Canada and the Challenges of Cyberspace Governance and Security

When Canada stood with the United States and Britain in refusing to sign on to a new, statecontrolled future for the Internet, at December’s World Conference on Information Technology, it certainly made the federal government appear to be a stalwart champion of Internet freedom. But in reality, Canada’s approach to cyberspace governance and security has, at best, sent mixed signals about our commitment to Internet freedom. At worst, it has actually contributed to increasing on-line censorship and surveillance by the very undemocratic and illiberal regimes that Canada voted against at the conference. Unfortunately this is a dangerous time for Canada to wallow in aimlessness: when it comes to cyberspace governance and security, the momentum is headed in the direction of greater state control. As demographic realities indicate, Internet usage will increasingly belong to the global South and East, where freedom is an unsettled and elusive concept. If Canada truly seeks to guard against the Internet falling captive to the controls sought by repressive regimes, such as those in China and Russia, it will have to offer the world a compelling, competing vision that demonstrates integrity and dedication to genuine Internet freedom. Among other things, that means moving beyond traditional top-down, state-centred models of security, which are a poor fit for a decentralized, global, publicly shared, but largely privately developed, communications network. Imposing conventional, state led policing frameworks on cyberspace — for instance, in the name of fighting cyber crime — only provides legitimacy to regimes abroad when they bring their own state powers to censor Internet communications. It also means thinking more carefully about how much we should tolerate our Canadian technology developers continuing to supply tools of repression to the foreign regimes who seek to dominate their own people. Canada has the potential to take on a leadership role in showing the world what it means to truly stand for freedom in cyberspace. But providing global leadership will require that our own government commits to reducing state controls and surveillance here at home, encouraging greater transparency and checks on state power over the Internet, while enhancing privacy protections. Ultimately, the only way the Canadian government can truly help preserve and promote a decentralized and unfettered Internet for the world’s future is to demonstrate that it is genuinely committed to promoting the same thing here at home

The Relationship Between Phosphorus and Zinc in Corn Plants

Zinc is one of the micronutrients required for plant growth. The plant requirement is very small in relation to the macronutrients: nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium. Even with a small plant requirement zinc deficiency is one of the more common micronutrient deficiencies. Zinc deficiency symptoms have been observed on a number of agricultural crops in many parts of the country including South Dakota. Zinc deficiency symptoms were first observed on corn in the south central part of the state in the late nineteen fifties. Since that time, deficiency symptoms have been observed with increasing frequency over several parts of the state. An extremely large number of deficiency symptoms were observed with increasing frequency over several parts of the state. An extremely large number of deficiency symptoms were observed by the author during the spring of 1965. Corn has been the major crop in South Dakota exhibiting zinc deficiency, however, deficiency symptoms have been observed on soybeans. Zinc deficiency symptoms have appeared on corn grown on soils that were very sandy, low in organic matter, highly calcareous, severely eroded, leveled for irrigation, high in native phosphorus and/or where high rates of phosphorus had been applied. The addition of phosphorus fertilizer has been the major concern in South Dakota relative to zinc deficiency. In 1964 the addition of 23 pounds of P2O5 per acre created a zinc deficiency problem in Tripp County in the south central part of the state. It was assumed that the addition of phosphorus fertilizer rendered the zinc unavailable to the plant. The use of phosphorus fertilizer is rapidly expanding, which may create zinc deficiency problems in other areas. Therefore, a green-house investigation was set up to study the effect of phosphorus and zinc applications to South Dakota soils. The investigation was centered around the alleviation of the difficulty involved in the use of phosphorus fertilizer, and/or possibly suggesting an answer to the P-Zn interaction since there yet remains to be found a satisfactory explanation for the mechanism involved

How Oxygen-Binding Affects Structural Evolution of Even-Sized Gold Anion Clusters. (Size Range 20 to 34)

We report a joint anion photoelectron spectroscopy (PES) and theoretical study to investigate the effect of O2-binding on the mid-sized even-numbered gold clusters, Aun− (n = 20−34), a special size region of bare gold clusters that entail rich forms of structural evolution and transformation. Specifically, within this size range, bare Au20− is a highly-symmetric pyramidal cluster, bare Au21-25− are flat-planar or hollow-tubular clusters, bare Au26− is the smallest core-shell gold cluster, while bare Au34− is a magic-number/fluxional core-shell cluster with the high-symmetry tetrahedral Au4 core. In light of the strong size-dependent structural evolution of bare gold clusters in the n = 20−34 size range, we focused especially on the chemical interplay between the O2 binding and the structure of the host gold clusters. The global minima of the O2-bound gold clusters AunO2− are searched using the basin-hopping global optimization technique in conjugation with density functional theory calculations. Vertical detachment energies are computed for the low-lying isomers with the inclusion of spin−orbit effects for gold to generate simulated photoelectron spectra and to compare with the experimental PES spectra. Based on the global−minimum structures identified, a series of structural transitions, from the pyramidal to fused−planar to core-shell structures, are identified for the AunO2− clusters, where the O2 binding is found to be in either superoxo or peroxo fashion, depending on the size and shape of the host gold clusters. Advisor: Xiao Cheng Zen

