'Vigilant Hospitality': The Online Imperative and Teaching Cultural Studies

Information technology (IT) sees information as a fluid, to be stored, regulated and exchanged. This is a profoundly economic model, whose dreams are those of the marketplace – and now, university managers. But no teacher, of course, holds that teaching can be reduced to the movement of information from one point to another. Teaching is never quite absorbed into the models of IT. Where they meet, we do not have the utopia of the virtual classroom, at last freed from the strictures of timetables and the face-to-face; we have, rather, the grinding of two radically irreducible models. This has nothing to do with Luddism; on the contrary, it is the value and necessity of IT for us at present, as teachers. At a time when the tertiary sector’s massive investment in IT is motivated in part by its own dream of the teacherless classroom, one of the pressing tasks for us may be simply to argue as rigorously as we can the structural necessity of our own position as teachers, without nostalgia or humanist sentimentality.

Farm exposures, parental occupation, and risk of Ewing's sarcoma in Australia: a national case-control study

Objective: It has been suggested that parental occupation, particularly farming, increased the risk of Ewing's sarcoma in the offspring. In a national case-control study we examined the relationship between farm and other parental occupational exposures and the risk of cancer in the offspring. Methods: Cases were 106 persons with confirmed Ewing's sarcoma or peripheral primitive neuroectodermal tumor. Population-based controls (344) were selected randomly via telephone. Information was collected by interview (84% face-to-face). Results: We found an excess of case mothers who worked on farms at conception and/or pregnancy (odds ratio (OR) = 2.3, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.5-12.0) and a slightly smaller excess of farming fathers; more case mothers usually worked as laborers, machine operators, or drivers (OR = 1.8, 95% CI 0.9-3.9). Risk doubled for those whose mothers handled pesticides and insecticides, or fathers who handled solvents and glues, and oils and greases. Further, more cases lived on farms (OR = 1.6, 95% CI 0.9-2.8). In the 0-20 years group, the risk doubled for those who ever lived on a farm (OR = 2.0, 95% CI 1.0-3.9), and more than tripled for those with farming fathers at conception and/or pregnancy (OR = 3.5, 95% CI 1.0-11.9). Conclusions: Our data support the general hypothesis of an association of Ewing's sarcoma family of tumors with farming, particularly at younger ages, who represent the bulk of cases, and are more likely to share etiologic factors.

Studies on mosquitoes (Diptera: Culicidae) and anthropic environment: 2 - Immature stages research at a rice irrigation system location in South-Eastern Brazil

A relation between a rice irrigation system and mosquito breeding was established in a study undertaken at the Ribeira Valley Experimental Station, from January through December 1992. Flooding favoured Anopheles (Nyssorhynchus) and Culex (Melanoconion) species, while empty paddies condition were propitious to Aedes scapularis and Culex (Culex) species. Compared with a more primitive area of the same region, several species showed high a degree of adaptation to the anthropic environment. Among them, Anopheles albitarsis, a potential malaria vector that breeds in the irrigation system, has shown immature stage production thirteen times higher than at the natural breeding sites. In addition, Ae. scapularis, An. oswaldoi, Cx. bastagarius, and Cx. chidesteri presented high levels of synanthropy.

Spectral and weak polynomial completeness for the porduct of nonsingular matrices

Let F be a field with at least four elements. In this paper, we identify all the pairs (A, B) of n x n nonsingular matrices over F , satisfying the following property: for every monic polynomial f(x) = xn + an-1xn-1 + … +a1x + aο over F, with a root in F and aο = (-1)n det(AB), there are nonsingular matrices X, Y ϵ Fnxn such that X A X-1 Y BY-1 has characteristic polynomial f (x). © 2014 © 2014 Taylor & Francis.

Spectral and weak polynomial completeness for the product of nonsingular matrices

Let F be a field with at least four elements. In this paper, we identify all the pairs (A, B) of n x n nonsingular matrices over F, satisfying the following property: for every monic polynomial f (x) = x(n) + a(n-1)x(n-1) +... + a(1)x + a(0) over F, with a root in F and a(0) = (-1)(n) det(AB), there are nonsingular matrices X, Y is an element of F-nxn such that XAX(-1)Y BY-1 has characteristic polynomial f (x).

