Digital Commons Network^™

An Approximation Algorithm For The Stable Marriagae Problem With Ties And Incomplete Lists, Rommel Jalasutram

All Dissertations

Consider the bipartite matching problem with two sets of participants: men (L) and women (R). Each person participating has a strict and complete preference list over participants from the other set. The goal is to pair men and women such that no one can improve their partner by breaking away from the centralized matching scheme. Problems that exhibit this flavor are commonly classified as ordinal matchings. Gale and Shapley showed how to obtain such a matching (otherwise known as a “stable” matching). Generalizations of this model have found relevance in several centralized matching schemes such as the National Residency Matching …

Physicocehmical Properties And Pre-Exposure Processes Govern Gold Nanoparticle Accumulation In Freshwater Species, Austin Thomas Wray

All Dissertations

Monitoring the distribution and subsequent effects of nanoparticle (NP) contaminants in aquatic ecosystems will be pivotal to developing regulations that minimize their environmental footprint. Regulators are in a unique position to take a proactive role in shaping how we produce and consume nanomaterials as opposed to the reactive role they have had to adopt with other contaminants. Over the last few decades, researchers have made great strides in describing the fate, behavior, and toxicity of NPs in environmental systems. Recent initiatives have made the transition to scenarios with greater environmental relevance, yet important aspects of fate and behavior remain unexplored. …

An Integrated Systems Engineering Methodology For Design Of Vehicle Handling Dynamics, Mandar Hazare

All Dissertations

The primary objective of this research is to develop an integrated system engineering methodology for the conceptual design of vehicle handling dynamics early on in the product development process. A systems engineering-based simulation framework is developed that connects subjective, customer-relevant handling expectations and manufacturers' brand attributes to higher-level objective vehicle engineering targets and consequently breaks these targets down into subsystem-level requirements and component-level design specifications. Such an integrated systems engineering approach will guide the engineering development process and provide insight into the compromises involved in the vehicle-handling layout, ultimately saving product development time and costs and helping to achieve a …

Majorana Fermions In Chiral Topological Superconductors, Eugen Florin Dumitrescu

All Dissertations

Majorana fermions were first proposed in the context of high energy physics by Ettore Majorana in 1937, just before his mysterious disappearance. Now, over 70 years later, signatures of condensed matter ana-logues of Majorana fermions are finally appearing in low-dimensional superconductor-based heterostructures. In low-dimensional systems, these order parameter, defect-bound Majorana quasiparticles obey non-Abelian quantum statistics and can therefore be used as the building blocks of a topological quantum computer. In this thesis we will analyze the signatures associated with, and the robustness of, Majorana bound states in a variety of one-dimensional superconducting platforms. Our main result is the finding that …

American "Declinism": A Review Of Recent Literature, Michael Daniels

The US Army War College Quarterly: Parameters

No abstract provided.

From The Editor, Antulio J. Echevarria Ii

The US Army War College Quarterly: Parameters

No abstract provided.

Commentaries And Replies 1, Usawc Press

The US Army War College Quarterly: Parameters

No abstract provided.

Commentaries And Replies 2, Usawc Press

The US Army War College Quarterly: Parameters

No abstract provided.

Macroeconomic Trillema And Monetary Policy In Nigeria, Moses K. Tule

Bullion

The paper explores how the macroeconomic trilemma influences monetary Policy choices and action in practical terms. Section 1 is the introduction, section 2 examines in greater details key conceptual issues. After it a review of the historical epochs of the trilemma, followed by contemporary country experiences in managing the trilemma. Section five examines the challenges of the trilemma in Nigeria while the last section concludes the paper.

Financial System Stability And The Payment System., Olubukola Akinniyi Akinwunmi

Bullion

This article reviews the relationship between payments system and financial stability. lt explores the risks within the payments system and how they impact on financial system stability. Emerging issues in the payments system were highlighted and implications for the financial system stability were examined. The article also proposes sets of payments system indicators that may be adopted within the financial system stability analysis and policy making.

