Effects of Employee Allocation on Company Growth

How does allocation of limited employee resources affect firms’ growth, and how does fast growth force or enable certain employee allocation structures? We show a clear but weak negative correlation between employee count and firm growth. That is, firms with fewer employees grow faster than those with more employees, as a whole. However, we have not yet been able to draw more detailed conclusions about firm structure or about the use of revenue due to a number of confounding factors. We explain these confounding factors and suggest a number of possible explanations for the apparent relationship between employees and growth. Finally, we address next steps for resolving the confounding factors and describe the implications of our results

Item Parameter Drift as an Indication of Differential Opportunity to Learn: An Exploration of item Flagging Methods & Accurate Classification of Examinees

The presence of outlying anchor items is an issue faced by many testing agencies. The decision to retain or remove an item is a difficult one, especially when the content representation of the anchor set becomes questionable by item removal decisions. Additionally, the reason for the aberrancy is not always clear, and if the performance of the item has changed due to improvements in instruction, then removing the anchor item may not be appropriate and might produce misleading conclusions about the proficiency of the examinees. This study is conducted in two parts consisting of both a simulation and empirical data analysis. In these studies, the effect on examinee classification was investigated when the decision was made to remove or retain aberrant anchor items. Three methods of detection were explored; (1) delta plot, (2) IRT b-parameter plots, and (3) the RPU method. In the simulation study, degree of aberrancy was manipulated as well as the ability distribution of examinees and five aberrant item schemes were employed. In the empirical data analysis, archived statewide science achievement data that was suspected to possess differential opportunity to learn between administrations was re-analyzed using the various item parameter drift detection methods. The results for both the simulation and empirical data study provide support for eliminating the use of flagged items for linking assessments when a matrix-sampling design is used and a large number of items are used within that anchor. While neither the delta nor the IRT b-parameter plot methods produced results that would overwhelmingly support their use, it is recommended that both methods be employed in practice until further research is conducted for alternative methods, such as the RPU method since classification accuracy increases when such methods are employed and items are removed and most often, growth is not misrepresented by doing so

Information flow in parameterized quantum circuits

In this work, we introduce a new way to quantify information flow in quantum systems, especially for parameterized quantum circuits. We use a graph representation of the circuits and propose a new distance metric using the mutual information between gate nodes. We then present an optimization procedure for variational algorithms using paths based on the distance measure. We explore the features of the algorithm by means of the variational quantum eigensolver, in which we compute the ground state energies of the Heisenberg model. In addition, we employ the method to solve a binary classification problem using variational quantum classification. From numerical simulations, we show that our method can be successfully used for optimizing the parameterized quantum circuits primarily used in near-term algorithms. We further note that information-flow based paths can be used to improve convergence of existing stochastic gradient based methods

Distillation optimization: Parameterized relationship between feed flow rate of a steady-state distillation column and heat duties of reboiler and condenser

The paper considers the problem of maximum efficiency for the system of distillation columns. Columns in such systems are connected in parallel or sequential way. The mixture being separated is assumed to be close to ideal one. Authors parameterize the relationship between feed flow rate and heat duties of a steady-state binary distillation column using two parameters: the reversible efficiency and the irreversibility coefficient. This relationship is later being used to solve the problems of optimal distribution of heat and feed flows within the system. The results obtained allow one to estimate minimum heat energy demand for distillation of the given feed flow, maximum performance, and efficiency of the system. © 2022 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.Robert Sterling Clark Foundation, RSCF: 20-61-46013This work is supported by RSCF Grant 20-61-46013