Digital Commons Network^™

Enacting Technology In Networked Governance: Developmental Processes Of Cross-Agency Arrangements, Jane E. Fountain

National Center for Digital Government

This paper discusses the technology enactment framework, an analytical framework to guide exploration and examination of information-based change in governments.1 The original technology enactment framework is extended in this paper to delineate the distinctive roles played by key actors in technology enactment. I then examine institutional change in government by drawing from current initiatives in the U.S. federal government to build cross-agency relationships and systems. The U.S. government is one of the first central states to undertake not only back office integration within the government but also integration of systems and processes across agencies. For this reason its experience during …

Icts And Political Accountability: An Assessment Of The Impact Of Digitization In Government On Political Accountability In Connecticut, Massachusetts And New York State, Albert Meijer

National Center for Digital Government

This report presents a first analysis of the results of empirical research into the impact of digitization on political accountability in Connecticut, Massachusetts and New York State. The report focuses on presenting the empirical findings and these data still require further analysis.

Statistical Models And Analysis Techniques For Learning In Relational Data, Jennifer Neville

Computer Science Department Faculty Publication Series

Many data sets routinely captured by organizations are relational in nature— from marketing and sales transactions, to scientific observations and medical records. Relational data record characteristics of heterogeneous objects and persistent relationships among those objects (e.g., citation graphs, the World Wide Web, genomic structures). These data offer unique opportunities to improve model accuracy, and thereby decision-making, if machine learning techniques can effectively exploit the relational information. This work focuses on how to learn accurate statistical models of complex, relational data sets and develops two novel probabilistic models to represent, learn, and reason about statistical dependencies in these data. Relational dependency …

The Renormalization Of The Energy-Momentum Tensor For An Effective Initial State, Hael Collins, R. Holman

Physics Department Faculty Publication Series

An effective description of an initial state is a method for representing the signatures of new physics in the short-distance structure of a quantum state. The expectation value of the energy-momentum tensor for a field in such a state contains new divergences that arise when summing over this new structure. These divergences occur only at the initial time at which the state is defined and therefore can be cancelled by including a set of purely geometric counterterms that also are confined to this initial surface. We describe this gravitational renormalization of the divergences in the energy-momentum tensor for a free …

A Framework To Predict The Quality Of Answers With Nontextual, University Of Massachusetts Amherst

Computer Science Department Faculty Publication Series

New types of document collections are being developed by various web services. The service providers keep track of non-textual features such as click counts. In this paper, we present a framework to use non-textual features to pre- dict the quality of documents. We also show our quality measure can be successfully incorporated into the language modeling-based retrieval model. We test our approach on a collection of question and answer pairs gathered from a community based question answering service where people ask and answer questions. Experimental results using our quality measure show a signi¯cant improvement over our baseline.

Bibliometric Impact Measures Leveraging Topic Analysis, Gideon S. Mann

Computer Science Department Faculty Publication Series

Measurements of the impact and history of research literature provide a useful complement to scientific digital library collections. Bibliometric indicators have been extensively studied, mostly in the context of journals. However, journal-based metrics poorly capture topical distinctions in fast-moving fields, and are increasingly problematic with the rise of open-access publishing. Recent developments in latent topic models have produced promising results for automatic sub-field discovery. The fine-grained, faceted topics produced by such models provide a clearer view of the topical divisions of a body of research literature and the interactions between those divisions. We demonstrate the usefulness of topic models in …

A Hierarchical, Hmmbased Accuracy For A Digital Library Of Books, Shaolei Feng

Computer Science Department Faculty Publication Series

A number of projects are creating searchable digital libraries of printed books. These include the Million Book Project, the Google Book project and similar efforts from Yahoo and Microsoft. Content-based on line book retrieval usually requires first converting printed text into machine readable (e.g. ASCII) text using an optical character recognition (OCR) engine and then doing full text search on the results. Many of these books are old and there are a variety of processing steps that are required to create an end to end system. Changing any step (including the scanning process) can affect OCR performance and hence a …

Proposal To The Ethics Education In Science And Engineering Program, National Science Foundation: Role-Play Scenarios For Teaching Responsible Conduct Of Research, Michael C. Loui, C. K. Gunsalus

Ethics in Science and Engineering National Clearinghouse

We propose to develop and assess role-play scenarios to teach central topics in the responsible conduct of research (RCR) to graduate students in science and engineering. Together the scenarios will cover plagiarism, authorship, conflict of interest, interpersonal conflicts in mentoring, and concerns about compliance with research regulations on human participants in research, animal subjects, or hazardous substances. Two scenarios will present potential whistleblowing situations.

