Help - Where is Information Going To?

There are some indications that the present recession is bringing with it changes in the methods of information dissemination: some of these were already in evidence some while ago and have merely been accelerated, some are newish developments, some may be improvements and some the reverse. Before looking at the causes and effects, a brief review of the history and trends is appropriate

Secondary Services: The Smaller Producers

At a meeting for discussion on The Future of Information Services for U.K. Biologists, the author looks at reasons and justifications for small producers, and possible future trends

Uses and Abuses of Data Banks

After reviewing the historical development of libraries and catalogues -- indexes -- the evolution of secondary or abstracting services is discussed in the light of the rapidly growing rate of publication of new research literature. The retention of traditional formats and indexing practices is shown to have had an adverse effect on the benefits computerization of abstracting services might have brought. Users of such services have to contend with a multiplicity of systems which makes maximum utilization difficult. In spite of the large volume of abstracts published, evidence is presented to indicate that only a relatively small proportion of literature is currently reported in secondary services. Rejecting a possible model for a global information system, it is argued that addition of citation indexing to secondary services would offer a means of screening the literature for the "valuable" publications. After discussing the utilization of literature in increasing the knowledge domain of users and the influence of user habits in using knowledge in decision-making, possible future developments in information systems are outlined

On Optimality of Stepdown and Stepup Multiple Test Procedures

Consider the multiple testing problem of testing k null hypotheses, where the unknown family of distributions is assumed to satisfy a certain monotonicity assumption. Attention is restricted to procedures that control the familywise error rate in the strong sense and which satisfy a monotonicity condition. Under these assumptions, we prove certain maximin optimality results for some well-known stepdown and stepup procedures.Comment: Published at http://dx.doi.org/10.1214/009053605000000066 in the Annals of Statistics (http://www.imstat.org/aos/) by the Institute of Mathematical Statistics (http://www.imstat.org

Information in Wonderland: March Hare or Queen of Hearts

If we look back at the evolution of the information industry, there have been two distinct and fundamental revolutions: the first was initiated around 1450 by the printing press of Gutenberg, which allowed information-bearing artifacts to be acquired by all who had the means and to be stored indefinitely. The second revolution is still with us and can be termed the electrical or electronic information age which started with the telegraph around 1840: information is no longer available as an artifact, but can be listened to, displayed, transmitted. The current information revolution largely consists of the increased trend for these text and moving image machines to converge and interact

Untersuchungen zum Sorptions- und Quellungsverhalten von thermisch behandeltem Holz

Zusammenfassung: Proben aus Radiata pine (Pinus radiata D. Don), Douglasie (Pseudotsuga menziesii Franco), Laurel (Laurelia sempervirens (R. et Pav.)Tul), Edelkastanie (Castanea sativa Mill.) und Eiche (Quercus robur L.) wurden im belüfteten Trockenschrank jeweils 24h bei 100°C, 150°C bzw. 200°C) wärmebehandelt. Danach wurden das Sorptionsverhalten bei variabler Luftfeuchte und die Quellung in radialer und tangentialer Richtung bestimmt. Als Bezugsbasis dienten unbehandelte Proben. Je Variante wurden zehn Proben verwendet. Das Sorptionsverhalten wurde basierend auf den gemessenen Werten mit dem Hailwood-Horrobin-Modell berechnet. Je nach Holzart kam es bereits ab 100°C teilweise zu einer merklichen Reduzierung der Gleichgewichtsfeuchte. Bei 150°C und insbesondere bei 200°C war eine deutliche Reduzierung der Gleichgewichtsfeuchte und Quellung vorhanden. Mit dem HH-Modell konnte nachgewiesen werden, dass es dabei sowohl zu Änderungen der Porenstruktur als auch der Chemisorption kommt. Auch die Verkettung der Cellulosemoleküle ändert sich. Der Unterschied zwischen tangentialer und radialen differentialer Quellung steigt in der Reihenfolge Pinus radiata, P. menziesii, C. sativa, L. sempervirens und Q. robur. Die tangentiale differentielle Quellung ist allgemein empfindlicher auf die Wärmebehandlung als die radiale. Was die tangentiale differentielle Quellung anbelangt setzt sich Q. robur von den übrigen untersuchten Holzarten in den absoluten Werten deutlich ab. Mit Ausnahme von Pinus radiata tendiert der Anisotropie-Koeffizient bei 200°C dazu, leicht abzunehmen. Die Dichte sank bei allen Holzarten durch die Behandlung a

Four-colour photometry of eclipsing binaries. XLI uvby light curves for AD Bootis, HW Canis Majoris, SW Canis Majoris, V636 Centauri, VZ Hydrae, and WZ Ophiuchi

