Using Adobe Flash Lite on mobile phones for psychological research: reaction time measurement reliability and inter-device variability

Mobile telephones have significant potential for use in psychological research, possessing unique characteristics—not least their ubiquity—that may make them useful tools for psychologists. We examined whether it is possible to measure reaction times (RTs) accurately using Adobe Flash Lite on mobile phones. We ran simple and choice RT experiments on two widely available mobile phones, a Nokia 6110 Navigator and a Sony Ericsson W810i, using a wireless application protocol (WAP) connection to access the Internet from the devices. RTs were compared within subjects with those obtained using a Linux-based millisecond-accurate measurement system. Results show that measured RTs were significantly longer on mobile devices, and that overall RTs and distribution of RTs varied across device

Complex Multiplication of Exactly Solvable Calabi-Yau Varieties

We propose a conceptual framework that leads to an abstract characterization for the exact solvability of Calabi-Yau varieties in terms of abelian varieties with complex multiplication. The abelian manifolds are derived from the cohomology of the Calabi-Yau manifold, and the conformal field theoretic quantities of the underlying string emerge from the number theoretic structure induced on the varieties by the complex multiplication symmetry. The geometric structure that provides a conceptual interpretation of the relation between geometry and the conformal field theory is discrete, and turns out to be given by the torsion points on the abelian varieties.Comment: 44 page

Very-large-scale motions in rough-bed open-channel flow

Acknowledgements The study has been supported by two EPSRC/UK grants, ‘High-resolution numerical and experimental studies of turbulence-induced sediment erosion and near-bed transport’ (EP/G056404/1) and ‘Bed friction in rough-bed free-surface flows: a theoretical framework, roughness regimes, and quantification’ (EP/K041169/1). Discussions with I. Marusic and comments of three anonymous reviewers are greatly appreciated.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Robust model-based controller synthesis for the SCOLE configuration

The design of a robust compensator is considered for the SCOLE configuration using a frequency-response shaping technique based on the LQG/LTR algorithm. Results indicate that a tenth-order compensator can be used to meet stability-performance-robustness conditions for a 26th-order SCOLE model without destabilizing spillover effects. Since the SCOLE configuration is representative of many proposed spaceflight experiments, the results and design techniques employed potentially should be applicable to a wide range of large space structure control problems

Black hole pair creation and the stability of flat space

We extend the Gross-Perry-Yaffe approach of hot flat space instability to Minkowski space. This is done by a saddle point approximation of the partition function in a Schwarzschild wormhole background which is coincident with an eternal black hole. The appearance of an instability in the whole manifold is here interpreted as a black hole pair creation.Comment: 11 pages,RevTeX4, 2 figures. Accepted for publication in Int. J. Mod. Phys.

A portable Ku-band front-end test package for beam-waveguide antenna performance evaluation

A 34-m beam-waveguide (BWG) antenna has been built a Deep Space Station 13 (DDS 13) in the Goldstone Deep Space Communications Complex. This antenna is designed to be efficient at X-, Ku-, and Ka-bands, and it is the first NASA tracking antenna to use a BWG design. The design of a Ku-band test package for the new BWG antenna at 11.7-12.2 GHz is presented. Results of linear polarization measurements with the test package on the ground are also presented. This report is the fifth in a series of articles concerned with test package design and performance

Molecular studies on intraspecific diversity and phylogenetic position of Coniothyrium minitans

Simple sequence repeat (SSR)±PCR amplification using a microsatellite primer (GACA)% and ribosomal RNA gene sequencing were used to examine the intraspecific diversity in the mycoparasite Coniothyrium minitans based on 48 strains, representing eight colony types, from 17 countries world-wide. Coniothyrium cerealis, C. fuckelii and C. sporulosum were used for interspecific comparison. The SSR±PCR technique revealed a relatively low level of polymorphism within C. minitans but did allow some differentiation between strains. While there was no relationship between SSR±PCR profiles and colony type, there was some limited correlation between these profiles and country of origin. Sequences of the ITS 1 and ITS 2 regions and the 5±8S gene of rRNA genes were identical in all twenty-four strains of C. minitans examined irrespective of colony type and origin. These results indicate that C. minitans is genetically not very variable despite phenotypic differences. ITS and 5±8S rRNA gene sequence analyses showed that C. minitans had similarities of 94% with C. fuckelii and C. sporulosum (which were identical to each other) and only 64% with C. cerealis. Database searches failed to show any similarity with the ITS 1 sequence for C. minitans although the 5±8S rRNA gene and ITS 2 sequences revealed an 87% similarity with Aporospora terricola. The ITS sequence including the 5±8S rRNA gene sequence of Coniothyrium cerealis showed 91% similarity to Phaeosphaeria microscopica. Phylogenetic analyses using database information suggest that C. minitans, C. sporulosum, C. fuckelii and A. terricola cluster in one clade, grouping with Helminthosporium species and 'Leptosphaeria' bicolor. Coniothyrium cerealis grouped with Ampelomyces quisqualis and formed a major cluster with members of the Phaeosphaeriacae and Phaeosphaeria microscopica

Hiding the complexity: building a distributed ATLAS Tier-2 with a single resource interface using ARC middleware

Since their inception, Grids for high energy physics have found management of data to be the most challenging aspect of operations. This problem has generally been tackled by the experiment's data management framework controlling in fine detail the distribution of data around the grid and the careful brokering of jobs to sites with co-located data. This approach, however, presents experiments with a difficult and complex system to manage as well as introducing a rigidity into the framework which is very far from the original conception of the grid.<p></p> In this paper we describe how the ScotGrid distributed Tier-2, which has sites in Glasgow, Edinburgh and Durham, was presented to ATLAS as a single, unified resource using the ARC middleware stack. In this model the ScotGrid 'data store' is hosted at Glasgow and presented as a single ATLAS storage resource. As jobs are taken from the ATLAS PanDA framework, they are dispatched to the computing cluster with the fastest response time. An ARC compute element at each site then asynchronously stages the data from the data store into a local cache hosted at each site. The job is then launched in the batch system and accesses data locally.<p></p> We discuss the merits of this system compared to other operational models and consider, from the point of view of the resource providers (sites), and from the resource consumers (experiments); and consider issues involved in transitions to this model