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This article aims to rewrite Emerson’s moral perfectionism – his anti-foundationalist pursuit of an always more perfect state of self and society – onto his moral and intellectual participation in the abolitionist movement. I argue that Cavell artificially separated Emerson’s moral perfectionism from his extensive, decades-long abolitionism. The source of Cavell’s oversight is his participation in the long-standing norm of dichotomizing Emerson’s work into the theoretical ‘essays’ and the ‘anti-slavery writings’ or the philosophical and the polemical. Recent scholars of Emerson have questioned and even dismissed this dichotomy, however, while recentring Emerson’s politics in his oeuvre as a whole. They find much to praise, and also plenty to criticize, in Emerson’s abolitionist writings. I follow and extend that scholarly trend here and introduce what I call Emerson’s abolitionist perfectionism as an expansion of Cavell’s influential work on moral perfectionism.

For any graph X with the adjacency matrix A, the transition matrix of the continuous-time quantum walk at time t is given by the matrix-valued function H X ( t ) = e i t A . We say that there is perfect state transfer in X from the vertex u to the vertex v at time τ if | H X ( τ ) u , v | = 1 . It is an important problem to determine whether perfect state transfers can happen on a given family of graphs. In this paper we characterize all the graphs in the Johnson scheme which have this property. Indeed, we show that the Kneser graph K ( 2 k , k ) is the only class in the scheme which admits perfect state transfers. We also show that, under some conditions, some of the unions of the graphs in the Johnson scheme admit perfect state transfer.

In the industry for better control action, we have a requirement of an exemplary controller along with all the measurable and unmeasurable states. In this paper, Fractional order PID (FOPID) controller with Kalman Filter (KF) is proposed for speed control of DC motor. FOPID is more flexible and robust than the PID controller and KF is a perfect state estimator to estimate all the states. Implementation of the proposed sensorless model is carried out in MATLAB/Simulink environment. In simulation performance of with and without KF, it shows FOPID with KF has better performance than without KF.

In 1999, twenty years before this publication, a bulla in a perfect state of preservation was found in a Byzantine-period pit at Tel Qedesh. The fact that it was almost completely intact in all its parts, in combination with the relatively recent publication of cuneiform documents from private collections, has permitted the Authors to attribute the original stamp seal to the Persian period, to reconstruct the possible original sealing’s use context (a papyrus sealing) and to advance a hypothe...

This article aims to analyse Ursula Le Guin’s The Dispossessed: An Ambiguous Utopia from an ecological perspective. In her ecologically conscious story, Le Guin explores the (ironic) manifestation and repercussions of humanity’s environmental fear, the virtues and ills of an ever-evasive ecological utopian society that is paradoxically informed by eco-friendly and ecophobic propensities in its pursuit of freedom through the vigorous practice of the art of dispossession, and the possibility of transcending the hyper-separated categories of difference that include the human/non-human dichotomy. What Le Guin seeks in her fictional effort above all is a permanent revolution advocating a never-ending diligent and earnest endeavour to effect an improved, preferable society with a revised awareness of its relations to its human and non-human Others, free from the ethic of exploitation rather than a promotion of an already achieved perfect state.

Happiness is defined as the enduring appreciation of life as a whole. Happiness is not about some specific domain or aspect of life, it is not about some perfect state and it is not the same as utility. Individuals may adopt very different standards, and theoretically, this can lead to incomparability of happiness of different individuals. People may also adopt egocentric or immoral standards. Happiness is dualistic because it depends on two components: the affective and cognitive component. These components have their own dynamics, and it is not self-evident whether these components produce something new that may be denoted as happiness ‘in general’ or ‘overall happiness’, or ‘encompassing happiness’. Happiness is a specific type of subjective well-being, and confusion about happiness has a negative impact on our deliberations about our personal well-being and well-being in general. The confusion is also an obstacle for the acceptance of happiness as a standard in our personal and political deliberations. The first ambition of this book is to reduce confusion about happiness. After this reduction some arguments to accept or reject happiness as a standard are summarized in a value-free way. Happiness can be accepted as just a descriptive standard or as a standard to be pursued, but both options are based on the assumption that happiness is acceptable as a value. The arguments suggest that we may accept happiness at least as a descriptive standard, and possibly as a standard to be pursued in specific situations. But the actual normative decisions to do so are personal or political by nature.

