L1-Regularized Distributed Optimization: A Communication-Efficient Primal-Dual Framework

Despite the importance of sparsity in many large-scale applications, there are few methods for distributed optimization of sparsity-inducing objectives. In this paper, we present a communication-efficient framework for L1-regularized optimization in the distributed environment. By viewing classical objectives in a more general primal-dual setting, we develop a new class of methods that can be efficiently distributed and applied to common sparsity-inducing models, such as Lasso, sparse logistic regression, and elastic net-regularized problems. We provide theoretical convergence guarantees for our framework, and demonstrate its efficiency and flexibility with a thorough experimental comparison on Amazon EC2. Our proposed framework yields speedups of up to 50x as compared to current state-of-the-art methods for distributed L1-regularized optimization

Enhancement of the helium resonance lines in the solar atmosphere by suprathermal electron excitation I: non-thermal transport of helium ions

Models of the solar transition region made from lines other than those of helium cannot account for the strength of the helium lines. However, the collisional excitation rates of the helium resonance lines are unusually sensitive to the energy of the exciting electrons. Non-thermal motions in the transition region could drive slowly-ionizing helium ions rapidly through the steep temperature gradient, exposing them to excitation by electrons characteristic of higher temperatures than those describing their ionization state. We present the results of calculations which use a more physical representation of the lifetimes of the ground states of He I and He II than was adopted in earlier work on this process. New emission measure distributions are used to calculate the temperature variation with height. The results show that non-thermal motions can lead to enhancements of the He I and He II resonance line intensities by factors that are comparable with those required. Excitation by non-Maxwellian electron distributions would reduce the effects of non-thermal transport. The effects of non-thermal motions are more consistent with the observed spatial distribution of helium emission than are those of excitation by non-Maxwellian electron distributions alone. In particular, they account better for the observed line intensity ratio I(537.0 A)/I(584.3 A), and its variation with location.Comment: 12 pages, 7 figures, accepted to appear in MNRAS, LaTeX uses mn.st

Lover\u27s Eyes (Artist as Art)

Jordan is a third-year English Literature & History double major. She includes digital art in her life’s “just for fun” category, along with embroidery and poetry. She does not welcome capitalism’s intrusion into hobbies and cheerfully, unabashedly makes mistakes often. Everything she does is a tiny celebration of herself and other sapphic women, and this piece is no exception

An Examination of the Need for Campaign Fianance Reform Through the Lens of the United States Treaty Clause and Environmental Protection Treaties

The United States’ federal election system is constantly the focus of debate, including components from voting mechanisms, to candidate selection, and to the candidates themselves. Unsurprisingly, campaign finance has also been the source of much debate. For decades, scholars, politicians, lawyers, and laypersons have debated the merits and shortcomings of the campaign finance system enumerated in the United States Code. The landmark Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission (“FEC”) decision in 2010, in which the United States Supreme Court equated corporate speech to human speech, merely added fuel to the fire. The considerable volume of scholarship based upon campaign finance reform covers a wealth of topics, but one stone has been left unturned: the impact of unfettered campaign expenditures on the development of multilateral international treaties. It may be quite difficult for one to imagine a scenario in which campaign finance could impede the adoption of a treaty under American law. However, consider the Paris Climate Accord (“PCA”). The PCA was developed in 2015 as a result of large-scale international consensus regarding the global need to reduce carbon emissions. The United States became a party to the PCA via an executive order signed by then-President Barack Obama. Debate soon arose as to whether the United States was bound to adhere to the provisions of the PCA, however, as the PCA was not adopted under the Treaty Clause of the United States Constitution. The Treaty Clause, in essence, provides that in order for the President to enter into a treaty, he must do so with the approval of two-thirds of the United States Senate. Under the executive order process, this approval did not happen; yet, the United States continued to adhere to the PCA’s provisions until early 2017, when the Trump Administration announced that it planned to withdraw the United States from the PCA.10 Note that as of this writing, the United States is still a party to the PCA. The PCA reinvigorates an intriguing, oft-debated question: Is the Treaty Clause dormant? In the last century, the United States government has made considerably little use of the Treaty Clause, despite the increasingly international modern world. In many instances in which the Treaty Clause does arise (in fact, in the only instance in which many American law students study the Treaty Clause), the focus is upon environmental treaties. For example, Missouri v. Holland, the seminal constitutional law case on the subject, centered upon the enforcement of a wildlife protection treaty, the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. So one must wonder why international agreements like the PCA have bypassed the Treaty Clause in their adoption into United States law. There are a number of potential explanations for this, but this Note posits that one reason is the increasing difficulty individuals and environmental interest groups have in influencing politicians; this is a direct result of excessive corporate influence in campaign finance expenditures. In the following discussion, I suggest that the Treaty Clause of the United States Constitution will lie dormant unless the American campaign finance system is reformed to regulate corporate influence. Major oil, gas, and energy companies will continue to utilize massive soft money expenditures to overshadow the political voices of environmental interest groups and individuals; as a result, no multinational environmental regulatory treaty will likely surpass the two-thirds majority senatorial threshold required to bring a treaty into full force in American law. To facilitate this discussion, I have broken this Note into four sections: (1) an overview of the Treaty Clause and its decline, (2) the basics of campaign finance law, (3) an empirical analysis of campaign contributions by the oil and gas industry and the voting patterns of a cross-section of United States Senators, and (4) a discussion connecting that data to the question of Treaty Clause dormancy. Along the way, I will also discuss possible legal rationales for reforming the campaign finance system and the future with or without such reform

Utah Land Management Evaluation and Assessment Network Needs Assessment

It can be difficult to make and implement land management decisions that are informed by the best available science, satisfy different stakeholders, and are compliant with established policies and regulations. Local, state, and federal entities with the capacity to influence land management decisions, can benefit from an understanding of the shared needs of landowners and managers. This needs assessment reports on the shared information, funding, and research needs expressed by land managers and owners throughout Utah who make decisions about: (1) fire prevention and suppression; (2) livestock grazing; (3) fisheries; or (4) wildlife. The report provides a high-level assessment of where federal and state agencies, non-profit organizations, and private landowners can invest their time and resources to produce mutually beneficial outcomes

Seven Years

Jordan Smith is a senior double major in English literature and history with a double minor in gender studies and theatre. She is interested in examining and remembering sapphic and feminist expression, which she sometimes creates for herself

Socialized Is Not a Dirty Word: The Only Just and Reasonable Method for Assigning the Costs of High-Voltage Interstate Transmission Lines Is to Socialize Them

Following the federal government’s requirement that electric utilities must allow other power generators to use their transmission lines, investment in the United States electric grid has faltered. The effects of underinvestment in the grid have limited the proper function of competitive energy markets and stifled investment in renewable energy sources. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (“FERC”) has allowed states belonging to planning regions that coordinate transmission development to create multiple methods for allocating the costs of new facilities crossing state lines. Many of these methods use models to forecast which customers in each state benefit from the facility, and then assign costs based on those determinations. This Note argues that the fluid nature of the modern grid defies attempts to assign costs so specifically. Instead, FERC should require the costs of high-voltage interstate transmission facilities to be spread equally among all customers in a planning region. Only then, with this socialized cost allocation method, can cost allocations comply with the requirement that rate determinations be “just and reasonable.