cometadata/datacite-rtg-text-other-reclassification-records huggingface dataset:
Accounting Policy and Performance of Limited Companies in Cameroon
Creators: name: KAMGANG T. Yann Gus
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2024

description: The issue of company performance relates to the sustainability of companies based on accounting policy. This article examines the role of accounting policy on performance by going beyond the simple perspective of financial performance. Thus, a review of the literature on the factors influencing the performance of the company, in particular its sustainability, makes it possible to highlight; agency theory and governance to explain the multidimensionality of accounting policy which can facilitate the understanding of its links with business performance. By comparing the samples of active public limited companies (PLC) and those that have disappeared, we will question the differences between the two groups in terms of characteristics specific to accounting policies and business performance. The empirical assessment concerned two categories of Limited companies with a sample of 44 between 2018 and 2021. The results highlight the accounting policy is linked to the size of Limited companies as factors favoring company performance.
Going Nonlinear with Dark Energy Cosmologies
Creators: name: Linder, Eric V.
name: White, Martin
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2005
Subjects: subject: Astrophysics (astro-ph)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: We propose an efficient method for generating high accuracy (~1%) nonlinear power spectra for grids of dark energy cosmologies. Our prescription for matching matter growth automatically matches the main features of the cosmic microwave background anisotropy power spectrum, thus naturally including ``CMB priors''.
description: 3 pages, 1 figure
Income and Price Elasticities of Food Demand and Nutrient Consumption in Malawi
Creators: name: Ecker, Olivier
name: Qaim, Matin
name: Ecker, Olivier
name: Qaim, Matin
Publisher: name: Unknown
Year: 2008
Subjects: subject: Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety
subject: quadratic almost ideal demand system
subject: food security
subject: micronutrient malnutrition
subject: calorie elasticities
subject: nutrient elasticities
subject: Malawi

description: Widespread malnutrition in developing countries calls for appropriate interventions, presupposing good knowledge about the nutritional impacts of policies. Little previous work has been carried out in this direction. We present a comprehensive analytical framework, which we apply for Malawi. Using household data and a demand systems approach, we estimate income and price elasticities of food, calorie, and micronutrient consumption. These estimates are used for policy simulations. Given multiple nutrient deficiencies, income-related policies are better suited than price policies to improve nutrition. While consumer subsidies for maize increase calorie and mineral consumption, they contribute to a higher prevalence of vitamin deficiencies.
Observation of Microcanonical Atom Number Fluctuations in a Bose-Einstein Condensate
Creators: name: Christensen, M. B.
name: Vibel, T.
name: Hilliard, A. J.
name: Kruk, M. B.
name: Pawłowski, K.
name: Hryniuk, D.
name: Rzążewski, K.
name: Kristensen, M. A.
name: Arlt, J. J.
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2020
Subjects: subject: Quantum Gases (cond-mat.quant-gas)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: Quantum systems are typically characterized by the inherent fluctuation of their physical observables. Despite this fundamental importance, the investigation of the fluctuations in interacting quantum systems at finite temperature continues to pose considerable theoretical and experimental challenges. Here we report the characterization of atom number fluctuations in weakly interacting Bose-Einstein condensates. Technical fluctuations are mitigated through a combination of non-destructive detection and active stabilization of the cooling sequence. We observe fluctuations reduced by \SI{27}{\percent} below the canonical expectation for a non-interacting gas, revealing the microcanonical nature of our system. The peak fluctuations have near linear scaling with atom number $ΔN_{0,\mathrm{p}}^2 \propto N^{1.134}$ in an experimentally accessible transition region outside the thermodynamic limit. Our experimental results thus set a benchmark for theoretical calculations under typical experimental conditions.
description: 6 pages, 4 figures
On the Stability of Mixed Oligopoly Equilibria with CSR Firms
Creators: name: Lambertini, Luca
name: Tampieri, Alessandro
Publisher: name: Alma Mater Studiorum - Università di Bologna
Year: 2011
Subjects: SECS-P/01 Economia politica

description: This paper examines the stability conditions of the equilibria in a market where profit-maximizing and CSR firms coexist in the presence of an environmental externality. An equilibrium in mixed duopoly is stable for low impact of productivity on pollution and high CSR sensitivity to consumer surplus. In addition, a mixed oligopoly equilibrium is stable if the number of CSR is sufficiently low.
How Beneficial is Tourism? An Analysis of the Economic Impact of Tourism in Il N'gwesi, Kenya
Creators: name: DeVeau, Vanessa
name: Marshall, Maria I.
name: DeVeau, Vanessa
name: Marshall, Maria I.
Publisher: name: Unknown
Year: 2008
Subjects: Community/Rural/Urban Development

