2,831 research outputs found
'Leaving town' versus 'taking leave': the case for re-thinking academic leave restrictions
published_or_final_versio
Online unit clustering in higher dimensions
We revisit the online Unit Clustering and Unit Covering problems in higher
dimensions: Given a set of points in a metric space, that arrive one by
one, Unit Clustering asks to partition the points into the minimum number of
clusters (subsets) of diameter at most one; while Unit Covering asks to cover
all points by the minimum number of balls of unit radius. In this paper, we
work in using the norm.
We show that the competitive ratio of any online algorithm (deterministic or
randomized) for Unit Clustering must depend on the dimension . We also give
a randomized online algorithm with competitive ratio for Unit
Clustering}of integer points (i.e., points in , , under norm). We show that the competitive ratio of
any deterministic online algorithm for Unit Covering is at least . This
ratio is the best possible, as it can be attained by a simple deterministic
algorithm that assigns points to a predefined set of unit cubes. We complement
these results with some additional lower bounds for related problems in higher
dimensions.Comment: 15 pages, 4 figures. A preliminary version appeared in the
Proceedings of the 15th Workshop on Approximation and Online Algorithms (WAOA
2017
Prostate Cancer and Race
Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/72215/1/j.1525-1497.2003.30801.x.pd
Who gains from information asymmetry?
This article considers an asymmetric contest with incomplete information. There are two types of players: informed and uninformed. Each player has a different ability to translate effort into performance in terms of the contest success function. While one player's type is known to both players, the other is private information and known only to the player himself. We compare the Bayesian Nash equilibrium outcome of a one-sided private information contest to the Nash equilibrium with no private information, in which both players know the type of the other player. We show conditions under which uncertainty increases the investment of the uninformed player and the rent dissipation of the contest, while decreasing the expected net payoff of the informed player. In addition, we consider conditions under which the informed player - before knowing his own type - prefers that the uninformed player knows his type. Moreover, we show conditions for the existence/non-existence of equilibrium in a two-stage contest in which the informed player declares his type (or does not declare) in the first stage and in the second stage the two players play according to the information available to them
A trapped single ion inside a Bose-Einstein condensate
Improved control of the motional and internal quantum states of ultracold
neutral atoms and ions has opened intriguing possibilities for quantum
simulation and quantum computation. Many-body effects have been explored with
hundreds of thousands of quantum-degenerate neutral atoms and coherent
light-matter interfaces have been built. Systems of single or a few trapped
ions have been used to demonstrate universal quantum computing algorithms and
to detect variations of fundamental constants in precision atomic clocks. Until
now, atomic quantum gases and single trapped ions have been treated separately
in experiments. Here we investigate whether they can be advantageously combined
into one hybrid system, by exploring the immersion of a single trapped ion into
a Bose-Einstein condensate of neutral atoms. We demonstrate independent control
over the two components within the hybrid system, study the fundamental
interaction processes and observe sympathetic cooling of the single ion by the
condensate. Our experiment calls for further research into the possibility of
using this technique for the continuous cooling of quantum computers. We also
anticipate that it will lead to explorations of entanglement in hybrid quantum
systems and to fundamental studies of the decoherence of a single, locally
controlled impurity particle coupled to a quantum environment
Quantum control of proximal spins using nanoscale magnetic resonance imaging
Quantum control of individual spins in condensed matter systems is an
emerging field with wide-ranging applications in spintronics, quantum
computation, and sensitive magnetometry. Recent experiments have demonstrated
the ability to address and manipulate single electron spins through either
optical or electrical techniques. However, it is a challenge to extend
individual spin control to nanoscale multi-electron systems, as individual
spins are often irresolvable with existing methods. Here we demonstrate that
coherent individual spin control can be achieved with few-nm resolution for
proximal electron spins by performing single-spin magnetic resonance imaging
(MRI), which is realized via a scanning magnetic field gradient that is both
strong enough to achieve nanometric spatial resolution and sufficiently stable
for coherent spin manipulations. We apply this scanning field-gradient MRI
technique to electronic spins in nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers in diamond and
achieve nanometric resolution in imaging, characterization, and manipulation of
individual spins. For NV centers, our results in individual spin control
demonstrate an improvement of nearly two orders of magnitude in spatial
resolution compared to conventional optical diffraction-limited techniques.
