Zynga’s FarmVille, social games, and the ethics of big data mining

The increasing necessity of engaging in social interaction through online commercial providers such as Facebook, alongside the ability of providers to extract, aggregate, analyse, and commercialise the data and metadata such activities produce, have attracted considerable attention amongst the media and academic commentators alike. While much of the attention has been focused on the data mining of social networking services such as Facebook, it is equally important to recognise the widespread adoption of large-scale data mining practices in a number of realms, including social games such as the well-known FarmVille and its sequels, created by Zynga. The implicit contract that the public who use these services necessarily engage in requires them to trade information about their friends, their likes, their desires, and their consumption habits in return for their participation in the service. This paper will critically explore the realm of social games utilising Zynga as a central example, with a view to examine the practices, politics, and ethics of data mining and the inherent social media contradiction. In determining whether this contradiction is accidental or purposeful, this paper will ask, in effect, whether Zynga and other big data miners behind social games are entrepreneurial heroes, more sinister FarmVillains, or whether it is possible at all to draw a line between the two? In doing so, Zynga’s data mining approach and philosophy provide an important indicator about the broader integration of data analytics into a range of everyday activities

Asymptotic Quasinormal Frequencies of Different Spin Fields in Spherically Symmetric Black Holes

We consider the asymptotic quasinormal frequencies of various spin fields in Schwarzschild and Reissner-Nordstr\"om black holes. In the Schwarzschild case, the real part of the asymptotic frequency is ln3 for the spin 0 and the spin 2 fields, while for the spin 1/2, the spin 1, and the spin 3/2 fields it is zero. For the non-extreme charged black holes, the spin 3/2 Rarita-Schwinger field has the same asymptotic frequency as that of the integral spin fields. However, the asymptotic frequency of the Dirac field is different, and its real part is zero. For the extremal case, which is relevant to the supersymmetric consideration, all the spin fields have the same asymptotic frequency, the real part of which is zero. For the imaginary parts of the asymptotic frequencies, it is interesting to see that it has a universal spacing of $1/4M$ for all the spin fields in the single-horizon cases of the Schwarzschild and the extreme Reissner-Nordstr\"om black holes. The implications of these results to the universality of the asymptotic quasinormal frequencies are discussed.Comment: Revtex, 17 pages, 3 eps figures; one table, some remarks and references added to section I

Electroconvulsive therapy mediates neuroplasticity of white matter microstructure in major depression.

Whether plasticity of white matter (WM) microstructure relates to therapeutic response in major depressive disorder (MDD) remains uncertain. We examined diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) correlates of WM structural connectivity in patients receiving electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), a rapidly acting treatment for severe MDD. Tract-Based Spatial Statistics (TBSS) applied to DTI data (61 directions, 2.5 mm(3) voxel size) targeted voxel-level changes in fractional anisotropy (FA), and radial (RD), axial (AD) and mean diffusivity (MD) in major WM pathways in MDD patients (n=20, mean age: 41.15 years, 10.32 s.d.) scanned before ECT, after their second ECT and at transition to maintenance therapy. Comparisons made at baseline with demographically similar controls (n=28, mean age: 39.42 years, 12.20 s.d.) established effects of diagnosis. Controls were imaged twice to estimate scanning-related variance. Patients showed significant increases of FA in dorsal fronto-limbic circuits encompassing the anterior cingulum, forceps minor and left superior longitudinal fasciculus between baseline and transition to maintenance therapy (P<0.05, corrected). Decreases in RD and MD were observed in overlapping regions and the anterior thalamic radiation (P<0.05, corrected). Changes in DTI metrics associated with therapeutic response in tracts showing significant ECT effects differed between patients and controls. All measures remained stable across time in controls. Altered WM microstructure in pathways connecting frontal and limbic areas occur in MDD, are modulated by ECT and relate to therapeutic response. Increased FA together with decreased MD and RD, which trend towards normative values with treatment, suggest increased fiber integrity in dorsal fronto-limbic pathways involved in mood regulation

