MaxEnt Queries and Sequential Sampling

In this paper we pose the question: After gathering N data points, at what value of the control parameter should the next measurement be done? We propose an on-line algorithm which samples optimally by maximizing the gain in information on the parameters to be measured. We show analytically that the information gain is maximum for those potential measurements whose outcome is most unpredictable, i.e. for which the predictive distribution has maximum entropy. The resulting algorithm is applied to exponential analysis.Comment: Presented at MaxEnt 2000, the 20th International Workshop on Bayesian Inference and Maximum Entropy Methods (July 8-13, 2000, Gif-sur-Yvette, France) To be published in the Proceedings, Ali Mohammad-Djafari E

When the Price Is Too High: Rethinking China\u27s Deterrence Strategy for Robbery

Economic property crime in China has soared since the country enacted market reforms in the early 1980s. Robbery rates are rising faster than most economic property crimes, such as larceny and fraud, and violent crimes, such as rape, murder, and assault. China’s strategy for deterrence is to raise the “price” of the crime by increasing the severity of the penalty. Since 1979, China’s criminal law has permitted the use of the death penalty for robbers in nearly all cases, and courts have applied it regularly and in many different types of robbery cases. Since 1983, China has formally engaged in “strike-hard” campaigns, in which the government dedicates massive law enforcement resources to fight a particular crime. The campaigns have targeted robbery and have resulted in mass arrests, swift trials, and severe sentences—including mass executions. Despite these efforts, China has failed to deter individuals from committing more robberies. This Comment argues that China should reform its deterrence strategy by revising its criminal law and “strike-hard” campaigns. China should adopt new deterrence strategies that combine law with sociology, economics, and psychology. Not only will these strategies deter more robbery, they will also deter the more serious crimes often committed during robberies. The new strategies will also provide incentives for individuals to commit less violent crime

What's "up"? Impaired Spatial Preposition Processing in Posterior Cortical Atrophy.

This study seeks to confirm whether lesions in posterior regions of the brain involved in visuo-spatial processing are of functional relevance to the processing of words with spatial meaning. We investigated whether patients with Posterior Cortical Atrophy (PCA), an atypical form of Alzheimer's Disease which predominantly affects parieto-occipital brain regions, is associated with deficits in working memory for spatial prepositions. Case series of patients with PCA and matched healthy controls performed tests of immediate and delayed serial recall on words from three lexico-semantic word categories: number words (twelve), spatial prepositions (behind) and function words (e.g., shall). The three word categories were closely matched for a number of psycholinguistic and semantic variables including length, bi-/tri-gram frequency, word frequency, valence and arousal. Relative to controls, memory performance of PCA patients on short word lists was significantly impaired on spatial prepositions in the delayed serial recall task. These results suggest that lesions in posterior parieto-occipital regions specifically impair the processing of spatial prepositions. Our findings point to a pertinent role of posterior cortical regions in the semantic processing of words with spatial meaning and provide strong support for modality-specific semantic theories that recognize the necessary contributions of sensorimotor regions to conceptual semantic processing

Using Ground Penetrating Radar and attribute analysis for identifying depositional units in a fluvial-aeolian interaction environment: The Guandacol Valley, northwest Argentina

This paper deals with the application of the Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) method and the analysis of attributes of the GPR data to characterize and interpret a fluvial-aeolian interaction field located in the Guandacol Valley, northwest Argentina. Several profiles over dunes, interdunes, aeolian mesoforms, and fluvial channels have been acquired. Each data section is analyzed by using standard images of the amplitude of the electric field, as well as representations of different attributes of the reflections such as contrast, dip, curvature, parallelism, and RMS frequency. The analysis of attributes improves the interpretation of the subsurface, by quantifying and making evident properties of the reflection patterns that characterize the sedimentary units. The information obtained using the GPR profiles allows defining seven radar packages, which are useful for reconstructing the internal structure of the fluvial-aeolian succession. Packages 1, 2 and 3 illustrate the stratification of different types of low-sinuosity and high-sinuosity aeolian dunes, as well as aeolian mesoforms. Package 4 corresponds to horizontal or low-angle inclined reflectors obtained in both sandy interdunes and upper parts of several aeolian dunes. A muddy bed that covers most of the area (package 5) probably indicates a period of climate amelioration linked to a high level of the water table. The fluvial component of the fluvial-aeolian succession exhibits two different packages; package 6 represents the infill of partially incised fluvial channels with frequent incisions (concave-up bounding surfaces) and bars (convex-up surfaces). Package 7 is composed of the stacking of parallel to subparallel horizontal reflectors, without concave-up surfaces that indicate deep channels. Finally, we propose a conceptual model that relates the principal radar packages with the temporal evolution of the fluvial-aeolian interaction field of Guandacol Valley.Fil: Zabala Medina, Peter. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Ciudad Universitaria. Instituto de Física de Buenos Aires. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Instituto de Física de Buenos Aires; ArgentinaFil: Limarino, Carlos Oscar. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Ciudad Universitaria. Instituto de Geociencias Básicas, Aplicadas y Ambientales de Buenos Aires. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Instituto de Geociencias Básicas, Aplicadas y Ambientales de Buenos Aires; ArgentinaFil: Bonomo, Nestor Eduardo. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Ciudad Universitaria. Instituto de Geociencias Básicas, Aplicadas y Ambientales de Buenos Aires. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Instituto de Geociencias Básicas, Aplicadas y Ambientales de Buenos Aires; ArgentinaFil: Salvó Bernárdez, Salomé Candela. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Ciudad Universitaria. Instituto de Geociencias Básicas, Aplicadas y Ambientales de Buenos Aires. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Instituto de Geociencias Básicas, Aplicadas y Ambientales de Buenos Aires; ArgentinaFil: Osella, Ana Maria. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Ciudad Universitaria. Instituto de Física de Buenos Aires. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Instituto de Física de Buenos Aires; Argentin

