Inertial-range Magnetic-fluctuation Anisotropy Observed from Parker Solar Probe’s First Seven Orbits

Solar wind turbulence is anisotropic with respect to the mean magnetic field. Anisotropy leads to ambiguity when interpreting in situ turbulence observations in the solar wind because an apparent change in the measurements could be due to either the change of intrinsic turbulence properties or to a simple change of the spacecraft sampling direction. We demonstrate the ambiguity using the spectral index and magnetic compressibility in the inertial range observed by the Parker Solar Probe during its first seven orbits ranging from 0.1 to 0.6 au. To unravel the effects of the sampling direction, we assess whether the wave-vector anisotropy is consistent with a two-dimensional (2D) plus slab turbulence transport model and determine the fraction of power in the 2D versus slab component. Our results confirm that the 2D plus slab model is consistent with the data and the power ratio between 2D and slab components depends on radial distance, with the relative power in 2D fluctuations becoming smaller closer to the Sun.

Ordered Questions Bias Eyewitnesses and Jurors

<p>Eyewitnesses play an important role in the justice system. But suggestive questioning can distort eyewitness memory and confidence, and those distorted beliefs influence jurors (Loftus, 2005; Penrod & Cutler, 1995). Recent research, however, hints that suggestion is not necessary. Simply changing the order of a set of trivia questions altered people's beliefs about their accuracy on those questions (Weinstein & Roediger, 2010, 2012). I wondered to what degree eyewitnesses' beliefs—and in turn the jurors who evaluate them—would be affected by this simple change to the order in which they answer questions. Across a number of experiments in Part 1 of my thesis, I show that the order of questions matters: Eyewitnesses reported higher accuracy and were more confident about their memory when questions seemed initially easy than when they seemed initially difficult. In addition, jurors' beliefs about eyewitnesses closely matched those of the eyewitnesses themselves. But why does the order of questions matter? How does this simple rearrangement produce these alarming effects? Across a number of experiments in Part 2 of my thesis, I explore the extent to which the data are consistent with an explanation where eyewitnesses rapidly form an impression of their performance that is resistant to change. Taken together, these findings have implications for eyewitness metacognition and for eyewitness questioning procedures.</p>

Ordered Questions Bias Eyewitnesses and Jurors

<p>Eyewitnesses play an important role in the justice system. But suggestive questioning can distort eyewitness memory and confidence, and those distorted beliefs influence jurors (Loftus, 2005; Penrod & Cutler, 1995). Recent research, however, hints that suggestion is not necessary. Simply changing the order of a set of trivia questions altered people's beliefs about their accuracy on those questions (Weinstein & Roediger, 2010, 2012). I wondered to what degree eyewitnesses' beliefs—and in turn the jurors who evaluate them—would be affected by this simple change to the order in which they answer questions. Across a number of experiments in Part 1 of my thesis, I show that the order of questions matters: Eyewitnesses reported higher accuracy and were more confident about their memory when questions seemed initially easy than when they seemed initially difficult. In addition, jurors' beliefs about eyewitnesses closely matched those of the eyewitnesses themselves. But why does the order of questions matter? How does this simple rearrangement produce these alarming effects? Across a number of experiments in Part 2 of my thesis, I explore the extent to which the data are consistent with an explanation where eyewitnesses rapidly form an impression of their performance that is resistant to change. Taken together, these findings have implications for eyewitness metacognition and for eyewitness questioning procedures.</p>

