based on modern hysteresisgraph method and impulse magnetization technique....

  18. Towards Formal Verification of a Separation Microkernel

    Science.gov (United States)

    Butterfield, Andrew; Sanan, David; Hinchey, Mike

    2013-08-01

    The best approach to verifying an IMA separation kernel is to use a (fixed) time-space partitioning kernel with a multiple independent levels of separation (MILS) architecture. We describe an activity that explores the cost and feasibility of doing a formal verification of such a kernel to the Common Criteria (CC) levels mandated by the Separation Kernel Protection Profile (SKPP). We are developing a Reference Specification of such a kernel, and are using higher-order logic (HOL) to construct formal models of this specification and key separation properties. We then plan to do a dry run of part of a formal proof of those properties using the Isabelle/HOL theorem prover.

  19. Formality theory from Poisson structures to deformation quantization

    CERN Document Server

    Esposito, Chiara

    2015-01-01

    This book is a survey of the theory of formal deformation quantization of Poisson manifolds, in the formalism developed by Kontsevich. It is intended as an educational introduction for mathematical physicists who are dealing with the subject for the first time. The main topics covered are the theory of Poisson manifolds, star products and their classification, deformations of associative algebras and the formality theorem. Readers will also be familiarized with the relevant physical motivations underlying the purely mathematical construction.

  20. Formal and informal credit in four provinces of Vietnam

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Barslund, Mikkel; Tarp, Finn

    2008-01-01

    This paper uses a survey of 932 rural households to uncover how the rural credit market operates in Vietnam. Households obtain credit through formal and informal lenders. Formal loans are almost entirely for production and asset accumulation, while informal loans are used for consumption smoothen......This paper uses a survey of 932 rural households to uncover how the rural credit market operates in Vietnam. Households obtain credit through formal and informal lenders. Formal loans are almost entirely for production and asset accumulation, while informal loans are used for consumption...

  1. Modeling Organizational Design - Applying A Formalism Model From Theoretical Physics

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Robert Fabac

    2008-06-01

    Full Text Available Modern organizations are exposed to diverse external environment influences. Currently accepted concepts of organizational design take into account structure, its interaction with strategy, processes, people, etc. Organization design and planning aims to align this key organizational design variables. At the higher conceptual level, however, completely satisfactory formulation for this alignment doesn’t exist. We develop an approach originating from the application of concepts of theoretical physics to social systems. Under this approach, the allocation of organizational resources is analyzed in terms of social entropy, social free energy and social temperature. This allows us to formalize the dynamic relationship between organizational design variables. In this paper we relate this model to Galbraith's Star Model and we also suggest improvements in the procedure of the complex analytical method in organizational design.

  2. Fourier Series Formalization in ACL2(r

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Cuong K. Chau

    2015-09-01

    Full Text Available We formalize some basic properties of Fourier series in the logic of ACL2(r, which is a variant of ACL2 that supports reasoning about the real and complex numbers by way of non-standard analysis. More specifically, we extend a framework for formally evaluating definite integrals of real-valued, continuous functions using the Second Fundamental Theorem of Calculus. Our extended framework is also applied to functions containing free arguments. Using this framework, we are able to prove the orthogonality relationships between trigonometric functions, which are the essential properties in Fourier series analysis. The sum rule for definite integrals of indexed sums is also formalized by applying the extended framework along with the First Fundamental Theorem of Calculus and the sum rule for differentiation. The Fourier coefficient formulas of periodic functions are then formalized from the orthogonality relations and the sum rule for integration. Consequently, the uniqueness of Fourier sums is a straightforward corollary. We also present our formalization of the sum rule for definite integrals of infinite series in ACL2(r. Part of this task is to prove the Dini Uniform Convergence Theorem and the continuity of a limit function under certain conditions. A key technique in our proofs of these theorems is to apply the overspill principle from non-standard analysis.

  3. A new approach based on transfer matrix formalism to characterize porous silicon layers by reflectometry

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Pirasteh, P. [RESO Laboratory (EA 3380), ENIB, CS 73862, 29238 Brest Cedex 3 (France); Optronics Laboratory, ENSSAT, UMR 6082, BP 80518, 6 rue de Kerampont, 22305 Lannion Cedex (France); Boucher, Y.G. [RESO Laboratory (EA 3380), ENIB, CS 73862, 29238 Brest Cedex 3 (France); Charrier, J.; Dumeige, Y. [Optronics Laboratory, ENSSAT, UMR 6082, BP 80518, 6 rue de Kerampont, 22305 Lannion Cedex (France)

    2007-07-01

    We use reflectometry coupled to transfer matrix formalism in order to investigate the comparative effect of surface (localized) and volume (distributed) losses inside a porous silicon monolayer. Both are modeled as fictive absorption. Surface losses are described as a Dirac-like singularity of permittivity localized at an interface whereas volume losses are described trough the imaginary part of the porous silicon complex permittivity. A good agreement with experimental data is determined by this formalism. (copyright 2007 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH and Co. KGaA, Weinheim) (orig.)

  4. Formal methods for industrial critical systems a survey of applications

    CERN Document Server

    Margaria-Steffen, Tiziana

    2012-01-01

    "Today, formal methods are widely recognized as an essential step in the design process of industrial safety-critical systems. In its more general definition, the term formal methods encompasses all notations having a precise mathematical semantics, together with their associated analysis methods, that allow description and reasoning about the behavior of a system in a formal manner.Growing out of more than a decade of award-winning collaborative work within the European Research Consortium for Informatics and Mathematics, Formal Methods for Industrial Critical Systems: A Survey of Applications presents a number of mainstream formal methods currently used for designing industrial critical systems, with a focus on model checking. The purpose of the book is threefold: to reduce the effort required to learn formal methods, which has been a major drawback for their industrial dissemination; to help designers to adopt the formal methods which are most appropriate for their systems; and to offer a panel of state-of...

  5. Proceedings of the First NASA Formal Methods Symposium

    Science.gov (United States)

    Denney, Ewen (Editor); Giannakopoulou, Dimitra (Editor); Pasareanu, Corina S. (Editor)

    2009-01-01

    Topics covered include: Model Checking - My 27-Year Quest to Overcome the State Explosion Problem; Applying Formal Methods to NASA Projects: Transition from Research to Practice; TLA+: Whence, Wherefore, and Whither; Formal Methods Applications in Air Transportation; Theorem Proving in Intel Hardware Design; Building a Formal Model of a Human-Interactive System: Insights into the Integration of Formal Methods and Human Factors Engineering; Model Checking for Autonomic Systems Specified with ASSL; A Game-Theoretic Approach to Branching Time Abstract-Check-Refine Process; Software Model Checking Without Source Code; Generalized Abstract Symbolic Summaries; A Comparative Study of Randomized Constraint Solvers for Random-Symbolic Testing; Component-Oriented Behavior Extraction for Autonomic System Design; Automated Verification of Design Patterns with LePUS3; A Module Language for Typing by Contracts; From Goal-Oriented Requirements to Event-B Specifications; Introduction of Virtualization Technology to Multi-Process Model Checking; Comparing Techniques for Certified Static Analysis; Towards a Framework for Generating Tests to Satisfy Complex Code Coverage in Java Pathfinder; jFuzz: A Concolic Whitebox Fuzzer for Java; Machine-Checkable Timed CSP; Stochastic Formal Correctness of Numerical Algorithms; Deductive Verification of Cryptographic Software; Coloured Petri Net Refinement Specification and Correctness Proof with Coq; Modeling Guidelines for Code Generation in the Railway Signaling Context; Tactical Synthesis Of Efficient Global Search Algorithms; Towards Co-Engineering Communicating Autonomous Cyber-Physical Systems; and Formal Methods for Automated Diagnosis of Autosub 6000.

  6. On Fitting a Formal Method into Practice

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Gmehlich, Rainer; Grau, Katrin; Hallerstede, Stefan

    2011-01-01

    . The interaction between the two proved to be crucial for the success of the case study. The heart of the problem was tracing informal requirements from Problem Frames descriptions to formal Event-B models. To a large degree, this issue dictated the approach that had to be used for formal modelling. A dedicated...

  7. Formal education of patients about to undergo laparoscopic cholecystectomy.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gurusamy, Kurinchi Selvan; Vaughan, Jessica; Davidson, Brian R

    2014-02-28

    Generally, before being operated on, patients will be given informal information by the healthcare providers involved in the care of the patients (doctors, nurses, ward clerks, or healthcare assistants). This information can also be provided formally in different formats including written information, formal lectures, or audio-visual recorded information. To compare the benefits and harms of formal preoperative patient education for patients undergoing laparoscopic cholecystectomy. We searched the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL) (Issue 2, 2013), MEDLINE, EMBASE, and Science Citation Index Expanded to March 2013. We included only randomised clinical trials irrespective of language and publication status. Two review authors independently extracted the data. We planned to calculate the risk ratio with 95% confidence intervals (CI) for dichotomous outcomes, and mean difference (MD) or standardised mean difference (SMD) with 95% CI for continuous outcomes based on intention-to-treat analyses when data were available. A total of 431 participants undergoing elective laparoscopic cholecystectomy were randomised to formal patient education (215 participants) versus standard care (216 participants) in four trials. The patient education included verbal education, multimedia DVD programme, computer-based multimedia programme, and Power Point presentation in the four trials. All the trials were of high risk of bias. One trial including 212 patients reported mortality. There was no mortality in either group in this trial. None of the trials reported surgery-related morbidity, quality of life, proportion of patients discharged as day-procedure laparoscopic cholecystectomy, the length of hospital stay, return to work, or the number of unplanned visits to the doctor. There were insufficient details to calculate the mean difference and 95% CI for the difference in pain scores at 9 to 24 hours (1 trial; 93 patients); and we did not identify clear evidence of

  8. Formal, non-formal and informal learning in music : vocal students as animateurs : a case study of non-formal learning

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Kors, Ninja; Mak, Peter

    2006-01-01

    The pilot project that will be described in this report was all about the animateur. What are his skills and attitudes? What are the pedagogical interventions that he uses in a workshop or an event? What are the main issues that arise when we try to include such a naturally non-formal and informal

  9. Non-Formal Education: Interest in Human Capital

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ivanova, I. V.

    2016-01-01

    We define non-formal education as a part of general education, which gives students the required tools for cognition and creativity. It allows them to fully realize their self-potential and to set their own professional and personal goals. In this article, we outline the fundamental differences between general and non-formal education from the…

  10. Rapid Prototyping of Formally Modelled Distributed Systems

    OpenAIRE

    Buchs, Didier; Buffo, Mathieu; Titsworth, Frances M.

    1999-01-01

    This paper presents various kinds of prototypes, used in the prototyping of formally modelled distributed systems. It presents the notions of prototyping techniques and prototype evolution, and shows how to relate them to the software life-cycle. It is illustrated through the use of the formal modelling language for distributed systems CO-OPN/2.

  11. The formal path integral and quantum mechanics

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Johnson-Freyd, Theo

    2010-01-01

    Given an arbitrary Lagrangian function on R d and a choice of classical path, one can try to define Feynman's path integral supported near the classical path as a formal power series parameterized by 'Feynman diagrams', although these diagrams may diverge. We compute this expansion and show that it is (formally, if there are ultraviolet divergences) invariant under volume-preserving changes of coordinates. We prove that if the ultraviolet divergences cancel at each order, then our formal path integral satisfies a 'Fubini theorem' expressing the standard composition law for the time evolution operator in quantum mechanics. Moreover, we show that when the Lagrangian is inhomogeneous quadratic in velocity such that its homogeneous-quadratic part is given by a matrix with constant determinant, then the divergences cancel at each order. Thus, by 'cutting and pasting' and choosing volume-compatible local coordinates, our construction defines a Feynman-diagrammatic 'formal path integral' for the nonrelativistic quantum mechanics of a charged particle moving in a Riemannian manifold with an external electromagnetic field.

  12. Learning in later life: participation in formal, non-formal and informal activities in a nationally representative Spanish sample.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Villar, Feliciano; Celdrán, Montserrat

    2013-06-01

    This article examines the participation of Spanish older people in formal, non-formal and informal learning activities and presents a profile of participants in each kind of learning activity. We used data from a nationally representative sample of Spanish people between 60 and 75 years old ( n  = 4,703). The data were extracted from the 2007 Encuesta sobre la Participación de la Población Adulta en Actividades de Aprendizaje (EADA, Survey on Adult Population Involvement in Learning Activities). Overall, only 22.8 % of the sample participated in a learning activity. However, there was wide variation in the participation rates for the different types of activity. Informal activities were far more common than formal ones. Multivariate logistic regression indicated that education level and involvement in social and cultural activities were associated with likelihood of participating, regardless of the type of learning activity. When these variables were taken into account, age did not predict decreasing participation, at least in non-formal and informal activities. Implications for further research, future trends and policies to promote older adult education are discussed.

  13. Investigating the Appropriateness of the TACOM Measure: Application to the Complexity of Proceduralized Tasks for High Speed Train Drivers

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Park, Jin Kyun; Jung, Won Dea; Ko, Jong Hyun

    2010-01-01

    According to wide-spread experience in many industries, a procedure is one of the most effective countermeasures to reduce the possibility of human related problems. Unfortunately, a systematic framework to evaluate the complexity of procedural tasks seems to be very scant. For this reason, the TACOM measure, which can quantify the complexity of procedural tasks, has been developed. In this study, the appropriateness of the TACOM measure is investigated by comparing TACOM scores regarding the procedural tasks of high speed train drivers with the associated workload scores measured by the NASA-TLX technique. As a result, it is observed that there is a meaningful correlation between the TACOM scores and the associated NASA-TLX scores. Therefore, it is expected that the TACOM measure can properly quantify the complexity of procedural tasks

  14. Investigating the Appropriateness of the TACOM Measure: Application to the Complexity of Proceduralized Tasks for High Speed Train Drivers

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Park, Jin Kyun; Jung, Won Dea [Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute, Daejeon (Korea, Republic of); Ko, Jong Hyun [Nuclear Engineering and Technology Institute, Daejeon (Korea, Republic of)

    2010-02-15

    According to wide-spread experience in many industries, a procedure is one of the most effective countermeasures to reduce the possibility of human related problems. Unfortunately, a systematic framework to evaluate the complexity of procedural tasks seems to be very scant. For this reason, the TACOM measure, which can quantify the complexity of procedural tasks, has been developed. In this study, the appropriateness of the TACOM measure is investigated by comparing TACOM scores regarding the procedural tasks of high speed train drivers with the associated workload scores measured by the NASA-TLX technique. As a result, it is observed that there is a meaningful correlation between the TACOM scores and the associated NASA-TLX scores. Therefore, it is expected that the TACOM measure can properly quantify the complexity of procedural tasks

  15. Cohomology in the Pure Spinor Formalism for the Superstring

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Berkovits, Nathan

    2000-01-01

    A manifestly super-Poincare covariant formalism for the superstring has recently been constructed using a pure spinor variable. Unlike the covariant Green-Schwarz formalism, this new formalism is easily quantized with a BRST operator and tree-level scattering amplitudes have been evaluated in a manifestly covariant manner. In this paper, the cohomology of the BRST operator in the pure spinor formalism is shown to give the usual light-cone Green-Schwarz spectrum. Although the BRST operator does not directly involve the Virasoro constraint, this constraint emerges after expressing the pure spinor variable in terms of SO(8) variables. (author)

  16. Formalizing a Paraconsistent Logic in the Isabelle Proof Assistant

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Villadsen, Jørgen; Schlichtkrull, Anders

    2017-01-01

    We present a formalization of a so-called paraconsistent logic that avoids the catastrophic explosiveness of inconsistency in classical logic. The paraconsistent logic has a countably infinite number of non-classical truth values. We show how to use the proof assistant Isabelle to formally prove...... theorems in the logic as well as meta-theorems about the logic. In particular, we formalize a meta-theorem that allows us to reduce the infinite number of truth values to a finite number of truth values, for a given formula, and we use this result in a formalization of a small case study....

  17. Rapidly converging path integral formalism. Pt. 1

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bender, I.; Gromes, D.; Marquard, U.

    1990-01-01

    The action to be used in the path integral formalism is expanded in a systematic way in powers of the time spacing ε in order to optimize the convergence to the continuum limit. This modifies and extends the usual formalism in a transparent way. The path integral approximation to the Green function obtained by this method approaches the continuum Green function with a higher power of ε than the usual one. The general theoretical derivations are exemplified analytically for the harmonic oscillator and by Monte Carlo methods for the anharmonic oscillator. We also show how curvilinear coordinates and curved spaces can naturally be treated within this formalism. Work on field theory is in progress. (orig.)

  18. Preparation and Characterization of Formalated Polyvinyl Alcohol Hydrogel Film

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Than Than Aye; Nyunt Win; San Myint

    2011-12-01

    A feasible hydrogen film was prepared from polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) sample. The effect of chemical grafting on polyvinyl alcohol film was studied. Polyvinyl alcohol sample was mixed with distilled water and autoclaved at 121C for 60 minutes. An aqueous solution of polyvinyl alcohol was casted into a steel plate and dried for a certain time at room temperature. The obtained PVA film was immersed in formalation bath containing aqueous formaldehyde, sulphuric acid, anhydrous sodium sulphate with a weight ratio of (64:95:300) and 1 liter of distilled water at 60C for various hours. Effect of formalation time was studied varying 6, 12, 24, 36 and 48 hours. Degree of formalation was also evaluated. Physical properties of the hydrogel film such as gel fraction, degree of swelling and mechanical properties such as tensile strength, elongation and hardness were determined before and after formalation of the PVA film. Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopic (FTIR) analysis, Thermogravimetric / Differential thermal analysis (DTA / TG) were also studied for characterization. It was found that the appropriate condition for formalation was occured at 24 hours formalation time of with the calculated degree of formalation 65.35% with the determined values (9.04 Mpa) for tensile strength, (241.92%) for elongation, (45.30 Shore D) for hardness, (280.36%) for degree of swelling and (68.32%) for gel fraction.

