Ultraluminous X-ray sources with the SKA

The discovery almost three decades ago of non-nuclear, point-like X-ray sources with X-ray luminosities LX ≥ 3 × 1039 erg s−1 revolutionized the physics of black hole accretion. If of stellar origin, such Ultraluminous X-ray sources (ULXs) would have to accrete at super-Eddington rates in order to reach the observed high X-ray luminosities. Alternatively, ULXs could host sub-Eddington accreting intermediate-mass black holes, which are the long-time sought missing link between stellar and supermassive black holes and the possible seeds of the supermassive black holes that formed in the early Universe. The nature of ULXs can be better investigated in those cases for which a radio counterpart is detected. Radio observations of ULXs have revealed a wide variety of morphologies and source types, from compact and extended jets to radio nebulae and transient behaviours, providing the best observational evidence for the presence of an intermediate-mass black hole in some of them. The high sensitivity of the SKA will allow us to study the faintest ULX radio counterparts in the Local Universe as well as to detect new sources at much larger distances. It will thus perform a leap step in understanding ULXs, their accretion physics, and their possible role as seed black holes in supermassive black hole and galaxy growth.

The European Parliament’s New Role in Trade Policy: Turning power into impact. CEPS Special Report No. 89, 21 May 2014

The power of the European Parliament in EU trade policy has increased significantly with the Lisbon Treaty. Even though it had already acquired a greater informal role, the codification of its involvement enables the EP to have a stronger say in trade policy. Against the background of increased legal competences granted by the Treaty of Lisbon to the European Parliament in EU trade policy, this Policy Brief addresses two important questions. The first concerns the extent to which the EP’s power in trade policy has increased: Has the EP effectively played a bigger role since the end of 2009? The second relates to the substance of the EP’s trade policy preferences: Does the EP attempt to push EU trade relations into a more or less normative and/or protectionist direction? Its main argument is that the Lisbon Treaty not only heralds a major leap forward in legal terms, but that the current EP legislature has also managed to increase its political clout in trade policy-making. Nevertheless, a major challenge for the new EP legislature 2014-2019 will be to turn this into effective influence.

Plays.

Each play has also special t.p.

Tales from the telling-house /

Pictorial t.p. in black and red.

Selected stories;

v. 1. Ball-of-Suet ; A family affair ; The artist's model ; The letters ; Cemetery sirens ; The dying peasant ; A madman's journal ; Checkmate! ; The shepherd's leap ; A husband's confession ; Madame Parisse ; The wedding night ; Father and son ; The false jewels ; The umbrella! ; The clock ; The dowry ; The lancer's wife ; Prisoners of war ; Woman's love ; The devil's visit ; Was it a dream? ; Simon's papa ; The diamond necklace ; Duchoux ; Timbuctoo ; Denis -- v. 2. The horla ; Monsieur Parent ; Miss Harriet ; Mad! ; Mademoiselle Pearl ; The farmer's wife ; A coward ; Mount Olivet ; The flight of years ; The old maid ; The Tellier house ; The parricide ; The fortune of war ; Humble happiness ; The mysterious groom ; The open door ; Wife and mistress ; The fathers ; The mountain inn ; Madame Husson's rosier ; An unfortunate resemblance -- v. 3. The Sunday outings of a bourgeois ; Little Louise Rocque ; A voice from the deep ; The father ; Magnetism ; The wrong house ; Moiron ; Monsieur Bombard's little game ; Madame Baptiste ; The Parisian accent ; A fashionable woman ; Mademoiselle Cocotte ; Who knows? ; Boitelle ; Uncle Jules ; The hand ; A lock of hair ; On the river ; My Uncle Sosthenes ; An artist ; Father Toine ; The viaticum ; True forgiveness ; A twelfth-night supper ; Father Matthew's saints ; A bit of string ; The minuet ; The relics ; A farm girl's story -- v. 4. The legacy ; Two little soldiers ; A state affair ; Old Amable ; Mademoiselle Fifi ; The ghost ; Useless beauty ; The fishing-hole ; The Rondoli family ; Châli ; The odalisque ; The wicked Mohammed ; Marroca ; Allouma ; A strange meeting ; Feminine wiles ; A strange night in Paris ; All over!

