Political E-Mail: Protected Speech or Unwelcome Spam?

Candidates for political office are using unsolicited bulk e-mails to reach the electorate. Commonly known as political spam, this campaign tactic is an inexpensive supplement to television, radio, and print ads. Advocates claim that campaigning via the internet reduces candidates\u27 dependence on fundraising, but critics detest political spam as the latest nuisance. This iBrief examines the legal basis for political spam, distinguishes political spam from analogous regulated speech, and argues that political spam serves an interest worth protecting

Labor Law: General Electric’s “Overall Approach” to Bargaining Held a Violation of Good Faith

Inspectera AB är ett företag som erbjuder tjänster i flera olika områden. Ett av dessa områden är utbildning som ges på webben. De erbjuder i nuläget webbutbildningar gjorda i Flash men söker andra alternativ där de kan redigera utbildningar samt integrera webbutbildningarna i deras webbtjänst Inspectera Online. Den här rapporten handlar om skapandet av en prototyp för en webbutbildningsmodul som implementerats på Inspectera Online. Fokus ligger främst på presentationsverktyget i modulen och en jämförelse med liknande verktyg som finns tillgängliga på internet. I resultatet presenteras för- och nackdelar för respektive presentationsverktyg med avseende på funktionalitet och vilka möjligheter till integration som finns

Distributed Viewshed Analysis An Evaluation of Distribution Frameworks for Geospatial Information Systems

Viewshed analysis is the process of computing what areas of a terrain are visible from a certain observation point. In this thesis we evaluated the performance of these computations on cloud clusters using the distribution framework Apache Spark. We implemented three commonly used viewshed algorithms; R3 which is slow but highly accurate as well as R2 and van Kreveld which are faster but less accurate. Two versions of each algorithm were implemented, one to run on a single multi-core machine and one to run on a server cluster using Spark. We compared the accuracy and running time of the different algorithms in order to determine when to use the different algorithms. Our results show that viewshed analysis does not perform well when implemented using Spark if real-time results are required. In fact the faster algorithms performed consistently worse on the cluster, even for very large input data. For the highly accurate, but slow, R3 algorithm we were able to achieve a 1.6x speedup using the distribution framework

Field-Selective Anomaly and Chiral Mode Reversal in Type-II Weyl Materials

Three-dimensional condensed matter incarnations of Weyl fermions generically have a tilted dispersion—in sharp contrast to their elusive high-energy relatives where a tilt is forbidden by Lorentz invariance, and with the low- energy excitations of two-dimensional graphene sheets where a tilt is forbidden by either crystalline or particle-hole symmetry. Very recently, a number of materials (MoTe2, LaAlGe, and WTe2) have been identified as hosts of so-called type-II Weyl fermions whose dispersion is so strongly tilted that a Fermi surface is formed, whereby the Weyl node becomes a singular point connecting electron and hole pockets. We here predict that these systems have remarkable properties in the presence of magnetic fields. Most saliently, we show that the nature of the chiral anomaly depends crucially on the relative angle between the applied field and the tilt, and that an inversion-asymmetric overtilting creates an imbalance in the number of chiral modes with positive and negative slopes. The field-selective anomaly gives a novel magneto-optical resonance, providing an experimental way to detect concealed Weyl nodes

Learning Approximate and Exact Numeral Systems via Reinforcement Learning

Recent work (Xu et al., 2020) has suggested that numeral systems in different languages are shaped by a functional need for efficient communication in an information-theoretic sense. Here we take a learning-theoretic approach and show how efficient communication emerges via reinforcement learning. In our framework, two artificial agents play a Lewis signaling game where the goal is to convey a numeral concept. The agents gradually learn to communicate using reinforcement learning and the resulting numeral systems are shown to be efficient in the information-theoretic framework of Regier et al.(2015); Gibson et al. (2017). They are also shown to be similar to human numeral systems of same type. Our results thus provide a mechanistic explanation via reinforcement learning of the recent results in Xu et al. (2020) and can potentially be generalized to other semantic domains

Thompson Sampling for Bandits with Clustered Arms

We propose algorithms based on a multi-level Thompson sampling scheme, for the stochastic multi-armed bandit and its contextual variant with linear expected rewards, in the setting where arms are clustered. We show, both theoretically and empirically, how exploiting a given cluster structure can significantly improve the regret and computational cost compared to using standard Thompson sampling. In the case of the stochastic multi-armed bandit we give upper bounds on the expected cumulative regret showing how it depends on the quality of the clustering. Finally, we perform an empirical evaluation showing that our algorithms perform well compared to previously proposed algorithms for bandits with clustered arms

Deep-band placement of fertilizer in onion sets

Detta examensarbete bygger på ett fältförsök i sättlök. Arbetet har som syfte att jämföra radmyllning med bredspridning av gödning och se hur dessa påverkar sättlökens möjligheter att komma igång snabbt på våren. I försöket jämfördes även de olika gödningsmetodernas inverkan på rotutvecklingen och grönheten på blasten. Den 25 mars sattes försöket och den 10 maj utvärderades försöket. Löken grävdes upp, mättes och vägdes. Vid analysen av försöket gick det inte att hitta någon signifikant skillnad mellan det radgödslade och det bredspridda ledet även om det fanns vissa tendenser till att radmyllning ger en bättre tillväxt. Det radmyllade ledet var det enda ledet som var signifikant bättre än grundgivan. Tidigare försök av bl.a. frölök har visat att radmyllning ger en högre skörd jämfört med bredspridning. Avsaknaden av större skillnad i mitt försök kan bero på att försöket inte utvärderades vid skörd.This work is based on a field experiment in onion sets. The work has as its purpose to compare deep-band fertilizing against broadcasting of fertilizer and see how these affects the onion capabilities to get started fast in the spring. In the field experiment I also compare the different fertilizer placement impact on root development and the green plant material. On May 10 the experiment was evaluated and the onion was measured and weighed. When I analysed my experiment I could not find any significant differences between deep-band fertilizing compared to broadcasting of fertilizer, but there wer some indications that broadcasting to fertilizer was better. Previous studies show that deep-band fertilizing of seed onion compared to broadcasting of fertilizing gives a higher yield. The lack of differences in my experiment can be caused by the short time between planting and measuring of the onions