description: This paper is a study of the economic effects of tourism in Il N'gwesi, Kenya. This group ranch has been greatly influenced by tourism and conservation efforts in recent years. It neighbors several conservation and tourism centers and in 1996 members set aside 80% of their communal land for a conservation area and initiated a community run Eco Lodge. This paper studies the potential negative effects of tourism on Il N'gwesi as well as which variables impact conservation friendly expenditure decisions. A statistical analysis reveals that group ranch members perceive that there had been inflation in the prices of land, food, and goods and services. However, close to 100 percent of households do not believe that the inflation is due to the Eco Lodge. A statistical analysis of perceptions of wildlife and conservation reveal that there is no significant difference in how households value wildlife and conservation, regardless of whether they have suffered from wildlife damage or not. Probit models were used to evaluate how respondent characteristics and types of employment influence household choice of expenditure. This revealed that providing people with economic incentives to make conservation friendly decisions does not appear to be working in Il N'gwesi.
Competition and Commercial Media Bias
Creators: name: Blasco, Andrea
name: Sobbrio, Francesco
Publisher: name: Alma Mater Studiorum - Università di Bologna
Year: 2011
Subjects: SECS-P/01 Economia politica

description: This paper reviews the empirical evidence on commercial media bias (i.e., advertisers influence over media accuracy) and then introduces a simple model to summarize the main elements of the theoretical literature. The analysis provides three main policy insights for media regulators: i) Media regulators should target their monitoring efforts towards news contents upon which advertisers are likely to share similar preferences; ii) In advertising industries characterized by high correlation in products' qualities, an increase in the degree of competition may translate into a lower accuracy of news reports; iii) A sufficiently high degree of competition in the market for news drives out commercial media bias.
"A Definition at Last, but What Does It All Mean?"—Newspaper Coverage of the USDA Organic Seal and its Effects on Food Purchases-
Creators: name: Kiesel, Kristin
name: Kiesel, Kristin
Publisher: name: Unknown
Year: 2008
Subjects: subject: Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety
subject: consumer demand
subject: labeling
subject: media effect
subject: organic food
subject: scanner data

description: This paper estimates the effects of media coverage in organic food production and the National Organic Program (NOP) on food purchases. Information from several independent data sources is complied into a unique data set that directly links national and local newspaper coverage to fluid milk consumption. An analysis of weekly store-level scanner data in a difference-in-differences approach suggests average increases in organic milk sales relative to conventional milk sales of 5 percent during weeks for which relevant news coverage is observed. Increases in intensity of news coverage, measured by the number of articles in a given week, are further found to increase the relative difference in sales but at a decreasing rate. However, these effects are found to dissipate quickly in the weeks following news coverage. Differentiating by context of observed articles suggests that product category specific coverage doubles observed increases in sales when compared to general coverage, while critical national and local coverage does not result in significant changes in organic milk sales. Furthermore, local news coverage seems to have a relatively higher impact than national news coverage, with increases in circulation of one local newspaper resulting in increased organic milk sales as well. Our results provide valuable insights for the evaluation of existing labeling regulations and future regulations on specialty foods in this context.
description: Replaced with revised version of paper 07/06/08.
The role of GP’s compensation schemes in diabetes care: evidence from panel data
Creators: name: Iezzi, Elisa
name: Lippi Bruni, Matteo
name: Ugolini, Cristina
Publisher: name: Alma Mater Studiorum - Università di Bologna
Year: 2011
Subjects: SECS-P/03 Scienza delle finanze

description: The design of incentive schemes that improve quality of care is a central issue for the healthcare sector. Nowadays we observe many pay-for-performance programs, where payment is contingent on meeting indicators of provider effort, but also other alternative strategies have been introduced, for example programs rewarding physicians for participation in diseases management plans. Although it has been recognised that incentive-based remuneration schemes can have an impact on GP behaviour, there is still weak empirical evidence on the extent to which such programs influence health outcomes. 

We investigate the impact of financial incentives in Regional and Local Health Authority contracts for primary care in the Italian Region Emilia Romagna for the years 2003-05. We focus on avoidable hospitalisations (Ambulatory Care Sensitive Conditions) for patients affected by type 2 diabetes mellitus, for which the assumption of responsibility and the adoption of clinical guidelines are specifically rewarded. We estimate a panel count data model using a Negative Binomial distribution to test the hypothesis that, other things equal, patients under the responsibility of GPs receiving a higher share of their income through these programs are less likely to experience avoidable hospitalisations. 

