7,166 research outputs found
Recommended from our members
Public perception of shale gas extraction in the UK: how people's views are changing
Shear flow induced isotropic to nematic transition in a suspension of active filaments
We study the effects of externally applied shear flow on a model of
suspensions of motors and filaments, via the equations of active hydrodynamics
[PRL {\bf 89} (2002) 058101; {\bf 92} (2004) 118101]. In the absence of shear,
the orientationally ordered phase of {\it both} polar and apolar active
particles is always unstable at zero-wavenumber. An imposed steady shear large
enough to overcome the active stresses stabilises both apolar and moving polar
phases. Our work is relevant to {\it in vitro} studies of active filaments, the
reorientation of endothelial cells subject to shear flow and shear-induced
motility of attached cells.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures submitted to Europhysics Letter
Use of Online Learning Resources by Students: The Case of Crawford University, Nigeria
In the past, access to library holdings was through cabinet boxes via card catalogue system which took time and warped users. Not anymore. From the comfort of one’s remote location, uninterrupted access to learning resources through the Online Public Access Catalogue (OPAC) system is now the standard. This study investigates the level of awareness and the use of OPAC services by the undergraduate students of Crawford University, Nigeria. Focus is on the challenges encountered and possible solutions. Findings from 115 respondents show that majority of the respondents, 81.8%, are not aware of the OPAC services, 97.3% heavily rely on the library staff and the shelf list to locate and retrieve library resources, 90.0% rely on their peers, 94.5% wander from one shelf to the other while 65.5% scatter the shelves before they find what they are searching for! Orientation and re-orientation of the students toward OPAC and publicity hold the key to a visible and optimum use of the system.
Learning, Social Intelligence and the Turing Test - why an "out-of-the-box" Turing Machine will not pass the Turing Test
The Turing Test (TT) checks for human intelligence, rather than any putative
general intelligence. It involves repeated interaction requiring learning in
the form of adaption to the human conversation partner. It is a macro-level
post-hoc test in contrast to the definition of a Turing Machine (TM), which is
a prior micro-level definition. This raises the question of whether learning is
just another computational process, i.e. can be implemented as a TM. Here we
argue that learning or adaption is fundamentally different from computation,
though it does involve processes that can be seen as computations. To
illustrate this difference we compare (a) designing a TM and (b) learning a TM,
defining them for the purpose of the argument. We show that there is a
well-defined sequence of problems which are not effectively designable but are
learnable, in the form of the bounded halting problem. Some characteristics of
human intelligence are reviewed including it's: interactive nature, learning
abilities, imitative tendencies, linguistic ability and context-dependency. A
story that explains some of these is the Social Intelligence Hypothesis. If
this is broadly correct, this points to the necessity of a considerable period
of acculturation (social learning in context) if an artificial intelligence is
to pass the TT. Whilst it is always possible to 'compile' the results of
learning into a TM, this would not be a designed TM and would not be able to
continually adapt (pass future TTs). We conclude three things, namely that: a
purely "designed" TM will never pass the TT; that there is no such thing as a
general intelligence since it necessary involves learning; and that
learning/adaption and computation should be clearly distinguished.Comment: 10 pages, invited talk at Turing Centenary Conference CiE 2012,
special session on "The Turing Test and Thinking Machines
Foreign Direct Investments in Business Services: Transforming the Visegrád Four Region into a Knowledge-based Economy?
Foreign direct investments (FDIs) in the service sector are widely attributed an important role in bringing more skill-intensive activities into the Visegrad Four (V4). This region—comprising Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia—relied heavily on FDIs in manufacturing, which was often found to generate activities with limited skill content. This contribution deconstructs the chaotic concept of “business services” by analysing the actual nature of service sector activities outsourced and offshored to the V4. Using the knowledge-based economy (KBE) as a benchmark, the paper assesses the potential of service sector outsourcing in contributing to regional competitiveness by increasing the innovative capacity. It also discusses the role of state policies towards service sector FDI (SFDI). The analysis combines data obtained from case studies undertaken in service sector outsourcing projects in V4 countries. Moreover, it draws on interviews with senior employees of investment promotion agencies and publicly available data and statistics on activities within the service sector in the region. It argues that the recent inward investments in business services in the V4 mainly utilize existing local human capital resources, and their contribution to the development of the KBE is limited to employment creation and demand for skilled labour
Are we seeing accretion flows in a 250kpc-sized Ly-alpha halo at z=3?
Using MUSE on the ESO-VLT, we obtained a 4 hour exposure of the z=3.12 radio
galaxy MRC0316-257. We detect features down to ~10^-19 erg/s/cm^2/arcsec^2 with
the highest surface brightness regions reaching more than a factor of 100
higher. We find Ly-alpha emission out to ~250 kpc in projection from the active
galactic nucleus (AGN). The emission shows arc-like morphologies arising at
150-250 kpc from the nucleus in projection with the connected filamentary
structures reaching down into the circum-nuclear region. The most distant arc
is offset by 700 km/s relative to circum-nuclear HeII 1640 emission, which we
assume to be at the systemic velocity. As we probe emission closer to the
nucleus, the filamentary emission narrows in projection on the sky, the
relative velocity decreases to ~250 km/s, and line full-width at half maximum
range from 300-700 km/s. From UV line ratios, the emission on scales of 10s of
kpc from the nucleus along a wide angle in the direction of the radio jets is
clearly excited by the radio jets and ionizing radiation of the AGN. Assuming
ionization equilibrium, the more extended emission outside of the axis of the
jet direction would require 100% or more illumination to explain the observed
surface brightness. High speed (>300 km/s) shocks into rare gas would provide
sufficiently high surface brightness. We discuss the possibility that the arcs
of Ly-alpha emission represent accretion shocks and the filamentary emission
represent gas flows into the halo, and compare our results with gas accretion
simulations.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, 1 table, A&A letters accepte
Globalising assessment: an ethnography of literacy assessment, camels and fast food in the Mongolian Gobi
What happens when standardised literacy assessments travel globally? The paper presents an ethnographic account of adult literacy assessment events in rural Mongolia. It examines the dynamics of literacy assessment in terms of the movement and re-contextualisation of test items as they travel globally and are received locally by Mongolian respondents. The analysis of literacy assessment events is informed by Goodwin’s ‘participation framework’ on language as embodied and situated interactive phenomena and by Actor Network Theory. Actor Network Theory (ANT) is applied to examine literacy assessment events as processes of translation shaped by an ‘assemblage’ of human and non-human actors (including the assessment texts)
Stability of multi-electron bubbles in liquid helium
The stability of multi-electron bubbles in liquid helium is investigated
theoretically. We find that multi-electron bubbles are unstable against fission
whenever the pressure is positive. It is shown that for moving bubbles the
Bernoulli effect can result in a range of pressures over which the bubbles are
stable.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figure
- …