On the requirements of interpolating polynomials for path motion constraints

In the framework of multibody dynamics, the path motion constraint enforces that a body follows a predefined curve being its rotations with respect to the curve moving frame also prescribed. The kinematic constraint formulation requires the evaluation of the fourth derivative of the curve with respect to its arc length. Regardless of the fact that higher order polynomials lead to unwanted curve oscillations, at least a fifth order polynomials is required to formulate this constraint. From the point of view of geometric control lower order polynomials are preferred. This work shows that for multibody dynamic formulations with dependent coordinates the use of cubic polynomials is possible, being the dynamic response similar to that obtained with higher order polynomials. The stabilization of the equations of motion, always required to control the constraint violations during long analysis periods due to the inherent numerical errors of the integration process, is enough to correct the error introduced by using a lower order polynomial interpolation and thus forfeiting the analytical requirement for higher order polynomials.

Narrative Bifurcation, Cloud Computing Interfaces and Hitchcok

From a narratological perspective, this paper aims to address the theoretical issues concerning the functioning of the so called «narrative bifurcation» in data presentation and information retrieval. Its use in cyberspace calls for a reassessment as a storytelling device. Films have shown its fundamental role for the creation of suspense. Interactive fiction and games have unveiled the possibility of plots with multiple choices, giving continuity to cinema split-screen experiences. Using practical examples, this paper will show how this storytelling tool returns to its primitive form and ends up by conditioning cloud computing interface design.

The ceramic artifacts in archaeological black earth (terra preta) from Lower Amazon Region, Brazil: chemistry and geochemical evolution

This paper carried out a chemical investigation of archaeological ceramic artifacts found in archaeological sites with Black Earth (ABE) in the Lower Amazon Region at Cachoeira-Porteira, State of Pará, Brazil. The ceramic artifacts, mostly of daily use, belong to Konduri culture (from 900 to 400 years BP). They are constituted of SiO2, Al2O3, Fe2O3, Na2O and P2O5; SiO2 and Al2O3 together add up to 80 % and indicate influence of acid rocks, transformed into clay minerals basically kaolinite. The relative high contents of P2O5 (2.37 % in average) come out as (Al,Fe)-phosphate, an uncommon fact in primitive red ceramics, but found in some roman and egyptian archaeological sites. The contents of the trace elements are similar or below the Earth's crust average. This chemical composition (except P2O5) detaches saprolite material derived acid igneous rocks or sedimentary ones as the main raw material of the ceramics. The contents of K, Na and Ca represent the feldspars and rock fragments possibly introduced into saprolitic groundmass, indicated by mineralogical studies. The presence of cauixi and cariapé as well as quartz sand was confirmed by optical microscope, SEM analyses and by the high silica contents of ceramic fragments. Phosphorus was possibly incorporated into groundmass during cooking of foods, and ABE soil profile formation developed on yellow Latosols. The raw materials and its tempers (cauixi, or cariapé, feldspar, crushed rocks, old ceramic artifacts and quartz fragments) are found close to the sites and therefore and certainly came from them.

Search for the Standard Model Higgs boson produced in association with top quarks and decaying into bb in pp collisions at √s = 8 TeV with the ATLAS detector

A search for the Standard Model Higgs boson produced in association with a pair of top quarks, tt¯H, is presented. The analysis uses 20.3 fb−1 of pp collision data at s√ = 8 TeV, collected with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider during 2012. The search is designed for the H to bb¯ decay mode and uses events containing one or two electrons or muons. In order to improve the sensitivity of the search, events are categorised according to their jet and b-tagged jet multiplicities. A neural network is used to discriminate between signal and background events, the latter being dominated by tt¯+jets production. In the single-lepton channel, variables calculated using a matrix element method are included as inputs to the neural network to improve discrimination of the irreducible tt¯+bb¯ background. No significant excess of events above the background expectation is found and an observed (expected) limit of 3.4 (2.2) times the Standard Model cross section is obtained at 95% confidence level. The ratio of the measured tt¯H signal cross section to the Standard Model expectation is found to be μ=1.5±1.1 assuming a Higgs boson mass of 125 GeV.

