cometadata/datacite-rtg-text-other-reclassification-records huggingface dataset:
Followership in the U.S. federal government
Creators: name: Kim, Chulwoo
Publisher: name: No Publisher Supplied
Year: 2011

description: Public organizations in a contemporary society are required more collective actions among leaders and followers in dealing with complex, diverse public problems. Therefore, participative leadership that empowers others in decision making is essential process. However, without considering who the empowered participants, how much influence they have and the various situations in which they find themselves, participative leadership is not a solid resolution to existing public challenges. As a result, identifying the process empowered participants use to follow, which is called followership, is a prerequisite to understanding successful participative leadership. The purpose of this study is to 1) establish employees’ followership in public organizations, 2) build up an exploratory model of the determinant factors of employees’ followership in public organizations and test it empirically, and 3) examine the role of followership on organizational performance. This study employs mixed methods. For quantitative analysis, a large federal data conducted in 2008 were used to test three primary statistical models – determinants of followership, leadership and followership, and followership and organizational performance. For qualitative analysis, around 90 written interviews with federal employees were conducted and analyzed to validate the meanings of followership in public settings. The result reveals the mediating role of followership between participative leadership and organizational performance. It adds another important variable to public administration leadership studies. Theoretical contributions of this research are that it offers 1) the first large scale comprehensive study on followership in the context of public organizations, 2) construct definitions and characteristics of followership in the public sector, and 3) information that supports high followership as one means to improve performance in public organizations. Practical contributions of this research are that it 1) helps public managers to understand the growing important role of the followers in newly changed context of public administration, 2) provides insights on how such managers interact with their superiors or subordinates and which skills they need to develop in different roles, and 3) provides guidance on how to design training programs for followership development. This study concludes effective followership is a key factor that supplements the leadership function to make effective organizations.
Performance-based budgeting
Creators: name: Rhee, Dong-Young
Publisher: name: No Publisher Supplied
Year: 2009

description: A recurring theme in the field of public budgeting is the conflict between descriptive and normative theory. The literature related to descriptive theory suggests that factors, such as politics, the bureaucracy and economic conditions may dominate the public budget process. However, the current performance-based budgeting strategies are based on normative theory, which assumes performance information will have a direct impact on public sector resource allocations. This study examines this theme in the context of the latest performance-based budgeting effort implemented at the federal level of government: the Program Assessment Rating Tool (PART). To inspect whether performance information has any impact on budget decisions in Congress, an analytical model that combines various factors based on the both normative and descriptive theories was developed. The model includes political, fiscal, and bureaucratic factors cited in the descriptive literatures, and performance data provided by PART. Specifically, the research question is: Does the performance information contained in PART ratings have an impact on congressional budget appropriations? Through a series of regression analyses utilizing PART data across 688 programs in 24 federal agencies for a 4 year period, this study reveals that performance information influences congressional appropriations in significant but limited ways. The impact of performance information depends on the magnitude of the descriptive theory factors. Data analysis shows that PART not only provides evidence that performance-based budgeting can work in certain situations, but also implies it being rhetoric where the influence of performance information differs depending on the specific circumstances whether political, fiscal, or bureaucratic. The findings from this research include: 1) Performance information is vulnerable to political preferences, such as partisan goals, stakeholder pressure, and constituent needs. 2) The influence of PART is constrained by federal fiscal conditions. 3) Bureaucratic manager type dictates the patterns of performance and budget integration. Identifying and understanding the specific conditions under which performance information is the basis for resource allocations, in particular budget decisions in Congress, has implications for improving performance-based budgeting systems. When such conditions become clear, the normative theory of basing resource allocation on measurable indicators will be more realistic and powerful.
An analysis of elastic scattering reactions with a Fermi-Dirac pomeron opaqueness in impact parameter space
Creators: name: Bourrely, Claude
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2013
Subjects: subject: High Energy Physics - Phenomenology (hep-ph)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: In the Bourrely-Soffer-Wu model (BSW) we introduce for the pomeron a new opaqueness in impact parameter space in terms of different quark contributions described by a Fermi-Dirac distribution. In order to check the validity of this assumption we consider $p~p$, $\bar p~p$, and $π^{\pm}~p$ elastic scattering. We emphasize the role of the gluon above the diffraction peak in the differential cross sections. Once these contributions are determined we extend the model to light nuclei elastic reactions like $p~d$, $p~^4\mbox{He}$ and $π^{\pm}~^4\mbox{He}$. The results obtained show a good description of all these elastic processes over the available experimental energy range and moderate momentum transfer.
description: 29 pages 25 figures
The Nutcracker: Intergenerational and War Trauma in Contemporary Fairy-Tale Adaptations
Creators: name: SERO, ANEZKA
Publisher: name: Monash University
Year: 2023
Subjects: classificationCode: 470506
subject: Children's literature

