Classical solvability of the relativistic Vlasov-Maxwell system with bounded spatial density

In (Arch. Rational. Mech. Anal 1986, 92:59-90), Glassey and Strauss showed that if the growth in the momentum of the particles is controlled, then the relativistic Vlasov-Maxwell system has a classical solution globally in time. Later they proved that such control is achieved if the kinetic energy density of the particles remains bounded for all time (Math. Meth. Appl. Sci. 1987, 9:46-52). Here, we show that the latter assumption can be weakened to the boundedness of the spatial density.Comment: AMS-LaTeX, 9 page

A Proximity Indicator for e-Government: The Smallest Number of Clicks

In order to develop an indicator measuring the proximity of e-Government and its different generic functions, we analysed a set of studies that were conducted in the United States and in Europe. We defined 21 elements of measure grouped in six dimensions of proximity and we surveyed the official Websites of the French-speaking Swiss Cantons in 2002 and 2003. We observed that more technical aspects such as navigability were well developed, whereas more “socio-political” aspects (data protection, access for handicapped) and organisational issues were still in early stages. To conclude this work we give some hints for the application of a methodology based on proximity measurement.e-Government; portals; evaluation; proximity; 3-clicks rule; usability

Location spoofing

The ability to blur and lie about our location does deserve consideration and should not be treated as entirely malevolent. It will be up to designers to allow the user to have full responsibility and freedom over the access control of their location information, rather than force adherence to uncomfortable regimes of dictated access control

Line following servosystem Patent

Mechanical function generators with potentiometer as sensing elemen

Why TaxMe Makes Taxpayers Happy?

TaxMe-Online is the online tax declaration system of the Canton of Bern in Switzerland, where each of the 26 Cantons has its own fiscal regime and taxation system. In 2008 it was used by almost 26 percent of the Canton of Bern taxpayers (42% used the TaxMe-CD or other software, and the last third chose the paper forms). The TaxMe portal furthermore gives taxpayer access to their fiscal data (taxation status, amounts paid, etc.) and allows them to send electronic vouchers. TaxMe-Online does not require any preliminary registration as the taxpayers receive their user ID at the same time as the tax declaration forms, and when they log in with their identification data, their identity data (name, address, etc.) are already available. Users do however have to sign a paper-based validation declaration: until they have done so, their online tax declaration is not considered as finalized. The tax administration does not have the right to access taxpayers' data until the receipt of this validation declaration. TaxMe-Online is built on open source components and solutions; data are coded before being sent electronically (Secure Socket Layer). 33% of the TaxMe-Online users say they are “very happy” with this way of filling in their tax declaration, but amongst citizens using a similar solution on CD-ROM or the paper-based declaration, only 18% say they are very happy. This paper tries to find out why the online solution scores much higher than other tax declaration systems. It comprises three main parts (i) the development of an assessment model; (ii) a description of the system and its functionalities; and (iii) an analysis of user acceptance. We investigated the point of view of the TaxMe-Online users on an empirical basis, most notably by analysing secondary sources such as surveys realized by the fiscal administration of the Canton of Bern and newspaper articles, and by conducting interviews with various stakeholders.Taxation; case study; usability; portal; data exchange; open source; user acceptance

A One-Stop Government Prototype Based on Use Cases and Scenarios

In this paper we show the methodology we used to build a prototype for One-stop Government. We started by defining ten simple use cases, and then we developed scenarios, business rules and sequence diagrams for each of them. This work was based on a conceptual model for One-stop Government we developed in a previous research. We also explain why the use cases and the scenarios proved very helpful for the conception and the development of the prototype. Last we show the software architecture, based on distributed components, and the operation of the prototype with a few examples.e-government; model; use case; scenario; architecture

