Poles and zeros – examples of the behavioral approach applied to discrete linear repetitive processes

In this paper the behavorial approach is applied to discrete linear repetitive processes, which are class of 2D systems of both systems theoretic and applications interest. The main results are on poles and zeros for these processes, which have exponential trajectory interpretations

Comparative Analysis Between Banking and Insurance Sector on Perception of Transformational Leadership Styles

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to examine the differences in leadership styles prevalent in the public sector with those working in the banking and insurance industries. Cluster variables from both industries included in the analysis are as follows: Idealized influence, inspiring motivation, intellectual stimulation, and individualized consideration are all components of leadership.   Theoretical Framework: Due to its apparent efficacy, transformational leadership has received a lot of attention from public sector researchers over the past decade. Successful leaders alter their teams by enlisting their followers' help in effecting change. A transformational leader is one who "transforms" their followers by inspiring them to make positive personal and professional shifts.   Design / Methodology / Approach:The study is exploratory research design using Quantitative data collected from the Banking and Insurance sector employees. The study uses a well-structured questionnaire using Likert scale items. The sample was chosen on Convenience basis from 5 select public sector Insurance companies and 5 select public sector Insurance companies. 100 Questionnaires each were distributed and 97 valid responses were selected for banking industry and 90 responses from Insurance Industry were selected for the study. Paired t test using SPSS software was utilised for analysing the data in the study.   Findings:The findings of the study show that there is significant difference between the leadership styles practices in Banking and Insurance industry. The banking sector employees showed a greater inclination towards transformational leadership with higher mean scores and statistically significant outcomes.   Research Implications: Banking and insurance each have their own distinct cultures and management philosophies; as a result, they cannot be studied as a single entity under the umbrella of the BFSI sector. Additional research on the various leadership styles currently in use within the banking and insurance sectors is necessary.   Originality/Value: There are no studies related comparative analysis between Insurance and Banking industry on the leadership styles in Public sector

The disqualification of dual citizens from parliament: Three problems and a solution

© The Author(s) 2018. Since August 2017, the rule in s 44(i) of the Australian Constitution that dual citizens are incapable of being chosen for or sitting in federal Parliament has led to the disqualification or resignation of 15 parliamentarians. This disruption may yet continue, with outstanding questions remaining about several sitting members. In this article, we outline three key problems with s 44(i), as well as a durable solution

Symptomatic treatment of children with anti-NMDAR encephalitis.

Abstract AIM: We performed the first study on the perceived benefit and adverse effects of symptomatic management in children with anti-N-methyl-d-aspartate receptor (NMDAR) encephalitis. METHOD: A retrospective chart review was undertaken at two tertiary paediatric hospitals in Australia and New Zealand. We included 27 children (12 males, 15 females; mean age at admission 7y 1mo) with anti-NMDAR antibodies in serum or cerebrospinal fluid with a typical clinical syndrome. RESULTS: Only two out of 27 patients were white, whereas 16 out of 27 patients were from the Pacific Islands/New Zealand Maori. The mean duration of admission was 69 days (10-224d) and 48% of patients (13/27) needed treatment in an intensive care setting. A mean of eight medications per patient was used for symptomatic management. Symptoms treated were agitation (n=25), seizures (n=24), movement disorders (n=23), sleep disruption (n=17), psychiatric symptoms (n=10), and dysautonomia (n=four). The medications used included five different benzodiazepines (n=25), seven anticonvulsants (n=25), eight sedatives and sleep medications (n=23), five antipsychotics (n=12), and five medications for movement disorders (n=10). Sedative and sleep medications other than benzodiazepines were the most effective, with a mean benefit of 67.4% per medication and a mean adverse effect-benefit ratio of 0.04 per medication. Antipsychotic drugs were used for a short duration (median 9d), and had the poorest mean benefit per medication of 35.4% and an adverse effect-benefit ratio of 2.0 per medication. INTERPRETATION: Long-acting benzodiazepines, anticonvulsants, and clonidine can treat multiple symptoms. Patients with anti-NMDAR encephalitis appear vulnerable to antipsychotic-related adverse effects. Pacific Islanders appear to have a vulnerability to anti-NMDAR encephalitis in our region

Experiments in constituting a taste panel for canned and frozen prawn products

With a view to constituting a taste panel in the laboratory for detecting the flavor changes in canned and frozen prawn, three methods of panel selection (scalar scoring method, range and deviation method and triangular method) were tried. Out of the three, triangular method was found to be suitable for panel formation in canned and frozen prawn. Using this method a panel of six members was formed for detecting flavor changes in the two products

Hot Core, Outflows and Magnetic Fields in W43-MM1 (G30.79 FIR 10)

We present submillimeter spectral line and dust continuum polarization observations of a remarkable hot core and multiple outflows in the high-mass star-forming region W43-MM1 (G30.79 FIR 10), obtained using the Submillimeter Array (SMA). A temperature of $\sim$ 400 K is estimated for the hot-core using CH$_3$CN (J=19-18) lines, with detections of 11 K-ladder components. The high temperature and the mass estimates for the outflows indicate high-mass star-formation. The continuum polarization pattern shows an ordered distribution, and its orientation over the main outflow appears aligned to the outflow. The derived magnetic field indicates slightly super-critical conditions. While the magnetic and outflow energies are comparable, the B-field orientation appears to have changed from parsec scales to $\sim$ 0.1 pc scales during the core/star-formation process.Comment: accepted, ApJ Letter

