7,919 research outputs found
Correcting the Minimization Bias in Searches for Small Signals
We discuss a method for correcting the bias in the limits for small signals
if those limits were found based on cuts that were chosen by minimizing a
criterion such as sensitivity. Such a bias is commonly present when a
"minimization" and an "evaluation" are done at the same time. We propose to use
a variant of the bootstrap to adjust the limits. A Monte Carlo study shows that
these new limits have correct coverage.Comment: 14 pages, 5 figue
Some Aspects of Measurement Error in Linear Regression of Astronomical Data
I describe a Bayesian method to account for measurement errors in linear
regression of astronomical data. The method allows for heteroscedastic and
possibly correlated measurement errors, and intrinsic scatter in the regression
relationship. The method is based on deriving a likelihood function for the
measured data, and I focus on the case when the intrinsic distribution of the
independent variables can be approximated using a mixture of Gaussians. I
generalize the method to incorporate multiple independent variables,
non-detections, and selection effects (e.g., Malmquist bias). A Gibbs sampler
is described for simulating random draws from the probability distribution of
the parameters, given the observed data. I use simulation to compare the method
with other common estimators. The simulations illustrate that the Gaussian
mixture model outperforms other common estimators and can effectively give
constraints on the regression parameters, even when the measurement errors
dominate the observed scatter, source detection fraction is low, or the
intrinsic distribution of the independent variables is not a mixture of
Gaussians. I conclude by using this method to fit the X-ray spectral slope as a
function of Eddington ratio using a sample of 39 z < 0.8 radio-quiet quasars. I
confirm the correlation seen by other authors between the radio-quiet quasar
X-ray spectral slope and the Eddington ratio, where the X-ray spectral slope
softens as the Eddington ratio increases.Comment: 39 pages, 11 figures, 1 table, accepted by ApJ. IDL routines
(linmix_err.pro) for performing the Markov Chain Monte Carlo are available at
the IDL astronomy user's library, http://idlastro.gsfc.nasa.gov/homepage.htm
ICE Second Halley radial: TDA mission support and DSN operations
The article documents the operations encompassing the International Cometary Explorer (ICE) second Halley radial experiment centered around March 28, 1986. The support was provided by the Deep Space Network (DSN) 64-meter subnetwork. Near continuous support was provided the last two weeks of March and the first two weeks of April to insure the collection of adequate background data for the Halley radial experiment. During the last week of March, plasma wave measurements indicate that ICE was within the Halley heavy ion pick-up region
Gross Job Flows in Ukraine: Size, Ownership and Trade Effects
This paper documents and analyses gross job flows and their determinants in Ukraine using a unique data set of more than 2200 Ukrainian firms operating in both the manufacturing and the non-manufacturing sector for the years 1998-2000. There are several important findings in the paper. Job destruction is dominating job creation in both 1999 and 2000. In connection with other evidence we infer from this that Ukraine is only at the beginning of the restructuring process. The most clear-cut result of our analysis is the strong positive effect of new private firms on net employment growth, a finding established for other transition economies as well. At the same time, we do not find differences in the employment growth of state-owned and privatised firms. Apart from ownership effects we also find, at the firm level, an inverse correlation of size and net employment growth and of size and job reallocation. Finally, we establish that strong foreign trade links force firms to shed labour more aggressively and to engage in more restructuring when trade is directed to and originating from Western economies. This disciplining function is absent when the trade flows are confined to CIS countries.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/39906/3/wp521.pd
Critical behavior of the Random-Field Ising Magnet with long range correlated disorder
We study the correlated-disorder driven zero-temperature phase transition of
the Random-Field Ising Magnet using exact numerical ground-state calculations
for cubic lattices. We consider correlations of the quenched disorder decaying
proportional to r^a, where r is the distance between two lattice sites and a<0.
To obtain exact ground states, we use a well established mapping to the
graph-theoretical maximum-flow problem, which allows us to study large system
sizes of more than two million spins. We use finite-size scaling analyses for
values a={-1,-2,-3,-7} to calculate the critical point and the critical
exponents characterizing the behavior of the specific heat, magnetization,
susceptibility and of the correlation length close to the critical point. We
find basically the same critical behavior as for the RFIM with delta-correlated
disorder, except for the finite-size exponent of the susceptibility and for the
case a=-1, where the results are also compatible with a phase transition at
infinitesimal disorder strength.