Sedimentological constraints on Middle Miocene extensional tectonism of the southern Las Vegas Range, southern Nevada

A depositional-tectonic model is proposed for the reconstruction of a Miocene lacustrine basin in the southern Las Vegas Range, Nevada, that was fragmented during a period of extensional tectonism. The model suggests that the sediments were deposited in an isolated basin during initiation of normal faulting in the Sheep Range extensional allochthon 12 to 16 Ma. After 12 Ma, deposition in this basin was terminated by normal faulting followed by oroflexural rotation along the Las Vegas Valley shear zone; The unique Middle Miocene sequence is 335-m-thick and consists of interbedded nonmarine limestone, siltstone, sandstone, conglomerate, megabreccia, and volcanic ash. The formation represents deposition in a shallow, permanent lake 12 to 16 Ma. Post 12 Ma, the formation was faulted by north-striking, normal faults. Subsequently, oroflexural bending along the Las Vegas Valley shear zone, rotated the faults into their present northeast-striking orientation

Angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES) studies of cuprate superconductors

This dissertation is comprised of three different angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES) studies on cuprate superconductors. The first study compares the band structure from two different single layer cuprates Tl2Ba2CuO6+delta (Tl2201) Tc,max — 95 K and (Bi1:35Pb0:85)(Sr1:47La0:38)CuO6+delta (Bi2201) Tc,max — 35 K. The aim of the study was to provide some insight into the reasons why single layer cuprate\u27s maximum transition temperatures are so different. The study found two major differences in the band structure. First, the Fermi surface segments close to (pi,0) are more parallel in Tl2201 than in Bi2201. Second, the shadow band usually related to crystal structure is only present in Bi2201, but absent in higher Tc Tl2201. The second study looks at the different ways of doping Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+delta (Bi2212) in-situ by only changing the post bake-out vacuum conditions and temperature. The aim of the study is to systematically look into the generally overlooked experimental conditions that change the doping of a cleaved sample in ultra high vacuum (UHV) experiments. The study found two major experimental facts. First, in inadequate UHV conditions the carrier concentration of Bi2212 increases with time, due to the absorption of oxygen from CO2/CO molecules, prime contaminants present in UHV systems. Second, in a very clean UHV system at elevated temperatures (above about 200 K), the carrier concentration decreases due to the loss of oxygen atoms from the Bi-O layer. The final study probed the particle-hole symmetry of the pseudogap phase in high temperature superconducting cuprates by looking at the thermally excited bands above the Fermi level. The data showed a particle-hole symmetric pseudogap which symmetrically closes away from the nested FS before the node. The data is consistent with a charge density wave (CDW) origin of the pseudogap, similar to STM checkerboard patterns in the pseudogap state

On the Benefit of Using Mobile Technologies in Business Processes

The rapid technical progress in the development of mobile devices and technologies offers new possibilities for improving and streamlining the performance of business processes. However, only few successful mobile applications exist in the business area. This paper discusses the benefits an enterprise can gain by using mobile technologies in business processes. It presents general indicators to measure the performance of business processes and shows how these indicators must be adapted to be useful to determine the benefit of mobile applications. Then, the set of indicators is applied in a real-world scenario. The results show that indicators like throughput time, error rate, reduction of redundancy, and increased flexibility are important for the benefit of mobile technologies

Critical success factors for mobile field service applications: A case research

This paper presents a multiple case research concerning success factors and issues of mobile field service implementations. Based on Eisenhardt’s explorative research design, five successful mobile technology implementations are compared and analysed. Important aspects of the implementation strategy and the used technology are examined and discussed. The results indicate that the success of mobile field service implementations is influenced by the implementation strategy, project management, change management, and technological restrictions of the used mobile technology. The analysis identifies the complexity of technological components and their limitations as well as aspects influencing user acceptance as central challenges for mobile technology implementations

The impact logic of mobile technology usage on job production

Research on mobile technologies has received an increasing attention. Most of the existing literature focuses on use of mobile technologies on a managerial level, with technology as a device for information and communication exchange. The impact potential and their corresponding functionalities at the worker level has not yet been analyzed. This study tries to address this gap. It is the key objective to develop a theoretical model how mobile technologies impact business processes in job production (construction industry) on the operational level. Thus, a generic model will be developed on the basis of existing literature, especially the concept of Task-Technology-Fit. It emphasizes how task complexity affects the required effort of individual information access, information capturing as well as the timeliness of information. These mediators will influence the utilization of information for resource planning and coordination which in turn will affect the performance of operational processes. Then, it will be deduced how mobile technologies affect the forces and relationships in this model. There exists a trade-off between the increasing effort to capture information and the reduced effort for accessing information. Moreover, the way how the captured information is utilized for status tracking, resource utilization and resource coordination is considered to be the key factor in improving operational process performance