55,781 research outputs found
Electron-Positron colliders
An electron-positron linear collider in the energy range between 500 and 1000
GeV is of crucial importance to precisely test the Standard Model and to
explore the physics beyond it. The physics program is complementary to that of
the Large Hadron Collider. Some of the main physics goals and the expected
accuracies of the anticipated measurements at such a linear collider are
discussed. A short review of the different collider designs presently under
study is given including possible upgrade paths to the multi-TeV region.
Finally a framework is presented within which the realisation of such a project
could be achieved as a global international project.Comment: 14 pages, 16 figures, Proceedings of the XX International Symposium
on Lepton and Photon Interactions at High Energies, Rome, Italy, 23-28 July,
200
The Singing Insects of Michigan
Excerpt: The so-called singing insects are all those that make loud, rhythmical noises. They include members of three groups of Orthoptera (Gryllidae, Tettigoniidae, and Acridoidea) and one family of Homoptera (Cicadidae). There are about 300 noisy species in these four groups in eastern North America, perhaps a thousand in all of North America, and 25-30 thousand in the entire world. Only about 1000 of the world species have been studied in any detail, mostly in North America, Europe, Japan, and Australia
Sudden Flight and True Sudden Stops
We extend the sudden stops literature by allowing crisis episodes to be caused by either the retreat of global investors, as is assumed but not shown in the extant literature, or the sudden flight of local investors. We find that almost half of the previously defined sudden stops are actually episodes of sudden flight. Compared to sudden flight, true sudden stops are bunched and are associated with greater slowdowns in economic activity and sharper currency depreciations. We show that the empirical regularities of sudden flight and true sudden stops are consistent with theoretical models that incorporate gross capital flows and information asymmetries.international capital flows, capital flight, emerging market crises
Air Force construction automation/robotics
The Air Force has several missions which generate unique requirements that are being met through the development of construction robotic technology. One especially important mission will be the conduct of Department of Defense (DOD) space activities. Space operations and other missions place construction/repair equipment operators in dangerous environments and potentially harmful situations. Additionally, force reductions require that human resources be leveraged to the maximum extent possible, and more stringent construction repair requirements push for increased automation. To solve these problems, the U.S. Air Force is undertaking a research and development effort at Tyndall AFB, FL, to develop robotic construction/repair equipment. This development effort involves the following technologies: teleoperation, telerobotics, construction operations (excavation, grading, leveling, tool change), robotic vehicle communications, vehicle navigation, mission/vehicle task control architecture, and associated computing environment. The ultimate goal is the fielding of a robotic repair capability operating at the level of supervised autonomy. This paper will discuss current and planned efforts in space construction/repair, explosive ordnance disposal, hazardous waste cleanup, and fire fighting
Flexoelectric effect in finite samples
Static flexoelectric effect in a finite sample of a solid is addressed in
terms of phenomenological theory for the case of a thin plate subjected to
bending. It has been shown that despite an explicit asymmetry inherent to the
bulk constitutive electromechanical equations which take into account the
flexoelectric coupling, the electromechanical response for a finite sample is
"symmetric". "Symmetric" means that if a sensor and an actuator are made of a
flexoelectric element, performance of such devices can be characterized by the
same effective piezoelectric coefficient. This behavior is consistent with the
thermodynamic arguments offered earlier, being in conflict with the current
point of view on the matter in literature. This result was obtained using
standard mechanical boundary conditions valid for the case where the
polarization vanishes at the surface. It was shown that, for the case where
there is the polarization is nonzero at the surface, the aforementioned
symmetry of electromechanical response may be violated if standard mechanical
boundary conditions are used, leading to a conflict with the thermodynamic
arguments. It was argued that this conflict may be resolved when using modified
mechanical boundary conditions. It was also shown that the contribution of
surface piezoelectricity to the flexoelectric response of a finite sample is
expected to be comparable to that of the static bulk contribution (including
the material with high values of the dielectric constant) and to scale as the
bulk value of the dielectric constant (similar to the bulk contribution). This
finding implies that if the experimentally measured flexoelectric coefficient
scales as the dielectric constant of the material, this does not imply that the
measured flexoelectric response is controlled by the static bulk contribution
to the flexoelectric effect
Higher-Dimensional Algebra VII: Groupoidification
Groupoidification is a form of categorification in which vector spaces are
replaced by groupoids, and linear operators are replaced by spans of groupoids.
We introduce this idea with a detailed exposition of "degroupoidification": a
systematic process that turns groupoids and spans into vector spaces and linear
operators. Then we present three applications of groupoidification. The first
is to Feynman diagrams. The Hilbert space for the quantum harmonic oscillator
arises naturally from degroupoidifying the groupoid of finite sets and
bijections. This allows for a purely combinatorial interpretation of creation
and annihilation operators, their commutation relations, field operators, their
normal-ordered powers, and finally Feynman diagrams. The second application is
to Hecke algebras. We explain how to groupoidify the Hecke algebra associated
to a Dynkin diagram whenever the deformation parameter q is a prime power. We
illustrate this with the simplest nontrivial example, coming from the A2 Dynkin
diagram. In this example we show that the solution of the Yang-Baxter equation
built into the A2 Hecke algebra arises naturally from the axioms of projective
geometry applied to the projective plane over the finite field with q elements.
The third application is to Hall algebras. We explain how the standard
construction of the Hall algebra from the category of representations of a
simply-laced quiver can be seen as an example of degroupoidification. This in
turn provides a new way to categorify - or more precisely, groupoidify - the
positive part of the quantum group associated to the quiver.Comment: 67 pages, 14 eps figures; uses undertilde.sty. This is an expanded
version of arXiv:0812.486
Elections, Ideology, and Turnover in the U.S. Federal Government
A defining feature of public sector employment is the regular change in elected leadership. Yet, we know little about how elections influence public sector careers. We describe how elections alter policy outputs and disrupt the influence of civil servants over agency decisions. These changes shape the career choices of employees motivated by policy, influence, and wages. Using new Office of Personnel Management data on the careers of millions of federal employees between 1988 and 2011, we evaluate how elections influence employee turnover decisions. We find that presidential elections increase departure rates of career senior employees, particularly in agencies with divergent views relative to the new president and at the start of presidential terms. We also find suggestive evidence that vacancies in high-level positions after elections may induce lower-level executives to stay longer in hopes of advancing. We conclude with implications of our findings for public policy, presidential politics, and public management
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