Small Is Not Always Beautiful

Peer-to-peer content distribution systems have been enjoying great popularity, and are now gaining momentum as a means of disseminating video streams over the Internet. In many of these protocols, including the popular BitTorrent, content is split into mostly fixed-size pieces, allowing a client to download data from many peers simultaneously. This makes piece size potentially critical for performance. However, previous research efforts have largely overlooked this parameter, opting to focus on others instead. This paper presents the results of real experiments with varying piece sizes on a controlled BitTorrent testbed. We demonstrate that this parameter is indeed critical, as it determines the degree of parallelism in the system, and we investigate optimal piece sizes for distributing small and large content. We also pinpoint a related design trade-off, and explain how BitTorrent's choice of dividing pieces into subpieces attempts to address it

Miniature Books: Their History from the Beginnings to the Present Day

Miniature books -- that is books not more than 3 inches (76 mm) in height -- have always fascinated booklovers. A good number of manuscript volumes still exist, but this history begins with the advent of printing. It tells their story, from the Officium Beatae Virginis Mariae printed by Mathias Moravius in Naples in A.D. 1486 to the present time when new printing methods, and perhaps a growing belief that small is beautiful, have greatly increased the number of enthusiastic collectors.https://openscholarship.wustl.edu/books/1028/thumbnail.jp

Vermont (Honors)

Vermont was inspired by the great amount of time that I have spent in the state of Vermont visiting with my family. The state of Vermont has always been a very important part of my life and to an extent I consider it my second home. The initial theme played by the first cello is of great importance throughout the piece and is a chant that comes from the Catholic mass. This theme is reminiscent of the old, small town New England churches that I have attended with my family as well as a representation of the importance of Catholicism in my family. The music itself is not meant to be strictly programmatic; however it is meant to evoke images of the beautiful green mountains, the small picturesque New England towns, the farms, the wildlfe, as well as the people that I have experienced in Vermont

Cherri and Lisa Go to India

We spent 30 difficult days in the beautiful but impoverished country of India. Prior to the trip we made a small attempt to acquaint ourselves with the Indian culture and prepare for the shock of visiting a third-world country. Neither of us had traveled overseas before. We came to the conclusion (after the first day) that this was something that had to be experienced to comprehend, and reading a few books, watching documentaries on the Discovery Channel, or listening to others speak of their experiences while visiting the country did not do the job. Knowing a second language is always a plus while traveling, and we tried to learn a few phrases in Hindi (what we thought to be the national language) but discovered that each state had its own language. Impressively, many people were fluent in English and we always found someone to communicate with

On Meeting with a Fox

It is rarely that one sees a wild animal at its best. As a hunter, I have shot many beautiful birds and small mammals, but on retrieving them, in spite of my elation at their capture, I have always had the haunting feeling that the dead thing in my hand was not the creature at which I had aimed. As an anatomist, I have dissected scores of animals, but always do I realize that the stiff, cold thing under my scalpel is not quite the thing it was when alive

Disorder-induced magnetic memory: Experiments and theories

Beautiful theories of magnetic hysteresis based on random microscopic disorder have been developed over the past ten years. Our goal was to directly compare these theories with precise experiments. We first developed and then applied coherent x-ray speckle metrology to a series of thin multilayer perpendicular magnetic materials. To directly observe the effects of disorder, we deliberately introduced increasing degrees of disorder into our films. We used coherent x-rays to generate highly speckled magnetic scattering patterns. The apparently random arrangement of the speckles is due to the exact configuration of the magnetic domains in the sample. In effect, each speckle pattern acts as a unique fingerprint for the magnetic domain configuration. Small changes in the domain structure change the speckles, and comparison of the different speckle patterns provides a quantitative determination of how much the domain structure has changed. How is the magnetic domain configuration at one point on the major hysteresis loop related to the configurations at the same point on the loop during subsequent cycles? The microscopic return-point memory(RPM) is partial and imperfect in the disordered samples, and completely absent when the disorder was not present. We found the complementary-point memory(CPM) is also partial and imperfect in the disordered samples and completely absent when the disorder was not present. We found that the RPM is always a little larger than the CPM. We also studied the correlations between the domains within a single ascending or descending loop. We developed new theoretical models that do fit our experiments.Comment: 26 pages, 25 figures, Accepted by Physical Review B 01/25/0

