Report of the workshop on assessing governance in the Bay of Bengal Large Marine Ecosystem, Bangkok, Thailand, 28-30 October, 2014

The objective of the workshop was to begin a structured discussion on regional governance in the BOBLME, drawing on lessons from a region with similar issues, the Carribean. Conclusions were made about principles, regional governance arrangements, national-regional interface and national science-policy interfaces. Future work was also planned.

Report of the socio-economic baseline assessment dissemination meeting, Yangon, Myanmar, 28 January, 2015

The Data Dissemination Stakeholder Meeting was was a means of disseminating data from a socio-economic baseline study undertaken in 2014 (Schneider at al 2014). Implications included: the importance of heterogeneity of communities; population structure and migration trends; livelihoods diversity and vulnerability; and stakeholder mobilisation.

Workshop on assessing governance in the Bay of Bengal Large Marine Ecosystem, Bangkok, Thailand, October 28-30, 2014: workshop summary and messages for Bay of Bengal marine resource policy-makers and other stakeholders

This brochure suggests casting a wider net when dealing with governance assessment to include other players.

Development of the 28-foot inboard-engined fishing boat in Uganda

With the encouraging results of trawling experiments in Lake Victoria, it became apparent early in 1969 that commercial trawling on Lake Victoria might well be a viable economic enterprise. Considerable discussion about the optimum size and type of fishing vessel ensued, and the Fisheries Department decided to commission a number of different prototypes for comparative trials.

Comparisons between 28 Gb/s NRZ, PAM, CAP and optical OFDM systems for datacommunication applications

Theoretical investigations have been performed to analyze and compare the link power budget and power dissipation of a 28 Gb/s datacommunication system for data center switch scenarios using NRZ, PAM-4, CAP-16 and 16-QAM-OFDM modulation schemes. © 2012 IEEE.

Performance and power dissipation comparisons between 28 Gb/s NRZ, PAM, CAP and optical OFDM systems for data communication applications

Theoretical investigations have been carried out to analyze and compare the link power budget and power dissipation of non-return-to-zero (NRZ), pulse amplitude modulation-4 (PAM-4), carrierless amplitude and phase modulation-16 (CAP-16) and 16-quadrature amplitude modulation-orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (16-QAM-OFDM) systems for data center interconnect scenarios. It is shown that for multimode fiber (MMF) links, NRZ modulation schemes with electronic equalization offer the best link power budget margins with the least power dissipation for short transmission distances up to 200 m; while OOFDM is the only scheme which can support a distance of 300 m albeit with power dissipation as high as 4 times that of NRZ. For short single mode fiber (SMF) links, all the modulation schemes offer similar link power budget margins for fiber lengths up to 15 km, but NRZ and PAM-4 are preferable due to their system simplicity and low power consumption. For lengths of up to 30 km, CAP-16 and OOFDM are required although the schemes consume 2 and 4 times as much power respectively compared to that of NRZ. OOFDM alone allows link operation up to 35 km distances. © 1983-2012 IEEE.

28 Gb/s unequalized PAM3 modulation of an 850 nm VCSEL for next-generation datacommunication links

An 850 nm vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser is modulated at 28 Gb/s using pulseamplitude modulation with three levels. Unequalized transmission over 100 m of OM3 MMF is demonstrated, with advantages over NRZ and PAM4 modulation. © 2012 OSA.

28 Gb/s unequalized PAM3 modulation of an 850 nm VCSEL for next-generation datacommunication links

An 850 nm vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser is modulated at 28 Gb/s using pulseamplitude modulation with three levels. Unequalized transmission over 100 m of OM3 MMF is demonstrated, with advantages over NRZ and PAM4 modulation. © OSA 2012.

Experimental demonstration of a transparent graphene millimetre wave absorber with 28% fractional bandwidth at 140 GHz.

The development of transparent radio-frequency electronics has been limited, until recently, by the lack of suitable materials. Naturally thin and transparent graphene may lead to disruptive innovations in such applications. Here, we realize optically transparent broadband absorbers operating in the millimetre wave regime achieved by stacking graphene bearing quartz substrates on a ground plate. Broadband absorption is a result of mutually coupled Fabry-Perot resonators represented by each graphene-quartz substrate. An analytical model has been developed to predict the absorption performance and the angular dependence of the absorber. Using a repeated transfer-and-etch process, multilayer graphene was processed to control its surface resistivity. Millimetre wave reflectometer measurements of the stacked graphene-quartz absorbers demonstrated excellent broadband absorption of 90% with a 28% fractional bandwidth from 125-165 GHz. Our data suggests that the absorbers' operation can also be extended to microwave and low-terahertz bands with negligible loss in performance.