Das Schaltjahr in der grossen Rechnungs-Urkunde : Corp. Inscr. Attic. I. Nr. 273. /

"Beilage zum Jahresbericht des Königlichen Gymnasiums zu Ratibor."

Leaves from an Argonaut's note book; a collection of holiday and other stories illustrative of the brighter side of mining life in pioneer days

The milk pan.-The new leaf.-The Thanksgiving dinner.-The reservoirs.-The legend of Humbug Gulch.-The Joes.-Cyrus Billings' dream.-Bill's luck.-The ferry.-Simpson's Thanksgiving.-Stubbs' wooing.-The end of leap year.-Mrs. Crumpey's boarders.-Mr. Snively's vacation.-The story he told the prospectors.

Influence apart from Adoption: How Interaction between Programming and Scientific Practices Shapes Modes of Inquiry in Four Oceanography Teams

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Washington, 2016-06

Fourier-domain optical coherence tomography: optimization of signal-to-noise ratio in full space

Optical coherence tomography (OCT) is an emerging coherence-domain technique capable of in vivo imaging of sub-surface structures at millimeter-scale depth. Its steady progress over the last decade has been galvanized by a breakthrough detection concept, termed spectral-domain OCT, which has resulted in a dramatic improvement of the OCT signal-to-noise ratio of 150 times demonstrated for weakly scattering objects at video-frame-rates. As we have realized, however, an important OCT sub-system remains sub-optimal: the sample arm traditionally operates serially, i.e. in flying-spot mode. To realize the full-field image acquisition, a Fourier holography system illuminated with a swept-source is employed instead of a Michelson interferometer commonly used in OCT. The proposed technique, termed Fourier-domain OCT, offers a new leap in signal-to-noise ratio improvement, as compared to flying-spot OCT systems, and represents the main thrust of this paper. Fourier-domain OCT is described, and its basic theoretical aspects, including the reconstruction algorithm, are discussed. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Schistosome transcriptome analysis at the cutting edge

We live in the era of post-genomics, a term that was, until recently, inappropriate when considering the blood flukes of humans because of the relative lack of knowledge of the schistosome genome. The position has, however, changed dramatically following the recent publication of two landmark papers on transcriptome analysis of Schistosoma japonicum and Schistosoma mansoni. In a quantum leap, both studies report on the identification of many novel genes and genes not previously known from schistosomes. The datasets provide new insights into the biology of the schistosomes and offer an opportunity for identification of potential antischistosome vaccine candidates and drug targets. Remarkable recent progress has also been achieved in genomic sequencing, and completed genomes for both species can be expected shortly.

DE PROFESSORA À PESQUISADORA: A FORMAÇÃO DA IDENTIDADE DOCENTE NO ENSINO SUPERIOR

Esta pesquisa refere-se à formação da identidade docente no Ensino Superior que se caracteriza pela indissocialibilidade entre o ensino, a pesquisa e a extensão. A metodologia utilizada é a História Oral, por meio de Relatos Orais de Vida de quatro professoras que lecionam na pós-graduação de uma universidade privada. A principal fundamentação teórica: António Nóvoa, (1988, 2009), Luis Antonio Cunha (1980, 1997), Dermeval Saviani, (2001), Antonio Joaquim Severino, (2001), Carlos Benedito Martins, (1981, 2002), Gaston Pineau, (2006) e Maria Isaura de Pereira Queiroz, (1988, 1999, 2010). A noção de identidade profissional docente advém das posturas e concepções atribuídas por diferentes discursos e agentes sociais aos professores e às professoras no exercício de suas variadas atividades docentes em distintos contextos, ou seja, em distintas instituições de ensino. Analisa-se o exercício da docência do ensino superior e os saberes desta profissão, os quais tanto possibilitam a formação de futuros docentes com uma visão da importância da metodologia científica, quanto proporciona um salto de qualidade e de atualização contínua condizente com as exigências do ensino superior, atreladas à importância da responsabilidade social.