description: This thesis draws on theories of fairy-tale adaptation and trauma studies to examine war, mental illness, and intergenerational trauma as they are represented in contemporary fairy- tale adaptations published for young adult and adult readers. Through interpretation of fairy- tale novels that engage with war-related trauma and a creative component that adapts E.T.A. Hoffmann’s The Nutcracker and the Mouse King (1816), entitled “Nutcracker”, it investigates how fantasy and the marvellous can shield readers from traumatic material. The creative component mobilises the narrative features of fairy tale to voice the unspeakable, and unrepresentable, and to depict the psychological consequences of trauma.
A millisecond pulsar in a stellar triple system
Creators: name: Ransom, S. M.
name: Stairs, I. H.
name: Archibald, A. M.
name: Hessels, J. W. T.
name: Kaplan, D. L.
name: van Kerkwijk, M. H.
name: Boyles, J.
name: Deller, A. T.
name: Chatterjee, S.
name: Schechtman-Rook, A.
name: Berndsen, A.
name: Lynch, R. S.
name: Lorimer, D. R.
name: Karako-Argaman, C.
name: Kaspi, V. M.
name: Kondratiev, V. I.
name: McLaughlin, M. A.
name: van Leeuwen, J.
name: Rosen, R.
name: Roberts, M. S. E.
name: Stovall, K.
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2014
Subjects: subject: Solar and Stellar Astrophysics (astro-ph.SR)
subject: General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology (gr-qc)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: Gravitationally bound three-body systems have been studied for hundreds of years and are common in our Galaxy. They show complex orbital interactions, which can constrain the compositions, masses, and interior structures of the bodies and test theories of gravity, if sufficiently precise measurements are available. A triple system containing a radio pulsar could provide such measurements, but the only previously known such system, B1620-26 (with a millisecond pulsar, a white dwarf, and a planetary-mass object in an orbit of several decades), shows only weak interactions. Here we report precision timing and multi-wavelength observations of PSR J0337+1715, a millisecond pulsar in a hierarchical triple system with two other stars. Strong gravitational interactions are apparent and provide the masses of the pulsar (1.4378(13) Msun, where Msun is the solar mass and the parentheses contain the uncertainty in the final decimal places) and the two white dwarf companions (0.19751(15) Msun and 0.4101(3) Msun), as well as the inclinations of the orbits (both approximately 39.2 degrees). The unexpectedly coplanar and nearly circular orbits indicate a complex and exotic evolutionary past that differs from those of known stellar systems. The gravitational field of the outer white dwarf strongly accelerates the inner binary containing the neutron star, and the system will thus provide an ideal laboratory in which to test the strong equivalence principle of general relativity.
description: 17 pages, 3 figures, 1 table. Published online by Nature on 5 Jan 2014. Extremely minor differences with published version may exist
Modelling the chemical evolution of molecular clouds as a function of metallicity
Creators: name: Penteado, Em. M.
name: Cuppen, H. M.
name: Rocha-Pinto, H. J
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2014
Subjects: subject: Astrophysics of Galaxies (astro-ph.GA)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: The Galaxy is in continuous elemental evolution. Since new elements produced by dying stars are delivered to the interstellar medium, the formation of new enerations of stars and planetary systems is influenced by this metal enrichment. We aim to study the role of the metallicity on the gas phase chemistry of the interstellar medium. Using a system of coupled-ordinary differential equations to model the chemical reactions, we simulate the evolution of the abundance of molecules in the gas phase for different initial interstellar elemental compositions. These varying initial elemental compositions consider the change in the "elemental abundances" predicted by a self-consistent model of the elemental evolution of the Galaxy. As far as we are aware, this is the first attempt to combine elemental evolution of the Galaxy and chemical evolution of molecular clouds. The metallicity was found to have a strong effect on the overall gas phase composition. With decreasing metallicity, the number of long carbon chains was found to increase, the time-scale on which small molecular species are increases, and the main form of oxygen changed from O and CO to O2. These effects were found to be mainly due to the change in electron, H3+, and atomic oxygen abundance.
description: 15 figures 4 tables. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 2014
Use and sensemaking of performance measurement information by local government managers
Creators: name: Charbonneau, Etienne
Publisher: name: No Publisher Supplied
Year: 2010

