3,515 research outputs found
Medmassa nyctalops Simon 1910
No full textMedmassa nyctalops Simon, 1910 Medmassa nyctalops Simon, 1910: 377. (Ƥ holotype: EQUATORIAL GUINEA: Bioko [Fernando Poo], Musola, leg. L. Fea, MNHN – not examined). Remarks. This species was described by Simon (1910) from a single female collected at Musola, Bioko (Fernando Poo). The type material could not be traced in MNHN and is presumed lost. The original description is inadequate for its accurate identification. Despite considerable Corinnidae material having recently been collected on Bioko by staff of the CAS, which was examined by the second author, no fresh Medmassa specimens could be recognised, and thus the status of this species remains unresolved.Published as part of Haddad, Charles R. & Bosselaers, Jan, 2010, A revision of the genus Medmassa Simon, 1887 (Araneae: Corinnidae) in the Afrotropical Region, pp. 1-12 in Zootaxa 2361 on page 11, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.19362
The X Factor Enigma: Simon Cowell and the Marketization of Existential Liminality
No full textIn this paper we take a cultural perspective to understand the success of Simon Cowell’s X Factor TV talent show and its various brand extensions which, we suggest, epitomise the new marketing priorities of the media convergence era. We seek insights not from formal theories of marketing management but in the myth and magic of Cowell’s enchanted TV presence as the mystical authority, the trickster figure, conducting a mass-mediated experience of Turner’s (1969) ‘existential liminality’. Detached from formal rites of passage, this simulation of liminal ritual temporarily, and symbolically, subverts formal social barriers and opens up the possibility of transformed identity for the contestants. We suggest that X Factor viewers partake both vicariously and actually in this marketized experience of existential liminality. We review literary as well as anthropological antecedents to the media role Cowell personifies and we critique and we extend previous applications of Turner’s work in marketing and consumption to suggest a wider resonance beyond the exemplar of X Factor in a range of ordinary, as well as extraordinary, consumption phenomena
Strategic Behaviour in the International Exploitation of TV Formats - A Case Study of the Idols Format
No full textThe international trade in TV formats has been increasing steadily. According to the Format Recognition and Protection Association (a format producers' industry association) the value of the global TV format business exceeds € 9.3 billion (FRAPA 2009). In the early 2000s, the market grew more than 30 per cent in three years, and the UK became one of the lead exporters of formats, along with USA and the Netherlands (FT 2005). This case study investigates how Idols became one of the most successful television formats sold worldwide – with, as noted in the Introduction, over 40 global versions – in the absence of specific format rights. Component parts of an Idols type format may attract copyright protection in its production manual (also known as 'format bible'), set design, programming sequence, episode segments and musical content; but in a court of law, the underlying concept and the format arrangement of the components does not attract copyright protection. From a legal perspective, if there is no formal protection regime provided by law, competitors should be able to copy the product freely and hence the price of such a product should be zero. However, formats are bought and sold for large sums of money. The licensees fees alone for a sought after format, such as Idols, can cost broadcasters in a Western European territory, upwards of €35,000 for one series of 20 to 30 episodes of 1 hour duration besides additional fees for consultancy in the form of flying producers.
This case study identifies the strategies employed by producers of the Idols format to counter the limited legal protection available to their cultural products. The case study is structured as follows. The first section gives an introductory overview of international trade in the Idols format, circumscribing the issue of format imitation from a legal and commercial point of view. Secondly, the research design for the case study is explained. Thirdly, market based patterns of format protection and exploitation are identified from the empirical data. The chapter concludes with a discussion section, in which these patterns of exploitation are grouped into three overarching strategies pursued by the producers of the Idols format
Environmental and Parental Influences on Offspring Health and Growth in Great Tits (Parus major)
No full textPMCID: PMC3728352This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited
Forecasting banknotes
No full textA central bank’s liquidity forecast is important in ensuring that it supplies the banking system’s need for central bank money. Banknote (or currency in circulation) demand is the largest and for some central banks the most variable component of the liquidity forecast. Accurate forecasting of banknotes is essential in ensuring an accurate liquidity forecast and in turn effective monetary policy implementation. This Handbook discusses these issues and outlines a structural time series state space (STSSS) model which is now used by central banks including the Bank of England and ECB to forecast banknotes (currency in circulation).Forecasting banknotes
Łojasiewicz–Simon gradient inequalities for coupled Yang–Mills energy functions
No full textWe prove Lojasiewicz–Simon gradient inequalities for coupled Yang–Mills energy functions using Sobolev spaces which impose minimal regularity requirements on pairs of connections and sections. The Lojasiewicz–Simon gradient inequalities for coupled Yang–Mills energy functions generalize that of the pure Yang–Mills energy function due to the first author (Feehan, 2014) for base manifolds of arbitrary dimension and due to R˚ade (1992, Proposition 7.2) for dimensions two and three
Where AES is for Internet, SIMON could be for IoT