A Framework to Analyze Data Governance of Swiss Population Registers

In June 2006 the Swiss Parliament adopted a new law on population registers' harmonization in order to simplify statistical data collection and data exchange from around 4'000 decentralized registers. Besides there are more than 2'000 administrative services delivered to Swiss citizens and businesses, of which hundreds could potentially use data from population registers. The law is rather vague about the implementation of this harmonization and even though many projects are currently being undertaken in this domain, most of them are quite technical. We believe there is a need for analysis tools and therefore in this paper we propose a conceptual framework to analyse data governance of these populations registers, with a strong focus on information requirements and identity management. In order to develop this framework we built on existing approaches to define its building blocks: data consumers, data sources, identity in a given context, requirements, and data sets.governance; data; identity; population registers; modelling; framework

The composition and resilience of rockpool fish assemblages on the central Hawke's Bay coast New Zealand : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Ecology at Massey University

Irregular pagination.Fish assemblages in rockpools on two intertidal platforms on the Central Hawke's Bay coast of New Zealand were studied from June 2000 to March 2001. Twenty-four species belonging to 14 families were collected from 226 rockpool censuses. The Tripterygiidae were the most speciose family, represented by 7 species. Fifty-seven percent of the total number of fish captured (n = 6133) belonged to a single species, the robust triplefin Grahamina capito. Common subtidal species contributed significantly to the taxocene, indicating that much of the rockpool fish fauna is an extension of that in the shallow subtidal fringe. However, two specialist intertidal species (Acanthoclinus fuscus and Bellapiscus medius) were relatively abundant in the collections. Significant relationships between rockpool fish assemblage structure, and rockpool habitat structure were discovered. Richness, abundance and biomass were generally greater in large pools with lots of shelter, located close to the low-tide mark. Further analysis revealed that assemblages in these pools contained many partial residents that were uncommon or absent from rockpools higher on the shore. Seasonality in the structure of rockpool fish assemblages was related primarily to recruitment events. During late spring and early summer, the abundance and density of resident species increased markedly as the result of an influx of settling larvae. However, species richness remained stable over the sampling period, probably because transient subtidal species (with the exception of the labrid, Notolabrus celidotus) did not contribute significantly to the rockpool fish community. The rockpool fish community appeared to be resilient: taxocene structure re-established between collection events. However, the level and rate of resilience appeared to be lower than described in other studies, as the effects of sampling were still measurable after 3-months. The recovery of richness, abundance and biomass of fish was seasonally dependent, being slow in winter and spring, but rapid during summer. Specialist intertidal species were generally the best recolonisers, whereas partial resident species were poor recolonisers, and relied mainly on larval recruitment to colonise rockpools

The Newtonian limit of the relativistic Boltzmann equation

The relativistic Boltzmann equation for a constant differential cross section and with periodic boundary conditions is considered. The speed of light appears as a parameter $c>c_0$ for a properly large and positive $c_0$. A local existence and uniqueness theorem is proved in an interval of time independent of $c>c_0$ and conditions are given such that in the limit $c\to +\infty$ the solutions converge, in a suitable norm, to the solutions of the non-relativistic Boltzmann equation for hard spheres.Comment: 12 page

Method and Instruments for Modeling Integrated Knowledge

MIMIK (Method and Instruments for Modeling Integrated Knowledge) is a set of tools used to formalize and represent knowledge within organizations. It furthermore supports knowledge creation and sharing within communities of interest or communities of practice. In this paper we show that MIMIK is based on a model theory approach and builds on other existing methods and techniques. We also explain how to use the method and its instruments in order to model strategic objectives, processes, knowledge, and roles found within an organization, as well as relations existing between these elements. Indeed MIMIK provides eight types of models in order to describe what is commonly called know-how, know-why and know-what; it uses matrices in order to formally and semantically link strategic objectives, knowledge and actors. We close this paper with a presentation of a prototype we built in order to demonstrate a technical architecture allowing for knowledge creation, formalization and sharing.knowledge modelling; process modelling; public administration; methodology; knowledge sharing; RSS