Statistical validation in process capability for a high pressure flexible polyurethane foam pouring machine

Includes bibliographical references

An Evolutionary Framework for Determining Heterogeneous Strategies in Multi-Agent Marketplaces

We propose an evolutionary approach for studying the dynamics of interaction of strategic agents that interact in a marketplace. The goal is to learn which agent strategies are most suited by observing the distribution of the agents that survive in the market over extended periods of time. We present experimental results from a simulated market, where multiple service providers compete for customers using different deployment and pricing schemes. The results show that heterogeneous strategies evolve and co-exist in the same market.marketing;simulation;multi-agent systems;complexity economics;trading agents

Flexible Decision Control in an Autonomous Trading Agent

An autonomous trading agent is a complex piece of software that must operate in a competitive economic environment and support a research agenda. We describe the structure of decision processes in the MinneTAC trading agent, focusing on the use of evaluators – configurable, composable modules for data analysis and prediction that are chained together at runtime to support agent decision-making. Through a set of examples, we show how this structure supports sales and procurement decisions, and how those decision processes can be modified in useful ways by changing evaluator configurations. To put this work in context, we also report on results of an informal survey of agent design approaches among the competitors in the Trading Agent Competition for Supply Chain Management (TAC SCM).autonomous trading agent;decision processes

The NFL Player, the Schoolchild, and the Entertainer: When the Term Free Speech is Too Freely Spoken, Exactly Who\u27s On First?

As America’s media and politicians continue to debate the free speech rights of NFL players, schoolchildren, and entertainers, the dialogue has confused many Americans as to what exactly the First Amendment protects. Chief Justice John G. Roberts ultimately assumes the role of an umpire in many of these issues, guiding the United States Supreme Court to incrementally “call balls and strikes.” In recent years, the Court has umpired employment rights and state action cases, and Roberts’s calls will likely further distance the Court that decided Morse v. Frederick from the one that decided Tinker v. Des Moines. Amid a flurry of misleading headlines and confusing free speech doctrines, many Americans simply wonder, when the umpire calls, who’s on first

Black Lives Matter and The Blue Line Clashed Across the United States in 2020, Raising a Necessary Question for the U.S. Supreme Court: Whether the \u3cem\u3eHeck\u3c/em\u3e Doctrine Bars a Convict\u27s Challenge for Equal Protection Claims of Racial-Profiling

Discussions of race and criminal convictions became a matter of necessity in 2020 after thousands gathered across the country in anger and protest following the death of George Floyd, many peaceful, others inflamed and dangerous. The Heck doctrine, taken from Heck v. Humphrey, serves to generally bar a collateral attack on a plaintiff’s criminal case unless a conviction has been set aside in some fashion. Although the doctrine is seemingly straightforward, the lower federal courts have grappled with the application of this doctrine, especially when a convict files a civil suit alleging that the conviction is a result of an arrest from racial profiling. The Roberts Court, with its reputation for deftly handling respective matters of race and objective reasonableness of criminal procedure, is uniquely situated to bring closure to this issue during a year in which America’s law enforcement faced targeted assassinations and a frightening record number of line-of-duty deaths for officers

First-order perturbative calculation of the frequency-shifts caused by static cylindrically-symmetric electric and magnetic imperfections of a Penning trap

The ideal Penning trap consists of a uniform magnetic field and an electrostatic quadrupole potential. Cylindrically-symmetric deviations thereof are parametrized by the coefficients Bn and Cn, respectively. Relativistic mass-increase aside, the three characteristic eigenfrequencies of a charged particle stored in an ideal Penning trap are independent of the three motional amplitudes. This three-fold harmonicity is a highly-coveted virtue for precision experiments that rely on the measurement of at least one eigenfrequency in order to determine fundamental properties of the stored particle, such as its mass. However, higher-order contributions to the ideal fields result in amplitude-dependent frequency-shifts. In turn, these frequency-shifts need to be understood for estimating systematic experimental errors, and eventually for correcting them by means of calibrating the imperfections. The problem of calculating the frequency-shifts caused by small imperfections of a near-ideal trap yields nicely to perturbation theory, producing analytic formulas that are easy to evaluate for the relevant parameters of an experiment. In particular, the frequency-shifts can be understood on physical rather than purely mathematical grounds by considering which terms actually drive them. Based on identifying these terms, we derive general formulas for the first-order frequency-shifts caused by any perturbation parameter Bn or Cn.Comment: 18 pages, 1 figure, 0 tables. Accepted manuscript subsequently published. Streamlined the introduction. Optimized choice of summation variable

The NFL Player, the Schoolchild, and the Entertainer: When the Term Free Speech is Too Freely Spoken, Exactly Who\u27s On First?

As America’s media and politicians continue to debate the free speech rights of NFL players, schoolchildren, and entertainers, the dialogue has confused many Americans as to what exactly the First Amendment protects. Chief Justice John G. Roberts ultimately assumes the role of an umpire in many of these issues, guiding the United States Supreme Court to incrementally “call balls and strikes.” In recent years, the Court has umpired employment rights and state action cases, and Roberts’s calls will likely further distance the Court that decided Morse v. Frederick from the one that decided Tinker v. Des Moines. Amid a flurry of misleading headlines and confusing free speech doctrines, many Americans simply wonder, when the umpire calls, who’s on first

THE UTILIZATION OF CONSULTANT CONSTRUCTION MANAGEMENT AND CONSTRUCTION INSPECTION SERVICES BY STATE DEPARTMENTS OF TRANSPORTATION

State departments of transportation are facing a need to perform a greater number of projects than in the past. The nation's infrastructure is not even close to a level that is adequate to serve the needs of its users. State Departments of Transportation (DOT) need to find ways to adequately handle all of the work that is necessary to improve their roads and bridges to a level that can meet the needs of the people that travel on them. Most of the departments do not currently have adequate staffing to perform the construction management and inspection tasks that are associated with the projects that need to be completed. Without the ability to increase their workforce by hiring, the DOTs will have to rely on consultant staffing.There are many advantages associated with state departments of transportation outsourcing construction management (CM) and inspection to consulting firms. The advantages include the ability to supplement DOT staff without having to layoff employees during slow periods, consultant CM expertise, and specialized services that the DOT may not be able to provide by itself. The disadvantages include high cost, an additional burden on DOT staff to train consultants in department procedures, and a fear of losing employees to the consulting firms.The goal of this study is to objectively analyze the use of construction management and inspection consultants by state departments of transportation. While the issue will be analyzed from a national perspective, an in-depth study will be performed on two states: one that is performing mostly new construction projects and one that is performing mainly rehabilitation and reconstruction. The State of Texas will be evaluated as a new construction state, and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania will be examined as the rehabilitation and reconstruction state