4,627 research outputs found
Reading in the mobile era
No full textMobile technology can advance literacy and learning in underserved communities around the world.
Summary
Millions of people do not read for one reason: they do not have access to text. But today mobile phones and cellular networks are transforming a scarce resource into an abundant one.
Drawing on the analysis of over 4,000 surveys collected in seven developing countries and corresponding qualitative interviews, this report paints the most detailed picture to date of who reads books and stories on mobile devices and why.
The findings illuminate, for the first time, the habits, beliefs and profiles of mobile readers. This information points to strategies to expand mobile reading and, by extension, the educational, social and economic benefits associated with increased reading.
Mobile technology can advance literacy and learning in underserved communities around the world. This report shows how
The construction of Karen Karnak: The multi-author-function
No full textThis thesis is situated within the comparatively recent developments of Web 2.0 and the emergence of interactive WikiMedia, and explores the mode of authorship within a Read/Write culture compared to that of a Read/Only tradition. The hypothesis of this study is that the role of the audience has become merged with the author, and as such, represents new functions and attributes, distinct from a more conventional concept of authorship, in which the roles of audience and author are more separate. Read/Write and participatory culture, as defined by this study, is focused on collaboration, and includes the influences of D.I.Y. culture, Open-Source practices and the production of text by multiple authors. Multi-authorship presents a re-thinking of several concepts which support the notion of the individual author, since the focus of multi-authorship is not on attribution and ownership of a finished text, but on the continued malleability of a text. Modes of multi-authorship, demonstrated in the use of the pseudonyms Alan Smithee and Karen Eliot, represent declarative authors whose names signify multiple origins, whilst concurrently indicating a distinct body of work. The function of these names form an important context to this study, since primary research involves the construction of an experimental mode of multi-authorship utilising WikiMedia technology and the interaction of thirty nine participants, who are invited to create a body of work under the collective pseudonym Karen Karnak. The data generated by this experiment is analysed using aspects of Michel Foucault's author-function to identify and determine power structures inherent in the WikiMedia context. The interplay of power structures, including concepts such as identity, ownership and the body of work, affect the resulting mode of authorship and contribute to the construction of Karen Karnak, suggesting further areas of research into the emerging multi-author
Author Correction: The future of Blue Carbon science
No full textCorrection to: Nature Communications https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-11693-w, published online 05 September 2019.
The original version of this Article contained an error in the author affiliations.
Affiliation 24 incorrectly read ‘School of Applied Sciences, Edinburgh University, Edinburgh EH11 4BN, UK’
This has now been corrected in both the PDF and HTML versions of the Article.Full Tex
Boccardia wellingtonensis Read 1975
No full textBoccardia wellingtonensis Read, 1975 Type locality: Evans Bay marina, New Zealand; 41 ° 18.82’S, 174 ° 47.81’E; in organically enriched sand at low tide, associated with B. syrtis (Rainer, 1973). Type material: Holotype: Z.W. 1065; Paratype: Z.W. 1066 National Museum, Wellington, New Zealand. Location and author of most recently described material: 1) Read (1975) 2) part of re-Australian material identified as Boccardia polybranchia (Haswell, 1885) in Blake and Kudenov (1978); material from Macquarie Island and Kilcunda, Victoria (Simon et al. 2010). Recorded distribution: Australia: Macquarie Island, Kilcunda, Victoria; New Zealand; Chile; Argentina (?); Brazil (?)Published as part of Walker, Lexie M, 2011, A review of the current status of the Polydora - complex (Polychaeta: Spionidae) in Australia and a checklist of recorded species, pp. 40-62 in Zootaxa 2751 on page 49, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.20356
Developing an Easy Read version of the Adult Social Care Outcomes Toolkit (ASCOT)
No full textBackground: This paper reports the experiences of developing and pre-testing an Easy Read version of the Adult Social Care Outcomes Toolkit (ASCOT) for self-report by people with intellectual disabilities. Method: The study has combined survey development and pre-testing methods with approaches to create accessible information for people with intellectual disabilities. A working group assisted researchers in identifying appropriate question formats, pictures and wording. Focus groups and cognitive interviews were conducted to test various iterations of the instrument. Results: Substantial changes were made to the questionnaire, which included changes to illustrations, the wording of question stems and response options. Conclusions: The process demonstrated the benefits of involving people with intellectual disabilities in the design and testing of data collection instruments. Adequately adapted questionnaires can be useful tools to collect information from people with intellectual disabilities in survey research; however its limitations must be recognised
