Topology of Networks in Generalized Musical Spaces

The abstraction of musical structures (notes, melodies, chords, harmonic or rhythmic progressions, etc.) as mathematical objects in a geometrical space is one of the great accomplishments of contemporary music theory. Building on this foundation, I generalize the concept of musical spaces as networks and derive functional principles of compositional design by the direct analysis of the network topology. This approach provides a novel framework for the analysis and quantification of similarity of musical objects and structures, and suggests a way to relate such measures to the human perception of different musical entities. Finally, the analysis of a single work or a corpus of compositions as complex networks provides alternative ways of interpreting the compositional process of a composer by quantifying emergent behaviors with well-established statistical mechanics techniques. Interpreting the latter as probabilistic randomness in the network, I develop novel compositional design frameworks that are central to my own artistic research

Space-Time Modeling of Timber Prices

A space-time econometric model was developed for pine sawtimber timber prices of 21 geographically contiguous regions in the southern United States. The correlations between prices in neighboring regions helped predict future prices. The impulse response analysis showed that although southern pine sawtimber markets were not globally integrated, local supply and demand shocks did transmit partially to immediate neighboring regions, and could also have weaker effects in more distant regions.impulse response, market integration, space-time model, spatial correlation, Demand and Price Analysis,

Grammatical Triples Extraction for the Distant Reading of Textual Corpora

Grammatical triples extraction has become increasingly important for the analysis of large, textual corpora. By providing insight into the sentence-level linguistic features of a corpus, extracted triples have supported interpretations of some of the most relevant problems of our time. The growing importance of triples extraction for analyzing large corpora has put the quality of extracted triples under new scrutiny, however. Triples outputs are known to have large amounts of erroneous triples. The extraction of erroneous triples poses a risk for understanding a textual corpus because erroneous triples can be nonfactual and even analogous to misinformation. Disciplines such as the social sciences, history, and literature rely on accurate representations of events. In some cases, misrepresentations of language can be as problematic as describing a historical event that never occurred. The present research proposes a method of triples extraction that has been designed to meet the increasing need for high-accuracy triples outputs for the analysis of text. We propose a solution aimed at reducing errors related to: a) ungrammatical extractions; b) double counting; and c) the missed detection of triples. To improve the accuracy of triples extraction, we implement a series of 12 linguistic rules that leverage syntactic dependency parsing. For its case studies, this dissertation draws upon three data sets: a) Wikipedia; b) the 19th-century British Parliamentary debates, also known as Hansard; and c) half a year of online news articles (Aug. 2021 - Dec. 2021) from FOX News and NPR. In its final chapter, this dissertation offers a pedagogical piece that applies triples extraction to teach concepts related to data analysis. Extracted triples are thus evaluated through two means: a) in Chapter 1, precision and recall is used to vet the accuracy of the present method and b) in chapters 2 and 3, we use human observation to show how the present method of triples extraction can give an accurate and insightful perspective into textual corpora that rivals and, in some cases, exceeds existing methods

INTERNATIONAL DIFFUSION OF TECHNOLOGICAL CHANGE WITHIN THE WOOD PRODUCTS INDUSTRY: THE CASE OF PARTICLEBOARD

Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies,

QUALITY ADJUSTED PRICE INDICES FOR DOUGLAS-FIR TIMBER

The purpose of this paper is to determine if there have been systematic changes in the characteristics of Douglas-fir stumpage sold on National Forests in the Pacific Northwest that would significantly bias the price of stumpage. Four hedonic methods were used to develop indices of pure price change holding stumpage characteristics constant. None indicated a significant trend in quality over the period 1968 to 1978. Quality differences, however, appeared to play a role in the year-to-year price changes. The advantage and inconveniences of each indexing method and their use for various purposes are discussed.Demand and Price Analysis,

Effects of the Free Trade Area of the Americas on Forest Resources

The effects of the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) agreement on the forest sectors and resources of member countries are investigated. A model of wood supply within the spatial partial-equilibrium Global Forest Products Model is developed to link international trade and deforestation. The direct effects of tariff changes and the indirect effects of income changes induced by trade liberalization are considered. The FTAA has a small positive impact on the region's forest resources. Higher harvests of industrial roundwood in most countries are offset by increased afforestation due to the income effect of trade liberalization (captured by the environmental Kuznets curve).trade liberalization, international trade, forest resources, forest sector trade model, International Relations/Trade, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

Ab-initio transport properties of nanostructures from maximally-localized Wannier functions

We present a comprehensive first-principles study of the ballistic transport properties of low dimensional nanostructures such as linear chains of atoms (Al, C) and carbon nanotubes in presence of defects. A novel approach is introduced where quantum conductance is computed from the combination of accurate plane-wave electronic structure calculations, the evaluation of the corresponding maximally-localized Wannier functions, and the calculation of transport properties by a real-space Green's function method based on the Landauer formalism. This approach is computationally very efficient, can be straightforwardly implemented as a post-processing step in a standard electronic-structure calculation, and allows to directly link the electronic transport properties of a device to the nature of the chemical bonds, providing insight onto the mechanisms that govern electron flow at the nanoscale.Comment: to be published in Phys. Rev. B (2003

Modeling some long-term implications of CO2 fertilization for global forests and forest industries

Background This paper explored the long-term, ceteris-paribus effects of potential CO 2 fertilization on the global forest sector. Based on the findings of Norby et al. (PNAS 2005, 102(50)) about forest response to elevated [CO 2 ]. Methods Forest productivity was increased in the Global Forest Products Model (GFPM) in proportion to the rising [CO 2 ] projected in the IPCC scenario A1B, A2, and B2. Projections of the forest area and forest stock and of the production, consumption, prices, and trade of products ranging from fuelwood to paper and paperboard were obtained with the GFPM for each scenario, with and without CO 2 fertilization beginning in 2011 and up to 2065. Results CO2 fertilization increased wood supply, leading to lower wood prices which in turn induced modest lower prices of end products and higher global consumption. However, production and value added in industries decreased in some regions due to the relative competitive advantages and to the varying regional effects of CO 2 fertilization. Conclusion The main effect of CO 2 fertilization was to raise the level of the world forest stock in 2065 by 9 to 10 % for scenarios A2 and B2 and by 20 % for scenario A1B. The rise in forest stock induced by fertilization was in part counteracted by its stimulation of the wood supply which resulted in lower wood prices and increased harvests