  19. FORMS OF LEARNING WITHIN HIGHER EDUCATION. BLENDING FORMAL, INFORMAL AND NON-FORMAL

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Irina- Teodora MANOLESCU

    2018-07-01

    Full Text Available Changes that occur in the socio-economic environment determine new challenges for individuals that strive to acquire new, more valuable competencies. The universities, considered one of the most important pillars in developing such competencies, are challenged to develop and harmonize different forms of education (formal, informal and non-formal in order to respond to individuals’ and organizations’ needs. The mixture of learning forms can bring competitive advantage for the universities. However mixing the learning forms is not so easy to accomplish, considering that the stakeholders’ requirements could be divergent and the resources are limited. This paper aims at presenting the advantages and disadvantages of these forms of learning and also outlines few examples of the interferences. At last, the paper presents some preliminary results of a quantitative research regarding the perception on the usage of the three forms of learning of one of its stakeholders - the higher education candidates. Some implications for both universities and high school education are highlighted.

  20. Evaluation procedures for drug crimes, the Iranian legal system

    OpenAIRE

    Mehdi Hariri; Saeid Darougari

    2014-01-01

    Today, drug trafficking, transnational organized crime of, comes into account. Distributors and consumers of drugs, distribution and consumption gradually, the traditional process lubricants Battalion (mechanical and chemical), and this would have altered, requires the development of formal and substantial rights.  The law of success in fighting crime, completely dependent on the integrity, transparency and efficiency of criminal procedure, and the amount of punishment that fits the crime app...

  1. Neutron activation analysis with k{sub 0}-standardisation : general formalism and procedure

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Pomme, S.; Hardeman, F. [Centre de l`Etude de l`Energie Nucleaire, Mol (Belgium); Robouch, P.; Etxebarria, N.; Arana, G. [European Commission, Joint Research Centre, Institute for Reference Materials and Measurements, Geel (Belgium)

    1997-09-01

    Instrumental neutron activation analysis (INAA) with k{sub 0}-standardisation is a powerful tool for multi-element analysis at a broad range of trace element concentrations. An overview is given of the basic principles, fundamental equations, and general procedure of this method. Different aspects of the description of the neutron activation reaction rate are discussed, applying the Hogdahl convention. A general activation-decay formula is derived and its application to INAA is demonstrated. Relevant k{sub 0}-definitions for different activation decay schemes are summarised and upgraded to cases of extremely high fluxes. The main standardisation techniques for INAA are discussed, emphasizing the k{sub 0}-standardisation. Some general aspects of the basic equipment and its calibration are discussed, such as the characterisation of the neutron field and the tuning of the spectrometry part. A method for the prediction and optimisation of the analytical performance of INAA is presented.

  2. Formalizing Darwinism and inclusive fitness theory.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Grafen, Alan

    2009-11-12

    Inclusive fitness maximization is a basic building block for biological contributions to any theory of the evolution of society. There is a view in mathematical population genetics that nothing is caused to be maximized in the process of natural selection, but this is explained as arising from a misunderstanding about the meaning of fitness maximization. Current theoretical work on inclusive fitness is discussed, with emphasis on the author's 'formal Darwinism project'. Generally, favourable conclusions are drawn about the validity of assuming fitness maximization, but the need for continuing work is emphasized, along with the possibility that substantive exceptions may be uncovered. The formal Darwinism project aims more ambitiously to represent in a formal mathematical framework the central point of Darwin's Origin of Species, that the mechanical processes of inheritance and reproduction can give rise to the appearance of design, and it is a fitting ambition in Darwin's bicentenary year to capture his most profound discovery in the lingua franca of science.

  3. Orality and literacy, formality and informality in email communication

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Carmen Pérez Sabater

    2008-04-01

    Full Text Available Approaches to the linguistic characteristics of computer-mediated communication (CMC have highlighted the frequent oral traits involved in electronic mail along with features of written language. But email is today a new communication exchange medium in social, professional and academic settings, frequently used as a substitute for the traditional formal letter. The oral characterizations and linguistic formality involved in this use of emails are still in need of research. This paper explores the formal and informal features in emails based on a corpus of messages exchanged by academic institutions, and studies the similarities and differences on the basis of their mode of communication (one-to-one or one-to-many and the sender’s mother tongue (native or nonnative. The language samples collected were systematically analyzed for formality of greetings and farewells, use of contractions, politeness indicators and non-standard linguistic features. The findings provide new insights into traits of orality and formality in email communication and demonstrate the emergence of a new style in writing for even the most important, confidential and formal purposes which seems to be forming a new sub-genre of letter-writing.

  4. Null canonical formalism 1, Maxwell field. [Poisson brackets, boundary conditions

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Wodkiewicz, K [Warsaw Univ. (Poland). Inst. Fizyki Teoretycznej

    1975-01-01

    The purpose of this paper is to formulate the canonical formalism on null hypersurfaces for the Maxwell electrodynamics. The set of the Poisson brackets relations for null variables of the Maxwell field is obtained. The asymptotic properties of the theory are investigated. The Poisson bracket relations for the news-functions of the Maxwell field are computed. The Hamiltonian form of the asymptotic Maxwell equations in terms of these news-functions is obtained.

  5. A formalization of the Berlekamp-Zassenhaus factorization algorithm

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Divasón, Jose; Joosten, Sebastiaan; Thiemann, René; Yamada, Akihisa

    2017-01-01

    We formalize the Berlekamp–Zassenhaus algorithm for factoring square-free integer polynomials in Isabelle/HOL. We further adapt an existing formalization of Yun’s square-free factorization algorithm to integer polynomials, and thus provide an efficient and certified factorization algorithm for

  6. Relating Lagrangian and Hamiltonian Formalisms of LC Circuits

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Clemente-Gallardo, Jesús; Scherpen, Jacquelien M.A.

    2003-01-01

    The Lagrangian formalism earlier defined for (switching) electrical circuits, is adapted to the Lagrangian formalism defined on Lie algebroids. This allows us to define regular Lagrangians and consequently, well-defined Hamiltonian descriptions of arbitrary LC networks. The relation with other

  7. Viewpoints, Formalisms, Languages, and Tools for Cyber-Physical Systems

    Science.gov (United States)

    2014-05-16

    ACM, Inc., fax +1 (212) 869-0481. Formalisms Languages and ToolsViewpoints supported by implemented by based on Figure 1: Framework for Viewpoints...Description Languages Examples: VHDL , Verilog, and AMS extensions Reactive languages Examples: SCADE/Lustre and Giotto Model Checkers Examples: Spin, NuSMV...syntax and a formal semantics. Languages are con- crete implementations of formalisms. A language has a con- crete syntax, may deviate slightly from

  8. Licensing procedures for Low-Level Waste disposal facilities

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Roop, R.D.; Van Dyke, J.W.

    1985-09-01

    This report describes the procedures applicable to siting and licensing of disposal facilities for low-level radioactive wastes. Primary emphasis is placed on those procedures which are required by regulations, but to the extent possible, non-mandatory activities which will facilitate siting and licensing are also considered. The report provides an overview of how the procedural and technical requirements for a low-level waste (LLW) disposal facility (as defined by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's Rules 10 CFR Parts 2, 51, and 61) may be integrated with activities to reduce and resolve conflict generated by the proposed siting of a facility. General procedures are described for site screening and selection, site characterization, site evaluation, and preparation of the license application; specific procedures for several individual states are discussed. The report also examines the steps involved in the formal licensing process, including docketing and initial processing, preparation of an environmental impact statement, technical review, hearings, and decisions. It is concluded that development of effective communication between parties in conflict and the utilization of techniques to manage and resolve conflicts represent perhaps the most significant challenge for the people involved in LLW disposal in the next decade. 18 refs., 6 figs

  9. Formal Analysis of Security Models for Mobile Devices, Virtualization Platforms, and Domain Name Systems

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Gustavo Betarte

    2015-12-01

    Full Text Available In this work we investigate the security of security-critical applications, i.e. applications in which a failure may produce consequences that are unacceptable. We consider three areas: mobile devices, virtualization platforms, and domain name systems. The Java Micro Edition platform defines the Mobile Information Device Profile (MIDP to facilitate the development of applications for mobile devices, like cell phones and PDAs. We first study and compare formally several variants of the security model specified by MIDP to access sensitive resources of a mobile device. Hypervisors allow multiple guest operating systems to run on shared hardware, and offer a compelling means of improving the security and the flexibility of software systems. In this work we present a formalization of an idealized model of a hypervisor. We establish (formally that the hypervisor ensures strong isolation properties between the different operating systems, and guarantees that requests from guest operating systems are eventually attended. We show also that virtualized platforms are transparent, i.e. a guest operating system cannot distinguish whether it executes alone or together with other guest operating systems on the platform. The Domain Name System Security Extensions (DNSSEC is a suite of specifications that provides origin authentication and integrity assurance services for DNS data. We finally introduce a minimalistic specification of a DNSSEC model which provides the grounds needed to formally state and verify security properties concerning the chain of trust of the DNSSEC tree. We develop all our formalizations in the Calculus of Inductive Constructions --formal language that combines a higher-order logic and a richly-typed functional programming language-- using the Coq proof assistant.

  10. Formal methods for discrete-time dynamical systems

    CERN Document Server

    Belta, Calin; Aydin Gol, Ebru

    2017-01-01

    This book bridges fundamental gaps between control theory and formal methods. Although it focuses on discrete-time linear and piecewise affine systems, it also provides general frameworks for abstraction, analysis, and control of more general models. The book is self-contained, and while some mathematical knowledge is necessary, readers are not expected to have a background in formal methods or control theory. It rigorously defines concepts from formal methods, such as transition systems, temporal logics, model checking and synthesis. It then links these to the infinite state dynamical systems through abstractions that are intuitive and only require basic convex-analysis and control-theory terminology, which is provided in the appendix. Several examples and illustrations help readers understand and visualize the concepts introduced throughout the book.

  11. Linguistic Formalism for Semi-Autonomous Reactor Operation

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Joo, Sungmoon; Seo, Sang Mun; Suh, Yong-Suk; Park, Cheol

    2017-01-01

    The ultimate goal of our work is to develop a novel, integrated system for semi-autonomous reactor operation by introducing an interfacing language shared by human reactor operators and artificially intelligent service agents (e.g., robots). We envision that human operators and artificially intelligent service agents operate the reactor cooperatively in the future. For example, an artificially intelligent service agent carries out a human reactor operator's command or reports the result of a task commanded by the human reactor operator. This work presents preliminary work towards a unified linguistic formalism for cooperative, semiautonomous reactor operation. Application of the proposed formalism to reactor operator communication domain shows that the formalism effectively captures the syntax and semantics of the domain-specific language defined by the communication protocol.

  12. Gold-Catalyzed Formal [4+1]/[4+3] Cycloadditions of Diazo Esters with Triazines.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhu, Chenghao; Xu, Guangyang; Sun, Jiangtao

    2016-09-19

    Reported herein is the unprecedented gold-catalyzed formal [4+1]/[4+3] cycloadditions of diazo esters with hexahydro-1,3,4-triazines, thus providing five- and seven-membered heterocycles in moderate to high yields under mild reaction conditions. These reactions feature the use of a gold complex to accomplish the diverse annulations and the first example of the involvement of a gold metallo-enolcarbene in a cycloaddition. It is also the first utilization of stable triazines as formal dipolar adducts in the carbene-involved cycloadditions. Mechanistic investigations reveal that the triazines reacted directly, rather than as formaldimine precursors, in the reaction process. © 2016 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

  13. A new procedure for implementing a geological disposal

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Anon.

    2014-01-01

    The British government has launched a new procedure for selecting and implementing a geological disposal. This procedure is based on long-term cooperation with municipalities that wish to home this facility. In a preliminary 2 year long step, a national geological survey will be performed in order to determine regions that are suitable to home a geological disposal. Then discussions between municipalities that are voluntary and the enterprise in charge of developing the project will begin. Municipalities will receive an investment up to 1 million pounds a year in the first years of the selecting procedure and then 2.5 million pounds a year when discussions become more formal. British authorities consider that the procedure for selecting a site may last up to 20 years. A previous attempt to find a site failed in 2013 when 2 regions that had been interested in the project since 2008, were finally rebuffed by the regional council that opposed the project. Scotland and Wales have their own strategy for the management of radioactive waste. (A.C.)

  14. Formal Concept Analysis for Information Retrieval

    OpenAIRE

    Qadi, Abderrahim El; Aboutajedine, Driss; Ennouary, Yassine

    2010-01-01

    In this paper we describe a mechanism to improve Information Retrieval (IR) on the web. The method is based on Formal Concepts Analysis (FCA) that it is makes semantical relations during the queries, and allows a reorganizing, in the shape of a lattice of concepts, the answers provided by a search engine. We proposed for the IR an incremental algorithm based on Galois lattice. This algorithm allows a formal clustering of the data sources, and the results which it turns over are classified by ...

  15. Formal Institutions and Subjective Well-Being

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Bjørnskov, Christian; Dreher, Axel; Fischer, Justina

    A long tradition in economics explores the association between the quality of formal institutions and economic performance. The literature on the relationship between such institutions and happiness is, however, rather limited. In this paper, we revisit the findings from recent cross-country stud......A long tradition in economics explores the association between the quality of formal institutions and economic performance. The literature on the relationship between such institutions and happiness is, however, rather limited. In this paper, we revisit the findings from recent cross...

  16. The formal and the formalized: the cases of syllogistic and supposition theory

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Dutilh Novaes, Catarina

    2015-01-01

    As a discipline, logic is arguably constituted of two main sub-projects: formal theories of argument validity on the basis of a small number of patterns, and theories of how to reduce the multiplicity of arguments in non-logical, informal contexts to the small number of patterns whose validity is

  17. The Impact of Formal Education on Computer Literacy

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Melita Milić

    2010-03-01

    Full Text Available In this paper we will present the survey conducted on 149 students in Croatia. This research includes eight grade students of elementary schools, fourth-grade students of secondary schools and second year university students, as the relevant age groups. Given that these age groups through the course of their schooling to some extent pass some form of IT training, we wanted to explore how it affected their overcoming of computer literacy. The main goal was to investigate how and how much formal education affect the knowledge of computer literacy in diffrent age groups.

  18. Shear viscosity from Kubo formalism: NJL model study

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lang, Robert; Weise, Wolfram

    2014-01-01

    A large-N c expansion is combined with the Kubo formalism to study the shear viscosity η of strongly interacting matter in the two-flavor NJL model. We discuss analytical and numerical approaches to η and investigate systematically its strong dependence on the spectral width and the momentum-space cutoff. Thermal effects on the constituent quark mass from spontaneous chiral symmetry breaking are included. The ratio η/s and its thermal dependence are derived for different parameterizations of the spectral width and for an explicit one-loop calculation including mesonic modes within the NJL model. (orig.)

  19. A formal theory of the selfish gene.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gardner, A; Welch, J J

    2011-08-01

    Adaptation is conventionally regarded as occurring at the level of the individual organism. In contrast, the theory of the selfish gene proposes that it is more correct to view adaptation as occurring at the level of the gene. This view has received much popular attention, yet has enjoyed only limited uptake in the primary research literature. Indeed, the idea of ascribing goals and strategies to genes has been highly controversial. Here, we develop a formal theory of the selfish gene, using optimization theory to capture the analogy of 'gene as fitness-maximizing agent' in mathematical terms. We provide formal justification for this view of adaptation by deriving mathematical correspondences that translate the optimization formalism into dynamical population genetics. We show that in the context of social interactions between genes, it is the gene's inclusive fitness that provides the appropriate maximand. Hence, genic selection can drive the evolution of altruistic genes. Finally, we use the formalism to assess the various criticisms that have been levelled at the theory of the selfish gene, dispelling some and strengthening others. © 2011 The Authors. Journal of Evolutionary Biology © 2011 European Society For Evolutionary Biology.

  20. Criteria for logical formalization

    Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

    Peregrin, Jaroslav; Svoboda, Vladimír

    2013-01-01

    Roč. 190, č. 14 (2013), s. 2897-2924 ISSN 0039-7857 R&D Projects: GA ČR(CZ) GAP401/10/1279 Institutional support: RVO:67985955 Keywords : logic * logical form * formalization * reflective equilibrium Subject RIV: AA - Philosophy ; Religion Impact factor: 0.637, year: 2013

  1. Formalization of Medical Guidelines

    Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

    Peleška, Jan; Anger, Z.; Buchtela, David; Šebesta, K.; Tomečková, Marie; Veselý, Arnošt; Zvára, K.; Zvárová, Jana

    2005-01-01

    Roč. 1, - (2005), s. 133-141 ISSN 1801-5603 R&D Projects: GA AV ČR 1ET200300413 Institutional research plan: CEZ:AV0Z10300504 Keywords : GLIF model * formalization of guidelines * prevention of cardiovascular diseases Subject RIV: IN - Informatics, Computer Science

  2. The Benefits of Formalization

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Rand, John; Torm, Nina Elisabeth

    2012-01-01

    Based on unique panel data consisting of both formal and informal firms, this paper uses a matched double difference approach to examine the relationship between legal status and firm level outcomes in micro, small and medium manufacturing enterprises (SMEs) in Vietnam. Controlling for determinin...