This scanning-field-gradient microscope enables a wide range of applications
including materials characterization, spin entanglement, and nanoscale
magnetometry.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figure
Trade secrets law
The standardisation of trade secret protection was one of the goals of the TRIPs Agreement of 1998. Nevertheless, substantial differences in this protection remain across jurisdictions. When defining the optimal scope of trade secrets law, lawmakers should be aware that strong trade secret protection is likely to promote inventiveness, but it is also likely to hinder the diffusion of knowledge and prevent competition
Balanced Schnyder woods for planar triangulations: an experimental study with applications to graph drawing and graph separators
In this work we consider balanced Schnyder woods for planar graphs, which are
Schnyder woods where the number of incoming edges of each color at each vertex
is balanced as much as possible. We provide a simple linear-time heuristic
leading to obtain well balanced Schnyder woods in practice. As test
applications we consider two important algorithmic problems: the computation of
Schnyder drawings and of small cycle separators. While not being able to
provide theoretical guarantees, our experimental results (on a wide collection
of planar graphs) suggest that the use of balanced Schnyder woods leads to an
improvement of the quality of the layout of Schnyder drawings, and provides an
efficient tool for computing short and balanced cycle separators.Comment: Appears in the Proceedings of the 27th International Symposium on
Graph Drawing and Network Visualization (GD 2019
Rapid assessment of myocardial infarct size in rodents using multi-slice inversion recovery late gadolinium enhancement CMR at 9.4T
Background: Myocardial infarction (MI) can be readily assessed using late gadolinium enhancement (LGE) cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR). Inversion recovery (IR) sequences provide the highest contrast between enhanced infarct areas and healthy myocardium. Applying such methods to small animals is challenging due to rapid respiratory and cardiac rates relative to T-1 relaxation.Methods: Here we present a fast and robust protocol for assessing LGE in small animals using a multi-slice IR gradient echo sequence for efficient assessment of LGE. An additional Look-Locker sequence was used to assess the optimum inversion point on an individual basis and to determine most appropriate gating points for both rat and mouse. The technique was applied to two preclinical scenarios: i) an acute (2 hour) reperfused model of MI in rats and ii) mice 2 days following non-reperfused MI.Results: LGE images from all animals revealed clear areas of enhancement allowing for easy volume segmentation. Typical inversion times required to null healthy myocardium in rats were between 300-450 ms equivalent to 2-3 R-waves and similar to 330 ms in mice, typically 3 R-waves following inversion. Data from rats was also validated against triphenyltetrazolium chloride staining and revealed close agreement for infarct size.Conclusion: The LGE protocol presented provides a reliable method for acquiring images of high contrast and quality without excessive scan times, enabling higher throughput in experimental studies requiring reliable assessment of MI
Measuring co-authorship and networking-adjusted scientific impact
Appraisal of the scientific impact of researchers, teams and institutions
with productivity and citation metrics has major repercussions. Funding and
promotion of individuals and survival of teams and institutions depend on
publications and citations. In this competitive environment, the number of
authors per paper is increasing and apparently some co-authors don't satisfy
authorship criteria. Listing of individual contributions is still sporadic and
also open to manipulation. Metrics are needed to measure the networking
intensity for a single scientist or group of scientists accounting for patterns
of co-authorship. Here, I define I1 for a single scientist as the number of
authors who appear in at least I1 papers of the specific scientist. For a group
of scientists or institution, In is defined as the number of authors who appear
in at least In papers that bear the affiliation of the group or institution. I1
depends on the number of papers authored Np. The power exponent R of the
relationship between I1 and Np categorizes scientists as solitary (R>2.5),
nuclear (R=2.25-2.5), networked (R=2-2.25), extensively networked (R=1.75-2) or
collaborators (R<1.75). R may be used to adjust for co-authorship networking
the citation impact of a scientist. In similarly provides a simple measure of
the effective networking size to adjust the citation impact of groups or
institutions. Empirical data are provided for single scientists and
institutions for the proposed metrics. Cautious adoption of adjustments for
co-authorship and networking in scientific appraisals may offer incentives for
more accountable co-authorship behaviour in published articles.Comment: 25 pages, 5 figure
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