Rethinking Sovereign Wealth Fund In A Global Perspective - Lessons For Nigeria, Muhammad A. Abba

Bullion

The study explores the the global rise in the operation of sovereign wealth funds in a number of commodity and non commodity exporting counties has been of tremendous magnitude. The fact that, most, if not all the oil exporting countries of the world today have SWF clearly confirms the many benefits of having a sovereign wealth fund. Section two of the paper provides a brief review of literature. Section three discusses the rationale for SWFs with some stylized facts. The impact of SWFs on the economy is discussed in section four, section five discusses the significance of SWFs while, an …

Basic And Computation Of Rebased Gross Domestic Product (Gdp) Nigeria's Experience, Emeka Godwin Ofili

Bullion

The paper looks at the basic concepts in GDP compilation and the computational processes for the rebased GDP. The paper is structured into four sections. The first section deals with the introduction while section two explains some basic concepts and mathematics for GDP compilation. Section three takes a look at the GDP Rebasing while section four deals with the Recent Development from the rebasing exercise.

Issues In Central Bank Communication, Williams D. Kareem

Bullion

This article examines salient issues in communication which is a key aspect of Central Banking. Although, the value of communication has been hitherto ignored, it has become evident over time that, for a central bank to succeed in achieving its set objectives and mandates, it must put in place effective and efficient mechanisms needed in crafting, and disseminating information about its policies. The ability of the central banks to identify their stakeholders and address their unique communication needs will enable them to earn the trust of their stakeholders and portray them as transparent and accountable entities.

A Simple Adjustment For Bandwidth Snooping, Timothy B. Armstrong, Michal Kolesár

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

Kernel-based estimators are often evaluated at multiple bandwidths as a form of sensitivity analysis. However, if in the reported results, a researcher selects the bandwidth based on this analysis, the associated confidence intervals may not have correct coverage, even if the estimator is unbiased. This paper proposes a simple adjustment that gives correct coverage in such situations: replace the Normal quantile with a critical value that depends only on the kernel and ratio of the maximum and minimum bandwidths the researcher has entertained. We tabulate these critical values and quantify the loss in coverage for conventional confidence intervals. For a …

A Simple Adjustment For Bandwidth Snooping, Timothy B. Armstrong, Michal Kolesár

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

>Kernel-based estimators are often evaluated at multiple bandwidths as a form of sensitivity analysis. However, if in the reported results, a researcher selects the bandwidth based on this analysis, the associated confidence intervals may not have correct coverage, even if the estimator is unbiased. This paper proposes a simple adjustment that gives correct coverage in such situations: replace the normal quantile with a critical value that depends only on the kernel and ratio of the maximum and minimum bandwidths the researcher has entertained. We tabulate these critical values and quantify the loss in coverage for conventional confidence intervals. For a …

A Simple Adjustment For Bandwidth Snooping, Timothy B. Armstrong, Michal Kolesár

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

Kernel-based estimators such as local polynomial estimators in regression discontinuity designs are often evaluated at multiple bandwidths as a form of sensitivity analysis. However, if in the reported results, a researcher selects the bandwidth based on this analysis, the associated confidence intervals may not have correct coverage, even if the estimator is unbiased. This paper proposes a simple adjustment that gives correct coverage in such situations: replace the normal quantile with a critical value that depends only on the kernel and ratio of the maximum and minimum bandwidths the researcher has entertained. We tabulate these critical values and quantify the …

Threshold Regression With Endogeneity, Ping Yu, Peter C.B. Phillips

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

This paper studies estimation and specification testing in threshold regression with endogeneity. Three key results differ from those in regular models. First, both the threshold point and the threshold effect parameters are shown to be identified without the need for instrumentation. Second, in partially linear threshold models, both parametric and nonparametric components rely on the same data, which prima facie suggests identification failure. But, as shown here, the discontinuity structure of the threshold itself supplies identifying information for the parametric coefficients without the need for extra randomness in the regressors. Third, instrumentation plays different roles in the estimation of the …

True Limit Distributions Of The Anderson-Hsiao Iv Estimators In Panel Autoregression, Peter C.B. Phillips, Chirok Han

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

This note derives the correct limit distributions of the Anderson Hsiao (1981) levels and differences instrumental variable estimators, provides comparisons showing that the levels IV estimator has uniformly smaller variance asymptotically as the cross section ( n ) and time series ( T ) sample sizes tend to infinity, and compares these results with those of the first difference least squares (FDLS) estimator.