  3. Formal representation of complex SNOMED CT expressions

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Markó Kornél

    2008-10-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Definitory expressions about clinical procedures, findings and diseases constitute a major benefit of a formally founded clinical reference terminology which is ontologically sound and suited for formal reasoning. SNOMED CT claims to support formal reasoning by description-logic based concept definitions. Methods On the basis of formal ontology criteria we analyze complex SNOMED CT concepts, such as "Concussion of Brain with(out Loss of Consciousness", using alternatively full first order logics and the description logic ℰℒ MathType@MTEF@5@5@+=feaagaart1ev2aaatCvAUfKttLearuWrP9MDH5MBPbIqV92AaeXatLxBI9gBaebbnrfifHhDYfgasaacPC6xNi=xH8viVGI8Gi=hEeeu0xXdbba9frFj0xb9qqpG0dXdb9aspeI8k8fiI+fsY=rqGqVepae9pg0db9vqaiVgFr0xfr=xfr=xc9adbaqaaeGaciGaaiaabeqaaeqabiWaaaGcbaWenfgDOvwBHrxAJfwnHbqeg0uy0HwzTfgDPnwy1aaceaGae8hmHuKae8NeHWeaaa@37B1@. Results Typical complex SNOMED CT concepts, including negations or not, can be expressed in full first-order logics. Negations cannot be properly expressed in the description logic ℰℒ MathType@MTEF@5@5@+=feaagaart1ev2aaatCvAUfKttLearuWrP9MDH5MBPbIqV92AaeXatLxBI9gBaebbnrfifHhDYfgasaacPC6xNi=xH8viVGI8Gi=hEeeu0xXdbba9frFj0xb9qqpG0dXdb9aspeI8k8fiI+fsY=rqGqVepae9pg0db9vqaiVgFr0xfr=xfr=xc9adbaqaaeGaciGaaiaabeqaaeqabiWaaaGcbaWenfgDOvwBHrxAJfwnHbqeg0uy0HwzTfgDPnwy1aaceaGae8hmHuKae8NeHWeaaa@37B1@ underlying SNOMED CT. All concepts concepts the meaning of which implies a temporal scope may be subject to diverging interpretations, which are often unclear in SNOMED CT as their contextual determinants are not made explicit. Conclusion The description of complex medical occurrents is ambiguous, as the same situations can be described as (i a complex occurrent C that has A and B as temporal parts, (ii a simple occurrent A' defined as a kind of A followed by some B, or (iii a simple occurrent B' defined as a kind of B preceded by some A. As negative statements in SNOMED CT cannot be exactly represented without

  4. The assessment of nonverbal behavior in schizophrenia through the Formal Psychological Assessment.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Granziol, Umberto; Spoto, Andrea; Vidotto, Giulio

    2018-03-01

    The nonverbal behavior (NVB) of people diagnosed with schizophrenia consistently interacts with their symptoms during the assessment. Previous studies frequently observed such an interaction when a prevalence of negative symptoms occurred. Nonetheless, a list of NVBs linked to negative symptoms needs to be defined. Furthermore, a list of items that can exhaustively assess such NVBs is still needed. The present study aims to introduce both lists by using the Formal Psychological Assessment. A deep analysis was performed on both the scientific literature and the DSM-5 for constructing the set of nonverbal behaviors; similarly, an initial list of 138 items investigating the behaviors was obtained from instruments used to assess schizophrenia. The Formal Psychological Assessment was then applied to reduce the preliminary list. A final list of 23 items necessary and sufficient to investigate the NVBs emerged. The list also allowed us to analyze specific relations among items. The present study shows how it is possible to deepen a patient's negative symptomatology, starting with the relations between items and the NVBs they investigate. Finally, this study examines the advantages and clinical implications of defining an assessment tool based on the found list of items. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

  5. El Salvador - Formal Technical Education

    Data.gov (United States)

    Millennium Challenge Corporation — With a budget of nearly $20 million, the Formal Technical Education Sub-Activity was designed to strengthen technical and vocational educational institutions in the...

  6. What Sensing Tells Us: Towards a Formal Theory of Testing for Dynamical Systems

    Science.gov (United States)

    McIlraith, Sheila; Scherl, Richard

    2005-01-01

    Just as actions can have indirect effects on the state of the world, so too can sensing actions have indirect effects on an agent's state of knowledge. In this paper, we investigate "what sensing actions tell us", i.e., what an agent comes to know indirectly from the outcome of a sensing action, given knowledge of its actions and state constraints that hold in the world. To this end, we propose a formalization of the notion of testing within a dialect of the situation calculus that includes knowledge and sensing actions. Realizing this formalization requires addressing the ramification problem for sensing actions. We formalize simple tests as sensing actions. Complex tests are expressed in the logic programming language Golog. We examine what it means to perform a test, and how the outcome of a test affects an agent's state of knowledge. Finally, we propose automated reasoning techniques for test generation and complex-test verification, under certain restrictions. The work presented in this paper is relevant to a number of application domains including diagnostic problem solving, natural language understanding, plan recognition, and active vision.

  7. Application of different entropy formalisms in a neural network for novel word learning

    Science.gov (United States)

    Khordad, R.; Rastegar Sedehi, H. R.

    2015-12-01

    In this paper novel word learning in adults is studied. For this goal, four entropy formalisms are employed to include some degree of non-locality in a neural network. The entropy formalisms are Tsallis, Landsberg-Vedral, Kaniadakis, and Abe entropies. First, we have analytically obtained non-extensive cost functions for the all entropies. Then, we have used a generalization of the gradient descent dynamics as a learning rule in a simple perceptron. The Langevin equations are numerically solved and the error function (learning curve) is obtained versus time for different values of the parameters. The influence of index q and number of neuron N on learning is investigated for the all entropies. It is found that learning is a decreasing function of time for the all entropies. The rate of learning for the Landsberg-Vedral entropy is slower than other entropies. The variation of learning with time for the Landsberg-Vedral entropy is not appreciable when the number of neurons increases. It is said that entropy formalism can be used as a means for studying the learning.

  8. Methodological imperfection and formalizations in scientific activity

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Svetlichny, G.

    1987-01-01

    Any mathematical formalization of scientific activity allows for imperfections in the methodology that is formalized. These can be of three types, dirty, rotten, and dammed. Restricting mathematical attention to those methods that cannot be construed to be imperfect drastically reduces the class of objects that must be analyzed, and related all other objects to these more regular ones. Examples are drawn from empirical logic

  9. Formal concept analysis in knowledge discovery: A survey

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Poelmans, J.; Elzinga, P.; Viaene, S.; Dedene, G.; Croitoru, M.; Ferré, S.; Lukose, D.

    2010-01-01

    In this paper, we analyze the literature on Formal Concept Analysis (FCA) using FCA. We collected 702 papers published between 2003-2009 mentioning Formal Concept Analysis in the abstract. We developed a knowledge browsing environment to support our literature analysis process. The pdf-files

  10. Lekhnitskii's formalism of one-dimensional quasicrystals and its ...

    Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

    To illustrate its utility, the generalized Lekhnitskii's formal- ism is used to analyse the coupled phonon and phason fields in an infinite quasicrystal medium con- taining an elliptic rigid inclusion. Keywords. Generalized Lekhnitskii's formalism; one-dimensional quasicrystals; plane problems; elliptic inclusion. PACS Nos 61.44.

  11. Keldysh formalism for multiple parallel worlds

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ansari, M.; Nazarov, Y. V.

    2016-01-01

    We present a compact and self-contained review of the recently developed Keldysh formalism for multiple parallel worlds. The formalism has been applied to consistent quantum evaluation of the flows of informational quantities, in particular, to the evaluation of Renyi and Shannon entropy flows. We start with the formulation of the standard and extended Keldysh techniques in a single world in a form convenient for our presentation. We explain the use of Keldysh contours encompassing multiple parallel worlds. In the end, we briefly summarize the concrete results obtained with the method.

  12. Keldysh formalism for multiple parallel worlds

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ansari, M.; Nazarov, Y. V.

    2016-03-01

    We present a compact and self-contained review of the recently developed Keldysh formalism for multiple parallel worlds. The formalism has been applied to consistent quantum evaluation of the flows of informational quantities, in particular, to the evaluation of Renyi and Shannon entropy flows. We start with the formulation of the standard and extended Keldysh techniques in a single world in a form convenient for our presentation. We explain the use of Keldysh contours encompassing multiple parallel worlds. In the end, we briefly summarize the concrete results obtained with the method.

  13. Towards formalization of inspection using petrinets

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Javed, M.; Naeem, M.; Bahadur, F.; Wahab, A.

    2014-01-01

    Achieving better quality software has always been a challenge for software developers. Inspection is one of the most efficient techniques, which ensure the quality of software during its development. To the best of our knowledge, current inspection techniques are not realized by any formal approach. In this paper, we propose an inspection technique, which is not only backed by the formal mathematical semantics of Petri nets, but also supports inspecting concurrent processes. We also use a case study of an agent based distributed processing system to demonstrate the inspection of concurrent processes. (author)

  14. Keldysh formalism for multiple parallel worlds

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Ansari, M.; Nazarov, Y. V., E-mail: y.v.nazarov@tudelft.nl [Delft University of Technology, Kavli Institute of Nanoscience (Netherlands)

    2016-03-15

    We present a compact and self-contained review of the recently developed Keldysh formalism for multiple parallel worlds. The formalism has been applied to consistent quantum evaluation of the flows of informational quantities, in particular, to the evaluation of Renyi and Shannon entropy flows. We start with the formulation of the standard and extended Keldysh techniques in a single world in a form convenient for our presentation. We explain the use of Keldysh contours encompassing multiple parallel worlds. In the end, we briefly summarize the concrete results obtained with the method.

  15. Longitudinal Associations Between Formal Volunteering and Cognitive Functioning.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Proulx, Christine M; Curl, Angela L; Ermer, Ashley E

    2018-03-02

    The present study examines the association between formal volunteering and cognitive functioning over time. We also examine the moderating roles of race, sex, education, and time. Using 11,100 participants aged 51 years and older and nine waves of data from the Health and Retirement Survey, we simultaneously modeled the longitudinal associations between engaging in formal volunteering and changes in cognitive functioning using multilevel models. Formal volunteering was associated with higher levels of cognitive functioning over time, especially with aspects of cognitive functioning related to working memory and processing. This association was stronger for women than it was for men, and for those with below average levels of education. The positive association between formal volunteering and cognitive functioning weakened over time when cognitive functioning was conceptualized as memory, but strengthened over time when conceptualized as working memory and processing. Volunteering is a productive activity that is beneficial not just to society, but to volunteers' levels of cognitive functioning in older age. For women and those with lower levels of education, formal volunteering appears particularly beneficial to working memory and processing. © The Author 2017. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Gerontological Society of America. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

  16. Readings in Formal Epistemology

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Formal epistemology’ is a term coined in the late 1990s for a new constellation of interests in philosophy,the roots of which are found in earlier works of epistemologists, philosophers of science, and logicians. It addresses a growing agenda of problems concerning knowledge, belief, certainty, ...

  17. Fear of the Formal

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    du Gay, Paul; Lopdrup-Hjorth, Thomas

    2016-01-01

    term this ‘fear of the formal’, outlining key elements of its genealogy and exploring its contemporary manifestation in relation to recent and ongoing reforms of organisational life in a range of contexts. At the same time, we seek to indicate the continuing constitutive significance of formality...

  18. Do formal management practices impact the emergence of bootlegging behavior?

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Globocnik, Dietfried; Salomo, Søren

    2014-01-01

    behavior, research has barely addressed the antecedents of this deviance. Drawing on strain theory and social cognitive theory, we study whether the emergence of bootlegging behavior is influenced by formal management practices, in particular, strategic autonomy, front-end formality, rewards, and sanctions......Innovation in an organization often relies on initiatives by employees who take action to develop their ideas and obtain buy-in by organizational decision-makers. To achieve this, employees sometimes apply unorthodox approaches, ignoring formal structures to further elaborate their ideas' potential...... and promote their implementation. They work without formal legitimacy and gather their own resources until sufficient clarity allows for informed decisions. Finally, they bypass formal communication channels to convince top management of the merits of their ideas. Despite the significance of such bootlegging...

  19. Balancing Formality and Informality in Business Exchanges as a Duality

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Lin, Daomi; Lu, Jiangyong; Li, Peter Ping

    2015-01-01

    emphasized formality more than informality, while local entrepreneurs stressed informality more than formality. However, the formality-informality balance among both returnee and local entrepreneurs converged over time in line with the institutional transition in China. Returnee entrepreneurs increased...... for firms, especially those facing institutional differences in transnational contexts and institutional transitions. In this research, we conducted a comparative multicase study on returnee entrepreneurs and local entrepreneurs in China. We found that at the early stage of venturing, returnee entrepreneurs...... the emphasis on informality (but kept the dominant position of formality), whereas local entrepreneurs gradually shifted from informality to formality. The spatial pattern of asymmetrical balancing and the temporal pattern of transitional balancing are both rooted in the Chinese philosophy of Yin...

  20. Essential competencies analysis of a training model development for non-formal vocational teachers under the office of the non-formal and informal education in Thailand

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Chayanopparat Piyanan

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available Non-formal vocational education provides practical experiences in a particular occupational field to non-formal semi-skilled learners. Non-formal vocational teachers are the key persons to deliver particular occupational knowledge. The essential competencies enhancement for non-sformal vocational teachers will improve teaching performance. The question of the research is what the essential competencies for the nonformal vocational teachers are. The research method was 1 to review related literature, 2 to collect a needs assessment, and 3 to analyse the essential competencies for non-formal vocational teachers. The population includes non-formal vocational teachers at the executive level and nonformal vocational teachers. The results from the essential competencies analysis found that the essential competencies for non-formal vocational teachers consist of 5 capabilities including 1 Adult learning design capability, 2 Adult learning principle application capability, 3 ICT searching capability for teaching preparation, 4 Instructional plan development capability and 5 Instructional media development capability.

  1. Formal description of the OSI session layer: introduction

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Ajubi, I.; Scollo, Giuseppe; van Sinderen, Marten J.; van Eijk, P.H.J.; Vissers, C.A.; Diaz, M.

    1989-01-01

    The LOTOS formal description of the OSI session layer is introduced with the purpose of familiarizing the reader with the design choices that influenced the development of the formal description. Such design choices concern the adoptation of specification styles and the reflection of elements of the

  2. Formal Test Automation: The Conference Protocol with PHACT

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Heerink, A.W.; Ural, Hasan; Probert, Robert L.; Feenstra, J.; Tretmans, G.J.; von Bochmann, Gregor

    2000-01-01

    We discuss a case study of automatic test generation and test execution based on formal methods. The case is the Conference Protocol, a simple, chatbox-like protocol, for which (formal) specifications and multiple implementations are publicly available and which is also used in other case study

  3. Leveraging Formal Methods and Fuzzing to Verify Security and Reliability Properties of Large-Scale High-Consequence Systems

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Ruthruff, Joseph. R. [Sandia National Lab. (SNL-CA), Livermore, CA (United States); Armstrong, Robert C. [Sandia National Lab. (SNL-CA), Livermore, CA (United States); Davis, Benjamin Garry [Sandia National Lab. (SNL-CA), Livermore, CA (United States); Mayo, Jackson R. [Sandia National Lab. (SNL-CA), Livermore, CA (United States); Punnoose, Ratish J. [Sandia National Lab. (SNL-CA), Livermore, CA (United States)

    2012-09-01

    Formal methods describe a class of system analysis techniques that seek to prove specific properties about analyzed designs, or locate flaws compromising those properties. As an analysis capability,these techniques are the subject of increased interest from both internal and external customers of Sandia National Laboratories. Given this lab's other areas of expertise, Sandia is uniquely positioned to advance the state-of-the-art with respect to several research and application areas within formal methods. This research project was a one-year effort funded by Sandia's CyberSecurity S&T Investment Area in its Laboratory Directed Research & Development program to investigate the opportunities for formal methods to impact Sandia's present mission areas, more fully understand the needs of the research community in the area of formal methods and where Sandia can contribute, and clarify from those potential research paths those that would best advance the mission-area interests of Sandia. The accomplishments from this project reinforce the utility of formal methods in Sandia, particularly in areas relevant to Cyber Security, and set the stage for continued Sandia investments to ensure this capabilityis utilized and advanced within this laboratory to serve the national interest.

  4. The influence of formal institutions on the internationalization of companies in an emerging country

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jefferson Marlon Monticelli

    2017-07-01

    Full Text Available Purpose – The goal of this study is to use the institution-based view as the background for an investigation of how formal institutions influence the internationalization processes of firms from an emerging economy. Design/methodology/approach – Our case study is based on semistructured interviews with twenty-one representatives of formal institutions and firms in the Brazilian wine industry. Findings – It was noted that formal institutions have positive influences on the internationalization of Brazilian wineries by providing learning, relationship networks, intelligence about foreign markets, costs reduction, internationalization of business processes, and by promoting the home country’s image as a wine producer in foreign markets, and as a recognized supplier to the domestic market. They also have negative influences, as excessive bureaucracy, strikes, erection of legal barriers to trade with other countries, insufficient technical knowledge, high taxes, and favoritism benefiting the largest wine producers in the industry. Originality/value – The paper closes with suggestions for future research on how phenomena such as the relationship strategies established by the wineries impact upon internationalization and how decisions of a political nature made by formal institutions influence the wine industry, providing a new outlook on the internationalization of these firms.

  5. O formal, o não formal e as outras formas: a aula de física como gênero discursivo

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Giselle Faur de Castro Catarino

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available Muchas investigaciones han puesto de relieve similitudes y diferencias entre la educación formal y no formal. Podemos decir que los dos tipos de educación son diferentes, lo que requiere de formación inicial y continuada, diferenciada para profesores que quieran transitar en estos espacios educativos. Entendemos que este tipo de formación es posible y es una realidad para estudiantes que asumen actividades en espacios no formales vinculados a la educación. Nuestro objetivo en este artículo, que hace parte de una tesis de doctorado, es entender los beneficios y obstáculos que se generan en la vida cotidiana de profesores que se mueven en los dos ámbitos de formación. Del análisis de la práctica de un maestro que trae consigo esta formación diferenciada, creando una práctica híbrida, notamos una forma de la clase que creemos pertenece a un género discursivo específico, diferente del formal y el no formal. Para ello, esbozaremos un marco teórico, basado en las ideas de Mikhail Bakhtin, que nos permita pensar la clase como un género discursivo.

