179 research outputs found
The legislative framework regarding bullying in South African schools
Bullying in schools is a global phenomenon that has the potential to impact on children not only physically but also psychologically. In South Africa countless children fall victim to bullying, harassment and abuse at schools. A myriad of constitutional rights are infringed upon when bullying occurs, and the problem is escalating. The Protection from Harassment Act 71 of 2011 was signed and accepted into law on the 27th of April 2013. This new Act may grant relief to victims of bullying inter alia by providing for protection orders, and therefore adds to the legislative framework available to victims. However, in terms of bullying in schools, the parties to these incidents are minors and therefore a critical analysis is necessary with regard to the rights of the victim and the offender. In this context the relationship and interaction between the Protection from Harassment Act 71 of 2011, the Child Justice Act 75 of 2008, the Children's Act 38 of 2005 and the South African Schools Act 84 of 1996 call for critical analysis
Design and applications of a secure and decentralized DHT
Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 2011.Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.Includes bibliographical references (p. 105-114).Distributed Hash Tables (DHTs) are a powerful building block for highly scalable decentralized systems. They route requests over a structured overlay network to the node responsible for a given key. DHTs are subject to the well-known Sybil attack, in which an adversary creates many false identities in order to increase its influence and deny service to honest participants. Defending against this attack is challenging because (1) in an open network, creating many fake identities is cheap; (2) an attacker can subvert periodic routing table maintenance to increase its influence over time; and (3) specific keys can be targeted by clustering attacks. As a result, without centralized admission control, previously existing DHTs could not provide strong availability guarantees. This dissertation describes Whanau, a novel DHT routing protocol which is both efficient and strongly resistant to the Sybil attack. Whanau solves this long-standing problem by using the social connections between users to build routing tables that enable Sybilresistant one-hop lookups. The number of Sybils in the social network does not affect the protocol's performance, but links between honest users and Sybils do. With a social network of n well-connected honest nodes, Whanau provably tolerates up to O(n/ log n) such "attack edges". This means that an attacker must convince a large fraction of the honest users to make a social connection with the adversary's Sybils before any lookups will fail. Whanau uses techniques from structured DHTs to build routing tables that contain O(Vf log n) entries per node. It introduces the idea of layered identifiers to counter clustering attacks, which have proven particularly challenging for previous DHTs to handle. Using the constructed tables, lookups provably take constant time. Simulation results, using large-scale social network graphs from LiveJournal, Flickr, YouTube, and DBLP, confirm the analytic prediction that Whanau provides high availability in the face of powerful Sybil attacks. Experimental results using PlanetLab demonstrate that an implementation of the Whanau protocol can handle reasonable levels of churn.by Christopher T. Lesniewski-Laas.Ph.D
Rotational and high-resolution infrared spectrum of HCN: global ro-vibrational analysis and improved line catalogue for astrophysical observations
HCN is an ubiquitous molecule in interstellar environments, from external
galaxies, to Galactic interstellar clouds, star forming regions, and planetary
atmospheres. Observations of its rotational and vibrational transitions provide
important information on the physical and chemical structure of the above
environments. We present the most complete global analysis of the spectroscopic
data of HCN. We have recorded the high-resolution infrared spectrum from
450 to 1350 cm, a region dominated by the intense and
fundamental bands, located at 660 and 500 cm, respectively, and their
associated hot bands. Pure rotational transitions in the ground and
vibrationally excited states have been recorded in the millimetre and
sub-millimetre regions in order to extend the frequency range so far considered
in previous investigations. All the transitions from the literature and from
this work involving energy levels lower than 1000 cm have been fitted
together to an effective Hamiltonian. Because of the presence of various
anharmonic resonances, the Hamiltonian includes a number of interaction
constants, in addition to the conventional rotational and vibrational l-type
resonance terms. The data set contains about 3400 ro-vibrational lines of 13
bands and some 1500 pure rotational lines belonging to 12 vibrational states.
