Introduction to the polymorphic tracking code: Fibre bundles, polymorphic Taylor types and "Exact tracking"

This is a description of the basic ideas behind the ``Polymorphic Tracking Code'' or PTC. PTC is truly a ``kick code'' or symplectic integrator in the tradition of TRACYII, SixTrack, and TEAPOT. However it separates correctly the mathematical atlas of charts and the magnets at a structural level by implementing a ``restricted fibre bundle.'' The resulting structures allow backward propagation and recirculation, something not possible in standard tracking codes. Also PTC is polymorphic in handling real (single, double and even quadruple precision) and Taylor series. Therefore it has all the tools associated to the TPSA packages: Lie methods, Normal Forms, Cosy-Infinity capabilities, beam envelopes for radiation, etc., as well as parameter dependence on-the-fly. However PTC is an integrator, and as such, one must, generally, adhere to the Talman ``exactness'' view of modelling. Incidentally, it supports exact sector and rectangular bends as well. Of course, one can certainly bypass its integrator and the user is free to violate Talman's principles on his own; PTC provides the tools to dig one's grave but not the encouragement. The reader will find in Appendix B a PowerPoint presentation of FPP. The presentation is a bit out of date but it gives a good idea of FPP which is essential to PTC. FPP is a stand-alone library and can be used by anyone with a FORTRAN90 compiler. This presentation is also, to be honest, a place where the authors intend to document very incompletely nearly two years of work: the development of FPP and subsequently that of PTC. Our ultimate intention is to morph PTC completely into MAD-X. The code MAD-X is an upgrade of MAD-8 and not of the C++ CLASSIC based code MAD-9. The present document does not address when and how this will be done. It is also our goal to link, if possible, PTC with CAD programs for the design of complex follow-the-terrain beam lines. So far FPP and PTC have been used in the design of beam separators (complex polymorphs) and recirculators. They have also been linked with the code BMAD from Cornell. There is still a lot of work to be done if these tools are to be generally usable by a wide range of people. In addition, more complex structures will be needed to handle effects beyond single particle dynamics in a way which respects the fundamental mathematical integrity of the structures of PTC

Malaysia’s Policy Responses to the Panic of 1997: An Islamic Perspective

This thesis explores the rationale behind the decisions of the Malaysian policymakers in response to the Panic of 1997, as Malaysia is the only country that had rejected the Washington Consensus while the rest of the crisis-affected countries pursued the orthodox policies. The thesis is to investigate whether the reasons behind the policy responses were due to adhering to the underlying principles of Shariah or mere political pragmatism. Identified by the World Bank as a newly industrialising economy (NIE), Malaysia symbolises a developing country with an impressive growth rate in the last thirty years prior to the Panic of 1997. The transformation to a rapid economic growth in the 1980s and 1990s resulted from a change of policies regarding social and economic development. It was a widespread perception that the reason for Malaysia’s rejection of IMF’s involvement was primarily due to prevent any intervention in its existing social affirmative action policy known as the New Economic Policy (NEP). Concurrently, Prime Minister Mahathir’s strong advocation towards the Islamisation policy had also made a significant impact in the development of Malaysia’s policy framework. The Washington Consensus via the IMF delegitimised the prevailing economic system in Southeast Asia by blaming the structural deficiencies in the financial and corporate sectors of the countries as the root cause of the Panic of 1997. The IMF believed that the Washington Consensus presents a model for institutional transformation. However, Malaysia had adopted the unorthodox capital control policy as a policy response, while the rest of the crisis-affected countries had accepted the Washington Consensus. The thesis adopts a historical institutional analysis in explaining the significance of the Islamisation policy and the importance of upholding the NEP and the likely impact of its reversal or revocation

Backwards is the way forward: feedback in the cortical hierarchy predicts the expected future

Clark offers a powerful description of the brain as a prediction machine, which offers progress on two distinct levels. First, on an abstract conceptual level, it provides a unifying framework for perception, action, and cognition (including subdivisions such as attention, expectation, and imagination). Second, hierarchical prediction offers progress on a concrete descriptive level for testing and constraining conceptual elements and mechanisms of predictive coding models (estimation of predictions, prediction errors, and internal models)