description: It has long been taken for granted by researchers that performance data would lead to better informed decisions. Despite the copious literature on performance measurement in the public sector, there is surprisingly very little in the public sector performance measurement literature about what happens once the performance measurement data has been collected. The present research concentrates on (1) the use of performance information, and on (2) a specific facet of use called sensemaking. Akin to interpretation, sensemaking activities are a sub-phase contained between data collection and the taking of actions. The case of the mandatory benchmarking system covering all 1113 municipalities in the province of Quebec, Canada, is used as a background to expand our knowledge on how managers use and make sense of performance information. Using a mixed-method approach, this dissertation answers two questions. First, what are the factors accounting for the uses of performance measurement by municipal managers? Second, when presented with raw performance measurement information, how do local managers decide if their municipality's performance is satisfactory or not? The quantitative data originate from electronic surveys and official performance values for standardized indicators. The qualitative data takes the form of content analysis of comments from managers, and from focus groups of 179 participants representing 100 municipalities and municipal organizations. On the use on performance information, the findings from the qualitative data are that managers perceive that external factors hinder their use of performance indicators, and resent being measured and compared. The findings of the quantitative analyses find that attitudes of managers themselves and performance, and not external factors, account of the uses of performance indicators. On sensemaking, the findings are that managers think more in satisficing than in maximizing terms. They are optimistic in their verdicts. Managers do not think of negative and positive performance in consistent terms, but tend to present their performance in the best possible light. The implications of the findings are, in the absence of official definition of what constitutes positive and negative performance, corrective actions following performance information are unlikely.
Direct detection of exoplanets in the 3 -- 10 micron range with E-ELT/METIS
Creators: name: Quanz, Sascha P.
name: Crossfield, Ian
name: Meyer, Michael R.
name: Schmalzl, Eva
name: Held, Jenny
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2014
Subjects: subject: Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics (astro-ph.IM)
subject: Earth and Planetary Astrophysics (astro-ph.EP)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: We quantify the scientific potential for exoplanet imaging with the Mid-infrared E-ELT Imager and Spectrograph (METIS) foreseen as one of the instruments of the European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT). We focus on two main science cases: (1) the direct detection of known gas giant planets found by radial velocity (RV) searches; and (2) the direct detection of small (1 - 4 R_earth) planets around the nearest stars. Under the assumptions made in our modeling, in particular on the achievable inner working angle and sensitivity, our analyses reveal that within a reasonable amount of observing time METIS is able to image >20 already known, RV-detected planets in at least one filter. Many more suitable planets with dynamically determined masses are expected to be found in the coming years with the continuation of RV-surveys and the results from the GAIA astrometry mission. In addition, by extrapolating the statistics for close-in planets found by \emph{Kepler}, we expect METIS might detect ~10 small planets with equilibrium temperatures between 200 - 500 K around the nearest stars. This means that (1) METIS will help constrain atmospheric models for gas giant planets by determining for a sizable sample their luminosity, temperature and orbital inclination; and (2) METIS might be the first instrument to image a nearby (super-)Earth-sized planet with an equilibrium temperature near that expected to enable liquid water on a planet surface.
description: Accepted version; to appear in a revised / edited form in the International Journal of Astrobiology published by Cambridge University Press; 11 pages (incl. 3 tables, 3 figures and references) in ApJ style format
Safe Mobility and Safe Place: Creating liveable cities that accommodate movement and place
Creators: name: RIVERA-GONZALEZ, JENNIFER
Publisher: name: Monash University
Year: 2023
Subjects: classificationCode: 330409
subject: Transport planning
classificationCode: 350908
subject: Road transportation and freight services
classificationCode: 330413
subject: Urban planning and health

