Scalar Transformations Research Articles

A political ecology of scaling: Struggles over power, land and authority

This paper integrates insights from political ecology with a politics of scaling to discuss the construction and transformation of scalar topographies as part of the politics and power dynamics of natural resource management. The paper details two case studies from Community Based Natural Resource Management in the forest and wildlife sectors of Tanzania to: (1) analyse the devolution of power from the state to the local level; and (2) investigate the constant renegotiations and scalar transformations by actors across multiple levels in attempts to manipulate the governance system. The paper highlights the sociospatial aspects of the struggles and politics of natural resource management, and emphasises that whilst these processes of scalar negotiation and struggle are distinct between the two examples, they both revolve around the same political struggle over power. This indicates an important structuration element of power and scale as they are shaped by both the structural configuration of power within each sector alongside the agency of different actors across multiple levels.

The Archaeology of Underground Mining Landscapes

The mining industry is known for leaving dramatic landscapes in its wake, and among these are the workings hidden below the surface. As dangerous places, underground mines exerted important holds over community life and shaped the formation of mining identities. Despite this centrality to the mining life, historical archaeological research underground remains limited because the hazards have never dissipated. This article establishes prospective ground for the archaeology of underground mines, taking its lead from several pioneering studies in order to better assess the nature of recoverable archaeological information. In particular, it is argued that the material evidence from the workplace enables localized insights into scalar transformations occurring in the industry, the cultures of work practice, and the mechanisms by which miners coped with uncertain environments. This article also considers strategies by which future investigations might safely proceed.

Equivalence testing for functional data with an application to comparing pulmonary function devices

Equivalence testing for scalar data has been well addressed in the literature, however, the same cannot be said for functional data. The resultant complexity from maintaining the functional structure of the data, rather than using a scalar transformation to reduce dimensionality, renders the existing literature on equivalence testing inadequate for the desired inference. We propose a framework for equivalence testing for functional data within both the frequentist and Bayesian paradigms. This framework combines extensions of scalar methodologies with new methodology for functional data. Our frequentist hypothesis test extends the Two One-Sided Testing (TOST) procedure for equivalence testing to the functional regime. We conduct this TOST procedure through the use of the nonparametric bootstrap. Our Bayesian methodology employs a functional analysis of variance model, and uses a flexible class of Gaussian Processes for both modeling our data and as prior distributions. Through our analysis, we introduce a model for heteroscedastic variances within a Gaussian Process by modeling variance curves via Log-Gaussian Process priors. We stress the importance of choosing prior distributions that are commensurate with the prior state of knowledge and evidence regarding practical equivalence. We illustrate these testing methods through data from an ongoing method comparison study between two devices for pulmonary function testing. In so doing, we provide not only concrete motivation for equivalence testing for functional data, but also a blueprint for researchers who hope to conduct similar inference.

A robust power spectrum split cancellation-based spectrum sensing method for cognitive radio systems

Spectrum sensing is an essential component to realize the cognitive radio, and the requirement for real-time spectrum sensing in the case of lacking prior information, fading channel, and noise uncertainty, indeed poses a major challenge to the classical spectrum sensing algorithms. Based on the stochastic properties of scalar transformation of power spectral density (PSD), a novel spectrum sensing algorithm, referred to as the power spectral density split cancellation method (PSC), is proposed in this paper. The PSC makes use of a scalar value as a test statistic, which is the ratio of each subband power to the full band power. Besides, by exploiting the asymptotic normality and independence of Fourier transform, the distribution of the ratio and the mathematical expressions for the probabilities of false alarm and detection in different channel models are derived. Further, the exact closed-form expression of decision threshold is calculated in accordance with Neyman—Pearson criterion. Analytical and simulation results show that the PSC is invulnerable to noise uncertainty, and can achive excellent detection performance without prior knowledge in additive white Gaussian noise and flat slow fading channels. In addition, the PSC benefits from a low computational cost, which can be completed in microseconds.

