1,104 research outputs found

    Functional Sequential Treatment Allocation

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    Consider a setting in which a policy maker assigns subjects to treatments, observing each outcome before the next subject arrives. Initially, it is unknown which treatment is best, but the sequential nature of the problem permits learning about the effectiveness of the treatments. While the multi-armed-bandit literature has shed much light on the situation when the policy maker compares the effectiveness of the treatments through their mean, much less is known about other targets. This is restrictive, because a cautious decision maker may prefer to target a robust location measure such as a quantile or a trimmed mean. Furthermore, socio-economic decision making often requires targeting purpose specific characteristics of the outcome distribution, such as its inherent degree of inequality, welfare or poverty. In the present paper we introduce and study sequential learning algorithms when the distributional characteristic of interest is a general functional of the outcome distribution. Minimax expected regret optimality results are obtained within the subclass of explore-then-commit policies, and for the unrestricted class of all policies

    Simultaneous Conventional and Plenoptic Background Oriented Schlieren Imaging

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    Plenoptic Background Oriented Schlieren (BOS) is an emerging schlieren technique that is capable of providing 3D qualitative and quantitative information about density gradients present in a wide range of fluid dynamics problems. In this work, the fundamental concepts of plenoptic BOS are reviewed before discussing an open-air experiment with a buoyant plume where both conventional BOS and plenoptic BOS measurements were acquired simultaneously. Both cameras had the same field-of-view for all experiments, and three different focal plane arrangements were explored: (1) the focal plane was set to the background positions and the plume varied between 11 different positions relative to this focal plane, (2) the focal plane was set to 635- millimeters in front of the background position, and (3) the nominal focal plane varied while the position of the plume remained fixed. Such discussion will provide insight on how the two techniques compare, and what additional work is required to better understand the results provided by these two imaging systems

    Paleoproductivity, ventilation, and organic carbon burial in the Santa Barbara Basin (ODP Site 893, off California) since the last glacial

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    Biogenic burial rates and coccolith assemblage data were generated for the past 16 ka at ODP Site 893 in the Santa Barbara Basin, off California, to determine if dysoxic events in the basin were related to changes in marine productivity. Coccolith abundance data show that changes in surface water conditions did indeed change in concert with oxygen levels at the sea floor. However, organic carbon burial rates varied independently, indicating that oxygenation of the water column is related mainly to intermediate water ventilation. A strong correlation of organic carbon burial rates with lithogenic, and to a lesser extent with carbonate and opal accumulation rates confirms recent conclusions that the export of organic carbon from the sea surface is largely controlled by the presence of ballast minerals

    Killing-Yano tensors and some applications

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    The role of Killing and Killing-Yano tensors for studying the geodesic motion of the particle and the superparticle in a curved background is reviewed. Additionally the Papadopoulos list [74] for Killing-Yano tensors in G structures is reproduced by studying the torsion types these structures admit. The Papadopoulos list deals with groups G appearing in the Berger classification, and we enlarge the list by considering additional G structures which are not of the Berger type. Possible applications of these results in the study of supersymmetric particle actions and in the AdS/CFT correspondence are outlined.Comment: 36 pages, no figure

    Synthesis of bis(indolyl)methanes using silica gel as an efficient and recyclable surface

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    AbstractHere we describe a simple, clean, and efficient solvent-free protocol for the synthesis of bis(indolyl)methanes promoted by silica gel. The products were obtained in good to excellent yields through the reaction of indoles with cyclohexanone and a range of aldehydes. The silica gel was easily recovered and utilized for further reactions without loss of activity

    Methodological issues in testing the marginal productivity theory

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    Previous tests of the marginal productivity theory have been criticized on several grounds reviewed by the authors. One important deficiency has been the small number of factor inputs entered in the production functions. In 1978 Gottschalk suggested a method to estimate production functions with many inputs by assuming that the production process can be split into subprocesses. This reduces the probability of multicollinearity. The authors show that the method depends on an additional assumption. Tinbergen has developed a method for avoiding this assumption. Its application to American cross-section (state) data did not alter the estimated coefficients greatly

    A Multiwavelength View of a Mass Outflow from the Galactic Center

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    The Galactic center (GC) lobe is a degree-tall shell of gas that spans the central degree of our Galaxy. It has been cited as evidence for a mass outflow from our GC region, which has inspired diverse models for its origin. However, most work has focused on the morphology of the GC lobe, which has made it difficult to draw strong conclusions about its nature. Here, I present a coherent, multiwavelength analysis of new and archival observations of the GC lobe. Radio continuum emission shows that the GC lobe has a magnetized layer with a diameter of 110 pc and an equipartition field strength ranging from 40 to 100 μ\muG. Recombination line emission traces an ionized shell nested within the radio continuum with diameter of 80 pc and height 165 pc. Mid-infrared maps at 8 and 15 μ\mum show that the GC lobe has a third layer of warm dust and PAH-emission that surrounds the radio continuum shell with a diameter of 130 pc. Assuming adiabatic expansion of the gas in the GC lobe, its formation required an energy input of about 5×10525\times10^{52} ergs. I compare the physical conditions of the GC lobe to several models and find best agreement with the canonical starburst outflow model. The formation of the GC lobe is consistent with the currently observed pressure and star formation rate in the central tens of parsecs of our Galaxy. Outflows of this scale are more typical of dwarf galaxies and would not be easily detected in nearby spiral galaxies. Thus, the existence of such an outflow in our own Galaxy may indicate that it is relatively common phenomenon in the nuclei of spiral galaxies. (Abridged)Comment: Accepted to ApJ. 15 pages, 8 (compressed) figure

    Feeding regimens in finishing phase of beef cattle on corporal development and meat quality.

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    Despite to be a traditional activity in southern Brazil, beef cattle production based exclusively in natural grasslands normally presents low animal productivity, reflecting a misunderstanding of basic management practices like control of forage allowance and or lack of utilization of others possibilities of foraging
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