description: This research analysed the connection between the Safe System (SS) principles and the Movement and Place Framework (M&PF), and the potential contribution of this linkage to the creation of liveability and the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Through a series of interviews and a reframing process, the critical requirements for communicating the SS principles to non-expert audiences at a personal level were identified. As a result, a digital tool was developed for users to interact with street design and operation parameters while learning about the impacts these decisions have on liveability and local SDGs.
Dust formation, evolution, and obscuration effects in the very high-redshift universe
Creators: name: Dwek, Eli
name: Staguhn, Johannes
name: Arendt, Richard G.
name: Kovacs, Attila
name: Su, Ting
name: Benford, Dominic J.
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2014
Subjects: subject: Astrophysics of Galaxies (astro-ph.GA)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: The evolution of dust at redshifts z>9, and consequently the dust properties, differs greatly from that in the local universe. In contrast to the local universe, core collapse supernovae (CCSNe) are the only source of thermally-condensed dust. Because of the low initial dust-to-gas mass ratio, grain destruction rates are low, so that CCSNe are net producers of interstellar dust. Galaxies with large initial gas mass or high mass infall rate will therefore have a more rapid net rate of dust production comported to galaxies with lower gas mass, even at the same star formation rate. The dust composition is dominated by silicates, which exhibit a strong rise in the UV opacity near the Lyman break. This "silicate-UV break" may be confused with the Lyman break, resulting in a misidentification of a galaxies' photometric redshift. In this paper we demonstrate these effects by analyzing the spectral energy distribution (SED) of MACS1149-JD, a lensed galaxy at z=9.6. A potential 2mm counterpart of MACS1149-JD has been identified with GISMO. While additional observations are required to corroborate this identification, we use this possible association to illustrate the physical processes and the observational effects of dust in the very high redshift universe.
description: Accepted for publication in ApJ Letters
An empirical analysis of the relationships between politics, conflicts, and performance in government organizations
Creators: name: Cheong, Jong One
Publisher: name: No Publisher Supplied
Year: 2010

description: The key objective of this study is to examine 1) what relationships exist between organizational politics, conflicts, and other organizational factors; 2) how organizational conflicts affect conflict management effectiveness and the performance of government organizations; 3) how the perception of politics affects conflict management effectiveness and the performance of government organizations; and 4) how conflict management effectiveness affects the performance of government organizations. While many studies have focused on the performance of public organizations, relatively few have probed organizational politics, conflicts, conflict management, and their effects on organizational performance. Even though politics and conflict are common in public organizations, we have little knowledge and understanding of their implications for effects on organizational outcomes. In particular, there has been no study that treated internal politics and organizational conflicts as variables and statistically tested their simultaneous effects on organizational performance. Moreover, there has been no previous study that has adequately developed measuring conflict management effectiveness. This research 1) statistically tests the relationships among politics, conflict, and the performance of government organizations; 2) develops indicators for measuring conflict management effectiveness; and 3) tests the effects of conflict management effectiveness on organizational performance. To address the research questions, the study employed various statistical techniques including descriptive statistics, confirmative factor analyses, multiple regression analyses, reliability tests, and structural equation modeling. The empirical evidence indicates that perceptions of organizational politics and conflicts have negative effects on conflict management effectiveness and on organizational performance. This study also finds that public organizations with higher conflict management effectiveness have higher organizational performance.
Deciding on where the jobs go
Creators: name: McGuire, Angie E.
Publisher: name: No Publisher Supplied
Year: 2010

description: In all fifty states and in countless jurisdictions, economic development agencies offer a myriad of financial and tax incentives to private firms under organizational charters to create new jobs, help retain existing jobs, and stimulate economic growth. Prior research results are inconclusive as to the effectiveness of these incentives. Some research concludes that states with strong assets such as a well-educated workforce and a good location are more attractive to employers than financial incentives offered by states. So what is the real attraction? The research addresses the following questions: 1. What factors inform public sector decision-making in business site location selection? 2. What factors inform private sector decision-making in business site location selection? 3. What are the dynamics between the public and private sector during the business site decision-making process? The research was conducted using a dynamic decision-making theory model (Sterman, 1988) to analyze qualitative data capturing discrepancies between public and private sector actors' understanding of the decision-making process. Through secondary data analysis, 8 factors that influenced site location decisions in New Jersey were formalized and applied in a semi-structured guide to interview 27 experts. Each participant expert ranked the 8 decision-making factors that influence their business site location decisions and provided descriptive stories justifying their ranking. Findings indicate that factors influencing business site location selection depend upon a public versus private sector point-of-view. Experts were then asked to clarify their rankings; their responses suggested incongruence in the roles played by public and private sector participants to influence the business site location outcomes. This dynamism between the public and private sectors underscores and helps to explain the initial discrepancies in the factor rankings. Scrutiny suggests a decision-making model operating in three phases: determining strategy options, assessing and evaluating alternatives, and implementing decisions. The private sector is involved in all three phases of the decision-making process, while the public sector is involved only in the implementation phase. The public sector's disproportional role in the business site location decision-making process suggests the need for reinterpretation of government's role in economic development.
Stability of continuous-time quantum filters with measurement imperfections
Creators: name: Amini, Hadis
name: Pellegrini, Clement
name: Rouchon, Pierre
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2013
Subjects: subject: Quantum Physics (quant-ph)
subject: Optimization and Control (math.OC)
subject: Probability (math.PR)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences
subject: FOS: Mathematics