Intellectual merit: Few previous studies have carefully assessed the effectiveness of role-play in teaching ethics. We will conduct a rigorous, systematic assessment of role-play, using multiple methods, with a diverse group of graduate students. We will …

Global Optimization, The Gaussian Ensemble, And Universal Ensemble Equivalence., M Costeniuc, Rs Ellis, H Touchette, B Turkington

Mathematics and Statistics Department Faculty Publication Series

Given a constrained minimization problem, under what conditions does there exist a related, unconstrained
problem having the same minimum points? This basic question in global optimization
motivates this paper, which answers it from the viewpoint of statistical mechanics. In this context, it
reduces to the fundamental question of the equivalence and nonequivalence of ensembles, which is
analyzed using the theory of large deviations and the theory of convex functions.
In a 2000 paper appearing in the Journal of Statistical Physics, we gave necessary and sufficient
conditions for ensemble equivalence and nonequivalence in terms of support and concavity
properties of the …

Smooth S-Cobordisms Of Elliptic 3-Manifolds, Wm Chen

Mathematics and Statistics Department Faculty Publication Series

The main result of this paper states that a symplectic s-cobordism of elliptic 3-manifolds is diffeomorphic to a product (assuming a canonical contact structure on the boundary). Based on this theorem, we conjecture that a smooth s-cobordism of elliptic 3-manifolds is smoothly a product if its universal cover is smoothly a product. We explain how the conjecture fits naturally into the program of Taubes of constructing symplectic structures on an oriented smooth 4-manifold with b⁺₂ ≥ 1 from generic self-dual harmonic forms. The paper also contains an auxiliary result of independent interest, which generalizes Taubes' theorem "SW ⇒ …

Nonconcave Entropies From Generalized Canonical Ensembles, M Costeniuc, Rs Ellis, H Touchette

Mathematics and Statistics Department Faculty Publication Series

It is well known that the entropy of the microcanonical ensemble cannot be calculated as the Legendre transform of the canonical free energy when the entropy is nonconcave. To circumvent this problem, a generalization of the canonical ensemble that allows for the calculation of nonconcave entropies was recently proposed. Here, we study the mean-field Curie-Weiss-Potts spin model and show, by direct calculations, that the nonconcave entropy of this model can be obtained by using a specific instance of the generalized canonical ensemble known as the Gaussian ensemble.

Generalized Canonical Ensembles And Ensemble Equivalence, M Costeniuc, Rs Ellis, H Touchette, B Turkington

Mathematics and Statistics Department Faculty Publication Series

This paper is a companion piece to our previous work [J. Stat. Phys. 119, 1283 (2005)], which introduced a generalized canonical ensemble obtained by multiplying the usual Boltzmann weight factor e^−βH of the canonical ensemble with an exponential factor involving a continuous function g of the Hamiltonian H. We provide here a simplified introduction to our previous work, focusing now on a number of physical rather than mathematical aspects of the generalized canonical ensemble. The main result discussed is that, for suitable choices of g, the generalized canonical ensemble reproduces, in the thermodynamic limit, all the microcanonical equilibrium properties …

Challenges To Organizational Change: Multi-Level Integrated Information Structures (Miis), Jane E. Fountain

National Center for Digital Government

From introduction: Governments are extraordinary information creators, users, and disseminators. I-government focuses attention on the flow and structuring of information within government (Mayer-Schoenberger and Lazer, this volume). Government actors engage in knowledge work, specifically, in the creation, sharing, and communication of information. They design and redesign processes by which information flows according to legislative mandate, organizational practice and public need. Recently, they have sought to rethink information flows in order to leverage benefits from information and communication technologies. When public sector actors seek to change these information flows at any appreciable level of complexity, they inevitably engage in complex organizational …

2006 Newsletter, Morton Sternheim

STEM Education Institute Newsletters

Conference on Alternative Certification for Science Teachers

Nanotechnology p. 2

STEM Earth Central p. 3

Science and Engineering Saturday Seminars p. 8

Nutrition and Health in the Science Classroom p. 10

Science Exhibit and Demo p. 11

STEM Adventures p. 5

Noyce Scholars p. 10

PV STEMNET Looks to Future Funding p. 5

Spring Semester Field Trips p. 6

STEM Connections Ends p. 7

STEMTEC Faculty Development Programs p. 9

Farewell to STEMTEC p. 9

Evaluating Spatial Surveillance: Detection Of Known Outbreaks In Real Data, Ken Kleinman, Allyson Abrams, W. Katherine Yih, Richard Platt, Martin Kulldorff

Public Health Department Faculty Publication Series

Since the anthrax attacks of October 2001 and the SARS outbreaks of recent years, there has been an increasing interest in developing surveillance systems to aid in the early detection of such illness. Systems have been established which do this is by monitoring primary health-care visits, pharmacy sales, absenteeism records, and other non-traditional sources of data. While many resources have been invested in establishing such systems, relatively little effort has as yet been expended in evaluating their performance.

