Multipoint-to-multipoint network communication

We have formulated an exact ILP model for the problem of communicating on a virtual network. While this ILP model was successful in solving small problems, it is not recommended to handle larger instances, due to the fact that the number of variables in the model grows exponentially as the graph size grows. However, this ILP model can provide a benchmark for heuristic algorithms developed for this problem. We have also described a heuristic approach, and explored several variants of the algorithm. We found a solution that seems to perform well with reasonable computation time. The heuristic is able to find solutions that respect the degree constraints, but show a small number of violations of the desired time constraints. Tests on small problems show that heuristic is not always able to find feasible solutions, even though the exact method has shown they exist. It would be interesting in the future to look at whether insights gained by looking at exact solutions can be used to improve the heuristic

The dimension growth conjecture, polynomial in the degree and without logarithmic factors

We address Heath-Brown's and Serre's dimension growth conjecture (proved by Salberger), when the degree $d$ grows. Recall that Salberger's dimension growth results give bounds of the form $O_{X, \varepsilon} (B^{\dim X+\varepsilon})$ for the number of rational points of height at most $B$ on any integral subvariety $X$ of ${\mathbb P}^n_{\mathbb Q}$ of degree $d\geq 2$, where one can write $O_{d,n, \varepsilon}$ instead of $O_{X, \varepsilon}$ as soon as $d\geq 4$. Our main contribution is to remove the factor $B^\varepsilon$ as soon as $d \geq 5$, without introducing a factor $\log B$, while moreover obtaining polynomial dependence on $d$ of the implied constant. Working polynomially in $d$ allows us to give a self-contained and slightly simplified treatment of dimension growth for degree $d \geq 16$, while in the range $5 \leq d \leq 15$ we invoke results by Browning, Heath-Brown and Salberger. Along the way we improve the well-known bounds due to Bombieri and Pila on the number of integral points of bounded height on affine curves and those by Walsh on the number of rational points of bounded height on projective curves. The former improvement leads to a slight sharpening of a recent estimate due to Bhargava, Shankar, Taniguchi, Thorne, Tsimerman and Zhao on the size of the $2$-torsion subgroup of the class group of a degree $d$ number field. Our treatment builds on recent work by Salberger which brings in many primes in Heath-Brown's variant of the determinant method, and on recent work by Walsh and Ellenberg--Venkatesh, who bring in the size of the defining polynomial. We also obtain lower bounds showing that one cannot do better than polynomial dependence on $d$

An estimate of the cost of burnout on early retirement and reduction in clinical hours of practicing physicians in Canada.

BackgroundInterest in the impact of burnout on physicians has been growing because of the possible burden this may have on health care systems. The objective of this study is to estimate the cost of burnout on early retirement and reduction in clinical hours of practicing physicians in Canada.MethodsUsing an economic model, the costs related to early retirement and reduction in clinical hours of physicians were compared for those who were experiencing burnout against a scenario in which they did not experience burnout. The January 2012 Canadian Medical Association Masterfile was used to determine the number of practicing physicians. Transition probabilities were estimated using 2007-2008 Canadian Physician Health Survey and 2007 National Physician Survey data. Adjustments were also applied to outcome estimates based on ratio of actual to planned retirement and reduction in clinical hours.ResultsThe total cost of burnout for all physicians practicing in Canada is estimated to be $213.1 million ($185.2 million due to early retirement and $27.9 million due to reduced clinical hours). Family physicians accounted for 58.8% of the burnout costs, followed by surgeons for 24.6% and other specialists for 16.6%.ConclusionThe cost of burnout associated with early retirement and reduction in clinical hours is substantial and a significant proportion of practicing physicians experience symptoms of burnout. As health systems struggle with human resource shortages and expanding waiting times, this estimate sheds light on the extent to which the burden could be potentially decreased through prevention and promotion activities to address burnout among physicians

蛍光剤無添加の芳香環ポリマーを用いた多種類放射線用サーベイメータの開発

京都大学0048新制・課程博士博士(農学)甲第20066号農博第2195号新制||農||1045(附属図書館)学位論文||H28||N5022(農学部図書室)京都大学大学院農学研究科地域環境科学専攻(主査)教授 髙橋 千太郎, 教授 近藤 直, 教授 飯田 訓久学位規則第4条第1項該当Doctor of Agricultural ScienceKyoto UniversityDFA

