A Dynamic Model of Differential Human Capital and Criminal Activity

This paper presents a new, dynamic economic model of criminal activity. Individuals are endowed with legal and criminal human capital. Potential incomes in legal and criminal sectors depend on the level of the relevant human capital, the rate of return, and random shocks. Both types of human capital can be enhanced by participating in the relevant sector. Legal human capital can also be enhanced through savings. Each type of human capital is subject to depreciation. Individuals maximize expected discounted lifetime utility, which depends on consumption. In this two-stage dynamic stochastic model, in each period the individual decides in which sector to participate (legal or illegal), and after the realization of income in that period, he decides on the optimal amount of consumption. A particular decision (e.g. participation in the criminal sector) has implications both for future decisions as well as the choices available to the individual in later periods. The model allows analyses of the effects of recessions, neighborhood effects, various imprisonment/rehabilitation scenarios, risk aversion, and time preferences on criminal behavior. It provides new insights, which are different from existing models, and it is able to explain the declining propensity of individuals to commit crimes over time.

A Probability-one Homotopy Algoithm for Non-Smooth Equations and Mixed Complementarity Problems

A probability-one homotopy algorithm for solving nonsmooth equations is described. This algorithm is able to solve problems involving highly nonlinear equations,where the norm of the residual has non-global local minima.The algorithm is based on constructing homotopy mappings that are smooth in the interior of their domains.The algorithm is specialized to solve mixed complementarity problems through the use of MCP functions and associated smoothers.This specialized algorithm includes an option to ensure that all iterates remain feasible.Easily satisfiable sufficient conditions are given to ensure that the homotopy zero curve remains feasible,and global convergence properties for the MCP algorithm are developed.Computational results on the MCPLIB test library demonstrate the effectiveness of the algorithm

An iterative method for generalized set-valued nonlinear mixed quasi-variational inequalities

AbstractThis paper presents an iterative method for solving the generalized nonlinear set-valued mixed quasi-variational inequality, a problem class that was introduced by Huang et al. (Comp. Math. Appl. 40 (2–3) (2000) 205–215). The method incorporates step size controls that enable application to problems where certain set-valued mappings do not always map to nonempty closed bounded sets

Tiled Algorithms for Matrix Computations on Multicore Architectures

The current computer architecture has moved towards the multi/many-core structure. However, the algorithms in the current sequential dense numerical linear algebra libraries (e.g. LAPACK) do not parallelize well on multi/many-core architectures. A new family of algorithms, the tile algorithms, has recently been introduced to circumvent this problem. Previous research has shown that it is possible to write efficient and scalable tile algorithms for performing a Cholesky factorization, a (pseudo) LU factorization, and a QR factorization. The goal of this thesis is to study tiled algorithms in a multi/many-core setting and to provide new algorithms which exploit the current architecture to improve performance relative to current state-of-the-art libraries while maintaining the stability and robustness of these libraries.Comment: PhD Thesis, 2012 http://math.ucdenver.ed

ProxECAT: Proxy External Controls Association Test. A new case-control gene region association test using allele frequencies from public controls.

A primary goal of the recent investment in sequencing is to detect novel genetic associations in health and disease improving the development of treatments and playing a critical role in precision medicine. While this investment has resulted in an enormous total number of sequenced genomes, individual studies of complex traits and diseases are often smaller and underpowered to detect rare variant genetic associations. Existing genetic resources such as the Exome Aggregation Consortium (>60,000 exomes) and the Genome Aggregation Database (~140,000 sequenced samples) have the potential to be used as controls in these studies. Fully utilizing these and other existing sequencing resources may increase power and could be especially useful in studies where resources to sequence additional samples are limited. However, to date, these large, publicly available genetic resources remain underutilized, or even misused, in large part due to the lack of statistical methods that can appropriately use this summary level data. Here, we present a new method to incorporate external controls in case-control analysis called ProxECAT (Proxy External Controls Association Test). ProxECAT estimates enrichment of rare variants within a gene region using internally sequenced cases and external controls. We evaluated ProxECAT in simulations and empirical analyses of obesity cases using both low-depth of coverage (7x) whole-genome sequenced controls and ExAC as controls. We find that ProxECAT maintains the expected type I error rate with increased power as the number of external controls increases. With an accompanying R package, ProxECAT enables the use of publicly available allele frequencies as external controls in case-control analysis

Recognising female sexual dysfunction as an essential aspect of effective diabetes care

The following literature review will focus on sexual dysfunction in women living with diabetes, drawing on international studies in this specialist field. The key aim of this paper is generate a greater understanding and recognition of the issues facing these women and to determine a more proactive approach to identification, consultation and potential treatment options. The main findings highlight the unique role practitioners have with women with diabetes and how to facilitate partnership working. Nurses have the most frequent contact with people living with diabetes in any healthcare system. Nurses’ knowledge about sexuality in relation to diabetes should improve patient education, recognition and could signal undiagnosed or increased risk of sexual dysfunction to enable treatment so care can be optimised accordingl

Interlaboratory comparison study of Mg/Ca and Sr/Ca measurements in planktonic foraminifera for paleoceanographic research

Thirteen laboratories from the USA and Europe participated in an intercomparison study of Mg/Ca and Sr/Ca measurements in foraminifera. The study included five planktonic species from surface sediments from different geographical regions and water depths. Each of the laboratories followed their own cleaning and analytical procedures and had no specific information about the samples. Analysis of solutions of known Mg/Ca and Sr/Ca ratios showed that the intralaboratory instrumental precision is better than 0.5% for both Mg/Ca and Sr/Ca measurements, regardless whether ICP-OES or ICP-MS is used. The interlaboratory precision on the analysis of standard solutions was about 1.5% and 0.9% for Mg/Ca and Sr/Ca measurements, respectively. These are equivalent to Mg/Ca-based temperature repeatability and reproducibility on the analysis of solutions of ±0.2°C and ±0.5°C, respectively. The analysis of foraminifera suggests an interlaboratory variance of about ±8% (%RSD) for Mg/Ca measurements, which translates to reproducibility of about ±2–3°C. The relatively large range in the reproducibility of foraminiferal analysis is primarily due to relatively poor intralaboratory repeatability (about ±1–2°C) and a bias (about 1°C) due to the application of different cleaning methods by different laboratories. Improving the consistency of cleaning methods among laboratories will, therefore, likely lead to better reproducibility. Even more importantly, the results of this study highlight the need for standards calibration among laboratories as a first step toward improving interlaboratory compatibility