Non-U.S. Funders of Media Assistance Projects

Examines support for independent media by government agencies, foundations, and multi-national groups outside the U.S. and provides a list of active donors in the field. Explores the effectiveness of media assistance efforts

Metallic Triple Beam Resonator with Thick-film Printed Drive and Pickup

A triple beam resonator fabricated in 430S17 stainless steel with thick-film piezoelectric elements to drive and detect the vibrations is presented. The resonator substrate was fabricated by a simultaneous, double-sided photochemical etching technique and the thick-film piezoelectric elements were deposited by a standard screen-printing process. The combination of these two batch-fabrication processes provides the opportunity for mass production of the device at low cost. The resonator, a dynamically balanced triple beam tuning fork (TBTF) structure 23.5 mm long and 6.5 mm wide, has a favoured mode at 4.96 kHz with a Q-factor of 3630 operating in air

Improving the Reliability of Decision-Support Systems for Nuclear Emergency Management by Leveraging Software Design Diversity

This paper introduces a novel method of continuous verification of simulation software used in decision-support systems for nuclear emergency management (DSNE). The proposed approach builds on methods from the field of software reliability engineering, such as N-Version Programming, Recovery Blocks, and Consensus Recovery Blocks. We introduce a new acceptance test for dispersion simulation results and a new voting scheme based on taxonomies of simulation results rather than individual simulation results. The acceptance test and the voter are used in a new scheme, which extends the Consensus Recovery Block method by a database of result taxonomies to support machine-learning. This enables the system to learn how to distinguish correct from incorrect results, with respect to the implemented numerical schemes. Considering that decision-support systems for nuclear emergency management are used in a safety-critical application context, the methods introduced in this paper help improve the reliability of the system and the trustworthiness of the simulation results used by emergency managers in the decision making process. The effectiveness of the approach has been assessed using the atmospheric dispersion forecasts of two test versions of the widely used RODOS DSNE system

Comparison of cyclists' and motorists' utilitarian physical activity at an urban university

Objective. Preliminary comparison of cyclists and motorists on: (1) distance lived from campus and, (2) the impact of transportation mode on physical activity. Methods. A purposive sample of students (n=50; cyclists=26, motorists=24) living b5 miles from Arizona State University campus wore an accelerometer and completed a travel log for two on-campus days during fall 2005–spring 2006. Residence distance to campus was calculated by geocoded addresses (n=45; cyclists=23 vs. motorists=22). Final outcome variables were: distance lived from campus, accelerometer time moderate-to-vigorous physical activity, steps/day, total time moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (logged minutes cycling+accelerometerderived moderate-to-vigorous physical activity), and minutes total active commuting (logged walking+cycling). Results. Groups were significantly different for: distance lived from campus (cyclists=0.6±0.6 vs. motorists=2.0±1.1 miles; pb0.000); steps/ day (cyclists=11,051±4295 vs. motorists=9174±3319; p=0.046); total time moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (cyclists=85.7±37.0 vs. motorists=50.3±23.8 minutes; pb0.001); minutes in motorized transport (cyclists=24.9±27.5 vs. motorists=61.6±32.9; pb0.001); and total active transport (cyclists=59.4± 32.4 vs. motorists=29.5±20.0; pb0.001). Conclusion. Among students living within 5 miles of campus, cyclists lived relatively closer to campus, accumulated more minutes of physical activity, and spent more time in active transportation than students who used motorized means

Nanostructured thermoelectric generator for energy harvesting

This paper presents the development processes towards a new generation of nanostructured thermoelectric generators for power harvesting from small temperature gradients by using a combination of traditional silicon microfabrication techniques, electroplating and submicron ion-track nanolithography. Polyimide nanotemplates with pore diameters ranging from 30nm to 120 nm were fabricated. Preliminary results for Bi2Te3 nanowires (50 and 120 nm diameter) electroplated into polycarbonate ion-track commercial membranes are presented. Bi2Te3 nanowires of R ̄ 3m structure, with preferential orientation in the (015) and (110) crystallographic plans with nearly stoichiometric composition were electroplated. The fine-grained observed microstructure (6-10 nm) and (110) crystalline orientation appear extremely promising for improving thermoelectric material properties