  6. SME´s semi-formality rate in Costa Rica: a clusters approach

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Lizette Brenes Bonilla

    2016-02-01

    Full Text Available The MSME Observatory has been studying MSMEs in Costa Rica. Its findings show that for every formal enterprise, there are 2.4 semi-formal ones. The latter refers to those enterprises that have already started the formalization process with the corresponding municipality but that still do not have all the formalization requirements.Owing to the importance of the semi-formal sector in the economic activity of Costa Rica, this study analyzed this business park and the role of municipal management concerning MSMEs, calculated the correlation among semi-formality, competitiveness, and development, and finally, proposed a cluster design to deal with the state of affairs. It should be noted that this type of analysis has never been undertaken in the country.

  7. Formal Institutions and Subjective Wellbeing

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Bjørnskov, Christian; Dreher, Axel; Fischer, Justina A.V.

    2010-01-01

    A long tradition in economics explores the association between the quality of formal institutions and economic performance. The literature on the relationship between such institutions and happiness is, however, rather limited, and inconclusive. In this paper, we revisit the findings from recent...... cross-country studies on the institution-happiness association. Our findings suggest that their conclusions are qualitatively rather insensitive to the specific measure of 'happiness' used, while the associations between formal institutions and subjective well-being differ among poor and rich countries....... Separating different types of institutional quality, we find that in low-income countries the effects of economic-judicial institutions on happiness dominate those of political institutions, while analyses restricted to middle- and high-income countries show strong support for an additional beneficial effect...

  8. Methodology of formal software evaluation

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Tuszynski, J.

    1998-01-01

    Sydkraft AB, the major Swedish utility, owner of ca 6000 MW el installed in nuclear (NPP Barsebaeck and NPP Oskarshamn), fossil fuel and hydro Power Plants is facing modernization of the control systems of the plants. Standards applicable require structured, formal methods for implementation of the control functions in the modem, real time software systems. This presentation introduces implementation methodology as discussed presently at the Sydkraft organisation. The approach suggested is based upon the process of co-operation of three parties taking part in the implementation; owner of the plant, vendor and Quality Assurance (QA) organisation. QA will be based on tools for formal software validation and on systematic gathering by the owner of validated and proved-by-operation control modules for the concern-wide utilisation. (author)

  9. A formal approach to the analysis of clinical computer-interpretable guideline modeling languages.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Grando, M Adela; Glasspool, David; Fox, John

    2012-01-01

    To develop proof strategies to formally study the expressiveness of workflow-based languages, and to investigate their applicability to clinical computer-interpretable guideline (CIG) modeling languages. We propose two strategies for studying the expressiveness of workflow-based languages based on a standard set of workflow patterns expressed as Petri nets (PNs) and notions of congruence and bisimilarity from process calculus. Proof that a PN-based pattern P can be expressed in a language L can be carried out semi-automatically. Proof that a language L cannot provide the behavior specified by a PNP requires proof by exhaustion based on analysis of cases and cannot be performed automatically. The proof strategies are generic but we exemplify their use with a particular CIG modeling language, PROforma. To illustrate the method we evaluate the expressiveness of PROforma against three standard workflow patterns and compare our results with a previous similar but informal comparison. We show that the two proof strategies are effective in evaluating a CIG modeling language against standard workflow patterns. We find that using the proposed formal techniques we obtain different results to a comparable previously published but less formal study. We discuss the utility of these analyses as the basis for principled extensions to CIG modeling languages. Additionally we explain how the same proof strategies can be reused to prove the satisfaction of patterns expressed in the declarative language CIGDec. The proof strategies we propose are useful tools for analysing the expressiveness of CIG modeling languages. This study provides good evidence of the benefits of applying formal methods of proof over semi-formal ones. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  10. Perceptions of registered nurses in four state health insititutions on continuing formal education.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Richards, L; Potgieter, E

    2010-06-01

    This study investigated registered nurses in four selected state health institutions' perceptions with regard to continuing formal education. The relevance of continuing formal education is being emphasised globally by the increasing quest for quality assurance and quality management systems within an ethos of continuous improvement. According to Tlholoe (2006:5), it is important to be committed to continual learning, as people's knowledge become less relevant because skills gained early in a career are insufficient to avoid costly mistakes made through ignorance. Continuing formal education in nursing is a key element to the maintenance of quality in health care delivery. The study described: registered nurses' views on continuing formal education. Registered nurses' perceived barriers to continuing formal education. A quantitative descriptive survey design was chosen using a questionnaire for data collection. The sample consisted of 40 registered nurses working at four state health institutions in the Western Cape Province, South Africa. Convenience sampling was selected to include registered nurses who were on duty on the days during which the researcher visited the health institutions to distribute the questionnaires. The questionnaire contained mainly closed-ended and a few open-ended questions. Content validity of the instrument was ensured by doing a thorough literature review before construction of items and a pretest. Reliability was established by the pretest and providing the same information to all respondents before completion of the questionnaires. The ethical considerations of informed consent, anonymity and confidentiality were adhered to and consent to conduct the study was obtained from relevant authorities. Descriptive statistics, based on calculations using the Microsoft (MS) Excel (for Windows 2000) programme, were used to summarise and describe the research results. The research results indicated that most registered nurses perceive continuing

  11. Learning in non-formal education: Is it "youthful" for youth in action?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Norqvist, Lars; Leffler, Eva

    2017-04-01

    This article offers insights into the practices of a non-formal education programme for youth provided by the European Union (EU). It takes a qualitative approach and is based on a case study of the European Voluntary Service (EVS). Data were collected during individual and focus group interviews with learners (the EVS volunteers), decision takers and trainers, with the aim of deriving an understanding of learning in non-formal education. The research questions concerned learning, the recognition of learning and perspectives of usefulness. The study also examined the Youthpass documentation tool as a key to understanding the recognition of learning and to determine whether the learning was useful for learners (the volunteers). The findings and analysis offer several interpretations of learning, and the recognition of learning, which take place in non-formal education. The findings also revealed that it is complicated to divide learning into formal and non- formal categories; instead, non-formal education is useful for individual learners when both formal and non-formal educational contexts are integrated. As a consequence, the division of formal and non-formal (and possibly even informal) learning creates a gap which works against the development of flexible and interconnected education with ubiquitous learning and mobility within and across formal and non-formal education. This development is not in the best interests of learners, especially when seeking useful learning and education for youth (what the authors term "youthful" for youth in action).

  12. Formalized Linear Algebra over Elementary Divisor Rings in Coq

    OpenAIRE

    Cano , Guillaume; Cohen , Cyril; Dénès , Maxime; Mörtberg , Anders; Siles , Vincent

    2016-01-01

    International audience; This paper presents a Coq formalization of linear algebra over elementary divisor rings, that is, rings where every matrix is equivalent to a matrix in Smith normal form. The main results are the formalization that these rings support essential operations of linear algebra, the classification theorem of finitely pre-sented modules over such rings and the uniqueness of the Smith normal form up to multiplication by units. We present formally verified algorithms comput-in...

  13. Formalization and Implementation of Algebraic Methods in Geometry

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Filip Marić

    2012-02-01

    Full Text Available We describe our ongoing project of formalization of algebraic methods for geometry theorem proving (Wu's method and the Groebner bases method, their implementation and integration in educational tools. The project includes formal verification of the algebraic methods within Isabelle/HOL proof assistant and development of a new, open-source Java implementation of the algebraic methods. The project should fill-in some gaps still existing in this area (e.g., the lack of formal links between algebraic methods and synthetic geometry and the lack of self-contained implementations of algebraic methods suitable for integration with dynamic geometry tools and should enable new applications of theorem proving in education.

  14. Film for Non-Formal Education.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jenkins, Janet

    1979-01-01

    Looks at educational factors in using television or cinema film for non-formal education in developing nations. Styles of presentation in films are discussed, and suggestions are made for assessing effectiveness. (JEG)

  15. Traditional and formal education: Means of improving grasscutter ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    The study concludes that both traditional and non-formal education are important for the development and efficiency of grasscutter farming in Ogun Waterside Local Government Area of Ogun State. The following are the recommendations of the study: revision of the curriculum of formal schools to include items that inculcate ...

  16. Formal structures for extracting analytically justifiable decisions from ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    This paper identifies the benefits of transforming business process models into Decision Support Systems (DSS). However, the literature reveals that a business process model “should have a formal foundation” as a major requirement for transforming it into a DSS. The paper further ascertains that formal structures refer to ...

  17. Academic Achievement and Formal Thought in Engineering Students

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vazquez, Stella Maris; de Anglat, Hilda Difabio

    2009-01-01

    Introduction: Research on university-level academic performance has significantly linked failure and dropping out to formal reasoning deficiency. We have not found any papers on formal thought in Argentine university students, in spite of the obvious shortcomings observed in the classrooms. Thus, the main objective of this paper was exploring the…

  18. Use of digital control theory state space formalism for feedback at SLC

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Himel, T.; Hendrickson, L.; Rouse, F.; Shoaee, H.

    1991-05-01

    The algorithms used in the database-driven SLC fast-feedback system are based on the state space formalism of digital control theory. These are implemented as a set of matrix equations which use a Kalman filter to estimate a vector of states from a vector of measurements, and then apply a gain matrix to determine the actuator settings from the state vector. The matrices used in the calculation are derived offline using Linear Quadratic Gaussian minimization. For a given noise spectrum, this procedure minimizes the rms of the states (e.g., the position or energy of the beam). The offline program also allows simulation of the loop's response to arbitrary inputs, and calculates its frequency response. 3 refs., 3 figs

  19. Exploiting formal, non-formal and informal learning when using business games in leadership education

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Børgesen, Kenneth; Nielsen, Rikke Kristine; Henriksen, Thomas Duus

    2016-01-01

    Purpose This paper aims to address the necessity of allowing non-formal and informal processes to unfold when using business games for leadership development. While games and simulations have long been used in management training and leadership development, emphasis has been placed on the formal...... of the process is not assessed. Practical implications This paper suggests that the use of business games in leadership development should focus more on the processes and activities surrounding the game rather than narrowly focusing on the game. Originality/value This paper suggests a novel approach to using...... parts of the process and especially on the gaming experience. Design/methodology/approach This paper is based on a qualitative study of a French management game on change management, in which the game-based learning process is examined in light of adult learning. Findings This paper concludes that less...

  20. Robot-assisted laparoscopic skills development: formal versus informal training.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Benson, Aaron D; Kramer, Brandan A; Boehler, Margaret; Schwind, Cathy J; Schwartz, Bradley F

    2010-08-01

    The learning curve for robotic surgery is not completely defined, and ideal training components have not yet been identified. We attempted to determine whether skill development would be accelerated with formal, organized instruction in robotic surgical techniques versus informal practice alone. Forty-three medical students naive to robotic surgery were randomized into two groups and tested on three tasks using the robotic platform. Between the testing sessions, the students were given equally timed practice sessions. The formal training group participated in an organized, formal training session with instruction from an attending robotic surgeon, whereas the informal training group participated in an equally timed unstructured practice session with the robot. The results were compared based on technical score and time to completion of each task. There was no difference between groups in prepractice testing for any task. In postpractice testing, there was no difference between groups for the ring transfer tasks. However, for the suture placement and knot-tying task, the technical score of the formal training group was significantly better than that of the informal training group (p formal training may not be necessary for basic skills, formal instruction for more advanced skills, such as suture placement and knot tying, is important in developing skills needed for effective robotic surgery. These findings may be important in formulating potential skills labs or training courses for robotic surgery.

  1. The formality of learning science in everyday life: A conceptual literature review

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Niels Bonderup Dohn

    2010-09-01

    Full Text Available The terms non-formal and informal are attributed to learning in everyday life by many authors, often linked to their interests in particular learning practices. However, many authors use the terms without any clear definition, or employ conflicting definitions and boundaries. An analysis of relevant literature revealed two fundamentally different interpretations of informal learning. The one describes formality of education at the organizational level, while the second describes formality of learning at the psychological level. This article presents a conceptual reconciling of these two perspectives. Based on a literature review, the educational modes of education are defined as discrete entities (formal, non-formal, and informal education, whereas formality at the psychological level is defined in terms of attributes of formality and informality along a continuum (formal ↔ informal learning. Relations to other  well-established frameworks within the field of informal learning are discussed.

  2. Improved formalism for precision Higgs coupling fits

    Science.gov (United States)

    Barklow, Tim; Fujii, Keisuke; Jung, Sunghoon; Karl, Robert; List, Jenny; Ogawa, Tomohisa; Peskin, Michael E.; Tian, Junping

    2018-03-01

    Future e+e- colliders give the promise of model-independent determinations of the couplings of the Higgs boson. In this paper, we present an improved formalism for extracting Higgs boson couplings from e+e- data, based on the effective field theory description of corrections to the Standard Model. We apply this formalism to give projections of Higgs coupling accuracies for stages of the International Linear Collider and for other proposed e+e- colliders.

  3. Young People, Entrepreneurship And Non Formal Learning

    OpenAIRE

    Pantea, Maria-Carmen; Diroescu, Raluca; Podlasek-Ziegler, Maria

    2016-01-01

    The book was published by SALTO-Youth Participation, a Resource Centre of the European Commission. It looks into the relationship between youth work (non-formal learning) and entrepreneurship. The book explores the theoretical developments in the field, the ethical dilemmas and tensions, and proposes practice-oriented information: illustrative examples, strategies for action and methods of non-formal education. Structured in 24 chapters, the book is an opportunity to open up debates and quest...

  4. Improved formalism for precision Higgs coupling fits

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Barklow, Tim; Peskin, Michael E.; Jung, Sunghoon; Tian, Junping

    2017-08-01

    Future e + e - colliders give the promise of model-independent determinations of the couplings of the Higgs boson. In this paper, we present an improved formalism for extracting Higgs boson couplings from e + e - data, based on the Effective Field Theory description of corrections to the Standard Model. We apply this formalism to give projections of Higgs coupling accuracies for stages of the International Linear Collider and for other proposed e + e - colliders.

  5. A formalism for the calculus of variations with spinors

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Bäckdahl, Thomas, E-mail: thobac@chalmers.se [The School of Mathematics, University of Edinburgh, JCMB 6228, Peter Guthrie Tait Road, Edinburgh EH9 3FD, United Kingdom and Mathematical Sciences - Chalmers University of Technology and University of Gothenburg - SE-412 96 Gothenburg (Sweden); Valiente Kroon, Juan A., E-mail: j.a.valiente-kroon@qmul.ac.uk [School of Mathematical Sciences, Queen Mary, University of London, Mile End Road, London E1 4NS (United Kingdom)

    2016-02-15

    We develop a frame and dyad gauge-independent formalism for the calculus of variations of functionals involving spinorial objects. As a part of this formalism, we define a modified variation operator which absorbs frame and spin dyad gauge terms. This formalism is applicable to both the standard spacetime (i.e., SL(2, ℂ)) 2-spinors as well as to space (i.e., SU(2, ℂ)) 2-spinors. We compute expressions for the variations of the connection and the curvature spinors.

  6. A formalism for the calculus of variations with spinors

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bäckdahl, Thomas; Valiente Kroon, Juan A.

    2016-01-01

    We develop a frame and dyad gauge-independent formalism for the calculus of variations of functionals involving spinorial objects. As a part of this formalism, we define a modified variation operator which absorbs frame and spin dyad gauge terms. This formalism is applicable to both the standard spacetime (i.e., SL(2, ℂ)) 2-spinors as well as to space (i.e., SU(2, ℂ)) 2-spinors. We compute expressions for the variations of the connection and the curvature spinors

  7. Formal methods in design and verification of functional specifications

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Vaelisuo, H.

    1995-01-01

    It is claimed that formal methods should be applied already when specifying the functioning of the control/monitoring system, i.e. when planning how to implement the desired operation of the plant. Formal methods are seen as a way to mechanize and thus automate part of the planning. All mathematical methods which can be applied on related problem solving should be considered as formal methods. Because formal methods can only support the designer, not replace him/her, they must be integrated into a design support tool. Such a tool must also aid the designer in getting the correct conception of the plant and its behaviour. The use of a hypothetic design support tool is illustrated to clarify the requirements such a tool should fulfill. (author). 3 refs, 5 figs

  8. A non-linear canonical formalism for the coupled synchro-betatron motion of protons with arbitrary energy

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Barber, D.P.; Ripken, G.; Schmidt, F.

    1987-05-01

    We investigate the motion of protons of arbitrary energy (below and above transition energy) in a storage ring. The motion is described both in terms of the fully six-dimensional formalism with the canonical variables x, p x , z, p z , σ = s - v 0 . t, η = ΔE/E 0 = p σ and in terms of a dispersion formalism with new variables x, p x , z, p z , σ, p σ . Since the dispersion function is introduced into the equations of motion via a canonical transformation the symplectic structure of these equations is completely preserved. In this formulation it is then possible to define three uncoupled linear (unperturbed) oscillation modes which are described by phase ellipses. Perturbations manifest themselves as deviations from these ellipses. The equations of motion are solved within the framework of the fully six-dimensional formalism. (orig.)

  9. A self-consistent nodal method in response matrix formalism for the multigroup diffusion equations

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Malambu, E.M.; Mund, E.H.

