THE ACCUSED IS ENTERING THE COURTROOM: THE LIVE-TWEETING OF A MURDER TRIAL.

© 2017 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis GroupThe use of social media is now widely accepted within journalism as an outlet for news information. Live tweeting of unfolding events is standard practice. In March 2014, Oscar Pistorius went on trial in the Gauteng High Court for murder. Hundreds of journalists present began live-tweeting coverage, an unprecedented combination of international interest, permission to use technology and access which resulted in massive streams of consciousness reports of events as they unfolded. Based on a corpus of Twitter feeds of twenty-four journalists covering the trial, this study analyses the content and strategies of these feeds in order to present an understanding of how microblogging is used as a live reporting tool. This study shows the development of standardised language and strategies in reporting on Twitter, concluding that journalists adopt a narrow range of approaches, with no significant variation in terms of gender, location, or medium. This is in contrast to earlier studies in the field (Awad, 2006, Hedman, 2015; Kothari, 2010; Lariscy, Avery, Sweetser, & Howes, 2009 Lasorsa, 2012; Lasorsa, Lewis, & Holton, 2011; Sigal, 1999, Vis, 2013).Peer reviewe

Containment and equivalence of weighted automata: Probabilistic and max-plus cases

This paper surveys some results regarding decision problems for probabilistic and max-plus automata, such as containment and equivalence. Probabilistic and max-plus automata are part of the general family of weighted automata, whose semantics are maps from words to real values. Given two weighted automata, the equivalence problem asks whether their semantics are the same, and the containment problem whether one is point-wise smaller than the other one. These problems have been studied intensively and this paper will review some techniques used to show (un)decidability and state a list of open questions that still remain

Flavor mixing in the gluino coupling and the nucleon decay

Flavor mixing in the quark-squark-gluino coupling is studied for the minimal SU(5) SUGRA-GUT model and applied to evaluation of the nucleon lifetime. All off-diagonal (generation mixing) elements of Yukawa coupling matrices and of squark/slepton mass matrices are included in solving numerically one-loop renormalization group equations for MSSM parameters, and the parameter region consistent with the radiative electroweak symmetry breaking condition is searched. It is shown that the flavor mixing in the gluino coupling for a large $\tan\beta$ is of the same order of magnitude as the corresponding Kobayashi-Maskawa matrix element in both up-type and down-type sector. There exist parameter regions where the nucleon decay amplitudes for charged lepton modes are dominated by the gluino dressing process, while for all the examined regions the neutrino mode amplitudes are dominated by the wino dressing over the gluino dressing.Comment: 24 pages, LaTeX, figures are available upon request. ICRR-Report-317-94-1

Safety verification of asynchronous pushdown systems with shaped stacks

In this paper, we study the program-point reachability problem of concurrent pushdown systems that communicate via unbounded and unordered message buffers. Our goal is to relax the common restriction that messages can only be retrieved by a pushdown process when its stack is empty. We use the notion of partially commutative context-free grammars to describe a new class of asynchronously communicating pushdown systems with a mild shape constraint on the stacks for which the program-point coverability problem remains decidable. Stacks that fit the shape constraint may reach arbitrary heights; further a process may execute any communication action (be it process creation, message send or retrieval) whether or not its stack is empty. This class extends previous computational models studied in the context of asynchronous programs, and enables the safety verification of a large class of message passing programs

Effect of vitamin C dietary supplementation on growth and survival of grey mullet, Mugil cephalus (linnaeus, 1758) fry

The present study was conducted to examine the effect of dietary supplementation of vitamin C on growth performance and survival of Mugil cephalus juveniles. Mullet juveniles of an average weight of 3.5 gm each were distributed into four treatment groups and were fed with one of the ten purified diets for 45 days. The growth performance and survival of the experimental animals were measured fortnightly. The experimental purified diets were formulated to contain with or without graded levels of vitamin C. The growth performance (absolute growth, percentage weight gain, SGR, PER, per day growth) were significantly higher in mullets fed with diet containing vitamin C supplementation than fed without vitamin supplementation. The vitamin had no significant effect on survival of the mullet juveniles and all the treatments were significantly similar to each other. These finding can be used for formulation of species specific feed for mullet fry for ensuring optimum growth

V,W and X in Technicolour Models

Light techni-fermions and pseudo Goldstone bosons that contribute to the electroweak radiative correction parameters V,W and X may relax the constraints on technicolour models from the experimental values of the parameters S and T. Order of magnitude estimates of the contributions to V,W and X from light techni-leptons are made when the the techni-neutrino has a small Dirac mass or a large Majorana mass. The contributions to V,W and X from pseudo Goldstone bosons are calculated in a gauged chiral Lagrangian. Estimates of V,W and X in one family technicolour models suggest that the upper bounds on S and T should be relaxed by between 0.1 and 1 depending upon the precise particle spectrum.Comment: 19 pages + 2 pages of ps figs, SWAT/1

