The need for speed

A change in social status can quickly lead to a change in the quality of the seminal fluid produced by a male Chinook salmon as he responds to increased reproductive competition from higher-status males

The need for speed : Maximizing random walks speed on fixed environments

We study nearest neighbor random walks on fixed environments of $\mathbb{Z}$ composed of two point types : $(1/2,1/2)$ and $(p,1-p)$ for $p>1/2$. We show that for every environment with density of $p$ drifts bounded by $\lambda$ we have $\limsup_{n\rightarrow\infty}\frac{X_n}{n}\leq (2p-1)\lambda$, where $X_n$ is a random walk on the environment. In addition up to some integer effect the environment which gives the best speed is given by equally spaced drifts

The Need for Speed: Impacts of Internet Connectivity on Firm Productivity

Fast internet access is widely considered to be a productivity-enhancing factor. Internet access speeds vary regionally within countries and even within cities. Despite articulate pleas for network upgrades to accelerate internet access, there is little rigorous research quantifying benefits to individual firms that arise from upgraded internet connectivity. We use a large New Zealand micro-survey of firms linked to unit record firm financial data to determine the impact that differing types of internet access have on firm productivity. Propensity score matching is used to control for factors, including the firm’s (lagged) productivity, that determine firms’ internet access choices. Having matched firms, we examine the productivity impacts that arise when a firm adopts different types (speeds) of internet connectivity. Broadband adoption is found to boost productivity but we find no productivity differences across broadband type. The results provide the first firm-level estimates internationally of the degree of productivity gains sourced from upgraded internet access.Internet, broadband, productivity

The Need for Speed in Rodent Locomotion Analyses.

Locomotion analysis is now widely used across many animal species to understand the motor defects in disease, functional recovery following neural injury, and the effectiveness of various treatments. More recently, rodent locomotion analysis has become an increasingly popular method in a diverse range of research. Speed is an inseparable aspect of locomotion that is still not fully understood, and its effects are often not properly incorporated while analyzing data. In this hybrid manuscript, we accomplish three things: (1) review the interaction between speed and locomotion variables in rodent studies, (2) comprehensively analyze the relationship between speed and 162 locomotion variables in a group of 16 wild-type mice using the CatWalk gait analysis system, and (3) develop and test a statistical method in which locomotion variables are analyzed and reported in the context of speed. Notable results include the following: (1) over 90% of variables, reported by CatWalk, were dependent on speed with an average R2 value of 0.624, (2) most variables were related to speed in a nonlinear manner, (3) current methods of controlling for speed are insufficient, and (4) the linear mixed model is an appropriate and effective statistical method for locomotion analyses that is inclusive of speed-dependent relationships. Given the pervasive dependency of locomotion variables on speed, we maintain that valid conclusions from locomotion analyses cannot be made unless they are analyzed and reported within the context of speed

The need for speed

Development of dielectric elastomer actuators has been mainly targeted towards achieving giant static strain with little attention paid to their response speed, which can, depending on materials used, be as long as tens of seconds. However, most of the practical applications require actuators capable of changing shape quickly, therefore a careful choice of materials and technologies for the dielectric and electrodes must be made. Test oscillating actuators, made with a range of silicone membranes with different hardness were tested, and the compliant electrodes were made with different technologies: carbon powder, carbon grease, conductive rubber and metal ion implantation. The transient response of the actuators to a step input was measured with a high speed camera at 5000 frames per seconds for the different combinations of membrane material and electrodes. The results show that the dynamic response of the actuators is extremely dependent on the membrane material, as expected, but also on the compliant electrodes, whose impact cannot be neglected

The Need for Speed: Increasing the Code Review Velocity

One of the software industry’s critical goals is to increase code velocity. Code velocity is the speed at which code changes published for the code review are merged until they are committed to the intended destination branch. This thesis focuses on the part of the development process where engineers review and critique each other’s code (Modern Core Review) and how to shorten that period.We find a negligible correlation between the pull request size, composition, and time-to-merge. We identify two primary categories of time delays during the code reviews: (a) the wait time from the proposal of code changes until the first response and (b) the wait time between acceptance and merging. Our findings indicate that kernel code is the primary optimization target for increasing code velocity in the BSD family of operating systems.We discover no public evidence documenting the benefits of removing dead code from the active code bases. Similarly, no evidence demonstrates that fixing compiler warnings benefits the software project.We conduct a qualitative survey to study the code velocity-related beliefs and practices in place. We find that (a) the industry and open-source community hold a similar set of beliefs, (b) quick reaction time is of utmost importance, (c) time-to-merge is the essential code review metric to improve, (d) engineers do not see evidence of the benefits of increased code velocity for their career growth, and (e) the controlled application of the commit-then-review model can increase code velocity

The Need for Speed: Eye-Position Signal Dynamics in the Parietal Cortex

Accurate eye-position signals are critically important for localizing targets in space when the eyes move. In this issue of Neuron, Xu et al. (2012) provide evidence that eye-position gain fields in area LIP remain spatially inaccurate for some time after a saccade, indicating they are not updated rapidly enough to play a role in the computation of target locations for upcoming saccades

The NBN - Do Australian broadband households feel the need for speed?

This paper discusses the views of Australian households with a current broadband connection. It is based on survey data collected during August 2008 from a national sample of households. The paper presents an initial analysis exploring a range of household perceptions and intentions related to adopting a high-speed broadband connection. A high-speed national broadband network (NBN) has been high on the political agenda since the lead-up to the 2007 Federal election, where both major parties went to the poll promoting their intention to implement an NBN. Neither party was deep on providing details of what their national broadband network would offer, except a high speed broadband connection of some form. The research outlined here discusses the views of households with an existing broadband connection and explores their intention and desire to move to a high-speed broadband connection. It provides important baseline data to inform public debate on broadband policy and questions if the NBN is being proposed as a supply driven model, without sufficient understanding or consideration of the demand factors amongst Australian households