    1996-01-01

    We develop a nodal method for the multigroup diffusion equations, based on the transverse integration procedure (TIP). The efficiency of the method rests upon the convergence properties of a high-order multidimensional nodal expansion and upon numerical implementation aspects. The discrete 1D equations are cast in response matrix formalism. The derivation of the transverse leakage moments is self-consistent i.e. does not require additional assumptions. An outstanding feature of the method lies in the linear spatial shape of the local transverse leakage for the first-order scheme. The method is described in the two-dimensional case. The method is validated on some classical benchmark problems. (author)

  10. Building a Formal Model of a Human-Interactive System: Insights into the Integration of Formal Methods and Human Factors Engineering

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bolton, Matthew L.; Bass, Ellen J.

    2009-01-01

    Both the human factors engineering (HFE) and formal methods communities are concerned with finding and eliminating problems with safety-critical systems. This work discusses a modeling effort that leveraged methods from both fields to use model checking with HFE practices to perform formal verification of a human-interactive system. Despite the use of a seemingly simple target system, a patient controlled analgesia pump, the initial model proved to be difficult for the model checker to verify in a reasonable amount of time. This resulted in a number of model revisions that affected the HFE architectural, representativeness, and understandability goals of the effort. If formal methods are to meet the needs of the HFE community, additional modeling tools and technological developments are necessary.

  11. Formalization of Hostel Management System. | Obi | Journal of the ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    HMS) can invariably contribute greatly to the success, profitability and customerbased approach of such an organization. The use of formal specification creates a formal approach for specifying the underlying functions and properties of the ...

  12. Investigating the astrophysical 22Ne(p, γ23Na and 22Mg(p, γ23Al reactions with a multi-channel scattering formalism

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Fraser P. R.

    2014-03-01

    Full Text Available The reaction 22Ne(p, γ23Na is key to the NeNa cycle of stellar nucleogenesis, and better understanding of the 22Mg(p, γ23Al reaction is needed to understand the 22Na puzzle in ONe white dwarf novae. We aim to study these reactions using a multi-channel algebraic scattering (MCAS formalism for low-energy nucleon-nucleus scattering, recently expanded to investigate radiative capture. As a first step towards this goal, we here calculate the energy levels of the mass-23 (Ne, Mg, Na, Al nuclei. This is not only because the resonant structure of these nuclei are related to the astrophysical -rates of interest, but also because the interaction parameters determined for describing the energy levels are an integral part of the future calculation of the astrophysical reactions when using the MCAS scheme.

  13. A study of the linear free energy model for DNA structures using the generalized Hamiltonian formalism

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Yavari, M., E-mail: yavari@iaukashan.ac.ir [Islamic Azad University, Kashan Branch (Iran, Islamic Republic of)

    2016-06-15

    We generalize the results of Nesterenko [13, 14] and Gogilidze and Surovtsev [15] for DNA structures. Using the generalized Hamiltonian formalism, we investigate solutions of the equilibrium shape equations for the linear free energy model.

  14. Informal work and formal plans

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Dalsted, Rikke Juul; Hølge-Hazelton, Bibi; Kousgaard, Marius Brostrøm

    2012-01-01

    trajectories. METHODS AND THEORY: An in-depth case study of patient trajectories at a Danish hospital and surrounding municipality using individual interviews with patients. Theory about trajectory and work by Strauss was included. RESULTS: Patients continuously took initiatives to organize their treatment...... and care. They initiated processes in the trajectories, and acquired information, which they used to form their trajectories. Patients presented problems to the healthcare professionals in order to get proper help when needed. DISCUSSION: Work done by patients was invisible and not perceived as work....... The patients' requests were not sufficiently supported in the professional organisation of work or formal planning. Patients' insertion and use of information in their trajectories challenged professional views and working processes. And the design of the formal pathway models limits the patients' active...

  15. Polynomials formalism of quantum numbers

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kazakov, K.V.

    2005-01-01

    Theoretical aspects of the recently suggested perturbation formalism based on the method of quantum number polynomials are considered in the context of the general anharmonicity problem. Using a biatomic molecule by way of example, it is demonstrated how the theory can be extrapolated to the case of vibrational-rotational interactions. As a result, an exact expression for the first coefficient of the Herman-Wallis factor is derived. In addition, the basic notions of the formalism are phenomenologically generalized and expanded to the problem of spin interaction. The concept of magneto-optical anharmonicity is introduced. As a consequence, an exact analogy is drawn with the well-known electro-optical theory of molecules, and a nonlinear dependence of the magnetic dipole moment of the system on the spin and wave variables is established [ru

  16. Non-Formal education in astronomy: The experience of the University the Carabobo

    Science.gov (United States)

    Falcón, Nelson

    2011-06-01

    Since 1995, the University the Carabobo, in Venezuela, has come developing a program of astronomical popularization and learning Astronomy using the Non formal education methods. A synopsis of the activities is presented. We will also discuss some conceptual aspects about the extension of the knowledge like supplementary function of the investigation and the university teaching. We illustrate the characteristics of the communication with an example of lectures and printed material. The efficiency of the heuristic arguments could be evaluated through a ethnology study. In that order of ideas, we show some images of the activities of astronomical popularization. We can see the population and great concurrence with chronological (and cultural) heterogeneity. We conclude that the Non formal education, structured with characteristic different to the usual educational instruction, constitutes a successful strategy in the diffusion and the communicating astronomy.

  17. Formal methods in the design of Ada 1995

    Science.gov (United States)

    Guaspari, David

    1995-01-01

    Formal, mathematical methods are most useful when applied early in the design and implementation of a software system--that, at least, is the familiar refrain. I will report on a modest effort to apply formal methods at the earliest possible stage, namely, in the design of the Ada 95 programming language itself. This talk is an 'experience report' that provides brief case studies illustrating the kinds of problems we worked on, how we approached them, and the extent (if any) to which the results proved useful. It also derives some lessons and suggestions for those undertaking future projects of this kind. Ada 95 is the first revision of the standard for the Ada programming language. The revision began in 1988, when the Ada Joint Programming Office first asked the Ada Board to recommend a plan for revising the Ada standard. The first step in the revision was to solicit criticisms of Ada 83. A set of requirements for the new language standard, based on those criticisms, was published in 1990. A small design team, the Mapping Revision Team (MRT), became exclusively responsible for revising the language standard to satisfy those requirements. The MRT, from Intermetrics, is led by S. Tucker Taft. The work of the MRT was regularly subject to independent review and criticism by a committee of distinguished Reviewers and by several advisory teams--for example, the two User/Implementor teams, each consisting of an industrial user (attempting to make significant use of the new language on a realistic application) and a compiler vendor (undertaking, experimentally, to modify its current implementation in order to provide the necessary new features). One novel decision established the Language Precision Team (LPT), which investigated language proposals from a mathematical point of view. The LPT applied formal mathematical analysis to help improve the design of Ada 95 (e.g., by clarifying the language proposals) and to help promote its acceptance (e.g., by identifying a

  18. General decoupling procedure for expectation values of four-operator products in electron–phonon quantum kinetics

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Teeny, Nicolas; Fähnle, Manfred

    2013-01-01

    In the density-matrix formalism of electron–phonon quantum kinetics, the hierarchy of infinitely many coupled equations of motion for the expectation values of products of electron and phonon creation and annihilation operators of arbitrary order is usually terminated on the level of the equations of motion for the expectation values of three-operator products by using decoupling procedures for the four-operator products occurring in these equations. In the literature, decoupling procedures are discussed for special types of electron and phonon states. In the present paper, generalized decoupling procedures are derived for arbitrary electron and phonon states. (paper)

  19. Licensing procedures for Low-Level Waste disposal facilities

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Roop, R.D.; Van Dyke, J.W.

    1985-09-01

    This report describes the procedures applicable to siting and licensing of disposal facilities for low-level radioactive wastes. Primary emphasis is placed on those procedures which are required by regulations, but to the extent possible, non-mandatory activities which will facilitate siting and licensing are also considered. The report provides an overview of how the procedural and technical requirements for a low-level waste (LLW) disposal facility (as defined by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's Rules 10 CFR Parts 2, 51, and 61) may be integrated with activities to reduce and resolve conflict generated by the proposed siting of a facility. General procedures are described for site screening and selection, site characterization, site evaluation, and preparation of the license application; specific procedures for several individual states are discussed. The report also examines the steps involved in the formal licensing process, including docketing and initial processing, preparation of an environmental impact statement, technical review, hearings, and decisions. It is concluded that development of effective communication between parties in conflict and the utilization of techniques to manage and resolve conflicts represent perhaps the most significant challenge for the people involved in LLW disposal in the next decade. 18 refs., 6 figs.

  20. Formal solutions of inverse scattering problems. III

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Prosser, R.T.

    1980-01-01

    The formal solutions of certain three-dimensional inverse scattering problems presented in papers I and II of this series [J. Math. Phys. 10, 1819 (1969); 17 1175 (1976)] are obtained here as fixed points of a certain nonlinear mapping acting on a suitable Banach space of integral kernels. When the scattering data are sufficiently restricted, this mapping is shown to be a contraction, thereby establishing the existence, uniqueness, and continuous dependence on the data of these formal solutions

  1. Improved formalism for precision Higgs coupling fits

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Barklow, Tim; Peskin, Michael E. [Stanford Univ., Menlo Park, CA (United States). Stanford Linear Accelerator Center; Fujii, Keisuke; Ogawa, Tomohisa [High Energy Accelerator Research Organization (KEK), Tsukuba, Ibaraki (Japan); Jung, Sunghoon [Stanford Univ., Menlo Park, CA (United States). Stanford Linear Accelerator Center; Seoul National Univ. (Korea, Republic of). Dept. of Physics and Astronomy; Karl, Robert; List, Jenny [Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron (DESY), Hamburg (Germany); Tian, Junping [Tokyo Univ. (Japan). International Center for Elementary Particle Physics (ICEPP)

    2017-08-15

    Future e{sup +}e{sup -} colliders give the promise of model-independent determinations of the couplings of the Higgs boson. In this paper, we present an improved formalism for extracting Higgs boson couplings from e{sup +}e{sup -} data, based on the Effective Field Theory description of corrections to the Standard Model. We apply this formalism to give projections of Higgs coupling accuracies for stages of the International Linear Collider and for other proposed e{sup +}e{sup -} colliders.

  2. The ex post use of formal contracts in high-tech alliances. A contingency perspective

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Jong, G. de; Klein Woolthuis, R.J.A.

    2010-01-01

    In this study we investigate key contingencies that determine the active use of a formal contract after the strategic alliance has started. The antecedents for this ex post contract use address the contracting process, the need to safeguard spill-over risks and the existence of trust. The model is

  3. Formal Modeling and Analysis of Timed Systems

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Larsen, Kim Guldstrand; Niebert, Peter

    This book constitutes the thoroughly refereed post-proceedings of the First International Workshop on Formal Modeling and Analysis of Timed Systems, FORMATS 2003, held in Marseille, France in September 2003. The 19 revised full papers presented together with an invited paper and the abstracts of ...... systems, discrete time systems, timed languages, and real-time operating systems....... of two invited talks were carefully selected from 36 submissions during two rounds of reviewing and improvement. All current aspects of formal method for modeling and analyzing timed systems are addressed; among the timed systems dealt with are timed automata, timed Petri nets, max-plus algebras, real-time......This book constitutes the thoroughly refereed post-proceedings of the First International Workshop on Formal Modeling and Analysis of Timed Systems, FORMATS 2003, held in Marseille, France in September 2003. The 19 revised full papers presented together with an invited paper and the abstracts...

  4. Automated Formal Verification for PLC Control Systems

    CERN Multimedia

    Fernández Adiego, Borja

    2014-01-01

    Programmable Logic Controllers (PLCs) are widely used devices used in industrial control systems. Ensuring that the PLC software is compliant with its specification is a challenging task. Formal verification has become a recommended practice to ensure the correctness of the safety-critical software. However, these techniques are still not widely applied in industry due to the complexity of building formal models, which represent the system and the formalization of requirement specifications. We propose a general methodology to perform automated model checking of complex properties expressed in temporal logics (e.g. CTL, LTL) on PLC programs. This methodology is based on an Intermediate Model (IM), meant to transform PLC programs written in any of the languages described in the IEC 61131-3 standard (ST, IL, etc.) to different modeling languages of verification tools. This approach has been applied to CERN PLC programs validating the methodology.

  5. Formal participation in the IASB's due process of standard setting : A multi-issue/multiperiod analysis

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Jorissen, A.; Lybaert, N.; Orens, R.; van der Tas, L.G.

    2012-01-01

    This paper sets out to enquire about the nature of constituents' participation in the IASB's due process in terms of representation (constituents' diversity and characteristics) and drivers to participate. We choose to adopt a multi-issue/multi-period approach to investigate constituents' formal

  6. Financing Adult and Non-Formal Education in Nigeria

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hassan, Moshood Ayinde

    2009-01-01

    The purpose of this study is to determine how adult and non formal education is financed in Nigeria; and to examine areas or forms of and the problems of financing adult and non-formal education in Nigeria. Survey research was used in order to carry out the study. Three hundred and twenty five (325) respondents from government agencies,…

  7. Formal equivalence of Poisson structures around Poisson submanifolds

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Marcut, I.T.

    2012-01-01

    Let (M,π) be a Poisson manifold. A Poisson submanifold P ⊂ M gives rise to a Lie algebroid AP → P. Formal deformations of π around P are controlled by certain cohomology groups associated to AP. Assuming that these groups vanish, we prove that π is formally rigid around P; that is, any other Poisson

  8. Formalized Verification of Snapshotable Trees: Separation and Sharing

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Mehnert, Hannes; Sieczkowski, Filip; Birkedal, Lars

    2012-01-01

    We use separation logic to specify and verify a Java program that implements snapshotable search trees, fully formalizing the speci- cation and verication in the Coq proof assistant. We achieve local and modular reasoning about a tree and its snapshots and their iterators, al- though...... for full functional specication and verication, whether by separation logic or by other formalisms....

  9. Transforming PLC Programs into Formal Models for Verification Purposes

    CERN Document Server

    Darvas, D; Blanco, E

    2013-01-01

    Most of CERN’s industrial installations rely on PLC-based (Programmable Logic Controller) control systems developed using the UNICOS framework. This framework contains common, reusable program modules and their correctness is a high priority. Testing is already applied to find errors, but this method has limitations. In this work an approach is proposed to transform automatically PLC programs into formal models, with the goal of applying formal verification to ensure their correctness. We target model checking which is a precise, mathematical-based method to check formalized requirements automatically against the system.

  10. A formalism for independent checking of Gamma Knife dose calculations

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Tsai Jensan; Engler, Mark J.; Rivard, Mark J.; Mahajan, Anita; Borden, Jonathan A.; Zheng Zhen

    2001-01-01

    For stereotactic radiosurgery using the Leksell Gamma Knife system, it is important to perform a pre-treatment verification of the maximum dose calculated with the Leksell GammaPlan[reg] (D LGP ) stereotactic radiosurgery system. This verification can be incorporated as part of a routine quality assurance (QA) procedure to minimize the chance of a hazardous overdose. To implement this procedure, a formalism has been developed to calculate the dose D CAL (X,Y,Z,d av ,t) using the following parameters: average target depth (d av ), coordinates (X,Y,Z) of the maximum dose location or any other dose point(s) to be verified, 3-dimensional (3-dim) beam profiles or off-center-ratios (OCR) of the four helmets, helmet size i, output factor O i , plug factor P i , each shot j coordinates (x,y,z) i,j , and shot treatment time (t i,j ). The average depth of the target d av was obtained either from MRI/CT images or ruler measurements of the Gamma Knife Bubble Head Frame. D CAL and D LGP were then compared to evaluate the accuracy of this independent calculation. The proposed calculation for an independent check of D LGP has been demonstrated to be accurate and reliable, and thus serves as a QA tool for Gamma Knife stereotactic radiosurgery

  11. Fault tree construction of hybrid system requirements using qualitative formal method

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lee, Jang-Soo; Cha, Sung-Deok

    2005-01-01

    When specifying requirements for software controlling hybrid systems and conducting safety analysis, engineers experience that requirements are often known only in qualitative terms and that existing fault tree analysis techniques provide little guidance on formulating and evaluating potential failure modes. In this paper, we propose Causal Requirements Safety Analysis (CRSA) as a technique to qualitatively evaluate causal relationship between software faults and physical hazards. This technique, extending qualitative formal method process and utilizing information captured in the state trajectory, provides specific guidelines on how to identify failure modes and relationship among them. Using a simplified electrical power system as an example, we describe step-by-step procedures of conducting CRSA. Our experience of applying CRSA to perform fault tree analysis on requirements for the Wolsong nuclear power plant shutdown system indicates that CRSA is an effective technique in assisting safety engineers

  12. IDEF3 Formalization Report

    Science.gov (United States)

    1991-10-01

    SUBJECT TERMS 15. NUMBER OF PAGES engineering management information systems method formalization 60 information engineering process modeling 16 PRICE...CODE information systems requirements definition methods knowlede acquisition methods systems engineering 17. SECURITY CLASSIFICATION ji. SECURITY... Management , Inc., Santa Monica, California. CORYNEN, G. C., 1975, A Mathematical Theory of Modeling and Simula- tion. Ph.D. Dissertation, Department

  13. Educational Achievements as a Determinant of an Individual’s Formal Power

    OpenAIRE

    Miha Marič; Mitja Jeraj

    2014-01-01

    The scope of this study is to define how educational achievements of individuals in Slovenia define their “formal power” in the organizations where they work. The study is based on theoretical definitions of the concepts of formal power and education. A total of 509 people from Slovenia over 30 years of age participated in the study. We recognized a certain influence of educational achievement on the formal position in the organizational hierarchy. The main predictor of an individual’s formal...