Development of the Asia pacific consortium on osteoporosis (APCO) framework: Clinical standards of care for the screening, diagnosis, and management of osteoporosis in the Asia-pacific region

Guidelines for doctors managing osteoporosis in the Asia-Pacific region vary widely. We compared 18 guidelines for similarities and differences in five key areas. We then used a structured consensus process to develop clinical standards of care for the diagnosis and management of osteoporosis and for improving the quality of care.Purpose: Minimum clinical standards for assessment and management of osteoporosis are needed in the Asia-Pacific (AP) region to inform clinical practice guidelines (CPGs) and to improve osteoporosis care. We present the framework of these clinical standards and describe its development.Methods: We conducted a structured comparative analysis of existing CPGs in the AP region using a 5IQ model (identification, investigation, information, intervention, integration, and quality). One-hundred data elements were extracted from each guideline. We then employed a four-round Delphi consensus process to structure the framework, identify key components of guidance, and develop clinical care standards.Results: Eighteen guidelines were included. The 5IQ analysis demonstrated marked heterogeneity, notably in guidance on risk factors, the use of biochemical markers, self-care information for patients, indications for osteoporosis treatment, use of fracture risk assessment tools, and protocols for monitoring treatment. There was minimal guidance on long-term management plans or on strategies and systems for clinical quality improvement. Twenty-nine APCO members participated in the Delphi process, resulting in consensus on 16 clinical standards, with levels of attainment defined for those on identification and investigation of fragility fractures, vertebral fracture assessment, and inclusion of quality metrics in guidelines.Conclusion: The 5IQ analysis confirmed previous anecdotal observations of marked heterogeneity of osteoporosis clinical guidelines in the AP region. The Framework provides practical, clear, and feasible recommendations for osteoporosis care and can be adapted for use in other such vastly diverse regions. Implementation of the standards is expected to significantly lessen the global burden of osteoporosis

A condensed matter interpretation of SM fermions and gauge fields

We present the bundle Aff(3) x C x /(R^3), with a geometric Dirac equation on it, as a three-dimensional geometric interpretation of the SM fermions. Each C x /(R^3) describes an electroweak doublet. The Dirac equation has a doubler-free staggered spatial discretization on the lattice space Aff(3) x C (Z^3). This space allows a simple physical interpretation as a phase space of a lattice of cells in R^3. We find the SM SU(3)_c x SU(2)_L x U(1)_Y action on Aff(3) x C x /(R^3) to be a maximal anomaly-free special gauge action preserving E(3) symmetry and symplectic structure, which can be constructed using two simple types of gauge-like lattice fields: Wilson gauge fields and correction terms for lattice deformations. The lattice fermion fields we propose to quantize as low energy states of a canonical quantum theory with Z_2-degenerated vacuum state. We construct anticommuting fermion operators for the resulting Z_2-valued (spin) field theory. A metric theory of gravity compatible with this model is presented too.Comment: Minimal modifications in comparison with the published versio

Nucleon Decay Matrix Elements from Lattice QCD

We present a model-independent calculation of hadron matrix elements for all dimension-six operators associated with baryon number violating processes using lattice QCD. The calculation is performed with the Wilson quark action in the quenched approximation at $\beta=6/g^2=6.0$ on a $28^2\times 48\times 80$ lattice. Our results cover all the matrix elements required to estimate the partial lifetimes of (proton,neutron)$\to$($\pi,K,\eta$) +(${\bar \nu},e^+,\mu^+$) decay modes. We point out the necessity of disentangling two form factors that contribute to the matrix element; previous calculations did not make the separation, which led to an underestimate of the physical matrix elements. With a correct separation, we find that the matrix elements have values 3-5 times larger than the smallest estimates employed in phenomenological analyses of the nucleon decays, which could give strong constraints on several GUT models. We also find that the values of the matrix elements are comparable with the tree-level predictions of chiral lagrangian.Comment: 53 pages, 18 eps figure

Academic training in oral and maxillofacial surgery - when and how to enter the pathway

Entering into surgical academia can seem a daunting prospect for an oral and maxillofacial surgery (OMFS) trainee. However, the streamlining of academic training by the NIHR to create the integrated academic training (IAT) pathway has simplified academic training and more clearly defined academic positions and entry points for trainees. In this article we review the current NIHR IAT pathway and the various grades and entry points available to OMF surgeons, both pre- and post-doctoral. We highlight the unique challenges facing OMF trainees and provide advice and insight from both junior and senior OMFS academics. Finally, we focus on the planning and application for a doctoral research fellowship - discussing funding streams available to OMF surgeons