Radio Network Lower Bounds Made Easy

Theoreticians have studied distributed algorithms in the radio network model for close to three decades. A significant fraction of this work focuses on lower bounds for basic communication problems such as wake-up (symmetry breaking among an unknown set of nodes) and broadcast (message dissemination through an unknown network topology). In this paper, we introduce a new technique for proving this type of bound, based on reduction from a probabilistic hitting game, that simplifies and strengthens much of this existing work. In more detail, in this single paper we prove new expected time and high probability lower bounds for wake-up and global broadcast in single and multichannel versions of the radio network model both with and without collision detection. In doing so, we are able to reproduce results that previously spanned a half-dozen papers published over a period of twenty-five years. In addition to simplifying these existing results, our technique, in many places, also improves the state of the art: of the eight bounds we prove, four strictly strengthen the best known previous result (in terms of time complexity and/or generality of the algorithm class for which it holds), and three provide the first known non-trivial bound for the case in question. The fact that the same technique can easily generate this diverse collection of lower bounds indicates a surprising unity underlying communication tasks in the radio network model---revealing that deep down, below the specifics of the problem definition and model assumptions, communication in this setting reduces to finding efficient strategies for a simple game

Why New Hampshire Should Permit Married Couples to Choose Community Property

[Excerpt] “Two states, Alaska and Tennessee, offer married couples the choice of holding their property as separate or community property. Another nine states use community property as the default arrangement. Yet in each of those nine states a couple can opt out of community property rules by agreement. Only in the remaining thirty-nine states are married couples forced to accept separate property. There is no good reason for this condition to exist. This essay sets forth the advantages of offering married couples the choice of community or separate property and deals with some expected objections to this proposal. Section I details the benefits of choice. Section II examines likely objections and finds those objections insufficient to reject the proposal.

The Confucian Renaissance in the Sung dynasty

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Boston Universit

The Pan-African Movement and American Black Political Fiction, 1920s to 1950s: Themes of Alienation

This paper focuses on the role of the writer as a social activist. Accordingly, I examine novelist/essayists who published during the Harlem Renaissance period 1920 to 1930 and in some cases beyond. I am interested in part in the Pan-African movement as it impacted on this era of Afro-American history. The central question explored is what are some of the dynamics that exist between the writer, movement elites, movement rank-in-file, and the broader Afro-American community? The central focus is on the kind of interactions that take place between the writer as a political activist, movement elites, and movement activists. The following writers seem to reflect this particular period -- W.E.B. Du Bois, Claude McKay, Langston Hughes among others

Bostonia. Volume 22

Founded in 1900, Bostonia magazine is Boston University's main alumni publication, which covers alumni and student life, as well as university activities, events, and programs

Collectivity, chaos, and computers

Two important pieces of nuclear structure are many-body collective deformations and single-particle spin-orbit splitting. The former can be well-described microscopically by simple SU(3) irreps, but the latter mixes SU(3) irreps, which presents a challenge for large-scale, ab initio calculations on fast modern computers. Nonetheless, SU(3)-like phenomenology remains even in the face of strong mixing. The robustness of band structure is reminiscent of robust, pairing collectivity that arises from random two-body interactions.Comment: 9 pages, invited talk at Computational and Group Theoretical Methods in Nuclear Physics, Playa del Carmen, Mexico, February 18-21, 200