Digital New Zealand 2014

This report presents data on the lifestyles, habits, attitudes and demographics of New Zealanders who play computer and video games, as well as how New Zealanders are consuming interactive games in conjunction with other digital technologies. The report was commissioned from Bond University by the Interactive Games & Entertainment Association (IGEA)

Digital Australia 2014

This report examines the role interactive entertainment plays in Australian households. Foreword We began national studies of computer game audiences in 2005 to widen the conversation about games and tackle stereotypes that prevented an understanding in the wider community that computer games were a popular medium that had become not only normalised, but a medium valued by Australians of all ages. Rather than challenge negative stereotypes about games with rhetoric, we provided quantitative empirical data using established social and market research practice – something that had not been available for Australia’s journalists and policy-makers who relied on overseas data. Over the five Australian studies since 2005, we documented the ascendency of computer and video games to centre stage in media culture. Game Play Australia 2005 conveyed the reality that Australia is a nation of game-lovers who enjoy playing games on a sporting field and on the screen. In 2005: 76% of households had a device for playing games and PCs dominated consoles, 38% of gamers were female and the average age was 24, Less than an hour was the play duration and twice a week was the frequency 49% of households had broadband connections, 35% played games online, 66% of parents played video games, 88% said Australia should have an R18+ for games, and 68% said classification information was very influential when choosing games for their children. Interactive Australia 2007 and 2009 illustrated the growing ability of games to foster social interaction. Moreover, games consoles and the Internet had matured and grown in popularity. By 2009: 88% of households had a device for playing games and consoles took the lead from PCs, 46% of gamers were female and the average age was 30, An hour was the play duration and every other day was the frequency, 81% of households had broadband connections, 48% played games online, 70% of parents played games, 60% of households were home to 2 or more players, 91% said Australia should have an R18+ for games, and 46% said classification information was very influential when choosing games for their children. Digital Australia 2012 illustrated the rapid maturation of digital media and more avenues for game experiences to anyone who wanted to play. By 2012: 92% of households had a device for playing games and consoles lead and phones outflanked handhelds, 47% of gamers were female and the average age was 32, An hour was the play duration and every other day was the frequency, 83% of parents played games, 70% of households were home to 2 or more players, and 41% said classification information was very influential when choosing games for their children. Digital Australia 2014 completes this phase of reports on computer games and Australians. The profile of the gamer and the gaming household is nearly synonymous with the profile of the typical Australian and Australian household. It demonstrates that multiple screens and game devices are commonplace and that games have expanded from the loungeroom to the pocket, played frequently and for longer durations. It suggests that the moral panic over established media like music, films, television and games is now moving to social media and the Internet. Adult gamers have formed great memories over the years of family time, characters, story, play and interaction from a medium that has emerged from its adolescence.   Authored by Jeffrey E. Brand, Pascaline Lorentz, and Trishita Mathew

National Trends on Agricultural Crops Production: Cluster Analysis

Staring from descriptive data on crop production and cultivated area at national level during on fifteen years, the aim of this study is to reveal the trends on crops cultivation. The cluster analysis reveals linkages between crops classes as well as between different crops, which can be partly assigned to crops rotation. Time series analysis reveals dramatically reducing of production of some crops, such as flax, hemp, and sugar beet, and increasing of production, such at sunflower, and increasing of productivity, such at potatoes and field vegetables

Swapping trajectories: a new wall-induced cross-streamline particle migration mechanism in a dilute suspension of spheres

Binary encounters between spherical particles in shear flow are studied for a system bounded by a single planar wall or two parallel planar walls under creeping flow conditions. We show that wall proximity gives rise to a new class of binary trajectories resulting in cross-streamline migration of the particles. The spheres on these new trajectories do not pass each other (as they would in free space) but instead they swap their cross-streamline positions. To determine the significance of the wall-induced particle migration, we have evaluated the hydrodynamic self-diffusion coefficient associated with a sequence of uncorrelated particle displacements due to binary particle encounters. The results of our calculations quantitatively agree with the experimental value obtained by \cite{Zarraga-Leighton:2002} for the self-diffusivity in a dilute suspension of spheres undergoing shear flow in a Couette device. We thus show that the wall-induced cross-streamline particle migration is the source of the anomalously large self-diffusivity revealed by their experiments.Comment: submited to JF

Persistent random walk on a one-dimensional lattice with random asymmetric transmittances

We study the persistent random walk of photons on a one-dimensional lattice of random asymmetric transmittances. Each site is characterized by its intensity transmittance t (t') for photons moving to the right (left) direction. Transmittances at different sites are assumed independent, distributed according to a given probability density Distribution. We use the effective medium approximation and identify two classes of probability density distribution of transmittances which lead to the normal diffusion of photons. Monte Carlo simulations confirm our predictions.Comment: 7 pages, submitted to Phys. Rev.

Results of Evolution Supervised by Genetic Algorithms

A series of results of evolution supervised by genetic algorithms with interest to agricultural and horticultural fields are reviewed. New obtained original results from the use of genetic algorithms on structure-activity relationships are reported.Comment: 6 pages, 1 Table, 2 figure

New coins from old, smoothly

Given a (known) function $f:[0,1] \to (0,1)$, we consider the problem of simulating a coin with probability of heads $f(p)$ by tossing a coin with unknown heads probability $p$, as well as a fair coin, $N$ times each, where $N$ may be random. The work of Keane and O'Brien (1994) implies that such a simulation scheme with the probability $\P_p(N<\infty)$ equal to 1 exists iff $f$ is continuous. Nacu and Peres (2005) proved that $f$ is real analytic in an open set $S \subset (0,1)$ iff such a simulation scheme exists with the probability $\P_p(N>n)$ decaying exponentially in $n$ for every $p \in S$. We prove that for $\alpha>0$ non-integer, $f$ is in the space $C^\alpha [0,1]$ if and only if a simulation scheme as above exists with $\P_p(N>n) \le C (\Delta_n(p))^\alpha$, where \Delta_n(x)\eqbd \max \{\sqrt{x(1-x)/n},1/n \}. The key to the proof is a new result in approximation theory: Let \B_n be the cone of univariate polynomials with nonnegative Bernstein coefficients of degree $n$. We show that a function $f:[0,1] \to (0,1)$ is in $C^\alpha [0,1]$ if and only if $f$ has a series representation $\sum_{n=1}^\infty F_n$ with F_n \in \B_n and $\sum_{k>n} F_k(x) \le C(\Delta_n(x))^\alpha$ for all $x \in [0,1]$ and $n \ge 1$. We also provide a counterexample to a theorem stated without proof by Lorentz (1963), who claimed that if some \phi_n \in \B_n satisfy $|f(x)-\phi_n(x)| \le C (\Delta_n(x))^\alpha$ for all $x \in [0,1]$ and $n \ge 1$, then $f \in C^\alpha [0,1]$.Comment: 29 pages; final version; to appear in Constructive Approximatio

Sialic Acid in Human Serum and Cerebrospinal Fluid. Comparison of methods and reference values

Peer Reviewe