A Distributed Mix-Context-Based Method for Location Privacy in Road Networks

Preserving location privacy is increasingly an essential concern in Vehicular Adhoc Networks (VANETs). Vehicles broadcast beacon messages in an open form that contains information including vehicle identity, speed, location, and other headings. An adversary may track the various locations visited by a vehicle using sensitive information transmitted in beacons such as vehicle identity and location. By matching the vehicle identity used in beacon messages at various locations, an adversary learns the location history of a vehicle. This compromises the privacy of the vehicle driver. In existing research work, pseudonyms are used in place of the actual vehicle identity in the beacons. Pseudonyms should be changed regularly to safeguard the location privacy of vehicles. However, applying simple change in pseudonyms does not always provide location privacy. Existing schemes based on mix zones operate efficiently in higher traffic environments but fail to provide privacy in lower vehicle traffic densities. In this paper, we take the problem of location privacy in diverse vehicle traffic densities. We propose a new Crowd-based Mix Context (CMC) privacy scheme that provides location privacy as well as identity protection in various vehicle traffic densities. The pseudonym changing process utilizes context information of road such as speed, direction and the number of neighbors in transmission range for the anonymisation of vehicles, adaptively updating pseudonyms based on the number of a vehicle neighbors in the vicinity. We conduct formal modeling and specification of the proposed scheme using High-Level Petri Nets (HPLN). Simulation results validate the effectiveness of CMC in terms of location anonymisation, the probability of vehicle traceability, computation time (cost) and effect on vehicular applications.

The role of the administrative decision in the reform process carried out in the Republic of Moldova between 2010-2020

This article is an analysis of the correlation between the administrative decision and the reforms carried out in the last decade in the Republic of Moldova. The author identified the place of the administrative act in the complex restructuring process, analyzing also the relationship between the notions of decision and reform. It is noted that the term reform includes, in addition to the traditional meanings of “modernization” and “improvement”, specific to the public sector, meanings such as “transformation” and “reinvention”. At the same time, the term reform implies not only a simple change, but a beneficial change, it involves a deliberate move from a less desirable state to a desired one, taking into account the needs, expectations and desires of citizens. The article also reflects the essential role of the administrative decision in the governing process and represents the act of transition from thinking to action. It aims to find the most rational ways to ensure maximum efficiency of actions. The process of continuously increasing the efficiency of government actions in the process of carrying out reforms requires that any decision taken has a solid foundation. The achievements, but also the failures registered in the process of reforms in 2010-2020 were due to the elaborated and applied decisions, which contributed to the increase of the qualitative level and administrative capacities of the public administration in the Republic of Moldova

(Re)placing the Terengganu Peranakan Chinese as “Mek Awang”: Making Chinatown and Heritagising the Peranakan Identities in Kuala Terengganu

In 2017, the Terengganu Chinese Peranakan Association (TCPA) withdrew its participation in the 4th Annual Terengganu Peranakan Festival (TPF) organised by the Terengganu Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industry (TCCCI) because of a dispute over the combined term “Mek Awang”. To TCPA members, Mek Awang is a derogatory term, which the Malays used to refer to someone as being “soft”, effeminate, or a cross-dresser. However, TCCCI has appropriated the term Mek Awang and used it as a brand name to promote the festival, and to highlight the “uniqueness” of the Terengganu Peranakan Chinese community. This case is an example of how local cultural terms or practices have been readapted to suit tourism interests. Tourism is often accused of reinventing culture for capital ventures. Consequently, many academics and social critics have come to regard official national heritage sites and heritage tourism with scepticism and disdain. Combining ethnographic data from our in-depth interviews with the Terengganu Peranakan Chinese and our participant observation during the festival, we argue that the dispute over Mek Awang is not only a simple change in reference, but is also an indication of a deeper contemporary global process that affects ethnic minorities and their identities. We conclude that various attempts to commodify the peranakan experiences and culture in Terengganu as well as the intention to place the peranakan as a marketable heritage in Chinatown can be interpreted as attempts to replace a heterogeneous community with a homogeneous, uniform, genetic and identifiable ethnic category with a Peranakan1 (with capital “P”) identity.

Levels of Agreement for the Direction of Inter-Limb Asymmetry during Four Simple Change-of-Direction Tests in Young Male Handball Players: A Pilot Study