Proteus and the Digital: Scalar Transformations of Seawater’s Materiality in Ocean Animations

This article analyzes the discursive and conceptual equation of the ocean and the database. Considering how the chemical and vital properties of seawater serve to transform what is ‘stored’, the language of flow and fluidity is inadequate to describe what seawater actually does to things – it encrusts them, rusts them, adheres burgeoning life-forms to them. Seawater asks us to rethink terrestrial notions of the archive or database as informed by the language of earth and sediment, and instead consider the ocean-as-database in terms of seawater’s capacity for protean transformation. Although the protean properties of seawater are meaningful at a macro scale, on increasingly microscopic scales, multiple processes of abstraction make seawater commensurate with digitality. The author considers the stakes of focusing on different scales of seawater and its materiality, taking as her examples two different data visualizations/animations: Google Ocean (scaling the ocean down to the size of a computer screen) and ATLAS in silico (scaling ocean microbial genomic data up to the size of a projection, or cluster of computer screens). She concludes by asking, how might a theory of media evolve from the materiality of seawater differently on macro and micro scales?

A Scalar Compromise Equilibrium for N-Person Prescriptive Games

A scalar equilibrium (SE) is defined for n-person prescriptive games in normal form. When a decision criterion (notion of rationality) is either agreed upon by the players or prescribed by an external arbiter, the resulting decision process is modeled by a suitable scalar transformation (utility function). Each n-tuple of von Neumann-Morgenstern utilities is transformed into a nonnegative scalar value between 0 and 1. Any n-tuple yielding a largest scalar value determines an SE, which is always a pure strategy profile. SEs can be computed much faster than Nash equilibria, for example; and the decision criterion need not be based on the players’ selfishness. To illustrate the SE, we define a compromise equilibrium, establish its Pareto optimality, and present examples comparing it to other solution concepts.

Robust identification of pneumatic servo actuators in the real situations

Intensive research in the field of mathematical modelling of the pneumatic cylinder has shown that its mathematical model is nonlinear and that a lot of important details cannot be included in the model. Selection of the model and the identification method have been conditioned by the following facts: (a) The nonlinear model of the system can be approximated by a linear model with time-variant parameters. (b) There is the influence of the combination of heat coefficient, unknown discharge coefficient and change of temperature on the pneumatic cylinder model. Therefore it is assumed that the parameters of the pneumatic cylinder are random (stochastic parameters). (c) In practical conditions, observations have a non-Gaussian distribution. Due to the abovementioned reasons, it is assumed that the pneumatic cylinder model is a linear stochastic model with variable parameters. The Masreliez-Martin filter (robust Kalman filter) was used for identification of parameters of the model. For the purpose of increasing the practical value of the filter, the following two heuristic modifications were performed: (1) It was adopted that T(k)=1 holds for the scalar transformation of residuals. (2) Fisher information was approximated by a derivative of the Huber’s function. The proposed modifications were confirmed through intensive simulations. In order to provide persistent excitation, the autocovariance function “1/f” of the signal was used. The behaviour of the new approach to identification of the pneumatic cylinder is illustrated by simulations.

Societŕ civile e politics of scaling: mobilitazioni locali e governo metropolitano a Roma

The article presents the results of research into the relationships between mobilisations of civil society and the ongoing process of reforming metropolitan government in Rome. The results are used to discuss various aspects of the constructionist and neo-marxist approaches to political scale and scalar transformations of political power. In particular, empirical evidence is provided to support discussion of the theory that carrying out reforms affecting the scale of government and governance in urban regions involves facing political, economic and social conflicts. In the case studies analysed the rescaling of metropolitan government is not part of the cognitive and strategic horizons of the civil society actors involved, who are excluded and exclude themselves from the arena in which the reform is being formulated. The reform is rather the subject of bargaining between political and economic actors, who are also better able to develop strategies along a trans-scalar dimension.

Regression Calibration for Classical Exposure Measurement Error in Environmental Epidemiology Studies Using Multiple Local Surrogate Exposures

Environmental epidemiologic studies are often hierarchical in nature if they estimate individuals' personal exposures using ambient metrics. Local samples are indirect surrogate measures of true local pollutant concentrations which estimate true personal exposures. These ambient metrics include classical-type nondifferential measurement error. The authors simulated subjects' true exposures and their corresponding surrogate exposures as the mean of local samples and assessed the amount of bias attributable to classical and Berkson measurement error on odds ratios, assuming that the logit of risk depends on true individual-level exposure. The authors calibrated surrogate exposures using scalar transformation functions based on observed within- and between-locality variances and compared regression-calibrated results with naive results using surrogate exposures. The authors further assessed the performance of regression calibration in the presence of Berkson-type error. Following calibration, bias due to classical-type measurement error, resulting in as much as 50% attenuation in naive regression estimates, was eliminated. Berkson-type error appeared to attenuate logistic regression results less than 1%. This regression calibration method reduces effects of classical measurement error that are typical of epidemiologic studies using multiple local surrogate exposures as indirect surrogate exposures for unobserved individual exposures. Berkson-type error did not alter the performance of regression calibration. This regression calibration method does not require a supplemental validation study to compute an attenuation factor.

