Nuclear Ground-State Masses and Deformations

We tabulate the atomic mass excesses and nuclear ground-state deformations of 8979 nuclei ranging from $^{16}$O to $A=339$. The calculations are based on the finite-range droplet macroscopic model and the folded-Yukawa single-particle microscopic model. Relative to our 1981 mass table the current results are obtained with an improved macroscopic model, an improved pairing model with a new form for the effective-interaction pairing gap, and minimization of the ground-state energy with respect to additional shape degrees of freedom. The values of only 9 constants are determined directly from a least-squares adjustment to the ground-state masses of 1654 nuclei ranging from $^{16}$O to $^{263}$106 and to 28 fission-barrier heights. The error of the mass model is 0.669~MeV for the entire region of nuclei considered, but is only 0.448~MeV for the region above $N=65$.Comment: 50 pages plus 20 PostScript figures and 160-page table obtainable by anonymous ftp from t2.lanl.gov in directory masses, LA-UR-93-308

Computational Mechanics of Input-Output Processes: Structured transformations and the ϵ\epsilon-transducer

Computational mechanics quantifies structure in a stochastic process via its causal states, leading to the process's minimal, optimal predictor---the $\epsilon$-machine. We extend computational mechanics to communication channels between two processes, obtaining an analogous optimal model---the $\epsilon$-transducer---of the stochastic mapping between them. Here, we lay the foundation of a structural analysis of communication channels, treating joint processes and processes with input. The result is a principled structural analysis of mechanisms that support information flow between processes. It is the first in a series on the structural information theory of memoryful channels, channel composition, and allied conditional information measures.Comment: 30 pages, 19 figures; http://csc.ucdavis.edu/~cmg/compmech/pubs/et1.htm; Updated to conform to published version plus additional corrections and update

Human Capital Development and Parental Investment in India

We estimate production functions for cognition and health for children aged 1-12 in India, where over 70 million children aged 0-5 are at risk of developmental deficits. The inputs into the production functions include parental background, prior child cognition and health, and child investments. We use income and local prices to control for the endogeneity of investments. We find that cognition is sensitive to investments throughout the age range we consider, while health is mainly affected by early investments. We also find that inputs are complementary, and crucially that health is very important in determining cognition. Our paper contributes in understanding how investments and early health outcomes are important in child development

Disparity does not mean bias: making sense of observed racial disparities in fatal officer-involved shootings with multiple benchmarks

Racial disparities in officer-involved shootings have dominated the national discourse recently. Unfortunately, we have yet to identify an appropriate benchmark, or at-risk population, to put these observed racial disparities into context. In this article, we use seven benchmarks—based on population data from the US Census, police-citizen interaction data from the Police-Public Contact Survey, and arrest data from the Uniform Crime Report—to compare OIS fatality rates for black and white citizens from 2015 to 2017. Using population, police-citizen interactions, or total arrests as a benchmark, we observe that black citizens appear more likely than white citizens to be fatally shot by police officers in both years. Using violent crime arrests or weapons offense arrests, we observe that black citizens appear less likely to be fatally shot by police officers. We discuss why population data is a fundamentally flawed benchmark, and elaborate the strengths and weaknesses of using police-citizen interaction or arrest benchmarks

Human Capital Development and Parental Investment in India

In this paper we estimate production functions for cognition and health throughout four stages of childhood from 5-15 years of age using two cohorts of children drawn from the Young Lives Survey for India. The inputs into the production function include parental background, prior child cognition and health and child investments. We allow investments to be endogenous and they depend on local prices and household income, as well as on the exogenous determinants of cognition and health. We find that investments are very important determinants of child cognition and of health at an earlier age. We also find that inputs are complementary and crucially that health is very important in determining cognition. Our paper contributes in understanding how early health outcomes are important in child development