Dynamically typed languages

Dynamically typed languages such as Python and Ruby have experienced a rapid grown in popularity in recent times. However, there is much confusion as to what makes these languages interesting relative to statically typed languages, and little knowledge of their rich history. In this chapter I explore the general topic of dynamically typed languages, how they differ from statically typed languages, their history, and their defining features

UCL DAF (Data Audit Framework) Pilot: final report

The UCL DAF (Data Audit Framework) pilot implementation project was funded by JISC for a period of seven months (August 2008-March 2009) to trial the implementation of the DAF methodology at UCL

Testing a new method for estimating the monetary value of a QALY.

Objectives The objective of this thesis is to develop and test a new method, based on Time Trade-Off (ITO), for the estimation of the monetary value of a QALY (MVQ) informed by public preferences. Methods Two new questions are developed to estimate an MVQ which ask respondents to trade off length of life to either increase their income, or avoid a decrease in their income. These questions are initially tested through a Dutch online survey with 321 members of the Dutch general public. The questions are further tested through a small scale pilot study, followed by a UK based interview study with 100 members of the general public. In addition, two further questions are also developed and tested in the UK study, which are more closely aligned with the concepts of Willingness to Pay and Willingness to Accept. Results In the Dutch online survey there were a large number of respondents who were not prepared to trade any time to increase their income (or avoid a decrease). Furthermore, some respondents traded too much time, which led to negative MVQ estimates. The prevalence of these responses reduced in the UK based interview study but they were still problematic. Despite this, the questions did appear to be feasible for respondents to complete and were sensitive to scale, particularly in the UK study. Conclusion The evidence tentatively suggests that at least some of the respondents stating an infinite preference for length of life over income, were giving a true statement of preference. The questions could potentially be improved by either decreasing the total value of what is being given up, or by increasing the total value of what is being gained. This could potentially be achieved by extending the time horizon in the exercise

Resisters, Diversity in Philosophy, and the Demographic Problem

The discipline of academic philosophy suffers from serious problems of diversity and inclusion whose acknowledgement and amelioration are often resisted by members of our profession. In this paper, I distinguish four main modes of resistance—naiveté, conservatism, pride, and hostility—and describe how and why they manifest by using them as the basis for a typology of types of ‘resister’. This typology can hopefully be useful to those of us trying to counteract such resistance in ways sensitive to the different motives and strategies that these resisters tend to employ

Astronomy and Computing: a New Journal for the Astronomical Computing Community

We introduce \emph{Astronomy and Computing}, a new journal for the growing population of people working in the domain where astronomy overlaps with computer science and information technology. The journal aims to provide a new communication channel within that community, which is not well served by current journals, and to help secure recognition of its true importance within modern astronomy. In this inaugural editorial, we describe the rationale for creating the journal, outline its scope and ambitions, and seek input from the community in defining in detail how the journal should work towards its high-level goals.Comment: 5 pages, no figures; editorial for first edition of journa

The Real Estate Investment Trust: State Law Problems

We present a map of the three-dimensional (3D) distribution of dust in the Orion complex. Orion is the closest site of high-mass star formation, making it an excellent laboratory for studying the interstellar medium and star formation. We used data from the Gaia-TGAS catalogue combined with photometry from 2MASS and WISE to get the distances and extinctions of individual stars in the vicinity of the Orion complex. We use a Gaussian process and adopt a non-parametric method to infer the probability distribution function of the dust densities at arbitrary points throughout the region. We map the dust distribution towards different parts of the Orion complex. We find that the distance and depth of the cloud are compatible with other recent works, which show that the method can be applicable to local molecular clouds to map their 3D dust distribution. We also demonstrate the danger of only using colours of stars to derive their extinctions without considering further physical constraints, such as the colour-magnitude diagram (CMD)

Approaches to the sign problem in lattice field theory

Quantum field theories (QFTs) at finite densities of matter generically involve complex actions. Standard Monte-Carlo simulations based upon importance sampling, which have been producing quantitative first principle results in particle physics for almost fourty years, cannot be applied in this case. Various strategies to overcome this so-called Sign Problem or Complex Action Problem were proposed during the last thirty years. We here review the sign problem in lattice field theories, focussing on two more recent methods: Dualization to world-line type of representations and the density-of-states approach.Comment: mini-review, 20 pages, 4 figure

Information Outlook, October 1999

Volume 3, Issue 10https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/sla_io_1999/1009/thumbnail.jp