Our findings support the hypothesis that financial transfers may contribute to improve quality of care, even when they are not based on the ex-post verification of performances.
Relational Particle Models. I. Reconciliation with standard classical and quantum theory
Creators: name: Anderson, E.
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2005
Subjects: subject: General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology (gr-qc)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: This paper concerns the absolute versus relative motion debate. The Barbour and Bertotti 1982 work may be viewed as an indirectly set up relational formulation of a portion of Newtonian mechanics. I consider further direct formulations of this and argue that the portion in question -- universes with zero total angular momentum, that are conservative and with kinetic terms that are (homogeneous) quadratic in their velocities -- is capable of accommodating a wide range of classical physics phenomena. Furthermore, as I develop in Paper II, this relational particle model is a useful toy model for canonical general relativity. I consider what happens if one quantizes relational rather than absolute mechanics, indeed whether the latter is misleading. By exploiting Jacobi coordinates, I show how to access many examples of quantized relational particle models and then interpret these from a relational perspective. By these means, previous suggestions of bad semiclassicality for such models can be eluded. I show how small (particle number) universe relational particle model examples display eigenspectrum truncation, gaps, energy interlocking and counterbalanced total angular momentum. These features mean that these small universe models make interesting toy models for some aspects of closed universe quantum cosmology. While, these features do not compromise the recovery of reality as regards the practicalities of experimentation in a large universe such as our own.
description: References Updated
Zeroth-Order Algorithms for Smooth Saddle-Point Problems
Creators: name: Sadiev, Abdurakhmon
name: Beznosikov, Aleksandr
name: Dvurechensky, Pavel
name: Gasnikov, Alexander
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2020
Subjects: subject: Optimization and Control (math.OC)
subject: Machine Learning (cs.LG)
subject: FOS: Mathematics
subject: FOS: Computer and information sciences

description: Saddle-point problems have recently gained increased attention from the machine learning community, mainly due to applications in training Generative Adversarial Networks using stochastic gradients. At the same time, in some applications only a zeroth-order oracle is available. In this paper, we propose several algorithms to solve stochastic smooth (strongly) convex-concave saddle-point problems using zeroth-order oracles and estimate their convergence rate and its dependence on the dimension $n$ of the variable. In particular, our analysis shows that in the case when the feasible set is a direct product of two simplices, our convergence rate for the stochastic term is only by a $\log n$ factor worse than for the first-order methods. We also consider a mixed setup and develop 1/2th-order methods that use zeroth-order oracle for the minimization part and first-order oracle for the maximization part. Finally, we demonstrate the practical performance of our zeroth-order and 1/2th-order methods on practical problems.
Prevention in Health Insurance: a Welfare Analysis of Participating Policies
Creators: name: Barigozzi, Francesca
name: Bourlès, Renaud
name: Henriet, Dominique
name: Pignataro, Giuseppe
Publisher: name: Alma Mater Studiorum - Università di Bologna
Year: 2014
Subjects: SECS-P/01 Economia politica

description: Preventive care should be subsidized in traditional insurance contracts since policyholders ignore the benefit of their prevention choice on the insurance premium (Ellis and Manning, 2007 JHE). We study participating policies as risk-sharing agreements among policyholders who decide how much to invest in secondary prevention. We explore under which conditions these policies allow partial or even full internalization of prevention benefits in an environment with repeated interactions between policy holders. Welfare generated by the risk-sharing agreement is increasing with the size of the pool, but at the same time the pool size must not be too large for cooperation to sustain the internalization benefits.
Iserloh, Erwin: Geschichte und Theologie der Reformation im Grundriss
Creators: name: Lohse, Bernhard
Publisher: name: Ökumenische Rundschau
Year: 2025

description: Ökumenische Rundschau, Bd. 29 Nr. 3 (1980): Ökumenische Rundschau, Band 29, Heft 3
Intellectual Property Rights and South-North Global Innovation Networks
Creators: name: Prarolo, Giovanni
name: Naghavi, Alireza
name: Comune, Maria
Publisher: name: Alma Mater Studiorum - Università di Bologna
Year: 2012
Subjects: SECS-P/01 Economia politica

description: This paper explores the role of IPR protection in the emergence of R&D linkages from newly emerging economies. Using data from a new survey on Chinese and Indian firms in the ICT sector, we find IPR protection to be key in the engagement of Southern firms in global innovation networks. A complementary exercise uses global bilateral patent data to investigate the location-specificity of IPR enforcement for this phenomenon. We find that a stringent IPR regime in the North (South) discourages (encourage) foreign patenting activities of firms in the South, suggesting that a global convergence of IPRs can stimulate Southern innovation.
Optically Selected GRB Afterglows, a Real Time Analysis System at the CFHT
Creators: name: Malacrino, Frederic
name: Atteia, Jean-Luc
name: Boer, Michel
name: Klotz, Alain
name: Kavelaars, John J.
name: Cuillandre, Jean-Charles
name: Collaboration, the GRB RTAS Collaboration
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2006
Subjects: subject: Astrophysics (astro-ph)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: We attempt to detect optical GRB afterglows on images taken by the Canada France Hawaii Telescope for the Very Wide survey, component of the Legacy Survey. To do so, a Real Time Analysis System called "Optically Selected GRB Afterglows" has been installed on a dedicated computer in Hawaii. This pipeline automatically and quickly analyzes Megacam images and extracts from them a list of variable objects which is displayed on a web page for validation by a member of the collaboration. The Very Wide survey covers 1200 square degrees down to i'=23.5. This paper briefly explain the RTAS process.
description: 4 pages, 3 figures, accepted for publication in Il Nuovo Cimento
Know the enemy: 2D Fermi liquids
Creators: name: Sarma, Sankar Das
name: Liao, Yunxiang
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2021
Subjects: subject: Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: We describe an analytical theory investigating the regime of validity of the Fermi liquid theory in interacting, via the long-range Coulomb coupling, two-dimensional Fermi systems comparing it with with the corresponding 3D systems. We find that the 2D Fermi liquid theory and 2D quasiparticles are robust up to high energies and temperatures of the order of Fermi energy above the Fermi surface, very similar to the corresponding three-dimensional situation. We calculate the phase diagram in the frequency-temperature space separating the collisionless ballistic regime and the collision-dominated hydrodynamic regime for 2D and 3D interacting electron systems. We also provide the temperature corrections up to third order for the renormalized effective mass, and comment on the validity of 2D Wiedemann-Franz law and 2D Kadawoki-Woods relation.
description: Contribution to the Philip W. Anderson Memorial Special Issue of Annals of Physics. 31 pages, 8 figures
When Do Groups Perform Better than Individuals? A Company Takeover Experiment
Creators: name: Casari, Marco
name: Zhang, Jingjing
name: Jackson, Christine
Publisher: name: Alma Mater Studiorum - Università di Bologna
Year: 2011
Subjects: SECS-P/02 Politica economica