  14. Emotionality and Formality in Postgraduate ELT Students’ Use of Diction in Farsi and English Writing

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Shabnam Vahidfar

    2014-05-01

    Full Text Available Diction conveys a wide array of meanings of which formality and emotionality are only two facets. Researchers have investigated various features of written discourse to capture discourse variation in L1 and L2 writings. Likewise, the present ex-post-facto study compared the formality and emotionality of diction in general and emotional English and Farsi texts produced by 20 MA students at Islamic Azad University, Tabriz Branch. Having verified the initial homogeneity of the participants, we required them to write four paragraphs, two in English and two in Farsi, on a general and an emotional topic. The formality of the words in English texts was determined based on Webster’s Dictionary. Further, the positive and negative emotion words used in English and Farsi texts were measured based on the definitions offered by Pennebaker and King (1999.The results of the statistical analyses revealed no significant difference in the formality of the words used by the participants in general and emotional English texts. The comparison of the research data, however, indicated significant differences in the use of emotion words in general and emotional English and Farsi texts. The findings underscore the need for raising learners’ awareness of the role diction can play in writing.

  15. Black’s educational law and formal education in Brazil

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Marco Antonio Bettine de Almeida

    2016-08-01

    Full Text Available This article is the result of seeking to investigate and understand the process of implementation of educational laws that act on black and black lives in the formal education process. Outlines this is the gap between the proclaimed and planned and reality. Thus, we understand that the laws studied here represent a movement of tension towards democratization of the curriculum and the school itself, because it allows less visible populations and valued in this institution and in their social practices are recognized in their stories, take voice, actively participate constant construction and reconstruction of school routine.

  16. Informal Risk Perceptions and Formal Theory

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Cayford, Jerry

    2001-01-01

    Economists have argued persuasively that our goals are wider than just risk minimization, and that they include a prudent weighing of costs and benefits. This economic line of thought recognizes that our policy goals are complex. As we widen the range of goals we are willing to entertain, though, we need to check that the methods we customarily employ are appropriate for the tasks to which we customarily apply them. This paper examines some economic methods of risk assessment, in light of the question of what our policy goals are and should be. Once the question of goals is open, more complexities than just cost intrude: what the public wants and why begs to be addressed. This leads us to the controversial issue of public risk perceptions. We have now examined a number of procedures that experts use to make public policy decisions. Behind all these issues is always the question of social welfare: what actions can we take, what policies should we embrace, to make the world a better place? In many cases, the public and the experts disagree about what the right choice is. In the first section, we saw a possible defense of the experts based on democratic theory: the people's participation, and even their will, can be legitimately set aside in the pursuit of their true interests. If this defense is to work, a great deal of weight rests on the question of the people's interests and the competence and integrity of the experts' pursuit of it. But at the same time, social preferences are ill-defined, and so are not good candidates for rational actor theory. Both the prescriptive legitimacy claim and the very workings of formal theory we have seen to depend on informal, qualitative, political judgments. Unfortunately, we have also seen a steady pattern of expert reliance on technical procedures even when they were manifestly unsuited to the task. The experts seem so intent on excluding informal thought that they would prefer even a bad quantitative process to a qualitative

  17. Informal Risk Perceptions and Formal Theory

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Cayford, Jerry [Resources for the Future, Washington, DC (United States)

    2001-07-01

    Economists have argued persuasively that our goals are wider than just risk minimization, and that they include a prudent weighing of costs and benefits. This economic line of thought recognizes that our policy goals are complex. As we widen the range of goals we are willing to entertain, though, we need to check that the methods we customarily employ are appropriate for the tasks to which we customarily apply them. This paper examines some economic methods of risk assessment, in light of the question of what our policy goals are and should be. Once the question of goals is open, more complexities than just cost intrude: what the public wants and why begs to be addressed. This leads us to the controversial issue of public risk perceptions. We have now examined a number of procedures that experts use to make public policy decisions. Behind all these issues is always the question of social welfare: what actions can we take, what policies should we embrace, to make the world a better place? In many cases, the public and the experts disagree about what the right choice is. In the first section, we saw a possible defense of the experts based on democratic theory: the people's participation, and even their will, can be legitimately set aside in the pursuit of their true interests. If this defense is to work, a great deal of weight rests on the question of the people's interests and the competence and integrity of the experts' pursuit of it. But at the same time, social preferences are ill-defined, and so are not good candidates for rational actor theory. Both the prescriptive legitimacy claim and the very workings of formal theory we have seen to depend on informal, qualitative, political judgments. Unfortunately, we have also seen a steady pattern of expert reliance on technical procedures even when they were manifestly unsuited to the task. The experts seem so intent on excluding informal thought that they would prefer even a bad quantitative process to

  18. Skinner-Rusk unified formalism for higher-order systems

    Science.gov (United States)

    Prieto-Martínez, Pedro Daniel; Román-Roy, Narciso

    2012-07-01

    The Lagrangian-Hamiltonian unified formalism of R. Skinner and R. Rusk was originally stated for autonomous dynamical systems in classical mechanics. It has been generalized for non-autonomous first-order mechanical systems, first-order and higher-order field theories, and higher-order autonomous systems. In this work we present a generalization of this formalism for higher-order non-autonomous mechanical systems.

  19. Thermodynamic and multifractal formalism and the Bowen-series map

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Rudolph, O.

    1994-07-01

    In the theory of quantum chaos one studies the semiclassical behaviour of quantum mechanical systems whose corresponding classical counterparts exhibit chaos. These systems are sometimes considered as model systems in the theory of quantum chaos since they are well understood from a mathematical point of view. In this work we study the multifractal formalism for the geodesic flow on surfaces with constant negative curvature. The multifractal analysis of measures has been developed in order to characterize the scaling behaviour of measures on attractors of classical chaotic dynamical systems globally. In order to relate the multifractal formalism with quantities usually considered in the study of the geodesic flow on Riemann surfaces with constant negative curvature, it is necessary to establish the assertions of the multifractal formalism in a mathematically rigorous way. This is achieved with the help of the thermodynamic formalism for hyperbolic dynamical systems developed by Ruelle, Bowen and others. (orig.)

  20. Developing Non-Formal Education Competences as a Complement of Formal Education for STEM Lecturers

    Science.gov (United States)

    Terrazas-Marín, Roy Alonso

    2018-01-01

    This paper focuses on a current practice piece on professional development for university lecturers, transformative learning, dialogism and STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) education. Its main goals are to identify the key characteristics that allow STEM educators to experiment with the usage of non-formal education…

  1. Bio-Inspired Genetic Algorithms with Formalized Crossover Operators for Robotic Applications.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhang, Jie; Kang, Man; Li, Xiaojuan; Liu, Geng-Yang

    2017-01-01

    Genetic algorithms are widely adopted to solve optimization problems in robotic applications. In such safety-critical systems, it is vitally important to formally prove the correctness when genetic algorithms are applied. This paper focuses on formal modeling of crossover operations that are one of most important operations in genetic algorithms. Specially, we for the first time formalize crossover operations with higher-order logic based on HOL4 that is easy to be deployed with its user-friendly programing environment. With correctness-guaranteed formalized crossover operations, we can safely apply them in robotic applications. We implement our technique to solve a path planning problem using a genetic algorithm with our formalized crossover operations, and the results show the effectiveness of our technique.

  2. The Determination of a Useful Frequency for Refreshing Memories for Procedures among a Collegiate Population.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zambon, Franco

    This study sought to determine a useful frequency for refreshing students' memories of complex procedures that involved a formal computer language. Students were required to execute the Microsoft Disc Operating System (MS-DOS) commands for "copy,""backup," and "restore." A total of 126 college students enrolled in six…

  3. Formalizing Implementation Strategies for First-Class Continuations

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Danvy, Olivier

    1999-01-01

    . These abstract machines are proven equivalent to a standard, substitution-based abstract machine. The proof techniques work uniformly for various representations of continuations. As a byproduct, we also present a formal proof of the two folklore theorems that one continuation identifier is enough for second......-class continuations and that second-class continuations are stackable. A large body of work exists on implementing continuations, but it is predominantly empirical and implementation-oriented. In contrast, our formalization abstracts the essence of first-class continuations and provides a uniform setting...

  4. Infinitesimal deformations of a formal symplectic groupoid

    OpenAIRE

    Karabegov, Alexander

    2010-01-01

    Given a formal symplectic groupoid $G$ over a Poisson manifold $(M, \\pi_0)$, we define a new object, an infinitesimal deformation of $G$, which can be thought of as a formal symplectic groupoid over the manifold $M$ equipped with an infinitesimal deformation $\\pi_0 + \\epsilon \\pi_1$ of the Poisson bivector field $\\pi_0$. The source and target mappings of a deformation of $G$ are deformations of the source and target mappings of $G$. To any pair of natural star products $(\\ast, \\tilde\\ast)$ ha...

  5. The young adult’s perception of religion and formal structures: A postmodern perspective

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Herna Hall

    2013-01-01

    Full Text Available The postmodern era has an impact on different dimensions of the contemporary young adult’s social functioning which incorporates perceptions regarding religion and formal structures. This contemporary young adult refers to an individual between the ages of 18 and 25 years. Therefore the goal of this article was to report on research results regarding the perceptions of young adults on religion and formal structures. Within a mixed methods research approach, the exploratory mixed methods research design was utilised. Qualitative data was collected from 47 young adults by means of focus group interviewing. Quantitative data was collected from 1019 respondents utilising a questionnaire. Both groups were selected through the utilisation of purposive sampling. Qualitative data were analysed through thematic analysis, whilst a range of descriptive and inferential statistical procedures was used to analyse quantitative data. The findings indicated that the postmodern young adult displays a tendency to value conventional religious norms and practices, but the element of choice is of importance, as young adults seem to choose the aspects of religion that suit them. An increased interest in and a need for spirituality or a form of transcendence was found. Guidance by formal structures was favoured, but did not necessarily refer to ‘church’ or religious structures. The results illustrated that the contemporary young adult explores and experiments in terms of identity and lifestyle. Views and values seem to be person-specific and based on emotions and experiences with a tendency towards ‘own authority’ and an emphasis on the self. The rise of individualism which characterises the postmodern era has led to the creation of meaning by drawing on personal resources and on own personal moral beliefs and values.

  6. The young adult’s perception of religion and formal structures: A postmodern perspective

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Herna Hall

    2013-10-01

    Full Text Available The postmodern era has an impact on different dimensions of the contemporary young adult’s social functioning which incorporates perceptions regarding religion and formal structures. This contemporary young adult refers to an individual between the ages of 18 and 25 years. Therefore the goal of this article was to report on research results regarding the perceptions of young adults on religion and formal structures. Within a mixed methods research approach, the exploratory mixed methods research design was utilised. Qualitative data was collected from 47 young adults by means of focus group interviewing. Quantitative data was collected from 1019 respondents utilising a questionnaire. Both groups were selected through the utilisation of purposive sampling. Qualitative data were analysed through thematic analysis, whilst a range of descriptive and inferential statistical procedures was used to analyse quantitative data. The findings indicated that the postmodern young adult displays a tendency to value conventional religious norms and practices, but the element of choice is of importance, as young adults seem to choose the aspects of religion that suit them. An increased interest in and a need for spirituality or a form of transcendence was found. Guidance by formal structures was favoured, but did not necessarily refer to ‘church’ or religious structures. The results illustrated that the contemporary young adult explores and experiments in terms of identity and lifestyle. Views and values seem to be person-specific and based on emotions and experiences with a tendency towards ‘own authority’ and an emphasis on the self. The rise of individualism which characterises the postmodern era has led to the creation of meaning by drawing on personal resources and on own personal moral beliefs and values.

  7. Essential competencies analysis of a training model development for non-formal vocational teachers under the office of the non-formal and informal education in Thailand

    OpenAIRE

    Chayanopparat Piyanan; Charungkaittikul Suwithida; Ratana-Ubol Archanya

    2016-01-01

    Non-formal vocational education provides practical experiences in a particular occupational field to non-formal semi-skilled learners. Non-formal vocational teachers are the key persons to deliver particular occupational knowledge. The essential competencies enhancement for non-sformal vocational teachers will improve teaching performance. The question of the research is what the essential competencies for the nonformal vocational teachers are. The research method was 1) to review related lit...

  8. Formalities in the digital era: an obstacle or opportunity?

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    van Gompel, S.; Bently, L.; Suthersanen, U.; Torremans, P.

    2010-01-01

    This paper, which was presented at the 2009 ALAI conference in London, examines the possible reintroduction of copyright formalities against the background of the challenges that copyright law faces in the digital era. It does so by contrasting the current calls for reintroducing formalities with

  9. Machine Learning-based Intelligent Formal Reasoning and Proving System

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chen, Shengqing; Huang, Xiaojian; Fang, Jiaze; Liang, Jia

    2018-03-01

    The reasoning system can be used in many fields. How to improve reasoning efficiency is the core of the design of system. Through the formal description of formal proof and the regular matching algorithm, after introducing the machine learning algorithm, the system of intelligent formal reasoning and verification has high efficiency. The experimental results show that the system can verify the correctness of propositional logic reasoning and reuse the propositional logical reasoning results, so as to obtain the implicit knowledge in the knowledge base and provide the basic reasoning model for the construction of intelligent system.

  10. Formal Series of Generalised Functions and Their Application to Deformation Quantisation

    OpenAIRE

    Tosiek, Jaromir

    2016-01-01

    Foundations of the formal series $*$ -- calculus in deformation quantisation are discussed. Several classes of continuous linear functionals over algebras applied in classical and quantum physics are introduced. The notion of positivity in formal series calculus is proposed. Problems with defining quantum states over the set of formal series are analysed.

  11. Student Teachers' Discourse about Digital Technologies and Transitions between Formal and Informal Learning Contexts

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pöntinen, Susanna; Dillon, Patrick; Väisänen, Pertti

    2017-01-01

    This research is a contribution to issues of digital technology use at the interface of formal and informal learning contexts. The research was conducted in the discourse tradition and investigates Finnish teacher training students' 'manners of speaking' as resources for, and obstacles to, making pedagogical changes in response to the potential of…

  12. Rehabilitating Ex-Offenders Through Non-Formal Education in Lesotho

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Nomazulu Ngozwana

    2017-03-01

    Full Text Available This paper reports on the rehabilitation of ex-offenders through non-formal education. It examines how non-formal education has addressed the ex-offenders’ adaptive and transformative needs. Using an interpretive paradigm and qualitative approach, individual interviews were conducted with five ex-offenders who were chosen through purposive and snowball sampling. Qualitative data analysis was used to generate the themes from the data. The findings revealed that ex-offenders were taught basic literacy and life skills through non-formal education. Moreover, non-formal education facilitated the ex-offenders’ transformed attitudes, including recognizing their identity as a result of transformative non-formal education. Some ex-offenders in Lesotho demonstrated how by tailoring programs and utilizing their own personal knowledge, they were able to share skills in spite of the prison bureaucracy and have consequently established an organization that serves as a link between prison and society. However, there should be a holistic approach to learning, which can target the immediate application of skills once offenders are released from prison. Similarly, offenders need access to educational resources once they leave prison that can build on what they already know/have learned so that they can turn their lives around.

  13. Racial and/or Ethnic Differences in Formal Sex Education and Sex Education by Parents among Young Women in the United States.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vanderberg, Rachel H; Farkas, Amy H; Miller, Elizabeth; Sucato, Gina S; Akers, Aletha Y; Borrero, Sonya B

    2016-02-01

    We sought to investigate the associations between race and/or ethnicity and young women's formal sex education and sex education by parents. Cross-sectional analysis of a nationally representative sample of 1768 women aged 15-24 years who participated in the 2011-2013 National Survey of Family Growth. We assessed 6 main outcomes: participants' report of: (1) any formal sex education; (2) formal contraceptive education; (3) formal sexually transmitted infection (STI) education; (4) any sex education by parents; (5) contraceptive education by parents; and (6) STI education by parents. The primary independent variable was self-reported race and/or ethnicity. Nearly all of participants (95%) reported any formal sex education, 68% reported formal contraceptive education, and 92% reported formal STI education. Seventy-five percent of participants reported not having any sex education by parents and only 61% and 56% reported contraceptive and STI education by parents, respectively. US-born Hispanic women were more likely than white women to report STI education by parents (adjusted odds ratio = 1.87; 95% confidence interval, 1.17-2.99). No other significant racial and/or ethnic differences in sex education were found. There are few racial and/or ethnic differences in formal sex education and sex education by parents among young women. Copyright © 2016 North American Society for Pediatric and Adolescent Gynecology. All rights reserved.

  14. Fedosov’s formal symplectic groupoids and contravariant connections

    Science.gov (United States)

    Karabegov, Alexander V.

    2006-10-01

    Using Fedosov's approach we give a geometric construction of a formal symplectic groupoid over any Poisson manifold endowed with a torsion-free Poisson contravariant connection. In the case of Kähler-Poisson manifolds this construction provides, in particular, the formal symplectic groupoids with separation of variables. We show that the dual of a semisimple Lie algebra does not admit torsion-free Poisson contravariant connections.

  15. Non-Formal Education in International Comparison: Patterns of Participation and Investment in Selected European Countries

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kaufmann, Katrin

    2015-01-01

    This investigation focuses on participation and related investment patterns in job related non-formal education (NFE) in selected European countries. Broadening previous research formats of NFE are distinguished by investment including financial and time investments by employers, employees and public authorities. By this, company-sponsored and…

  16. A formalization of the flutter shutter

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tendero, Yohann; Rougé, Bernard; Morel, Jean-Michel

    2012-09-01

    Acquiring good quality images of moving objects by a digital camera remains a valid question. If the velocity of the photographed object is not known, it is virtually impossible to tune an optimal exposure time. For this reason the recent Agrawal et al. flutter shutter apparatus has generated much interest. In this communication, we propose a mathematical formalization of a general flutter shutter method, also permitting non-binary shutter sequences. Thanks to this formalization, the question of the optimal flutter shutter code can be defined and solved. The method gives analytic formulas for the best attainable SNR for the restored image. It also gives a way to compute optimal flutter shutter codes.

