The field of liquid crystals (LCs) is for me one of the most fascinating aspects of the Science of Materials, on the other hand, Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) represents a very powerful spectroscopy for the large amount of possibilities in performing and projecting new experiments, with the purpose of enlightening both the molecular structure, orientational ordering and dynamics of single mo...

If the energy momentum tensor contains bulk viscous stresses violating the dominant energy condition (DOC) the energy spectra of the relic gravitons (produced at the time of the DOC’s violation) increase in frequency in a calculable way. In a general relativistic context we give examples where the DOC is only violated for a limited amount of time after which the ordinary (radiation dominated) e...

I have read with interest the paper in which DEEGAN and MCNICHOLAS [1] try to find prediction rules for obstructive sleep apnoea syndrome (OSAS). Yet, there are several questions I would like to pose: 1) The need for clear-cut guidelines for assessment of OSAS patients has been recently stressed [2, 3]. In this sense, my question is: why is an apnoea-hypopnoea index (AHI) of 15 events·hr-1 used...

2014 The phase diagram of the frustration model of random interactions ± J between nearest neighbour Ising spins on a square lattice is studied in the (T, x) plane : T temperature, x concentration of antiferromagnetic interactions. At T = 0 K exact ground states are generated by a new algorithm of graph theory and maps of rigid bonds or solidary spins for all ground states are obtained. At inte...

This paper discusses the role of synthetic sound in the construction of authenticity and historicity of documentary film in the light of the documentary “All that we have” [9] and its making. It argues that the delimitation between the “natural” and the “artificial” constitutes a key element in the reflection on documentary film sound. After a general inquiry of cinematic sound (part 1 and 2) i...

T term ‘‘error catastrophe,’’ originally introduced in the theory of molecular evolution (1), has become fashionable among virologists. In a recent paper in PNAS (2), it was suggested, on the basis of quantitative sequence studies, that ribavirin, a common antiviral drug, by its mutagenic action drives poliovirus into an error catastrophe of replication, thereby turning a productive infection i...

ion, independent from the particular data base. A possible set of ACD could be: 1. Comprehensibility: how much the retrieved documents have to be easy to understand; 2. Recency: how much the retrieved documents have to be recent; 3. Quantity: how much information the user wants (number of documents and their length); 4. Language: in which language the retrieved documents have to be written; 5. ...

The threefold evolutions of human work in the technological, social and cybernetic dimensions all contribute to the same two major epistemological and methodological consequences: 1) First Order problems result from the increasing difficulty of interpreting any historical remains and data (artifacts, texts, figures, pictures, videos, software programs and everything else), because ever more con...

Beginning with the debate of concept, this essay explains the historical source and development of flexible housing in China. In the former part, the flexibility contained in traditional house is explored. While in the latter, the relevant practices in modern times are systematically analyzed as three phases–the Embryonic Period (1949 1980), the Systematic Practice (1981 2000), as well as the I...

The threefold evolutions of human work in the technological, social and cybernetic dimensions all contribute to the same two major epistemological and methodological consequences: 1) First Order problems result from the increasing difficulty of interpreting any historical remains and data (artifacts, texts, figures, pictures, videos, software programs and everything else), because ever more con...