Logical Geometries and Information in the Square of Oppositions

The Aristotelian square of oppositions is a well-known diagram in logic and linguistics. In recent years, several extensions of the square have been discovered. However, these extensions have failed to become as widely known as the square. In this paper we argue that there is indeed a fundamental difference between the square and its extensions, viz., a difference in informativity. To do this, we distinguish between concrete Aristotelian diagrams (such as the square) and, on a more abstract level, the Aristotelian geometry (a set of logical relations). We then introduce two new logical geometries (and their corresponding diagrams), and develop a formal, well-motivated account of their informativity. This enables us to show that the square is strictly more informative than many of the more complex diagrams.     

Using mobile media creation to structure museum interpretation with professional vision

Mobile technology plays an increasing role in museum and cultural heritage contexts. In most cases, these tools support the relatively passive consumption of expert interpretations, or the unguided generation of content by users. This paper explores the potential for technologies to help museum visitors, encountering unfamiliar objects, to engage with them as a skilled professional interpreter would, through structured mobile experiences that focus on creating multimedia content. We explore this concept in the area of artefact interpretation and specifically how to enact a structured process of interpretation, as would commonly be taught in courses dedicated to the analytical diagnostics of visual evidence, such as Classical Archaeology or Art History. We discuss two field trials of prototype systems through which the structured creation of multimedia forms a basis for learning to interpret historical artefacts conducted in contexts of both formal and informal learning. By describing, implementing, and evaluating this approach, we contribute understanding of a new way to conceptualise active engagement in museum contexts, through the effective use of scaffolding and user generation of multimedia. We identify issues around the properties and flexibilities of multiple media for this purpose, links between provision for procedural and factual learning, and the value of media creation-based structures in improving the skills and confidence to interpret.     

High‐Pressure Thermal Sterilization: Food Safety and Food Quality of Baby Food Puree

The benefits that high‐pressure thermal sterilization offers as an emerging technology could be used to produce a better overall food quality. Due to shorter dwell times and lower thermal load applied to the product in comparison to the thermal retorting, lower numbers and quantities of unwanted food processing contaminants (FPCs), for example, furan, acrylamide, HMF, and MCPD‐esters could be formed. Two spore strains were used to test the technique; Geobacillus stearothermophilus and Bacillus amyloliquefaciens, over the temperature range 90 to 121 °C at 600 MPa. The treatments were carried out in baby food puree and ACES‐buffer. The treatments at 90 and 105 °C showed that G. stearothermophilus is more pressure‐sensitive than B. amyloliquefaciens. The formation of FPCs was monitored during the sterilization process and compared to the amounts found in retorted samples of the same food. The amounts of furan could be reduced between 81% to 96% in comparison to retorting for the tested temperature pressure combination even at sterilization conditions of F₀‐value in 7 min.     

Chemical warfare and survival strategies in bacterial range expansions

Dispersal of species is a fundamental ecological process in the evolution and maintenance of biodiversity. Limited control over ecological parameters has hindered progress in understanding of what enables species to colonize new areas, as well as the importance of interspecies interactions. Such control is necessary to construct reliable mathematical models of ecosystems. In our work, we studied dispersal in the context of bacterial range expansions and identified the major determinants of species coexistence for a bacterial model system of three Escherichia coli strains (toxin-producing, sensitive and resistant). Genetic engineering allowed us to tune strain growth rates and to design different ecological scenarios (cyclic and hierarchical). We found that coexistence of all strains depended on three strongly interdependent factors: composition of inoculum, relative strain growth rates and effective toxin range. Robust agreement between our experiments and a thoroughly calibrated computational model enabled us to extrapolate these intricate interdependencies in terms of phenomenological biodiversity laws. Our mathematical analysis also suggested that cyclic dominance between strains is not a prerequisite for coexistence in competitive range expansions. Instead, robust three-strain coexistence required a balance between growth rates and either a reduced initial ratio of the toxin-producing strain, or a sufficiently short toxin range.     

Charge Transfer Variability in Misfit Layer Compounds: Comparison of SnS-SnS2 and LaS-TaS2

The present paper compares and discusses two selected misfit (layer) compounds exemplarily, namely SnS-SnS₂ and LaS-TaS₂. We have employed a density-functional theory-based approach to calculate structural, energetic, and electronic properties of these structures. We have put emphasis on the difference between single layers, combined double-layer systems and periodically stacked bulk structures. Especially the varying magnitudes of charge transfer between the sublayers were studied. We demonstrate how the chemical constitution of the sublayers affects the interlayer interactions: these may be a weak non-bonding van-der-Waals dominated interlayer interaction as in SnS-SnS₂ and many other layered structures or a strong interaction related to a remarkable charge transfer between the layers as in LaS-TaS₂.     

Studying Organizational Creativity as Process: Fluidity or Duality?

This paper contributes to process studies on organizational creativity by developing two competing research agendas. The first perspective, the ‘becoming’ view, depicts creativity as a constant flow of activity that crystallizes every once in a while in unpredictable moments of creativity. The second perspective, the ‘practice’ view, understands creativity as a practised social process, in which structures play the important role of both enabling and constraining individual agents in pursuing creativity as a collective phenomenon. We compare and contrast these two theoretical perspectives, which are based on different process ontologies, and discuss their methodological implications. We argue that the practice perspective offers particular promise, because it allows us to address the important yet paradoxical question of how creativity may be organized and managed.     

Metal Oxide Nanowires for Gas Sensor Applications

We report on the synthesis of SnO₂ and CuO nanowires and their application as gas sensing components. The fabrication of SnO₂ and CuO single nanowire devices by optical and electron beam lithography is described, and sensing performance to the toxic gas carbon monoxide is demonstrated. We briefly present the development of CMOS fabricated micro-hotplates as platforms for gas sensors and show our approach for nanowire implementation. Finally, we demonstrate a fully CMOS integrated CuO multi nanowire device and present our roadmap for a fully integrated multi-parameter smart sensor device which could be implemented as safety feature in smart phones.     

Effect of free water removal from early-age hydrated cement pastes on thermal analysis

In order to follow the progress of cement hydration by analytical techniques, the ongoing hydration reactions must be stopped by complete removal of free water. A comparison between solvent exchange, oven drying and vacuum drying, using thermal analysis, is presented for early-age hydrated cement pastes. Results show that oven drying at 105 °C accelerates hydration, causes dehydration of some hydrated cement phases and favours carbonation. Solvent exchange with ethanol, ether and methanol results in a strong absorption and an incomplete removal of solvents. FT-IR and XRD gave evidence of the formation of carbonate-like phases due to an interaction upon heating, i.e. during thermal analysis, between the strongly absorbed solvents and the cement compounds or hydrates. Vacuum drying reveals reliable results as no interaction products can be formed and the Ca(OH)₂ content, determined by thermal analysis, gives a good approximation of the real amount of Ca(OH)₂.