Entrepreneurs: Jacks of all Trades or Hobos?

Human capital investment theory suggests that entrepreneurs should be generalists, while those who work for others should be specialists; it also predicts higher incomes for entrepreneurs with generalist skills. An alternative view predicts that those with greater taste for variety are more likely to become entrepreneurs and that entrepreneurs will see their incomes decrease with greater skill variety. Data from a survey of 830 independent inventors and 300 individuals from the general population confirm that inventor-entrepreneurs typically have a more varied labor market experience. However, the more varied their experience, the lower their household income. The results support the interpretation that both choice of entrepreneurship and investment in generalist skills are driven by a taste for variety.Entrepreneurship, employment choice, skill, jack-of-all-trades, taste for variety.

EvoTanks: co-evolutionary development of game-playing agents

This paper describes the EvoTanks research project, a continuing attempt to develop strong AI players for a primitive 'Combat' style video game using evolutionary computational methods with artificial neural networks. A small but challenging feat due to the necessity for agent's actions to rely heavily on opponent behaviour. Previous investigation has shown the agents are capable of developing high performance behaviours by evolving against scripted opponents; however these are local to the trained opponent. The focus of this paper shows results from the use of co-evolution on the same population. Results show agents no longer succumb to trappings of local maxima within the search space and are capable of converging on high fitness behaviours local to their population without the use of scripted opponents

Continuous variable qumodes as non-destructive probes of quantum systems

With the rise of quantum technologies, it is necessary to have practical and preferably non-destructive methods to measure and read-out from such devices. A current line of research towards this has focussed on the use of ancilla systems which couple to the system under investigation, and through their interaction, enable properties of the primary system to be imprinted onto and inferred from the ancillae. We propose the use of continuous variable qumodes as ancillary probes, and show that the interaction Hamiltonian can be fully characterised and directly sampled from measurements of the qumode alone. We suggest how such probes may also be used to determine thermodynamical properties, including reconstruction of the partition function. We show that the method is robust to realistic experimental imperfections such as finite-sized measurement bins and squeezing, and discuss how such probes are already feasible with current experimental setups.Comment: 8 pages, 3 figure

Characterization of Remediation Methods for Heavy Hydrocarbon Contaminated Soil

Hydrocarbons are a prominent fuel source for many different types of applications. Due to transportation and handling, spills and leaks may contaminate the surrounding soil. Soil contamination has adverse effects on the environment that could lead to harming wildlife and humans. It is essential to find an effective remediation method in order to clean the soil. Currently, remediation methods can be categorized into two categories: non-energetic methods (includes solvents, dispersion, and bioremediation) and methods that involve energy addition. Energy addition remediation includes incineration, thermal desorption, pyrolysis, and a newly proposed technique using an electron beam. This study focused on the characterization and quantification of hydrocarbons removed by several of the energy addition methods, including: incineration, thermal desorption, pyrolysis and electron beam treatment at several energy levels. Temperature Programmed Reaction experiments were used to characterize background, untreated, and treated soils to determine the type of hydrocarbon content, either mobile or fixed, that is in the soil sample and the efficacy of the various remediation processes. Results from the study found that incineration is the method that removes the most hydrocarbon content, followed by thermal desorption. Pyrolysis converted a fraction of the mobile hydrocarbons content to fixed carbon content. Several (energy) levels of E-beam treatment were also able to convert a portion of the mobile hydrocarbon content to fixed carbon content, elucidating new details of how the E-beam mechanism works; namely by a combination of thermal desorption and thermochemical conversion

Characterization of Remediation Methods for Heavy Hydrocarbon Contaminated Soil

Hydrocarbons are a prominent fuel source for many different types of applications. Due to transportation and handling, spills and leaks may contaminate the surrounding soil. Soil contamination has adverse effects on the environment that could lead to harming wildlife and humans. It is essential to find an effective remediation method in order to clean the soil. Currently, remediation methods can be categorized into two categories: non-energetic methods (includes solvents, dispersion, and bioremediation) and methods that involve energy addition. Energy addition remediation includes incineration, thermal desorption, pyrolysis, and a newly proposed technique using an electron beam. This study focused on the characterization and quantification of hydrocarbons removed by several of the energy addition methods, including: incineration, thermal desorption, pyrolysis and electron beam treatment at several energy levels. Temperature Programmed Reaction experiments were used to characterize background, untreated, and treated soils to determine the type of hydrocarbon content, either mobile or fixed, that is in the soil sample and the efficacy of the various remediation processes. Results from the study found that incineration is the method that removes the most hydrocarbon content, followed by thermal desorption. Pyrolysis converted a fraction of the mobile hydrocarbons content to fixed carbon content. Several (energy) levels of E-beam treatment were also able to convert a portion of the mobile hydrocarbon content to fixed carbon content, elucidating new details of how the E-beam mechanism works; namely by a combination of thermal desorption and thermochemical conversion

Effect of dose rate on ion beam mixing in Nb-Si

The influence of dose rate, i.e., ion flux, on ion beam mixing in Nb‐Si bilayer samples was measured at room temperature and 325 °C. At the higher temperature, an increase in dose rate of a factor of 20 caused a decrease in the thickness of the mixed layer by a factor of 1.6 for equal total doses. At room temperature, the same change in flux had no effect on mixing. These results are consistent with radiation‐enhanced diffusion theory in the recombination‐limited regime

Consistency of pacing and metabolic responses during 2000-m rowing ergometry

PURPOSE: This study investigated the pacing strategy adopted and the consistency of performance and related physiological parameters across three 2000-m rowing-ergometer tests. METHODS: Fourteen male well-trained rowers took part in the study. Each participant performed three 2000-m rowing-ergometer tests interspersed by 3-7 d. Throughout the trials, respiratory exchange and heart rate were recorded and power output and stroke rate were analyzed over each 500 m of the test. At the completion of the trial, assessments of blood lactate and rating of perceived exertion were measured. RESULTS: Ergometer performance was unchanged across the 3 trials; however, pacing strategy changed from trial 1, which featured a higher starting power output and more progressive decrease in power, to trials 2 and 3, which were characterized by a more conservative start and an end spurt with increased power output during the final 500 m. Mean typical error (TE; %) across the three 2000-m trials was 2.4%, and variability was low to moderate for all assessed physiological variables (TE range = 1.4-5.1%) with the exception of peak lactate (TE = 11.5%). CONCLUSIONS: Performance and physiological responses during 2000-m rowing ergometry were found to be consistent over 3 trials. The variations observed in pacing strategy between trial 1 and trials 2 and 3 suggest that a habituation trial is required before an intervention study and that participants move from a positive to a reverse-J-shaped strategy, which may partly explain conflicting reports in the pacing strategy exhibited during 2000-m rowing-ergometer trials