Ceramic micropalaeontology: the analysis of microfossils in ancient ceramics

Microfossils can be a common component of ancient ceramic artefacts. Their analysis in this unusual context is a little-known, yet promising cross-disciplinary application of micropalaeontology. The following article presents the first detailed assessment of the phenomenon of microfossils in ancient ceramics and demonstrates how micropalaeontology can contribute to a range of issues in archaeological ceramic analysis and the reconstruction of the human past. In describing a methodology by which micropalaeontologists and archaeologists can analyse microfossiliferous ceramics, this paper presents the foundations of an approach, which is here referred to as Ceramic Micropalaeontology

Quadratic Core-Selecting Payment Rules for Combinatorial Auctions

We report on the use of a quadratic programming technique in recent and upcoming spectrum auctions in Europe. Specifically, we compute a unique point in the core that minimizes the sum of squared deviations from a reference point, for example, from the Vickrey-Clarke-Groves payments. Analyzing the Karush-Kuhn-Tucker conditions, we demonstrate that the resulting payments can be decomposed into a series of economically meaningful and equitable penalties. Furthermore, we discuss the benefits of this combinatorial auction, explore the use of alternative reserve pricing approaches in this context, and indicate the results of several hundred computational runs using CATS data.Auctions, spectrum auctions, market design, package auction, clock auction, combinatorial auction

A Planned Jefferson Lab Experiment on Spin-Flavor Decomposition

Experiment E04-113 at Jefferson Lab Hall C plans to measure the beam-target double-spin asymmetries in semi-inclusive deep-inelastic $\vec p(e, e^\prime h)X$ and $\vec d(e, e^\prime h)X$ reactions ($h=\pi^+, \pi^-, K^+$ or$K^-$) with a 6 GeV polarized electron beam and longitudinally polarized NH$_3$ and LiD targets. The high statistic data will allow a spin-flavor decomposition in the region of $x=0.12 \sim 0.41$ at $Q^2=1.21\sim 3.14$ GeV$^2$. Especially, leading-order and next-to-leading order spin-flavor decomposition of $\Delta u_v$, $\Delta d_v$ and $\Delta \bar{u} - \Delta \bar{d}$ will be extracted based on the measurement of the combined asymmetries $A_{1N}^{\pi^+ - \pi^-}$. The possible flavor asymmetry of the polarized sea will be addressed in this experiment.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, contribution paper to SPIN2004 conferenc

Phase transitions in argon films

We present heat-capacity data detailing the evolution of the first six layers of argon adsorbed on graphite foam. The second and third layers have liquid-solid-gas triple points similar to the first layer. These layers exhibit a phase diagram consisting of two-dimensional solid, liquid, and gas phases on top of a solid film. Above the temperatures of the individual-layer triple points, the melting transition for each layer appears to be first order, and the first two layers show evidence of registry transitions prior to melting. For films of a total thickness of about four layers and up, the melting of each of the first three layers occurs at temperatures above the bulk triple point, as reported by Zhu and Dash [Phys. Rev. B 38, 11 673 (1988)]. Our results confirm those of an ellipsometry study [H. S. Youn and G. B. Hess, Phys. Rev. Lett. 64, 918 (1990)] that found layering transitions above what were believed to be the layering critical-point temperatures. We observe heat-capacity peaks identified with these transitions and with melting transitions that join them with the low-temperature layering transitions. A phase diagram based on these data may represent the signature of a preroughening transition and a disordered flat phase in the bulk-crystal interface

Managing poorly quantified risks by means of national standards with specific reference to dolomitic ground

Risk and Reliability in Geotechnical Engineerin

Community Media 4 Kenya: a partnership approach to building collective intelligence

Collective intelligence for the common good is considered here in terms of its contribution to social transformation at the micro level of community. A critical evaluation of the knowledge limitations of research programmes currently focussing on collective intelligence is presented before the case is made to widen collective intelligence research efforts and understanding. The application of a ‘common good’ focus to collective intelligence research and practice provides a contextualising space for community practice in the digital age to be considered through a philosophy of community technologies. Community media is presented as providing tools, spaces and processes for such critical considerations to be made. Community learning and community-based learning theories are discussed and drawn together to illustrate how community–university partnerships can be developed to facilitate and promote collective intelligence for the common good. The paper concludes with an introductory discussion of the Community Media 4 Kenya (CM4K) community–university partnership as an exemplar of collective intelligence for the common good

The weak closure of the equimeasurable rearrangements of a measurable function

AbstractIf (X, Λ, μ) is a finite measure space and f is in L1 (X, μ), then the σ(L1, L∞)-closure of the set Δ(f) of all measurable functions equimeasurable with f is shown to be the set to which g belongs if and only if there is a function equimeasurable with f which majorizes g (in the sense of the Hardy-Littlewood-Polya preorder relation) on the non-atomic part of X and which equals g on the union of the atoms of X. If ϱ is a saturated Fatou Banach function norm and Lϱ(X, μ) is universally rearrangement invariant such that L∞ ⊂ Lϱ ⊂ L1, then for all f in Lϱ the σ(Lϱ, Lϱ′)-closure of Δ (f) is shown to be the same as the σ(L1, L∞)-closure of Δ (f)

Chem# - Semantically Enriched Linked Open Chemical Data

The problem: Vast quantities of chemical data (e.g. crystal structures, NMR spectra, experimental reports) are generated every day. The majority of this data is never published, and the data that is published is fragmented,trapped in legacy formats and difficult to discover. The solution: Semantically Enriched Linked Open Chemical Data: browsable, searchable, discoverable and interpretable by humans and machines alike, using standardized extensible data formats (Chemical Markup Language) and technologies (HTTP, RDF).Funded by JISC