Electrical switching device Patent

Electrical switching device comprising conductive liquid confined within square loop of deformable nonconductive tubing also used for levelin

The anatomy of a business game

We describe in detail a business game, which has been used extensively in education for a decade. Although the business game is smaller than other games, it is fairly realistic as it includes decisions on investments, production, prices, and advertising. Furthermore, the game has dynamic properties, in that decisions and financial states of the firms carry over from one period to the next. There are not many such detailed descriptions of business games, although this is in demand. Such a complete mathematical description lays ground not only for alterations of the game, but also for developments of new games. It can also provide a link to models used in micro-economic theory.Business games; learning; microeconomics; modeling; science of simulation/gaming

Nanoplasmon-enabled macroscopic thermal management

In numerous applications of energy harvesting via transformation of light into heat the focus recently shifted towards highly absorptive materials featuring nanoplasmons. It is currently established that noble metals-based absorptive plasmonic platforms deliver significant light-capturing capability and can be viewed as super-absorbers of optical radiation. However, direct experimental evidence of plasmon-enabled macroscopic temperature increase that would result from these efficient absorptive properties is scarce. Here we derive a general quantitative method of characterizing light-capturing properties of a given heat-generating absorptive layer by macroscopic thermal imaging. We further monitor macroscopic areas that are homogeneously heated by several degrees with plasmon nanostructures that occupy a mere 8% of the surface, leaving it essentially transparent and evidencing significant heat generation capability of nanoplasmon-enabled light capture. This has a direct bearing to thermophotovoltaics and other applications where thermal management is crucial

Direct Measurement of Fast Transients by Using Boot-strapped Waveform Averaging

An approximation to coherent sampling, also known as boot-strapped waveform averaging, is presented. The method uses digital cavities to determine the condition for coherent sampling. It can be used to increase the effective sampling rate of a repetitive signal and the signal to noise ratio simultaneously. The method is demonstrated by using it to directly measure the fluorescence lifetime from rhodamine 6G by digitizing the signal from a fast avalanche photodiode. The obtained lifetime of 4.4+-0.1 ns is in agreement with the known values

Forecasting the fast and frugal way: A study of performance and information-processing strategies of experts and non-experts when predicting the World Cup 2002 in soccer

This paper investigates forecasting performance and judgmental processes of experts and non-experts in soccer. Two circumstances motivated the paper: (i) little is known about how accurately experts predict sports events, and (ii) recent research on human judgment suggests that ignorance-based decision-strategies may be reliable. About 250 participants with different levels of knowledge of soccer took part in a survey and predicted the outcome of the first round of World Cup 2002. It was found that the participating experts (i.e., sport journalists, soccer fans, and soccer coaches) were not more accurate than the non-experts. Experts overestimated their performance and were overconfident. While the experts claimed to have relied on analytical approaches and much information, participants with limited knowledge stated that their forecasts were based upon recognition and few pieces of information. The paper concludes that a recognition-based strategy seems to be appropriate when forecasting worldwide soccer events.Expert predictions; Information use; Judgmental forecasting; Overconfidence; Recognition heuristic; Sports forecasting

Fitness advantages in multiple blood-feeding: the Aedes aegypti example

Only a few of the over three thousand species of mosquitoes in the world have evolved a close association with human settlements (i.e. domestic habits) and a subsequent heavy reliance on humans as their primary blood source. These include the most important vectors of human parasitic diseases, i.e., malaria, dengue and filariasis. Representatives of all three major mosquito genera have made this transition from wild to domestic environments, so this association seems to have evolved independently on several occasions due to similar environmental circumstances. Mosquito feeding preferences are not well understood in terms of either neurobehaviour or genetics but would appear, superficially at least, to be a good target for genetic transformation, i.e., turning human-feeding species into species that seldom feed on humans or transmit their diseases. Understanding how domestic species arose and the current fitness advantages for maintaining those behavioural traits is critical for assessing the potential for manipulating and reversing this process. Aedes aegypti, perhaps the most domesticated of all mosquito species, is used as the prime example in exploring these issue

Twittering to the top: a content analysis of corporate tweets to measure organization-public relationships

Corporations worldwide are realizing the potential to build relationships with publics using social media. The microblogging site, Twitter, has transformed from a platform in which people merely update the Twitterverse about their daily activities to a communication channel where interpersonal conversations between millions of users thrive. As public relations practitioners, it is important to utilize new media to reach out to publics in order to build mutually beneficial relationships. This study examines how 47 corporations use Twitter as a communication and relationship-building tool and works towards developing guidelines for practitioners on using and evaluating their communication efforts on Twitter. Grounded in Grunig’s four models of public relations, Hon and Grunig’s (1999) relationship indicators, and theories of interactivity, this thesis utilized a content analysis to investigate corporate use of Twitter as a means of communication. This study analyzed 47 corporations’ Twitter homepages (n = 94) and tweets (n = 1,577) during a one-week sampling period. This research is important because companies dedicate time and resources to communicate with publics through Twitter. Not only do public relations practitioners need to know how to effectively utilize this medium, but they also need to be able to demonstrate to corporations their return on investment. The data show that 44.4% of the tweets follow the two-way symmetrical model of public relations, and 63.3% of the corporate tweets demonstrated a desire on behalf of the corporations to form communal relationships with users. In addition, trust and control mutuality were the most common relationship indicators used. Finally, the data reveal that corporations post higher interactive tweets, utilizing the “at reply” function to converse with publics. While these results reflect the tweets as a whole, when analyzing individual companies, many are not following commonly accepted relationship building and communication strategies. The first study of its kind, this thesis illustrates how corporations are using Twitter as a communication and relationship-building tool. This study concludes with implications of using Twitter and how public relations practitioners can effectively use Twitter for developing and maintaining long-term, mutually beneficial relationships with publics