description: The fidelity between the state of a continuously observed quantum system and the state of its associated quantum filter, is shown to be always a submartingale. The observed system is assumed to be governed by a continuous-time Stochastic Master Equation (SME), driven simultaneously by Wiener and Poisson processes and that takes into account incompleteness and errors in measurements. This stability result is the continuous-time counterpart of a similar stability result already established for discrete-time quantum systems and where the measurement imperfections are modeled by a left stochastic matrix.
description: 22 pages
Probing Dark Energy with Lensing Magnification in Photometric Surveys
Creators: name: Schneider, Michael D.
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2014
Subjects: subject: Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics (astro-ph.CO)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: I present an estimator for the angular cross-correlation of two tracers of the cosmological large-scale structure that utilizes redshift information to isolate separate physical contributions. The estimator is derived by solving the Limber equation for a re-weighting of the foreground tracer that nulls either clustering or lensing contributions to the cross-correlation function. Applied to future photometric surveys, the estimator can enhance the measurement of gravitational lensing magnification effects to provide a competitive independent constraint on the dark energy equation of state.
description: 5 pages, 3 figures, accepted for publication in PRL
Physicochemical properties and sensory acceptance of dairy-free fat and protein mixtures for frozen dessert application
Creators: name: HASAN, TOWHID
Publisher: name: Monash University
Year: 2023
Subjects: classificationCode: 300699
subject: Food sciences not elsewhere classified

description: In the present study, a frozen dessert was produced using plant oils (i.e., PKO/SBO/PS mixture) and plant proteins (i.e., soy, pea, brown rice protein) and compared against an ice cream made with milk fat and protein. The physicochemical properties and sensory quality of dairy-free deserts differed from that of ice cream; however, the dairy-free frozen desserts showed greater melting resistance than the ice cream with acceptable sensory quality.
Strategic organizational responses to environmental pressures
Creators: name: Shehada, Fidaa
Publisher: name: No Publisher Supplied
Year: 2010

description: This dissertation belongs to the organizational psychology literature. It explores a) How the environment affects and constrains the actions and characteristics of individual organizations and b) How and Why organizations respond to external constraints the way they do. The purpose of this study is to understand NGOs as strategic organizations that enact specific behaviors in response to pressures within their environment(s). The basic concepts and premises of the institutional theory provide useful guidelines for analyzing organization–environment relationships with an emphasis on the social rules, expectations, norms, and values as the sources of pressure on organizations. Resource dependence theory, on the other hand, proceeds from the indisputable open-systems proposition that organizations are not able to internally generate all the resources required to maintain themselves and therefore must enter into exchange transactions with elements in the environment to ensure a stable flow of resources. Coupling the two theories helps to examine the ways in which an individual organization reacts to different levels of uncertainties and multiple actions of other social structures in its environment. The researcher utilized Oliver‘s (1991) hypotheses and framework that link institutional factors and organizational strategic responses to guide the research data collection and analysis. One organizational domain is used to understand the intricate relationship between organizations and their institutionalized environment—the non-governmental organization sector in Palestine. The units of analysis are the individual Palestinian non-governmental organizations (PNGOs), which are analyzed using a qualitative method of case study. A series of interviews and focus group discussion were conducted. The dissertation concludes that while PNGOs are vulnerable to varying degrees to external control given their dependence on external donors for financial resources, the uncertainty created by their dependence, and the political instability that constrains their development, they are not purely passive recipients nor complete political manipulators of institutional pressures, as the extremes of institutional and resource dependence theories postulate. Organizations have at their disposal a wide range of active choice behaviors that vary from passivity to positivity. An organization‘s choices are predictable largely in terms of their political power and the nature of the institutional pressures enacted on them.
Axis2UNO: Web Services Enabled Openoffice.org
Creators: name: Bambarasinghe, B. A. N. M.
name: Huruggamuwa, H. M. S.
name: Ragel, R. G.
name: Radhakrishnan, S.
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2014
Subjects: subject: Software Engineering (cs.SE)
subject: FOS: Computer and information sciences