Weak Convergence To Stochastic Integrals For Econometric Applications, Hanying Liang, Peter C.B. Phillips, Hanchao Wang, Qiying Wang

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

Limit theory involving stochastic integrals is now widespread in time series econometrics and relies on a few key results on function space weak convergence. In establishing weak convergence of sample covariances to stochastic integrals, the literature commonly uses martingale and semimartingale structures. While these structures have wide relevance, many applications in econometrics involve a cointegration framework where endogeneity and nonlinearity play a major role and lead to complications in the limit theory. This paper explores weak convergence limit theory to stochastic integral functionals in such settings. We use a novel decomposition of sample covariances of functions of I(1) and I(0) …

A Note On Minimax Testing And Confidence Intervals In Moment Inequality Models, Timothy B. Armstrong

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

This note uses a simple example to show how moment inequality models used in the empirical economics literature lead to general minimax relative efficiency comparisons. The main point is that such models involve inference on a low dimensional parameter, which leads naturally to a definition of “distance” that, in full generality, would be arbitrary in minimax testing problems. This definition of distance is justified by the fact that it leads to a duality between minimaxity of confidence intervals and tests, which does not hold for other definitions of distance. Thus, the use of moment inequalities for inference in a low …

Testing Equality Of Covariance Matrices Via Pythagorean Means, Jin Seo Cho, Peter C.B. Phillips

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

We provide a new test for equality of covariance matrices that leads to a convenient mechanism for testing specification using the information matrix equality. The test relies on a new characterization of equality between two k dimensional positive-definite matrices A and B : the traces of AB –1 and BA –1 are equal to k if and only if A = B . Using this criterion, we introduce a class of omnibus test statistics for equality of covariance matrices and examine their null, local, and global approximations under some mild regularity conditions. Monte Carlo experiments are conducted to explore the …

Wealth Effects On World Private Financial Saving, Ray C. Fair

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

This paper shows that about 70 percent of the variance of the yearly change in the world private financial saving rate can be explained by lagged changes in world stock and housing prices for the sample period 1982-2013. The results suggest that increased fluctuations in asset prices since 1995 have led to increased fluctuations in the world private financial saving rate. Wealth effects on private demand appear to be large.

The Scoop, Vol. 1 Issue 9, December 2014, Health Sciences Library

Volume 1

Latest news and events from the Health Sciences Library in our monthly newsletter for December 2014.

Long-Acting Antituberculous Therapeutic Nanoparticles Target Macrophage Endosomes., Benson J. Edagwa, Dongwei Guo, Pavan Puligujja, Han Chen, Joellyn Mcmillan, Xinming Liu, Howard Gendelman, Prabagaran Narayanasamy

Journal Articles: Pharmacology & Experimental Neuroscience

Eradication of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) infection requires daily administration of combinations of rifampin (RIF), isoniazid [isonicotinylhydrazine (INH)], pyrazinamide, and ethambutol, among other drug therapies. To facilitate and optimize MTB therapeutic selections, a mononuclear phagocyte (MP; monocyte, macrophage, and dendritic cell)-targeted drug delivery strategy was developed. Long-acting nanoformulations of RIF and an INH derivative, pentenyl-INH (INHP), were prepared, and their physicochemical properties were evaluated. This included the evaluation of MP particle uptake and retention, cell viability, and antimicrobial efficacy. Drug levels reached 6 μg/10(6) cells in human monocyte-derived macrophages (MDMs) for nanoparticle treatments compared with 0.1 μg/10(6) cells for native drugs. …

