The Hidden Future

We argue that the part of the future which is up to us is in principle unknowable

Iterative Beam Search for Simple Assembly Line Balancing with a Fixed Number of Work Stations

The simple assembly line balancing problem (SALBP) concerns the assignment of tasks with pre-defined processing times to work stations that are arranged in a line. Hereby, precedence constraints between the tasks must be respected. The optimization goal of the SALBP-2 version of the problem concerns the minimization of the so-called cycle time, that is, the time in which the tasks of each work station must be completed. In this work we propose to tackle this problem with an iterative search method based on beam search. The proposed algorithm is able to obtain optimal, respectively best-known, solutions in 283 out of 302 test cases. Moreover, for 9 further test cases the algorithm is able to produce new best-known solutions. These numbers indicate that the proposed iterative beam search algorithm is currently a state-of-the-art method for the SALBP-2

Domain wall fermions and the strange quark mass

The strange quark mass has been computed using a lattice action which possesses continuum--like chiral symmetry to good precision, namely the domain wall fermion action. This talk surveys this action and the recent calculation of m_s by the RIKEN/BNL/CU collaboration. This result is put into context by briefly summarizing other recent lattice studies.Comment: Talk presented at QCD99. 4 page

Rock sampling

An apparatus for sampling rock and other brittle materials and for controlling resultant particle sizes is described. The device includes grinding means for cutting grooves in the rock surface and to provide a grouping of thin, shallow, parallel ridges and cutter means to reduce these ridges to a powder specimen. Collection means is provided for the powder. The invention relates to rock grinding and particularly to the sampling of rock specimens with good size control

Regression approaches for Approximate Bayesian Computation

This book chapter introduces regression approaches and regression adjustment for Approximate Bayesian Computation (ABC). Regression adjustment adjusts parameter values after rejection sampling in order to account for the imperfect match between simulations and observations. Imperfect match between simulations and observations can be more pronounced when there are many summary statistics, a phenomenon coined as the curse of dimensionality. Because of this imperfect match, credibility intervals obtained with regression approaches can be inflated compared to true credibility intervals. The chapter presents the main concepts underlying regression adjustment. A theorem that compares theoretical properties of posterior distributions obtained with and without regression adjustment is presented. Last, a practical application of regression adjustment in population genetics shows that regression adjustment shrinks posterior distributions compared to rejection approaches, which is a solution to avoid inflated credibility intervals.Comment: Book chapter, published in Handbook of Approximate Bayesian Computation 201

Anomaly Inflow at Singularities

Many noncompact Type I orbifolds satisfy tadpole constraints yet are anomalous. We present a generalization of the anomaly inflow mechanism for some of these cases in six and four dimensions.Comment: 6 pages, harvmac.te