THE “IMPERFECT BEAUTY” IN EATING DISORDERS

Not only philosophers, but also artists and scientists have always struggled to find a universal definition of beauty. Not even Darwin could find an answer to the question: are there any parameters of beauty that we can apply to every species. Nobody can give a valid definition for the perception of beauty in others. Can a definition in subjective terms be achieved? If I say something is beautiful, it only means that it is beautiful for me, but it does not mean that is necessarily beautiful for everyone else. Beauty is a subjective experience, but it is not only a perceptive experience! According to the Treccani Dictionary of Italian Language, beauty can be defined as: something capable of pleasing the soul through the senses and become an object worthy of contemplation. Developmental biologists say that when people talk about how beautiful a person is, they tend to highlight those qualities that make them more or less attractive. These qualities can be, for example, if and how much I look like their father or mother. Does this mean there can be universal parameters of beauty for the human species? According to Professor Semir Zeki, there are universal parameters of beauty and the easiest way to define them is in a negative way. This means that whoever has his eyes in a different position, compared to where the eyes are placed in a nation or race, cannot be called beautiful. According to this, could there be a model of beauty in our society? Today\u27s society gives a considerable importance to appearance, it is even thought that being "beautiful" can achieve happiness, love and success. Mass media show icons of perfection and ideals of beauty almost unattainable and makes us to believe that achieving them would make us feel fulfilled; therefore underestimating other values such as happiness, family, friendship and beauty. There is less and less space for self-acceptance and developing other qualities, whereas we invest more into treatments of various kinds to change our body, considering it as an object we can manipulate, or as a tool to achieve goals. Particularly young people, today, are conditioned by the myth of beauty and by the canons imposed by newspapers, TV and the media, which demands virtual beauty without originality. According to this canon, women must always be slim but firm and sinuous, with flowing bleached hair, perfect make-up, smooth skin, full lips and long nails. On the other hand, men are forced to resemble the football players: muscular, but not too much, without a belly and marked abdominals muscles, tall, well-shaved, fragrant, or even shaving their whole body. According to Charmet: "We live in a continuous casting, with boys feeling inadequate and ugly". Adolescence is then considered a period full enthusiasm but also of torment, such as long struggles in front of the mirror with the different ways of "decorating" a suddenly new body. This is a particularly fertile ground for the onset of pathologies such as depression, dysmorphophobias, eating disorders and other pathologies. They become ‘mutants’, because they change and adapt to the current fashion; nowadays these changes affect not only women, but also men. Pathologies are also in the rise among increasingly younger people, aged 10 to 20 years old. In addition, there are new pathologies, such as orthorexia (the obsession for healthy eating) or drunkorexia (a combination of fasting/binge eating with alcohol abuse). Often, these are associated with other psychiatric disorders or serious physical complications. However, only a small percentage of people suffering from these conditions ask for help

THE “IMPERFECT BEAUTY” IN EATING DISORDERS

Not only philosophers, but also artists and scientists have always struggled to find a universal definition of beauty. Not even Darwin could find an answer to the question: are there any parameters of beauty that we can apply to every species. Nobody can give a valid definition for the perception of beauty in others. Can a definition in subjective terms be achieved? If I say something is beautiful, it only means that it is beautiful for me, but it does not mean that is necessarily beautiful for everyone else. Beauty is a subjective experience, but it is not only a perceptive experience! According to the Treccani Dictionary of Italian Language, beauty can be defined as: something capable of pleasing the soul through the senses and become an object worthy of contemplation. Developmental biologists say that when people talk about how beautiful a person is, they tend to highlight those qualities that make them more or less attractive. These qualities can be, for example, if and how much I look like their father or mother. Does this mean there can be universal parameters of beauty for the human species? According to Professor Semir Zeki, there are universal parameters of beauty and the easiest way to define them is in a negative way. This means that whoever has his eyes in a different position, compared to where the eyes are placed in a nation or race, cannot be called beautiful. According to this, could there be a model of beauty in our society? Today\u27s society gives a considerable importance to appearance, it is even thought that being "beautiful" can achieve happiness, love and success. Mass media show icons of perfection and ideals of beauty almost unattainable and makes us to believe that achieving them would make us feel fulfilled; therefore underestimating other values such as happiness, family, friendship and beauty. There is less and less space for self-acceptance and developing other qualities, whereas we invest more into treatments of various kinds to change our body, considering it as an object we can manipulate, or as a tool to achieve goals. Particularly young people, today, are conditioned by the myth of beauty and by the canons imposed by newspapers, TV and the media, which demands virtual beauty without originality. According to this canon, women must always be slim but firm and sinuous, with flowing bleached hair, perfect make-up, smooth skin, full lips and long nails. On the other hand, men are forced to resemble the football players: muscular, but not too much, without a belly and marked abdominals muscles, tall, well-shaved, fragrant, or even shaving their whole body. According to Charmet: "We live in a continuous casting, with boys feeling inadequate and ugly". Adolescence is then considered a period full enthusiasm but also of torment, such as long struggles in front of the mirror with the different ways of "decorating" a suddenly new body. This is a particularly fertile ground for the onset of pathologies such as depression, dysmorphophobias, eating disorders and other pathologies. They become ‘mutants’, because they change and adapt to the current fashion; nowadays these changes affect not only women, but also men. Pathologies are also in the rise among increasingly younger people, aged 10 to 20 years old. In addition, there are new pathologies, such as orthorexia (the obsession for healthy eating) or drunkorexia (a combination of fasting/binge eating with alcohol abuse). Often, these are associated with other psychiatric disorders or serious physical complications. However, only a small percentage of people suffering from these conditions ask for help

Social Emotional Learning and Mindfulness: Learning to be Human

I am a teacher. I always have been and always will be. As a little girl, I developed a passionate need to see fairness and justice in my world, which of course outside of my family of origin revolved around my life at school. If one of my friends could not understand something, even if I was not totally sure about it myself, I would endeavor to help them learn it in a way that made sense to them. A small act of friendship helped me learn and develop my own a belief in the oneness that connects all of us as human beings with a collective consciousness, which requires constant care and attention. These experiences have taught me that without the vision and vigilance of teachers, our children will grow up in a world steeped deeply in chaos and detachment. Education is salvation. It is the window through which we come to know and understand ourselves, our strengths and weaknesses, the world around us, and our very place within the system. It is one of the most beautiful gifts we can ever experience, and every human being on the planet has a right to it. Education should be where we can be human and experience all that it encompasses. Education is not merely academic it must embrace all parts of humanness

Is small beautiful?

The IdeaSquare innovation team confronts a question many hardly dare to ask. But as always, it never shies away from a good challenge. This time, the journey starts with questioning the universality of the way particle physics research scales up. Is bigger better? The adventure then starts, bottom up, from asking whether small is beautiful. Then, relying on dimensions of politics, biology and finally, physics, the IdeaSquare innovation team find the Universal Truth to answer… (or not) the very question everyone is wondering