A utilitarian antagonist: the zombie in popular video games

This article takes as its starting point the prevalence of the zombie in video games. I argue that, although the zombie games often superficially resemble filmic texts in their use of aesthetic and narrative, they must be understood, less as a set of conventions and thematic metaphors in the way that the zombie text has been read in film and television scholarship, and more as a utilisation of the zombie as a utilitarian antagonist that facilitates and permits the pleasures of violence and fantasy in video game play. Beginning with the Resident Evil and Left 4 Dead series of games I examine the way that games necessarily update the notion zombie as mass antagonist via the need to vary gameplay activity through different styles of adversary for players. At the same time I will demonstrate that, far from simply being the province of the survival horror genre, the zombie appears across an array of game forms, game cultures and game productions. The zombie highlights the participatory nature of game culture in the array of zombie 'mods' that users create to transform existing games into zombie based games, in particular in relation to titles such as the Call of Duty series. At the other end of the production spectrum the zombie features heavily in the little studied area of online flash games where the zombie can be found in a variety of game genres and forms. The zombie here often operates as a pastiche of popular zombie narratives in survival games (The Last Stand), parodic engagements with zombie conventions (Jetpacks and Zombies) or play with the notion of zombie pandemics (the Infectionator games). Here I situate the zombie game as a aesthetic genre that works to provide an easily understandable context for such interactive genres as survival horror, text adventures, shooting games, physics games and driving games, with the popularity of these enough to drive numerous dedicated hosting and link sites such as zombiegames.net. The pastiche element of these games extends into gamers social engagement with games. Online debates over the the appropriate actions or preparation for a zombie holocaust are commonplace on the internet in such spaces as Zombieresearch.net. Whilst many of these sites feature decidedly tongue in cheek engagement with the notion of the zombie apocalypse, the users of fora for games like Left 4 Dead and Dead Island tend to debate this directly in the terms of the games themselves, discussing their relative merits or realism. Some of these games also highlight the specific pleasures of identifying the zombie as protagonist of sorts. In discussing this I will return to online gaming and the Left 4 Dead games in which players may compete online as part of the zombie horde. Such games raise major questions for the issues of identification and immersion that are said to be at the centre of the game experience. I will also explore the parodic pleasures of many flash games that situate the player in the role of spreading zombie infections. Throughout this article I aim to demonstrate that the zombie in game culture is less a cultural metaphor than a combination of utilitarian antagonist and a persistent aesthetic; a means of providing style or pleasure to many games that relies on the intertextual and flexible nature of the zombie as popular cultural phenomenon

Implications of Technological Change for Journalists' Tasks and Skills

The authors explore how technology has altered the work processes and activities in news organizations. They show how story ideageneration, research, sourcing, processing, packaging, and repurposinghave changed and created needs for news skills and capabilities

Relationship between objective measures of physical activity and weather: a longitudinal study

BACKGROUND: The weather may be a barrier to physical activity but objective assessment of this hypothesis is lacking. Therefore we evaluated the effect of temperature, rain or snow, and wind speed on the daily physical activity of adults. METHODS: This report contains data from 25 males (BMI (mean ± SD): 28.7 ± 3.83 kg/m(2)) and 177 females (BMI: 29.2 ± 5.92 kg/m(2)) enrolled in an intervention to increase physical activity. Steps/day of the participants was measured by pedometer. Weather data were obtained from Environment Canada. A total of 8,125 observations were included in a mixed linear model analysis. RESULTS: Significant weather related variables (at the 5% level) impacting steps/day included: seasonal effects related to the interaction between weekday and month; mean temperature, total rainfall, interactions between gender, BMI and total snow, interactions between maximum wind speed and BMI, and the amount of snow on the ground. The estimated magnitudes for the various effects were modest, ranging from ~1% to ~20%. Thus for an average individual taking ~10,000 steps/day, weather-dependent changes in physical activity could reach 2,000 steps/day. CONCLUSION: We conclude that weather had modest effects on physical activity of participants in an intervention to increase their activity. It should be stressed that these effects may be different for less or more motivated people. With this in mind, we suggest that the effect of weather on physical activity in the general population needs to be objectively assessed to better understand the barrier it poses, especially as it relates to outdoor recreation or work activities

Protocol for a scoping review on information needs and information-seeking behaviour of people with dementia and their non-professional caregivers

Background: Dementia is a debilitating disease that can lead to major changes in a patient’s behaviour and function. It is important to educate both dementia patients and their non-professional caregivers about the disease. Yet, currently available sources do not seem to be effective for patients and caregivers, who report a need for more information and guidance. A systematic identification of the patients’ and caregivers’ needs for information and information seeking behaviour is needed to create information resources that are relevant and beneficial to the target population. Objective: This is a protocol for a scoping review aimed at gathering knowledge on the information needs and information seeking behaviour of dementia patients and their non- professional caregivers. Our aim is also to provide recommendations for development of future dementia information resources. Methods: The study will commence in November 2018. Both quantitative and qualitative studies on the information needs of dementia patients or caregivers will be examined using Arksey and O’Malley’s methodological framework for scoping studies. A comprehensive literature search will be conducted in electronic databases and grey literature sources. We will also screen reference lists of included studies and related systematic reviews for additional eligible studies. Two authors will perform screening of citations for eligibility, and independently extract data from the included studies in parallel. Any discrepancies will be resolved through discussion. The findings will be presented through a narrative synthesis and reported in line with PRISMA reporting guidelines. Ethics and dissemination: In this review, all included data will originate from published literature. Ethics approval is therefore not a requirement. We will present our findings at relevant conferences and will submit them for publication in peer-reviewed journals. Strengths and limitations of this study • In this scoping review, we will perform a comprehensive search of electronic databases and grey literature sources to identify up-to-date evidence on information needs and information seeking behaviour of dementia patients and their informal caregivers. • We will seek to identify evidence on information needs and information seeking behaviour of both dementia patients and their caregivers. • As this is a scoping review, a formal quality and risk of bias assessment of the included literature will not be performed. • This review will only include studies published in English