Core multiplication in childhood

A dedicated, non-symbolic, system yielding imprecise representations of large quantities (approximate number system, or ANS) has been shown to support arithmetic calculations of addition and subtraction. In the present study, 5–7-year-old children without formal schooling in multiplication and division were given a task requiring a scalar transformation of large approximate numerosities, presented as arrays of objects. In different conditions, the required calculation was doubling, quadrupling, or increasing by a fractional factor (2.5). In all conditions, participants were able to represent the outcome of the transformation at above-chance levels, even on the earliest training trials. Their performance could not be explained by processes of repeated addition, and it showed the critical ratio signature of the ANS. These findings provide evidence for an untrained, intuitive process of calculating multiplicative numerical relationships, providing a further foundation for formal arithmetic instruction.

CASORATIAN SOLUTIONS AND NEW SYMMETRIES OF THE DIFFERENTIAL-DIFFERENCE KADOMTSEV–PETVIASHVILI EQUATION

This paper first discusses the condition in which Casoratian entries satisfy for the differential-difference Kadomtsev–Petviashvili equation. Then from the Casoratian condition we find a transformation under which the differential-difference Kadomtsev–Petviashvili equation is invariant. The transformation, consisting of a combination of Galilean and scalar transformations, provides a single-parameter invariant group for the equation. We further derive the related symmetry, and the symmetry together with other two symmetries form a closed three-dimensional Lie algebra.

A new integrable hierarchy and constrained flows, its expanding integrable system

A new subalgebra of loop algebra A ∼ 2 is first constructed. It follows that an isospectral problem is established. Using Tu-pattern gives rise to a new integrable hierarchy, which possesses bi-Hamiltonian structure. Furthermore, by making use of bi-symmetry constraints, the generalized Hamiltonian regular representations for the hierarchy are obtained. Finally, we obtain an expanding integrable system of this hierarchy by applying a scalar transformation between two isospectral problems and constructing a five-dimensional loop algebra G ∼ .

Introduction. Social intelligence: from brain to culture

Humans are perhaps the most social animals. Although some eusocial insects, herd mammals and seabirds live in colonies comprising millions of individuals, no other species lives in such a variety of social groups as Homo sapiens . We live in many different sized societies, from small, nomadic hunter

A test for the mean vector with fewer observations than the dimension

In this paper, we consider a test for the mean vector of independent and identically distributed multivariate normal random vectors where the dimension p is larger than or equal to the number of observations N. This test is invariant under scalar transformations of each component of the random vector. Theories and simulation results show that the proposed test is superior to other two tests available in the literature. Interest in such significance test for high-dimensional data is motivated by DNA microarrays. However, the methodology is valid for any application which involves high-dimensional data.

A Distance‐Drawdown Aquifer Test Method for Aquifers with Areal Anisotropy

A new distance-drawdown method for aquifers with anisotropy on the horizontal plane is presented. The method uses scalar transformation to convert to an equivalent, isotropic medium, thus permitting application of the Cooper-Jacob Method. The method is applicable to cases where at least one ellipse of equal drawdown can be delineated but can also be applied where no ellipse can be discerned from the data. In the latter case, a least-squares regression approach can be employed to estimate the orientation and magnitude of the anisotropy. The regression R2 value provides a quantitative assessment of the degree to which the drawdown data are indicative of a systematic areal anisotropy in the aquifer or whether the data simply reflect natural aquifer heterogeneity. In addition to confined aquifers, this methodology, like the Cooper-Jacob Method, is also applicable to unconfined aquifers either before the onset of delayed drainage or following the completion of delayed drainage provided that the u value meets the recommended criterion.

