Variables Affecting Impregnation during Kraft Pulping

Introduction The purpose of this report was twofold. First, a pulping aid was evaluated for its effects on pulp properties. Then, the pulping aid was used in conjunction with a reduction in the times to temperature for several cooks, to see if the pulping aid could be used to reduce the total cooking time for kraft cooks. To gain some background as to how the pulping aid might affect the cook, variables affecting impregnation are presented and discussed

How Many Cooks Spoil the Soup?

In this work, we study the following basic question: "How much parallelism does a distributed task permit?" Our definition of parallelism (or symmetry) here is not in terms of speed, but in terms of identical roles that processes have at the same time in the execution. We initiate this study in population protocols, a very simple model that not only allows for a straightforward definition of what a role is, but also encloses the challenge of isolating the properties that are due to the protocol from those that are due to the adversary scheduler, who controls the interactions between the processes. We (i) give a partial characterization of the set of predicates on input assignments that can be stably computed with maximum symmetry, i.e., $\Theta(N_{min})$, where $N_{min}$ is the minimum multiplicity of a state in the initial configuration, and (ii) we turn our attention to the remaining predicates and prove a strong impossibility result for the parity predicate: the inherent symmetry of any protocol that stably computes it is upper bounded by a constant that depends on the size of the protocol.Comment: 19 page

Too many cooks? Committees in monetary policy

How many people should decide about monetary policy? In this paper, we take an empirical perspective on this issue, analyzing the relationship between the number of monetary policy decisionmakers and monetary policy outcomes. Using a new data set that characterizes Monetary Policy Committees (MPCs) in more than 30 countries from 1960 through 2000, we find a U-shaped relation between the membership size of MPCs and inflation; our results suggest that the lowest level of inflation is reached at MPCs with about seven to ten members. Similar results are obtained for other measures, such as inflation variability and output growth. We also find that MPC size influences the success of monetary targeting regimes. In contrast, there is no evidence that either turnover rates of MPC members or the membership composition of MPCs affect economic outcomes. --Central bank design,monetary policy committee,central bank board,central bank council,governance,inflation.

A workflow for document level interoperability

This article describes a software environment called the Exchange Center that helps digital librarians manage the workflow of sourcing documents and metadata from various repositories. The software is built on Greenstone but does not require its use as the final digital library server. After describing the software architecture we provide two scenarios of its use: a private library of recipes, which ultimately involves collaboration with other cooks; and a digital library that aggregates the collections of various host institutions that use different repository software

16PF Traits and Work Performance Among Restaurant Workers

Personality traits have been linked to work performance in a variety of jobs. For as many restaurants as there are in every major city, little is known about the traits that characterize the success of their personnel. Personality traits are thought to be especially relevant to restaurant work because, in the case of the wait staff, interaction with the public is a major part of the job. In the case of the kitchen staff, it is necessary to work under conditions of heat and work load stress, while at the same time make each meal turn out exactly the way it was intended on the menu. The restaurant trade is also susceptible to high turnover, suggesting that the person-job fit for most employees is less than adequate

The tipping point: a mathematical model for the profit-driven abandonment of restaurant tipping

The custom of voluntarily tipping for services rendered has gone in and out of fashion in America since its introduction in the 19th century. Restaurant owners that ban tipping in their establishments often claim that social justice drives their decisions, but we show that rational profit-maximization may also justify the decisions. Here, we propose a conceptual model of restaurant competition for staff and customers, and we show that there exists a critical conventional tip rate at which restaurant owners should eliminate tipping to maximize profit. Because the conventional tip rate has been increasing steadily for the last several decades, our model suggests that restaurant owners may abandon tipping en masse when that critical tip rate is reached.Comment: 14 pages, 5 figures, supplementary material include