Detecting the ultrastructure of brain tissue in human archaeological remains is a rare event that can offer unique insights into the structure of the ancient central nervous system (CNS). Yet ancient brains reported in the literature show only poor preservation of neuronal structures. Using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and advanced image processing tools, we describe the direct visualization of neuronal tissue in vitrified brain and spinal cord remains which we discovered in a male victim of the AD 79 eruption in Herculaneum. We show exceptionally well preserved ancient neurons from different regions of the human CNS at unprecedented resolution. This tissue typically consists of organic matter, as detected using energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy. By means of a self-developed neural image processing network, we also show specific details of the neuronal nanomorphology, like the typical myelin periodicity evidenced in the brain axons. The perfect state of preservation of these structures is due to the unique process of vitrification which occurred at Herculaneum. The discovery of proteins whose genes are expressed in the different region of the human adult brain further agree with the neuronal origin of the unusual archaeological find. The conversion of human tissue into glass is the result of sudden exposure to scorching volcanic ash and the concomitant rapid drop in temperature. The eruptive-induced process of natural vitrification, locking the cellular structure of the CNS, allowed us to study possibly the best known example in archaeology of extraordinarily well-preserved human neuronal tissue from the brain and spinal cord.

I will conduct a focused reading of the three authors’ take on the role of individual speaker and hearer in this chapter. Chomsky’s theoretical interest lies in a perfect state of understanding achieved by the linguistic competence of both speakers and listeners, which ensures instant and automatic understanding of well-formed grammatical sentences. This ‘creative’ ability of producing and understanding an infinite number of well-formed sentences in a specific language is taken to be innate in every human being. To a certain extent, both speakers and listeners in Chomskyan linguistics are locked up in an ideal world where well-formed sentences are transferred back and forth between them. He also believes that child learners’ language competence is largely genetically determined though they need linguistic stimulus from the social environment to activate the language faculty. In fact, what he means by the genetic basis also involves a critical age in child language development: if this age is missed, children will not be able to pick up the ‘native’ accent (Smith, Chomsky: ideas and ideals. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1999). In addition, Chomsky dismisses any serious discussion of language use in real life though in his notion of native speaker’s intuition, there remain problematic links with language use in specific cultural and political contexts. Contrary to Chomsky, both Skinner and Harris distrust the transference of meaning guaranteed by a shared language between speakers and listeners in a so-called ideal world; yet, they soon part ways as to the roles played by human agents.

The failed coup attempt on 15 July 2016 in Turkey was not a continuation of the Turkish military’s ‘tradition’ of seizing power in the name of restoring ‘order’ and ‘national unity’. Rather, it was the climax of a series of former confrontations between the two formerly-allied factions of ‘moderate’ political Islam—the Erdogan–AKP administration and The Fethullah Gulen’s ‘Service Movement’. Neither the coup attempt nor Erdogan’s counter-attacks were made from a position of power. Rather, the existing confrontation is rooted in political Islam’s provisional structure as the state of bourgeoisie in the periods of crises and its inappropriateness for metamorphosing into an ‘ordinary’ bourgeois state. This inappropriateness is based on the political Islamic state’s ‘imperfection’. The inner contradiction of the political Islamic state is intensified owing to the pressure of the masses from below and the international economic and political-administrative crises of the international bourgeoisie, which yields a power struggle between the regional and international competing bourgeois factions. The coup attempt and the consequent events are evidence of the decline and the eventual fall of ‘moderate’ political Islam in Turkey. © 2016 Critique.

Quorum sensing is a mechanism used by bacteria to coordinate the expression of certain exofactors which are more beneficial at higher cell densities. It has been argued that quorum sensing is a way for bacteria to control gene expression where some performance metric is being optimized. Herein, bacterial growth via quorum sensing is studied under the lens of optimal control theory. Under the assumption of perfect state observation, it is shown that quorum sensing is an optimal control strategy for an infinite horizon discounted reward function.