More than 120 spectroscopic constants have been determined directly from the
fit, without any assumption deduced from theoretical calculations or
comparisons with similar molecules. An extensive list of highly accurate rest
frequencies has been produced to assist astronomical searches and data
interpretation. These improved data, have enabled a refined analysis of the
ALMA observations towards Sgr B2(N2).Comment: 35 pages, 14 figures, accepted for pubblication in ApJ Supplemen
A new approach to electromagnetic wave tails on a curved spacetime
We present an alternative method for constructing the exact and approximate
solutions of electromagnetic wave equations whose source terms are arbitrary
order multipoles on a curved spacetime. The developed method is based on the
higher-order Green's functions for wave equations which are defined as
distributions that satisfy wave equations with the corresponding order
covariant derivatives of the Dirac delta function as the source terms. The
constructed solution is applied to the study of various geometric effects on
the generation and propagation of electromagnetic wave tails to first order in
the Riemann tensor. Generally the received radiation tail occurs after a time
delay which represents geometrical backscattering by the central gravitational
source. It is shown that the truly nonlocal wave-propagation correction (the
tail term) takes a universal form which is independent of multipole order. In a
particular case, if the radiation pulse is generated by the source during a
finite time interval, the tail term after the primary pulse is entirely
determined by the energy-momentum vector of the gravitational field source: the
form of the tail term is independent of the multipole structure of the
gravitational source. We apply the results to a compact binary system and
conclude that under certain conditions the tail energy can be a noticeable
fraction of the primary pulse energy. We argue that the wave tails should be
carefully considered in energy calculations of such systems.Comment: RevTex, 28 pages, 5 eps figures, http://www.tpu.ee/~tony/texdocs/, 4
changes made (pp. 2, 4, 22, 24), 2 references adde
Estimation of tungsten and ODS tungsten damages after dense plasma exposure in PF-12 and PF-1000
The paper presents experimental investigations of damages in pure tungsten and ODS (oxide dispersed strengthened) tungsten under dense plasma shots. The experiments were performed with plasma focus devices PF-12 and PF-1000 with a power flux density of 10⁶…10¹² W/cm² using deuterium. The surface morphology of the targets exposed to plasma streams is analyzed using electron and optical microscopy. Due to the plasma effect, different surface structures, such as wave-like structures, a melted layer, a mesh of microcracks, droplets, craters, crevices and holes appear. Both the original and irradiated samples were investigated by local X-ray spectroscopic analysis and by X-ray phase-shift analysis.Представлены результаты исследований повреждений в чистом вольфраме и вольфраме, легированном дисперсными, оксидами под воздействием плотной плазмы. Эксперименты были проведены на установках плазменный фокус ПФ-12 и ПФ-1000 в дейтериевой плазме с плотностью мощности 10⁶…10¹² W/cm². Морфология поверхностей мишеней, облученных плазменными потоками, была исследована с помощью сканирующего электронного микроскопа и оптического микроскопа. На поверхности материала были обнаружены различные дефекты, такие как расплавленный слой, волнообразные структуры, сеть микротрещин, брызги, кратеры, наплывы и поры. Оба материала до и после облучения также исследовались с помощью рентгеноспектрального и рентгеновского фазового анализов.Представлені результати досліджень пошкоджень у чистому вольфрамі та вольфрамі, легованому дисперсними, оксидами під впливом густої плазми. Експерименти були проведені на установках плазмовий фокус ПФ-12 та ПФ-1000 на дейтерієвій плазмі з густиною потужності 10⁶…10¹² W/cm². Морфологія поверхонь мішеней, опромінених плазмовими потоками, була досліджена за допомогою скануючого електронного мікроскопа та оптичного мікроскопа. На поверхні матеріалу були виявлені різні дефекти, такі як розплавлений шар, хвилеподібні структури, сітка мікротріщин, бризки, кратери, напливи і пори. Обидва матеріали до і після опромінення також досліджувалися за допомогою рентгеноспектрального й рентгенівського фазового аналізів
Toward an optimal search strategy of optical and gravitational wave emissions from binary neutron star coalescence
Observations of an optical source coincident with gravitational wave emission
detected from a binary neutron star coalescence will improve the confidence of
detection, provide host galaxy localisation, and test models for the
progenitors of short gamma ray bursts. We employ optical observations of three
short gamma ray bursts, 050724, 050709, 051221, to estimate the detection rate
of a coordinated optical and gravitational wave search of neutron star mergers.
