Generic Ada code in the NASA space station command, control and communications environment

The results of efforts to apply powerful Ada constructs to the formatted message handling process are described. The goal of these efforts was to extend the state-of-technology in message handling while at the same time producing production-quality, reusable code. The first effort was initiated in September, 1984 and delivered in April, 1985. That product, the Generic Message Handling Facility, met initial goals, was reused, and is available in the Ada Repository on ARPANET. However, it became apparent during its development that the initial approach to building a message handler template was not optimal. As a result of this initial effort, several alternate approaches were identified, and research is now on-going to identify an improved product. The ultimate goal is to be able to instantly build a message handling system for any message format given a specification of that message format. The problem lies in how to specify the message format, and one that is done, how to use that information to build the message handler. Message handling systems and message types are described. The initial efforts, its results and its shortcomings are detailed. The approach now being taken to build a system which will be significantly easier to implement, and once implemented, easier to use, is described. Finally, conclusions are offered

Myth Today and Together.

This article presents a theoretical evaluation in practice, in the form of a project whereby Barthes’ collections of Mythologies (1973, 1979) were ‘reimagined’ by academics, teachers and students from (and for) the contemporary arts and media/culture landscape. Sections of the article rework extracts from two ‘bookending’ essays in a published collection, which, in this contribution, forms one strand of a broader research project and as such is placed in discursive and pedagogic conflict with the other data generated by the research. This ‘data’ is textual, generated by two participant groups – self-identified published ‘experts’ from the field of art, media and cultural studies, and groups of ‘inexpert’ student/teacher collaboration – both working to the same ‘brief’ but in different contexts. The ‘expert’ group responded to a conventional call for chapters, accepting the invitation to contribute to an orthodox scholarly ‘reader’. The group of ‘inexperts’ used a wikispace to respond collaboratively, blurring boundaries between teacher and student, author, myth and text. Our interpretation of the textual material produced by working, writing and myth-making in these ways identifies the dominant emerging discourses articulated by the data. In assessing these themes, we ask what is a myth today, in art’s ‘problematic relationship to knowledge’, what constitutes theory and who has the authority to impose theory on art as myth? Our tentative answers to these questions go beyond a ‘reimagining’ of Barthes’ intervention to lead us to propose some implications for values and practices in learning and teaching in arts, media and culture, closing in further on a ‘pedagogy of the inexpert’

Freeze branding for cattle identification on the farm

CATTLE identification presents many problems to beef and dairy farmers, and also to research workers. Although many methods are available no one simple method appears to be the complete answer. This article describes the technique of freeze branding for cattle identification on the farm

Is More Always Better? Risk Trade-offs among Internationalizing New Ventures

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate how ventures manage the negative returns associated with higher levels of internationalization. Many new ventures are internationalizing to fully exploit new innovations and/or gain access to larger markets. Yet at some point the rising costs associated with internationalization outweigh any benefits, resulting in an inverted U-shaped relationship between internationalization and performance. Design/methodology/approach – New ventures are theorized to better manage high levels of internationalization by limiting exposure to other sources of risk. This can be achieved by leveraging greater size and/or limiting simultaneous diversification efforts on product innovation. To test the hypotheses, a regression using Heckman selection was run using a sample of 210 US-based, publicly held ventures in high-technology industries. Findings – The results confirm that when higher levels of internationalization are coupled with either a low emphasis on product innovation or larger size, the negative returns are mitigated and actually become positive. Research limitations/implications – A key implication lies in recognizing the role of risk management for internationalizing ventures. Future research could benefit by testing for generalizability in other countries as well as among privately held ventures. Practical implications – To manage the trade-offs associated at higher levels of internationalization, ventures need to maintain a low emphasis on product innovation or meet a threshold in terms of size. Originality/value – The value of this research lies in better understanding how ventures are able to overcome rising costs at higher levels of internationalization

Media Literacy, Education & (Civic) Capability: A Transferable Methodology

This article shares research into the relationship between a formal media educational encounter in the UK and the broad objectives for media and information literacy education circulating in mainland Europe and the US. A pilot study, developed with a special interest group of the United Kingdom Literacy Association, applied a three part methodology for comparing the media literacy levels of young people who have studied media in school against peers who at the same educational level, who have not engaged with media education of any kind. The approach ‘hones in’ on Mihailidis’ (2014) framework for media literacy and civic engagement

Boundary effect of a partition in a quantum well

The paper wishes to demonstrate that, in quantum systems with boundaries, different boundary conditions can lead to remarkably different physical behaviour. Our seemingly innocent setting is a one dimensional potential well that is divided into two halves by a thin separating wall. The two half wells are populated by the same type and number of particles and are kept at the same temperature. The only difference is in the boundary condition imposed at the two sides of the separating wall, which is the Dirichlet condition from the left and the Neumann condition from the right. The resulting different energy spectra cause a difference in the quantum statistically emerging pressure on the two sides. The net force acting on the separating wall proves to be nonzero at any temperature and, after a weak decrease in the low temperature domain, to increase and diverge with a square-root-of-temperature asymptotics for high temperatures. These observations hold for both bosonic and fermionic type particles, but with quantitative differences. We work out several analytic approximations to explain these differences and the various aspects of the found unexpectedly complex picture.Comment: LaTeX (with iopart.cls, iopart10.clo and iopart12.clo), 28 pages, 17 figure

Assessing User Perceptions of Trust and Security in Manipulated Versions of Low Trust and High Trust Tourism Websites

The aim of this study was to investigate how perceptions of security and trust are involved in user evaluations of tourism websites and whether manipulations to heighten or lessen trust features could predict trust perceptions. Seven websites were manipulated to produce low and high trust versions, with the original used as a control version. Four trust manipulations were used based on the literature: level of currency, credibility, craftsmanship and trust logos. Fifty-six participants viewed one version of each website for 6 seconds and submitted an immediate rating of trust for each site. Following this, an 11-item self-report measure was completed for each website, to collect more considered perceptions of trust, appeal, security and usability. Self-perception measures of trust disposition and concern for information privacy were also collected. The analyses showed that the presence or absence of trust features reliably led to higher and lower perceptions of trust respectively. Also, those scoring higher on trust disposition gave higher trust ratings. We conclude that websites can be reliably designed to engender more or less perceived trust, however individual differences need to be considered. This preliminary research is limited by studying just four factors and further research is needed to manipulate other website features