One way to evaluate a given surveillance system is to compare the signals it generates with known outbreaks identified in other systems. …

Variation In Hepatitis B Immunization Coverage Rates Associated With Provider Practices After The Temporary Suspension Of The Birth Dose, Nancy D. Lin, Ken Kleinman, K Arnold Chan, Xian-Jie Yu, Eric K. France, Feifei Wei, John P. Mullooly, Steven Black, David Shay, Margarette Kolczak, Tracey Lieu, Vaccine Safety Datalink Team

Public Health Department Faculty Publication Series

Background

In 1999, the American Academy of Pediatrics and U.S. Public Health Service recommended suspending the birth dose of hepatitis B vaccine due to concerns about potential mercury exposure. A previous report found that overall national hepatitis B vaccination coverage rates decreased in association with the suspension. It is unknown whether this underimmunization occurred uniformly or was associated with how providers changed their practices for the timing of hepatitis B vaccine doses. We evaluate the impact of the birth dose suspension on underimmunization for the hepatitis B vaccine series among 24-month-olds in five large provider groups and describe provider practices …

Department Of Physics Newsletter: Spring 2006, Bob Krotkov, Ken Langley, Gerry Peterson, Monroe Rabin, Hajime Sakai, Elena Sharnoff

Physics Newsletters

No abstract provided.

Spin Diffusion In Trapped Gases: Anisotropy In Dipole And Quadrupole Modes, Wj Mullin, Rj Ragan

Physics Department Faculty Publication Series

Recent experiments in a mixture of two hyperfine states of trapped Bose gases show behavior analogous to a spin-1/2 system, including transverse spin waves and other familiar Leggett-Rice-type effects. We have derived the kinetic equations applicable to these systems, including the spin dependence of interparticle interactions in the collision integral, and have solved for spin-wave frequencies and longitudinal and transverse diffusion constants in the Boltzmann limit. We find that, while the transverse and longitudinal collision times for trapped Fermi gases are identical, the Bose gas shows unusual diffusion anisotropy in both dipole and quadrupole modes. Moreover, the lack of spin …

Nuclear Central Force In The Chiral Limit, Jf Donoghue

Physics Department Faculty Publication Series

Chiral perturbation theory supplemented by the Omnes function is employed to study the strength of the isoscalar central nuclear interaction, GS, in the chiral limit vs the physical case. A very large modification is seen, i.e., ηs=GS chiral/GS physical=1.37±0.10. This large effect is seen to arise dominantly at low energy from the extra contributions made by massless pions at energies near the physical threshold where the physical spectral function must vanish kinematically. The slope away from the chiral limit, dS, is also calculated and is correspondingly large. I also explain why this large variation is to be expected.

Instrumental Analysis In The Undergraduate Curriculum, A Fahey, J Tyson

Chemistry Department Faculty Publication Series

No abstract provided.

Education And Training Of Bs Analytical Chemists For Entry-Level Positions In Industry: A Survey, Julian Tyson, Angela M. Fahey

Chemistry Department Faculty Publication Series

Surveys, in 1993 and 2003, of industrial employers of BS analytical chemists show that respondents consider employees’ abilities to work as a team member, solve problems, write and communicate orally, work safely with a positive ethic, perform calculations, and apply basic chemical principles to be the most important. There is dissatisfaction with the preparation of graduates with regard to communications skills, safety training, and problem-solving abilities. Respondents also indicated that graduates should have had hands-on experience with a variety of chromatographic and spectroscopic techniques as well as some techniques not commonly encountered in the teaching laboratory, such as auto-titration, microwave …

Symmetry Breaking In Symmetric And Asymmetric Double-Well Potentials, G Theocharis, Pg Kevrekidis, Dj Frantzeskakis, P Schmelcher

Mathematics and Statistics Department Faculty Publication Series

Motivated by recent experimental studies of matter waves and optical beams in double-well potentials, we study the corresponding solutions of the nonlinear Schrödinger equation. Using a Galerkin-type approach, we obtain a detailed handle on the nonlinear solution branches of the problem, starting from the corresponding linear ones, and we predict the relevant bifurcations for both attractive and repulsive nonlinearities. The dynamics of the ensuing unstable solutions is also examined. The results illustrate the differences that arise between the steady states and the bifurcations emerging in symmetric and asymmetric double wells.

Metastability Within The Generalized Canonical Ensemble, H Touchette, M Costeniuc, Rs Ellis, B Turkington

Mathematics and Statistics Department Faculty Publication Series

We discuss a property of our recently introduced generalized canonical ensemble [M. Costeniuc, R.S. Ellis, H. Touchette, B. Turkington, The generalized canonical ensemble and its universal equivalence with the microcanonical ensemble, J. Stat. Phys. 119 (2005) 1283]. We show that this ensemble can be used to transform metastable or unstable (nonequilibrium) states of the standard canonical ensemble into stable (equilibrium) states within the generalized canonical ensemble. Equilibrium calculations within the generalized canonical ensemble can thus be used to obtain information about nonequilibrium states in the canonical ensemble.