description: It is still an open question when groups will perform better than individuals in intellectual tasks. We report that in a company takeover experiment, groups placed better bids than individuals and substantially reduced the winner’s curse. This improvement was mostly due to peer pressure over the minority opinion and to group learning. Learning took place from interacting and negotiating consensus with others, not simply from observing their bids. When there was disagreement within a group, what prevailed was not the best proposal but the one of the majority. Groups underperformed with respect to a “truth wins” benchmark although they outperformed individuals deciding in isolation.
Crop-Based Biofuel Production under Acreage Constraints and Uncertainty
Creators: name: Baker, Mindy L.
name: Hayes, Dermot J.
name: Babcock, Bruce A.
name: Baker, Mindy L.
name: Hayes, Dermot J.
name: Babcock, Bruce A.
Publisher: name: Unknown
Year: 2008
Subjects: Crop Production/Industries
Resource /Energy Economics and Policy

description: A myriad of policy issues and questions revolve around understanding the bioeconomy. To gain insight, we develop a stochastic and dynamic general equilibrium model and capture the uncertain nature of key variables such as crude oil prices and commodity yields. We also incorporate acreage limitations on key feedstocks such as corn, soybeans, and switchgrass. We make standard assumptions that investors are rational and engage in biofuel production only if returns exceed what they can expect to earn from alternative investments. The Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 mandates the use of 36 billion gallons of biofuels by 2022, with significant requirements for cellulosic biofuel and biodiesel production. We calculate the level of tax credits required to stimulate this level of production. Subsidies of nearly $2.50 per gallon to biodiesel and $1.86 per gallon to cellulosic biofuel were required, and long-run equilibrium commodity prices were high, with corn at $4.76 per bushel and soybeans at $13.01 per bushel. High commodity prices are due to intense competition for planted acres among the commodities.
Demutualization and its Problems
Creators: name: Battilani, Patrizia
name: Schröter, Harm G.
Publisher: name: Alma Mater Studiorum - Università di Bologna
Year: 2011
Subjects: SECS-P/12 Storia economica