CONTEXT: Accurate mass, radius, and abundance determinations from binaries provide important information on stellar evolution, fundamental to central fields in modern astrophysics and cosmology. AIMS: Within the long-term Copenhagen Binary Project, we aim to obtain high-quality light curves and standard photometry for double-lined detached eclipsing binaries with late A, F, and G type main-sequence components, needed for the determination of accurate absolute dimensions and abundances, and for detailed comparisons with results from recent stellar evolutionary models. METHODS: Between March 1985 and July 2007, we carried out photometric observations of AD Boo, HW CMA, SW CMa, V636 Cen, VZ Hya, and WZ Oph at the Str"omgren Automatic Telescope at ESO, La Silla. RESULTS: We obtained complete uvby light curves, ephemerides, and standard uvby\beta indices for all six systems.For V636 Cen and HW CMa, we present the first modern light curves, whereas for AD Boo, SW CMa, VZ Hya, and WZ Oph, they are both more accurate and more complete than earlier data. Due to a high orbital eccentricity (e = 0.50), combined with a low orbital inclination (i = 84.7), only one eclipse, close to periastron, occurs for HW CMa. For the two other eccentric systems, V636 Cen (e = 0.134) and SW CMa (e = 0.316), apsidal motion has been detected with periods of 5270 +/- 335 and 14900 +/- 3600 years, respectively.Comment: Only change is: Bottom lines (hopefully) not truncated anymore. Accepted for publication in Astonomy & Astrophysic

Absolute dimensions of eclipsing binaries. XXVI, Setting a new standard : masses, radii, and abundances for the F-type systems AD Bootis, VZ Hydrae, and WZ Ophiuchi

Context. Accurate mass, radius, and abundance determinations from binaries provide important information on stellar evolution, fundamental to central fields in modern astrophysics and cosmology. Aims. We aim to determine absolute dimensions and abundances for the three F-type main-sequence detached eclipsing binaries ADBoo, VZHya, and WZOph and to perform a detailed comparison with results from recent stellar evolutionary models. Methods. uvby light curves and uvbyβ standard photometry were obtained with the Strömgren Automatic Telescope at ESO, La Silla, radial velocity observations at CfA facilities, and supplementary high-resolution spectra with ESO’s FEROS spectrograph. State-ofthe-art methods were applied for the analyses: the EBOP andWilson-Devinney binary models, two-dimensional cross-correlation and disentangling, and the VWA abundance analysis tool. Results. Masses and radii that are precise to 0.5–0.7% and 0.4–0.9%, respectively, have been established for the components, which span the ranges of 1.1 to 1.4 M and 1.1 to 1.6 R. The [Fe/H] abundances are from –0.27 to +0.10, with uncertainties between 0.07 and 0.15 dex. We find indications of a slight α-element overabundance of [α/Fe] ∼ +0.1 for WZOph. The secondary component of ADBoo and both components of WZOph appear to be slightly active. Yale-Yonsai and Victoria-Regina evolutionary models fit the components of ADBoo and VZHya almost equally well, assuming coeval formation, at ages of about 1.75/1.50 Gyr (ADBoo) and 1.25/1.00 Gyr (VZHya). BaSTI models, however, predict somewhat different ages for the primary and secondary components. For WZOph, the models from all three grids are significantly hotter than observed. A low He content, decreased envelope convection coupled with surface activity, and/or higher interstellar absorption would remove the discrepancy, but its cause has not been definitively identified. Conclusions. We have demonstrated the power of testing and comparing recent stellar evolutionary models using eclipsing binaries, provided their abundances are known. The strongest limitations and challenges are set by Teff and interstellar absorption determinations, and by their effects on and correlation with abundance results

Third-order superintegrable systems separable in parabolic coordinates

In this paper, we investigate superintegrable systems which separate in parabolic coordinates and admit a third-order integral of motion. We give the corresponding determining equations and show that all such systems are multi-separable and so admit two second-order integrals. The third-order integral is their Lie or Poisson commutator. We discuss how this situation is different from the Cartesian and polar cases where new potentials were discovered which are not multi-separable and which are expressed in terms of Painlev\'e transcendents or elliptic functions

Unsharp Quantum Reality

The positive operator (valued) measures (POMs) allow one to generalize the notion of observable beyond the traditional one based on projection valued measures (PVMs). Here, we argue that this generalized conception of observable enables a consistent notion of unsharp reality and with it an adequate concept of joint properties. A sharp or unsharp property manifests itself as an element of sharp or unsharp reality by its tendency to become actual or to actualize a specific measurement outcome. This actualization tendency-or potentiality-of a property is quantified by the associated quantum probability. The resulting single-case interpretation of probability as a degree of reality will be explained in detail and its role in addressing the tensions between quantum and classical accounts of the physical world will be elucidated. It will be shown that potentiality can be viewed as a causal agency that evolves in a well-defined way