A healthy and ideal body is everyone's dream in the world. Healthy is meant not only physically healthy, but also holistically healthy, which is healthy in the physical body, psychological body as well as in the spiritual body. According to WHO (World Health Organization), healthy is the perfect state of physical, mental, social, not only free from disease or weakness. This indicates that health is not just free from illness and disability, but also has an ideal state of three factors, namely social, psychological and biological factors so that a person can carry out his life activities optimally. So that the body's immunity can work optimally so that the body is not susceptible to disease, then there are a number of things that a person must pay attention to in maintaining and enhancing his body's immunity, including getting enough rest, multiply the consumption of vegetables and fruit, not smoking, avoiding alcoholic beverages, exercising regularly and avoid stress. Pranayama as one of the steps of yoga is a stage carried out by the sadhaka (spiritual seeker) to maintain and enhance the physical and psychological body immunity. This article adopts the author to understand the causes and solutions offered by practicing pranayama to prevent the virus from entering the body. This paper uses a data collection method consisting of observations and documents. The data analysis technique used was qualitative in which his presentation was presented descriptively. The results of this paper are obtained that by doing pranayama, including Nadi Sodhana Pranayama, Kapalbhati Pranayama and Ujjayi Pranayama can calm the dynamic movement of mind waves and form a natural defense shield for the body to prevent the body from various diseases.

This chapter focuses on the link between medieval political theories and a flourishing Ottoman intellectual engagement with ideas concerning a perfect order of governance from within a sense of crisis. This crisis was driven by an increasingly mobile population, regional rebellions, and global climactic and monetary shifts that together challenged the “fundamentals” of Ottoman administrative order. It traces examples of a mode of political analysis, distinct from advice-giving, that linked justice to proper governance rather than to religion or to the sultan. The chapter demonstrates that Ottoman literary producers of the seventeenth century, while apprehensive of change, became innovators themselves and revived rational modes of political critique in the process. It further highlights how seventeenth-century scholar-bureaucrats came to focus on the archival past of the state itself and located Ottoman power in methods of record keeping. Ultimately they sought to restore a commitment to textual transparency.

How many times have you tried to play cards with your friends but did not have a new deck of cards available, so you had to be content with recovering a used one from a drawer? Unless you have been involved in gambling, where the perfect state of the cards is a necessary condition to ensure the absence of special marks that could easily identify some of them, any deck of cards in good condition is okay in all games for leisure, provided that it is complete. But how can we establish that it is? Or, better, considering the subject of this text, how can we establish this condition as quickly as possible?

Ayurveda literally means ‘science of life’. According to Ayurveda the term health does not stand only for the freedom from diseases but it is called as healthy only when a person’s mind, sense organs and the soul are in a perfect state of equilibrium to endow happiness and the body is free from diseases. So it is clear that maintaining a good health was for the longevity of life, which Ayurveda is meant for. Maharshi Charaka has used the term ‘Samhanana’ to denote the compactness of body. According to him the man, measure of whose growth is proportionate and whose limbs are symmetrical, is never in consequence of firmness or strength of his senses, overwhelmed by the force which put forth. A compact body is characterized by the symmetrical and well divided bones, well-knit joints and well bound muscles and blood. An individual having a compact body is very strong, otherwise he is weak. Thus a patient should be examined with reference to his samhanana or compactness of the body. This is the main reason for why Ayurveda has given paramount importance on maintaining a positive health, either by following strict routine daily life and doing particular things or by getting some therapeutic measures, like Rasayana, Panchakarma etc. Abhyanga is the therapeutic intervention of Panchakarma in which the body is treated with simple or medicated oil on particular body part according to need. Whenever there is a discomfort or uneasiness over the body we unknowingly try to soothe it through massage.

In his early descriptions of the TH (see, e.g., [83]), Lucas pointed out the possibility of starting with an arbitrary distribution of n discs among three pegs, i.e. allowing for discs lying on a smaller one. The task is again to arrive at a perfect state on a preassigned peg, while still obeying the divine rule. This, in Lucas’s opinion [82], will vary the conditions of the problem of the TH “to infinity”. We may even go beyond by prescribing an arbitrary, albeit regular, state as the goal. We will approach this problem in the next section and round this chapter off with a section on an algorithmic solution to Lucas’s second problem.

