Real-time load balancing in an interactive multiplayer game server

In this paper we investigate optimal load balancing strategies for a scalable parallel game server architecture. Our work develops from an existing multi-threaded implementation of the QuakeWorld game server: we investigate the comparative effectiveness of different load-balancing algorithms, and determine how different metrics can be used to analyse performance. We find that achieving optimal QuakeWorld server performance is a trade-off between consistently achieving an even workload distribution whilst reducing intra-frame wait time, and that a combined set of metrics is required to fully understand how load balancing affects server performance

Free Trade and Investment in the Fisheries Sector of the Asia-Pacific Region: An Economic Analysis of Tariffs

This paper was commissioned by the APEC Working Group on Fisheries to examine the economic impact of eliminating tariffs on fish and fish products in APEC economies. Chapter II provides a qualitative assessment of the impacts of liberalization of fisheries trade drawing on the available data and economic theory. Chapter III presents specific quantitative estimates of the impact on trade flows of fish and fish products using an econometrically estimated model of fisheries trade liberalization. Chapter IV summarizes the study’s overall conclusions. These are that the economic impact of the removal of tariffs on fish and fish products in the APEC region would be significant, but modest. It is estimated that, in value terms, the long- run increase in imports in the region, arising from the elimination of tariffs, would be less than 5 per cent of the 1995 level in value. The corresponding increase in exports would be equal to slightly less than 3 per cent of the 1995 level.international trade in fish and fish products, APEC region, impact of tariffs

Surface sediment diatom assemblages and water quality in Welsh lakes: brief descriptions of 33 sites selected for study

In May 1987 surface sediment and periphyton samples were collected for diatom analysis from 27 upland lakes in mid- and north Wales (Figure 1). The sites were selected to provide a range of water acidities from circumneutral to strongly acid. The results, together with those collected from other regions in the British Isles, are to be used to produce a UK diatom-water quality data set that will facilitate calibration of sediment core diatom assemblages and reconstruction of past water quality characteristics such as pH (eg. Birks et al. 1990)

A Mani-Pedi-Anti-Counter-FESTO for Queer Screen Production Practice

In this audiovisual essay, four practitioner-academics seek to identify and address the need to reimagine queer screen production. Traditional heteronormative storytelling dominates the screen production landscape, necessitating a challenge to create more inclusive and diverse narratives. Through the creation of a manifesto essay film, the researchers collectively reflect on their creative practices, synthesize their approaches, and develop a new vision for queer screen production. The result demonstrates the value of embracing: sustainable practices, queer kinship-making as filmmaking, alternatives to hegemonic forms, queer shame, queer failure, eternal adolescence, and the disruption of the ever-forward momentum (among other approaches). Manifesto-making as a method encourages creative practitioners to question the status quo of screen production contexts and strategies, and to think critically about the storytelling norms in broader creative practice. The researchers argue that such an approach can enable creative practitioners to pave the way for new, innovative collaborations and contribute to a more inclusive and diverse creative landscape. This film enacts the opportunities that arise when considering the spectrum of screen production in broader, ‘queerer’, ways, through notions of kinship-making, polyphony and the ‘queer art of failure’ (Halberstam 2011). The disruption of dominant narrative models can be considered in the context of queer theory’s critiques of heteronormative temporality, asking how queer approaches to narrative construction might challenge the heteronormative markers of success and happiness, or what Elizabeth Freeman calls ‘chrononormativity’ (2010). Using ‘manifesto as method’, the film combines the authors’ separate practices in filmmaking, screenwriting, mobile media and documentary in ways that deviate from mainstream categorisations, production hierarchies and workflows

Spectral Effects of Strong Chi-2 Non-Linearity for Quantum Processing

Optical $\chi^{(2)}$ non-linearity can be used for parametric amplification and producing down-converted entangled photon pairs that have broad applications. It is known that weak non-linear media exhibit dispersion and produce a frequency response. It is therefore of interest to know how spectral effects of a strong $\chi^{(2)}$ crystal affect the performance. Here we model the spectral effects of the dispersion of a strong $\chi^{(2)}$ crystal and illustrate how this affects its ability to perform Bell measurements and influence the performance of a quantum gates that employ such a Bell measurement. We show that a Dyson series expansion of the unitary operator is necessary in general, leading to unwanted spectral entanglement. We identify a limiting situation employing periodic poling, in which a Taylor series expansion is a good approximation and this entanglement can be removed.Comment: Will be submitted to PR

Macro and micro ergonomic outcomes in healthcare: unravelling the relationship between patient handling performance and safety climate

The management of risks surrounding patient handling activities continues to be an important factor in healthcare organizations. A great deal of research has been undertaken to investigate the best practices for physical transfers and equipment provision, yet there is less research adopting an organizational systems approach to this problem. In this article we compare two methods for assessing safety climate and patient handling safety performance and argue that a multi-level (mesoergonomic) interpretation of the relationship between the two affords insights into the safety of the system as a whole

The economic value of flower tourism in the Namaqua National Park, South Africa

The travel cost method was used to estimate the economic recreational value of flower viewing at the Namaqua National Park. Demographic, time, expenditure, preference and route information was collected from interviews with 160 SA nationals who visited the park in their own car. Visitors spent an average of $US108 on transportation and$US84 on accommodation in the region. A zonal travel cost model was developed which suggests that the economic recreational value of flower viewing at the park makes to the region is far larger than the annual net loss of $US50 000 which the park makes when only the expenses and revenue of the park are considered