Everything Under the Sun: A Review of Solar Neutrinos

Solar neutrinos offer a unique opportunity to study the interaction of neutrinos with matter, a sensitive search for potential new physics effects, and a probe of solar structure and solar system formation. This paper describes the broad physics program addressed by solar neutrino studies, presents the current suite of experiments programs, and describes several potential future detectors that could address the open questions in this field. This paper is a summary of a talk presented at the Neutrino 2014 conference in Boston

The SIMIAN architecture-an object-orientated framework for integrated power system modelling, analysis and control

This paper details the work conducted by the Brunel Institute of Power Systems, UK, into an object orientated framework for power systems modelling, analysis and control. Based around a central OODBMS (object orientated database management system), the architecture provides a framework for the construction of analysis and control applications and the sharing of calculated or real-time data between the applications. Although the paper details the architecture only in so far as its applicability to two applications, the framework is designed such that further applications, either client output (such as control applications) or input(such as SCADA systems) may easily be added to the basic structure. To illustrate the architecture, a load flow simulation application is presented, along with the strategy for incorporating other applications. The mechanism by which these `applications' interact with the OODBMS and core structure of the architecture is illustrate

Sources of Ideas for Innovation in Engineering Design

This paper explores the sources of ideas for innovation in engineering design. The paper shows that engineering designers involved in complex, non-routine design processes rely heavily on face-to-face conversations with other designers for solving problems and developing new innovative ideas. The research is based on a case study and survey of designers from Ove Arup & Partners, a leading international engineering consultancy. We examine the role of different mechanisms for learning about new designs, the motivations of designers, problem solving and limits to designers' ability to innovative. We explore how the project-based nature of the construction sector shapes the ways in which designers develop new ideas and solve problems. We suggest that among the population of designers in Arup, there are a number of different design strategies for innovating and that these can have important implications for how design is managed. We locate our approach in the research on innovation in project-based firms, outlining patterns of innovation in firms that survive on the basis of their success in winning and managing projects.engineering design, innovation, tacit knowledge, project-based firms

How culture influences perspective taking: differences in correction, not integration

Individuals from East Asian (Chinese) backgrounds have been shown to exhibit greater sensitivity to a speaker’s perspective than Western (U.S.) participants when resolving referentially ambiguous expressions. We show that this cultural difference does not reflect better integration of social information during language processing, but rather is the result of differential correction: in the earliest moments of referential processing, Chinese participants showed equivalent egocentric interference to Westerners, but managed to suppress the interference earlier and more effectively. A time-series analysis of visual-world eye-tracking data found that the two cultural groups diverged extremely late in processing, between 600 and 1400 ms after the onset of egocentric interference. We suggest that the early moments of referential processing reflect the operation of a universal stratum of processing that provides rapid ambiguity resolution at the cost of accuracy and flexibility. Late components, in contrast, reflect the mapping of outputs from referential processes to decision-making and action planning systems, allowing for a flexibility in responding that is molded by culturally specific demands

Der Internal Capital Adequacy Assessment Process als regulatorischer Treiber eines aktiven Kreditportfoliomanagements

Vorliegende Arbeit sucht die Ursachen des Wandels der traditionellen Geschäftsstrategie von Kreditinstituten zu einem aktiven Steuerungsansatz unter dem Gesichtspunkt des Einflusses aufsichtsrechtlicher Anforderungen genauer zu analysieren. Es wird gezeigt, dass nicht nur ökonomische Faktoren, sondern auch regulatorische Vorgaben ein wesentlicher Treiber für die Weiterentwicklung der Gesamtbanksteuerung in Richtung eines aktiven Managements sämtlicher bewusst übernommener sowie dem Bankgeschäft inhärenten Risiken sein können. Dabei wird infolge der hohen Bedeutung bonitätsrisikobehafteter Assets für die Ertrags- und Risikolage der Banken im speziellen auf das Kreditgeschäft eingegangen. Anhand der Darstellung des in der zweiten Säule der Internationalen Konvergenz der Kapitalmessung und Eigenkapitalanforderungen (Basel II) des Baseler Ausschusses für Bankenaufsicht abgebildeten Internal Capital Adequacy Assessment Process (ICAAP) sowie den damit zusammenhängenden internationalen sowie nationalen Vorgaben wird dargelegt, dass diese Anforderungen in weiten Teilen mit den grundlegenden ökonomischen Ansprüchen an ein effizientes wertorientiertes Kreditportfoliomanagement übereinstimmen. Die aufsichtsrechtliche Pflicht zur Umsetzung des ICAAP und die ökonomische Notwendigkeit der Implementierung eines AKPM können somit als zwei Seiten einer Medaille betrachtet werden

Virtual Vault

This project will develop an alpha level test for an interactive artifact browser to share the ceramics of the Arizona State Museum with educational, academic and public audiences. This application is filed under the National Endowment for the Humanities Digital Start Up grants program