Evaluation of the total photoabsorption cross sections for actinides from photofission data and model calculations

We have calculated the fission probabilities for 237-Np, 233,235,238-U, 232-Th, and nat-Pb following the absorption of photons with energies from 68 MeV to 3.77 GeV using the RELDIS Monte-Carlo code. This code implements the cascade-evaporation-fission model of intermediate-energy photonuclear reactions. It includes multiparticle production in photoreactions on intranuclear nucleons, pre-equilibrium emission, and the statistical decay of excited residual nuclei via competition of evaporation, fission, and multifragmentation processes. The calculations show that in the GeV energy region the fission process is not solely responsible for the entire total photoabsorption cross section, even for the actinides: ~55-70% for 232-Th, \~70-80% for 238-U, and ~80-95% for 233-U, 235-U, and 237-Np. This is because certain residual nuclei that are created by deep photospallation at GeV photon energies have relatively low fission probabilities. Using the recent experimental data on photofission cross sections for 237-Np and 233,235,238-U from the Saskatchewan and Jefferson Laboratories and our calculated fission probabilities, we infer the total photoabsorption cross sections for these four nuclei. The resulting cross sections per nucleon agree in shape and in magnitude with each other. However, disagreement in magnitude with total-photoabsorption cross-section data from previous measurements for nuclei from C to Pb calls into question the concept of a ``Universal Curve'' for the photoabsorption cross section per nucleon for all nuclei.Comment: 39 pages including 11 figure

A microfabricated surface ion trap on a high-finesse optical mirror

A novel approach to optics integration in ion traps is demonstrated based on a surface electrode ion trap that is microfabricated on top of a dielectric mirror. Additional optical losses due to fabrication are found to be as low as 80 ppm for light at 422 nm. The integrated mirror is used to demonstrate light collection from, and imaging of, a single 88 Sr+ ion trapped $169\pm4 \mu$m above the mirror.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure

Using Magentix2 in Smart-Home Environments

[EN] In this paper, we present the application of a multi-agent platform Magentix2 for the development of MAS in smart-homes. Specificallly, the use of Magentix2 (http://gti-ia.upv.es/sma/tools/magentix2/index.php) platform facilitates the management of the multiple occupancy in smart living spaces. Virtual organizations provide the possibility of defining a set of norms and roles that facilitate the regulation and control of the actions that can be carried out by the internal and external agents depending on their profile. We illustrate the applicability of our proposal with a set of scenarios. © Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2015.This work is supported by the Spanish government grants CONSOLIDER INGENIO 2010 CSD2007-00022, MINECO/FEDER TIN2012-36586-C03-01, TIN2011-27652-C03-01, and SP2014800.Valero Cubas, S.; Del Val Noguera, E.; Alemany Bordera, J.; Botti, V. (2015). Using Magentix2 in Smart-Home Environments. En 10th International Conference on Soft Computing Models in Industrial and Environmental Applications. Springer Verlag. 27-37. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-19719-7_3S2737Bajo J, Fraile JA, Pérez-Lancho B, Corchado JM (2010) The thomas architecture in home care scenarios: a case study. Expert Syst Appl 37(5):3986–3999Cetina C, Giner P, Fons J, Pelechano V (2009) Autonomic computing through reuse of variability models at runtime: The case of smart homes. Computer 42(10):37–43Cook DJ (2009) Multi-agent smart environments. J Ambient Intell Smart Environ 1(1):51–55Crandall AS, Cook DJ (2010) Using a hidden markov model for resident identification. In: 6th international conference on intelligent environments, pp 74–79. IEEECriado N, Argente E, Botti V (2013) THOMAS: an agent platform for supporting normative multi-agent systems. J Logic Comput 23(2):309–333Davidoff S, Lee MK, Zimmerman J, Dey A (2006) Socially-aware requirements for a smart home. In: Proceedings of the international symposium on intelligent, environments, pp 41–44Grupo de Tecnología Informática e Inteligencia Artificial (GTI-IA) (2015). http://www.gti-ia.upv.es/sma/tools/magentix2/archivos/Magentix2UserManualv2.1.0.pdf . Magentix2 User’s Manual v2.0Loseto G, Scioscia F, Ruta M, di Sciascio E (2012) Semantic-based smart homes: a multi-agent approach. In: 13th Workshop on objects and agents (WOA 2012), vol 892, pp 49–55Rodriguez S, Julián V, Bajo J, Carrascosa C, Botti V, Corchado JM (2011) Agent-based virtual organization architecture. Eng Appl Artif Intell 24(5):895–910Rodríguez S, Paz JFD, Villarrubia G, Zato C, Bajo J, Corchado JM (2015) Multi-agent information fusion system to manage data from a WSN in a residential home. Inf Fusion 23:43–57Such JM, Garca-Fornes A, Espinosa A, Bellver J (2012) Magentix2: a Privacy-enhancing Agent Platform. Eng Appl Artif IntellSun Q, Yu W, Kochurov N, Hao Q, Hu F (2013) A multi-agent-based intelligent sensor and actuator network design for smart house and home automation. J Sens Actuator Netw 2(3):557–588Val E, Criado N, Rebollo M, Argente E, Julian V (2009) Service-oriented framework for virtual organizations. 1:108–114Wu C-L, Liao C-F, Fu L-C (2007) Service-oriented smart-home architecture based on osgi and mobile-agent technology. IEEE Trans Syst Man Cybern Part C Appl Rev 37(2):193–205Yin J, Yang Q, Shen D, Li Z-N (2008) Activity recognition via user-trace segmentation. ACM Trans Sens Netw (TOSN) 4(4):1