No full textAbstractWith the upcoming era of Internet of Things and the Pervasive Computing, there is a need to develop block ciphers with tight constraints such as area, power, memory, performance, throughput and others. These are so called the lightweight block ciphers which are specifically intended for resource constrained platforms. Lined up in the line is SIMON, a light weight block cipher proposed by NSA after the prompting from the U.S. Government in the year 2013 along with SPECK lightweight block cipher. SIMON implementation on hardware has excellent results in terms of area and has been found to be a very strong alternative to the existing AES. This paper involves the basic design considerations, round functions, key schedule and parameters of SIMON and also we can look forward into the implementations of SIMON in hardware comparing with the existing AES standard. This paper also focuses on the analysis in terms of area, power and delay of the SIMON 64/128 configuration in Cadence Synthesis RTL Compiler using the CMOS 180 nm and 90 nm technology libraries
Who Will Be Idol? The Importance of Social Networks for Winning on Reality Shows
No full textThis paper examines, both theoretically and empirically, the effect of social networks and belonging to minority groups (or race) on the probability of winning in reality television shows. We develop a theoretical model that studies viewer behavior by presenting a framework of competition between two contestants from two different groups. The results are examined empirically using unique contestant data from the highly popular reality show "A Star Is Born", the Israeli counterpart of "American Idol". Our main finding is that social networks and belonging to minority groups play key roles in the contestant’s victory, but their effects are nonlinear: the social network effect is U-shaped, whereas that of belonging to a minority group follows an inverted U shape. Beyond the world of reality TV, this paper sheds light on the general behavior of social networks as well.American Idol, social networks, minority groups, contest, voting
Agraecina lineata Simon
No full textAgroeca lineata Simon 1878: 308 (descr. female). Agraecina lineata Simon 1932: 939, 970 (descr. male, non female); Grimm 1986: 14. Diagnosis: Males are easily distinguished from other liocranids from the Maghreb by the strongly pointed tibial apophysis and median apophysis of the bulb; females have an epigyne with elongate median septum, without other chitinisations. Remarks: Simon (1878) described Agraecina lineata from a juvenile or subadult female from Corsica. He described the male and female in 1932, and the species was said to occur in continental France, Corsica, Algeria and Morocco. Simon’s Fig.ure of the female epigyne is incorrect, as also indicated by Grimm (1986). The same author presented recent Fig.ures of the male palp, epigyne and vulva have never been illustrated. , Description: Measurements: Male: Total length 4.4-6.0; carapace 1.97-2.82 long, 1.64-2.21 wide. Female: Total length 8,0; carapace 2.72 long, 2.21 wide. Colour: Carapace yellowish brown with grey margin and anastomosing, radiating stripes; legs yellowish brown, not annulated; abdomen pale grey with wide median and narrower lateral longitudinal grey stripes, converging to the back. Palp (Figs. 17-18): Tibial apophysis strongly pointed, gradually narrowing, oblique to the axe of the segment: median apophysis gently curved, distal 2/3 linear and pointed; embolus straight, needle-like. Epigyne (Fig. 19): With hardly defined, short median septum in the anterior half, in the postero-median half with gently curved spermathecae visible in transparency. Vulva (Fig. 20): Anterior to the septum with two poaches, preceding long and straight copulation ducts Material examined: Algeria - Boumerdes: Reghaia, 5m, 2 males in pitfalls in marsh with tamarisk, 13.VI.1988, and 1 male 1 female, 30.IX.1988, R. B o sm a n s leg. (CRB). - Tizi Ouzou: forêt de Mizrana, 300m, 1 female, stones in grassland, 26.I.1990, R. Bosmans leg. (CRB). Spain - Malaga: Benyanina N., 1 male in pitfalls in coastal dunes, 1.IV. 1999, R. Bosmans leg. (CRB). Distribution: Algeria, Morocco, France (Alpes maritimes, Bouches du Rhone, Bretagne, Corse, Loire atlantique, Loire inférieure, Morbihan), Italy (Umbria), Spain (new record). In Algeria we collected the species mainly in salt marshes, once more to the interior in grassland.Published as part of Bosmans, Robert, 1999, The genera Agroeca, Agraecina, Apostenus and Scotina in the Maghreb countries (Araneae: Liocranidae), pp. 25-34 in Bulletin Di L' Institut Royal Des Sciences Naturelles De Belgique Entomologie 69 on pages 29-30, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.82621
Five seconds or sixty? Presentation time in expert memory
No full textThe template theory presented in Gobet and Simon (1996a, 1998) is based on the EPAM theory (Feigenbaum & Simon, 1984; Richman et al., 1995), including the numerical parameters that have been estimated in tests of the latter; and it therefore offers precise predictions for the timing of cognitive processes during the presentation and recall of chess positions. This paper describes the behavior of CHREST, a computer implementation of the template theory, in a task when the presentation time is systematically varied from one second to sixty seconds, on the recall of both game and random positions, and compares the model to human data. As predicted by the model, strong players are better than weak players with both types of positions. Their superiority with random positions is especially clear with long presentation times, but is also present after brief presentation times, although smaller in absolute value. CHREST accounts for the data, both qualitatively and quantitatively. Strong players’ superiority with random positions is explained by the large number of chunks they hold in LTM. Strong players’ high recall percentage with short presentation times is explained by the presence of templates, a special class of chunks. The model is compared to other theories of chess skill, which either cannot account for the superiority of Masters with random positions (models based on high-level descriptions and on levels of processing) or predict too strong a performance of Masters with random positions (long-term working memory)
- …
