The Effects of Disinformation Upon National Attitudes Towards the EU and its Institutions

This work explores the effects of misinformation and disinformation upon national attitudes towards the EU. Several nations, in particular the Russian Federation, have been working for decades to spread narratives that debase the political processes of healthy democracies around the world. There is strong evidence to show that extensive efforts have been made to disrupt the inner workings and overall membership of the EU, to support disruptive policies in the United States such that political deadlock is maintained indefinitely. These efforts are largely based on the spreading of misinformation and disinformation across social networks that have done very little to attempt to protect the discourse that they provide

Is a Rigorous Agile Methodology the Best Development Strategy for Small Scale Tech Startups?

Recently, Agile development processes have become popular in the software development community, and have been shown to be effective in large organizations. However, given that the communication and cooperation dynamics in startup companies are very different from that of larger, more established companies, and the fact that the initial focus of a startup might be significantly different from its ultimate goal, it is questionable whether a rigid process model that works for larger companies is appropriate in tackling the problems faced by a startup. When we scale down even further and observe the small scale startup with only a few members, many of the same problems that Agile methodology sets out to solve do not even exist. Then, for a small scale startup, is it still worth putting the resources into establishing a process model? Do the benefits of adopting an Agile methodology outweigh the opportunity cost of spending the resources elsewhere? This paper examines the advantages and disadvantages of adopting an Agile methodology in a small scale tech startup and compares it to other process models, such as the Waterfall model and Lean Startup. In determining whether a rigorous agile methodology is the best development strategy for small scale tech startups, we consider the metrics of cost, time, quality, and scope in light of the particular needs of small startup organizations, and present a case study of a company that has needed to answer this very question

MEMS 411: The Adjustable Bit Brace

This group set out to create an open-source adjustable bit brace as a tool to lower the barrier to entry for smaller individuals looking to pick up tools and work on DIY projects. The brace is designed to highlight 3D printed parts, as well as components that can be fabricated at home by an experienced maker. The design uses standard adjustment mechanisms such as button clips and bolts to bring the bit brace from full size down to 2/3 scale in seconds. The device is advised by engineering models, FEA analysis, stiffness/strength targets, and destructive testing protocols to create a brace that satisfies user needs and predefined performance goals. Several parts were created in an iterative process to determine the best 3D printed design, material, and integration method. The final brace underwent validation proof load testing to ensure that assembly-level analysis was correct and that the brace was safe for operation. With the final addition of steel gussets to the 3D printed components, the brace now exceeds the predetermined strength requirements for functionality. Finally, the brace was used to drill holes into wood beams at several size configurations including the largest and smallest to ensure that functionality and tactile feedback were preserved

Sub-2 cm/s passivation of silicon surfaces by aprotic solutions

Minimizing recombination at semiconductor surfaces is required for the accurate determination of the bulk carrier lifetime. Proton donors, such as hydrofluoric acid and superacids, are well known to provide highly effective short-term surface passivation. We demonstrate here that aprotic solutions based on bis(trifluoromethanesulfonyl)methane (TFSM) in hexane or pentane can also result in excellent passivation of (100)-orientation silicon surfaces. We show that the optimized TFSM-pentane passivation scheme can measure effective lifetimes up to 20 ms, with a surface recombination velocity of 1.7 cm s1 at an excess carrier density of 1015 cm3 . Fitting injection-dependent lifetime curves requires chemical passivation and field effect passivation from a negatively charged layer with a charge density of 1010–1011 q cm2 . The slightly higher recombination velocity of 2.3 cm s1 measured with TFSM-hexane can be explained by a lower charge density in the passivating layer, suggesting that the steric hindrance associated with the solvent size could play a role in the passivation mechanism. Finally, phosphorus nuclear magnetic resonance experiments confirm that TFSM-based solutions have Lewis acidity without being superacids, which opens up opportunities for them to be used in materials systems sensitive to superacidic environments

Uncertainties in the Production of p Nuclides in SN Ia Determined by Monte Carlo Variations

© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019Several thousand tracers from a 2D model of a thermonuclear supernova were used in a Monte Carlo post-processing approach to determine p-nuclide abundance uncertainties originating from nuclear physics uncertainties in the reaction rates.Final Accepted Versio

A rank based social norms model of how people judge their levels of drunkenness whilst intoxicated

Background: A rank based social norms model predicts that drinkers’ judgements about their drinking will be based on the rank of their breath alcohol level amongst that of others in the immediate environment, rather than their actual breath alcohol level, with lower relative rank associated with greater feelings of safety. This study tested this hypothesis and examined how people judge their levels of drunkenness and the health consequences of their drinking whilst they are intoxicated in social drinking environments. Methods: Breath alcohol testing of 1,862 people (mean age = 26.96 years; 61.86 % male) in drinking environments. A subset (N = 400) also answered four questions asking about their perceptions of their drunkenness and the health consequences of their drinking (plus background measures). Results: Perceptions of drunkenness and the health consequences of drinking were regressed on: (a) breath alcohol level, (b) the rank of the breath alcohol level amongst that of others in the same environment, and (c) covariates. Only rank of breath alcohol level predicted perceptions: How drunk they felt (b 3.78, 95 % CI 1.69 5.87), how extreme they regarded their drinking that night (b 3.7, 95 % CI 1.3 6.20), how at risk their long-term health was due to their current level of drinking (b 4.1, 95 % CI 0.2 8.0) and how likely they felt they would experience liver cirrhosis (b 4.8. 95 % CI 0.7 8.8). People were more influenced by more sober others than by more drunk others. Conclusion: Whilst intoxicated and in drinking environments, people base judgements regarding their drinking on how their level of intoxication ranks relative to that of others of the same gender around them, not on their actual levels of intoxication. Thus, when in the company of others who are intoxicated, drinkers were found to be more likely to underestimate their own level of drinking, drunkenness and associated risks. The implications of these results, for example that increasing the numbers of sober people in night time environments could improve subjective assessments of drunkenness, are discussed

The s-Process Nucleosynthesis in Low Mass Stars : Impact of the Uncertainties in the Nuclear Physics Determined by Monte Carlo Variations

© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019We investigated the impact of uncertainties in neutron-capture and weak reactions (on heavy elements) on the s-process nucleosynthesis in low-mass stars using a Monte-Carlo based approach. We performed extensive nuclear reaction network calculations that include newly evaluated temperature-dependent upper and lower limits for the individual reaction rates. Our sophisticated approach is able to evaluate the reactions that impact more significantly the final abundances. We found that -decay rate uncertainties affect typically nuclides near s-process branchings, whereas most of the uncertainty in the final abundances is caused by uncertainties in neutron capture rates, either directly producing or destroying the nuclide of interest. Combined total nuclear uncertainties due to reactions on heavy elements are approximately 50%

Threshold dynamics for the 3dd radial NLS with combined nonlinearity

We consider the nonlinear Schr\"odinger equation with focusing quintic and defocusing cubic nonlinearity in three space dimensions: $$(i\partial_t+\Delta)u = |u|^2 u - |u|^4 u.$$ In [18, 23], the authors classified the dynamics of solutions under the energy constraint $E(u)< E^c(W)$, where $W$ is the quintic NLS ground state and $E^c$ is the quintic NLS energy. In this work we classify the dynamics of $H^1$ solutions at the threshold $E(u)=E^c(W)$.Comment: 31 page