3,793 research outputs found
Almost Budget Balanced Mechanisms with Scalar Bids For Allocation of a Divisible Good
This paper is about allocation of an infinitely divisible good to several
rational and strategic agents. The allocation is done by a social planner who
has limited information because the agents' valuation functions are taken to be
private information known only to the respective agents. We allow only a scalar
signal, called a bid, from each agent to the social planner. Yang and Hajek
[Jour. on Selected Areas in Comm., 2007] as well as Johari and Tsitsiklis
[Jour. of Oper. Res., 2009] proposed a scalar strategy Vickrey-Clarke-Groves
(SSVCG) mechanism with efficient Nash equilibria. We consider a setting where
the social planner desires minimal budget surplus. Example situations include
fair sharing of Internet resources and auctioning of certain public goods where
revenue maximization is not a consideration. Under the SSVCG framework, we
propose a mechanism that is efficient and comes close to budget balance by
returning much of the payments back to the agents in the form of rebates. We
identify a design criterion for {\em almost budget balance}, impose feasibility
and voluntary participation constraints, simplify the constraints, and arrive
at a convex optimization problem to identify the parameters of the rebate
functions. The convex optimization problem has a linear objective function and
a continuum of linear constraints. We propose a solution method that involves a
finite number of constraints, and identify the number of samples sufficient for
a good approximation.Comment: Accepted for publication in the European Journal of Operational
Research (EJOR
Multiple Description Vector Quantization with Lattice Codebooks: Design and Analysis
The problem of designing a multiple description vector quantizer with lattice
codebook Lambda is considered. A general solution is given to a labeling
problem which plays a crucial role in the design of such quantizers. Numerical
performance results are obtained for quantizers based on the lattices A_2 and
Z^i, i=1,2,4,8, that make use of this labeling algorithm. The high-rate
squared-error distortions for this family of L-dimensional vector quantizers
are then analyzed for a memoryless source with probability density function p
and differential entropy h(p) < infty. For any a in (0,1) and rate pair (R,R),
it is shown that the two-channel distortion d_0 and the channel 1 (or channel
2) distortions d_s satisfy lim_{R -> infty} d_0 2^(2R(1+a)) = (1/4) G(Lambda)
2^{2h(p)} and lim_{R -> infty} d_s 2^(2R(1-a)) = G(S_L) 2^2h(p), where
G(Lambda) is the normalized second moment of a Voronoi cell of the lattice
Lambda and G(S_L) is the normalized second moment of a sphere in L dimensions.Comment: 46 pages, 14 figure
Exploring the high-pressure materials genome
A thorough in situ characterization of materials at extreme conditions is
challenging, and computational tools such as crystal structural search methods
in combination with ab initio calculations are widely used to guide experiments
by predicting the composition, structure, and properties of high-pressure
compounds. However, such techniques are usually computationally expensive and
not suitable for large-scale combinatorial exploration. On the other hand,
data-driven computational approaches using large materials databases are useful
for the analysis of energetics and stability of hundreds of thousands of
compounds, but their utility for materials discovery is largely limited to
idealized conditions of zero temperature and pressure. Here, we present a novel
framework combining the two computational approaches, using a simple linear
approximation to the enthalpy of a compound in conjunction with
ambient-conditions data currently available in high-throughput databases of
calculated materials properties. We demonstrate its utility by explaining the
occurrence of phases in nature that are not ground states at ambient conditions
and estimating the pressures at which such ambient-metastable phases become
thermodynamically accessible, as well as guiding the exploration of
ambient-immiscible binary systems via sophisticated structural search methods
to discover new stable high-pressure phases.Comment: 14 pages, 6 figure
Lessons Learned from Comparing the Application of Constitutional Law and Anti-Discrimination Law to African Americans in the U.S. and Dalits in India in the Context of Higher Education
In this Article the authors will compare the development of constitutional law and federal anti-discrimination law in the context of higher education of African-Americans in the U.S. and Dalits in India. Both groups suffer from oppression and discrimination based upon a hereditary trait and related to their integration into mainstream society; neither group is completely isolated from the majority population responsible for the discrimination; and African-Americans and Dalits approximate similar percentages of their country\u27s population. Based upon the 2000 census, African-Americans constitute 12.7% of the American populations, and, according to the 1991 Census Report of India, Dalits make up 16.5% of the Indian population. Yet, although African-Americans have been victims of hereditary racial oppression in the U.S. for almost 400 years, Dalits have suffered oppression for 3,500 years and counting
Citations analysis of LIS theses submitted to Kuvempu University and University of Mysore
A Citation analysis on 8289 citations cited in 59 LIS doctoral theses submitted to Kuvempu University (15 theses) and University of Mysore (44 theses) has been carried out to know the citation pattern. The data was collected using Shodhganga e-theses database. The study found that a total of 6883 journal citations were cited in 59 theses. The journal ‘Scientometrics’ has been cited 651 times and stands first in the rank list of journals. Annals of Library and Information Studies which is an Indian LIS journal stands in the third position in the rank list with 130 citations. The Bradford’s law of scattering is not applicable for this study. The rank list of country-wise journals showed that journals published from USA have highly cited followed by journals published from UK and India
Lessons Learned from Comparing the Application of Constitutional Law and Anti-Discrimination Law to African Americans in the U.S. and Dalits in India in the Context of Higher Education
In this Article the authors will compare the development of constitutional law and federal anti-discrimination law in the context of higher education of African-Americans in the U.S. and Dalits in India. Both groups suffer from oppression and discrimination based upon a hereditary trait and related to their integration into mainstream society; neither group is completely isolated from the majority population responsible for the discrimination; and African-Americans and Dalits approximate similar percentages of their country\u27s population. Based upon the 2000 census, African-Americans constitute 12.7% of the American populations, and, according to the 1991 Census Report of India, Dalits make up 16.5% of the Indian population. Yet, although African-Americans have been victims of hereditary racial oppression in the U.S. for almost 400 years, Dalits have suffered oppression for 3,500 years and counting
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