In this work we present a novel application of non-rigid surface detection to enable gestural interaction with applicable surfaces. This method can add interactivity to traditionally passive media such as books, newspapers, restaurant menus, or anything else printed on paper. We allow a user to interact with these surfaces in a natural manner and present basic gestures based on pointing and touching. This technique was developed as part of an ongoing effort to create an assisted reading device for the visually impaired. However, it is suited to general applications and can be used as a practical mechanism for interaction with screenless wearable devices. Our key contributions are a unique application of non-rigid surface detection, a basic gesturing paradigm, and a proof of concept system

Earth's magnetic environment is dominated by its mainly dipolar internally generated magnetic field. The ancient field has permanently magnetized surface rocks and sediments, and these materials yield information about the field direction and strength through time. I explore recently compiled databases of paleomagnetic field intensity to assess uncertainty and bias in the data, create time-varying models of paleomagnetic axial dipole moment, and constrain field generation processes. First, I examine the statistics of absolute paleointensity data for 0-1 Ma. Virtual axial dipole moments (VADMs) from lavas are on average about 10% higher and show greater dispersion than those from archeological materials. Combining data from all igneous sources reveals an apparent bimodality in the VADM's probability density function. An analysis of stochastic models of the geomagnetic field spectrum demonstrate that the bimodality likely arises from long term changes in field strength. Both absolute and relative paleointensity data and a new penalized maximum likelihood approach are used to construct PADM2M, a time-varying model for Paleomagnetic Axial Dipole Moment (PADM) over the past 2 million years. PADM2M has a lower mean than existing VADM reconstructions but has similar long-period variability. The average axial dipole moment over 0-2 Ma is 53 ZAm² with a standard deviation of 15 ZAm². The Brunhes chron average (62 ZAm²) is higher than for earlier epochs of the Matuyama chron (48 ZAm²). PADM2M is used to study rates of change over the past two million years revealing that for periods longer than about 25 ky there is a clear asymmetry in the statistical distributions for growth versus decay rates of the dipole strength. At 36 ky period, average growth rate is about 20% larger than the decay rate, and the field spends 54% of its time decaying, but only 46% growing. These differences are not limited to times when the field is reversing, suggesting that the asymmetry is controlled by fundamental physical processes underlying all paleosecular variation. Finally, I use these techniques to make regional models of axial dipole moment (RADMs) based on geographically clustered data. These have similar long period behavior, but some major differences, especially around geomagnetic excursions

In the 5-10% of mammals in which both parents routinely provide infant care, fathers as well as mothers undergo systematic endocrine changes as they transition into parenthood. Although fatherhood-associated changes in such hormones and neuropeptides as prolactin, testosterone, glucocorticoids, vasopressin and oxytocin have been characterised in only a small number of biparental rodents and primates, they appear to be more variable than corresponding changes in mothers, and experimental studies typically have not provided strong or consistent evidence that these endocrine shifts play causal roles in the activation of paternal care. Consequently, their functional significance remains unclear. We propose that endocrine changes in mammalian fathers may enable males to meet the species-specific demands of fatherhood by influencing diverse aspects of their behaviour and physiology, similar to many effects of hormones and neuropeptides in mothers. We review the evidence for such effects, focusing on recent studies investigating whether mammalian fathers in biparental species undergo systematic changes in (i) energetics and body composition; (ii) neural plasticity, cognition and sensory physiology; and (iii) stress responsiveness and emotionality, all of which may be mediated by endocrine changes. The few published studies, based on a small number of rodent and primate species, suggest that hormonal and neuropeptide alterations in mammalian fathers might mediate shifts in paternal energy balance, body composition and neural plasticity, although they do not appear to have major effects on stress responsiveness or emotionality. Further research is needed on a wider variety of biparental mammals, under more naturalistic conditions, to more fully determine the functional significance of hormone and neuropeptide profiles of mammalian fatherhood and to clarify how fatherhood may trade off with (or perhaps enhance) aspects of organismal function in biparental mammals.

Most states of the world are ineffective at implementing policy. State capacity to perform these tasks is dependent both on the will of politicians who make laws and the technical capabilities of bureaucracies who carry them out. Existing measures of state capacity do not effectively separate these two sources of capacity failures, leading to uncertainty about the condition of policy implementation in most states. I develop a measure of state capacity based on types of taxes that better captures the theoretical foundations of state capacity. Additionally, in two empirical chapters, I build research designs that enable us to identify politicians' efforts at encouraging policy implementation and observe the weaknesses of bureaucracies to collect revenue and deliver services. Most studies of state capacity understand the problems of bureaucracies to be rooted in politics but do not consider that the reverse might be true--that weak bureaucracies could themselves affect the political system. I theorize about the role of bureaucracies in the operation and design of political institutions. Specifically, political parties are not able to impose collective discipline and provide inducements for their members in the absence of a quality bureaucracy able to come through on their promises. Parties are thus unable to encourage individual politicians to overcome incentives to behave in short-sighted or localized ways. These innovations in the measurement of state capacity and the analysis of feedback from technical capabilities to party systems are examined in the context of Argentina during its reform era in the 1990s

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