Spatial and Temporal Stability of Airglow Measured in the Meinel Band Window at 1191.3 nm

We report on the temporal and spatial fluctuations in the atmospheric brightness in the narrow band between Meinel emission lines at 1191.3 nm using an R=320 near-infrared instrument. We present the instrument design and implementation, followed by a detailed analysis of data taken over the course of a night from Table Mountain Observatory. The absolute sky brightness at this wavelength is found to be 5330 +/- 30 nW m^-2 sr^-1, consistent with previous measurements of the inter-band airglow at these wavelengths. This amplitude is larger than simple models of the continuum component of the airglow emission at these wavelengths, confirming that an extra emissive or scattering component is required to explain the observations. We perform a detailed investigation of the noise properties of the data and find no evidence for a noise component associated with temporal instability in the inter-line continuum. This result demonstrates that in several hours of ~100s integrations the noise performance of the instrument does not appear to significantly degrade from expectations, giving a proof of concept that near-IR line intensity mapping may be feasible from ground-based sites.Comment: 15 figures, submitted to PAS

Reinforcement Learning With Simulated User For Automatic Dialog Strategy Optimization

In this paper, we propose a solution to the problem of formulating strategies for a spoken dialog system. Our approach is based on reinforcement learning with the help of a simulated user in order to identify an optimal dialog strategy. Our method considers the Markov decision process to be a framework for representation of speech dialog in which the states represent history and discourse context, the actions are dialog acts and the transition strategies are decisions on actions to take between states. We present our reinforcement learning architecture with a novel objective function that is based on dialog quality rather than its duration

A high signal to noise ratio map of the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich increment at 1.1 mm wavelength in Abell 1835

We present an analysis of an 8 arcminute diameter map of the area around the galaxy cluster Abell 1835 from jiggle map observations at a wavelength of 1.1 mm using the Bolometric Camera (Bolocam) mounted on the Caltech Submillimeter Observatory (CSO). The data is well described by a model including an extended Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (SZ) signal from the cluster gas plus emission from two bright background submm galaxies magnified by the gravitational lensing of the cluster. The best-fit values for the central Compton value for the cluster and the fluxes of the two main point sources in the field: SMM J140104+0252, and SMM J14009+0252 are found to be $y_{0}=(4.34\pm0.52\pm0.69)\times10^{-4}$, 6.5$\pm{2.0}\pm0.7$ mJy and 11.3$\pm{1.9}\pm1.1$ mJy, where the first error represents the statistical measurement error and the second error represents the estimated systematic error in the result. This measurement assumes the presence of dust emission from the cluster's central cD galaxy of $1.8\pm0.5$ mJy, based on higher frequency observations of Abell 1835. The cluster image represents one of the highest-significance SZ detections of a cluster in the positive region of the thermal SZ spectrum to date. The inferred central intensity is compared to other SZ measurements of Abell 1835 and this collection of results is used to obtain values for $y_{0} = (3.60\pm0.24)\times10^{-4}$ and the cluster peculiar velocity $v_{z} = -226\pm275$ km/s.Comment: 9 pages, 5 figure

INTELLECTUAL CAPITAL, ORGANIZATIONAL LEARNING CAPABILITY, AND ERP IMPLEMENTATION FOR STRA-TEGIC BENEFIT

Despite extensive research, the degree to which organizations are successful in creating strategic advantage with ERP systems, and the factors that distinguish successful and unsuccessful ERP implementations are still equivocal. Using a lens of the Resource-Based View of the firm, and following studies that suggest that IT become valuable over time when they interact with other organizational resources and capabilities, we hypothesize that the creation of the intellectual capital (IC) that can lead to strategic advantage is related to the scope of ERP implementation. We examine how ERP implementation can be used to create IC, moderated by the presence of organizational learning capability (OLC). We find clear relationships between OLC and IC, and between ERP implementation scope and IC, and ambiguous moderating effects from OLC