Innovative City and State Funding Approaches to Supporting Subsidized Employment and Transitional Jobs

The paper highlights a number of public-sector agencies that have developed "outside the box" funding strategies to support transitional jobs and subsidized employment initiatives. The report include recommendations for state and city governments that are seeking to support subsidized and transitional employment solutions in an environment of scarce resources

General option exercise rules, with applications to embedded options and monopolistic expansion

This paper provides a general framework for pricing of real options in continuous time for wide classes of payoff streams that are functions of Levy processes. As applications, we calculate the option values of multi-stage investment/disinvestment problems (sequences of embedded options, which we call Russian dolls), and study two models of expansion of a monopoly. In the first model, each time when the stochastic demand reaches the boundary of the inaction region or crosses it, the monopoly increases capital stock but uses the same production technology. We assume that above a certain level, the stochastic demand factor increases slower than in the standard geometric Levy models, and demonstrate that then the investment threshold is lower than in the standard models. Moreover, in the intermediate range between the regimes of the fast and slower growth, the monopoly may find it optimal to simultaneously increase the capital stock and decrease the output price. The second model is driven by two factors: one factor follows a process with upward jumps and describes the dynamics of the frontier technology, the other - demand uncertainty. The impact of these factors on new technology adoption is analyzed. It is shown that depending on the situation and type of uncertainty, the diffusion uncertainty and jump uncertainty can produce opposite effects.embedded options, technology adoption, capital expansion

Quantum Nature of the Big Bang: Improved dynamics

An improved Hamiltonian constraint operator is introduced in loop quantum cosmology. Quantum dynamics of the spatially flat, isotropic model with a massless scalar field is then studied in detail using analytical and numerical methods. The scalar field continues to serve as `emergent time', the big bang is again replaced by a quantum bounce, and quantum evolution remains deterministic across the deep Planck regime. However, while with the Hamiltonian constraint used so far in loop quantum cosmology the quantum bounce can occur even at low matter densities, with the new Hamiltonian constraint it occurs only at a Planck-scale density. Thus, the new quantum dynamics retains the attractive features of current evolutions in loop quantum cosmology but, at the same time, cures their main weakness.Comment: Typos corrected. Revised version to appear in Physical Review

Management of Digital Video Broadcasting Services in Open Delivery Platforms

The future of Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB) is moving towards solutions offering an efficient way of carrying interactive IP multimedia services over digital terrestrial broadcasting networks to handheld terminals. One of the most promising technologies is Digital Video Broadcasting-Handheld (DVB-H), at present under standardisation. Services deployed via this type of DVB technologies should enjoy reliability comparable to TV services and high quality standards. However, the market at present does not provide effective and economical solutions for the deployment of such services over multi-domain IP networks, due to their high level of unreliability. This paper focuses on service management, service level agreement (SLA) and network performance requirements of DVB-H services. Experimental results are presented concerning QoS sensitivity to network performance of DVB-H services delivered over a multi-domain IP network. Moreover, a solution for efficient and cost effective service management via QoS monitoring and control and network SLA design is proposed. The solution gives DVB-H operators the possibility of fully managing service QoS without being tied to third party operators

Application of Advanced Early Warning Systems with Adaptive Protection

This project developed and field-tested two methods of Adaptive Protection systems utilizing synchrophasor data. One method detects conditions of system stress that can lead to unintended relay operation, and initiates a supervisory signal to modify relay response in real time to avoid false trips. The second method detects the possibility of false trips of impedance relays as stable system swings “encroach” on the relays’ impedance zones, and produces an early warning so that relay engineers can re-evaluate relay settings. In addition, real-time synchrophasor data produced by this project was used to develop advanced visualization techniques for display of synchrophasor data to utility operators and engineers

Introduction to Loop Quantum Gravity

This article is based on the opening lecture at the third quantum geometry and quantum gravity school sponsored by the European Science Foundation and held at Zakopane, Poland in March 2011. The goal of the lecture was to present a broad perspective on loop quantum gravity for young researchers. The first part is addressed to beginning students and the second to young researchers who are already working in quantum gravity.Comment: 30 pages, 2 figures. arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:gr-qc/041005