We demonstrate experimental implementation of robust phase estimation (RPE) to learn the phases of X and Y rotations on a trapped $\textrm{Yb}^+$ ion qubit. We estimate these phases with uncertainties less than $4\cdot10^{-4}$ radians using as few as 176 total experimental samples per phase, and our estimates exhibit Heisenberg scaling. Unlike standard phase estimation protocols, RPE neither assumes perfect state preparation and measurement, nor requires access to ancillae. We cross-validate the results of RPE with the more resource-intensive protocol of gate set tomography., 9 pages, 7 figures

Transmission Expansion Planning (TEP) is one of the major components of the electric power industry. In deregulated power systems, transmission systems provide the required environment for the competition among the power market participants. In this paper a mathematical model and a dynamic transmission expansion methodology is presented using an optimization framework. Investment cost, reliability (both adequacy and security), and congestion cost are considered in this optimization. To overcome the difficulties in solving the non-convex and mixed integer nature of the optimization problems, this paper offers an improved harmony search algorithm (HSA) to solve this problem. HSA was imagined using the musical process of searching for a perfect state of harmony, similar to the optimization process looks for finding a global solution that is determined by an objective function. HSA can be used to optimize a non-convex optimization problem with both continuous and discrete variables. In this paper it is shown that HSA, like other heuristic optimization algorithms, can solve the problem in a better manner compare with other methods such genetic algorithm (GA). The proposed model is applied to the IEEE 24-bus and IEEE 118-bus test systems. The obtained results show the feasibility and capability of the proposed algorithm. A comprehensive analysis of the GA methodology with the proposed method is also presented.

It might not be very inspiring to do an introduction to Alfarabi’s (870-950 A.D.) philosophy and works through his On the Perfect State. This is because of the obvious dependence and extensive borrowing from Plato’s Republic which might undermine the rich philosophy he presents in his other major and more known works. Besides, and similar to Plato, many of the philosophical views presented and raised in the On the Perfect State are detailed in his other works. Nonetheless, and as it will be shown below, he distinguished a number of his ideas from Plato and modelled them to suit his Islamic perspectives and audience. This article attempts to illustrate a number of Plato’s ideas that Alfarabi has remodelled.

In the philosophical system of Eriugena nature has been divided into four forms of existence. The first form is God the Creator, the second form are the primordial (primary) causes, the third form is man and sensual beings, and the fourth is God, to whom the entire creation returned through man to contemplate God’s love. Creation arose in perfect human nature and fell down into the imperfect form of existence with man. The Son of God became a man who died and was resurrected. The creature that was redeemed in this way was given the opportunity to return to the Creator. In the last times there will be a universal return of human nature to the perfect state, and then the chosen will be deified and will obtain eternal happiness. People who live in the sensual world have the ability to mystically step into God. Individual ascension is an announcement of deification. Sacraments are an effective means in the ascending process. They have the power that directs the human intellect towards God. The different concepts of the sacraments have shaped the Church’s teaching in this matter for centuries. Currently, the Pope Francesco is also implementing certain changes in the discipline of sacraments. So it is worthwhile, according to the author of the article to bring closer the concept of sacraments of Eriugena – a condemned and rehabilitated philosopher who can be considered to be a significant representative of our civilization.

Harmony search (HS) algorithm is a good meta-heuristic intelligent optimization method and it does depend on imitating the music improvisation process to generate a perfect state of harmony. However, intelligent optimization methods is easily trapped into local optimal, HS is no exception. In order to improve the performance of HS, a new variant of harmony search algorithm is proposed in this paper. The variant introduce a new crossover operation into HS, and design a strategy to adjust parameter pitch adjusting rate (PAR) and bandwidth (BW). Several standard benchmarks carried out to be tested. The numerical results demonstrated that the superiority of the proposed method to the HS and recently developed variants (IHS, and GHS).

The assumption of the study of consciousness disorders was to un derstand how the nervous system maintains the waking status and relationship life. Besides the state of coma, other serious situations may also occur. Therewith, the aim of this paper – part 3 of 3 – is to present the major findings concerning physical examination, as well as their functional connections and the neurobiological bases, and the syndrome of captivity. Each of these disorders has specific character istics distinguishing them, passing by the complete absence of consciousness during clinical examination – vegetative state – the perfect state of consciousness found in the locked-in syndrome.