  17. The nature of Formal Reasoning among Ghanaian Basic School ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Many Psychologists have considered early formal thinking among adolescents as signs of normal development. As it is not known for certain at what age Ghanaian Junior Secondary School (JSS) pupils achieve formal operational capabilities, the study seeks to find out the relationship between Piagetian theory of ...

  18. Blending Formal and Informal Learning Networks for Online Learning

    Science.gov (United States)

    Czerkawski, Betül C.

    2016-01-01

    With the emergence of social software and the advance of web-based technologies, online learning networks provide invaluable opportunities for learning, whether formal or informal. Unlike top-down, instructor-centered, and carefully planned formal learning settings, informal learning networks offer more bottom-up, student-centered participatory…

  19. Investigation of strong motion processing procedures

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Rinaldi, D.; Goula, X.; Menu, J.M.

    1988-03-01

    The work which is described here presents preliminary results of an on-going research relating to the accurate recording and quality processing of earthquake strong ground motions. The work is the product of a tripartite co-operation between three European Centres (ENEA, PAS-ISP Laboratorio Ingengneria dei Siti, Rome/CEA, IPSN, Fontenay-aux-Roses, ICST, Department of Civil Engineering, London), which have carried out independently similar research in the recent past. Other European Institutes joined the three mentioned organizations for discussions during a Workshop (June 1985) held in Casaccia (ENEA Research Centre of Rome). The aim of the research is a thorough analysis of various factors affecting the recovery of true ground accelerations recorded with analogue instruments. The separate and cumulative effects of the type of recording accelerometer, the digitization equipment and the correction routines have been analysed. Global comparisons have been achieved to obtain a general insight into various standard processing procedures

  20. Principles of protection: a formal approach for evaluating dose distributions

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Wikman-Svahn, Per; Peterson, Martin; Hansson, Sven Ove

    2006-01-01

    One of the central issues in radiation protection consists in determining what weight should be given to individual doses in relation to collective or aggregated doses. A mathematical framework is introduced in which such assessments can be made precisely in terms of comparisons between alternative distributions of individual doses. In addition to evaluation principles that are well known from radiation protection, a series of principles that are derived from parallel discussions in moral philosophy and welfare economics is investigated. A battery of formal properties is then used to investigate the evaluative principles. The results indicate that one of the new principles, bilinear prioritarianism, may be preferable to current practices, since it satisfies efficiency-related properties better without sacrificing other desirable properties

  1. Dominant partition method. [based on a wave function formalism

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dixon, R. M.; Redish, E. F.

    1979-01-01

    By use of the L'Huillier, Redish, and Tandy (LRT) wave function formalism, a partially connected method, the dominant partition method (DPM) is developed for obtaining few body reductions of the many body problem in the LRT and Bencze, Redish, and Sloan (BRS) formalisms. The DPM maps the many body problem to a fewer body one by using the criterion that the truncated formalism must be such that consistency with the full Schroedinger equation is preserved. The DPM is based on a class of new forms for the irreducible cluster potential, which is introduced in the LRT formalism. Connectivity is maintained with respect to all partitions containing a given partition, which is referred to as the dominant partition. Degrees of freedom corresponding to the breakup of one or more of the clusters of the dominant partition are treated in a disconnected manner. This approach for simplifying the complicated BRS equations is appropriate for physical problems where a few body reaction mechanism prevails.

  2. Contextual approach to quantum formalism

    CERN Document Server

    Khrennikov, Andrei

    2009-01-01

    The aim of this book is to show that the probabilistic formalisms of classical statistical mechanics and quantum mechanics can be unified on the basis of a general contextual probabilistic model. By taking into account the dependence of (classical) probabilities on contexts (i.e. complexes of physical conditions), one can reproduce all distinct features of quantum probabilities such as the interference of probabilities and the violation of Bell’s inequality. Moreover, by starting with a formula for the interference of probabilities (which generalizes the well known classical formula of total probability), one can construct the representation of contextual probabilities by complex probability amplitudes or, in the abstract formalism, by normalized vectors of the complex Hilbert space or its hyperbolic generalization. Thus the Hilbert space representation of probabilities can be naturally derived from classical probabilistic assumptions. An important chapter of the book critically reviews known no-go theorems...

  3. Weak Quantum Theory: Formal Framework and Selected Applications

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Atmanspacher, Harald; Filk, Thomas; Roemer, Hartmann

    2006-01-01

    Two key concepts of quantum theory, complementarity and entanglement, are considered with respect to their significance in and beyond physics. An axiomatically formalized, weak version of quantum theory, more general than the ordinary quantum theory of physical systems, is described. Its mathematical structure generalizes the algebraic approach to ordinary quantum theory. The crucial formal feature leading to complementarity and entanglement is the non-commutativity of observables.The ordinary Hilbert space quantum mechanics can be recovered by stepwise adding the necessary features. This provides a hierarchy of formal frameworks of decreasing generality and increasing specificity. Two concrete applications, more specific than weak quantum theory and more general than ordinary quantum theory, are discussed: (i) complementarity and entanglement in classical dynamical systems, and (ii) complementarity and entanglement in the bistable perception of ambiguous stimuli

  4. Formal modelling and analysis of socio-technical systems

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Probst, Christian W.; Kammüller, Florian; Hansen, Rene Rydhof

    2016-01-01

    systems are still mostly identified through brainstorming of experts. In this work we discuss several approaches to formalising socio-technical systems and their analysis. Starting from a flow logic-based analysis of the insider threat, we discuss how to include the socio aspects explicitly, and show......Attacks on systems and organisations increasingly exploit human actors, for example through social engineering. This non-technical aspect of attacks complicates their formal treatment and automatic identification. Formalisation of human behaviour is difficult at best, and attacks on socio-technical...... a formalisation that proves properties of this formalisation. On the formal side, our work closes the gap between formal and informal approaches to socio-technical systems. On the informal side, we show how to steal a birthday cake from a bakery by social engineering....

  5. Quantization of the Yang-Mills field and Mandelstam's theory in gauge-independent path-dependent formalism

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Naito, S.

    1976-01-01

    We derive commutation relations (CR's) between gauge-invariant quantities in the Yang-Mills field theory by applying the Peierls method. The CR's obtained are different from those given by Mandelstam in his gauge-independent, path-dependent formalism. However, our CR's are shown to give a consistently quantized field theory, while his CR's do not. In fact, there exist systematic errors in Mandelstam's treatment of the covariant Green's functions. On the other hand, if we correctly treat covariant Green's functions guided by his procedure, our CR's are shown to lead to the same Feynman rules for the Yang-Mills field as prescribed by Feynman, DeWitt, Faddeev and Popov, and Mandelstam

  6. Formal refinement of extended state machines

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Thomas Fayolle

    2016-06-01

    Full Text Available In a traditional formal development process, e.g. using the B method, the informal user requirements are (manually translated into a global abstract formal specification. This translation is especially difficult to achieve. The Event-B method was developed to incrementally and formally construct such a specification using stepwise refinement. Each increment takes into account new properties and system aspects. In this paper, we propose to couple a graphical notation called Algebraic State-Transition Diagrams (ASTD with an Event-B specification in order to provide a better understanding of the software behaviour. The dynamic behaviour is captured by the ASTD, which is based on automata and process algebra operators, while the data model is described by means of an Event-B specification. We propose a methodology to incrementally refine such specification couplings, taking into account new refinement relations and consistency conditions between the control specification and the data specification. We compare the specifications obtained using each approach for readability and proof complexity. The advantages and drawbacks of the traditional approach and of our methodology are discussed. The whole process is illustrated by a railway CBTC-like case study. Our approach is supported by tools for translating ASTD's into B and Event-B into B.

  7. Closed-time path formalism of quantum scattering

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Manoukian, E.B.

    1988-01-01

    The closed-time path formalism of quantum mechanics, first introduced by Schwinger, is developed starting from a second-quantized formalism by using a functional calculus. An exact functional expression for the closed-time amplitude for a particle state (not just of the vacuum state)is derived from which time-dependent expectation value of observables may be written in closed functional form. In particular, this leads directly to the expression for transition probabilities for scattering theory without computing first the corresponding amplitudes. Finally it is made a comparison with the standard approach

  8. A Mathematical Account of the NEGF Formalism

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Cornean, Decebal Horia; Moldoveanu, Valeriu; Pillet, Claude-Alain

    2018-01-01

    The main goal of this paper is to put on solid mathematical grounds the so-called non-equilibrium Green’s function transport formalism for open systems. In particular, we derive the Jauho–Meir–Wingreen formula for the time-dependent current through an interacting sample coupled to non-interacting......The main goal of this paper is to put on solid mathematical grounds the so-called non-equilibrium Green’s function transport formalism for open systems. In particular, we derive the Jauho–Meir–Wingreen formula for the time-dependent current through an interacting sample coupled to non...

  9. Prospective Cohort Study Investigating Changes in Body Image, Quality of Life, and Self-Esteem Following Minimally Invasive Cosmetic Procedures.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sobanko, Joseph F; Dai, Julia; Gelfand, Joel M; Sarwer, David B; Percec, Ivona

    2018-04-13

    Minimally invasive cosmetic injectable procedures are increasingly common. However, a few studies have investigated changes in psychosocial functioning following these treatments. To assess changes in body image, quality of life, and self-esteem following cosmetic injectable treatment with soft tissue fillers and neuromodulators. Open, prospective study of 75 patients undergoing cosmetic injectable procedures for facial aging to evaluate changes in psychosocial functioning within 6 weeks of treatment. Outcome measures included the Derriford appearance scale (DAS-24), body image quality of life inventory (BIQLI), and the Rosenberg self-esteem scale. Body image dissatisfaction, as assessed by the DAS-24, improved significantly 6 weeks after the treatment. Body image quality of life, as assessed by the BIQLI, improved, but the change did not reach statistical significance. Self-esteem was unchanged after the treatment. Minimally invasive cosmetic injectable procedures were associated with reductions in body image dissatisfaction. Future research, using recently developed cosmetic surgery-specific instruments, may provide further insight into the psychosocial benefits of minimally invasive procedures.

  10. Artificial grammar learning meets formal language theory: an overview

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fitch, W. Tecumseh; Friederici, Angela D.

    2012-01-01

    Formal language theory (FLT), part of the broader mathematical theory of computation, provides a systematic terminology and set of conventions for describing rules and the structures they generate, along with a rich body of discoveries and theorems concerning generative rule systems. Despite its name, FLT is not limited to human language, but is equally applicable to computer programs, music, visual patterns, animal vocalizations, RNA structure and even dance. In the last decade, this theory has been profitably used to frame hypotheses and to design brain imaging and animal-learning experiments, mostly using the ‘artificial grammar-learning’ paradigm. We offer a brief, non-technical introduction to FLT and then a more detailed analysis of empirical research based on this theory. We suggest that progress has been hampered by a pervasive conflation of distinct issues, including hierarchy, dependency, complexity and recursion. We offer clarifications of several relevant hypotheses and the experimental designs necessary to test them. We finally review the recent brain imaging literature, using formal languages, identifying areas of convergence and outstanding debates. We conclude that FLT has much to offer scientists who are interested in rigorous empirical investigations of human cognition from a neuroscientific and comparative perspective. PMID:22688631

  11. Benefits of trade facilitation as a simpler procedure for world trade growth

    OpenAIRE

    Miteva-Kacarski, Emilija; Gorgieva-Trajkovska, Olivera

    2011-01-01

    “The simplification and harmonisation of international trade procedures” where trade procedures are the “activities, practices and formalities involved in collecting, presenting, communicating and processing data required for the movement of goods in international trade” is trade facilitation according the WTO. Trade facilitation initiatives benefit both the business community and governments. The business community benefits by obtaining enhanced competitiveness in national and international ...

  12. Rehabilitating Ex-Offenders through Non-Formal Education in Lesotho

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ngozwana, Nomazulu

    2017-01-01

    This paper reports on the rehabilitation of ex-offenders through non-formal education. It examines how non-formal education has addressed the ex-offenders' adaptive and transformative needs. Using an interpretive paradigm and qualitative approach, individual interviews were conducted with five ex-offenders who were chosen through purposive and…

  13. Recognising Non-Formal and Informal Learning: An Open Challenge

    Science.gov (United States)

    Perulli, Elisabetta

    2009-01-01

    The social-institutional endorsement towards the perspective of recognising and enhancing learning acquired outside the formal education and training contexts (non-formal and informal learning), has been gaining strength and has entered policy agendas throughout Europe, but also in other major non-European countries. Nevertheless there are still…

  14. Dynamics of trade between the formal sector and informal traders

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Cyril Nhlanhla Ngiba

    2011-04-01

    Full Text Available The informal sector in South Africa is a significant, but not well understood phenomenon. One important question relates to the nature of the relationship between the formal and informal sector. This article uses Porter’s five forces model to interrogate the linkages between informal fruit and vegetable traders in the Natalspruit Market (Ekurhuleni and their formal suppliers, primarily the Johannesburg Fresh Produce Market. While the threat of new products is low, the street traders’ position is weakened by the threat of new entrants, consumer bargaining power and lack of cooperation among street traders. In relation to supplier power, we conclude that while this varies according to a number of factors, the formal sector is dominant over informal fruit and vegetable sellers in this market. This finding rests primarily on the observation that, because of their fragmentation, the informal traders’ collective buying power is not being used in the same way as large formal retailers of fruit and vegetables to obtain better terms of trade with the formal economy supplier.

  15. Interacting hadron resonance gas model in the K -matrix formalism

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dash, Ashutosh; Samanta, Subhasis; Mohanty, Bedangadas

    2018-05-01

    An extension of hadron resonance gas (HRG) model is constructed to include interactions using relativistic virial expansion of partition function. The noninteracting part of the expansion contains all the stable baryons and mesons and the interacting part contains all the higher mass resonances which decay into two stable hadrons. The virial coefficients are related to the phase shifts which are calculated using K -matrix formalism in the present work. We have calculated various thermodynamics quantities like pressure, energy density, and entropy density of the system. A comparison of thermodynamic quantities with noninteracting HRG model, calculated using the same number of hadrons, shows that the results of the above formalism are larger. A good agreement between equation of state calculated in K -matrix formalism and lattice QCD simulations is observed. Specifically, the lattice QCD calculated interaction measure is well described in our formalism. We have also calculated second-order fluctuations and correlations of conserved charges in K -matrix formalism. We observe a good agreement of second-order fluctuations and baryon-strangeness correlation with lattice data below the crossover temperature.

  16. Investigation of accident management procedures related to loss of feedwater and station blackout in PSB-VVER integral test facility

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Bucalossi, A. [EC JRC, (JRC F.5) PO Box 2, 1755 ZG Petten (Netherlands); Del Nevo, A., E-mail: alessandro.delnevo@enea.it [ENEA, C.R. Brasimone, 40032 Camugnano (Italy); Moretti, F.; D' Auria, F. [GRNSPG, Universita di Pisa, via Diotisalvi 2, 56100 Pisa (Italy); Elkin, I.V.; Melikhov, O.I. [Electrogorsk Research and Engineering Centre, Electrogorsk, Moscow Region (Russian Federation)

    2012-09-15

    Highlights: Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer Four integral test facility experiments related to VVER-1000 reactor. Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer TH response of the VVER-1000 primary system following total loss of feedwater and station blackout scenarios. Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer Accident management procedures in case of total loss of feedwater and station blackout. Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer Experimental data represent an improvement of existing database for TH code validation. - Abstract: VVER 1000 reactors have some unique and specific features (e.g. large primary and secondary side fluid inventory, horizontal steam generators, core design) that require dedicated experimental and analytical analyses in order to assess the performance of safety systems and the effectiveness of possible accident management strategies. The European Commission funded project 'TACIS 2.03/97', Part A, provided valuable experimental data from the large-scale (1:300) PSB-VVER test facility, investigating accident management procedures in VVER-1000 reactor. A test matrix was developed at University of Pisa (responsible of the project) with the objective of obtaining the experimental data not covered by the OECD VVER validation matrix and with main focus on accident management procedures. Scenarios related to total loss of feed water and station blackout are investigated by means of four experiments accounting for different countermeasures, based on secondary cooling strategies and primary feed and bleed procedures. The transients are analyzed thoroughly focusing on the identification of phenomena that will challenge the code models during the simulations.

  17. String operator formalism and functional intergal in the holomorphic representation

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Losev, A.S.; Morozov, A.Yu.; Rislyj, A.A.; Shatashvili, S.L.

    1989-01-01

    Connection between the continual integral over open Riemann surfaces and the operator formalism on closed Riemann surfaces is discussed. States of the operator formalism are the holomorphic representation of the continual integral

  18. Rotor and wind turbine formalism

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Branlard, Emmanuel Simon Pierre

    2017-01-01

    The main conventions used in this book for the study of rotors are introduced in this chapter. The main assumptions and notations are provided. The formalism specific to wind turbines is presented. The forces, moments, velocities and dimensionless coefficients used in the study of rotors...

