A continuous movement version of the Banach—Tarski paradox: A solution to de Groot's Problem

In 1924 Banach and Tarski demonstrated the existence of a paradoxical decomposition of the 3-ball B, i.e., a piecewise isometry from B onto two copies of B. This article answers a question of de Groot from 1958 by showing that there is a paradoxical decomposition of B in which the pieces move continuously while remaining disjoint to yield two copies of B. More generally, we show that if n ≥ 2, any two bounded sets i

Benefit Cost Analysis of RD&E in Action

Since 2004, the Queensland Department of Primary Industries and Fisheries has embarked on a rigorous evaluation of its R&D Programs, with Benefit Cost Analysis being a cornerstone of this work. The analyses conducted to date have proved to be powerful tools in internal resource re-allocation. However, the process used has been time consuming, partly because there needs to be adequate time allowed for consultation both with scientists and with senior staff. Experience has highlighted the need for strong organisational support to the analysts carrying out the work.Benefit Cost Analysis, management, research and development, Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies,

DRAFT: Myanmaras Media Essential for Myanmaras Reforms

The history of journalism in Myanmar makes fascinating reading and could be instructive in assessing the country s political transition if freedom of the press takes root and prospers Progress toward press freedom has occurred very rapidly in Myanmar since 2012 but we still see too many instances of journalists being detained and even charged over what they have published Any comments here about the courage and political instincts of Myanmar s media are largely based on reading English-language Myanmar media Nevertheless it is obviously possible to observe what Myanmar journalists are writing even from a slight distance and still be impressed by how valuable and reliable the best Myanmar journalism is But not surprisingly there is also some Myanmar journalism which is not so impressive as happens with journalism in any countr

Relative Absolutes: Alexandre Kojève and Russian Philosophy Abroad

Standard accounts of twentieth century Russian emigration often describe stages of adaptation for those in exile: first, an effort to maintain continuity with pre-revolutionary Russia, followed by attempts to adopt cultural models of their new countries, and finishing with varying degrees of self-definition and integration. Studies of the Russian diaspora have largely, however, confined themselves to artistic texts. This dissertation rethinks standard models of Russian diasporic culture through the lens of philosophy and intellectual history in Europe more broadly. It examines the work of the philosopher Alexandre Kojève as a thematic bridge, connecting the philosophical activity of Russian émigrés (such as Sergei Bulgakov, Nikolai Berdiaev, and Lev Karsavin) with major figures in French and German intellectual history (Jacques Lacan, Georges Bataille, Carl Schmitt, among others). Although Kojève began his career in Russian philosophical circles (in Moscow, then émigré Paris), he only emerged as a respected philosophical figure after having “denationalized” his philosophical practice. This denationalization notably took place in his influential seminars on Hegel, held in Paris from 1933 to 1939. The dissertation traces Kojève’s transferal of ideas from the Russian tradition to a French, philosophically “universalized” one. The first chapter discusses the shift within consecutive generations of émigré Russian philosophers from religiously inflected work to atheist philosophy. The second chapter identifies the origins of Kojève’s theorization of desire in Russian philosophical debates on love in the fin-de-siècle period. The third chapter examines Kojève’s philosophy through political theory, examining his influence in debates on political conflict and the end of history on both sides of the Iron Curtain. The last chapter “returns” the philosopher to post-Soviet Russia and examines citation of Kojève amongst contemporary Russian philosophers writing today. The dissertation concludes by arguing for a new understanding of Russian philosophy within a transnational exchange of texts and ideas. In particular, it signals to more liminal figures of Russian philosophy, including Kojève and his colleague Alexandre Koyré, as those who introduced problematics germane to Russian thought into broader, pan-European philosophy, thereby disrupting the habit of thinking of Russian intellectual history within an essentialized national context

Investigation of Low-Profile Vortex Generators via Computational Methods

A unique low-profile vortex generator, termed the Conformal Vortex Generator (CVG), has recently been discovered to provide fuel saving of greater than 1% on commercial aircraft. The CVG is an adhesive backed film that creates a spanwise varying aft facing step. While the CVG has been shown to provide fuel savings, the driving fluid mechanism behind the CVG is still unknown. The current work aims to understand and validate the behavior of the CVG at subsonic conditions as well as investigate the behavior of both the CVG and traditional aft facing step at supersonic conditions. The subsonic simulations used a model based on water tunnel and flight test experiments. The goal of these simulations was validation and to provide data not available through experimentation. This study concluded that the simulations could successfully model the flow over a CVG by showing strong qualitative and quantitative similarities between computational and experimental data. It was also shown that the CVGs imparted strong spanwise variations in the boundary layer and wall shear stress that had both a Re_H and CVG length (L) to width (W) ratio dependence. The second set of simulations were based on flight scale conditions (the same as seen in the CVG real world application) and investigated the local flow physics of the CVG. These simulations were performed with a local freestream Mach number of 1.3 and an altitude of 10,000 m. It was shown that at these conditions, the CVG behavior still exhibits L/W ratio dependence and spanwise variation in the boundary layer thickness and wall shear. However, the results varied from the subsonic scaling. The CVGs also impart spanwise varying vorticity into the flow that is not consistent with a traditional step. Lastly, it was concluded that the addition of a downstream ramp past an aft facing step can mitigate the supersonic expansion fan that occurs over a step in supersonic flow

The Domestic (Water) Buffalo in Africa: New and Unusual Records

The domestic (water) buffalo is not indigenous to Africa. Some buffalo may have been taken to what is now Tunisia in Roman times about 2000 years ago. The species arrived in Egypt from Mesopotamia some 1200 years past and there were attempted introductions to the east coast of Africa by the Portuguese from India in the sixteenth century. The missionary-explorer David Livingstone took four buffalo from India to what is now southern Tanzania in 1866. In the twentieth century, European powers introduced buffalo to many of their African colonies. In addition to Egypt and Tunisia on the Mediterranean coast of north Africa buffalo have been introduced to fourteen subSaharan countries. Information on these introductions is sparse and is obviously incomplete. With the exceptions of Tanzania, where there have been buffalo for 90 years, and Mozambique, where there is documented presence over about 50 years, buffalo have been present for very short periods. They have disappeared without trace in some countries and have been culled in others due to adaptation or disease problems. Suitable ecological niches for buffalo exist in many African countries. Too few animals, failure to provide sufficient public financial resources and lack of private sector interest are among the reasons for the buffalo's failure to contribute to African livestock production