description: Openoffice.org is a popular, free and open source office product. This product is used by millions of people and developed, maintained and extended by thousands of developers worldwide. Playing a dominant role in the web, web services technology is serving millions of people every day. Axis2 is one of the most popular, free and open source web service engines. The framework presented in this paper, Axis2UNO, a combination of such two technologies is capable of making a new era in office environment. Two other attempts to enhance web services functionality in office products are Excel Web Services and UNO Web Service Proxy. Excel Web Services is combined with Microsoft SharePoint technology and exposes information sharing in a different perspective within the proprietary Microsoft office products. UNO Web Service Proxy is implemented with Java Web Services Developer Pack and enables basic web services related functionality in Openoffice.org. However, the work presented here is the first one to combine Openoffice.org and Axis2 and we expect it to outperform the other efforts with the community involvement and feature richness in those products.
description: 6 pages, 4th International Conference on Information and Automation for Sustainability, 2008. ICIAFS 2008
STFC Open Science Portal prototype visualizations
Creators: name: Petryszak, Robert
name: Bunakov, Vasily
name: Ketley, Cheney
name: Vizcaino, Noel
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2020

description: Data visualizations that have been developed by FREYA project www.project-freya.eu as a part of the development effort for STFC Open Science Portal prototype.
Expectations or Guarantees? I Want It All! A crossroad between games and MDPs
Creators: name: Bruyère, Véronique
name: Filiot, Emmanuel
name: Randour, Mickael
name: Raskin, Jean-François
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2014
Subjects: subject: Computer Science and Game Theory (cs.GT)
subject: Formal Languages and Automata Theory (cs.FL)
subject: Logic in Computer Science (cs.LO)
subject: FOS: Computer and information sciences

description: When reasoning about the strategic capabilities of an agent, it is important to consider the nature of its adversaries. In the particular context of controller synthesis for quantitative specifications, the usual problem is to devise a strategy for a reactive system which yields some desired performance, taking into account the possible impact of the environment of the system. There are at least two ways to look at this environment. In the classical analysis of two-player quantitative games, the environment is purely antagonistic and the problem is to provide strict performance guarantees. In Markov decision processes, the environment is seen as purely stochastic: the aim is then to optimize the expected payoff, with no guarantee on individual outcomes. In this expository work, we report on recent results introducing the beyond worst-case synthesis problem, which is to construct strategies that guarantee some quantitative requirement in the worst-case while providing an higher expected value against a particular stochastic model of the environment given as input. This problem is relevant to produce system controllers that provide nice expected performance in the everyday situation while ensuring a strict (but relaxed) performance threshold even in the event of very bad (while unlikely) circumstances. It has been studied for both the mean-payoff and the shortest path quantitative measures.
description: In Proceedings SR 2014, arXiv:1404.0414
Experimental investigation of the elastoplastic response of aluminum silicate spray dried powder during cold compaction
Creators: name: Bosi, F.
name: Piccolroaz, A.
name: Gei, M.
name: Corso, F. Dal
name: Cocquio, A.
name: Bigoni, D.
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2014
Subjects: subject: Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: Mechanical experiments have been designed and performed to investigate the elasto-plastic behaviour of green bodies formed from an aluminum silicate spray dried powder used for tiles production. Experiments have been executed on samples obtained from cold compaction into a cylindrical mould and include: uniaxial strain, equi-biaxial flexure and high-pressure triaxial compression/extension tests. Two types of powders have been used to realize the green body samples, differing in the values of water content, which have been taken equal to those usually employed in the industrial forming of traditional ceramics. Yielding of the green body during compaction has been characterized in terms of yield surface shape, failure envelope, and evolution of cohesion and void ratio with the forming pressure, confirming the validity of previously proposed constitutive models for dense materials obtained through cold compaction of granulates.
description: 17 pages; Journal of the European Ceramic Society, 2014
Following the money
Creators: name: Bromberg, Daniel
Publisher: name: No Publisher Supplied
Year: 2009