The purpose of this pilot study was to investigate the effects of change-of-direction (CoD) angle (90° vs. 180°) and the inclusion of acceleration approach on total task time, CoD deficit, and agreement regarding inter-limb asymmetry direction across CoD tasks. The sample included 13 young male handball players (age: 22.4 ± 3.2 years). The CoD tasks were performed over a 10 m distance with 90° and 180° turns. Both CoD tasks were performed under two conditions: (1) from the standing start and, (2) with a 10 m prior acceleration approach. Linear sprint times over a 10 m distance were also recorded for the purpose of determining the CoD deficit. The differences between the outcomes of different test variants were assessed with pairwise t-tests and associated Cohen’s d effect size. The agreement in terms of inter-limb asymmetry direction was assessed descriptively, using percentage of agreement. Results showed that the inclusion of the 10 m approach reduced the total task time (mean differences ranging between 0.26 and 0.35 s; d = 2.27–4.02; p < 0.002). The differences between 90° and 180° turn times were statistically significant under both conditions: (a) without approach (0.44–0.48 s; d = 4.72–4.84; all p < 0.001), and (b) with approach (0.50–0.54 s; d = 4.41–5.03; p < 0.001). The agreement regarding inter-limb asymmetry direction among the tasks was 30.7–61.5%. The differences between the tasks could be explained by the angle–velocity trade-off. The results of this study imply that the CoD tasks should not be used interchangeably when assessing inter-limb asymmetries.

Avoiding the Production of Polluting and Toxic Chemicals in the Tanning Process

Polluting and potentially toxic chemicals are used in tanning. Sodium sulfide/hydrosulfide are used when the hides are unhaired. These chemicals can be transformed into hydrogen sulfide with a simple change of pH. This gas is highly toxic and is the recurring cause of many deaths and accidents due to suffocation of workers in tanneries around the world. The basic salts of chromium III are the most used chemical to tan. The chromium III used can be transformed by oxidation, even once the leather transformed into a consumer good (shoes, for example), in chromium VI, which is carcinogenic. Both chemicals are present in process floats, in residual floats and in solid waste generated. Chromium III is also present in manufactured leathers. This article aims to describe the problems associated with the use of the aforementioned hazardous materials and deepen the possibility of using less toxic alternative processes to tan. The designed process allows to significantly reduce the pollutant load of the discharged wastewater, facilitates the reuse of the solid waste generated and clearly improve the safety of people at work.

Short communication: Inverse isochron regression for Re–Os, K–Ca and other chronometers

Conventional Re–Os isochrons are based on mass spectrometric estimates of 187Re/188Os and 187Os/188Os, which often exhibit strong error correlations that may obscure potentially important geological complexity. Using an approach that is widely accepted in 40Ar/39Ar and U–Pb geochronology, we here show that these error correlations are greatly reduced by applying a simple change of variables, using 187Os as a common denominator. Plotting 188Os/187Os vs. 187Re/187Os produces an “inverse isochron”, defining a binary mixing line between an inherited Os component whose 188Os/187Os ratio is given by the vertical intercept, and the radiogenic 187Re/187Os ratio, which corresponds to the horizontal intercept. Inverse isochrons facilitate the identification of outliers and other sources of data dispersion. They can also be applied to other geochronometers such as the K–Ca method and (with less dramatic results) the Rb–Sr, Sm–Nd and Lu–Hf methods. Conventional and inverse isochron ages are similar for precise datasets but may significantly diverge for imprecise ones. A semi-synthetic data simulation indicates that, in the latter case, the inverse isochron age is more accurate. The generalised inverse isochron method has been added to the IsoplotR toolbox for geochronology, which automatically converts conventional isochron ratios into inverse ratios, and vice versa.

Material and Temperature Effects in Low and High Cycle EAF of Austenitic Stainless Steels

Fatigue design of nuclear power plant pressure boundary components necessitates the use of design curves, where the allowable number of cycles is a function of the applied stress intensity. Design curves are derived from best-fit curves to small-specimen data, which comprises a range of materials, heats, temperatures and test techniques. This paper continues the series of papers most recently published in PVP2020-21136. At VTT, heat specific strain-life data has been obtained. In this paper, using our data and literature data we demonstrate the significance these heat and temperature specific best-fit curves can have on the predicted number of cycles, when also considering the detrimental effect of environment through Fen factors. Example calculations show that in most cases, a simple change of the reference curve from the Code best-fit curve to a more realistic one adds considerably to the number of predicted cycles, or alternatively, reduces the cumulative usage at equivalent number of cycles. Mainly for high cycle fatigue at high temperature, best-fit heat-specific curves may lie below the reference, taken as the mean curve in NUREG/CR-6909. However, refinement of calculation criteria and/or the Fen methodology is considered to provide additional relief to these cases so that the cumulative usage factor calculation can still be kept below unity.