Power-law weighted networks from local attachments

This letter introduces a mechanism for constructing, through a process of distributed decision-making, substrates for the study of collective dynamics on extended power-law weighted networks with both a desired scaling exponent and a fixed clustering coefficient. The analytical results show that the connectivity distribution converges to the scaling behavior often found in social and engineering systems. To illustrate the approach of the proposed framework we generate network substrates that resemble steady state properties of the empirical citation distributions of (i) publications indexed by the Institute for Scientific Information from 1981 to 1997; (ii) patents granted by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office from 1975 to 1999; and (iii) opinions written by the Supreme Court and the cases they cite from 1754 to 2002.Comment: 18 pages, 3 figures; Proceedings of the IEEE Conference on Decision and Control and the European Control Conference, Orlando, FL, Dec. 2011; Added references; We modified the model in order to take into account extended power-law distributions which better fit to the citations data sets; Added proofs of theorems; Shorten version; Updated plo

Friends, Followers, Connections, Lend Me Your Ears: A New Test for Determining the Sufficiency of Service of Process Via Social Media

The emergence of social media as a driving force in modern society has brought it to the forefront of legal discussion in all areas of law. Fields of study such as evidence, ethics, and constitutional law are all currently wrestling with how social media ought to be handled. In particular, courts have attempted to determine whether service of process (or simply “service”) should be satisfied by the use of communication through social media. Since 1950, courts have relied upon the same test, regardless of the method used, to determine the sufficiency of service: the Mullane test. Mullane as currently applied, however, does not sufficiently scrutinize service via social media in a manner conducive to understanding the peculiarities of this method of communication. This Comment will not attempt to determine whether the use of social media to effect service of process is constitutional. Rather, it will show how the current application of the Mullane standard leads courts to categorically accept or reject service as effected, and, therefore, a new test ought to be adopted to measure the individual social media communication method used to attempt service. This test ought to be utilized to determine whether a particular use of a specific social media platform has fulfilled the constitutional requirements for service, vis-à-vis Mullane. This Comment will begin by examining the standard for sufficient service of process established by the Supreme Court in Mullane, followed by the cases expanding that decision; in particular Greene v. Lindsey, Mennonite Board of Missions v. Adams, and Jones v. Flowers. This Comment will also survey the technological advancements that have affected courts’ determinations regarding service. It will then observe how foreign courts have treated issues of electronic service, as well as review the development of this issue in the United States. Finally, this Comment will scrutinize current methods of service, propose a new test that courts ought to use to determine the sufficiency of service effected via social media, and compare the test’s advantages to the current test

Friends, Followers, Connections, Lend Me Your Ears: A New Test for Determining the Sufficiency of Service of Process Via Social Media

The emergence of social media as a driving force in modern society has brought it to the forefront of legal discussion in all areas of law. Fields of study such as evidence, ethics, and constitutional law are all currently wrestling with how social media ought to be handled. In particular, courts have attempted to determine whether service of process (or simply “service”) should be satisfied by the use of communication through social media. Since 1950, courts have relied upon the same test, regardless of the method used, to determine the sufficiency of service: the Mullane test. Mullane as currently applied, however, does not sufficiently scrutinize service via social media in a manner conducive to understanding the peculiarities of this method of communication. This Comment will not attempt to determine whether the use of social media to effect service of process is constitutional. Rather, it will show how the current application of the Mullane standard leads courts to categorically accept or reject service as effected, and, therefore, a new test ought to be adopted to measure the individual social media communication method used to attempt service. This test ought to be utilized to determine whether a particular use of a specific social media platform has fulfilled the constitutional requirements for service, vis-à-vis Mullane. This Comment will begin by examining the standard for sufficient service of process established by the Supreme Court in Mullane, followed by the cases expanding that decision; in particular Greene v. Lindsey, Mennonite Board of Missions v. Adams, and Jones v. Flowers. This Comment will also survey the technological advancements that have affected courts’ determinations regarding service. It will then observe how foreign courts have treated issues of electronic service, as well as review the development of this issue in the United States. Finally, this Comment will scrutinize current methods of service, propose a new test that courts ought to use to determine the sufficiency of service effected via social media, and compare the test’s advantages to the current test

Flaring gamma-ray emission from high redshift blazars

High redshift blazars are among the most powerful objects in the Universe. Although they represent a significant fraction of the extragalactic hard X-ray sky, they are not commonly detected in gamma-rays. High redshift (z>2) objects represent <10 per cent of the AGN population observed by Fermi so far, and gamma-ray flaring activity from these sources is even more uncommon. The characterization of the radio-to-gamma-ray properties of high redshift blazars represent a powerful tool for the study of both the energetics of such extreme objects and the Extragalactic Background Light. We present results of a multi-band campaign on TXS 0536+145, which is the highest redshift flaring gamma-ray blazar detected so far. At the peak of the flare the source reached an apparent isotropic gamma-ray luminosity of 6.6x10^49 erg/s, which is comparable with the luminosity observed from the most powerful blazars. The physical properties derived from the multi-wavelength observations are then compared with those shown by the high redshift population. In addition preliminary results from the high redshift flaring blazar PKS 2149-306 will be discussed.Comment: 2014 Fermi Symposium proceedings - eConf C14102.

Integrating across memory episodes: Developmental trends

Memory enables us to use information from our past experiences to guide new behaviours, calling for the need to integrate or form inference across multiple distinct episodic experiences. Here, we compared children (aged 9-10 years), adolescents (aged 12-13 years), and young adults (aged 19-25 years) on their ability to form integration across overlapping associations in memory. Participants first encoded a set of overlapping, direct AB- and BC-associations (object-face and face-object pairs) as well as non-overlapping, unique DE-associations. They were then tested on these associations and inferential AC-associations. The experiment consisted of four such encoding/retrieval cycles, each consisting of different stimuli set. For accuracy on both unique and inferential associations, young adults were found to outperform teenagers, who in turn outperformed children. However, children were particularly slower than teenagers and young adults in making judgements during inferential than during unique associations. This suggests that children may rely more on making inferences during retrieval, by first retrieving the direct associations, followed by making the inferential judgement. Furthermore, young adults showed a higher correlation between accuracy in direct (AB, BC) and inferential AC-associations than children. This suggests that, young adults relied closely on AB- and BC-associations for making AC decisions, potentially by forming integrated ABC-triplets during encoding or retrieval. Taken together, our findings suggest that there may be an age-related shift in how information is integrated across experienced episodes, namely from relying on making inferences at retrieval during middle childhood to forming integrated representations at different memory processing stages in adulthood

Geen antibiotica meer nodig

Het is mogelijk om melk te produceren zonder antibiotica in te zetten. Sommige melkveehouders doen het al en anderen willen het graag bereiken. In de Themawerkgroep Antibioticavrij Produceren van het bedrijfsnetwerk biologische melkveehouderij komen alle aspecten aan de ord