3,522 research outputs found
Extracting topological features from dynamical measures in networks of Kuramoto oscillators
The Kuramoto model for an ensemble of coupled oscillators provides a
paradigmatic example of non-equilibrium transitions between an incoherent and a
synchronized state. Here we analyze populations of almost identical oscillators
in arbitrary interaction networks. Our aim is to extract topological features
of the connectivity pattern from purely dynamical measures, based on the fact
that in a heterogeneous network the global dynamics is not only affected by the
distribution of the natural frequencies, but also by the location of the
different values. In order to perform a quantitative study we focused on a very
simple frequency distribution considering that all the frequencies are equal
but one, that of the pacemaker node. We then analyze the dynamical behavior of
the system at the transition point and slightly above it, as well as very far
from the critical point, when it is in a highly incoherent state. The gathered
topological information ranges from local features, such as the single node
connectivity, to the hierarchical structure of functional clusters, and even to
the entire adjacency matrix.Comment: 11 pages, 10 figure
Assortment optimisation under a general discrete choice model: A tight analysis of revenue-ordered assortments
The assortment problem in revenue management is the problem of deciding which
subset of products to offer to consumers in order to maximise revenue. A simple
and natural strategy is to select the best assortment out of all those that are
constructed by fixing a threshold revenue and then choosing all products
with revenue at least . This is known as the revenue-ordered assortments
strategy. In this paper we study the approximation guarantees provided by
revenue-ordered assortments when customers are rational in the following sense:
the probability of selecting a specific product from the set being offered
cannot increase if the set is enlarged. This rationality assumption, known as
regularity, is satisfied by almost all discrete choice models considered in the
revenue management and choice theory literature, and in particular by random
utility models. The bounds we obtain are tight and improve on recent results in
that direction, such as for the Mixed Multinomial Logit model by
Rusmevichientong et al. (2014). An appealing feature of our analysis is its
simplicity, as it relies only on the regularity condition.
We also draw a connection between assortment optimisation and two pricing
problems called unit demand envy-free pricing and Stackelberg minimum spanning
tree: These problems can be restated as assortment problems under discrete
choice models satisfying the regularity condition, and moreover revenue-ordered
assortments correspond then to the well-studied uniform pricing heuristic. When
specialised to that setting, the general bounds we establish for
revenue-ordered assortments match and unify the best known results on uniform
pricing.Comment: Minor changes following referees' comment
Breast Cancer Treatment Practices in Elderly Women in a Community Hospital
Background. Elderly women with breast cancer are considered underdiagnosed and undertreated, and this adversely affects their overall survival. Methods. A total of 393 female breast cancer patients aged 70 years and older, diagnosed within the years 1989–1999, were identified from the tumor registry of The Brooklyn Hospital Center. Comparisons between the 3 different subgroups 70–74, 75–79, and 80 years and older were made using the Pearson Chi Square test. Results. Lumpectomy was performed in 42% of all patients, while mastectomy was done in 46% of patients. Adjuvant therapy such as chemotherapy, radiation therapy, and hormonal therapy were done in 12%, 25%, and 38%, respectively. Forty-seven percent of patients with positive lymph nodes received chemotherapy. Eighty-six percent of patients who were estrogen receptor-positive received adjuvant hormonal therapy. Overall five-year survival was only 14% for the ≥80 age group, compared to that of 32% and 35% for the 70–74 and the 75–79 age groups, respectively. Conclusions. Surgery was performed in majority of these patients, about half received lumpectomy, the other half mastectomy. Adjuvant therapies were frequently excluded, with only hormonal therapy being the most commonly used. Overall five-year survival is significantly worse in patients ≥80 years with breast cancer
Reaction Time of a Group of Physics Students
The reaction time of a group of students majoring in Physics is reported
here. Strong co-relation between fatigue, reaction time and performance have
been seen and may be useful for academicians and administrators responsible of
working out time-tables, course structures, students counsellings etc.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figure
Reasons and Means to Model Preferences as Incomplete
Literature involving preferences of artificial agents or human beings often
assume their preferences can be represented using a complete transitive binary
relation. Much has been written however on different models of preferences. We
review some of the reasons that have been put forward to justify more complex
modeling, and review some of the techniques that have been proposed to obtain
models of such preferences
Rational bidding using reinforcement learning: an application in automated resource allocation
The application of autonomous agents by the provisioning and usage of computational resources is an attractive research field. Various methods and technologies in the area of artificial intelligence, statistics and economics are playing together to achieve i) autonomic resource provisioning and usage of computational resources, to invent ii) competitive bidding strategies for widely used market mechanisms and to iii) incentivize consumers and providers to use such market-based systems.
The contributions of the paper are threefold. First, we present a framework for supporting consumers and providers in technical and economic preference elicitation and the generation of bids. Secondly, we introduce a consumer-side reinforcement learning bidding strategy which enables rational behavior by the generation and selection of bids. Thirdly, we evaluate and compare this bidding strategy against a truth-telling bidding strategy for two kinds of market mechanisms – one centralized and one decentralized
The Convergence of Digital-Libraries and the Peer-Review Process
Pre-print repositories have seen a significant increase in use over the past
fifteen years across multiple research domains. Researchers are beginning to
develop applications capable of using these repositories to assist the
scientific community above and beyond the pure dissemination of information.
The contribution set forth by this paper emphasizes a deconstructed publication
model in which the peer-review process is mediated by an OAI-PMH peer-review
service. This peer-review service uses a social-network algorithm to determine
potential reviewers for a submitted manuscript and for weighting the relative
influence of each participating reviewer's evaluations. This paper also
suggests a set of peer-review specific metadata tags that can accompany a
pre-print's existing metadata record. The combinations of these contributions
provide a unique repository-centric peer-review model that fits within the
widely deployed OAI-PMH framework.Comment: Journal of Information Science [in press
On quantum coding for ensembles of mixed states
We consider the problem of optimal asymptotically faithful compression for
ensembles of mixed quantum states. Although the optimal rate is unknown, we
prove upper and lower bounds and describe a series of illustrative examples of
compression of mixed states. We also discuss a classical analogue of the
problem.Comment: 23 pages, LaTe
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