BRS Operators and Covariant Derivatives in Loop Space for P-Branes Coupled to Yang-Mills

Canonical forms are given for the nilpotent BRS operator \d and the covariant `loop space' derivative {\cal D}_{\m} for the p-brane fields for all odd p. The defining characteristic of {\cal D}_{\m} is that it is a functional derivative operator which generalizes the ordinary functional derivative and also commutes with \d. Methods of construction for the canonical forms are discussed.Comment: 21 pages, CTP-TAMU-50/9

Octonion X,Y-Product G2G_{2} Variants

The automorphism group $G_{2}$ of the octonions changes when octonion X,Y-product variants are used. I present here a general solution for how to go from $G_{2}$ to its X,Y-product variant.Comment: 5 pages, latex, no figure

Modeling and Estimation for Self-Exciting Spatio-Temporal Models of Terrorist Activity

Spatio-temporal hierarchical modeling is an extremely attractive way to model the spread of crime or terrorism data over a given region, especially when the observations are counts and must be modeled discretely. The spatio-temporal diffusion is placed, as a matter of convenience, in the process model allowing for straightforward estimation of the diffusion parameters through Bayesian techniques. However, this method of modeling does not allow for the existence of self-excitation, or a temporal data model dependency, that has been shown to exist in criminal and terrorism data. In this manuscript we will use existing theories on how violence spreads to create models that allow for both spatio-temporal diffusion in the process model as well as temporal diffusion, or self-excitation, in the data model. We will further demonstrate how Laplace approximations similar to their use in Integrated Nested Laplace Approximation can be used to quickly and accurately conduct inference of self-exciting spatio-temporal models allowing practitioners a new way of fitting and comparing multiple process models. We will illustrate this approach by fitting a self-exciting spatio-temporal model to terrorism data in Iraq and demonstrate how choice of process model leads to differing conclusions on the existence of self-excitation in the data and differing conclusions on how violence is spreading spatio-temporally

An Extended Laplace Approximation Method for Bayesian Inference of Self-Exciting Spatial-Temporal Models of Count Data

Self-Exciting models are statistical models of count data where the probability of an event occurring is influenced by the history of the process. In particular, self-exciting spatio-temporal models allow for spatial dependence as well as temporal self-excitation. For large spatial or temporal regions, however, the model leads to an intractable likelihood. An increasingly common method for dealing with large spatio-temporal models is by using Laplace approximations (LA). This method is convenient as it can easily be applied and is quickly implemented. However, as we will demonstrate in this manuscript, when applied to self-exciting Poisson spatial-temporal models, Laplace Approximations result in a significant bias in estimating some parameters. Due to this bias, we propose using up to sixth-order corrections to the LA for fitting these models. We will demonstrate how to do this in a Bayesian setting for Self-Exciting Spatio-Temporal models. We will further show there is a limited parameter space where the extended LA method still has bias. In these uncommon instances we will demonstrate how a more computationally intensive fully Bayesian approach using the Stan software program is possible in those rare instances. The performance of the extended LA method is illustrated with both simulation and real-world data

Higher Spin BRS Cohomology of Supersymmetric Chiral Matter in D=4

We examine the BRS cohomology of chiral matter in $N=1$, $D=4$ supersymmetry to determine a general form of composite superfield operators which can suffer from supersymmetry anomalies. Composite superfield operators \Y_{(a,b)} are products of the elementary chiral superfields $S$ and \ov S and the derivative operators D_\a, \ov D_{\dot \b} and \pa_{\a \dot \b}. Such superfields \Y_{(a,b)} can be chosen to have `$a$' symmetrized undotted indices \a_i and `$b$' symmetrized dotted indices \dot \b_j. The result derived here is that each composite superfield \Y_{(a,b)} is subject to potential supersymmetry anomalies if $a-b$ is an odd number, which means that \Y_{(a,b)} is a fermionic superfield.Comment: 15 pages, CPT-TAMU-20/9

Ethics systems in the New Zealand psychological society

It is important to remember that the Psychological Society does not exist in isolation. It is part of a wider society and must be accountable to and responsive to the needs of the public, its clients and changes occurring in the community. Ethics largely arise out of the public’s expectations of the profession and implied in that is compliance with the law. Psychologists are obviously answerable to the Courts when their actions transgress the law; no one can legally claim that inclusions or omissions from a code of ethics permit them to act outside of the law. Fortunately, there are seldom conflicts between ethical and legal obligations as certain statutory provisions now reflect some of the more important of our ethical standards. Any consideration of ethics in the Society must take account of the wider societal context within which psychologists operate

Echo's body: play and representation in interactive music software

This paper examines Hans Georg Gadamer's theory of play (as it is presented in Truth and Method) and adapts it to the context of interactive music software. I aim to show that interactive technological environments afford play in ways which, because they relate to truth and selfhood, are cognitively and philosophically significant and are not 'merely' playful