23,250 research outputs found
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Identifying customer expectations is key to evidence based service delivery
As librarians and information professionals we share a common rationale: to deliver enhanced services for our customers. The importance of this is self-evident - if we don’t have customers we don't have a job. We therefore put our services at peril if we don’t put the customer at the heart of what we are trying to do. The now-familiar description of evidence based library and information practice reminds us that we need "to integrate user-reported, practitioner-observed and research-derived evidence as an explicit basis for decision-making" (Booth, 2006). This begs several important questions - Who are our users? How can we best capture reports from these users regarding their expected outcomes? How might we as library practitioners observe (and act upon!) what our users require? In attempting to answer such questions we discover potential value in methodologies with a business orientation; utilising tools from the commercial sector such as Customer Value Discovery research (McKnight, 2007a; McKnight & Berrington, 2008)
Two physical characteristics of numerical apparent horizons
This article translates some recent results on quasilocal horizons into the
language of general relativity so as to make them more useful to
numerical relativists. In particular quantities are described which
characterize how quickly an apparent horizon is evolving and how close it is to
either equilibrium or extremality.Comment: 6 pages, 2 figures, conference proceedings loosely based on talk
given at Theory Canada III (Edmonton, Alberta, 2007). V2: Minor changes in
response to referees comments to improve clarity and fix typos. One reference
adde
Canonical Phase Space Formulation of Quasilocal General Relativity
We construct a Hamiltonian formulation of quasilocal general relativity using
an extended phase space that includes boundary coordinates as configuration
variables. This allows us to use Hamiltonian methods to derive an expression
for the energy of a non-isolated region of space-time that interacts with its
neighbourhood. This expression is found to be very similar to the Brown-York
quasilocal energy that was originally derived by Hamilton-Jacobi methods. We
examine the connection between the two formalisms and find that when the
boundary conditions for the two are harmonized, the resulting quasilocal
energies are identical.Comment: 31 pages, 2 figures, references added, typos corrected, section 3
revised for clarity, to appear in Classical and Quantum Gravit
Free Space Optical Link Utilizing a Modulated Retro-Reflector Intended for Planetary Duplex Communication Links Between an Orbiter and Surface Unit
Presented are simulation and experimental results that provide duplex optical-free space communication links with minimal power and pointing requirements by using a modulated retro-reflector (MRR) for planetary communications. The design is the MRR resides on the surface of a planet or moon, where energy is scarce, while the source of the communication laser resides on an orbiter to achieve satellite-to-ground communications. Also, a simulated scenario using the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) is provided for real world potential results. The information sent through this communication path can range from raw scientific data to multimedia files such as videos and pictures. Bidirectional communications is established with the MRR by using a nested pulse position modulation (PPM) structure. This modulation scheme is then evaluated for its validity in a proof-of-concept experiment. Initial results indicate a promising return-link performance of at least 300 kbps in the nested arrangement
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Towards a Theory of Analytical Behaviour: A Model of Decision-Making in Visual Analytics
This paper introduces a descriptive model of the human-computer processes that lead to decision-making in visual analytics. A survey of nine models from the visual analytics and HCI literature are presented to account for different perspectives such as sense-making, reasoning, and low-level human-computer interactions. The survey examines the people and computers (entities) presented in the models, the divisions of labour between entities (both physical and role-based), the behaviour of both people and machines as constrained by their roles and agency, and finally the elements and processes which define the flow of data both within and between entities. The survey informs the identification of four observations that characterise analytical behaviour - defined as decision-making facilitated by visual analytics: bilateral discourse, divisions of labour, mixed-synchronicity information flows, and bounded behaviour. Based on these principles, a descriptive model is presented as a contribution towards a theory of analytical behaviour. The future intention is to apply prospect theory, a economic model of decision-making under uncertainty, to the study of analytical behaviour. It is our assertion that to apply prospect theory first requires a descriptive model of the processes that facilitate decision-making in visual analytics. We conclude it necessary to measure the perception of risk in future work in order to apply prospect theory to the study of analytical behaviour using our proposed model
The first law for slowly evolving horizons
We study the mechanics of Hayward's trapping horizons, taking isolated
horizons as equilibrium states. Zeroth and second laws of dynamic horizon
mechanics come from the isolated and trapping horizon formalisms respectively.
We derive a dynamical first law by introducing a new perturbative formulation
for dynamic horizons in which "slowly evolving" trapping horizons may be viewed
as perturbatively non-isolated.Comment: 4 pages, typos fixed, minor changes in wording for clarity, to appear
in PR
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