  19. Formal systems for persuasion dialogue

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Prakken, Henry

    This article reviews formal systems that regulate persuasion dialogues. In such dialogues two or more participants aim to resolve a difference of opinion, each trying to persuade the other participants to adopt their point of view. Systems for persuasion dialogue have found application in various

  20. FORMED: Bringing Formal Methods to the Engineering Desktop

    Science.gov (United States)

    2016-02-01

    FORMED: BRINGING FORMAL METHODS TO THE ENGINEERING DESKTOP BAE SYSTEMS FEBRUARY 2016 FINAL TECHNICAL REPORT APPROVED FOR PUBLIC RELEASE...This report is published in the interest of scientific and technical information exchange, and its publication does not constitute the Government’s...BRINGING FORMAL METHODS TO THE ENGINEERING DESKTOP 5a. CONTRACT NUMBER FA8750-14-C-0024 5b. GRANT NUMBER N/A 5c. PROGRAM ELEMENT NUMBER 63781D

  1. Developing a Treatment Planning Software Based on TG-43U1 Formalism for Cs-137 LDR Brachytherapy.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sina, Sedigheh; Faghihi, Reza; Soleimani Meigooni, Ali; Siavashpour, Zahra; Mosleh-Shirazi, Mohammad Amin

    2013-08-01

    The old Treatment Planning Systems (TPSs) used for intracavitary brachytherapy with Cs-137 Selectron source utilize traditional dose calculation methods, considering each source as a point source. Using such methods introduces significant errors in dose estimation. As of 1995, TG-43 is used as the main dose calculation formalism in treatment TPSs. The purpose of this study is to design and establish a treatment planning software for Cs-137 Solectron brachytherapy source, based on TG-43U1 formalism by applying the effects of the applicator and dummy spacers. Two softwares used for treatment planning of Cs-137 sources in Iran (STPS and PLATO), are based on old formalisms. The purpose of this work is to establish and develop a TPS for Selectron source based on TG-43 formalism. In this planning system, the dosimetry parameters of each pellet in different places inside applicators were obtained by MCNP4c code. Then the dose distribution around every combination of active and inactive pellets was obtained by summing the doses. The accuracy of this algorithm was checked by comparing its results for special combination of active and inactive pellets with MC simulations. Finally, the uncertainty of old dose calculation formalism was investigated by comparing the results of STPS and PLATO softwares with those obtained by the new algorithm. For a typical arrangement of 10 active pellets in the applicator, the percentage difference between doses obtained by the new algorithm at 1cm distance from the tip of the applicator and those obtained by old formalisms is about 30%, while the difference between the results of MCNP and the new algorithm is less than 5%. According to the results, the old dosimetry formalisms, overestimate the dose especially towards the applicator's tip. While the TG-43U1 based software perform the calculations more accurately.

  2. Pure spinor formalism as an N = 2 topological string

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Berkovits, Nathan

    2005-01-01

    Following suggestions of Nekrasov and Siegel, a non-minimal set of fields are added to the pure spinor formalism for the superstring. Twisted c-circumflex = 3 N = 2 generators are then constructed where the pure spinor BRST operator is the fermionic spin-one generator, and the formalism is interpreted as a critical topological string. Three applications of this topological string theory include the super-Poincare covariant computation of multiloop superstring amplitudes without picture-changing operators, the construction of a cubic open superstring field theory without contact-term problems, and a new four-dimensional version of the pure spinor formalism which computes F-terms in the spacetime action

  3. Concept similarity and related categories in information retrieval using formal concept analysis

    Science.gov (United States)

    Eklund, P.; Ducrou, J.; Dau, F.

    2012-11-01

    The application of formal concept analysis to the problem of information retrieval has been shown useful but has lacked any real analysis of the idea of relevance ranking of search results. SearchSleuth is a program developed to experiment with the automated local analysis of Web search using formal concept analysis. SearchSleuth extends a standard search interface to include a conceptual neighbourhood centred on a formal concept derived from the initial query. This neighbourhood of the concept derived from the search terms is decorated with its upper and lower neighbours representing more general and special concepts, respectively. SearchSleuth is in many ways an archetype of search engines based on formal concept analysis with some novel features. In SearchSleuth, the notion of related categories - which are themselves formal concepts - is also introduced. This allows the retrieval focus to shift to a new formal concept called a sibling. This movement across the concept lattice needs to relate one formal concept to another in a principled way. This paper presents the issues concerning exploring, searching, and ordering the space of related categories. The focus is on understanding the use and meaning of proximity and semantic distance in the context of information retrieval using formal concept analysis.

  4. Exploring the Intersection of Beliefs toward Outdoor Play and Cold Weather among Northeast Minnesota's Formal Education and Non-Formal EE Communities

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hughes, Amy Christine; Zak, Kevin; Ernst, Julie; Meyer, Rebecca

    2017-01-01

    In a notoriously cold-seasoned region, this paper explored how our formal education and non-formal environmental education (EE) gatekeepers of Northeastern Minnesota regard the importance of outdoor play and cold weather for young students. This research study explored the relationship between participant gatekeepers' beliefs of the benefits…

  5. Photon scattering from a system of multilevel quantum emitters. I. Formalism

    Science.gov (United States)

    Das, Sumanta; Elfving, Vincent E.; Reiter, Florentin; Sørensen, Anders S.

    2018-04-01

    We introduce a formalism to solve the problem of photon scattering from a system of multilevel quantum emitters. Our approach provides a direct solution of the scattering dynamics. As such the formalism gives the scattered fields' amplitudes in the limit of a weak incident intensity. Our formalism is equipped to treat both multiemitter and multilevel emitter systems, and is applicable to a plethora of photon-scattering problems, including conditional state preparation by photodetection. In this paper, we develop the general formalism for an arbitrary geometry. In the following paper (part II) S. Das et al. [Phys. Rev. A 97, 043838 (2018), 10.1103/PhysRevA.97.043838], we reduce the general photon-scattering formalism to a form that is applicable to one-dimensional waveguides and show its applicability by considering explicit examples with various emitter configurations.

  6. What determines firms' decisions to formalize? Evidence from rural Indonesia

    OpenAIRE

    McCulloch, Neil; Schulze, Günther G.; Voss, Janina

    2010-01-01

    In this paper we analyze the decision of small and micro firms to formalize, i.e. to obtain business and other licenses in rural Indonesia. We use the rural investment climate survey (RICS) that consists of non-farm rural enterprises, most of them microenterprises, and analyze the effect of formalization on tax payments, corruption, access to credit and revenue, taking into account the endogeneity of the formalization decision to such benefits and costs. We show, contrary to most of the liter...

  7. [How to write an article: formal aspects].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Corral de la Calle, M A; Encinas de la Iglesia, J

    2013-06-01

    Scientific research and the publication of the results of the studies go hand in hand. Exquisite research methods can only be adequately reflected in formal publication with the optimum structure. To ensure the success of this process, it is necessary to follow orderly steps, including selecting the journal in which to publish and following the instructions to authors strictly as well as the guidelines elaborated by diverse societies of editors and other institutions. It is also necessary to structure the contents of the article in a logical and attractive way and to use an accurate, clear, and concise style of language. Although not all the authors are directly involved in the actual writing, elaborating a scientific article is a collective undertaking that does not finish until the article is published. This article provides practical advice about formal and not-so-formal details to take into account when writing a scientific article as well as references that will help readers find more information in greater detail. Copyright © 2012 SERAM. Published by Elsevier Espana. All rights reserved.

  8. El Salvador - Non-Formal Skills Development

    Data.gov (United States)

    Millennium Challenge Corporation — The Non-Formal Skills Development Sub-Activity had a budget of $5 million (USD) to provide short-term training to vulnerable populations in El Salvador's Northern...

  9. Coracoid process x-ray investigation before Latarjet procedure: a radioanatomic study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bachy, Manon; Lapner, Peter L C; Goutallier, Daniel; Allain, Jérôme; Hernigou, Phillipe; Bénichou, Jacques; Zilber, Sébastien

    2013-12-01

    The purpose of this study was to determine whether a preoperative radiologic assessment of the coracoid process is predictive of the amount of bone available for coracoid transfer by the Latarjet procedure. Thirty-five patients with anterior instability undergoing a Latarjet procedure were included. A preoperative radiologic assessment was performed with the Bernageau and true anteroposterior (true AP) views. The length of the coracoid process was measured on both radiographic views and the values were compared with the length of the bone block during surgery. Statistical analysis was carried out by ANOVA and Wilcoxon tests (P process length was 29 ± 4 and 33 ± 4 mm on the Bernageau and true AP views, respectively. The mean bone block length during surgery was 21.6 ± 2.7 mm. A significant correlation was found (P = .032) between the coracoid process length on the true AP view and the intraoperative bone block length. Preoperative planning for the Latarjet procedure, including graft orientation and screw placement, requires knowledge of the length of coracoid bone available for transfer. This can be facilitated with the use of preoperative standard radiographs, thus avoiding computed tomography. This planning allows the detection of coracoid process anatomic variations or the analysis of the remaining part of the coracoid process after failure of a first Latarjet procedure to avoid an iliac bone graft. Radiologic preoperative coracoid process measurement is an easy, reliable method to aid preoperative planning of the Latarjet procedure in primary surgery and reoperations. Copyright © 2013 Journal of Shoulder and Elbow Surgery Board of Trustees. All rights reserved.

  10. Formal monkey linguistics : The debate

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Schlenker, Philippe; Chemla, Emmanuel; Schel, Anne M.|info:eu-repo/dai/nl/413333450; Fuller, James; Gautier, Jean Pierre; Kuhn, Jeremy; Veselinović, Dunja; Arnold, Kate; Cäsar, Cristiane; Keenan, Sumir; Lemasson, Alban; Ouattara, Karim; Ryder, Robin; Zuberbühler, Klaus

    2016-01-01

    We explain why general techniques from formal linguistics can and should be applied to the analysis of monkey communication - in the areas of syntax and especially semantics. An informed look at our recent proposals shows that such techniques needn't rely excessively on categories of human language:

  11. A formalization of computational trust

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Güven - Ozcelebi, C.; Holenderski, M.J.; Ozcelebi, T.; Lukkien, J.J.

    2018-01-01

    Computational trust aims to quantify trust and is studied by many disciplines including computer science, social sciences and business science. We propose a formal computational trust model, including its parameters and operations on these parameters, as well as a step by step guide to compute trust

  12. Information Superiority via Formal Concept Analysis

    Science.gov (United States)

    Koester, Bjoern; Schmidt, Stefan E.

    This chapter will show how to get more mileage out of information. To achieve that, we first start with an introduction to the fundamentals of Formal Concept Analysis (FCA). FCA is a highly versatile field of applied lattice theory, which allows hidden relationships to be uncovered in relational data. Moreover, FCA provides a distinguished supporting framework to subsequently find and fill information gaps in a systematic and rigorous way. In addition, we would like to build bridges via a universal approach to other communities which can be related to FCA in order for other research areas to benefit from a theory that has been elaborated for more than twenty years. Last but not least, the essential benefits of FCA will be presented algorithmically as well as theoretically by investigating a real data set from the MIPT Terrorism Knowledge Base and also by demonstrating an application in the field of Web Information Retrieval and Web Intelligence.

  13. Teachers' Opinions of Student Dropout from Formal Music Education Centres of the Canary Islands

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lorenzo Socorro, Sonia; Escandell Bermúdez, María Olga; Castro Sánchez, José Juan

    2016-01-01

    One hundred and eighty-five teachers were surveyed to determine their opinion of student dropout from formal music centres in the Canary Islands. The goal of the study was to investigate the causes of dropout and strategies to prevent it. Teachers' opinions were collected by means of a questionnaire. The influence of the environment on the…

  14. Formalism and physical interpretation in Schroedinger

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Paty, M.

    1992-01-01

    The question of the relation between a formalism and its physical interpretation arises not only when theoretical and conceptual systems are reorganized, but in the theoretical elaboration as well. The Schroedinger's work and thought are examined in this paper with this double concern. His work on the mathematical formalism is constantly sustained by a proper physical thought which takes the form of a wave intuition that guarantees him intelligibility. Concerning his interpretation of quantum mechanics, his thought remains characterized, through its evolution, by a w ave image of the world . The way he deals with space-time structure in General Relativity and favours the possibility of a direct interpretation of space-time geometrical quantities, is also studied. (author). 75 refs

  15. A Formal Framework for Workflow Analysis

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cravo, Glória

    2010-09-01

    In this paper we provide a new formal framework to model and analyse workflows. A workflow is the formal definition of a business process that consists in the execution of tasks in order to achieve a certain objective. In our work we describe a workflow as a graph whose vertices represent tasks and the arcs are associated to workflow transitions. Each task has associated an input/output logic operator. This logic operator can be the logical AND (•), the OR (⊗), or the XOR -exclusive-or—(⊕). Moreover, we introduce algebraic concepts in order to completely describe completely the structure of workflows. We also introduce the concept of logical termination. Finally, we provide a necessary and sufficient condition for this property to hold.

  16. Curiosity: A Prerequisite for the Attainment of Formal Operations?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hawkins, Vincent J.

    1982-01-01

    Research on Piaget's four stages of cognitive development has shown that although nearly everyone passes through sensorimotor, preoperational, and concrete operational stages, most do not reach the stage of formal operations. Those people who do attain formal operations seem to have a curiosity factor not operative in those who don't. (Author/BRR)

  17. Heuristics structure and pervade formal risk assessment.

    Science.gov (United States)

    MacGillivray, Brian H

    2014-04-01

    Lay perceptions of risk appear rooted more in heuristics than in reason. A major concern of the risk regulation literature is that such "error-strewn" perceptions may be replicated in policy, as governments respond to the (mis)fears of the citizenry. This has led many to advocate a relatively technocratic approach to regulating risk, characterized by high reliance on formal risk and cost-benefit analysis. However, through two studies of chemicals regulation, we show that the formal assessment of risk is pervaded by its own set of heuristics. These include rules to categorize potential threats, define what constitutes valid data, guide causal inference, and to select and apply formal models. Some of these heuristics lay claim to theoretical or empirical justifications, others are more back-of-the-envelope calculations, while still more purport not to reflect some truth but simply to constrain discretion or perform a desk-clearing function. These heuristics can be understood as a way of authenticating or formalizing risk assessment as a scientific practice, representing a series of rules for bounding problems, collecting data, and interpreting evidence (a methodology). Heuristics are indispensable elements of induction. And so they are not problematic per se, but they can become so when treated as laws rather than as contingent and provisional rules. Pitfalls include the potential for systematic error, masking uncertainties, strategic manipulation, and entrenchment. Our central claim is that by studying the rules of risk assessment qua rules, we develop a novel representation of the methods, conventions, and biases of the prior art. © 2013 Society for Risk Analysis.

  18. Changes in formal sex education: 1995-2002.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lindberg, Laura Duberstein; Santelli, John S; Singh, Susheela

    2006-12-01

    Although comprehensive sex education is broadly supported by health professionals, funding for abstinence-only education has increased. Using data from the 1995 National Survey of Adolescent Males, the 1995 National Survey of Family Growth (NSFG) and the 2002 NSFG, changes in male and female adolescents' reports of the sex education they have received from formal sources were examined. Life-table methods were used to measure the timing of instruction, and t tests were used for changes over time. From 1995 to 2002, reports of formal instruction about birth control methods declined among both genders (males, from 81% to 66%; females, from 87% to 70%). This, combined with increases in reports of abstinence education among males (from 74% to 83%), resulted in a lower proportion of teenagers' overall receiving formal instruction about both abstinence and birth control methods (males, 65% to 59%; females, 84% to 65%), and a higher proportion of teenagers' receiving instruction only about abstinence (males, 9% to 24%; females, 8% to 21%). Teenagers in 2002 had received abstinence education about two years earlier (median age, 11.4 for males, 11.8 for females) than they had received birth control instruction (median age, 13.5 for both males and females). Among sexually experienced adolescents, 62% of females and 54% of males had received instruction about birth control methods prior to first sex. A substantial retreat from formal instruction about birth control methods has left increasing proportions of adolescents receiving only abstinence education. Efforts are needed to expand teenagers' access to medically accurate and comprehensive reproductive health information.

  19. Moving interprofessional learning forward through formal assessment.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Stone, Judy

    2010-04-01

    There is increasing agreement that graduates who finish tertiary education with the full complement of skills and knowledge required for their designated profession are not 'work-ready' unless they also acquire interpersonal, collaborative practice and team-working capabilities. Health workers are unable to contribute to organisational culture in a positive way unless they too attain these capabilities. These capabilities have been shown to improve health care in terms of patient safety, worker satisfaction and health service efficiency. Given the importance of interprofessional learning (IPL) which seeks to address these capabilities, why is IPL not consistently embedded into the education of undergraduates, postgraduates and vocationally qualified personnel through formal assessment? This paper offers an argument for the formal assessment of IPL. It illustrates how the interests of the many stakeholders in IPL can benefit from, and contribute to, the integration of IPL into mainstream professional development and tertiary education. It offers practical examples of assessment in IPL which could drive learning and offer authentic, contextual teaching and learning experiences to undergraduates and health workers alike. Assessment drives learning and without formal assessment IPL will continue to be viewed as an optional topic of little relative importance for learners. In order to make the next step forward, IPL needs to be recognised and endorsed through formal assessment, both at the tertiary education level and within the workplace environment. This is supported by workforce initiatives and tertiary education policy which can be used to specify the capabilities or generic skills necessary for effective teamwork and collaborative practice.

  20. PRODUCTION SYSTEM MODELING AND SIMULATION USING DEVS FORMALISM

    OpenAIRE

    Amaya Hurtado, Darío; Castillo Estepa, Ricardo Andrés; Avilés Montaño, Óscar Fernando; Ramos Sandoval, Olga Lucía

    2014-01-01

    This article presents the Discrete Event System Specification (DEVS) formalism, in their atomic and coupled configurations; it is used for discrete event systems modeling and simulation. Initially this work describes the analysis of discrete event systems concepts and its applicability. Then a comprehensive description of the DEVS formalism structure is presented, in order to model and simulate an industrial process, taking into account changes in parameters such as process service time, each...