Do old habits die hard? Change and continuity in the political-media complex at the outset of the Mexican democracy

This thesis speaks directly to the literature that assess the links between distinctive political regimes and the media. But rather than using normative expectations or current afflictions from the political regime or the emerging media system in new democracies as a entry point into the study, this research builds on the notion of ‘political-media complex’ (Swanson 1992, 1997) to centre the analysis on three institutional factors: (1) the rules that institutions enforce to give order; (2) the organizational dynamic that institutions impose over individuals’ roles, and; (3) the patterns of change and tendencies that institutions take from but also inflict on historical rules and practices. Drawing on the analysis of interviews with government communicators that served at the outset of the Mexican democracy (2000-2006) and on a supportive document research of official documents, the thesis shows that ‘thinking institutionally’ about the state-media relation allows a better understanding of how formal rules, bureaucratic structures, managerial strategies and certain professionalization patterns of the political communication mould this interaction. Less evident but equally relevant is the influence that informal arrangements impose on this interaction. It cannot simply be assumed that proscriptions (statutory regulation, formal rules and written norms) always dictate the behaviour of those involved in the state-media relation. Beliefs, attitudes and common practices are also relevant to disentangle the links between rules and actions. Similarly, budgets, organizational charts and strategic communications blueprints set certain parameters for government communicators. But it cannot be expected that these can be implemented without hesitation. Past routines, practices and understandings also influence the way in which Mexican governing cadres manage their relationships with the media. But as seen in this thesis, the past marks the present in a variety of ways contesting the broad and traditional conception about the burden that authoritarianism imposes over new democracies

HISTORY URBANISM RESILIENCE VOLUME 04:

The 17th conference (2016, Delft) of the International Planning History Society (IPHS) and its proceedings place presentations from different continents and on varied topics side by side, providing insight into state-of-the art research in the field of planning history and offering a glimpse of new approaches, themes, papers and books to come. VOLUME 04: Planning and Heritag

Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs

Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs has had a dramatic impact on computer science curricula over the past decade. This long-awaited revision contains changes throughout the text. There are new implementations of most of the major programming systems in the book, including the interpreters and compilers, and the authors have incorporated many small changes that reflect their experience teaching the course at MIT since the first edition was published. A new theme has been introduced that emphasizes the central role played by different approaches to dealing with time in computational models: objects with state, concurrent programming, functional programming and lazy evaluation, and nondeterministic programming. There are new example sections on higher-order procedures in graphics and on applications of stream processing in numerical programming, and many new exercises. In addition, all the programs have been reworked to run in any Scheme implementation that adheres to the IEEE standard

Explorations on an urban interventions management system: a reflection on how to deal with urban complex systems and deliver dynamic change.

How we plan and manage urban development has become an increasingly complex challenge, due to unpredictable and rapid conditional changes in post-modern cities. In turn, this calls for a paradigm shift in the way we understand and practice urban planning and design. A resilient urban planning system must be open and flexible rather than restrictive and rigid. It must respond promptly and adequately to the fast and diverse ways in which cities are reorganising as they respond to globalisation, environmental challenges and advances in technology. The need for a new kind of urban planning, which is able to embrace the complexity and unpredictability of the post-modern city, has been explored by several planning theorists. However, these theories were often developed from the perspective of urban planning and the city itself. In this thesis, complexity and evolutionary theories are used to approach the subject of the planning process, from a perspective in which the city is considered as the emergent and self-organising product of a sequence of interventions in the urban environment. This research suggests a planning approach focused on the design and selection of human interventions. Within this, the strategic roles for both top-down and bottom-up interventions are investigated, in relation to the formation of urban character and urban development. The research presents and tests exploratory models that help us to recognise, understand and mediate between a complex range of urban actors and external pressures derived from urban conditional changes. Findings from case studies indicate that the models are useful tools to structure and simplify the process of dealing with complex urban problems, and that they yield useful insights into how society should perceive cities in transition, as well as adopting an ideological shift to deal with contemporary and future city planning

Proceedings, MSVSCC 2016

Proceedings of the 10th Annual Modeling, Simulation & Visualization Student Capstone Conference held on April 14, 2016 at VMASC in Suffolk, Virginia