Scaling laws for planetary dynamos

We propose new scaling laws for the properties of planetary dynamos. In particular, the Rossby number, the magnetic Reynolds number, the ratio of magnetic to kinetic energy, the Ohmic dissipation timescale and the characteristic aspect ratio of the columnar convection cells are all predicted to be power-law functions of two observable quantities: the magnetic dipole moment and the planetary rotation rate. The resulting scaling laws constitute a somewhat modified version of the scalings proposed by Christensen and Aubert. The main difference is that, in view of the small value of the Rossby number in planetary cores, we insist that the non-linear inertial term, uu, is negligible. This changes the exponents in the power-laws which relate the various properties of the fluid dynamo to the planetary dipole moment and rotation rate. Our scaling laws are consistent with the available numerical evidence. © The Authors 2013 Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Royal Astronomical Society.

Analytical model and experimental validation of friction laws for composites under low loads

In order to account for interfacial friction of composite materials, an analytical model based on contact geometry and local friction is proposed. A contact area includes several types of microcontacts depending on reinforcement materials and their shape. A proportion between these areas is defined by in-plane contact geometry. The model applied to a fibre-reinforced composite results in the dependence of friction on surface fibre fraction and local friction coefficients. To validate this analytical model, an experimental study on carbon fibrereinforced epoxy composites under low normal pressure was performed. The effects of fibre volume fraction and fibre orientation were studied, discussed and compared with analytical model results. © Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2012.

Achievements and challenges in machine vision-based inspection of large concrete structures

Large concrete structures need to be inspected in order to assess their current physical and functional state, to predict future conditions, to support investment planning and decision making, and to allocate limited maintenance and rehabilitation resources. Current procedures in condition and safety assessment of large concrete structures are performed manually leading to subjective and unreliable results, costly and time-consuming data collection, and safety issues. To address these limitations, automated machine vision-based inspection procedures have increasingly been proposed by the research community. This paper presents current achievements and open challenges in vision-based inspection of large concrete structures. First, the general concept of Building Information Modeling is introduced. Then, vision-based 3D reconstruction and as-built spatial modeling of concrete civil infrastructure are presented. Following that, the focus is set on structural member recognition as well as on concrete damage detection and assessment exemplified for concrete columns. Although some challenges are still under investigation, it can be concluded that vision-based inspection methods have significantly improved over the last 10 years, and now, as-built spatial modeling as well as damage detection and assessment of large concrete structures have the potential to be fully automated.

Assembly and inspection of liquid crystal on silicon devices

Liquid crystal on silicon (LCOS) is one of the most exciting technologies, combining the optical modulation characteristics of liquid crystals with the power and compactness of a silicon backplane. The objective of our work is to improve cell assembly and inspection methods by introducing new equipment for automated assembly and by using an optical inspection microscope. A Suss-MicroTec Universal device bonder is used for precision assembly and device packaging and an Olympus BX51 high resolution microscope is employed for device inspection. © 2009 Optical Society of America.

Inspection Methods in Programming

The work reported here lies in the area of overlap between artificial intelligence software engineering. As research in artificial intelligence, it is a step towards a model of problem solving in the domain of programming. In particular, this work focuses on the routine aspects of programming which involve the application of previous experience with similar programs. I call this programming by inspection. Programming is viewed here as a kind of engineering activity. Analysis and synthesis by inspection area prominent part of expert problem solving in many other engineering disciplines, such as electrical and mechanical engineering. The notion of inspections methods in programming developed in this work is motivated by similar notions in other areas of engineering. This work is also motivated by current practical concerns in the area of software engineering. The inadequacy of current programming technology is universally recognized. Part of the solution to this problem will be to increase the level of automation in programming. I believe that the next major step in the evolution of more automated programming will be interactive systems which provide a mixture of partially automated program analysis, synthesis and verification. One such system being developed at MIT, called the programmer's apprentice, is the immediate intended application of this work. This report concentrates on the knowledge are of the programmer's apprentice, which is the form of a taxonomy of commonly used algorithms and data structures. To the extent that a programmer is able to construct and manipulate programs in terms of the forms in such a taxonomy, he may relieve himself of many details and generally raise the conceptual level of his interaction with the system, as compared with present day programming environments. Also, since it is practical to expand a great deal of effort pre-analyzing the entries in a library, the difficulty of verifying the correctness of programs constructed this way is correspondingly reduced. The feasibility of this approach is demonstrated by the design of an initial library of common techniques for manipulating symbolic data. This document also reports on the further development of a formalism called the plan calculus for specifying computations in a programming language independent manner. This formalism combines both data and control abstraction in a uniform framework that has facilities for representing multiple points of view and side effects.