Recurrence relations for Clifford algebra-valued orthogonal polynomials

The theory of orthogonal polynomials of one real or complex variable is well established as well as its generalization for the multidimensional case. Hypercomplex function theory (or Clifford analysis) provides an alternative approach to deal with higher dimensions. In this context, we study systems of orthogonal polynomials of a hypercomplex variable with values in a Clifford algebra and prove some of their properties.

Asymptotics of orthogonal polynomials via the Koosis theorem

The main aim of this short paper is to advertize the Koosis theorem in the mathematical community, especially among those who study orthogonal polynomials. We (try to) do this by proving a new theorem about asymptotics of orthogonal polynomi- als for which the Koosis theorem seems to be the most natural tool. Namely, we consider the case when a SzegÄo measure on the unit circumference is perturbed by an arbitrary measure inside the unit disk and an arbitrary Blaschke sequence of point masses outside the unit disk.

Pure motives, mixed motives and extensions of motives associated to singular surfaces

We first recall the construction of the Chow motive modelling intersection cohomology of a proper surface X and study its fundamental properties. Using Voevodsky's category of effective geometrical motives, we then study the motive of the exceptional divisor D in a non-singular blow-up of X. If all geometric irreducible components of D are of genus zero, then Voevodsky's formalism allows us to construct certain one-extensions of Chow motives, as canonical subquotients of the motive with compact support of the smooth part of X. Specializing to Hilbert-Blumenthal surfaces, we recover a motivic interpretation of a recent construction of A. Caspar.

Elements of algebraic geometry and the positive theory of partially commutative groups

The first main result of the paper is a criterion for a partially commutative group G to be a domain. It allows us to reduce the study of algebraic sets over G to the study of irreducible algebraic sets, and reduce the elementary theory of G (of a coordinate group over G) to the elementary theories of the direct factors of G (to the elementary theory of coordinate groups of irreducible algebraic sets). Then we establish normal forms for quantifier-free formulas over a non-abelian directly indecomposable partially commutative group H. Analogously to the case of free groups, we introduce the notion of a generalised equation and prove that the positive theory of H has quantifier elimination and that arbitrary first-order formulas lift from H to H * F, where F is a free group of finite rank. As a consequence, the positive theory of an arbitrary partially commutative group is decidable.

Sex difference and the role of leptin in the association between high-sensitivity C-reactive protein and adiposity in two different populations.

Elevated high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP) concentration is associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease but this association seems to be largely mediated via conventional cardiovascular risk factors. In particular, the association between hs-CRP and obesity has been extensively demonstrated and correlations are stronger in women than men. We used fractional polynomials-a method that allows flexible modeling of non linear relations-to investigate the dose/response mathematical relationship between hs-CRP and several indicators of adiposity in Caucasians (Switzerland) and Africans (Seychelles) surveyed in two population-based studies. This relationship was non-linear exhibiting a steeper slope for low levels of hs-CRP and a higher level in women. The observed sex difference in the relationship between hs-CRP and adiposity almost disappeared upon adjustment for leptin, suggesting that these sex differences might be partially mediated, by leptin. All these relationship were similar in Caucasians and Africans. This is the first report on a non-linear relation, stratified by gender, between hs-CRP and adiposity.

Gains from switching and evolutionary stability in multi-player matrix games.

In this paper we unify, simplify, and extend previous work on the evolutionary dynamics of symmetric N-player matrix games with two pure strategies. In such games, gains from switching strategies depend, in general, on how many other individuals in the group play a given strategy. As a consequence, the gain function determining the gradient of selection can be a polynomial of degree N-1. In order to deal with the intricacy of the resulting evolutionary dynamics, we make use of the theory of polynomials in Bernstein form. This theory implies a tight link between the sign pattern of the gains from switching on the one hand and the number and stability of the rest points of the replicator dynamics on the other hand. While this relationship is a general one, it is most informative if gains from switching have at most two sign changes, as is the case for most multi-player matrix games considered in the literature. We demonstrate that previous results for public goods games are easily recovered and extended using this observation. Further examples illustrate how focusing on the sign pattern of the gains from switching obviates the need for a more involved analysis.