Toric ideals of normalized graph algebras

A graph-theoretic method, simpler than existing ones, is used to characterize the minimal set of monomial generators for the integral closure of any algebra of polynomials generated by quadratic monomials. The toric ideal of relations between these generators is generated by a set of binomials, defined graphically. The spectra of the original algebra and of its integral closure turn out to be canonically homeomorphic.Comment: 9 pages, no figures. v2: major rewrite. v3: minor improvements. v4: new title, old reference located, other small change

Testing the Role of Technical Information in Public Risk Perception

It is widely believed that more detail about health effects and likely exposure routes is apt to reduce citizens\u27 concerns about low-probability Risks. The authors\u27 study suggests that providing such detail may not be as useful as, e.g., addressing public concerns and keeping citizens current on officials\u27 actions

COMEDY: THE UNCERTAIN TERRAIN OF JOHN HAWKES

This dissertation examines the nature and function of John Hawkes\u27 comic method. Although most critics acknowledge that Hawkes writes comedy, very few of them agree on the moral nature of this comedy. Chapter I examines these differing responses to Hawkes\u27 work and offers an alternative way of evaluating his humor, based on his own and other critics\u27 comments on comedy. This chapter also suggests that our responses to Hawkes\u27 humor occur on an uncertain terrain where two or more, sometimes opposite, reactions to a text clash, forcing us into continuous moments of indecision. Chapter II deals with Hawkes\u27 first novel, Charivari, which is important because in it we find Hawkes experimenting with comic techniques which he employs in later novels. Chapter III explains how comic techniques in The Lime Twig trap us between our emotional, moral, intellectual, and aesthetic concerns for Michael and Margaret Banks and William Hencher. Comedy forces us to judge these characters\u27 human failings, though we also sympathize with them and recognize our own faults in them. Chapter IV discusses Skipper\u27s contradictory nature in Second Skin, explaining how comic techniques make us question his attractive self-portrait and realize his responsibility for the tragic events in the novel. Chapter V illustrates what happens to comedy in The Blood Oranges, Death, Sleep & the Traveler, and Travesty when we become less concerned with the comedy of character and action and more interested in the author behind the trilogy who is playing with language and form. Chapter VI deals with The Passion Artist and Virginie: Her Two Lives. In Hawkes\u27 most recent novels the nature and function of comedy is not always clear because Hawkes seems to treat seriously the same sexual attitudes and practices that he ridiculed in previous novels. This chapter ends by suggesting that Hawkes\u27 comedy is maximized when, as in The Lime Twig and Second Skin, all of our concerns--emotional, moral, intellectual, and aesthetic--are played off each other, so that, as Hawkes himself says, we are challenged to know ourselves better and to live with more compassion.

Phase Diversity and Polarization Augmented Techniques for Active Imaging

A multi-frame active phase diversity imaging (APDI) algorithm is derived for coherent light statistics and demonstrated. In addition to conventional focal-plane and diversity-plane data, a statistical description for pupil-plane (PP) intensity is formed and included in the derivation. The algorithm is implemented and characterized via Monte Carlo simulation. Analysis shows that it\u27s robust, insensitive to detection noise for SNR ? 7, performs well for SNR\u27s as low as 2, and that the effect of system configuration on optimal parameters is minimal. Furthermore, introduction of PP data results in a 60% better reconstruction from dynamically aberrated data than obtained using only focal-plane and diversity-plane data. Both an EM-algorithm and a lensless-APDI approach are presented for generating imagery directly from PP polarization measurements. However, both approaches are currently impractical. Suggestions for improvement are offered. Finally, the APDI algorithm is modified to use PP polarization data in place of PP intensities. An initial statistical model is offered, and suggestions for performance improvement are presented