The Golden Ticket: How Blockchain Technology can be Implemented into Event Ticketing

When the group/individual named Satoshi Nakamoto first conceptualized blockchain in 2008, it served as the underlying foundation to the cryptocurrency Bitcoin. In the years following, cryptocurrencies alike experiences massive gains in profitability; however, after the bubble had burst organizations began to look at the technology from a more academic standpoint. It was quickly found out that there is a massive application for blockchain in almost all sectors of industry from bulk stores (Walmart) to banking (IBM). This paper will explore how blockchain technology can be implemented into event ticketing, more specifically concerts. The current landscape of the industry is under scrutiny as previous events led to a gap in trust and security between consumers and businesses. The ticketing sector is being exposed to the advantages of integrating the emerging and evolving technology as more companies begin to take interest in how blockchain can improve business. The willingness of ticketing corporations to adopt the technology will help mend relationships with consumers, provide more protection, and provide a more secure and engaging experience for consumers

Resilient Turns: Epistrophe, Incrementum, Metonymy

In this essay, we demonstrate how rhetorical analyses of style can maintain their focus on linguistic patterns while simultaneously attending to material ones. Focusing on the trope of metonymy and the figures of incrementum and epistrophe, we show how these devices represent different modes of material-semiotic addressivity, resiliently turning and reconfiguring the rhetorical ecologies they capacitate. Using three case studies—a corpus of news articles about water quality amid extensive wind turbine development in Chatham-Kent, Ontario; traditional and “rogue” pain scales; and scientific literature about CRISPR—we explore the stylistic affordances of epistrophe, incrementum, and metonymy, showing how these “turnings” allow resilient material-semiotic articulations. We conclude by suggesting how our framework may be applied and extended to other topics and how this understanding of tropes and figures may align with other research trajectories in RSTM

Building a COTS archive for satellite data

The goal of the NOAA/NESDIS Active Archive was to provide a method of access to an online archive of satellite data. The archive had to manage and store the data, let users interrogate the archive, and allow users to retrieve data from the archive. Practical issues of the system design such as implementation time, cost and operational support were examined in addition to the technical issues. There was a fixed window of opportunity to create an operational system, along with budget and staffing constraints. Therefore, the technical solution had to be designed and implemented subject to constraint imposed by the practical issues. The NOAA/NESDIS Active Archive came online in July of 1994, meeting all of its original objectives

Major Powers and Militarized Conflict

This article attempts to answer the question of why major powers engage in more active foreign policy behaviors than minor powers. It does so by comparing two explanations for the increased conflict propensity of major powers. The first explanation focuses on major powers’ observable capabilities, while the second stresses their different behavior. We incorporate both into an ultimatum model of conflict in which a state’s cost of conflict consists of both observable and behavioral components. Using data from the period from 1870 to 2001, we empirically illustrate the observable and behavioral differences between major and minor powers. We then utilize a decomposition model to assess the relative significance of the two explanations. The results suggest that most of the difference in conflict propensity between major and minor powers can be attributed to observable differences

Localized vibrational modes in optically bound structures

We show, through analytical theory and rigorous numerical calculations, that optical binding can organize a collection of particles into stable one-dimensional lattice. This lattice, as well as other optically-bound structures, are shown to exhibit spatially localized vibrational eigenmodes. The origin of localization here is distinct from the usual mechanisms such as disorder, defect, or nonlinearity, but is a consequence of the long-ranged nature of optical binding. For an array of particles trapped by an interference pattern, the stable configuration is often dictated by the external light source, but our calculation revealed that inter-particle optical binding forces can have a profound influence on the dynamics.Comment: 4 pages, Optical Bindin

Experience Report: Thinkathon -- Countering an "I Got It Working" Mentality with Pencil-and-Paper Exercises

Goal-directed problem-solving labs can lead a student to believe that the most important achievement in a first programming course is to get programs working. This is counter to research indicating that code comprehension is an important developmental step for novice programmers. We observed this in our own CS-0 introductory programming course, and furthermore, that students weren't making the connection between code comprehension in labs and a final examination that required solutions to pencil-and-paper comprehension and writing exercises, where sound understanding of programming concepts is essential. Realising these deficiencies late in our course, we put on three 3-hour optional revision evenings just days before the exam. Based on a mastery learning philosophy, students were expected to work through a bank of around 200 pencil-and-paper exercises. By comparison with a machine-based hackathon, we called this a Thinkathon. Students completed a pre and post questionnaire about their experience of the Thinkathon. While we find that Thinkathon attendance positively influences final grades, we believe our reflection on the overall experience is of greater value. We report that: respected methods for developing code comprehension may not be enough on their own; novices must exercise their developing skills away from machines; and there are social learning outcomes in programming courses, currently implicit, that we should make explicit