A summary of this work can be found at the papercore database at
www.papercore.org.Comment: 9 pages, 13 figure
Energy-Aware Cloud Management through Progressive SLA Specification
Novel energy-aware cloud management methods dynamically reallocate
computation across geographically distributed data centers to leverage regional
electricity price and temperature differences. As a result, a managed VM may
suffer occasional downtimes. Current cloud providers only offer high
availability VMs, without enough flexibility to apply such energy-aware
management. In this paper we show how to analyse past traces of dynamic cloud
management actions based on electricity prices and temperatures to estimate VM
availability and price values. We propose a novel SLA specification approach
for offering VMs with different availability and price values guaranteed over
multiple SLAs to enable flexible energy-aware cloud management. We determine
the optimal number of such SLAs as well as their availability and price
guaranteed values. We evaluate our approach in a user SLA selection simulation
using Wikipedia and Grid'5000 workloads. The results show higher customer
conversion and 39% average energy savings per VM.Comment: 14 pages, conferenc
Slip-velocity of large neutrally-buoyant particles in turbulent flows
We discuss possible definitions for a stochastic slip velocity that describes
the relative motion between large particles and a turbulent flow. This
definition is necessary because the slip velocity used in the standard drag
model fails when particle size falls within the inertial subrange of ambient
turbulence. We propose two definitions, selected in part due to their
simplicity: they do not require filtration of the fluid phase velocity field,
nor do they require the construction of conditional averages on particle
locations. A key benefit of this simplicity is that the stochastic slip
velocity proposed here can be calculated equally well for laboratory, field,
and numerical experiments. The stochastic slip velocity allows the definition
of a Reynolds number that should indicate whether large particles in turbulent
flow behave (a) as passive tracers; (b) as a linear filter of the velocity
field; or (c) as a nonlinear filter to the velocity field. We calculate the
value of stochastic slip for ellipsoidal and spherical particles (the size of
the Taylor microscale) measured in laboratory homogeneous isotropic turbulence.
The resulting Reynolds number is significantly higher than 1 for both particle
shapes, and velocity statistics show that particle motion is a complex
non-linear function of the fluid velocity. We further investigate the nonlinear
relationship by comparing the probability distribution of fluctuating
velocities for particle and fluid phases
EL PLANEAMIENTO EDUCATIVO EN LA FACULTAD DE HUMANIDADES Y CIENCIAS DE LA UNIVERSIDAD NACIONAL DEL LITORAL
La Facultad inició en 2010 un proceso de planeamiento educativo cuyo punto de partida fue la construcción participativa de un Plan Institucional Estratégico. Estas acciones se enmarcan en políticas desplegadas por la universidad, desde mediado de los ´90, con un sentido crítico y alternativo. El objetivo es proyectar en forma colaborativa el desarrollo de la unidad académica partiendo de sus aspectos fundantes e históricos (formación de educadores, creación de conocimientos, realización de actividades de extensión social y cultural, con trayectorias disciplinares diversas). En este proceso, se promovió la amplia participación de todos los claustros en las decisiones políticas y en la reflexión sobre los sentidos que, en articulación con el contexto, se fueron e irán configurando. La experiencia incluyó instancias presenciales con los distintos actores; el relevamiento de sus opiniones por diferentes vías, el diseño de una estrategia comunicacional para el intercambio y la difusión del proceso. Como resultado preliminar puede consignarse la aprobación del Plan por el órgano de gobierno de la facultad y el inicio de acciones de programación para la construcción colectiva del hacer institucional promoviendo la capacidad de cuestionar e interpelar la realidad y aportar desde la educación pública los esfuerzos, las ideas y la voluntad de contribuir a su transformación
One-dimensional infinite component vector spin glass with long-range interactions
We investigate zero and finite temperature properties of the one-dimensional
spin-glass model for vector spins in the limit of an infinite number m of spin
components where the interactions decay with a power, \sigma, of the distance.
A diluted version of this model is also studied, but found to deviate
significantly from the fully connected model. At zero temperature, defect
energies are determined from the difference in ground-state energies between
systems with periodic and antiperiodic boundary conditions to determine the
dependence of the defect-energy exponent \theta on \sigma. A good fit to this
dependence is \theta =3/4-\sigma. This implies that the upper critical value of
\sigma is 3/4, corresponding to the lower critical dimension in the
d-dimensional short-range version of the model. For finite temperatures the
large m saddle-point equations are solved self-consistently which gives access
to the correlation function, the order parameter and the spin-glass
susceptibility. Special attention is paid to the different forms of finite-size
scaling effects below and above the lower critical value, \sigma =5/8, which
corresponds to the upper critical dimension 8 of the hypercubic short-range
model.Comment: 27 pages, 27 figures, 4 table
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