Will mobile video become the killer application for 3G? - an empirical model for media convergence

Mobile carriers have continually rolled out 3G mobile video applications to increase their revenue and profits. The presumption is that video is superior to the already successful SMS, ringtones, and pictures, and can create greater value to users. However, recent market surveys revealed contradicting results. Motivated by this discrepancy, we propose in this paper a parsimonious model for user acceptance of mobile entertainment as digital convergence. Integrating research on Information Systems, Flow, and Media Psychology, we take a unique approach to user acceptance of digital convergence - platform migration. Our key proposition is that the interaction between media types and the platform-specific constraints is the key determinant of user evaluation. Particularly, users' involvement in the media is determined by both the entertaining time span on the original platform and the attentional constraint of the new platform. The mismatch between the two spans can result in lower level involvement, which in turn cause no or even negative user emotional responses. The model was tested with empirical data. We discuss the theoretical contributions, strategic and design implications, and future research directions derived from this theoretical framewor

Tests of Basic Quantum Mechanics in Oscillation Experiments

According to standard quantum theory, the time evolution operator of a quantum system is independent of the state of the system. One can, however, consider systems in which this is not the case: the evolution operator may depend on the density operator itself. The presence of such modifications of quantum theory can be tested in long baseline oscillation experiments.Comment: 8 pages, LaTeX; no macros neede

Network synchronization: Optimal and Pessimal Scale-Free Topologies

By employing a recently introduced optimization algorithm we explicitely design optimally synchronizable (unweighted) networks for any given scale-free degree distribution. We explore how the optimization process affects degree-degree correlations and observe a generic tendency towards disassortativity. Still, we show that there is not a one-to-one correspondence between synchronizability and disassortativity. On the other hand, we study the nature of optimally un-synchronizable networks, that is, networks whose topology minimizes the range of stability of the synchronous state. The resulting ``pessimal networks'' turn out to have a highly assortative string-like structure. We also derive a rigorous lower bound for the Laplacian eigenvalue ratio controlling synchronizability, which helps understanding the impact of degree correlations on network synchronizability.Comment: 11 pages, 4 figs, submitted to J. Phys. A (proceedings of Complex Networks 2007

Dynamics of cosmic strings and springs; a covariant formulation

A general family of charge-current carrying cosmic string models is investigated. In the special case of circular configurations in arbitrary axially symmetric gravitational and electromagnetic backgrounds the dynamics is determined by simple point particle Hamiltonians. A certain "duality" transformation relates our results to previous ones, obtained by Carter et. al., for an infinitely long open stationary string in an arbitrary stationary background.Comment: 11 pages, Latex, Nordita preprint 93/28

The Chagos Islands cases: the empire strikes back

Good governance requires the accommodation of multiple interests in the cause of decision making. However, undue regard for particular sectional interests can take their toll upon public faith in government administration. Historically, broad conceptions of the good of the commonwealth were employed to outweigh the interests of groups that resisted colonisation. In the decision making of the British Empire, the standard approach for justifying the marginalisation of the interests of colonised groups was that they were uncivilised and that particular hardships were the price to be paid for bringing to them the imperial dividend of industrial society. It is widely assumed that with the dismantling of the British Empire, such impulses and their accompanying jurisprudence became a thing of the past. Even as decolonisation proceeded apace after the Second World War, however, the United Kingdom maintained control of strategically important islands with a view towards sustaining its global role. In an infamous example from this twilight period of empire, in the 1960s imperial interests were used to justify the expulsion of the Chagos islanders from the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT). Into the twenty-first century, this forced elision of the UK’s interests with the imperial “common good” continues to take centre stage in courtroom battles over the islanders’ rights, being cited before domestic and international tribunals in order to maintain the Chagossians’ exclusion from their homeland. This article considers the new jurisprudence of imperialism which has emerged in a string of decisions which have continued to marginalise the Chagossians’ interests

Microscopic Black Hole Pairs in Highly-Excited States

We consider the quantum mechanics of a system consisting of two identical, Planck-size Schwarzschild black holes revolving around their common center of mass. We find that even in a very highly-excited state such a system has very sharp, discrete energy eigenstates, and the system performs very rapid transitions from a one stationary state to another. For instance, when the system is in the 100th excited state, the life times of the energy eigenstates are of the order of $10^{-30}$ s, and the energies of gravitons released in transitions between nearby states are of the order of $10^{22}$ eV.Comment: 22 pages, 3 figures, uses RevTe

Noether symmetries for two-dimensional charged particle motion

We find the Noether point symmetries for non-relativistic two-dimensional charged particle motion. These symmetries are composed of a quasi-invariance transformation, a time-dependent rotation and a time-dependent spatial translation. The associated electromagnetic field satisfy a system of first-order linear partial differential equations. This system is solved exactly, yielding three classes of electromagnetic fields compatible with Noether point symmetries. The corresponding Noether invariants are derived and interpreted

Ultra-High Energy Neutrino Fluxes: New Constraints and Implications

We apply new upper limits on neutrino fluxes and the diffuse extragalactic component of the GeV gamma-ray flux to various scenarios for ultra high energy cosmic rays and neutrinos. As a result we find that extra-galactic top-down sources can not contribute significantly to the observed flux of highest energy cosmic rays. The Z-burst mechanism where ultra-high energy neutrinos produce cosmic rays via interactions with relic neutrinos is practically ruled out if cosmological limits on neutrino mass and clustering apply.Comment: 10 revtex pages, 9 postscript figure

A Study of Activated Processes in Soft Sphere Glass

On the basis of long simulations of a binary mixture of soft spheres just below the glass transition, we make an exploratory study of the activated processes that contribute to the dynamics. We concentrate on statistical measures of the size of the activated processes.Comment: 17 pages, 9 postscript figures with epsf, uses harvmac.te