description: Over the last three decades, cooperatives experienced acceleration of institutional innovation with the introduction of many variations to the reference model. It is certainly not surprising that coops changed their organizational structure over time to face the challenges of world. In the United States and in Canada they are commonly referred to as new generation cooperatives, in Italy and Spain as cooperative groups or network of cooperatives. One of the main feature of these new organizational structures is their attempt to take some advantages of the investor oriented firms (above all in capital raising activities) while retaining the mutual/cooperative status. Many of these changes have been undertaken to facilitate the growth of the enterprises both in domestic market and abroad. Due to the wideness of the phenomenon we could name the last three decades the age of hybridization. However in some cases the search for new structures went further and assumed the aspect of conversion of mutuals into stock firms. Our paper will deal with this latter part of the story, focusing on cooperatives that preferred conversion or demutualization to hybridization. The paper describes the chronology and the geography of demutualization and analyses the forces that drove it over the last decades. The main conclusion is that demutualization provided solutions for real problems, as hybridization did, however the choice between these two options seems to have been more a matter of ideology than of efficiency.
On Local Kirigami Mechanics I: Isometric Conical Solutions
Creators: name: Sadik, Souhayl
name: Dias, Marcelo A.
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2020
Subjects: subject: Soft Condensed Matter (cond-mat.soft)
subject: Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: Over the past decade, kirigami--the Japanese art of paper cutting--has been playing an increasing role in the emerging field of mechanical metamaterials and a myriad of other mechanical applications. Nonetheless, a deep understanding of the mathematics and mechanics of kirigami structures is yet to be achieved in order to unlock their full potential to pioneer more advanced applications in the field. In this work, we study the most fundamental geometric building block of kirigami: a thin sheet with a single cut. We consider a reduced two-dimensional plate model of a circular thin disk with a radial slit and investigate its deformation following the opening of the slit and the rotation of its lips. In the isometric limit--as the thickness of the disk approaches zero--the elastic energy has no stretching contribution and the thin sheet takes a conical shape known as the e-cone. We solve the post-buckling problem for the e-cone in the geometrically nonlinear setting assuming a Saint Venant-Kirchhoff constitutive plate model; we find closed-form expressions for the stress fields and show the geometry of the e-cone to be governed by the spherical elastica problem. This allows us to fully map out the space of solutions and investigate the stability of the post-buckled e-cone problem assuming mirror symmetric boundary conditions on the rotation of the lips on the open slit.
Continuous and time-discrete non-Markovian system-reservoir interactions: Dissipative coherent quantum feedback in Liouville space
Creators: name: Kästle, Oliver
name: Finsterhoelzl, Regina
name: Knorr, Andreas
name: Carmele, Alexander
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2020
Subjects: subject: Quantum Physics (quant-ph)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: Based on tensor network realizations of path integrals reducing exponential memory scaling to polynomial efficiency and a Liouville space implementation of a time-discrete quantum memory, we investigate a quantum system simultaneously exposed to two structured reservoirs. For this purpose, we employ a numerically exact quasi-2D tensor network combining both diagonal and off-diagonal system-reservoir interactions with a twofold memory for continuous and discrete retardation effects. As a possible example, we study the non-Markovian dynamical interplay between discrete photonic feedback and structured acoustic phonon modes, resulting in emerging inter-reservoir correlations and long-living population trapping within an initially-excited two-level system.
Impact of Ethanol Production on U.S. and Regional Gasoline Prices and On the Profitability of U.S. Oil Refinery Industry
Creators: name: Du, Xiaodong
name: Hayes, Dermot J.
name: Du, Xiaodong
name: Hayes, Dermot J.
Publisher: name: Unknown
Year: 2008
Subjects: subject: Resource /Energy Economics and Policy
subject: crack spread
subject: crude oil prices
subject: ethanol
subject: gasoline prices

description: Using pooled regional time-series data and panel data estimation, we quantify the impact of monthly ethanol production on monthly retail regular gasoline prices. This analysis suggests that the growth in ethanol production has caused retail gasoline prices to be $0.29 to $0.40 per gallon lower than would otherwise have been the case. The analysis shows that the negative impact of ethanol on gasoline prices varies considerably across regions. The Midwest region has the biggest impact, at $0.39/gallon, while the Rocky Mountain region had the smallest impact, at $0.17/gallon. The results also indicate that ethanol production has significantly reduced the profit margin of the oil refinery industry. The results are robust with respect to alternative model specifications.
Non-thermal light-assisted resistance collapse in a V$_2$O$_3$-based Mott-insulator device
Creators: name: Ronchi, Andrea
name: Franceschini, Paolo
name: Homm, Pia
name: Gandolfi, Marco
name: Ferrini, Gabriele
name: Pagliara, Stefania
name: Banfi, Francesco
name: Menghini, Mariela
name: Locquet, Jean-Pierre
name: Giannetti, Claudio
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2020
Subjects: subject: Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el)
subject: Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci)
subject: Applied Physics (physics.app-ph)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: The insulator-to-metal transition in Mott insulators is the key mechanism for a novel class of electronic devices, belonging to the Mottronics family. Intense research efforts are currently devoted to the development of specific control protocols, usually based on the application of voltage, strain, pressure and light excitation. The ultimate goal is to achieve the complete control of the electronic phase transformation, with dramatic impact on the performance, for example, of resistive switching devices. Here, we investigate the simultaneous effect of external voltage and excitation by ultrashort light pulses on a single Mottronic device based on a V$_2$O$_3$ epitaxial thin film. The experimental results, supported by finite-element simulations of the thermal problem, demonstrate that the combination of light excitation and external electrical bias drives a volatile resistivity drop which goes beyond the combined effect of laser and Joule heating. Our results impact on the development of protocols for the non-thermal control of the resistive switching transition in correlated materials.
Quantum anomaly and geometric phase; their basic differences
Creators: name: Fujikawa, Kazuo
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2005
Subjects: subject: High Energy Physics - Theory (hep-th)
subject: Quantum Physics (quant-ph)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: It is sometimes stated in the literature that the quantum anomaly is regarded as an example of the geometric phase. Though there is some superficial similarity between these two notions, we here show that the differences bewteen these two notions are more profound and fundamental. As an explicit example, we analyze in detail a quantum mechanical model proposed by M. Stone, which is supposed to show the above connection. We show that the geometric term in the model, which is topologically trivial for any finite time interval $T$, corresponds to the so-called ``normal naive term'' in field theory and has nothing to do with the anomaly-induced Wess-Zumino term. In the fundamental level, the difference between the two notions is stated as follows: The topology of gauge fields leads to level crossing in the fermionic sector in the case of chiral anomaly and the {\em failure} of the adiabatic approximation is essential in the analysis, whereas the (potential) level crossing in the matter sector leads to the topology of the Berry phase only when the precise adiabatic approximation holds.
description: 28 pages. The last sentence in Abstract has been changed, the last paragraph in Section 1 has been re-written, and the latter half of Discussion has been replaced by new materials. New Conclusion to summarize the analysis has been added. This new version is to be published in Phys. Rev. D
Flexible Conservation Measures on Working Land: What Challenges Lie Ahead?
Creators: name: Cattaneo, Andrea
name: Claassen, Roger
name: Johansson, Robert C.
name: Weinberg, Marca
name: Cattaneo, Andrea
name: Claassen, Roger
name: Johansson, Robert C.
name: Weinberg, Marca
Publisher: name: Unknown
Year: 2005
Subjects: Land Economics/Use

