Voice input/output capabilities at Perception Technology Corporation

Condensed resumes of key company personnel at the Perception Technology Corporation are presented. The staff possesses recognition, speech synthesis, speaker authentication, and language identification. Hardware and software engineers' capabilities are included

Counting Hamilton cycles in sparse random directed graphs

Let D(n,p) be the random directed graph on n vertices where each of the n(n-1) possible arcs is present independently with probability p. A celebrated result of Frieze shows that if $p\ge(\log n+\omega(1))/n$ then D(n,p) typically has a directed Hamilton cycle, and this is best possible. In this paper, we obtain a strengthening of this result, showing that under the same condition, the number of directed Hamilton cycles in D(n,p) is typically $n!(p(1+o(1)))^{n}$. We also prove a hitting-time version of this statement, showing that in the random directed graph process, as soon as every vertex has in-/out-degrees at least 1, there are typically $n!(\log n/n(1+o(1)))^{n}$ directed Hamilton cycles

Fiscal Paternalism and New England Cities: A Policy for the Year 2000

The following commentary explores the future of urban public finance by focusing on the fiscal ills of New England\u27s major cities. The impact of general revenue sharing, categorical grants, federal tax policy, state aid, and own-source city revenues is assessed in light of a city\u27s ability to support itself. The authors conclude that a pattern of fiscal paternalism — the past and present policies for annual financial assistance to narrow the expenditure-revenue budget gap — must be altered if cities are to enter the twenty-first century as fiscally stable governments capable of providing the necessary services for a varied constituency

Women's Work, Women's Lives: A Comparative Economic Perspective

This chapter provides a broad overview of women's economic status in all parts of the world, with special emphasis on their position relative to men. Large differences are found among countries and regions in the size of the gender gap with respect to such measures as labor force participation, occupational segregation, earnings, education, and to a some what lesser degree the amount of time spent on housework. Two generalizations, however, hold. Women have not achieved full equality anywhere, but particularly in the advanced industrialized countries for which data on the relevant variables are more readily available, there is evidence of a reduction of gender differences in economic roles and outcomes.

Political Orientation and the Decision to Major in Economics: Some Preliminary Observations

Studies find that students major in economics for a variety of reasons. None, however, have examined students' political orientations as a possible factor in their choice of majors. Economics, as compared to other social sciences, tends to produce conservative policy recommendations. This pilot study explores whether more conservative students are attracted to economics. Our study found that men with conservative political leanings are more likely to major in economics and that male students in economics are more conservative than female students. Political orientation, however, does not appear to be a significant factor in the choice of a major for women.

Aspiration Orientations Across Time : Do Childhood Aspiration Orientations Predict Mid-Life Aspiration Orientations and Well-Being?

By uncovering how far-reaching the impact of childhood aspiration orientations are on mid-life aspiration orientations and well-being, this thesis aims to bridge a gap in our understanding about how early aspirations shape well-being. Grounded in goal contents theory (Kasser & Ryan, 1993, 1996, 2001; Ryan & Deci, 2017), this thesis examined the stability of people’s intrinsic and extrinsic aspirations over time, and the long-term implications of aspiration orientations on well-being. Previous research consistently supports the positive link between intrinsic aspirations (affiliation, personal growth, community giving, and physical health) and well-being (Bradshaw et al., 2022). While, extrinsic aspirations (wealth, image and fame) are unrelated to well-being, and positively associated with ill-being. Little research has explored how intrinsic and extrinsic aspiration orientations, within the same individuals, relate to their well-being later in life. Gaining, answers to these questions, aids in understanding how to support individuals to prioritise intrinsic goals, and optimise well-being. This research provides insights into the developmental trajectory and long-term stability of intrinsic and extrinsic aspiration orientations, by utilising a mixed-methods approach, including qualitative data from the National Child Development Study (NCDS) of the same people at different life stages. People’s natural language about their aspirations could provide a valuable means to understand their intrinsic and extrinsic aspirations, including those who may not be able to complete questionnaires, such as children. In Chapter 2, a coding system was developed to identify intrinsic and extrinsic aspirations in participants’ naturally occurring language about their future. A thematic coding system derived from the themes of the Aspiration Index, demonstrated the greatest validity. The thematic coding system was then used to analyse the stability of participants' intrinsic and extrinsic aspirations orientation between the ages 11 and 50 (Chapter 3) and their influence on well-being at age 50 (Chapter 4). Evidence was found for some stability of intrinsic aspirations over time. Individuals who were intrinsically oriented at 50 had the highest levels of well-being, compared to those with extrinsic aspirations, or no intrinsic or extrinsic aspirations. Benefits to well-being were also found for remaining or becoming more intrinsically oriented between the ages of 11 and 50. Understanding how parents influence the development of their children’s aspiration orientations would provide insight into how to promote intrinsic aspirations and well-being. A meta-analysis of the link between parent characteristics and intrinsic aspirations provided support for the notion that children’s intrinsic aspirations are fostered by need supportive environments (Chapter 5). This research contributes to the knowledge base on how people’s intrinsic and extrinsic aspirations track over time, and offers practical guidance for promoting intrinsic aspirations and fostering well-being across the lifespan

On pressure and temperature waves within a cavitation bubble

The presented work is about the detailed pressure, temperature and velocity distribution within a plane, cylindrical and spherical cavitation bubble. The review of Plesset & Prosperetti (1977) and more recently the review of Feng & Leal (1997) describe the time behavior of the gas within a spherical bubble due to forced harmonic oscillations of the bubble wall. We reconsider and extend those previous works by developing from the conversation laws and the ideal gas law a boundary value problem for the distribution of temperature and velocity amplitude within the bubble. This is done for a plane, cylindrical, or spherical bubble. The consequences due to shape differences are discussed. The results show that an oscillating temperature boundary layer is formed in which the heat conduction takes places. With increasing dimensionless frequency, i.e. Péclet number, the boundary-layer thickness decreases and compression modulus approaches its adiabatic value. This adiabatic behaviour is reached at lower frequencies for the plane geometry in comparison with cylindrical and spherical geometry. This is due to the difference in the volume specific surface, which is 1, 2, 3 times the inverse bubble height/radius for the plane, cylindrical and spherical bubble respectively. For the plane bubble the analysis ends up in an eigenvalue problem with four eigenvalues and modes. The analytical result is not distinguishable from the numerical result for the plane case gained by a finite element solution. Interestingly if the diffusion time for the temperature distribution is of the order of the traveling time of a pressure wave no adiabatic behavior is observed. A parameter map for the different regimes is given. Since only the behavior of the gas within the bubble is considered the analysis is independent of the surface tension coefficient and the inertia of the surrounding liquid. For the plane bubble since there is no curvature there is no pressure change over the free surface. Despite of this a plane bubble is manly academic, since due to inertia the pressure within the fluid would have to be infinity if the liquid volume around the bubble is unbounded.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/84253/1/CAV2009-final57.pd