Effect of dry oxidation on the energy gap and chemical composition of CVD graphene on nickel

The findings presented herein show that the electronic properties of CVD graphene on nickel can be altered from metallic to semiconducting by introducing oxygen adsorbates via UV/ozone or oxygen plasma treatment. These properties can be partially recovered by removing the oxygen adsorbates via vacuum annealing treatment. The effect of oxidation is studied by scanning tunneling microscopy/spectroscopy (STM/STS) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). As probed by STM/STS, an energy gap opening of 0.11-0.15 eV is obtainable as the oxygen/carbon atomic ratio reaches 13-16%. The corresponding XPS spectra show a significant monotonic increase in the concentration of oxygenated functional groups due to the oxidation treatments. This study demonstrates that the opening of energy gap in CVD graphene can be reasonably controlled by a combination of UV/ozone or oxygen plasma treatment and vacuum annealing treatment. © 2013 Elsevier B.V.

Microsatellites assessment of Chinese sturgeon (Acipenser sinensis Gray) genetic variability

Four microsatellites were used to examine the genetic variability of the spawning stocks of Chinese sturgeon, Acipenser sinensis, from the Yangtze River sampled over a 3-year period (1999-2001). Within 60 individuals, a total of 28 alleles were detected over four polymorphic microsatellite loci. The number of alleles per locus ranged from 4 to 15, with an average allele number of 7. The number of genotypes per locus ranged from 6 to 41. The genetic diversity of four microsatellite loci varied from 0.34 to 0.67, with an average value of 0.54. For the four microsatellite loci, the deviation from the Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium was mainly due to null alleles. The mean number of alleles per locus and the mean heterozygosity were lower than the average values known for anadromous fishes. Fish were clustered according to their microsatellite characteristics using an unsupervised 'Artificial Neural Networks' method entitled 'Self-organizing Map'. The results revealed no significant genetic differentiation considering genetic distance among samples collected during different years. Lack of heterogeneity among different annual groups of spawning stocks was explained by the complex age structure (from 8 to 27 years for males and 12 to 35 years for females) of Chinese sturgeon, leading to formulate an hypothesis about the maintenance of genetic diversity and stability in long-lived animals.

AI in the 21st century - With historical reflections

The discipline of Artificial Intelligence (AI) was born in the summer of 1956 at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire. Half of a century has passed, and AI has turned into an important field whose influence on our daily lives can hardly be overestimated. The original view of intelligence as a computer program - a set of algorithms to process symbols - has led to many useful applications now found in internet search engines, voice recognition software, cars, home appliances, and consumer electronics, but it has not yet contributed significantly to our understanding of natural forms of intelligence. Since the 1980s, AI has expanded into a broader study of the interaction between the body, brain, and environment, and how intelligence emerges from such interaction. This advent of embodiment has provided an entirely new way of thinking that goes well beyond artificial intelligence proper, to include the study of intelligent action in agents other than organisms or robots. For example, it supplies powerful metaphors for viewing corporations, groups of agents, and networked embedded devices as intelligent and adaptive systems acting in highly uncertain and unpredictable environments. In addition to giving us a novel outlook on information technology in general, this broader view of AI also offers unexpected perspectives into how to think about ourselves and the world around us. In this chapter, we briefly review the turbulent history of AI research, point to some of its current trends, and to challenges that the AI of the 21st century will have to face. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2007.

AI in locomotion: Challenges and perspectives of underactuated robots

This article discusses the issues of adaptive autonomous navigation as a challenge of artificial intelligence. We argue that, in order to enhance the dexterity and adaptivity in robot navigation, we need to take into account the decentralized mechanisms which exploit physical system-environment interactions. In this paper, by introducing a few underactuated locomotion systems, we explain (1) how mechanical body structures are related to motor control in locomotion behavior, (2) how a simple computational control process can generate complex locomotion behavior, and (3) how a motor control architecture can exploit the body dynamics through a learning process. Based on the case studies, we discuss the challenges and perspectives toward a new framework of adaptive robot control. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2007.

Promoting strain relaxation of Si0.72Ge0.28 film on Si (100) substrate by inserting a low-temperature Ge islands layer in UHVCVD

A flat, fully strain-relaxed Si0.72Ge0.28 thin film was grown on Si (1 0 0) substrate with a combination of thin low-temperature (LT) Ge and LT-Si0.72Ge0.28 buffer layers by ultrahigh vacuum chemical vapor deposition. The strain relaxation ratio in the Si0.72Ge0.28 film was enhanced up to 99% with the assistance of three-dimensional Ge islands and point defects introduced in the layers, which furthermore facilitated an ultra-low threading dislocation density of 5 x 10(4) cm (2) for the top SiGe film. More interestingly, no cross-hatch pattern was observed on the SiGe surface and the surface root-mean-square roughness was less than 2 nm. The temperature for the growth of LT-Ge layer was optimized to be 300 degrees C. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.