22,473 research outputs found
Effects of liquid and vapor cesium on structural materials
Literature survey on corrosive effects of liquid and vapor cesium on structural materials, and compatibility of cesium as working fluid for Rankine cycle space power plan
SMIL State: an architecture and implementation for adaptive time-based web applications
In this paper we examine adaptive time-based web applications (or presentations). These are interactive presentations where time dictates which parts of the application are presented (providing the major structuring paradigm), and that require interactivity and other dynamic adaptation. We investigate the current technologies available to create such presentations and their shortcomings, and suggest a mechanism for addressing these shortcomings. This mechanism, SMIL State, can be used to add user-defined state to declarative time-based languages such as SMIL or SVG animation, thereby enabling the author to create control flows that are difficult to realize within the temporal containment model of the host languages. In addition, SMIL State can be used as a bridging mechanism between languages, enabling easy integration of external components into the web application. Finally, SMIL State enables richer expressions for content control. This paper defines SMIL State in terms of an introductory example, followed by a detailed specification of the State model. Next, the implementation of this model is discussed. We conclude with a set of potential use cases, including dynamic content adaptation and delayed insertion of custom content such as advertisements. © 2009 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC
Contemplating workplace change: evolving individual thought processes and emergent story lines
Drawing on topical life histories of physicians in a particularly volatile public health
sector environment, we build theory around the contemplation of workplace change.
Overall, our study provides evidence as to why single or multiple independent factors,
such as pay or job structure, may fail to predict or explain individual decisions to stay
in or change workplaces. Instead, the contemplation process we argue is a complex,
evolutionary, and context-dependent one that requires individualized interventions.
Our findings reveal the prevalence of episodic context-self fit assessments prompted
by triggering stimuli, two mechanisms by which thought processes evolved
(reinforcement and recalibration), and four characteristic story lines that explain
why the thought processes manifested as they did (exploring opportunities, solving
problems, reconciling incongruence, and escaping situations). Based on our findings,
we encourage practitioners to regularly engage in story-listening and dialogic
conversations to better understand, and potentially affect the evolving socially
constructed realities of staff members
Aggregation and the "Random Objective" Justification for Disturbances in Complete Demand Systems
The Right Mutation Strength for Multi-Valued Decision Variables
The most common representation in evolutionary computation are bit strings.
This is ideal to model binary decision variables, but less useful for variables
taking more values. With very little theoretical work existing on how to use
evolutionary algorithms for such optimization problems, we study the run time
of simple evolutionary algorithms on some OneMax-like functions defined over
. More precisely, we regard a variety of
problem classes requesting the component-wise minimization of the distance to
an unknown target vector . For such problems we see a crucial
difference in how we extend the standard-bit mutation operator to these
multi-valued domains. While it is natural to select each position of the
solution vector to be changed independently with probability , there are
various ways to then change such a position. If we change each selected
position to a random value different from the original one, we obtain an
expected run time of . If we change each selected position
by either or (random choice), the optimization time reduces to
. If we use a random mutation strength with probability inversely proportional to and change
the selected position by either or (random choice), then the
optimization time becomes , bringing down
the dependence on from linear to polylogarithmic. One of our results
depends on a new variant of the lower bounding multiplicative drift theorem.Comment: an extended abstract of this work is to appear at GECCO 201
Fast and Simple Relational Processing of Uncertain Data
This paper introduces U-relations, a succinct and purely relational
representation system for uncertain databases. U-relations support
attribute-level uncertainty using vertical partitioning. If we consider
positive relational algebra extended by an operation for computing possible
answers, a query on the logical level can be translated into, and evaluated as,
a single relational algebra query on the U-relation representation. The
translation scheme essentially preserves the size of the query in terms of
number of operations and, in particular, number of joins. Standard techniques
employed in off-the-shelf relational database management systems are effective
for optimizing and processing queries on U-relations. In our experiments we
show that query evaluation on U-relations scales to large amounts of data with
high degrees of uncertainty.Comment: 12 pages, 14 figure
A Monte Carlo study of temperature-programmed desorption spectra with attractive lateral interactions
We present results of a Monte Carlo study of temperature-programmed
desorption in a model system with attractive lateral interactions. It is shown
that even for weak interactions there are large shifts of the peak maximum
temperatures with initial coverage. The system has a transition temperature
below which the desorption has a negative order. An analytical expression for
this temperature is derived. The relation between the model and real systems is
discussed.Comment: Accepted for publication in Phys.Rev.B15, 10 pages (REVTeX), 2
figures (PostScript); discussion about Xe/Pt(111) adde
Progressive managerial bonuses in a spatial Bertrand duopoly
The relationship of managerial bonuses and profit maximization is interesting both from an economic and a managerial viewpoint. Our contribution to this literature is showing that progressive managerial bonuses can increase profits in a spatial Bertrand competition, and furthermore they can help collusion
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