Review of inspection techniques based on the elastic and inelastic scattering of X-rays and their potential in the food and agricultural industry

C.R. Bull, R. Zwiggelaar and R.D. Speller, 'Review of inspection techniques based on the elastic and inelastic scattering of X-rays and their potential in the food and agricultural industry', Journal of Food Engineering 33 (1-2), 167-179 (1997)

Inspection of teats by colour image analysis for automatic milking systems

C.R. Bull, N.J.B. McFarlane, R. Zwiggelaar, C.J. Allen and T.T. Mottram, 'Inspection of teats by colour image analysis for automatic milking systems', Computers and Electronics in Agriculture 15 (1), 15-26 (1996)

Ignorance is no Defence but is Inaccessibility? On the Accessibility of National Laws to Foreign Online Publishers

Kohl, U. (2005). Ignorance is no Defence but is Inaccessibility? On the Accessibility of National Laws to Foreign Online Publishers. Information & Communities Technology Law, 14 (1), 25-41. RAE2008 Information & Communications Technology Law Volume 14, Issue 1, 2005 Special Issue: GATED COMMUNITIES

One Order, Two Laws: Recovering the 'Normative' in English School Theory

Bain, William, 'One Order, Two Laws: Recovering the 'Normative' in English School Theory', Review of International Studies, (2007) 33(4) pp.557-575 RAE2008

Constitution, laws and regulations of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions.

http://www.archive.org/details/constitutionlaws00ameriala

On the Origin of Power Laws in Internet Topologies

Recent empirical studies have shown that Internet topologies exhibit power laws of the form for the following relationships: (P1) outdegree of node (domain or router) versus rank; (P2) number of nodes versus outdegree; (P3) number of node pairs y = x^α within a neighborhood versus neighborhood size (in hops); and (P4) eigenvalues of the adjacency matrix versus rank. However, causes for the appearance of such power laws have not been convincingly given. In this paper, we examine four factors in the formation of Internet topologies. These factors are (F1) preferential connectivity of a new node to existing nodes; (F2) incremental growth of the network; (F3) distribution of nodes in space; and (F4) locality of edge connections. In synthetically generated network topologies, we study the relevance of each factor in causing the aforementioned power laws as well as other properties, namely diameter, average path length and clustering coefficient. Different kinds of network topologies are generated: (T1) topologies generated using our parametrized generator, we call BRITE; (T2) random topologies generated using the well-known Waxman model; (T3) Transit-Stub topologies generated using GT-ITM tool; and (T4) regular grid topologies. We observe that some generated topologies may not obey power laws P1 and P2. Thus, the existence of these power laws can be used to validate the accuracy of a given tool in generating representative Internet topologies. Power laws P3 and P4 were observed in nearly all considered topologies, but different topologies showed different values of the power exponent α. Thus, while the presence of power laws P3 and P4 do not give strong evidence for the representativeness of a generated topology, the value of α in P3 and P4 can be used as a litmus test for the representativeness of a generated topology. We also find that factors F1 and F2 are the key contributors in our study which provide the resemblance of our generated topologies to that of the Internet.

Scaling laws of ambush predator 'waiting' behaviour are tuned to a common ecology

The decisions animals make about how long to wait between activities can determine the success of diverse behaviours such as foraging, group formation or risk avoidance. Remarkably, for diverse animal species, including humans, spontaneous patterns of waiting times show random ‘burstiness’ that appears scale-invariant across a broad set of scales. However, a general theory linking this phenomenon across the animal kingdom currently lacks an ecological basis. Here, we demonstrate from tracking the activities of 15 sympatric predator species (cephalopods, sharks, skates and teleosts) under natural and controlled conditions that bursty waiting times are an intrinsic spontaneous behaviour well approximated by heavy-tailed (power-law) models over data ranges up to four orders of magnitude. Scaling exponents quantifying ratios of frequent short to rare very long waits are species-specific, being determined by traits such as foraging mode (active versus ambush predation), body size and prey preference. A stochastic–deterministic decision model reproduced the empirical waiting time scaling and species-specific exponents, indicating that apparently complex scaling can emerge from simple decisions. Results indicate temporal power-law scaling is a behavioural ‘rule of thumb’ that is tuned to species’ ecological traits, implying a common pattern may have naturally evolved that optimizes move–wait decisions in less predictable natural environments.

THE INFORMATION ERA THREATENS PRIVACY: A Comparative Study of Electronic Money’s Privacy Policies and Privacy Laws

This thesis consists of an analysis of electronic money (e-money), e-money’s privacy policies and relevant privacy laws. The value of information and the development of technology enhance the risk of privacy violations in the information era. Consumer privacy interests with respect to e-money are governed in part by the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) in Canada and by the European Union’s Data Protection Directive. The analysis is directed at whether the privacy policies of three kinds of e-money – Octopus Card, PayPal and MasterCard – comply with the spirit and letter of these laws. In light of technology change, the laws should be interpreted to apply broadly to protect privacy interests. Enhanced privacy protection may in fact lead to greater adoption of e-money by consumers.

Flavian laws, the railway, the newspaper and Loring’s breads

It is abound the research on the formation, rise and failure of the financial and industrial network undertaken by the Loring-Heredia-Larios triangle, bourgeois families who introduced the Industrial Revolution in the south of Andalusia. On the contrary, there are almost nonexistent studies from the perspective of the mentality that sustained their business, social and ethical model in the algid decades of their action (1850-1860). In this paper we propose some hypotheses about the ideological structures of bourgeois group and point out some keys, clues and signs for a future reconstruction of this kind, which so far has not been incardinated that early and failed malaguenan industrial revolution in streams thinking of that time.