Managing Mental Health During COVID- 19 Pandemic and Beyond

The novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID?19) pandemic is a global public health crisis of a scale not previously experienced in modern times. The whole of humanity is sharing a problem that is changing the world, and humans are living under more uncertainty. Most people have been feeling intense anxiety related to COVID-19 and the aftermath the world will leave in its wake. The paper intends to put up a deeper understanding of the anxiety reaction about various aspects of current life. Clear strategies for managing and turning off the anxiety response for short periods is developed based on the understanding of how one's brain reacts to crises along with some powerful tools for managing the pandemic.  The paper explores some of the strategies to address mental health during COVID-19

Noisy gradient flow from a random walk in Hilbert space

Consider a probability measure on a Hilbert space defined via its density with respect to a Gaussian. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate that an appropriately defined Markov chain, which is reversible with respect to the measure in question, exhibits a diffusion limit to a noisy gradient flow, also reversible with respect to the same measure. The Markov chain is defined by applying a Metropolis–Hastings accept–reject mechanism (Tierney, Ann Appl Probab 8:1–9, 1998) to an Ornstein–Uhlenbeck (OU) proposal which is itself reversible with respect to the underlying Gaussian measure. The resulting noisy gradient flow is a stochastic partial differential equation driven by a Wiener process with spatial correlation given by the underlying Gaussian structure. There are two primary motivations for this work. The first concerns insight into Monte Carlo Markov Chain (MCMC) methods for sampling of measures on a Hilbert space defined via a density with respect to a Gaussian measure. These measures must be approximated on finite dimensional spaces of dimension N in order to be sampled. A conclusion of the work herein is that MCMC methods based on prior-reversible OU proposals will explore the target measure in O(1) steps with respect to dimension N. This is to be contrasted with standard MCMC methods based on the random walk or Langevin proposals which require O(N) and O(N^(1/3)) steps respectively (Mattingly et al., Ann Appl Prob 2011; Pillai et al., Ann Appl Prob 22:2320–2356 2012). The second motivation relates to optimization. There are many applications where it is of interest to find global or local minima of a functional defined on an infinite dimensional Hilbert space. Gradient flow or steepest descent is a natural approach to this problem, but in its basic form requires computation of a gradient which, in some applications, may be an expensive or complex task. This paper shows that a stochastic gradient descent described by a stochastic partial differential equation can emerge from certain carefully specified Markov chains. This idea is well-known in the finite state (Kirkpatricket al., Science 220:671–680, 1983; Cerny, J Optim Theory Appl 45:41–51, 1985) or finite dimensional context (German, IEEE Trans Geosci Remote Sens 1:269–276, 1985; German, SIAM J Control Optim 24:1031, 1986; Chiang, SIAM J Control Optim 25:737–753, 1987; J Funct Anal 83:333–347, 1989). The novelty of the work in this paper is that the emergence of the noisy gradient flow is developed on an infinite dimensional Hilbert space. In the context of global optimization, when the noise level is also adjusted as part of the algorithm, methods of the type studied here go by the name of simulated–annealing; see the review (Bertsimas and Tsitsiklis, Stat Sci 8:10–15, 1993) for further references. Although we do not consider adjusting the noise-level as part of the algorithm, the noise strength is a tuneable parameter in our construction and the methods developed here could potentially be used to study simulated annealing in a Hilbert space setting. The transferable idea behind this work is that conceiving of algorithms directly in the infinite dimensional setting leads to methods which are robust to finite dimensional approximation. We emphasize that discretizing, and then applying standard finite dimensional techniques in ℝ^N, to either sample or optimize, can lead to algorithms which degenerate as the dimension N increases

Fishery, population dynamics and stock assessment of the spotted seer in gill net fishery at Veraval

The fishery and population characteristics of Scomberomorus guttatus (Bloch & Schneider) from Veraval was studied for the period 2003 – 2006. The average annual catch was 378 t, forming 14.4% of the total gill net catches at Veraval. The postmonsoon and winter seasons (September to January) were the most productive seasons in terms of catch and catch rate. The length–weight relationship showed that growth was isometric for the species. The von Bertalanffy growth equation was: Lt = 61.27 [1 – e - 1.4 (t + 0.0046)] and length attained at the end of 1 and 2 years were 46.3 cm and 57.6 cm respectively. The growth performance index was 3.721 and longevity was 2.138 years. Recruitment pattern was unimodal with peak recruitment from February - July and the length at first capture was 21.1 cm. The natural mortality, fishing mortality and total mortality were 1.79, 2.92 and 4.71, respectively and exploitation ratio was 0.62. The maximum sustainable yield was 305 t, which was lower than the average annual catch indicating over-exploitation of the species. The yield per recruit and biomass per recruit was 198.9 g and 66.9 g respectively. An increase in relative yield to 101.8% would be obtained by decreasing the present level of fishing by 20%