Grouping and Read-Across Approaches for Risk Assessment of Nanomaterials
No full textPhysicochemical properties of chemicals affect their exposure, toxicokinetics/fate and hazard, and for nanomaterials, the variation of these properties results in a wide variety of materials with potentially different risks. To limit the amount of testing for risk assessment, the information gathering process for nanomaterials needs to be efficient. At the same time, sufficient information to assess the safety of human health and the environment should be available for each nanomaterial. Grouping and read-across approaches can be utilised to meet these goals. This article presents different possible applications of grouping and read-across for nanomaterials within the broader perspective of the MARINA Risk Assessment Strategy (RAS), as developed in the EU FP7 project MARINA. Firstly, nanomaterials can be grouped based on limited variation in physicochemical properties to subsequently design an efficient testing strategy that covers the entire group. Secondly, knowledge about exposure, toxicokinetics/fate or hazard, for example via properties such as dissolution rate, aspect ratio, chemical (non-)activity, can be used to organise similar materials in generic groups to frame issues that need further attention, or potentially to read-across. Thirdly, when data related to specific endpoints is required, read-across can be considered, using data from a source material for the target nanomaterial. Read-across could be based on a scientifically sound justification that exposure, distribution to the target (fate/toxicokinetics) and hazard of the target material are similar to, or less than, the source material. These grouping and read-across approaches pave the way for better use of available information on nanomaterials and are flexible enough to allow future adaptations related to scientific developments.JRC.I.4 - Nanobioscience
Resistansi tokoh-tokoh dalam novel sebuah lagu untuk tuhan karya agnes davonar
No full textThis study aims to describe the resistance that characters do to other characters (other people) which is shown through the forms of open resistance and closed resistance in the novel A Song for God by Agnes Davonar. This resistance is very important and needed to encourage students\u27 intelligence in developing themselves (attitudes and traits). As well as to increase knowledge, so that students can take lessons or messages contained about life problems or existing life problems (life problems). The subject of this research is the novel A Song for God by Agnes Davonar published by Inti Publisher. This novel tells about the struggle of a deaf girl with all the problems of her life. A Song for God by Agnes Davonar is included in the type of popular novel. A light novel for readers to read and enjoy. The method used in this research is descriptive analysis method. The data collection technique was carried out with library techniques. The results of the research in the novel A Song for God are that there are two resistances, namely open resistance and closed resistance
Electrical Control, Read-out and Initialization of Single Electron Spins
No full textAn electron, in addition to its electric charge, possesses a small magnetic moment, called spin. The spin of an electron can point parallel (spin-up) or antiparallel (spin-down) to the magnetic field. These two states are analogous to zero and one of the logical bit in current digital electronic devices. However, according to the laws of quantum mechanics, the spin of an electron can be both up and down at the same time. Exploiting the spin degree of freedom has opened up a new era in the field of semiconductor electronics which may revolution current electronic devices. The electron spin could act as a quantum bit (qubit) in a futuristic quantum computer. With recent advances in nanotechnology, it is now feasible to create tiny electrostatic islands called quantum dots to controllably trap single electrons and explore their spin properties. This thesis presents experiments aiming at combining the indispensable ingredients of a quantum computer: read-out, control and initialization of single electron spins. It also seeks a deeper understanding of the properties of single electron spins in GaAs quantum dots. The measurements are performed on a double quantum dot which is defined in a two dimensional electron gas (2DEG) of GaAs/AlGaAs heterostructure. Applying negative voltages to the metallic gates on top of the heterostructure depletes the electron gas beneath them and thereby creates the quantum dots. By applying more and more negative voltages on the gates, we remove the electrons from the quantum dots one by one, reaching the single electron regime. Applying a magnetic field creates an energy difference between the spin states and defines the two states of the qubit. The device used in the experiments is cooled down to about 100\,mK where quantum mechanical behaviour is observed. In the first part of the thesis, we have realized independent single-shot