description: Since the 1980’s there has been a steady push to increase the use of private sector actors in providing public services. At the federal level of government, the previous four administrations have each taken steps to reach this goal. One of the primary tools the government utilizes to increase the reliance on private sector actors is a contract. The use of contracts has proliferated in the last 10 years at the U.S. federal level. In the time period from 1996 to 2006 the total number of contract actions has increased more than six times. The total number has increased from 600,000 actions in 1996 to over 3,600,000 actions in 2006. The increase in contracts over this time period requires greater emphasis on studying government contracting. Although there is a rich literature in public administration that examines government contracting, there is little research that looks specifically at external influences on government contracting. This dissertation examines if various influences, including private sector actors, influence the contracting process. Utilizing a mixed-methods approach, this dissertation answers the primary research question Do private companies affect contracting decisions through various avenues of influence? The findings from both the interviews and the regression analysis suggest that a number of factors influence contracting, including both internal and external forces. The primary contribution of this dissertation is the finding that private sector actors, through campaign contributions, influence government contracting.
Connection between optical and gamma-ray variability in blazars
Creators: name: Hovatta, T.
name: Pavlidou, V.
name: King, O. G.
name: Mahabal, A.
name: Sesar, B.
name: Dancikova, R.
name: Djorgovski, S. G.
name: Drake, A.
name: Laher, R.
name: Levitan, D.
name: Max-Moerbeck, W.
name: Ofek, E. O.
name: Pearson, T. J.
name: Prince, T. A.
name: Readhead, A. C. S.
name: Richards, J. L.
name: Surace, J.
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2014
Subjects: subject: High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena (astro-ph.HE)
subject: Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics (astro-ph.CO)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: We use optical data from the Palomar Transient Factory (PTF) and the Catalina Real-Time Transient Survey (CRTS) to study the variability of gamma-ray detected and non-detected objects in a large population of active galactic nuclei (AGN) selected from the Candidate Gamma-Ray Blazar Survey and Fermi Gamma-Ray Space Telescope catalogs. Our samples include 714 sources with PTF data and 1244 sources with CRTS data. We calculate the intrinsic modulation index to quantify the optical variability amplitude in these samples. We find the gamma-ray detected objects to be more variable than the non-detected ones. The flat spectrum radio quasars (FSRQs) are more variable than the BL Lac objects in our sample, but the significance of the difference depends on the sample used. When dividing the objects based on their synchrotron peak frequency, we find the low synchrotron peaked (LSP) objects to be significantly more variable than the high synchrotron peaked (HSP) ones, explaining the difference between the FSRQs and BL Lacs. This could be due to the LSPs being observed near their electron energy peak, while in the HSPs the emission is caused by lower energy electrons, which cool more slowly. We also find a significant correlation between the optical and gamma-ray fluxes that is stronger in the HSP BL Lacs than in the FSRQs. The FSRQs in our sample are also more Compton dominated than the HSP BL Lacs. These findings are consistent with models where the gamma-ray emission of HSP objects is produced by the synchrotron self-Compton mechanism, while the LSP objects need an additional external Compton component that increases the scatter in the flux-flux correlation.
description: 15 pages, 10 figures, accepted for publication in MNRAS. Online-only Tables 5 and 6 are available as ancillary files with this submission
TRUANCY: The Concept, Causes, Types, Implications and intervention strategies for Students with Truancy
Creators: name: Abubakar, Author: Abdulrahman Isah
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2023
Subjects: Truancy, Students, Implications, Management

description: Truancy among the students become a growing problem and it manifests in different forms. Therefore, this paper contains the following areas: 1. Concept of Truancy 2. Types of Truancy 3. Causes of Truancy 4. Implications of Truancy 5. Intervention Strategies for Truancy
Loop Unrolling in Multi-pipeline ASIP Design
Creators: name: Navarathna, Rajitha
name: Radhakrishnan, Swarnalatha
name: Ragel, Roshan
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2014
Subjects: subject: Programming Languages (cs.PL)
subject: FOS: Computer and information sciences

description: Application Specific Instruction-set Processor (ASIP) is one of the popular processor design techniques for embedded systems which allows customizability in processor design without overly hindering design flexibility. Multi-pipeline ASIPs were proposed to improve the performance of such systems by compromising between speed and processor area. One of the problems in the multi-pipeline design is the limited inherent instruction level parallelism (ILP) available in applications. The ILP of application programs can be improved via a compiler optimization technique known as loop unrolling. In this paper, we present how loop unrolling effects the performance of multi-pipeline ASIPs. The improvements in performance average around 15% for a number of benchmark applications with the maximum improvement of around 30%. In addition, we analyzed the variable of performance against loop unrolling factor, which is the amount of unrolling we perform.
description: 6 pages
MPEC 2023-U289 : 2023 TK84
Creators: name: Minor Planet Center Staff
Publisher: name: The Minor Planet Center
Year: 2023
Subjects: subject: Small Solar System bodies
valueUri: http://astrothesaurus.org/uat/1469
subject: 2023 TK84

description: The Minor Planet Electronic Circulars contain information on unusual minor planets, routine data on comets and natural satellites, and occasional editorial announcements.  They are published on behalf of Division F of the International Astronomical Union by the Minor Planet Center, Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, Cambridge, MA 02138, U.S.A.
Methodological Research in the Field of Civil Aviation Safety
Creators: name: YAN, Fei
name: YANG, Changqi
name: LI, Hua
name: YAN, Fei
name: YANG, Changqi
name: LI, Hua
Publisher: name: Unknown
Year: 2022
Subjects: subject: Agribusiness
subject: Civil aviation safety (CAS), Safety Prevention and Control System (SPCS), Methodology