Intellectual Origins Of (Modern) Substantive Due Process, The, Joshua D. Hawley

Faculty Publications

Almost fifty years after the Supreme Court revived the doctrine, substantive due process remains a puzzle. Detractors insist it is nothing more than judicial policy making. Defenders say it accords with the deepest values of the Constitution. But on all sides, the present scholarly debate suffers from an impoverished understanding of modern substantive due process's intellectual history, which has led to an impoverished understanding of the doctrine's core normative content. It is time for a revisionist turn. This Article supplies that turn by excavating the intellectual origins of modern substantive due process and relating that history to the doctrine's development. …

Continuous Polymer Reactor Design, David Sujay Kingsley

Dissertations

Twin screw extruders can be used as continuous polymer reactors to process polymers, which are conventionally made through batch reactors. Batch processes have certain undesirable qualities such as improper mixing and the inability to precisely control the reaction, which leads to variation between batches and potential exotherms. The work presented in this dissertation investigates the use of continuous polymer reactor designs to efficiently process renewable sourced thermoplastic polyurethanes (TPU), and prepreg epoxy matrix prepolymers.

The overall goal of this research is to highlight the modularity of twin screw extruders as continuous polymer reactors to synthesize the relevant polymers. Chapter I …

Plant–Soil Feedbacks Of Exotic Plant Species Across Life Forms: A Meta-Analysis, Annelein Meisner, W. H. Gera Hol, Wietse De Boer, Jennifer Adams Krumins, David A. Wardle, Wim H. Van Der Putten

Department of Biology Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Invasive exotic plant species effects on soil biota and processes in their new range can promote or counteract invasions via changed plant–soil feedback interactions to themselves or to native plant species. Recent meta-analyses reveale that soil influenced by native and exotic plant species is affecting growth and performance of natives more strongly than exotics. However, the question is how uniform these responses are across contrasting life forms. Here, we test the hypothesis that life form matters for effects on soil and plant–soil feedback. In a meta-analysis we show that exotics enhanced C cycling, numbers of meso-invertebrates and nematodes, while having …

Information-Theoretic Limits For Density Estimation, James Brofos

Computer Science Technical Reports

This paper is concerned with the information-theoretical limits of density estimation for Gaussian random variables with data drawn independently and with identical distributions. We apply Fano's inequality to the space of densities and an arbitrary estimator. We derive necessary conditions on the sample size for reliable density recovery and for reliable density estimation. These conditions are true simultaneously for both finitely and infinitely dimensional density spaces.

A Novel Method For Simulating Insulin Mediated Glut4 Translocation, Andrew Jezewski, Joshua Larson, Beata Wysocki, Paul H. Davis, Tadeusz Wysocki

Biology Faculty Publications

Glucose transport in humans is a vital process which is tightly regulated by the endocrine system. Specifically, the insulin hormone triggers a cascade of intracellular signals in target cells mediating the uptake of glucose. Insulin signaling triggers cellular relocalization of the glucose transporter protein GLUT4 to the cell surface, which is primarily responsible for regulated glucose import. Pathology associated with the disruption of this pathway can lead to metabolic disorders, such as type II diabetes mellitus, characterized by the failure of cells to appropriately uptake glucose from the blood. We describe a novel simulation tool of the insulin intracellular response, …

A Qualitative Study Evaluating Bedside Reporting And The Impact On Nurse Satisfaction And Communication Barriers With Washington Regional Medical Center, Win Szeto, Sarah Wren, Molly Milborn

The Eleanor Mann School of Nursing Undergraduate Honors Theses

Nursing care occurs on a continuum that involves transferring the responsibility of a patient’s care from one nurse to another during shift change. Hand-off reports are a vital part of the communication cycle to ensure safe and effective care. Studies have shown bedside reporting increases patient and nurse satisfaction as well as the nurse-patient relationship (Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, 2013b). The aim of this study was to educate nurses on the importance of bedside reporting and to implement a standardized hand-off. This study was evaluated through two measures. The first measure involved a survey/interview on nurses' perception before …