Fingerprint databases for theorems

We discuss the advantages of searchable, collaborative, language-independent databases of mathematical results, indexed by "fingerprints" of small and canonical data. Our motivating example is Neil Sloane's massively influential On-Line Encyclopedia of Integer Sequences. We hope to encourage the greater mathematical community to search for the appropriate fingerprints within each discipline, and to compile fingerprint databases of results wherever possible. The benefits of these databases are broad - advancing the state of knowledge, enhancing experimental mathematics, enabling researchers to discover unexpected connections between areas, and even improving the refereeing process for journal publication.Comment: to appear in Notices of the AM

Support for graphicacy: a review of textbooks available to accounting students

This Teaching Note reports on the support available in textbooks for graphicacy that will help students understand the complexities of graphical displays. Graphical displays play a significant role in financial reporting, and studies have found evidence of measurement distortion and selection bias. To understand the complexities of graphical displays, students need a sound understanding of graphicacy and support from the textbooks available to them to develop that understanding. The Teaching Note reports on a survey that examined the textbooks available to students attending two Scottish universities. The support of critical graphicacy skills was examined in conjunction with textbook characteristics. The survey, which was not restricted to textbooks designated as required reading, examined the textbooks for content on data measurement and graphical displays. The findings highlight a lack of support for graphicacy in the textbooks selected. The study concludes that accounting educators need to scrutinize more closely the selection of textbooks and calls for more extensive research into textbooks as a pedagogic tool

The structural role of the core literature in history

The intellectual landscapes of the humanities are mostly uncharted territory. Little is known on the ways published research of humanist scholars defines areas of intellectual activity. An open question relates to the structural role of core literature: highly cited sources, naturally playing a disproportionate role in the definition of intellectual landscapes. We introduce four indicators in order to map the structural role played by core sources into connecting different areas of the intellectual landscape of citing publications (i.e. communities in the bibliographic coupling network). All indicators factor out the influence of degree distributions by internalizing a null configuration model. By considering several datasets focused on history, we show that two distinct structural actions are performed by the core literature: a global one, by connecting otherwise separated communities in the landscape, or a local one, by rising connectivity within communities. In our study, the global action is mainly performed by small sets of scholarly monographs, reference works and primary sources, while the rest of the core, and especially most journal articles, acts mostly locally

Sensemaking on the Pragmatic Web: A Hypermedia Discourse Perspective

The complexity of the dilemmas we face on an organizational, societal and global scale forces us into sensemaking activity. We need tools for expressing and contesting perspectives flexible enough for real time use in meetings, structured enough to help manage longer term memory, and powerful enough to filter the complexity of extended deliberation and debate on an organizational or global scale. This has been the motivation for a programme of basic and applied action research into Hypermedia Discourse, which draws on research in hypertext, information visualization, argumentation, modelling, and meeting facilitation. This paper proposes that this strand of work shares a key principle behind the Pragmatic Web concept, namely, the need to take seriously diverse perspectives and the processes of meaning negotiation. Moreover, it is argued that the hypermedia discourse tools described instantiate this principle in practical tools which permit end-user control over modelling approaches in the absence of consensus

Combining diverse data sources for CEDSS, an agent-based model of domestic energy demand

CEDSS (Community Energy Demand Social Simulator) is an empirical agent-based model designed and built as part of a multi-method social science project investigating the determinants of domestic energy demand. Ideally, empirical modellers, within and beyond social simulation, would prefer to work from an integrated dataset, gatheredfor the purposes of developing the model. In practice, many have to work with less than ideal data, often including processed data from multiple sources external to the project. Moreover, what data will be required may not be clear at the start of the project. This paper describes the approach to dealing with these factors taken in developing CEDSS, and presents the completed model together with an outline of the calibration and validation procedure used. The discussion section draws together the most distinctive features of empirical data collection, processing and use for and in CEDSS, and argues that the approach taken is sufficiently robust to underpin the model’s purpose – to generate scenarios of domestic energy demand to 2049

Detecting Sunyaev-Zel'dovich clusters with PLANCK: III. Properties of the expected SZ-cluster sample

The PLANCK-mission is the most sensitive all-sky submillimetric mission currently being planned and prepared. Special emphasis is given to the observation of clusters of galaxies by their thermal Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (SZ) effect. In this work, the results of a simulation are presented that combines all-sky maps of the thermal and kinetic SZ-effect with cosmic microwave background (CMB) fluctuations, Galactic foregrounds (synchrotron emission, thermal emission from dust, free-free emission and rotational transitions of carbon monoxide molecules) and sub-millimetric emission from planets and asteroids of the Solar System. Observational issues, such as PLANCKs beam shapes, frequency response and spatially non-uniform instrumental noise have been incorporated. Matched and scale-adaptive multi-frequency filtering schemes have been extended to spherical coordinates and are now applied to the data sets in order to isolate and amplify the weak thermal SZ-signal. The properties of the resulting SZ-cluster sample are characterised in detail: Apart from the number of clusters as a function of cluster parameters such as redshift z and total mass M, the distribution n(sigma)d sigma of the detection significance sigma, the number of detectable clusters in relation to the model cluster parameters entering the filter construction, the position accuracy of an SZ-detection and the cluster number density as a function of ecliptic latitude beta is examined.Comment: 14 pages, 16 figures, 13 tables, submitted to MNRAS, 16.Feb.200

M+D: conceptual guidelines for compiling a materials library

This article proposes to present a study conducted by the Raw Materials research group, the results of which comprise the conceptual guidelines for compiling an M+D material library. The study includes the topic, materials and design taking the impact of the changes that came into being in the post industrial era on project methodologies and the search for information regarding materials. Taking into account the importance and complexity that these relationships have taken on currently, we have studied the issue of materials based on Manzini (1983) and Ashby and Johnson (2002). Afterward different databases and materials libraries located in the Brazil, the United States, France and Italy geared toward design professionals and students were analyzed to understand what information and means of access to them were available. The project methodologies were approached based on Löbach (1991), Bürdeck (1994), Schulmann (1994), Baxter (1998), Dantas (1998 and 2005) and Papanek (1995 and 2000). This study sought to identify the key elements of the role of materials in the project process today, to serve as a parameter for the analysis of the models studied. A comparative analysis of the models investigated enabled identification of positive and negative aspects to adapt to the needs previously mentioned and identify conceptual guidelines for compiling a collection of materials for use in design projects. Keywords: Design, Materials, Project Methodology, Library</p

M+D: conceptual guidelines for compiling a materials library

This article proposes to present a study conducted by the Raw Materials research group, the results of which comprise the conceptual guidelines for compiling an M+D material library. The study includes the topic, materials and design taking the impact of the changes that came into being in the post industrial era on project methodologies and the search for information regarding materials. Taking into account the importance and complexity that these relationships have taken on currently, we have studied the issue of materials based on Manzini (1983) and Ashby and Johnson (2002). Afterward different databases and materials libraries located in the Brazil, the United States, France and Italy geared toward design professionals and students were analyzed to understand what information and means of access to them were available. The project methodologies were approached based on Löbach (1991), Bürdeck (1994), Schulmann (1994), Baxter (1998), Dantas (1998 and 2005) and Papanek (1995 and 2000). This study sought to identify the key elements of the role of materials in the project process today, to serve as a parameter for the analysis of the models studied. A comparative analysis of the models investigated enabled identification of positive and negative aspects to adapt to the needs previously mentioned and identify conceptual guidelines for compiling a collection of materials for use in design projects. Keywords: Design, Materials, Project Methodology, Library</p