Model R-band optical afterglow light curves of these bursts that include a
jet-break are extrapolated for these sources at the sensitivity horizon of an
Advanced LIGO/Virgo network. Using optical sensitivity limits of three
telescopes, namely TAROT (m=18), Zadko (m=21) and an (8-10) meter class
telescope (m=26), we approximate detection rates and cadence times for imaging.
We find a median coincident detection rate of 4 yr^{-1} for the three bursts.
GRB 050724 like bursts, with wide opening jet angles, offer the most optimistic
rate of 13 coincident detections yr^{-1}, and would be detectable by Zadko up
to five days after the trigger. Late time imaging to m=26 could detect off-axis
afterglows for GRB 051221 like bursts several months after the trigger. For a
broad distribution of beaming angles, the optimal strategy for identifying the
optical emissions triggered by gravitational wave detectors is rapid response
searches with robotic telescopes followed by deeper imaging at later times if
an afterglow is not detected within several days of the trigger.Comment: 6 pages, 1 figure, Accepted for publication in MNRAS Letters (2011
April 22
Laboratory and tentative interstellar detection of trans-methyl formate using the publicly available Green Bank Telescope PRIMOS survey
The rotational spectrum of the higher-energy trans conformational isomer of
methyl formate has been assigned for the first time using several pulsed-jet
Fourier transform microwave spectrometers in the 6-60 GHz frequency range. This
species has also been sought toward the Sagittarius B2(N) molecular cloud using
the publicly available PRIMOS survey from the Green Bank Telescope. We detect
seven absorption features in the survey that coincide with laboratory
transitions of trans-methyl formate, from which we derive a column density of
3.1 (+2.6, -1.2) \times 10^13 cm-2 and a rotational temperature of 7.6 \pm 1.5
K. This excitation temperature is significantly lower than that of the more
stable cis conformer in the same source but is consistent with that of other
complex molecular species recently detected in Sgr B2(N). The difference in the
rotational temperatures of the two conformers suggests that they have different
spatial distributions in this source. As the abundance of trans-methyl formate
is far higher than would be expected if the cis and trans conformers are in
thermodynamic equilibrium, processes that could preferentially form
trans-methyl formate in this region are discussed. We also discuss measurements
that could be performed to make this detection more certain. This manuscript
demonstrates how publicly available broadband radio astronomical surveys of
chemically rich molecular clouds can be used in conjunction with laboratory
rotational spectroscopy to search for new molecules in the interstellar medium.Comment: 40 pages, 7 figures, 4 tables; accepted for publication in Ap
Efficient production of S8 in interstellar ices: the effects of cosmic-ray-driven radiation chemistry and nondiffusive bulk reactions
Theoretical Chemistr
Cost–utility of different treatment strategies after the failure of tumour necrosis factor inhibitor in rheumatoid arthritis in the Finnish setting
Objective. To evaluate the cost–utility of different treatment strategies in severe RA after TNF-inhibitor failure
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Atmospheric stilling leads to prolonged thermal stratification in a large shallow polymictic lake
To quantify the effects of recent and potential future decreases in surface wind speeds on lake thermal stratification, we apply the one-dimensional process-based model MyLake to a large, shallow, polymictic lake, Võrtsjärv. The model is validated for a 3-year period and run separately for 28 years using long-term daily atmospheric forcing data from a nearby meteorological station. Model simulations show exceptionally good agreement with observed surface and bottom water temperatures during the 3-year period. Similarly, simulated surface water temperatures for 28 years show remarkably good agreement with long-term in situ water temperatures. Sensitivity analysis demonstrates that decreasing wind speeds has resulted in substantial changes in stratification dynamics since 1982, while increasing air temperatures during the same period had a negligible effect. Atmospheric stilling is a phenomenon observed globally, and in addition to recent increases in surface air temperature, needs to be considered when evaluating the influence of climate change on lake ecosystems
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