Markov Chains for Collaboration

Consider a system of $n$ players in which each initially starts on a different team. At each time step, we select an individual winner and an individual loser randomly and the loser joins the winner's team. The resulting Markov chain and stochastic matrix clearly have one absorbing state, in which all players are on the same team, but the combinatorics along the way are surprisingly elegant. The expected number of time steps until each team is eliminated is a ratio of binomial coefficients. When a team is eliminated, the probabilities that the players are configured in various partitions of $n$ into $t$ teams are given by multinomial coefficients. The expected value of the time to absorbtion is $(n-1)^2$ steps. The results depend on elementary combinatorics, linear algebra, and the theory of Markov chains

Roles in construction projects: analysis and terminology

Standard form contracts are typically developed through a negotiated consensus, unless they are proffered by one specific interest group. Previously published plans of work and other descriptions of the processes in construction projects tend to focus on operational issues, or they tend to be prepared from the point of view of one or other of the dominant interest groups. Legal practice in the UK permits those who draft contracts to define their terms as they choose. There are no definitive rulings from the courts that give an indication as to the detailed responsibilities of project participants. The science of terminology offers useful guidance for discovering and describing terms and their meanings in their practical context, but has never been used for defining terms for responsibilities of participants in the construction project management process. Organizational analysis enables the management task to be deconstructed into its elemental parts in order that effective organizational structures can be developed. Organizational mapping offers a useful technique for reducing text-based descriptions of project management roles and responsibilities to a comparable basis. Research was carried out by means of a desk study, detailed analysis of nine plans of work and focus groups representing all aspects of the construction industry. No published plan of work offers definitive guidance. There is an enormous amount of variety in the way that terms are used for identifying responsibilities of project participants. A catalogue of concepts and terms (a “Terminology”) has been compiled and indexed to enable those who draft contracts to choose the most appropriate titles for project participants. The purpose of this terminology is to enable the selection and justification of appropriate terms in order to help define roles. The terminology brings an unprecedented clarity to the description of roles and responsibilities in construction projects and, as such, will be helpful for anyone seeking to assemble a team and specify roles for project participants

Molecular Epidemiology and Evolution of Corynebacterium diphtheriae and Vibrio cholerae

Molecular Epidemiology and Evolution of Corynebacterium diphtheriae and Vibrio cholerae Robert C. Will The infectious diseases diphtheria and cholera affect thousands of people around the world every year, and are caused by the bacterial species Corynebacterium diphtheriae and Vibrio cholerae respectively. While the two pathogens appear quite different biologically, diphtheria and cholera do share key similarities, including the fact that both diseases are intrinsically linked with poverty, outbreaking rapidly in areas of social turmoil, and during both natural and man-made disasters. Both are also highly treatable and survivable with the right resources available, including antibiotics and antitoxins. Vaccines are also available against both causative agents, although the diphtheria toxoid vaccine is in much wider use than cholera vaccine. In this thesis I have used genomics to investigate the epidemiology and evolution of both pathogens in global and national settings. For C. diphtheriae, we assembled a large collection of sequenced genomes to investigate the evolutionary and population dynamics of the pathogen across the globe. We added a focus on India as the country with the highest number of reported cases in recent years. We identified multiple large phylogenetic clades of the species circulating across geography and time concurrently. Using this collection, we also identified the presence of antimicrobial resistance determinant genes in recently isolated C. diphtheriae. In addition, we categorised a series of variants of the diphtheria toxin gene tox from isolates around the world, several of which were non-synonymous and estimated to have an impact on the 3D structure of the toxin protein. In V. cholerae, we investigated the intriguing population and evolutionary dynamics of cholera in Ghana, presenting a picture of time-separated clades circulating around neighbouring countries in West Africa. We also highlight the increasing presence of AMR in West African V. cholerae, in line with other reports from the ongoing 7th Pandemic. Finally, we present preliminary analysis of a large V. cholerae O139 collection and highlight how rapid AMR development may have caused O139 to so effectively outcompete the existing O1 serogroup, before disappearing almost as quickly due to subsequent loss of AMR. Taken together, these results highlight how much there is still left to understand about both of diseases, which in many parts of the world are believed to be a problem of the past. This dearth of knowledge applies both to the vastly under-researched diphtheria and the more widely researched cholera

Judith H. Dienes and Dianne D. Mcmain v. Safeco Life Insurance Company, A Washington Corporation : Appellants\u27 Brief