Relationship between urinary calcium and calcium intake during calcitriol administration

Relationship between urinary calcium and calcium intake during calcitriol administration. The hypercalciuria that occurs when 1,25(OH)2D3 (calcitriol) is given to humans with normal renal function depends on dietary Ca absorption and may also relate, in part, to enhanced bone resorption. To evaluate the relationship between urinary and dietary Ca during treatment with calcitriol, 12 metabolic balance studies were performed in normal volunteers ingesting a diet containing 350 mg/day of Ca, to which Ca gluconate was added. After 10 days on either 350 mg/day or 1550 mg/day of Ca, calcitriol, 0.5 µg every 12hr, was given. Then diet Ca was changed in successive 5-day treatment periods from 350 to 650, 950 and 1550 mg/day (group A) or from 1550 to 950, 650 and 350 mg/day (group B). On the lowest diet Ca, urinary Ca was less than Ca intake during calcitriol treatment (group A, 220 ± 50 mg/day; group B, 247 ± 40). As diet Ca was changed during calcitriol treatment, urinary Ca correlated with diet Ca (r = 0.60) until diet Ca reached 950 mg/day. With calcitriol, serum iPTH fell by 18 to 25% (P < 0.01) and urinary hydroxyproline fell by 11 to 19% (P < 0.05 to 0.01). Baseline serum levels of 1,25(OH)2D were 47 ± 8 and 34 ± 5 pg/ml in group A and B, respectively, and the values increased to 51 ± 12 and 45 ±7.4 pg/ml during treatment with calcitriol. Serum Ca from fasted subjects was not affected by calcitriol, but the mean postabsorptive serum Ca (noon) was increased by 0.35 mg/dl. Although urine Ca/creatinine from fasted subjects increased with calcitriol treatment, the values varied directly with the 24-hr urine Ca and inversely with serum iPTH levels. Thus, dietary Ca is the major determinant of urinary Ca during treatment with calcitriol, and the latter may decrease dietary Ca requirements. There was no evidence for an increased bone resorption. The reduction of hydroxyproline excretion suggests that bone resorption was initially depressed, perhaps due to iPTH suppression. The data also suggest that urine Ca/creatinine after fasting for 12 hr is influenced by previous dietary Ca intake or intestinal Ca absorption, perhaps related to changing iPTH levels

AIR QUALITY IMPACTS OF LIQUEFIED NATURAL GAS IN THE SOUTH COAST AIR BASIN OF CALIFORNIA

The effects of liquefied natural gas (LNG) on pollutant emission inventories and air quality in the South Coast Air Basin of California were evaluated using recent LNG emission measurements by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the Southern California Gas Company (SoCalGas), and with a state-of-the-art air quality model. Pollutant emissions can be affected by LNG owing to differences in composition and physical properties, including the Wobbe index, a measure of energy delivery rate. This analysis uses LNG distribution scenarios developed by modeling Southern California gas flows, including supplies from the LNG receiving terminal in Baja California, Mexico. Based on these scenarios, the projected penetratino of LNG in the South Coast Air Basin is expected to be limited. In addition, the increased Wobbe index of delivered gas (resulting from mixtures of LNG and conventional gas supplies) is expected to cause increases smaller than 0.05 percent in overall (area-wide) emissions of nitrogen oxides (NOx). BAsed on the photochemical state of the South Coast Air Basin, any increase in NOx is expected to cause an increase in the highest local ozone concentrations, and this is reflected in model results. However, the magnitude of the increase is well below the generally accepted accuracy of the model and would not be discernible with the existing monitoring network. Modeling of hypothetical scenarios indicates that discernible changes to ambient ozone and particulate matter concentrations would occur only at LNG distribution rates that are not achievable with current or planned infrastructure and with Wobbe index vlaues that exceed current gas quality tariffs. Results of these hypothetical scenarios are presented for consideration of any proposed substantial expansion of LNG supply infrastructure in Southern California