Real-time multipushdown and multicounter automata networks and hierarchies

Ph.D.William I. Grosk

On the Structure of Solutions of Computable Real Functions

The relationship between the structure of a domain and the complexity of computing over that domain is a fundamental question of computer science. This paper studies how the structure of the real numbers constrains the behavior of computable real functions. In particular, we uncover a close correlation between the structure of the zero set of a computable real function, and the complexity of the zeros. We show that computable real functions with hard solutions perforce have many solutions. Furthermore, as the complexity of solutions increases, the number of solutions increases. We prove that computable real functions with nonrecursive, nonarithmetical, or random zeros have solution sets that are, respectively, infinite,“˜ uncountable, or of positive measure. In addition, we show that the computational complexity of the zero set of a computable real function is limited by its topological complexity. These results suggest an emerging paradigm-the inability of machines to name complex strings can serve as the basis of powerful proof techniques in computational complexity theory

The Pregnancy Discrimination Act: Legitimating Discrimination Against Pregnant Women in the Workforce

The Pregnancy Discrimination Act (PDA) has been effective in making the most egregious and obvious forms of pregnancy discrimination illegal. Unfortunately, the PDA has also acted as a shield behind which employers can hide as they discriminate against their pregnant employees. The result is that the PDA permits discrimination based on the very sort of stereotyping that it was expected to eradicate. There are two dominant stereotypes of pregnant women. Both are inconsistent with the image of a good worker. One stereotype connects pregnant women with the home. In one form or another it says, “Pregnant women are/should be preoccupied with their families.” The second classic stereotype portrays pregnant women as disabled by the pregnancy--lazy, hysterical, or otherwise ill. It is important to recognize two things about these stereotypes that are so convincing to the courts. First, they represent only one side of the set of social stereotypes about pregnancy. People also say of pregnant women that they appear “radiant,” “energized,” or “more focused than ever before in their lives.” None of this shows up in the cases. Second, the stereotypes that do exist are the stereotypes that are usually connected to pregnant white women. Women of color, particularly Black women, are often thought of as strong and able to work throughout their pregnancies. Breeding was part of the job for slaves in the United States. The courts have had difficulty defining what aspects of “pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions” are protected by the statute. By using a narrow, medicalized definition of pregnancy, they have excluded the time that women take to care for young children from the statute\u27s protection. On the other end of the childbearing process, at least one court has refused to recognize the connection between infertility treatments and pregnancy. The result is that women who need to take time off from work for medical appointments or who want their employer-provided health care coverage to pay the bills for their infertility treatments may find themselves unprotected. These decisions allow narrow stereotypes of a work-family dichotomy to influence their definitions of pregnancy. These problems do not indicate new forms of discrimination against women in the workplace. More than twenty years ago, the United States Supreme Court decided a pair of cases relating to pregnancy discrimination. In them it held that failure to provide benefits for pregnancy as part of a state disability insurance program or an employer\u27s disability plan was not discrimination on the basis of sex. The Court\u27s finding that there was no sex discrimination because “[t]he program divides potential recipients into two groups--pregnant women and non-pregnant persons” amazed many people. The result was the enactment of the PDA to combat discrimination based on pregnancy. Unfortunately, the elimination of pregnancy discrimination has proven to be an elusive goal. In order to achieve this goal, we would need to be able to identify exactly what is meant by “pregnancy,” and when one is discriminated against on the basis of pregnancy. Because both of these issues require interpretation, we probably should not be surprised that stereotyped cultural images have affected our understanding of what constitutes pregnancy discrimination or that the courts have silently relied on these stereotypes. The result has been that instead of eradicating discrimination based on pregnancy, the PDA has often served to legitimate it. This Article focuses on three areas of pregnancy discrimination law to illuminate the mechanisms through which stereotypes of pregnant women have become part of the decisional process

An informatics model for guiding assembly of telemicrobiology workstations for malaria collaborative diagnostics using commodity products and open-source software