Testing Forward Exchange Rate Unbiasedness Efficiently: A Semiparametric Approach

We apply semiparametric efficient estimation procedures for a seemingly unrelated regression model where the multivariate error density is elliptically symmetric to study the efficiency of the foreign exchange market. We consider both cointegrating regressions and standard stationary regressions. The elliptical symmetry assumption allows us to avoid the curse of dimensionality problem that typically arises in multivariate semiparametric estimation procedures, because the multivariate elliptically symmetric density function can be written as a function of a scalar transformation of the observed multivariate data. We test the unbiasedness hypothesis on both weekly and daily exchange rate data and strongly reject unbiasedness at the weekly horizon, but fail to reject the unbiasedness hypothesis on the daily data. Estimates of the semiparametric procedure in some cases differ substantially from traditional OLS estimates.

The Scalar Transformation of the U.S. Commercial Property-Development Industry: A Cautionary Note on the Limits of Globalization

Economic geographers have commonly interpreted globalization in terms of a scalar transformation of economic activities in which the dominant form of economic organization progressively shifts from local to more global scales. This article critically examines this thesis in the context of a study of the U.S. commercial property-development industry. The first section argues that the literature on commercial property development tends to highlight globalizing sectors and activities. This focus generates a partial understanding of the industry that has important ramifications, not the least for examining the relationship between local economic and political elites in U.S. cities. A more cultural reading of economic actors and practices allows for an alternative approach that emphasizes the cultural embeddedness of economic and political practices and the local networks through which knowledge and influence are mobilized. The second section introduces the study area—Columbus, Ohio—and the research methods, and the third section presents the empirical results. These results fail to demonstrate any simple and linear process of scalar transformation. Indeed, a brief comparison with other cities points to the continuing dominance of a localized and fragmented organizational form. The fourth section draws on interviews with property developers to interpret this local structure of social relations. Three conclusions are drawn regarding the extent and nature of scalar transformation in the property-development industry. The most significant is the need for a more circumspect account of globalization and scalar transformation.

A trick loop algebra and a corresponding Liouville integrable hierarchy of evolution equations

A subalgebra of loop algebra A 2 is first constructed, which has its own special feature. It follows that a new Liouville integrable hierarchy of evolution equations is obtained, possessing a tri-Hamiltonian structure, which is proved by us in this paper. Especially, three symplectic operators are constructed directly from recurrence relations. The conjugate operator of a recurrence operator is a hereditary symmetry. As reduction cases of the hierarchy presented in this paper, the celebrated MKdV equation and heat-conduction equation are engendered, respectively. Therefore, we call the hierarchy a generalized MKdV-H system. At last, a high-dimension loop algebra G is constructed by making use of a proper scalar transformation. As a result, a type expanding integrable model of the MKdV-H system is given.

Applications of an anti-symmetry loop algebra and its expanding forms

Constructing an anti-symmetry subalgebra A ̃ ̃ 2 of loop algebra A ̃ 2 gives the well-known Jaulent–Miodek (JM) hierarchy, the JM equation and its new Lax pair. Further, the Darboux transformation of the JM equation is deduced by anstaz method. By making use of a high-order loop algebra and Tu scheme, an expanding integrable model of the JM hierarchy is obtained. A direct expansion A ̄ 2 ∗ of loop algebra A ̃ ̃ 2 by considering the definition of Lie algebra is presented, which is used to establish two isospectral problems. It follows that corresponding two new integrable systems are engendered, which possess bi-Hamiltonian structures, respectively. Furthermore, a scalar transformation is applied to turn the loop algebra A ̄ 2 ∗ into its equivalent subalgebra A ̃ ̃ 1 of loop algebra A ̃ 1 . With the help of A ̃ ̃ 1 , another new high-order loop algebra G is constructed, which is used to obtain an expanding integrable model of one of two integrable systems presented.

An integrable Hamiltonian hierarchy and its constrained flows with generalized Hamiltonian regular representations, as well as its expanding integrable system

A new subalgebra of loop algebra A ̃ 2 is first constructed. It follows that an isospectral problem is established. Using Tu-pattern gives rise to a new integrable hierarchy, which possesses bi-Hamiltonian structure. As its reduction cases, the well-known standard Schrodinger equation and MKdV equation are presented, respectively. Furthermore, by making use of bi-symmetry constraints, generalized Hamiltonian regular representations for the hierarchy are obtained. At last, we obtain an expanding integrable system of this hierarchy by applying a scalar transformation between two isospectral problems and constructing a five-dimensional loop algebra G̃. In particular, the expanding integrable models of Schrodinger equation and MKdV equation are presented, respectively.