Advanced Google Searching

Become an expert Google searcher! Participants will learn to use Boolean operators and title, URL, and country-code and top-level domain limiters and link checks to find relevant resources quickly

How Google Works: Are Search Engines Really Dumb and Should Students Care?

Learn how Google works, how it determines the ranking of the results to a search query. With this knowledge you can teach your students who will be able to take advantage of Google’s search features and construct better search queries, find better information, and develop Google literacy

The Emergence of Captive Finance Companies and Risk Segmentation of the Consumer Loan Market:Theory and Evidence

A parental seller with market power to some degree in its product market can earn rents. In this context, there is a gain to granting credit for the purchase of the product and thus the establishment of captive finance company for expanding the sales by offering loans to consumers who need financing for purchase of durable good. This paper examines the optimal behavior of such a durable good seller and its captive finance company when the consumer loan market is segmented into captive and independent lending institutions under symmetric and imperfect information on borrower’s creditworthiness. The model presents that one critical difference for captive finance company will be its credit standard. Specifically, the model indicates that captive finance company will follow a more lenient credit standard, leading to the prediction that the likelihood of repayment of a captive loan is lower than that of a bank loan, other things equal. This prediction is tested using unique data sets drawn from a major credit bureau in the U.S. The analysis of credit bureau data shows that a captive automobile loan is less likely to be repaid than a bank automobile loan, which supports the theoretical prediction.Monopolistic Competition, Consumer Loan Market, Captive Finance Company, Differential Loan Performances

Inhomogeneous Magnetoelectric Effect on Defect in Multiferroic Material: Symmetry Prediction

Inhomogeneous magnetoelectric effect in magnetization distribution heterogeneities (0-degree domain walls) appeared on crystal lattice defect of the multiferroic material has been investigated. Magnetic symmetry based predictions of kind of electrical polarization distribution in their volumes were used. It was found that magnetization distribution heterogeneity with any symmetry produces electrical polarization. Results were systemized in scope of micromagnetic structure chirality. It was shown that all 0-degree domain walls with time-noninvariant chirality have identical type of spatial distribution of the magnetization and polarization.Comment: submitted to IOP Conference Series: Materials Science and Engineerin

Insect consciousness: Commitments, conflicts and consequences

Our target article, “Insects have the capacity for subjective experience,” has provoked a diverse range of commentaries. In this response we have collated what we see as the major themes of the discussion. It is clear that we differ from some commentators in our commitments to what subjective experience is and what the midbrain is capable of. Here we clarify where we stand on those points and how our view differs from some other influential perspectives. The commentaries have highlighted the most lively areas of disagreement. We revisit here the debates surrounding whether the cortex is essential for any form of consciousness in vertebrates, how to interpret interventionist evidence, and whether any specific behavioural criteria can be used to assess the occurrence of consciousness. We recognise that these debates will not be resolved once and for all in this discussion, and we take this opportunity to explore what new forms of experimental evidence might be needed to provide clarity. We emphasise how functional neurobiological analyses in combination with careful behavioural studies of a diverse range of animals will help progress our understanding of how neural circuits can support different forms of behaviour. Ultimately this will help us reach an understanding of how different conscious capacities could be supported by neural systems, and which animals are capable of them

Insects have the capacity for subjective experience

To what degree are non-human animals conscious? We propose that the most meaningful way to approach this question is from the perspective of functional neurobiology. Here we focus on subjective experience, which is a basic awareness of the world without further reflection on that awareness. This is considered the most basic form of consciousness. Tellingly, this capacity is supported by the integrated midbrain and basal ganglia structures, which are among the oldest and most highly conserved brain systems in vertebrates. A reasonable inference is that the capacity for subjective experience is both widespread and evolutionarily old within the vertebrate lineage. We argue that the insect brain supports functions analogous to those of the vertebrate midbrain and hence that insects may also have a capacity for subjective experience. We discuss the features of neural systems which can and cannot be expected to support this capacity as well as the relationship between our arguments based on neurobiological mechanism and our approach to the “hard problem” of conscious experience

On Convergence Properties of Shannon Entropy

Convergence properties of Shannon Entropy are studied. In the differential setting, it is shown that weak convergence of probability measures, or convergence in distribution, is not enough for convergence of the associated differential entropies. A general result for the desired differential entropy convergence is provided, taking into account both compactly and uncompactly supported densities. Convergence of differential entropy is also characterized in terms of the Kullback-Liebler discriminant for densities with fairly general supports, and it is shown that convergence in variation of probability measures guarantees such convergence under an appropriate boundedness condition on the densities involved. Results for the discrete setting are also provided, allowing for infinitely supported probability measures, by taking advantage of the equivalence between weak convergence and convergence in variation in this setting.Comment: Submitted to IEEE Transactions on Information Theor

Anisotropic thermal expansion of Fe1.06Te and FeTe0.5Se0.5 single crystals

Heat capacity and anisotropic thermal expansion was measured for Fe1.06Te and FeTe0.5Se0.5 single crystals. Previously reported phase transitions are clearly seen in both measurements. In both cases the thermal expansion is anisotropic. The uniaxial pressure derivatives of the superconducting transition temperature in FeTe0.5Se0.5 inferred from the Ehrenfest relation have opposite signs for in-plane and c-axis pressures. Whereas the Gruneisen parameters for both materials are similar and only weakly temperature-dependent above ~ 80 K, at low temperatures (in the magnetically ordered phase) the magnetic contribution to the Gruneisen parameter in Fe1.06Te is significantly larger than electron and phonon contributions combined