Contact between laboratory instruments and equations of quantum mechanics

Ambiguity in the contact between laboratory instruments and equations of quantum mechanics is formulated in terms of responses of the instruments to commands transmitted to them by a Classical digital Process-control Computer (CPC); in this way instruments are distinguished from quantum-mechanical models (sets of equations) that specify what is desired of the instruments. Results include: (1) a formulation of quantum mechanics adapted to computer-controlled instruments; (2) a lower bound on the precision of unitary transforms required for quantum searching and a lower bound on sample size needed to show that instruments implement a desired model at that precision; (3) a lower bound on precision of timing required of a CPC in directing instruments; (4) a demonstration that guesswork is necessary in ratcheting up the precision of commands.Comment: 19 pages, prepared for SPIE AeroSense 200

The Turing Machine on the Dissecting Table

Since the beginning of the twenty-first century there has been an increasing awareness that software rep- resents a blind spot in new media theory. The growing interest in software also influences the argument in this paper, which sets out from the assumption that Alan M. Turing's concept of the universal machine, the first theoretical description of a computer program, is a kind of bachelor machine. Previous writings based on a similar hypothesis have focused either on a comparison of the universal machine and the bachelor machine in terms of the similarities of their structural features, or they have taken the bachelor machine as a metaphor for a man or a computer. Unlike them, this paper stresses the importance of the con- text as a key to interpreting the universal Turing machine as a bachelor machine and, potentially, as a self-portrait

Program Equilibria and Discounted Computation Time

Tennenholtz (GEB 2004) developed Program Equilibrium to model play in a finite two-player game where each player can base their strategy on the other player's strategies. Tennenholtz's model allowed each player to produce a "loop-free" computer program that had access to the code for both players. He showed a folk theorem where any mixed-strategy individually rational play could be an equilibrium payo in this model even in a one-shot game. Kalai et al. gave a general folk theorem for correlated play in a more generic commitment model. We develop a new model of program equilibrium using general computational models and discounting the payos based on the computation time used. We give an even more general folk theorem giving correlated-strategy payoffs down to the pure minimax of each player. We also show equilibrium in other games not covered by the earlier work.brokers, applied mechanism design, linear commission fees, optimal indirect mechanisms, internet auctions, auction houses.

The New Technology and Competencies for "The Most Typical of the Activities of Libraries": Technical Services

At a library conference in 1940, William M. Randall called technical services the "most typical of the activities of libraries" "they are..." he said, "the things which librarians do that no one else does the secrets of the craft." 1 In those intervening forty-three years much has been written and uttered in defense and derision of these "secrets of the craft." These most typical of library activities have changed the name Randall used, technical processes, to technical services. They have moved from being sneeringly derided as "backroom," "basement" or other dreary location activities to being enthusiastically hailed today as "where the action is." They are, fortunately, no longer the "secrets" that they were in Randall's day. They have been moved into, moved around within and even moved out of the organizational charts. Regardless of all these attitudes and activities, the functions of acquiring, organizing and preserving library materials persist and the competencies necessary to carry out these three functions will be the focus of this paper. In the paper, reference will frequently be made to the "technical services librarian" meaning any librarian who works in that aspect of librarianship. The emphasis is on no particular type of library. The term library will be used as meaning also information center.published or submitted for publicatio

Ontology acquisition and exchange of evolutionary product-brokering agents

Agent-based electronic commerce (e-commerce) has been booming with the development of the Internet and agent technologies. However, little effort has been devoted to exploring the learning and evolving capabilities of software agents. This paper addresses issues of evolving software agents in e-commerce applications. An agent structure with evolution features is proposed with a focus on internal hierarchical knowledge. We argue that knowledge base of agents should be the cornerstone for their evolution capabilities, and agents can enhance their knowledge bases by exchanging knowledge with other agents. In this paper, product ontology is chosen as an instance of knowledge base. We propose a new approach to facilitate ontology exchange among e-commerce agents. The ontology exchange model and its formalities are elaborated. Product-brokering agents have been designed and implemented, which accomplish the ontology exchange process from request to integration

Index to Library Trends Volume 33

published or submitted for publicatio

Evaluation of a personalized digital library based on cognitive styles: Adaptivity vs. adaptability

Personalization can be addressed by adaptability and adaptivity, which have different advantages and disadvantages. This study investigates how digital library users react to these two techniques. More specifically, we develop a personalized digital library to suit the needs of different cognitive styles based on the findings of our previous work (Frias-Martinez, et al., in press). The personalized digital library includes two versions: adaptive version and adaptable version. The results showed that users not only performed better in the adaptive version, but also they perceived more positively to the adaptive version. In addition, cognitive styles have great effects on users’ responses to adaptability and adaptivity. These results provide guidance for designers to select suitable techniques to develop personalized digital libraries

A Tale of Two Portals: Testing Light, Hidden New Physics at Future e+e−e^+ e^- Colliders

We investigate the prospects for producing new, light, hidden states at a future $e^+ e^-$ collider in a Higgsed dark $U(1)_D$ model, which we call the Double Dark Portal model. The simultaneous presence of both vector and scalar portal couplings immediately modifies the Standard Model Higgsstrahlung channel, $e^+ e^- \to Zh$, at leading order in each coupling. In addition, each portal leads to complementary signals which can be probed at direct and indirect detection dark matter experiments. After accounting for current constraints from LEP and LHC, we demonstrate that a future $e^+ e^-$ Higgs factory will have unique and leading sensitivity to the two portal couplings by studying a host of new production, decay, and radiative return processes. Besides the possibility of exotic Higgs decays, we highlight the importance of direct dark vector and dark scalar production at $e^+ e^-$ machines, whose invisible decays can be tagged from the recoil mass method.Comment: 47 pages, 9 figures, 1 table. v2: references added, version matched to JHE