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Deficits in clinical microbiology infrastructure exacerbate global infectious disease burdens. This paper examines how commodity computation, communication, and measurement products combined with open-source analysis and communication applications can be incorporated into laboratory medicine microbiology protocols. Those commodity components are all now sourceable globally. An informatics model is presented for guiding the use of low-cost commodity components and free software in the assembly of clinically useful and usable telemicrobiology workstations.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>The model incorporates two general principles: 1) collaborative diagnostics, where free and open communication and networking applications are used to link distributed collaborators for reciprocal assistance in organizing and interpreting digital diagnostic data; and 2) commodity engineering, which leverages globally available consumer electronics and open-source informatics applications, to build generic open systems that measure needed information in ways substantially equivalent to more complex proprietary systems. Routine microscopic examination of Giemsa and fluorescently stained blood smears for diagnosing malaria is used as an example to validate the model.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The model is used as a constraint-based guide for the design, assembly, and testing of a functioning, open, and commoditized telemicroscopy system that supports distributed acquisition, exploration, analysis, interpretation, and reporting of digital microscopy images of stained malarial blood smears while also supporting remote diagnostic tracking, quality assessment and diagnostic process development.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The open telemicroscopy workstation design and use-process described here can address clinical microbiology infrastructure deficits in an economically sound and sustainable manner. It can boost capacity to deal with comprehensive measurement of disease and care outcomes in individuals and groups in a distributed and collaborative fashion. The workstation enables local control over the creation and use of diagnostic data, while allowing for remote collaborative support of diagnostic data interpretation and tracking. It can enable global pooling of malaria disease information and the development of open, participatory, and adaptable laboratory medicine practices. The informatic model highlights how the larger issue of access to generic commoditized measurement, information processing, and communication technology in both high- and low-income countries can enable diagnostic services that are much less expensive, but substantially equivalent to those currently in use in high-income countries.</p

HSLIC Annual Report FY2002-03

https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/hslic-annual-reports/1013/thumbnail.jp

Wearable computing and contextual awareness

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, School of Architecture and Planning, Program in Media Arts and Sciences, 1999.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 231-248).Computer hardware continues to shrink in size and increase in capability. This trend has allowed the prevailing concept of a computer to evolve from the mainframe to the minicomputer to the desktop. Just as the physical hardware changes, so does the use of the technology, tending towards more interactive and personal systems. Currently, another physical change is underway, placing computational power on the user's body. These wearable machines encourage new applications that were formerly infeasible and, correspondingly, will result in new usage patterns. This thesis suggests that the fundamental improvement offered by wearable computing is an increased sense of user context. I hypothesize that on-body systems can sense the user's context with little or no assistance from environmental infrastructure. These body-centered systems that "see" as the user sees and "hear" as the user hears, provide a unique "first-person" viewpoint of the user's environment. By exploiting models recovered by these systems, interfaces are created which require minimal directed action or attention by the user. In addition, more traditional applications are augmented by the contextual information recovered by these systems. To investigate these issues, I provide perceptually sensible tools for recovering and modeling user context in a mobile, everyday environment. These tools include a downward-facing, camera-based system for establishing the location of the user; a tag-based object recognition system for augmented reality; and several on-body gesture recognition systems to identify various user tasks in constrained environments. To address the practicality of contextually-aware wearable computers, issues of power recovery, heat dissipation, and weight distribution are examined. In addition, I have encouraged a community of wearable computer users at the Media Lab through design, management, and support of hardware and software infrastructure. This unique community provides a heightened awareness of the use and social issues of wearable computing. As much as possible, the lessons from this experience will be conveyed in the thesis.by Thad Eugene Starner.Ph.D

Columbia Chronicle (10/28/1991)

Student newspaper from October 28, 1991 entitled The Columbia College Chronicle. This issue is 8 pages and is listed as Volume 25, Number 6. Cover story: Class Bash draws a crowd Editor: Art Golabhttps://digitalcommons.colum.edu/cadc_chronicle/1127/thumbnail.jp