Analyzing stability of a delay differential equation involving two delays

Analysis of the systems involving delay is a popular topic among applied scientists. In the present work, we analyze the generalized equation $D^{\alpha} x(t) = g\left(x(t-\tau_1), x(t-\tau_2)\right)$ involving two delays viz. $\tau_1\geq 0$ and $\tau_2\geq 0$. We use the the stability conditions to propose the critical values of delays. Using examples, we show that the chaotic oscillations are observed in the unstable region only. We also propose a numerical scheme to solve such equations.Comment: 10 pages, 7 figure

Philip Morris USA v. Williams: A Confusing Distinction

In Philip Morris USA v. Williams, the United States Supreme Court held 5-4 that it is unconstitutional under the Due Process Clause of the Constitution for a jury to award punitive damages for harm caused to individuals other than the plaintiff. Thus, the Court concluded that, under the Constitution, a trial court could not levy punitive damages out of a desire to punish a company for injuries it inflicts upon others who are essentially, strangers to the litigation. However, the Court confusingly drew a narrow and arguably contradictory distinction to justify its holding. Under Philip Morris USA, a jury may not use punitive damages to punish a defendant directly on account of harms it is alleged to have visited on nonparties, but a jury is still permitted to consider the harm to third parties to determine the reprehensibility of the defendant\u27s conduct, one of the three factors in assessing the constitutionality of punitive damages. Justice Ginsburg in her dissent wrote that the distinction slips from my grasp

Framework of Socialisation, Authentic Leadership and Affective Commitment for Construction Professionals

This paper highlights the human resources (HR) or behaviour-related success factors in construction projects, and these are training, understanding, co-worker support, future prospects, authentic leadership, and affective commitment. There exists discrepancies in existing literature regarding the factor structure of organisational socialisation and authentic leadership. Therefore, this study aims to explore the factor structure of socialisation, authentic leadership and affective commitment. Data was gathered from 301 newly joined construction professionals and  Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) was conducted to examine the factor structure for organisational socialisation, authentic leadership and affective commitment. A measurement model was further developed using the domains of organisational socialisation, authentic leadership and affective commitment. The results of CFA revealed that there exists four zero-order factor structure for organisational socialisation, and one zero-order factor structure for authentic leadership. The study contributes to both the researcher and practitioner communities by integrating the three constructs and validating the factor structure in the new context (i.e. construction). Further, the study contributes towards improving HR processes, namely, training, reward system, and induction process. It also helps in augmenting the authenticity among the project participants

Hyper-parameter optimization of Deep Convolutional Networks for object recognition

Recently sequential model based optimization (SMBO) has emerged as a promising hyper-parameter optimization strategy in machine learning. In this work, we investigate SMBO to identify architecture hyper-parameters of deep convolution networks (DCNs) object recognition. We propose a simple SMBO strategy that starts from a set of random initial DCN architectures to generate new architectures, which on training perform well on a given dataset. Using the proposed SMBO strategy we are able to identify a number of DCN architectures that produce results that are comparable to state-of-the-art results on object recognition benchmarks.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figure, 3 tables, Submitted to ICIP 201

Customs Valuation in India: Identifying Trade Facilitation related Concerns

India has introduced several trade facilitation related measures in the last couple of years. The pro-active strategy adopted by the Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) has helped in introducing several policy measures which have not only streamlined the role of the customs department but has also helped industry in a major way without compromising collection of revenue.Trade Facilitation, Customs Valuation, India

Studies in Trade and Investment: The Development Impact of Information Technology in Trade Facilitation

Section A of this chapter deals with the role of SMEs in exports while section B details evolution in the use of IT for cargo clearance. Section C examines the impact of IT trade facilitation measures on SMEs. Section D presents stakeholder interviews on the impact of information technology automation in trade facilitation. Section E concludes the chapter and proposes some recommendations.Trade facilitation, ICT, IT, SMEs, export, customs, India