2,677 research outputs found
Constructing a price deflator for R&D: calculating the price of knowledge investments as a residual
Working Pape
A radiation-like era before inflation
We show that the semiclassical approximation to the Wheeler-DeWitt equation
for the minisuperspace of a minimally coupled scalar field in the spatially
flat de Sitter Universe prompts the existence of an initial power-law evolution
driven by non-adiabatic terms from the gravitational wavefunction which act
like radiation. This simple model hence describes the onset of inflation from a
previous radiation-like expansion during which the cosmological constant is
already present but subleading.Comment: LaTeX, 8 pages, no figures; final version to be published in JCA
Report on the excavation of a Punic tomb
On 19th November 2001, while two of us (DB, NJC)
were preparing a drawn record of the Punic tomb
that is situated on Bajda Ridge, Xemxija, a small
ceramic bowl (100211) was uncovered from below
a few centimetres of soil that covered the inner part
of the threshold to the rock-cut chamber (Fig. 1).
An official from the Museums Department was
informed of the discovery on the same day and a
site inspection was carried out. It was realised that
more artefacts could lie undisturbed within the
chamber and a decision was taken to excavate the
deposit. Authorisation for the Department of
Classics and Archaeology, University of Malta, to
undertake the excavation was received from the
Director, Museums Department, and the excavation
was completed on the 22nd November.
The tomb is located on the ridge, near a path that
diverges eastwards from the track that links Pwales
valley to the Mistra valley. It is cut in the Upper
Coralline limestone that outcrops in the area on a
North-South axis and consists of a sub-rectangular
chamber that is reached through a low entrance at
the bottom of a rectangular shaft (Fig. 1).
The tomb appears in an inventory for the first time
in 1996 when it was listed in the survey of
archaeological sites prepared by Malta University
Services for the Planning Authority by Anthony
Bonanno in connection with the preparation of the
North-West local plan for Malta. The tomb had been
examined and photographed by one of us (NCV) in
1992. At the time, it was littered with debris and it
was only with difficulty that a view of the chamber
could be achieved through the entrance that was
partly concealed by an irregular blocking stone. Late
in 2000, members of the St Paul's Bay Heritage
Group lifted the debris from the trench and cleared
the area around the site.peer-reviewe
Application of Building Typologies for Modelling the Energy Balance of the Residential Building Stock
Building typologies can serve as a basis for analysing the national housing sector. During the TABULA project which was introducing or further developing building typologies in thirteen EU countries, six of the European partners have carried out model calculations which aim at imaging the energy consumption and estimating the energy saving potentials of their national residential building stocks (IWU / Germany, NOA / Greece, POLITO / Italy, VITO / Belgium, STU-K / Czech Republic, SBi / Denmark). The results show that the model calculations can provide plausible projections of the energy consumption of the national residential buildings stock. The fit of model calculations and national energy statistics is satisfactory, deviations can often be explained and corrected by adapting standard boundary conditions of the applied calculation models to more realistic values. In general, the analysis shows that building typologies can be a helpful tool for modelling the energy consumption of national building stocks and for carrying out scenario analysis beyond the TABULA project. The consideration of a set of representative buildings makes it possible to have a detailed view on various packages of measures for the complete buildings stock or for its sub-categories. The effects of different insulation measures at the respective construction elements as well as different heat supply measures including renewable energies can be considered in detail. The quality of future model calculations will depend very much on the availability of statistical data. For reliable scenario analysis information is necessary about the current state of the building stock (How many buildings and heating systems have been refurbished until now?) and about the current trends (How many buildings and heating systems are being refurbished every year?). The availability and regular update of the relevant statistical data will be an important basis for the development and evaluation of national climate protection strategies in the building secto
CWI at TREC 2012, KBA track and Session Track
We participated in two tracks: Knowledge Base Acceleration (KBA)
Track and Session Track. In the KBA track, we focused on experi-
menting with different approaches as it is the first time the track is
launched. We experimented with supervised and unsupervised re-
trieval models. Our supervised approach models include language
models and a string-learning system. Our unsupervised approaches
include using: 1)DBpedia labels and 2) Google-Cross-Lingual Dic-
tionary (GCLD). While the approach that uses GCLD targets the
central and relvant bins, all the rest target the central bin. The
GCLD and the string-learning system have outperformed the oth-
ers in their respective targeted bins. The goal of the Session track
submission is to evaluate whether and how a logic framework for
representing user interactions with an IR system can be used for
improving the approximation of the relevant term distribution that
another system that is supposed to have access to the session infor-
mation will then calculate.
the documents in the stream corpora. Three out of the seven runs
used a Hadoop cluster provide by Sara.nl to process the stream cor-
pora. The other 4 runs used a federated access to the same corpora
distributed among 7 workstations
Abnormal ECG Findings in Athletes: Clinical Evaluation and Considerations.
PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Pre-participation cardiovascular evaluation with electrocardiography is normal practice for most sporting bodies. Awareness about sudden cardiac death in athletes and recognizing how screening can help identify vulnerable athletes have empowered different sporting disciplines to invest in the wellbeing of their athletes. RECENT FINDINGS: Discerning physiological electrical alterations due to athletic training from those representing cardiac pathology may be challenging. The mode of investigation of affected athletes is dependent on the electrical anomaly and the disease(s) in question. This review will highlight specific pathological ECG patterns that warrant assessment and surveillance, together with an in-depth review of the recommended algorithm for evaluation
Intangible capital and modern economies
The production of goods and services is central to understanding economies. The textbook description of a firm, typically in agriculture or manufacturing, focuses on its physical "tangible" capital (machines), labor (workers), and the state of "know-how." Yet real-world firms, such as Apple, Microsoft, and Google, have almost no physical capital. Instead, their main capital assets are "intangible": software, data, design, reputation, supply-chain expertise, and R&D. We discuss investment in these knowledge-based types of capital: How to measure it; how it affects macroeconomic data on investment, rates of return, and GDP; and how it relates to growth theory and practical growth accounting. We present estimates of productivity in the US and European economies in recent decades including intangibles and discuss why, despite relatively rapid growth in intangible capital and what seems to be a modern technological revolution, productivity growth has slowed since the global financial crisis
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