The Socialist World in the Second Age of Globalization: An Alternative History?

The history of the Second Age of Globalization (from 1945 through to the present) has traditionally been told through the lens of either the industrially advanced First World, or, more critically, the developing countries of the Third World. Less is known about the experience of globalization in the so-called “Second World”, the socialist states of the Soviet Union and its Eastern European satellites. The following review essay draws on recent work in the history of globalization to show that, contrary to long-held assumptions that socialism was an autarkic system that cut countries off from the wider world, post-war socialist countries were deeply integrated into and dependent on global markets and networks

Texas Oil and Gas Case Law Update

As the Texas economy enjoys the impact of robust oil and gas exploration and development spurred on by the shale drilling boom, Texas courts continue to experience similarly swollen dockets of oil and gas disputes. The Texas Supreme Court remained active in the energy sector in the 2011-2012 term with significant opinions affecting the areas of pipeline condemnation, exploration and production industry contracts, and lessor-lessee relations. Texas intermediate appellate courts also issued dozens of opinions touching various aspects of the industry from title and conveyancing disputes to lease operating issues. The following update will address the significant Texas Supreme Court opinions from the 2011-2012 term as well as selected cases from the intermediate appellate courts

Tweed in Martensites: A Potential New Spin Glass

We've been studying the ``tweed'' precursors above the martensitic transition in shape--memory alloys. These characteristic cross--hatched modulations occur for hundreds of degrees above the first--order shape--changing transition. Our two--dimensional model for this transition, in the limit of infinite elastic anisotropy, can be mapped onto a spin--glass Hamiltonian in a random field. We suggest that the tweed precursors are a direct analogy of the spin--glass phase. The tweed is intermediate between the high--temperature cubic phase and the low--temperature martensitic phase in the same way as the spin--glass phase can be intermediate between ferromagnet and antiferromagnet.Comment: 18 pages and four figures (included

Radix-16 signed-digit division

Journal ArticleFor use in the context of a linearly scalable arithmetic architecture supporting high/variable precision arithmetic operations (integer or fractional), a two-stage algorithm for fixed point, radix-16 signed-digit division is presented. The algorithm uses two limited precision radix-4 quotient digit selection stages to produce the full radix-16 quotient digit.The algorithm requires a two digit estimate of the (initial) partial remainder and a three digit estimate of the divisor to correctly select each successive quotient digit. The normalization of redundant signed-digit numbers requires accommodation of some fuzziness at one end of the range of numeric values that are considered normalized. A set of general equations for determining the ranges of normalized signed-digit numbers is derived. Another set of general equations for determining the precisions of estimates of the divisor and dividend required in a limited precision SRT model signed-digit division are derived. These two sets of equations permit design tradeoff analyses to be made with respect to the complexity of the model division. The specific case of a two-stage radix-16 signed-digit division is presented. The staged division algorithm used can be extended to other radices as long as the signed-digit number representation used has certain properties

The set theory of arithmetic decomposition

Journal ArticleThe Set Theory of Arithmetic Decomposition is a method for designing complex addition/ subtraction circuits at any radix using strictly positional, sign-local number systems. The specification of an addition circuit is simply an equation that describes the inputs and the outputs as weighted digit sets. Design is done by applying a set of rewrite rules known as decomposition operators to the equation. The order in which and weight at which each operator is applied maps directly to a physical implementation, including both multiple-level logic and connectivity. The method is readily automated and has been used to design some higher radix arithmetic circuits. It is possible to compute the cost of a given adder before the detailed design is complete