Goalposts on the Move

The impact profile of recent UK geoscience research is set to change, say Nick Petford & Jonathan Adam

"This Woman's Work" in a "Man's World": A Feminist Analysis of the Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002

Published in Whittier Law Review, v.28, 2006Farm Bill, Feminism, Farm Security and Rural Investment Act, 2002, Sciullo, law, womyn, international agriculture, covered commodities, Agricultural and Food Policy, Food Security and Poverty, International Development, International Relations/Trade, Public Economics,

The Challenges Posed by Globalization for Economic Liberalization in Two Asian Transitional Countries: Laos and Vietnam

globalization backlash, foreign direct investment, East Asia

D-branes and the Non-commutative Structure of Quantum Spacetime

A worldsheet approach to the study of non-abelian D-particle dynamics is presented based on viewing matrix-valued D-brane coordinate fields as coupling constants of a deformed sigma-model which defines a logarithmic conformal field theory. The short-distance structure of spacetime is shown to be naturally captured by the Zamolodchikov metric on the corresponding moduli space which encodes the geometry of the string interactions between D-particles. Spacetime quantization is induced directly by the string genus expansion and leads to new forms of uncertainty relations which imply that general relativity at very short-distance scales is intrinsically described by a non-commutative geometry. The indeterminancies exhibit decoherence effects suggesting the natural incorporation of quantum gravity by short-distance D-particle probes. Some potential experimental tests are briefly described.Comment: 20 pages LaTeX, 3 eps figures, uses epsf.sty; Based on talks given by R.J.S. at SUSY'98, Oxford, England, July 11-17, 1998, and by N.E.M. at the 6th Hellenic School and Workshop on Elementary Particle Physics, TMR project "Physics Beyond the Standard Model", Corfu, Greece, September 15-18, 199

Robust Computer Algebra, Theorem Proving, and Oracle AI

In the context of superintelligent AI systems, the term "oracle" has two meanings. One refers to modular systems queried for domain-specific tasks. Another usage, referring to a class of systems which may be useful for addressing the value alignment and AI control problems, is a superintelligent AI system that only answers questions. The aim of this manuscript is to survey contemporary research problems related to oracles which align with long-term research goals of AI safety. We examine existing question answering systems and argue that their high degree of architectural heterogeneity makes them poor candidates for rigorous analysis as oracles. On the other hand, we identify computer algebra systems (CASs) as being primitive examples of domain-specific oracles for mathematics and argue that efforts to integrate computer algebra systems with theorem provers, systems which have largely been developed independent of one another, provide a concrete set of problems related to the notion of provable safety that has emerged in the AI safety community. We review approaches to interfacing CASs with theorem provers, describe well-defined architectural deficiencies that have been identified with CASs, and suggest possible lines of research and practical software projects for scientists interested in AI safety.Comment: 15 pages, 3 figure

Recursive algorithms for the elimination of redundant paths in spatial lag operators

Recursive algorithms for the elimination of redundant paths in spatial lag operators are introduced. It is shown that these algorithms have superior computational properties in comparison with the cumbersome procedure proposed by Ross and Harary (1952). A rigorous definition of spatial lag operators is given, while a number of mathematical results and properties are derived. Theoretical and empirical results regarding the performance of the proposed algorithms are presented