description: From 1985 to 2002, most Federal conservation dollars going to farm operators have been to retire land from crop production. Yet most U.S. farmland (850 million acres) remains in active production. The Farm Security and Rural Investment (FSRI) Act of 2002 sharply increased conservation funding and earmarked most of the increase for working-land payment programs (WLPPs). The design and implementation of WLPPs will largely determine the extent to which environmental goals are achieved and whether they are cost effective. We simulate potential environmental gains as well as adjustments in agricultural production, price, and income associated with various WLPP features to illustrate tradeoffs arising from WLPP design and implementation. Competitive bidding with the use of environmental indices to rank producers for enrollment is most cost effective. Payments based on past conservation will help support farm incomes, but limit the amount of additional environmental benefit that can be generated under a fixed budget.
Efficient quantum algorithms for simulating sparse Hamiltonians
Creators: name: Berry, Dominic W.
name: Ahokas, Graeme
name: Cleve, Richard
name: Sanders, Barry C.
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2005
Subjects: subject: Quantum Physics (quant-ph)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: We present an efficient quantum algorithm for simulating the evolution of a sparse Hamiltonian H for a given time t in terms of a procedure for computing the matrix entries of H. In particular, when H acts on n qubits, has at most a constant number of nonzero entries in each row/column, and |H| is bounded by a constant, we may select any positive integer $k$ such that the simulation requires O((\log^*n)t^{1+1/2k}) accesses to matrix entries of H. We show that the temporal scaling cannot be significantly improved beyond this, because sublinear time scaling is not possible.
description: 9 pages, 2 figures, substantial revisions
Eliminating Fruit and Vegetable Planting Restrictions: How Would Markets Be Affected?
Creators: name: Johnson, D. Demcey
name: Krissoff, Barry
name: Young, C. Edwin
name: Hoffman, Linwood A.
name: Lucier, Gary
name: Breneman, Vincent E.
name: Johnson, D. Demcey
name: Krissoff, Barry
name: Young, C. Edwin
name: Hoffman, Linwood A.
name: Lucier, Gary
name: Breneman, Vincent E.
Publisher: name: Unknown
Year: 2006
Subjects: subject: Crop Production/Industries
subject: Food security
subject: food insecurity
subject: food spending
subject: food pantry
subject: hunger
subject: soup kitchen
subject: emergency kitchen
subject: material well-being
subject: Food Stamp Program
subject: National School

description: Eighty-nine percent of American households were food secure throughout the entire year in 2005, meaning that they had access, at all times, to enough food for an active, healthy life for all household members. The remaining households were food insecure at least some time during that year. The prevalence of food insecurity declined from 11.9 percent of households in 2004 to 11.0 percent in 2005, while the prevalence of very low food security remained unchanged at 3.9 percent. This report, based on data from the December 2005 food security survey, provides the most recent statistics on the food security of U.S. households, as well as on how much they spent for food and the extent to which food-insecure households participated in Federal and community food assistance programs. Survey responses indicate that the typical food-secure household in the U.S. spent 34 percent more on food than the typical food-insecure household of the same size and household composition. Just over one-half of all food-insecure households participated in one or more of the three largest Federal food assistance programs during the month prior to the survey. About 22 percent of food-insecure households—3.5 percent of all U.S. households—obtained emergency food from a food pantry at some time during the year.
Predicting future state for adaptive clinical pathway management
Creators: name: Sun, Hong
name: Arndt, Dörthe
name: De Roo, Jos
name: Mannens, Erik
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2020
Subjects: subject: Computers and Society (cs.CY)
subject: FOS: Computer and information sciences