description: In order to promote the application and development of civil aviation safety (CAS) in the field of safety and enrich the theoretical system of CAS research, the methodology of CAS was studied. The definition of CAS was reconstructed, its connotation was explained from four aspects, and its research object was clarified. This paper discussed the mechanism of CAS, that is, to maintain system security through the establishment of safety prevention and control system (SPCS), and explained the research content of CAS from theory and technology application. Five principles and applicable methods for CAS research were summarized. In addition, it put forward the general procedure of CAS research, explained the specific content and implementation method or basis of each step. The research results show that the methodology of CAS is a systematic theoretical system with certain guiding significance, combined with the mechanism, research content, research principles and methods, and research procedures of CAS.
A Metric for Modelling and Measuring Complex Behavioural Systems
Creators: name: Greer, Kieran
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2014
Subjects: subject: Multiagent Systems (cs.MA)
subject: FOS: Computer and information sciences

description: This paper describes a metric for measuring the success of a complex system composed of agents performing autonomous behaviours. Because of the difficulty in evaluating such systems, this metric will help to give an initial indication as to how suitable the agents would be for solving the problem. The system is modelled as a script, or behavioural ontology, with a number of variables to represent each of the behaviour attributes. The set of equations can be used both for modeling and as part of the simulation evaluation. Behaviours can be nested, allowing for compound behaviours of arbitrary complexity to be built. There is also the capability for including rules or decision making into the script. The paper also gives some test examples to show how the metric might be used.
description: Published
Understanding motivations of sector switchers
Creators: name: Apfel, Jeffrey C.
Publisher: name: No Publisher Supplied
Year: 2011

description: While public service motivation theory (PSM) has addressed numerous topics in the 30-plus years it has been a significant part of the public administration literature, several gaps in the literature are apparent. First, PSM has only recently begun to address the relationship between government partiality, which is at the center of PSM, with other prosocial modes of partiality, such as an interest in nonprofit work. Second, the issue of “sector switchers”—individuals who move from one employment sector to another over the course of their careers—has been significantly under-researched both as a general matter and with specific reference to motivation. Third, PSM research has been largely quantitative in character and may benefit from a rebalancing with qualitative methods. This dissertation, an exploratory study, is a qualitative study of sectorswitchers. It uses phenomenologically oriented interviews with 50 such individuals, selected in a purposeful sample, to add depth to an understanding ofmotivation to work in government as well as other prosocial realms. In so doing, the dissertation addresses a gap identified by one leading PSM researcher searching for more holistic approaches to public service motivation. Themes emerged from the analysis and coding of interview data. Variousmotivations were identified for sectoral switches, including those based in compensation, a need for variety, a desire to serve, the enhancement of one’sprofessional skills, and the desire to advance one’s career. Further, while the study was exploratory and the sample was purposeful and not random, varioustrends seemed apparent, including the fact that sector switchers tend to undergo numerous switches and employment changes over the course of their careersand that, while they often move to the nonprofit sector later in their careers, they tend not to move to, or return to, government work. Tentative conclusions include the identification of tensions between the abstract idea of service, often enunciated in a positive way by respondents, and neutral or negative views about government service, self-sacrifice, and working ina helping profession. A tension was also discerned between government work, which participants viewed more negatively, and nonprofit work, which participantstended to view more positively.
Quantum Entanglement of Local Operators in Conformal Field Theories
Creators: name: Nozaki, Masahiro
name: Numasawa, Tokiro
name: Takayanagi, Tadashi
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2014
Subjects: subject: High Energy Physics - Theory (hep-th)
subject: Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el)
subject: Quantum Physics (quant-ph)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: We introduce a series of quantities which characterizes a given local operator in conformal field theories from the viewpoint of quantum entanglement. It is defined by the increased amount of (Renyi) entanglement entropy at late time for an excited state defined by acting the local operator on the vacuum. We consider a conformal field theory on an infinite space and take the subsystem in the definition of the entanglement entropy to be its half. We calculate these quantities for a free massless scalar field theory in 2, 4 and 6 dimensions. We find that these results are interpreted in terms of quantum entanglement of finite number states, including EPR states. They agree with a heuristic picture of propagations of entangled particles.
description: 4 pages(+appendices), revtex