Framework Programmable Platform for the Advanced Software Development Workstation (FPP/ASDW). Demonstration framework document. Volume 1: Concepts and activity descriptions

The Framework Programmable Software Development Platform (FPP) is a project aimed at effectively combining tool and data integration mechanisms with a model of the software development process to provide an intelligent integrated software development environment. Guided by the model, this system development framework will take advantage of an integrated operating environment to automate effectively the management of the software development process so that costly mistakes during the development phase can be eliminated. The Advanced Software Development Workstation (ASDW) program is conducting research into development of advanced technologies for Computer Aided Software Engineering (CASE)

Structure of a Multi-Year Pressure Ridge

Three transverse profiles across a large pressure ridge located in the Beaufort Sea are presented. The ridge sail extended 4m. above sea level and the ridge keel 13 m. below. The cross-sections of the ridge keel can be described as roughly semi-circular. This suggests that form drag coefficients for flow transverse to the long axes of multi-year ridges may be as high as 0.8. Examination of several salinity, temperature and brine-volume profiles shows that much of the ice in the ridge has a very low salinity and is quite strong. All the inter-block voids that initially existed in the ridge at the time of its formation have been completely filled with ice. These observations, coupled with icebreaking experience indicate that multi-year ridges are, indeed, significant obstacles to even the largest icebreaking ship and should be avoided if possible. A very large first year ridge with a sail height of 12.8 m. is also described. This is the largest free-floating ridge yet measured

Framework Programmable Platform for the advanced software development workstation: Framework processor design document

The design of the Framework Processor (FP) component of the Framework Programmable Software Development Platform (FFP) is described. The FFP is a project aimed at combining effective tool and data integration mechanisms with a model of the software development process in an intelligent integrated software development environment. Guided by the model, this Framework Processor will take advantage of an integrated operating environment to provide automated support for the management and control of the software development process so that costly mistakes during the development phase can be eliminated

Essays on insurance design and the demand for medical care

This dissertation is composed of three essays that study the interplay of consumers, insurers, and providers in the health care market. These chapters address the role of insurance plan design in shaping the incentives of market participants, and how this translates into economic outcomes. The results presented here shed light on how consumers respond to health care prices, and how this factors into equilibrium pricing and welfare. The first essay studies the impact of tiered cost sharing in health plans. Consumers in tiered plans face variation in out-of-pocket prices across provider tiers, creating an incentive to use low-cost facilities. I use detailed administrative claims data from New Hampshire, a state where these plans have become increasingly common, to study both the demand-side and supply-side effects. I find strong evidence that the tiered programs lead to a reduction in per-episode spending on an array of lab, endoscopic, and arthroscopic medical procedures. Expenditure reductions are driven in part by an increase in the use of low-cost providers, and in part by a decrease in prices overall. The second essay develops a structural model of the health care market to explore the equilibrium implications of tiered cost sharing. I first employ a discrete choice model to estimate the demand for providers, exploiting variation in out-of-pocket costs across providers, plans, and time. I next estimate a model of bilateral bargaining between insurers and providers, which incorporates variation in benefit design across plans. Counterfactual simulations imply that tiered plans are more effective than other popular plans in steering consumers toward low-cost facilities. The third essay provides new estimates of the price elasticity of demand on the intensive margin for a suite of common medical services. I develop an instrumental variable strategy that exploits consumer inertia and average plan characteristics to account for endogenous out-of-pocket prices. I employ this method in both linear and nonlinear settings to ascertain the extent to which consumers respond to variation in out-of-pocket prices when choosing a health care provider. I find that elasticities on this margin are relatively modest, and exhibit heterogeneity across services

Joint gravitational wave -- gamma-ray burst detection rates in the aftermath of GW170817