description: Clinical decision support systems are assisting physicians in providing care to patients. However, in the context of clinical pathway management such systems are rather limited as they only take the current state of the patient into account and ignore the possible evolvement of that state in the future. In the past decade, the availability of big data in the healthcare domain did open a new era for clinical decision support. Machine learning technologies are now widely used in the clinical domain, nevertheless, mostly as a tool for disease prediction. A tool that not only predicts future states, but also enables adaptive clinical pathway management based on these predictions is still in need. This paper introduces weighted state transition logic, a logic to model state changes based on actions planned in clinical pathways. Weighted state transition logic extends linear logic by taking weights -- numerical values indicating the quality of an action or an entire clinical pathway -- into account. It allows us to predict the future states of a patient and it enables adaptive clinical pathway management based on these predictions. We provide an implementation of weighted state transition logic using semantic web technologies, which makes it easy to integrate semantic data and rules as background knowledge. Executed by a semantic reasoner, it is possible to generate a clinical pathway towards a target state, as well as to detect potential conflicts in the future when multiple pathways are coexisting. The transitions from the current state to the predicted future state are traceable, which builds trust from human users on the generated pathway.
Spin Waves in a Periodically Layered Magnetic Nanowire
Creators: name: Kruglyak, V. V.
name: Hicken, R. J.
name: Kuchko, A. N.
name: Gorobets, V. Yu.
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2005
Subjects: subject: Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci)
subject: Instrumentation and Detectors (physics.ins-det)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: We report a simple theoretical derivation of the spectrum and damping of spin waves in a cylindrical periodically structured magnetic nanowire (cylindrical magnonic crystal) in the "effective medium" approximation. The dependence of the "effective" magnetic parameters upon the individual layer parameters is shown to be different from the arithmetic average over the volume of the superlattice. The formulae that are obtained can be applied firstly in the description of spin wave dispersion in the first allowed band of the structure; and secondly in the design of a magnonic crystal with band-gaps in an arbitrary part of the spin wave spectrum.
description: 15 pages, 3 figures; submitted to Journal of Applied Physics
Effect of Food Industry Mergers and Acquisitions on Employment and Wages
Creators: name: Ollinger, Michael
name: Nguyen, Sang V.
name: Blayney, Donald P.
name: Chambers, William
name: Nelson, Kenneth B.
name: Ollinger, Michael
name: Nguyen, Sang V.
name: Blayney, Donald P.
name: Chambers, William
name: Nelson, Kenneth B.
Publisher: name: Unknown
Year: 2005
Subjects: subject: Agribusiness
subject: Industrial Organization
subject: Food product industries
subject: mergers and acquisitions
subject: plant closures

description: Empirical analysis of mergers and acquisitions in eight important food industries suggests that workers in acquired plants realized modest increases in employment and wages relative to other workers. Results also show that mergers and acquisitions reduced the likelihood of plant closures while high relative labor costs encouraged plant shutdowns. These results differ from commonly held views that mergers and acquisitions lead to fewer jobs, wage cuts, and plant shutdowns.
Toward a usable peace : United States civil affairs in post-conflict environments
Creators: name: Guttieri, Karen Rochelle
Publisher: name: University of British Columbia
Year: 2009

description: United States military interventions commonly attempt to generate a post-conflict political order congenial to American national interest, that is, to shape a usable peace. The Clausewitzian imperative, that the use of force must serve policy, points to the strategic significance of the postconflict environment. The civil dimension is the arena where US policy succeeds or fails. This study examines US military doctrine and practice of civil affairs in order to address a strategic problem: how to translate the use of force into a usable peace? Civil affairs or civil military operations cope with civilians during operations, control populations and facilitate US military exit. This study offers theoretical, historical, and policy analysis of US civil affairs. Theoretically, if war is a continuation of policy by other means, civil affairs effect a transition back to a mode of policy. Over time, US doctrine adjusted to different conflict environments and policy imperatives provided by civilian leadership, shifting emphasis to military government, civic action, counterinsurgency, and finally, to peace operations. Because US military culture disdains involvement of soldiers in governance, and in order to expedite transitions, two principles are consistent features of the US approach: civilianization, to transfer authority to civilian agencies; and indirect rule, to nurture friendly indigenous regimes. Civil affairs implements policy. US interventions in the Dominican Republic (1965), Grenada (1983) and Panama (1989) imperfectly translated political goals into military objectives; suffered from inconsistent goals from Washington; and failed to plan adequately for the civil dimension. The study identifies a number of factors that influenced the American approach to civil affairs in these cases, including analogical reasoning behind the US interventions, orientation toward low-intensity conflict at the time of the intervention, the impact of combat operations during interventions, and the availability of local resources for reconstruction after intervention. The civil dimension of military operations has become more prominent in last decade of intervention in internal conflicts, under limited rules of engagement, in the service of humanitarian objectives. As operations have become more multilateral and multi-agency, cultural tensions have become more pronounced. This study provides a basis for further exploration of the fundamental, but increasingly complex strategic imperative for US military forces, to shape a usable peace.
Interface effects in ferroelectric PbTiO$_3$ ultrathin films on a paraelectric substrate
Creators: name: Sepliarsky, M
name: Stachiotti, M. G.
name: Migoni, R. L.
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2006
Subjects: subject: Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: Interface effects on the ferroelectric behavior of PbTiO$_3$ ultrathin films deposited on SrTiO$_3$ substrate are investigated using an interatomic potential approach with parameters fitted to first-principles calculations. We find that the correlation of atomic displacements across the film/substrate interface is crucial for the stabilization of the ferroelectric state in films a few unit-cells thick. We show that the minimum film thickness for the appearance of a spontaneous polarized domain state is not an intrinsic property of the ferroelectric film but depends on the polarizability of the paraelectric substrate. We also observe that the substrate displays an induced polarization with an unusual oscillatory behavior.
description: 4 pages
Blending MPC & Value Function Approximation for Efficient Reinforcement Learning
Creators: name: Bhardwaj, Mohak
name: Choudhury, Sanjiban
name: Boots, Byron
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2020
Subjects: subject: Machine Learning (cs.LG)
subject: Robotics (cs.RO)
subject: FOS: Computer and information sciences

