Schechter vs. Schechter: Sub-Arcsecond Gravitational Lensing and Inner Halo Profiles

Sub-arcsecond lensing statistics depend sensitively on the inner mass profiles of low-mass objects and the faint-end slopes of the Schechter luminosity function and the Press-Schechter mass function. By requiring the luminosity and mass functions to give consistent predictions for the distribution of image separation below 1'', we show that dark matter halos with masses below 10^12 M_sun cannot have a single type of profile, be it the singular isothermal sphere (SIS) or the shallower ``universal'' dark matter profile. Instead, consistent results are achieved if we allow a fraction of the halos at a given mass to be luminous with the SIS profile, and the rest be dark with an inner logarithmic slope shallower than -1.5 to compensate for the steeper faint-end slope of the mass function compared with the luminosity function. We quantify how rapidly the SIS fraction must decrease with decreasing halo mass, thereby providing a statistical measure for the effectiveness of feedback processes on the baryon content in low-mass halos.Comment: 13 pages, 4 figures. CLASS lensing data added; minor revisions. ApJL in pres

PATHS OF INFLUENCE FOR INNOVATIONS IN FINANCIAL IS AND TECHNOLOGY ECOSYSTEMS

Predicting technological innovations in financial information systems (IS) and technology ecosystems has been challenging for technology forecasters and industry analysts due to their underlying complexity. Technology-based financial innovations over the past four decades, such as programmed trading in the 1980s, risk-adjusted return on capital-based financial risk management systems in the 1990s, high-frequency trading and Internet banking in 2000s, and now mobile payments in the 2010s, have all led to transformations in the financial services industry. What basis can be identified to predict such new innovations? And what areas of financial services will they affect? This study applies the technology ecosystem approach, extended to incorporate stakeholders’ strategic actions, to analyse the paths of influence for mobile payment technologies. Our ecosystem model brings together three core elements: emerging technology components, technology-based services, and technologysupported business infrastructure. We will also discuss its applicability to high-frequency trading in the equity markets

Mining and Analyzing the Italian Parliament: Party Structure and Evolution

The roll calls of the Italian Parliament in the XVI legislature are studied by employing multidimensional scaling, hierarchical clustering, and network analysis. In order to detect changes in voting behavior, the roll calls have been divided in seven periods of six months each. All the methods employed pointed out an increasing fragmentation of the political parties endorsing the previous government that culminated in its downfall. By using the concept of modularity at different resolution levels, we identify the community structure of Parliament and its evolution in each of the considered time periods. The analysis performed revealed as a valuable tool in detecting trends and drifts of Parliamentarians. It showed its effectiveness at identifying political parties and at providing insights on the temporal evolution of groups and their cohesiveness, without having at disposal any knowledge about political membership of Representatives.Comment: 27 pages, 14 figure

A Metrics Suite of Cloud Computing Adoption Readiness

First online: 06 February 2016</p