Will Robert. R. Parpert : Das Mönchtum u. die evangelische Kirche. Munich : Edition E. Reinhardt , 1930. In: Revue d'histoire et de philosophie religieuses, 11e année n°6, Novembre-décembre 1931. pp. 553-555

Constraints on a New Post-General Relativity Cosmological Parameter

A new cosmological variable is introduced which characterizes the degree of departure from Einstein's General Relativity (GR) with a cosmological constant. The new parameter, \varpi, is the cosmological analog of \gamma, the parametrized post-Newtonian variable which measures the amount of spacetime curvature per unit mass. In the cosmological context, \varpi measures the difference between the Newtonian and longitudinal potentials in response to the same matter sources, as occurs in certain scalar-tensor theories of gravity. Equivalently, \varpi measures the scalar shear fluctuation in a dark energy component. In the context of a "vanilla" LCDM background cosmology, a non-zero \varpi signals a departure from GR or a fluctuating cosmological constant. Using a phenomenological model for the time evolution \varpi=\varpi_0 \rho_{DE}/\rho_{M} which depends on the ratio of energy density in the cosmological constant to the matter density at each epoch, it is shown that the observed cosmic microwave background (CMB) temperature anisotropies limit the overall normalization constant to be -0.4 < \varpi_0 < 0.1 at the 95% confidence level. Existing measurements of the cross-correlations of the CMB with large-scale structure further limit \varpi_0 > -0.2 at the 95% CL. In the future, integrated Sachs-Wolfe and weak lensing measurements can more tightly constrain \varpi_0, providing a valuable clue to the nature of dark energy and the validity of GR.Comment: 9 pages, 7 figures; added reference

Interregional Analysis of Interstate Dairy Compacts

Livestock Production/Industries, Marketing,

The integration of seismic anisotropy and reservoir performance data for characterization of naturally fractured reservoirs using discrete feature network models

This dissertation presents the development of a method for quantitative integration of seismic (elastic) anisotropy attributes with reservoir performance data as an aid in characterization of systems of natural fractures in hydrocarbon reservoirs. This new method incorporates stochastic Discrete Feature Network (DFN) fracture modeling techniques, DFN model based fracture system hydraulic property and elastic anisotropy modeling, and non-linear inversion techniques, to achieve numerical integration of production data and seismic attributes for iterative refinement of initial trend and fracture intensity estimates. Although DFN modeling, flow simulation, and elastic anisotropy modeling are in themselves not new technologies, this dissertation represents the first known attempt to integrate advanced models for production performance and elastic anisotropy in fractured reservoirs using a rigorous mathematical inversion. The following new developments are presented: . • Forward modeling and sensitivity analysis of the upscaled hydraulic properties of realistic DFN fracture models through use of effective permeability modeling techniques. . • Forward modeling and sensitivity analysis of azimuthally variant seismic attributes based on the same DFN models. . • Development of a combined production and seismic data objective function and computation of sensitivity coefficients. . • Iterative model-based non-linear inversion of DFN fracture model trend and intensity through minimization of the combined objective function. This new technique is demonstrated on synthetic models with single and multiple fracture sets as well as differing background (host) reservoir hydraulic and elastic properties. Results on these synthetic control models show that, given a well conditioned initial DFN model and good quality field production and seismic observations, the integration procedure results in convergence of both fracture trend and intensity in models with both single and multiple fracture sets. Tests show that for a single fracture set convergence is accelerated when the combined objective function is used as compared to a similar technique using only production data in the objective function. Tests performed on multiple fracture sets show that, without the addition of seismic anisotropy, the model fails to converge. These tests validate the importance of the new process for use in more realistic reservoir models

The Need for a Real Estate Development Capstone Course

Cal Poly has extremely well-known programs in Construction Management, Business, Engineering, and Architecture. All of these programs have contributed multiple leaders to the building industry every year yet have neglected to integrate the different disciplines that overlap within the industry. The research the author has collected to support the need for a real estate development capstone course included in-person interviews, online research, personal experience, and team surveys. The research concluded the need for a real estate development capstone course that would integrate students from the school of Business, Architecture, and Construction Management. In order to build a successful project, all disciplines generally should work together to help navigate the different stages of a project. The creation of the real estate development capstone experience would allow students to graduate with a better understanding of all parties’ roles associated with a given project. In addition, students would be able to demonstrate to industry leaders a complete understanding of the built environment while they would have the ability to show a tangible real-world example of work in their specific field