The observational follow-up campaign of the gravitational wave (GW) multi-messenger event GW170817/GRB170817A has shown that the prompt $\gamma$-rays are consistent with a relativistic structured jet observed from a wide viewing angle $\gtrsim 20$\deg. We perform Bayesian inference using the data from early and late EM observations to determine the jet profile of GRB170817A assuming a structured jet model. We use the geometric dependence on the burst luminosity to produce a short duration gamma-ray burst (sGRB) efficiency function with redshift, which folded in with binary neutron star detection rate, allows us to estimate the future joint GW/sGRB detection rates for LIGO and Virgo detectors. We show that, if the jet structured profile of GRB170817A is a relatively common feature of sGRBs, then there is a realistic probability of another off-axis coincident detection during the third aLIGO/Virgo observing run (O3). We also find that up to 4 yr$^{-1}$ joint events may be observed during the advanced LIGO run at design sensitivity and up to 10 yr$^{-1}$ by the upgraded advanced LIGO configuration A+. We show that the detection efficiencies for wide-angled sGRB emissions will be limited by GRB satellites as the GW detection range increases through proposed upgrades. Therefore, although the number of coincident detections will increase with GW detector sensitivity, the relative proportion of detected binary neutron stars with $\gamma$-ray counterparts will decrease; 11\% for O3 down to 2\% during A+.Comment: Updated to final accepted MNRAS versio

Stand By America.

Illustration of the American flaghttps://scholarsjunction.msstate.edu/cht-sheet-music/10319/thumbnail.jp

Antarctic sea ice—A polar opposite?

Author Posting. © The Oceanography Society, 2012. This article is posted here by permission of The Oceanography Society for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Oceanography 25, no. 3 (2012): 140-151, doi:10.5670/oceanog.2012.88.As the world's ice diminishes in the face of climate change—from the dramatic decline in Arctic sea ice, to thinning at the margins of both the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets, to retreating mountain glaciers the world over—Antarctic sea ice presents something of a paradox. The trend in total sea ice extent in the Antarctic has remained steady, or even increased slightly, over the past three decades, confounding climate model predictions showing moderate to strong declines. This apparent intransigence masks dramatic regional trends; declines in sea ice in the Bellingshausen Sea region that rival the high-profile decline in the Arctic have been matched by opposing increases in the Ross Sea. Much of the explanation lies in the unique nature of the Antarctic sea ice zone. Its position surrounding the continent and exposure to the high-energy wind and wave fields of the open Southern Ocean shape both its properties and its connection to the atmosphere and ocean in ways very different from the Arctic. Sea ice extent and variability are strongly driven by large-scale climate variability patterns such as the El Niño-Southern Oscillation and the Southern Annular Mode. Because many of these patterns have opposing effects in different regions around the continent, decreases in one region are often accompanied by similar, opposing increases in another. Yet, the failure of climate models to capture either the overall or regional behavior also reflects, in part, a poor understanding of sea ice processes. Considerable insight has been gained into the nature of these processes over the past several decades through field expeditions aboard icebreakers. However, much remains to be discovered about the nature of Antarctic sea ice; its connections with the ocean, atmosphere, and ecosystem; and its complex response to present and future climate change.Rob Massom was supported by the Australian Government’s Cooperative Research Centre programme through the ACE CRC, and this work contributes to AAS Projects 3024 and 4116 and AAD CPC Project 18

Framework Programmable Platform for the Advanced Software Development Workstation: Preliminary system design document

The Framework Programmable Software Development Platform (FPP) is a project aimed at combining effective tool and data integration mechanisms with a model of the software development process in an intelligent integrated software environment. Guided by the model, this system development framework will take advantage of an integrated operating environment to automate effectively the management of the software development process so that costly mistakes during the development phase can be eliminated. The focus here is on the design of components that make up the FPP. These components serve as supporting systems for the Integration Mechanism and the Framework Processor and provide the 'glue' that ties the FPP together. Also discussed are the components that allow the platform to operate in a distributed, heterogeneous environment and to manage the development and evolution of software system artifacts