We present polynomial-time algorithms for single machine problems with generalized positional deterioration effects and machine maintenance. The decisions should be taken regarding possible sequences of jobs and on the number of maintenance activities to be included into a schedule in order to minimize the overall makespan. We deal with general non-decreasing functions to represent deterioration rates of job processing times. Another novel extension of existing models is our assumption that a maintenance activity does not necessarily fully restore the machine to its original perfect state. In the resulting schedules, the jobs are split into groups, a particular group to be sequenced after a particular maintenance period, and the actual processing time of a job is affected by the group that job is placed into and its position within the group.

Equipment maintenance support capability is an important part of operational capability and the evaluation of equipment maintenance support capability is very important to the establishment of battle effectiveness. Cloud theory is applied to equipment maintenance support capability evaluation on basis of the establishment of the evaluation index system of equipment support capability. The application steps of cloud barycenter evaluation method to equipment maintenance support capability evaluation are analyzed. The evaluation result is achieved using weighted deflection degree which is used to demonstrate the deflection degree between equipment maintenance support capability and its perfect state. The correctness and validity of the proposed method is verified by the calculating result, which provide an efficient method for equipment maintenance support capability evaluation.

This chapter introduces the theory of deterministic and stochastic differential games, including the dynamic optimization techniques, (stochastic) differential games and their solution concepts, which will lay a foundation for later study.

Cloud barycenter evaluation method is applied to battle damage assessment for air base on basis of the establishment of the evaluation index system and damage level classification. The index system of battle damage assessment for air base is established and the application step of cloud barycenter evaluation method to air base damage evaluation is analyzed. The battle damage level of air base is achieved using weighted deflection degree which is used to demonstrate the deflection degree between battle damage and its perfect state. The correctness and validity of the proposed method is verified by the calculating result, which provide an efficient way for battle damage assessment.

With the development of Internet +, information retrieval, information analysis and intelligent decision support system are also undergoing a rapid development. Intelligent interaction is a key problem for the popularization and application of these systems. Web intelligent robots can solve this problem well. In this paper, Web intelligent robot technology based on Virtual Reality is further studied and a web intelligent robot is designed and developed by using Unity3D technology. In the virtual scene, the robot can interact with the third person perspective. This interactive feature allows the user to experience the perfect state of immersion and interaction. At the same time, the users' need for intelligent interaction in the network world has been a perfect embodiment.

A new meta-heuristic optimization algorithm–harmony search is conceptualized using the musical improvisation process of searching for a perfect state of harmony. Although several variants and an increasing number of applications have appeared, one of its main difficulties is how to select suitable parameter values. In this paper, we proposed a novel algorithm to dynamically adapt the harmony memory consideration rate (HMCR) and pitch adjustment rate (PAR) and distance bandwidth (BW). The experimental results revealed the superiority of the proposed method to the original HS, improved harmony search (IHS) and global-best harmony search (GHS).

Philosophers today are inclined to propose virtues are either something subjective or something universal. However, Confucius and Aristotle, who made the most profound investigations into virtues, did not develop such theses. The deep-seated reason lies in their belief that there is always a possibility for a human being to become a man of practice, which cancels the need of proposing subjectivity thesis. The reason for their not raising the universality thesis of virtues is that they do not think that virtues are directly universal to all contemporarily existing minds. Rather, in their view, virtues involve a possible universality that may present in a virtuous mind. We can summarize Aristotle’s view into the concept of possible universality of virtue understood in terms of the perfect state of mind, since he explains the perfect state of mind in terms of perfect state of activity, and makes his investigations with an eye to the interactions between people with similar states of virtues. The view of Confucius can be summarized into the concept of possible universality of virtue understood in terms of the history of mind, since his investigations are made from the point of view of the states of mind reached through virtuous practices, i.e., a historical process of human life in which one’s pre-dispositions and feelings gradually reach some state of natural harmony and gains continual enrichment, and with an eye to the interactions between virtuous people and common people. From that similarly expressed view we can reasonably infer that virtues do possess the character called by today’s philosophers as universality, but it is a possible universality whose possibility is based on practice and on the development of virtuous minds.