Scraping the Social? Issues in live social research

What makes scraping methodologically interesting for social and cultural research? This paper seeks to contribute to debates about digital social research by exploring how a ‘medium-specific’ technique for online data capture may be rendered analytically productive for social research. As a device that is currently being imported into social research, scraping has the capacity to re-structure social research, and this in at least two ways. Firstly, as a technique that is not native to social research, scraping risks to introduce ‘alien’ methodological assumptions into social research (such as an pre-occupation with freshness). Secondly, to scrape is to risk importing into our inquiry categories that are prevalent in the social practices enabled by the media: scraping makes available already formatted data for social research. Scraped data, and online social data more generally, tend to come with ‘external’ analytics already built-in. This circumstance is often approached as a ‘problem’ with online data capture, but we propose it may be turned into virtue, insofar as data formats that have currency in the areas under scrutiny may serve as a source of social data themselves. Scraping, we propose, makes it possible to render traffic between the object and process of social research analytically productive. It enables a form of ‘real-time’ social research, in which the formats and life cycles of online data may lend structure to the analytic objects and findings of social research. By way of a conclusion, we demonstrate this point in an exercise of online issue profiling, and more particularly, by relying on Twitter to profile the issue of ‘austerity’. Here we distinguish between two forms of real-time research, those dedicated to monitoring live content (which terms are current?) and those concerned with analysing the liveliness of issues (which topics are happening?)

Socio-economic and Technical Characteristics of Backyard Animal Husbandry in Two Rural Communities of Yucatan, Mexico

This research work was conducted in order to asses the socio-economic and technical aspects of backyard animal rearing in two communities of Yucatán, México. One hundred and thirty nine families were interviewed in Sudzal (C1) and 117 families in San Jose Tzal (C2). A structured questionnaire was used to interview the families on technical and socio-economic aspects. Using this information the technical level of animal husbandry and a index of socio-economic status of the families involved in backyard animal rearing in both communities were determined. In C1 46.8% of the interviewed families reared animals in their backyard in comparison to 70.9% in C2. Main animal species kept in the backyard were chickens (C1= 92.3% and C2= 88.0), turkeys (C1= 63.1% and C2= 55.4%) and pigs (C1= 38.5% and 1C2= 5. 7% in C1 and C2 respectively). In C2 100% of pigs kept in the backyard were of the commercial type. Technical level in animal production was significantly higher (P 0.0001) in C2 than in C1, because utilisation of commercial diets was higher in C2 (P 0.001) than in C1. The families of C2 had a higher socio-economic level (P 0.002) than families from C1, because families of C2 have houses built with lasting materials (P 0.0001) and the occupation of the head of the family was associated with higher income (merchants or employees) (P 0.0001). The correlation coefficients between socio-economic status and technical level in backyard animal production showed that 84% of the technical level was explained by the socio-economic status. It can be concluded that socio-economic status has a high influence on backyard animal production characteristics. The socio-economic status determine the number of animals kept and the technical level in animal rearing

Epistemic roles of materiality within a collaborative invention project at a secondary school

In this study, we examined maker‐centred learning from an epistemic perspective, highlighting the agentic role of material engagement and artefacts in learning and creativity. The use of physical materials plays a crucial role in maker activities where the socio‐epistemic aspects of knowledge creation entangle with the designing and making of physical artefacts. By taking a case study perspective, we analysed video data from nine design sessions involving a team of students (aged 13 to 14) developing an invention. First, we analysed knowledge that was built during the process. Our analysis revealed how design ideas evolved from preliminary to final stages and, together with the expressed design problems and conversations preceding the ideas, formed an epistemic object pursued by the team. Next, we included non‐human agencies into the analysis to understand the role of materials in the process. Features of materials and human design intentions both constrained and enabled idea improvement and knowledge creation, intermixing meanings and materials. Material making invited the students to not only rely on human rationalisation, but also to think together with the materials.In this study, we examined maker-centred learning from an epistemic perspective, highlighting the agentic role of material engagement and artefacts in learning and creativity. The use of physical materials plays a crucial role in maker activities where the socio-epistemic aspects of knowledge creation entangle with the designing and making of physical artefacts. By taking a case study perspective, we analysed video data from nine design sessions involving a team of students (aged 13 to 14) developing an invention. First, we analysed knowledge that was built during the process. Our analysis revealed how design ideas evolved from preliminary to final stages and, together with the expressed design problems and conversations preceding the ideas, formed an epistemic object pursued by the team. Next, we included non-human agencies into the analysis to understand the role of materials in the process. Features of materials and human design intentions both constrained and enabled idea improvement and knowledge creation, intermixing meanings and materials. Material making invited the students to not only rely on human rationalisation, but also to think together with the materials.Peer reviewe

Photofission of heavy nuclei at energies up to 4 GeV

Total photofission cross sections for 238U, 235U, 233U, 237Np, 232Th, and natPb have been measured simultaneously, using tagged photons in the energy range Egamma=0.17-3.84 GeV. This was the first experiment performed using the Photon Tagging Facility in Hall B at Jefferson Lab. Our results show that the photofission cross section for 238U relative to that for 237Np is about 80%, implying the presence of important processes that compete with fission. We also observe that the relative photofission cross sections do not depend strongly on the incident photon energy over this entire energy range. If we assume that for 237Np the photofission probability is equal to unity, we observe a significant shadowing effect starting below 1.5 GeV.Comment: 4 pages of RevTex, 6 postscript figures, Submitted to Phys. Rev. Let