Proceedings of CGAMES’2007

The primary goal of this work is to demonstrate that it is possible to create a system that can interpret language descriptions and generate a corresponding virtual environment. This representational transformation is accomplished by implementing real world knowledge and current theories of language and perception. The proposals have been implemented as a prototype system 3D Story Visualiser (3DSV). This paper describes the prototype evaluations and discusses the results obtained from experiments made using the system

Well-Posedness for the Motion of Physical Vacuum of the Three-dimensional Compressible Euler Equations with or without Self-Gravitation

This paper concerns the well-posedness theory of the motion of physical vacuum for the compressible Euler equations with or without self-gravitation. First, a general uniqueness theorem of classical solutions is proved for the three dimensional general motion. Second, for the spherically symmetric motions, without imposing the compatibility condition of the first derivative being zero at the center of symmetry, a new local-in-time existence theory is established in a functional space involving less derivatives than those constructed for three-dimensional motions in \cite{10',7,16'} by constructing suitable weights and cutoff functions featuring the behavior of solutions near both the center of the symmetry and the moving vacuum boundary.Comment: To appear in Arch. Rational Mech. Ana

The Majority Illusion in Social Networks

Social behaviors are often contagious, spreading through a population as individuals imitate the decisions and choices of others. A variety of global phenomena, from innovation adoption to the emergence of social norms and political movements, arise as a result of people following a simple local rule, such as copy what others are doing. However, individuals often lack global knowledge of the behaviors of others and must estimate them from the observations of their friends' behaviors. In some cases, the structure of the underlying social network can dramatically skew an individual's local observations, making a behavior appear far more common locally than it is globally. We trace the origins of this phenomenon, which we call "the majority illusion," to the friendship paradox in social networks. As a result of this paradox, a behavior that is globally rare may be systematically overrepresented in the local neighborhoods of many people, i.e., among their friends. Thus, the "majority illusion" may facilitate the spread of social contagions in networks and also explain why systematic biases in social perceptions, for example, of risky behavior, arise. Using synthetic and real-world networks, we explore how the "majority illusion" depends on network structure and develop a statistical model to calculate its magnitude in a network

Evaluation of Emergency Department Utilization among Patients who have Primary Care Providers

PURPOSE: High rates of emergency department (ED) use had little changes nationwide or in Kentucky after implementation of the Affordable Care Act. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services have been calling for ways to reduce unnecessary ED usage. The purpose of this project is to identify factors associated with ED visits among adults in a primary care practice. The results are expected to serve as a needs assessment to determine ways for a primary care clinic to reduce inappropriate ED use. METHODS A retrospective chart review was conducted to evaluate the ED use among 80 random selected adult patients who had at least one ED visit from January 1st, 2017 to June 30th, 2017. A total of 210 ED visits were reviewed. The patient demographic profile, ED presenting problems and acuity, and the ED visiting timing were evaluated. Correlations between the number of the ED visits and no-show/cancellation with PCP visits were studied as well. RESULTS: The analysis found higher rates of ED use among middle-aged adults with public insurance, as well as Africa American adult, and women. The most common presenting problems were musculoskeletal or abdominal pain. Among 210 ED visits, 67% were ESI 3; 86% were discharged, and 59% were for the repeated presenting problems. Of 86% discharges, 56% did not see specialties or PCPs as directed. A significant and positive association was found between the number of no show/cancellations with their PCP and subsequent ED visits (r = .50, p \u3c .001). CONCLUSION: Increasing support to primary care practice may help reduce inappropriate ED use. Recommendations for the primary care practice are to: 1) assess patients’ self-care needs at every PCP visits, 2) educate patients on appropriate ED use, 3) make same or next day appointment available, 4) offer or coordinate non-business primary care

The relation between the Toda hierarchy and the KdV hierarchy

Under three relations connecting the field variables of Toda flows and that of KdV flows, we present three new sequences of combination of the equations in the Toda hierarchy which have the KdV hierarchy as a continuous limit. The relation between the Poisson structures of the KdV hierarchy and the Toda hierarchy in continuous limit is also studied.Comment: 11 pages, Tex, no figures, to be published in Physics Letters