Dynamics of information access on the web

While current studies on complex networks focus on systems that change relatively slowly in time, the structure of the most visited regions of the web is altered at the time scale from hours to days. Here we investigate the dynamics of visitation of a major news portal, representing the prototype for such a rapidly evolving network. The nodes of the network can be classified into stable nodes, which form the time-independent skeleton of the portal, and news documents. The visitations of the two node classes are markedly different, the skeleton acquiring visits at a constant rate, while a news document's visitation peaks after a few hours. We find that the visitation pattern of a news document decays as a power law, in contrast with the exponential prediction provided by simple models of site visitation. This is rooted in the inhomogeneous nature of the browsing pattern characterizing individual users: the time interval between consecutive visits by the same user to the site follows a power-law distribution, in contrast to the exponential expected for Poisson processes. We show that the exponent characterizing the individual user's browsing patterns determines the power-law decay in a document's visitation. Finally, our results document the fleeting quality of news and events: while fifteen minutes of fame is still an exaggeration in the online media, we find that access to most news items significantly decays after 36 hours of posting.

Estimate of the dose-increment due to outdoor exposure to gamma rays from uranium progeny deposited on the soil around a coal-fired power plant in Ajka Town, Hungary

Brown coal unusually rich in uranium is burnt in a coal-fired power plant that lies inside the confines of a small industrial town named Ajka, Hungary, and has been operational since 1943. The 238U (226Ra) activity discharged to the atmosphere per unit electrical energy produced was about 330-400 GBq (GW y)(-1), which is 66-80 times more than that was estimated by UNSCEAR (1988) as a characteristic value for old type coal-fired power plants [5 GBq (GW y)(-1)]. The objective of this study was the experimentally established assessment of the artificial increment in the dose from external exposure to gamma rays of terrestrial radionuclides outdoors. Soil samples were collected in and near Ajka from 81 locations. The samples were investigated by Ge(Li) gamma spectrometry. Considerably elevated concentrations of uranium and its progeny have been measured in most of the samples that were collected near to the plant. Concentrations of 238U and 226Ra in the top (0-5 cm depth) layer of undisturbed soil at public areas inside town were 4.7 times higher, on average, than those in the uncontaminated deeper layers. Dose rate in air (air kerma) from external exposure to terrestrial gamma rays outdoors at a height of 1 m and effective doses were estimated from the measured activity concentrations using some relevant literature data. The estimated artificial increment in the dose rate in air was, on average, 32.8, 10.3, and 102.1 nGy h(-1) at public areas, vegetable gardens, and backyards, respectively. The mean artificial increment in the annual per caput effective dose from external exposure to terrestrial radionuclides outdoors is 21.8 microSv y(-1). The collective dose commitment per unit energy generated from outdoor exposure to the deposited uranium progeny is about 8.0-9.1 person Sv (GW y)(-1), which is 67-76 times more than that evaluated by UNSCEAR (1988) for a typical "old" coal-fired power plant [0.12 person Sv (GW y)(-1)]. Ajka is a suitable place for studying the dosimetric consequences of the utilization of coal for energy production experimentally.

The 'rotational preconstraint'

This model provides a novel view of the etiology of some scolioses and can answer some of the biomechanical questions regarding pathogenesis of dorsal curves. According to our findings, paravertebral muscular imbalance is likely to favour such a pathological condition which, with the interference of the postural reflexes and the body weight-related vertical loading, might lead to the formation of a true scoliotic curve. Review of earlier research studies in the light of our findings reveals controversy in some authors' reported results and their own interpretations and seems to generally support our theory.