The Notostigmata, a new suborder of Acari

The following studies on this new suborder have been made on material included in the famous French Arachnologist E. Simon's rich collection and lent by him to Drs. H. J. Hansen and W. Sørensen. ..

Managing expectations and fiscal policy

This paper studies an optimal fiscal policy problem of Lucas and Stokey (1983) but in a situation in which the representative agent's distrust of the probability model for government expenditures puts model uncertainty premia into history-contingent prices. This situation gives rise to a motive for expectation management that is absent within rational expectations and a novel incentive for the planner to smooth the shadow value of the agent's subjective beliefs to manipulate the equilibrium price of government debt. Unlike the Lucas and Stokey (1983) model, the optimal allocation, tax rate, and debt become history dependent despite complete markets and Markov government expenditures.

Spectroscopy of Hadrons with b Quarks from Lattice NRQCD

Preliminary results from an extensive lattice calculation of the B, B_c, and \Upsilon spectrum at quenched \beta = 6.0 are presented. The study includes radially and orbitally excited mesons, and baryons containing b quarks. The b quarks are formulated using NRQCD; for light and c quarks, a tadpole-improved clover action is used.Comment: talk given at LATTICE98(heavyqk), 3 pages LaTeX, 2 Postscript figure

Tone-mapping functions and multiple-exposure techniques for high dynamic-range images

For real-time imaging with digital video cameras and high-quality with TV display systems, good tonal rendition of video is important to ensure high visual comfort for the user. Except local contrast improvements, High Dynamic Range (HDR) scenes require adaptive gradation correction (tone-mapping function), which should enable good visualization of details at lower brightness. We discuss how to construct and control improved tone-mapping functions that enhance visibility of image details in the dark regions while not excessively compressing the image in the bright image parts. The result of this method is a 21-dB expansion of the dynamic range thanks to improved SNR by using multiple- exposure techniques. This new algorithm was successfully evaluated in HW and outperforms the existing algorithms with 11 dB. The new scheme can be successfully applied to cameras and TV systems to improve their contrast

Adaptive tone-mapping transfer functions for high dynamic range video cameras

For real-time imaging with digital video cameras, good tonal rendition of video is important to ensure high visual comfort for the user. Except local contrast improvements, high dynamic range (HDR) scenes require adaptive gradation correction (tone-mapping curve) that should enable good visualization of details at lower brightness. We discuss how to construct and control optimal tone mapping curves, which enhance visibility of image details in the dark regions while not excessively compressing the image in the bright image parts. The result of this method is a 21 dB expansion of the dynamic range. The new algorithm was successfully evaluated in HW and is suited for any video system performing HDR video compression

A Parameterization Invariant Approach to the Statistical Estimation of the CKM Phase α\alpha

In contrast to previous analyses, we demonstrate a Bayesian approach to the estimation of the CKM phase $\alpha$ that is invariant to parameterization. We also show that in addition to {\em computing} the marginal posterior in a Bayesian manner, the distribution must also be {\em interpreted} from a subjective Bayesian viewpoint. Doing so gives a very natural interpretation to the distribution. We also comment on the effect of removing information about $\mathcal{B}^{00}$.Comment: 14 pages, 3 figures, 1 table, minor revision; to appear in JHE