Nonlinearity Management In Higher Dimensions, Pg Kevrekidis

Mathematics and Statistics Department Faculty Publication Series

In the present paper, we revisit nonlinearity management of the time-periodic nonlinear Schrödinger equation and the related averaging procedure. By means of rigorous estimates, we show that the averaged nonlinear Schrödinger equation does not blow up in the higher dimensional case so long as the corresponding solution remains smooth. In particular, we show that the H1 norm remains bounded, in contrast with the usual blow-up mechanism for the focusing Schrödinger equation. This conclusion agrees with earlier works in the case of strong nonlinearity management but contradicts those in the case of weak nonlinearity management. The apparent discrepancy is explained by …

High-Order-Mode Soliton Structures In Two-Dimensional Lattices With Defocusing Nonlinearity, Pg Kevrekidis

Mathematics and Statistics Department Faculty Publication Series

While fundamental-mode discrete solitons have been demonstrated with both self-focusing and defocusing nonlinearity, high-order-mode localized states in waveguide lattices have been studied thus far only for the self-focusing case. In this paper, the existence and stability regimes of dipole, quadrupole, and vortex soliton structures in two-dimensional lattices induced with a defocusing nonlinearity are examined by the theoretical and numerical analysis of a generic envelope nonlinear lattice model. In particular, we find that the stability of such high-order-mode solitons is quite different from that with self-focusing nonlinearity. As a simple example, a dipole (“twisted”) mode soliton with adjacent excited sites which …

Dynamics And Manipulation Of Matter-Wave Solitons In Optical Superlattices, Mason A. Porter, Pg Kevrekidis

Mathematics and Statistics Department Faculty Publication Series

We study the existence and stability of bright, dark, and gap matter-wave solitons in optical superlattices. Then, using these properties, we show that (time-dependent) “dynamical superlattices” can be used to controllably place, guide, and manipulate these solitons. In particular, we use numerical experiments to displace solitons by turning on a secondary lattice structure, transfer solitons from one location to another by shifting one superlattice substructure relative to the other, and implement solitonic “path-following”, in which a matter wave follows the time-dependent lattice substructure into oscillatory motion.

Discrete Vector On-Site Vortices, Pg Kevrekidis

Mathematics and Statistics Department Faculty Publication Series

We study discrete vortices in coupled discrete nonlinear Schrödinger equations. We focus on the vortex cross configuration that has been experimentally observed in photorefractive crystals. Stability of the single-component vortex cross in the anti-continuum limit of small coupling between lattice nodes is proved. In the vector case, we consider two coupled configurations of vortex crosses, namely the charge-one vortex in one component coupled in the other component to either the charge-one vortex (forming a double-charge vortex) or the charge-negative-one vortex (forming a, so-called, hidden-charge vortex). We show that both vortex configurations are stable in the anti-continuum limit, if the parameter …

Radiationless Traveling Waves In Saturable Nonlinear Schrödinger Lattices, T.R.O Melvin, A R. Champneys, Pg Kevrekidis

Mathematics and Statistics Department Faculty Publication Series

The long-standing problem of moving discrete solitary waves in nonlinear Schrödinger lattices is revisited. The context is photorefractive crystal lattices with saturable nonlinearity whose grand-canonical energy barrier vanishes for isolated coupling strength values. Genuinely localized traveling waves are computed as a function of the system parameters for the first time. The relevant solutions exist only for finite velocities.

Electromagnetic Properties Of Nucleons And Hyperons In A Lorentz Covariant Quark Model, Amand Faessler, Thomas Gutsche, Br Holstein

Physics Department Faculty Publication Series

We calculate magnetic moments of nucleons and hyperons and N -> Delta + gamma transition characteristics using a manifestly Lorentz covariant chiral quark approach for the study of baryons as bound states of constituent quarks dressed by a cloud of pseudoscalar mesons.

High-Precision Measurement Of The Thermal Exponent For The Three-Dimensional Xy Universality Class, E Burovski, J Machta, Nikolai Prokof'ev, Boris Svistunov

Physics Department Faculty Publication Series

Simulation results are reported for the critical point of the two-component ϕ4 field theory. The correlation-length exponent is measured to high precision with the result ν=0.6717(3). This value is in agreement with recent simulation results [Campostrini et al., Phys. Rev. B 63, 214503 (2001)] and marginally agrees with the most recent space-based measurements of the superfluid transition in 4He [Lipa et al., Phys. Rev. B 68, 174518 (2003)].