404 research outputs found
Organizations should know their people: a behavioral economics approach
Public and private organizations are increasingly applying behavioral economics methods to a variety of issues such as mechanism design and incentive architecture. However, there has been little focus on how experimental tools used in behavioral economics can help companies learn more about their (current or prospective) workforce and, more specifically, about their employees’ tastes and inclinations. This has important implications for broader organizational performance since some designs/incentives are likely to affect only individuals with a particular disposition (e.g. risk averse or fairness oriented) but not others, or can even have opposite effects on individuals with different sets of preferences. In this commentary, we point out a number of promising avenues for the application of a behavioral economics lens to understand and manage people within organizations. A comprehensive case study is also provided
Numerical simulation of a binary communication channel: Comparison between a replica calculation and an exact solution
The mutual information of a single-layer perceptron with Gaussian inputs
and deterministic binary outputs is studied by numerical simulations. The
relevant parameters of the problem are the ratio between the number of output
and input units, , and those describing the two-point
correlations between inputs. The main motivation of this work refers to the
comparison between the replica computation of the mutual information and an
analytical solution valid up to . The most relevant results
are: (1) the simulation supports the validity of the analytical prediction, and
(2) it also verifies a previously proposed conjecture that the replica solution
interpolates well between large and small values of .Comment: 6 pages, 8 figures, LaTeX fil
Three terminal capacitance technique for magnetostriction and thermal expansion measurements
An instrument has been constructed to measure a large range of
magnetostriction and thermal expansion between room temperature and 4 K in a
superconductive split-coil magnet, that allows investigation in magnetic fields
up to 12 T. The very small bulk samples (up to 1 mm in size) as well as big
ones (up to 13 mm) of the irregular form can be measured. The possibility of
magnetostriction investigation in thin films is shown. A general account is
given of both electrical and the mechanical aspects of the design of
capacitance cell and their associated electronic circuitry. A simple lever
device is proposed to increase the sensitivity twice. The resulting obtained
sensitivity can be 0.5 Angstrom. The performance of the technique is
illustrated by some preliminary measurements of the magnetostriction of
superconducting MgB2, thermal expansion of (La0.8Ba0.2)0.93MnO3 single crystal
and magnetoelastic behavior of the Ni/Si(111) and
La0.7Sr0.3CoO3/SAT0.7CAT0.1LA0.2(001) cantilevers.Comment: 6 pages, 6 figures, journal pape
Orphan Breakwaters - what protection is given when they collapse?
Around the UK, many coastal harbours have reduced in importance and/or lost the original sources of income against which to defray maintenance or refurbishment. Their breakwaters may however still protect harbour-side properties against wave overtopping, and thus flooding. This paper presents results from an exploratory study to identify how blockwork breakwaters common in many smaller UK coastal harbours may collapse due to storm action, and in this paper, how much wave protection is given by collapsed breakwaters. The companion paper by Pearson & Allsop (2017) describes initial work to estimate the failure of blockwork walls, and presents results of wall collapse tests
Social considerations for the cultivation of industrial crops on marginal agricultural land as feedstock for bioeconomy
Marginal agricultural land (MAL) has received much attention in research and policy formation as a potential resource for cultivating biomass for energy and biobased products. However, it is still unclear whether biomass from MAL meets the requirements of social sustainability. This study develops a conceptual linkage between value-chain analysis and social life-cycle analysis (S-LCA), and assesses both positive impacts (handprints) and negative impacts (footprints). A participatory approach including interviews and surveys was used to understand views and perceptions of the relevant stakeholders. A systemic strategy was applied to analyze value-chain activities, understand challenges, and identify competitive advantages and disadvantages. For S-LCA, the variety of impacts and indicators was met through a literature review and a consistent scoring system. The cultivation of perennial crops on MAL tends to cause skepticism among stakeholders, who are concerned about long-term commitment and biodiversity risks. Annual crops, on the other hand, are perceived by all stakeholder categories as very promising opportunities across all impact categories and indicators. They can facilitate income diversification and offer smart sustainable cropping options through crop rotation, agroforestry, etc. Most of the technological pathways examined are highly innovative, have a low technological readiness level, and are still at the early market development stage. As such they are ranked by stakeholders as medium opportunities for short-term implementation. In contrast, pyrolysis to industrial heat, ethanol from switchgrass, insulation material from hemp, and biogas/biomethane from sorghum are considered opportunities with good chances of being implemented in the short term. © 2022 The Authors. Biofuels, Bioproducts and Biorefining published by Society of Industrial Chemistry and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd
Kinks in Discrete Light Cone Quantization
We investigate non-trivial topological structures in Discrete Light Cone
Quantization (DLCQ) through the example of the broken symmetry phase of the two
dimensional theory using anti periodic boundary condition (APBC). We
present evidence for degenerate ground states which is both a signature of
spontaneous symmetry breaking and mandatory for the existence of kinks. Guided
by a constrained variational calculation with a coherent state ansatz, we then
extract the vacuum energy and kink mass and compare with classical and semi -
classical results. We compare the DLCQ results for the number density of bosons
in the kink state and the Fourier transform of the form factor of the kink with
corresponding observables in the coherent variational kink state.Comment: 10 pages, 3 figure
On the Tail of the Overlap Probability Distribution in the Sherrington--Kirkpatrick Model
We investigate the large deviation behavior of the overlap probability
density in the Sherrington--Kirkpatrick model from several analytical
perspectives. First we analyze the spin glass phase using the coupled replica
scheme. Here generically
, and we compute the first correction to the expansion of \A
in powers of . We study also the case, where is know
exactly. Finally we study the paramagnetic phase, where exact results valid for
all 's are obtained. The overall agreement between the various points of
view is very satisfactory. Data from large scale numerical simulations show
that the predicted behavior can be detected already on moderate lattice sizes.Comment: 18 pages including ps figure
Transverse magnetization in Cu/Ni/Cu epitaxial nanorings
The micromagnetic structure in epitaxial (001)-oriented Cu/Ni(14 nm)/Cu rings fabricated by electron beam and focused ion beam lithographies with external diameter of 3 µm and linewidths between 100 and 500 nm is presented. We found that a state with radial orientation of the magnetization prevails at remanence. The evaluation of the magnetoelastic, magnetocrystalline and magnetostatic energies shows that a value as low as 1.5 × 10-3 for the anisotropic relaxation of the in-plane strain components is enough to induce an effective radial easy magnetization direction
Renormalization Group Study of the soliton mass on the (lambda Phi^4)_{1+1} lattice model
We compute, on the model on the lattice, the soliton
mass by means of two very different numerical methods. First, we make use of a
``creation operator'' formalism, measuring the decay of a certain correlation
function. On the other hand we measure the shift of the vacuum energy between
the symmetric and the antiperiodic systems. The obtained results are fully
compatible.
We compute the continuum limit of the mass from the perturbative
Renormalization Group equations. Special attention is paid to ensure that we
are working on the scaling region, where physical quantities remain unchanged
along any Renormalization Group Trajectory. We compare the continuum value of
the soliton mass with its perturbative value up to one loop calculation. Both
quantities show a quite satisfactory agreement. The first is slightly bigger
than the perturbative one; this may be due to the contributions of higher order
corrections.Comment: 19 pages, preprint DFTUZ/93/0
Modelling TiO2 photoanodes for PEC water splitting: Decoupling the influence of intrinsic material properties and film thickness
Semiconductor metal oxides are intensively studied in electrodes for photoelectrochemical (PEC) water splitting. On a series of nanoparticulate TiO2 photoanodes, we analyze specific fabrication variables by means of data fitting. First, the experimental outcome is gathered using PEC characterization techniques, mostly cyclic voltammetry and transient photocurrent measurements. Subsequently, we apply models to gain insights into the involved charge trapping and transfer phenomena. We find that capacitance coefficients and the switch-on transient kinetics depend on the TiO2 layer thickness, respectively indicating surface mechanisms and stationary regimes that are mediated by light accessibility. On the contrary, exponential factors of capacitance are independent of thickness, but reflect changes in the density of electron states with different sintering atmospheres. Also, the transfer resistance in the electrolyte side is indirectly influenced by sintering. Through meticulous quantitative analysis of trends, we stablish simple mathematical relationships that connect thickness-dependent parameters. This knowledge delves into fundamental mechanisms governing the TiO2 photoelectrode behaviour, and aims to facilitate further improvements in the efficiency of materials and electrodes for green hydrogen production
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