Source of legitimacy in M-government initiatives in Turkey:concerns human vs. technical resource management

Emerging markets have recently been experiencing a dramatic increased in the number of mobile phone per capita. M-government has, hence, been heralded as an opportunity to leap-frog the technology cycle and provide cheaper and more inclusive and services to all. This chapter explores, within an emerging market context, the legitimacy and resistance facing civil servants’ at the engagement stage with m-government activities and the direct implication for resource management. Thirty in depth interview, in Turkey, are drawn-upon with key ICT civil servant in local organizations. The findings show that three types of resources are perceived as central namely: (i) diffusion of information management, (ii) operating system resource management and (iii) human resource management. The main evidence suggests that legitimacy for each resource management, at local level, is an ongoing struggle where all groups deploy multiples forms of resistance. Overall, greater attention in the resource management strategy for m-government application needs to be devoted to enablers such as civil servants rather than the final consumers or citizens.

A conceptual analysis of m-technology as a medium towards e-governance society in emerging countries

This paper shows how mobile phone technology can influence the development of egovernance in emerging countries. We evaluate the conditions under which consumers really engage with m-services. We argue that the lower cost of m-infrastructure is more appropriate than the Internet-based structure that prevents large part of the population access to ICT. However, m-technology should not be separated from the Internet but be integrated allowing emerging country to leap frog the technological cycle.

Calculating the balance between water resources and water demands:an approach using risk analysis

Predicting future need for water resources has traditionally been, at best, a crude mixture of art and science. This has prevented the evaluation of water need from being carried out in either a consistent or comprehensive manner. This inconsistent and somewhat arbitrary approach to water resources planning led to well publicised premature developments in the 1970's and 1980's but privatisation of the Water Industry, including creation of the Office of Water Services and the National Rivers Authority in 1989, turned the tide of resource planning to the point where funding of schemes and their justification by the Regulators could no longer be assumed. Furthermore, considerable areas of uncertainty were beginning to enter the debate and complicate the assessment It was also no longer appropriate to consider that contingencies would continue to lie solely on the demand side of the equation. An inability to calculate the balance between supply and demand may mean an inability to meet standards of service or, arguably worse, an excessive provision of water resources and excessive costs to customers. United Kingdom Water Industry Research limited (UKWlR) Headroom project in 1998 provided a simple methodology for the calculation of planning margins. This methodology, although well received, was not, however, accepted by the Regulators as a tool sufficient to promote resource development. This thesis begins by considering the history of water resource planning in the UK, moving on to discuss events following privatisation of the water industry post·1985. The mid section of the research forms the bulk of original work and provides a scoping exercise which reveals a catalogue of uncertainties prevalent within the supply-demand balance. Each of these uncertainties is considered in terms of materiality, scope, and whether it can be quantified within a risk analysis package. Many of the areas of uncertainty identified would merit further research. A workable, yet robust, methodology for evaluating the balance between water resources and water demands by using a spreadsheet based risk analysis package is presented. The technique involves statistical sampling and simulation such that samples are taken from input distributions on both the supply and demand side of the equation and the imbalance between supply and demand is calculated in the form of an output distribution. The percentiles of the output distribution represent different standards of service to the customer. The model allows dependencies between distributions to be considered, for improved uncertainties to be assessed and for the impact of uncertain solutions to any imbalance to be calculated directly. The method is considered a Significant leap forward in the field of water resource planning.

Competition, competitive advantage, and clusters:the ideas of Michael Porter

Comprehensive coverage of all aspects of Michael Porter's works Contributions from leading authorities across the disciplines Contains response from Porter Harvard professor, Michael Porter has been one of the most influential figures in strategic management research over the last three decades. He infused a rigorous theoretical framework of industrial organization economics with the then still embryonic field of strategic management and elevated it to its current status as an academic discipline. Porter's outstanding career is also characterized by its cross-disciplinary nature. Following his most important work on strategic management, he then made a leap to the policy side and dealt with a completely different set of analytical units. More recently he has made a foray into inner city development, environmental regulations, and health care services. Throughout these explorations Porter has maintained his integrative approach, seeking a road that links management case studies and the general model building of mainstream economics. With expert contributors from a range of disciplines including strategic management, economic development, economic geography, and planning, this book assesses the contribution Michael Porter has made to these respective disciplines. It clarifies the sources of tension and controversy relating to all the major strands of Porter's work, and provides academics, students, and practitioners with a critical guide for the application of Porter's models. The book highlights that while many of the criticisms of Porter's ideas are valid, they are almost an inevitable outcome for a scholar who has sought to build bridges across wide disciplinary valleys. His work has provided others with a set of frameworks to explore in more depth the nature of competition, competitive advantage, and clusters from a range of vantage points.