Storage of stones by Jays Garrulus glandarius

The aims of this study were to test whether or not Jays Garrulus glandarius store stones and, if so, to examine the conditions under which they store stones. By directly observing the behaviour of five captive jays that were housed individually in flight cages, we found that stones were stored only in the absence of food items or when food items were no longer available to store and that there was a strong preference for storing stones that resembled acorns in both size and appearance (in terms of colour, shape and smoothness of the surface) and were undamaged rather than heavily chipped. These results are discussed in terms of Tinbergen's classic ethological model in which animals respond selectively to certain key features and ignore other features of the stimulus.

Mechanically alloyed and spark plasma sintered aluminium/precious metal oxide composite materials

Air-atomised pure aluminium powder with additions of 10 at.% of AgO, PtO₂ or PdO was mechanically alloyed (MAed) by using a vibrational ball mill, and MAed powders were consolidated into bulk materials by a spark plasma sintering (SPS) process. Mechano-chemical reactions among pure Al, precious metal oxide and stearic acid, added as a process control agent, during the mechanical alloying (MA) process and subsequent heat treatments were investigated by X-ray diffraction. The mechanical properties of MAed powders obtained under various heat treatment conditions and those of the SPS materials were evaluated by hardness tests. Mechano-chemical reactions occurred in Al/precious metal oxide composite powders during 36 ks of the MA process to form AlAg₂, Pt and Al₃Pd₂ for the Al-AgO, Al-PtO₂ and Al-PdO systems, respectively. Further solid-state reactions in MAed powders have been observed after heating at 373 K to 873 K for 7.2 ks. The hardness of MAed powders initially increased significantly after heating at 373 K and then generally decreased with increasing heating temperatures. The full density was obtained for the SPS materials under the conditions of an applied pressure of 49 MPa at 873 K for 3.6 ks. All the SPS materials exhibited hardness values of over 200 HV in the as-fabricated state.

Detecting stepping stones in internet environments

An effective and efficient scheme along with a number of related algorithms were presented in this thesis for detecting stepping stones in real Internet environments, even when evasion techniques are used by attackers. A high quantitative comparative experimental analysis on stepping stone detection systems was conducted as well.

The implied convenience yield of precious metals: safe haven versus industrial usage

During a financial crisis, investors find it convenient to hold gold (Gd) as a safe haven. But during good economic times, manufacturing firms find it convenient to stockpile platinum (Pl), palladium (Pd) and especially silver (Si), for industrial usages. We have three related objectives. First, we examine the nature of cross-market interactions among the convenience yields (cy_it) of {Gd, Pl, Pd, Si}, which are implied from cost-of-carry relations. Second, we test if the more influential cy_it of certain precious metals are also affecting the return, volatility and/or volume dynamics of other precious metals. Third, we analyze if the cy_it of gold is enhanced (diluted) during (after) the Asian and Global financial crises. We find, consistent with our propositions, that during crisis period, gold’s cy_it provides incremental information to the volatility series of {Gd, Pl, Pd, Si}. But during good economic times, it is silver’s cy_it that has the most influence on the return series across {Gd, Pl, Pd, Si}. This is not surprising given that Si has the largest proportion of industrial usage among the four metals.

Migrant stones : stonewalling with ghost muscle

A series of events: workshop in the collective memory and response to the stones of SW Vic, followed by a stone walling workshop led by professional stone wallers, and the construction of a permanent section of stone wall on the foreshore of Lake Bolac.

Detecting stepping stones by abnormal causality probability

Locating the real source of the Internet attacks has long been an important but difficult problem to be addressed. In the real world, attackers can easily hide their identities and evade punishment by relaying their attacks through a series of compromised systems or devices called stepping stones. Currently, researchers mainly use similar features from the network traffic, such as packet timestamps and frequencies, to detect stepping stones. However, these features can be easily destroyed by attackers using evasive techniques. In addition, it is also difficult to implement an appropriate threshold of similarity that can help justify the stepping stones. In order to counter these problems, in this paper, we introduce the consistent causality probability to detect the stepping stones. We formulate the ranges of abnormal causality probabilities according to the different network conditions, and on the basis of it, we further implement to self-adaptive methods to capture stepping stones. To evaluate our proposed detection methods, we adopt theoretic analysis and empirical studies, which demonstrate accuracy of the abnormal causality probability. Moreover, we compare our proposed methods with previous works. The result shows that our methods in this paper significantly outperform previous works in the accuracy of detection malicious stepping stones, even when evasive techniques are adopted by attackers.

In the circle of white stones: moving through seasons with nomads of Eastern Tibet

This narrative of subsistence on the Tibetan plateau describes the life-worlds of people in a region traditionally known as Kham who move with their yaks from pasture to pasture, depending on the milk production of their herd for sustenance. Gillian Tan's story, based on her own experience of living through seasonal cycles with the people of Dora Karmo between 2006 and 2013, examines the community's powerful relationship with a Buddhist lama and their interactions with external agents of change. In showing how they perceive their environment and dwell in their world, Tan conveys a spare beauty that honors the stillness and rhythms of nomadic life.

River + stones

This artwork was commissioned to activate the spaces within the Immigration Museum through live interactive artwork and performance. An intergenerational project the project engaged children and adults in the stories of their own movements and migrations, and led conscious exploration of human relationship to the river, to walking, to telling stories, and creating art.

Possible influence of Gondwanan glaciation on low-latitude carbonate sedimentation and trans-equatorial faunal migration: the lower Permian of South China

Peculiar Early Permian palaeontological and sedimentological features are reviewed from South China, including characteristic Early Permian cold-water Gondwanan brachiopod taxa and faunas from Sichuan and Guizhou provinces, widespread rosettes and irregular aggregates of calcite prisms ('Chrysanthemum Stones') within the Qixia limestones, and lack of significant Early Permian reef buildups. The occurrences of these features are at odds with the currently widely held view that South China was located in a palaeotropical, warm-water setting throughout the Permian and hence harboured a highly diverse shallow marine biota. In this paper, I propose a working hypothesis, suggesting that influence of at least cool water masses may have intermittently occurred in South China during the Early Permian, which facilitated the formation of the cool water-influenced palaeontological and sedimentological features and promoted the interchanges of cool to cold water marine faunas between the Gondwanan and Boreal Realms. These cool water masses may have been transported to low-latitude regions as deep currents from northern and eastern shelves of Gondwanaland and upwelled along the western coast of South China as well as within the relatively deep-water basins of central South China. Prevalence of these meridional, north-directed deep cold water currents during the Early Permian may have been related to the glaciation event of Gondwanaland. An alternative and/or additional source of cooling may have also originated from strong easterly palaeoequatorial boundary currents operating within the Palaeotethys at times during the Early Permian, inducing and/or enhancing upwelling of cool to cold water masses in the eastern Palaeotethys. This latter scenario is analogous to the occasional 'La Nina' effect (opposite to the 'El Nino' effect) at the equatorial belt of the modern Pacific Ocean.