A Sensitivity-Based Commonality Strategy for Family Products of Mild Variation, with Application to Automotive Body Structures

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/77299/1/AIAA-2002-5610-730.pd

Proteasomal Interference Prevents Zona Pellucida Penetration and Fertilization in Mammals

doi: 10.1095/biolreprod.104.032532The ubiquitin-proteasome pathway has been implicated in the penetration of ascidian vitelline envelope by the fertilizing spermatozoon (Sawada et al., Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2002; 99:1223-1228). The present study provides experimental evidence demonstrating proteasome involvement in the penetration of mammalian zona pellucida (ZP). Using porcine in vitro fertilization as a model, penetration of ZP was completely inhibited by specific proteasomal inhibitors MG-132 and lactacystin. Three commercial rabbit sera recognizing 20S proteasomal core subunits b-1i, b-2i, a-6, and b-5 completely blocked fertilization at a very low concentration (i.e., diluted 1/2000 to 1/8000 in fertilization medium). Neither proteasome inhibitors nor antibodies had any effects on sperm-ZP binding and acrosome exocytosis in zona-enclosed oocytes or on fertilization rates in zona-free oocytes, which were highly polyspermic. Consistent with a possible role of ubiquitin-proteasome pathway in ZP penetration, ubiquitin and various a and b type proteasomal subunits were detected in boar sperm acrosome by specific antibodies, immunoprecipitated and microsequenced by MALDITOF from boar sperm extracts. Antiubiquitin-immunoreactive substrates were detected on the outer face of ZP by epifluorescence microscopy. This study therefore provides strong evidence implicating the ubiquitin-proteasome pathway in mammalian fertilization and zona penetration. This finding opens a new line of acrosome/ZP research because further studies of the sperm acrosomal proteasome can provide new tools for the management of polyspermia during in vitro fertilization and identify new targets for contraceptive development

Nonlinear stopping effects of slow ions in a no-free-electron system: Titanium nitride

A recent experimental study of the energy losses of various ions in titanium nitride, in the low-energy range [M. A. Sortica, Sci. Rep. 9, 176 (2019)2045-232210.1038/s41598-018-36765-7], showed a striking departure of the measured values from those predicted by density functional theory. They suggested electron promotion in atomic collisions between dressed atoms as an explanation. In this Rapid Communication, we investigate the process of energy loss of slow ions in TiN using theoretical formulations that are based, on one side, on self-consistent models of nonlinear screening and quantum scattering theory, and on the other, on ab initio computations of the electron-density profile of titanium nitride. Two theoretical approaches are considered to determine the average energy transfer: One is based on the local-density approximation for the inhomogeneous electron gas corresponding to the calculated density of TiN, and the other is based on the Penn model for the convolution of the inhomogeneous electron-gas response based on a measured electron-loss function. Both approaches produce very similar results and are in remarkable agreement with the experimental data, indicating that the observed enhancement in the energy-loss values is due to the contribution of a range of electron densities in the TiN compound.Fil: Matias Da Silva, Flávio. Comisión Nacional de Energía Atómica. Gerencia del Área de Energía Nuclear. Instituto Balseiro. Archivo Histórico del Centro Atómico Bariloche e Instituto Balseiro | Universidad Nacional de Cuyo. Instituto Balseiro. Archivo Histórico del Centro Atómico Bariloche e Instituto Balseiro; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Patagonia Norte; ArgentinaFil: Grande, P. L.. Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul; BrasilFil: Vos, M.. The Australian National University; AustraliaFil: Koval, Peter. Donostia International Physics Center; EspañaFil: Koval, Natalia E.. Comisión de Investigaciones Científicas. Nanogune; EspañaFil: Arista, Nestor Ricardo. Comisión Nacional de Energía Atómica. Gerencia del Área de Energía Nuclear. Instituto Balseiro. Archivo Histórico del Centro Atómico Bariloche e Instituto Balseiro | Universidad Nacional de Cuyo. Instituto Balseiro. Archivo Histórico del Centro Atómico Bariloche e Instituto Balseiro; Argentin