description: Model-Predictive Control (MPC) is a powerful tool for controlling complex, real-world systems that uses a model to make predictions about future behavior. For each state encountered, MPC solves an online optimization problem to choose a control action that will minimize future cost. This is a surprisingly effective strategy, but real-time performance requirements warrant the use of simple models. If the model is not sufficiently accurate, then the resulting controller can be biased, limiting performance. We present a framework for improving on MPC with model-free reinforcement learning (RL). The key insight is to view MPC as constructing a series of local Q-function approximations. We show that by using a parameter $λ$, similar to the trace decay parameter in TD($λ$), we can systematically trade-off learned value estimates against the local Q-function approximations. We present a theoretical analysis that shows how error from inaccurate models in MPC and value function estimation in RL can be balanced. We further propose an algorithm that changes $λ$ over time to reduce the dependence on MPC as our estimates of the value function improve, and test the efficacy our approach on challenging high-dimensional manipulation tasks with biased models in simulation. We demonstrate that our approach can obtain performance comparable with MPC with access to true dynamics even under severe model bias and is more sample efficient as compared to model-free RL.
description: 15 pages
DID BSE ANNOUNCEMENTS REDUCE BEEF PURCHASES?
Creators: name: Kuchler, Fred
name: Tegene, Abebayehu
name: Kuchler, Fred
name: Tegene, Abebayehu
Publisher: name: Unknown
Year: 2006
Subjects: subject: Consumer/Household Economics
subject: food safety
subject: Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy
subject: BSE
subject: retail beef purchases
subject: Government announcements
subject: retrospective analysis

description: This study examines consumers’ retail purchases of beef and beef products for evidence of a response to the 2003 U.S. government announcements of finding cows infected with Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE). We constructed weekly estimates of quantities of beef products consumers purchased from 1998 through 2004 using ACNielsen Homescan data. While the variance in purchases was large, most could be explained by trend and seasonality. Deviations from established purchase patterns following the BSE announcements varied across beef products, but were limited to no more than 2 weeks in all cases.
The wake of a transversely oscillating circular cylinder in a flowing soap film at low Reynolds number
Creators: name: Yang, Wenchao
name: Masroor, Emad
name: Stremler, Mark A.
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2021
Subjects: subject: Fluid Dynamics (physics.flu-dyn)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: An inclined gravity-driven soap film channel was used to study the wake patterns formed behind a transversely oscillating cylinder at $Re =235 \pm 14$. The natural frequency of vortex shedding from a stationary cylinder, $f_{\text{St}}$, was used to identify the oscillation frequencies of interest. The (dimensionless) frequency, $f^*=f/{f_{\text{St}}}$, and amplitude, $A^*=A/D$, of the cylinder's motion was varied over a large portion of the fundamental synchronization region (i.e., for $f^* \approx 1$), and a `map' of wake patterns was constructed in ${(f^*, A^*)}$ space. Lock-on between the frequency of the cylinder's motion and the dominant frequency of the resulting vortex wake was observed for a large range of this parameter space, predominantly manifested as synchronized `2S' and `2P' wake modes. Synchronized `P+S', `2T', and `transitional' wakes were also found in smaller regions of parameter space. Unsynchronized `coalescing' and `perturbed von~\karman' wakes were observed as the oscillation frequency became sufficiently different from $f_{\text_{St}}$. The wake patterns and vortex formation processes found in this study, particularly for the 2P mode wakes, are more similar to those observed by \cite{Williamson1988} in three-dimensional experiments than those found by \cite{Leontini2006} in two-dimensional simulations, despite the physical constraint from the soap film that prevents three-dimensional effects in the wake.
description: Updated with revised version after peer review. 'Accepted Manuscript'
Relational Particle Models. II. Use as toy models for quantum geometrodynamics
Creators: name: Anderson, E.
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2005
Subjects: subject: General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology (gr-qc)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: Relational particle models are employed as toy models for the study of the Problem of Time in quantum geometrodynamics. These models' analogue of the thin sandwich is resolved. It is argued that the relative configuration space and shape space of these models are close analogues from various perspectives of superspace and conformal superspace respectively. The geometry of these spaces and quantization thereupon is presented. A quantity that is frozen in the scale invariant relational particle model is demonstrated to be an internal time in a certain portion of the relational particle reformulation of Newtonian mechanics. The semiclassical approach for these models is studied as an emergent time resolution for these models, as are consistent records approaches.
description: Replaced with published version. Minor changes only; 1 reference corrected