Quasinormal Modes of Dirty Black Holes

Quasinormal mode (QNM) gravitational radiation from black holes is expected to be observed in a few years. A perturbative formula is derived for the shifts in both the real and the imaginary part of the QNM frequencies away from those of an idealized isolated black hole. The formulation provides a tool for understanding how the astrophysical environment surrounding a black hole, e.g., a massive accretion disk, affects the QNM spectrum of gravitational waves. We show, in a simple model, that the perturbed QNM spectrum can have interesting features.Comment: 4 pages. Published in PR

On vacuum gravitational collapse in nine dimensions

We consider the vacuum gravitational collapse for cohomogeneity-two solutions of the nine dimensional Einstein equations. Using combined numerical and analytical methods we give evidence that within this model the Schwarzschild-Tangherlini black hole is asymptotically stable. In addition, we briefly discuss the critical behavior at the threshold of black hole formation.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

Pragmatic engagement in a low trust supply chain: Beef farmers’ perceptions of power, trust and agency

The academic discussion of power in supply chains has changed from a discussion of the use of coercive power to one which emphasizes the role of trust in embedding co-operation and disincentivizing opportunism. Whilst a number of empirical studies have suggested the former is alive and well, this paper argues that power relations may also be constituted by the self-perceptions of weaker actors as much as by the explicit actions of more powerful ones. This study explores the role of power through the perceptions of subjugated actors, which set the ‘rules of the game’. Our case centres on perceptions of Northern Irish beef farmers and their reflections on their ‘powerlessness’ in relation to the larger, more consolidated processors that they sell to. We find that the way farmers make sense of the power relations they encounter is influenced by the individuating character of the power relations exercised by the processors, which debilitates their ability to collaborate and resist collectively. What emerges is a story about the process of accommodation whereby farmers pragmatically resign themselves to play by ‘the rules of the game’ to remain ‘part of the game’

Daylight Analysis with Microcomputers for School Buildings in a Hot, Humid Climate

Daylighting and other passive energy technologies are critical issues that should be considered in the early stages of building planning and architectural design. Both new design and retrofit of existing buildings benefit greatly by use of microcomputer-generated models, especially as they relate to building studies in zones of extreme climate. The hot, humid environment of Louisiana poses unique problems and calls for creative solutions. The use of microcomputers as analytical tools to develop suggestions for optimizing the amount of energy consumed for lighting and climatic comfort is illustrated. The effective use of daylighting can, as might be expected, produce net energy savings in most school buildings

Perturbative Approach to the Quasinormal Modes of Dirty Black Holes

Using a recently developed perturbation theory for uasinormal modes (QNM's), we evaluate the shifts in the real and imaginary parts of the QNM frequencies due to a quasi-static perturbation of the black hole spacetime. We show the perturbed QNM spectrum of a black hole can have interesting features using a simple model based on the scalar wave equation.Comment: Published in PR

Scalar spheroidal harmonics in five dimensional Kerr-(A)dS

We derive expressions for the general five-dimensional metric for Kerr-(A)dS black holes. The Klein-Gordon equation is explicitly separated and we show that the angular part of the wave equation leads to just one spheroidal wave equation, which is also that for charged five-dimensional Kerr-(A)dS black holes. We present results for the perturbative expansion of the angular eigenvalue in powers of the rotation parameters up to 6th order and compare numerically with the continued fraction method.Comment: 11 pages, two figures, one table; vz. 2: reference added and grammar correcte

A detailed study of quasinormal frequencies of the Kerr black hole

We compute the quasinormal frequencies of the Kerr black hole using a continued fraction method. The continued fraction method first proposed by Leaver is still the only known method stable and accurate for the numerical determination of the Kerr quasinormal frequencies. We numerically obtain not only the slowly but also the rapidly damped quasinormal frequencies and analyze the peculiar behavior of these frequencies at the Kerr limit. We also calculate the algebraically special frequency first identified by Chandrasekhar and confirm that it coincide with the $n=8$ quasinormal frequency only at the Schwarzschild limit.Comment: REVTEX, 15 pages, 7 eps figure