read-out of two electron spins in our double quantum dot. The capability to measure the quantum state of multiple qubits individually and in a single-shot manner is essential for efficient characterization of quantum information protocols. Additionally, in a quantum computer, the result of computation needs to be read-out. The presented read-out method is all-electrical and the cross talk between two measurements is negligible. The read-out fidelities are about 86\% on average. This allows us to directly probe the anticorrelations between two spins prepared in a singlet state, an entangled two-spin state. The independent single-shot read-out of two electron spins also enabled us to fully characterize the operation of the two-qubit exchange gate, an important operation in a spin-based quantum computer, on a complete set of basis states. We observe a deviation of the two qubit gate from the pure exchange which we later account for. In the next step we combine the single-shot read-out with electrical manipulation of single electrons. Manipulation of single electrons can be done using so-called electric dipole spin resonance (EDSR) where the electric field couples to the spin degree of freedom. In quantum dots, EDSR can be mediated in several ways such as spin-orbit interaction, where the spin of an electron is coupled to its momentum, and the hyperfine interaction, where the electron spin is coupled to the nuclear spins of three isotopes of GaAs. We show that at high magnetic fields there is a clearly observable shift in the resonance condition between spin-orbit mediated and hyperfine-mediated EDSR. In these experiments, we introduce adiabatic rapid passage using fast frequency chirps as a robust technique to invert the electron spin in quantum dots. Furthermore, by modeling the EDSR response, we get a deeper understanding of the interplay between spin-orbit and hyperfine mediated driving. These findings could be exploited for enhanced control of dynamic nuclear polarization processes, including selective control of the three nuclear spin species. The focus of the penultimate part of the thesis is to combine single-shot read-out with fast initialization of single electron spins. The capability of fast qubit initialization to a well-known state is crucial for the implementation of the quantum computer for two reasons. First, at the start of the computation qubits need to be initialized. Second, for the error correction schemes, a continuous source of initialized qubits is required where the speed of initialization needs to be faster than the relevant gate operations. In the experiments described in the thesis, we demonstrate electrically controlled fast initialization of a single-spin qubit making use of ``hot spots'' where spin relaxation is enhanced by more than three orders of magnitude. These hot spots occur when the spin splitting matches the quantized orbital level spacing. Voltage pulses applied to the gates defining the double quantum dot allow us to rapidly move to one of the hot spots. There, spin-orbit and hyperfine interactions efficiently mix the spin and orbital excited states and spin-conserving orbital relaxation syphons the entire population to the ground state, thus achieving s-scale initialization. In the last part of the thesis, all-electrical independent addressing of a single-electron spins is presented. In those measurements we perform single electron manipulation using EDSR. Surprisingly, we observe well-separated Zeeman splittings in neighbouring quantum dots. This finding provides a direct route to selective addressing of spins in quantum dot arrays without the need for micro-fabricated magnets. The observed splitting also accounts for the deviation of the two-qubit gate from pure exchange, as observed in the first part of the thesis. All results presented in this thesis contribute to meeting the fundamental requirements for physical implementation of a spin-based quantum computer.Kavli Institute of NanoscienceApplied Science
Seeding Centrality: Organic upgrading urban rural syndicate in South Beijing
No full textThe ongoing urban plans and designs in China may have provided an improper model of making cities. They do not consider the complex nature of city and take little into consideration of the welfare of people. Then, the question comes, what is a proper model of building cities? A city serves as a receptacle of life. There are various lifestyles co-existing in a city. They can be categorized into scales, e.g., global scale (L), local scale (S) and those in between (M). A good city should give places and provide diverse choices for all the lives happening together and interacting with each other. In this sense, the vitality will be achieved. On the other hand, a city is an emerging systems with its own internal growing force. Therefore, the diversity can not be simply imposed by designers’ own wish. It has to be reached by embracing the self-organization process of the city. Therefore, to achieve the real diversity (L, M, S), the study considers Complexity Theories of Cities as one of the theoretical bases. It tries to search for an innovative approach, through which the self-organization process of cities could be properly guided and facilitated.Complex CitiesUrbanismArchitectur
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