Energy: Between Physics and Metaphysics

The general concept of energy is somewhat unclear as long as it is confined to physics, since every chapter of it defines its own particular concept of energy. The general concept can be elucidated in terms of the hypergeneral (philosophical) concepts of concrete thing and changeability. In this way one succeeds in crafting a minitheory that identifies energy with mutability, and that regards it, as well as its conservation, as a universal property of concrete things. The moral is that physicists and philosophers can learn from one another.     

Ein interaktionsbasiertes Modell für den objektorientierten Integrations- und Regressionstest

Zusammenfassung.   Bei der iterativen, inkrementellen Software-Entwicklung werden Klassen sukzessive spezifiziert, implementiert bzw. ge?ndert oder erweitert, klassengetestet und zu einem ausführbaren Anwendungssystem integriert. Integrations- und Regressionstest stellen dabei besonders wichtige und h?ufig ausgeführte Testaktivit?ten dar, die zudem aufgrund der vielf?ltigen Interaktionsm?glichkeiten in objektorientierten Programmen sehr komplex sind. Integrations- und Regressionstest werden in der Literatur stets separat behandelt, obwohl sie durchaus ?hnliche Teilaktivit?ten beinhalten. Bestehende Ans?tze zum objektorientierten Integrationstest betrachten entweder strukturelle oder verhaltensorientierte Systembeschreibungen. In diesem Beitrag stellen wir das Klassen-Botschaftsdiagramm (KBD) vor, ein Struktur und Verhalten objektorientierter Programme gleicherma?en berücksichtigendes interaktionsbasiertes (Test-)Modell. Wir skizzieren Algorithmen zur ?nderungsanalyse, Ableitung einer Integrationsstrategie und Auswahl von Regressionstestf?llen nach der Modifikation bestehender Klassen. Abschlie?end werden die Ergebnisse einiger mit Smalltalk-80 Klassen durchgeführter Experimente zur Evaluierung des Verfahrens vorgestellt. Eingegangen am 14. Dezember 1999 / Angenommen am 19. Juni 2000     

Exploring educators’ professional learning ecologies in a blended learning environment

In recent years the concept of learning ecology has been interpreted in different ways to highlight its potential for learning and professional development. However, there are several aspects that still deserve to be understood such as, eg, the role that the different contexts come to play within a learning ecology. For this purpose, this paper presents and discusses the results of a study exploring the learning ecologies of educators in a blended programme delivered in higher education. The participants in the study were 85 professionals in the field of education aged between 28 and 58 years. The research design adopted here can be defined as a convergent mixed method where both quantitative and qualitative data were collected through an e-portfolio. The study found that educators in the sample had different postures, of whom some more aware of their professional roles or Self than others. Moreover, different professional identities seemed to be linked to different learning ecologies, where elements like formal or informal education, cultural artefacts, personal experiences, colleagues or work experiences played a different role. Formal education emerged as having a questionable function, while colleagues came up as a crucial resource.     

Measuring scientific performance of public research units for strategic change

This research presents a new metrics to measure and assess the scientific performance of public research institutes, which improves models based on standard multivariate techniques. These models called Research Lab Evaluation (RELEV) adjusted are successfully applied to Italian public research institutes, operating in five scientific fields. In addition, the paper presents a comparison between this method and the Data Envelopment Analysis to show some analogies and differences in the results.     

Interrupting commemoration: thinking with art,thinking through the strictures of Argentina's Espacio para la memoria

Recently, a few buildings within the Espacio para la memoria in Buenos Aires have been designated as a UNESCO Centre where, amongst other educational activities, evidentiary materials of the past repression are to be stored and displayed. Another building in the complex houses a Community Centre operated by the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, where the mandate is to learn about and continue the revolutionary ideals of those disappeared during the repression. Amid these commemorative projects, designating a space for exhibiting art presents a significant opportunity for posing difficult questions, which go beyond the terms of information and idealization. Through a close reading of Diana Dowek's art exhibit, ‘A Long March’, the paper invites us to consider how art can draw out a particular haunting temporality that holds the present open to provocative questions that are difficult to pose and sustain amid the strictures of this commemorative site.     

Quantum-Inspired Blockchain-Based Cybersecurity: Securing Smart Edge Utilities in IoT-Based Smart Cities

Blockchain plays a vital task in cybersecurity. With the exerted efforts for realising large-scale quantum computers, most current cryptographic mechanisms may be hacked. Accordingly, we need a quantum tool utilised for designing blockchain frameworks to have the ability to be executed in the level of digital computers and resist the probable attacks from both digital and quantum computers. Quantum walks may be utilised as a quantum-inspired model for designing new cryptographic algorithms. In this paper, we present a new authentication and encryption protocol based on quantum-inspired quantum walks (QIQW). The proposed protocol is utilized to build a blockchain framework for secure data transmission among IoT devices. Instead of using classical cryptographic hash functions, quantum hash functions based on QIQW are employed for linking blocks of the chain. The main advantages of the presented framework are helping IoT nodes to effectively share their data with other nodes and full control of their records. Security analysis demonstrates that our proposed protocol can defend against message attack and impersonation attacks, thus ensuring secure transmission of data among IoT devices.     

An illustration to assist in comparing and remembering several multiplicity adjustment methods

There are many well‐known or new methods to adjust statistical tests for multiplicity. This article provides an illustration helping lecturers or consultants to remember the differences of three important multiplicity adjustment methods and to explain them to non‐statisticians.