OPTIMISM AND CONSUMPTION: PSYCHOLOGICAL COSTS OF MALAYSIA-SULU DISPUTE

This research aims to examine the moderating effect of optimism on the relationship between psychological cost and consumption level during disputes. Psychometric-based questionnaire was developed and distributed in March 2013 to find Sabahan had severe symptoms of stress. This stress level induced the consumption level and also leisure cost in attempts to overcome the dispute. Interestingly, those Sabahans who were more inclined to optimism-might rethink their consumption/spending decision making. In other words, there is a moderating effect of optimism on the relationship between stress level and consumption during disputes

Hierarchical strategies for efficient fault recovery on the reconfigurable PAnDA device

A novel hierarchical fault-tolerance methodology for reconfigurable devices is presented. A bespoke multi-reconfigurable FPGA architecture, the programmable analogue and digital array (PAnDA), is introduced allowing fine-grained reconfiguration beyond any other FPGA architecture currently in existence. Fault blind circuit repair strategies, which require no specific information of the nature or location of faults, are developed, exploiting architectural features of PAnDA. Two fault recovery techniques, stochastic and deterministic strategies, are proposed and results of each, as well as a comparison of the two, are presented. Both approaches are based on creating algorithms performing fine-grained hierarchical partial reconfiguration on faulty circuits in order to repair them. While the stochastic approach provides insights into feasibility of the method, the deterministic approach aims to generate optimal repair strategies for generic faults induced into a specific circuit. It is shown that both techniques successfully repair the benchmark circuits used after random faults are induced in random circuit locations, and the deterministic strategies are shown to operate efficiently and effectively after optimisation for a specific use case. The methods are shown to be generally applicable to any circuit on PAnDA, and to be straightforwardly customisable for any FPGA fabric providing some regularity and symmetry in its structure

Estimating the Underwater Diffuse Attenuation Coefficient with a Low-Cost Instrument: The KdUINO DIY Buoy

A critical parameter to assess the environmental status of water bodies is the transparency of the water, as it is strongly affected by different water quality related components (such as the presence of phytoplankton, organic matter and sediment concentrations). One parameter to assess the water transparency is the diffuse attenuation coefficient. However, the number of subsurface irradiance measurements obtained with conventional instrumentation is relatively low, due to instrument costs and the logistic requirements to provide regular and autonomous observations. In recent years, the citizen science concept has increased the number of environmental observations, both in time and space. The recent technological advances in embedded systems and sensors also enable volunteers (citizens) to create their own devices (known as Do-It-Yourself or DIY technologies). In this paper, a DIY instrument to measure irradiance at different depths and automatically calculate the diffuse attenuation Kd coefficient is presented. The instrument, named KdUINO, is based on an encapsulated low-cost photonic sensor and Arduino (an open-hardware platform for the data acquisition). The whole instrument has been successfully operated and the data validated comparing the KdUINO measurements with the commercial instruments. Workshops have been organized with high school students to validate its feasibility

A QoE study of different stream and layout configurations in video conferencing under limited network conditions

One particular problem of QoE research in video conferencing is, that most research in the past concentrated on one-to-one video conferencing or simply video consumption. However, video conferencing with two people (one-to-one) and within a group (multi-party) is different. Particularly, limitations of one participant might have an effect on the QoE of the whole group. This possible effect however is not well studied. Therefore, this paper aims to better understand the impact of individual limitations towards the groups QoE. To do so, we show a study about different video stream configurations and layouts for multi-party conferencing in respect to individual network limitations. For this, we conduct a user study with 20 participants in 5 groups, in a semi-controlled setup. Such a setup, combines supervising participants locally while still using our software infrastructure deployed in the internet. Furthermore, we use an asymmetric experiment design, by putting every participant under a different condition, as this proposes a more realistic scenario. Within our study, we look at three different factors: layout, video quality and network limitations. To foster conversation between participants, the group engaged in a discussion about different survival questions. Our findings show that packet loss and the resulting distortions have a greater impact on the QoE as reducing the video quality by its resolution. Furthermore, our findings indicate that participants are more satisfied in a visually equal layout (showing participants in a similar size) and a more balanced stream configuration

Ground State Energy of the One-Dimensional Discrete Random Schr\"{o}dinger Operator with Bernoulli Potential

In this paper, we show the that the ground state energy of the one dimensional Discrete Random Schroedinger Operator with Bernoulli Potential is controlled asymptotically as the system size N goes to infinity by the random variable \ell_N, the length the longest consecutive sequence of sites on the lattice with potential equal to zero. Specifically, we will show that for almost every realization of the potential the ground state energy behaves asymptotically as $\frac{\pi^2}{\ell_N+1)^2}$ in the sense that the ratio of the quantities goes to one

Age-Dependent Defects of Regulatory B Cells in Wiskott-Aldrich Syndrome Gene Knockout Mice.

The Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome (WAS) is a rare X-linked primary immunodeficiency characterized by recurrent infections, thrombocytopenia, eczema, and high incidence of malignancy and autoimmunity. The cellular mechanisms underlying autoimmune complications in WAS have been extensively studied; however, they remain incompletely defined. We investigated the characteristics of IL-10-producing CD19+CD1dhighCD5+ B cells (CD1dhighCD5+ Breg) obtained from Was gene knockout (WKO) mice and found that their numbers were significantly lower in these mice compared to wild type (WT) controls. Moreover, we found a significant age-dependent reduction of the percentage of IL-10-expressing cells in WKO CD1dhighCD5+ Breg cells as compared to age-matched WT control mice. CD1dhighCD5+ Breg cells from older WKO mice did not suppress the in vitro production of inflammatory cytokines from activated CD4+ T cells. Interestingly, CD1dhighCD5+ Breg cells from older WKO mice displayed a basal activated phenotype which may prevent normal cellular responses, among which is the expression of IL-10. These defects may contribute to the susceptibility to autoimmunity with age in patients with WAS

Cognitive ability does not predict objectively measured sedentary behaviour: evidence from three older cohorts

Higher cognitive ability is associated with being more physically active. Much less is known about the associations between cognitive ability and sedentary behavior. Ours is the first study to examine whether historic and contemporaneous cognitive ability predicts objectively measured sedentary behavior in older age. Participants were drawn from 3 cohorts (Lothian Birth Cohort, 1936 [LBC1936] [n = 271]; and 2 West of Scotland Twenty-07 cohorts: 1950s [n = 310] and 1930s [n = 119]). Regression models were used to assess the associations between a range of cognitive tests measured at different points in the life course, with sedentary behavior in older age recorded over 7 days. Prior simple reaction time (RT) was significantly related to later sedentary time in the youngest, Twenty-07 1950s cohort (p = .04). The relationship was nonsignificant after controlling for long-standing illness or employment status, or after correcting for multiple comparisons in the initial model. None of the cognitive measures were related to sedentary behavior in either of the 2 older cohorts (LBC1936, Twenty-07 1930s). There was no association between any of the cognitive tests and the number of sit-to-stand transitions in any of the 3 cohorts. The meta-analytic estimates for the measures of simple and choice RT that were identical in all cohorts (n = 700) were also not significant. In conclusion, we found no evidence that objectively measured sedentary time in older adults is associated with measures of cognitive ability at different time points in life, including cognitive change from childhood to older age

The VLT-FLAMES survey of massive stars: observations in the Galactic clusters NGC3293, NGC4755 and NGC6611

We introduce a new survey of massive stars in the Galaxy and the Magellanic Clouds using the Fibre Large Array Multi-Element Spectrograph (FLAMES) instrument at the Very Large Telescope (VLT). Here we present observations of 269 Galactic stars with the FLAMES-Giraffe Spectrograph (R ~ 25,000), in fields centered on the open clusters NGC 3293, NGC 4755 and NGC 6611. These data are supplemented by a further 50 targets observed with the Fibre-Fed Extended Range Optical Spectrograph (FEROS, R = 48,000). Following a description of our scientific motivations and target selection criteria, the data reduction methods are described; of critical importance the FLAMES reduction pipeline is found to yield spectra that are in excellent agreement with less automated methods. Spectral classifications and radial velocity measurements are presented for each star, with particular attention paid to morphological peculiarities and evidence of binarity. These observations represent a significant increase in the known spectral content of NGC 3293 and NGC 4755, and will serve as standards against which our subsequent FLAMES observations in the Magellanic Clouds will be compared.Comment: 26 pages, 9 figures (reduced size). Accepted for publication in A&A. A copy with full res. figures is available from http://www.ing.iac.es/~cje/flames_mw.ps.gz. Minor changes following correction of proof

On the Asymptotic Dynamics of a Quantum System Composed by Heavy and Light Particles

We consider a non relativistic quantum system consisting of $K$ heavy and $N$ light particles in dimension three, where each heavy particle interacts with the light ones via a two-body potential $\alpha V$. No interaction is assumed among particles of the same kind. Choosing an initial state in a product form and assuming $\alpha$ sufficiently small we characterize the asymptotic dynamics of the system in the limit of small mass ratio, with an explicit control of the error. In the case K=1 the result is extended to arbitrary $\alpha$. The proof relies on a perturbative analysis and exploits a generalized version of the standard dispersive estimates for the Schr\"{o}dinger group. Exploiting the asymptotic formula, it is also outlined an application to the problem of the decoherence effect produced on a heavy particle by the interaction with the light ones.Comment: 38 page

Testing systems of identical components

We consider the problem of testing sequentially the components of a multi-component reliability system in order to figure out the state of the system via costly tests. In particular, systems with identical components are considered. The notion of lexicographically large binary decision trees is introduced and a heuristic algorithm based on that notion is proposed. The performance of the heuristic algorithm is demonstrated by computational results, for various classes of functions. In particular, in all 200 random cases where the underlying function is a threshold function, the proposed heuristic produces optimal solutions