The founding fathers of optimal transport

Author(s):  
Cédric Villani
Author(s):  
Ian Sabroe ◽  
Phil Withington

Francis Bacon is famous today as one of the founding fathers of the so-called ‘scientific revolution’ of the seventeenth century. Although not an especially successful scientist himself, he was nevertheless the most eloquent and influential spokesperson for an approach to knowledge that promised to transform human understanding of both humanity and its relationship with the natural and social worlds. The central features of this approach, as they emerged in Bacon’s own writings and the work of his protégés and associates after 1605, are equally well known. They include the importance of experiment, observation, and a sceptical attitude towards inherited wisdom (from the ‘ancients’ in general and Aristotle in particular).


1985 ◽  
Vol 24 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 211-234
Author(s):  
Syed Nawab Haider Naqvi

For development economists these arc the days of great expectations. Development economics as a discipline, born only three decades ago, has come to stay, notwithstanding the threats to its existence issued openly by such friends as Schultz [63], Bauer [2], Little [44], and Lal [39]. New theoretical constructs have been devised and novel empirical studies done to comprehend better the forces of change in developing countries. While of late there may not have been great festivity in the realm of ideas, the force of circumstances has widened the problem canvas of development economics and has opened up new vistas for economists to explore- much beyond the expectations of its founding fathers. Also notwithstanding the great diversity in the experience of individual countries, development economists may legitimately draw some comfort from the thought that their ideas have changed the developing world for the better.


2020 ◽  
Vol 53 (1) ◽  
pp. 18-27
Author(s):  
Taniya Hussain

This article addresses the problem of defining the terms ‘secularism’ and ‘religion’ and the difficulty of accepting the strict separation of religion from politics that some say is needed for a truly secular society. It offers a ‘relationship model’ for religion that sees it as the practice of balancing the responsibilities arising from the relationships between oneself, God, fellow human and living beings and the environment. Examining the attitudes of the Founding Fathers of European secularism, it argues that secular society can only exist if we face the shadows of our colonial past and the literalist theological narrative which is quickly being digested within some Muslim communities. This narrative and how it is affecting Muslim communities in Europe, as well as the shadows of the colonial past, pose a danger to secular society and affects all communities across Europe and these are conversations that need to be held.


2021 ◽  
Vol 281 (5) ◽  
pp. 109068
Author(s):  
Bhishan Jacelon ◽  
Karen R. Strung ◽  
Alessandro Vignati
Keyword(s):  

Mathematics ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (16) ◽  
pp. 1861
Author(s):  
Daniela Calvetti ◽  
Alexander P. Hoover ◽  
Johnie Rose ◽  
Erkki Somersalo

Understanding the dynamics of the spread of COVID-19 between connected communities is fundamental in planning appropriate mitigation measures. To that end, we propose and analyze a novel metapopulation network model, particularly suitable for modeling commuter traffic patterns, that takes into account the connectivity between a heterogeneous set of communities, each with its own infection dynamics. In the novel metapopulation model that we propose here, transport schemes developed in optimal transport theory provide an efficient and easily implementable way of describing the temporary population redistribution due to traffic, such as the daily commuter traffic between work and residence. Locally, infection dynamics in individual communities are described in terms of a susceptible-exposed-infected-recovered (SEIR) compartment model, modified to account for the specific features of COVID-19, most notably its spread by asymptomatic and presymptomatic infected individuals. The mathematical foundation of our metapopulation network model is akin to a transport scheme between two population distributions, namely the residential distribution and the workplace distribution, whose interface can be inferred from commuter mobility data made available by the US Census Bureau. We use the proposed metapopulation model to test the dynamics of the spread of COVID-19 on two networks, a smaller one comprising 7 counties in the Greater Cleveland area in Ohio, and a larger one consisting of 74 counties in the Pittsburgh–Cleveland–Detroit corridor following the Lake Erie’s American coastline. The model simulations indicate that densely populated regions effectively act as amplifiers of the infection for the surrounding, less densely populated areas, in agreement with the pattern of infections observed in the course of the COVID-19 pandemic. Computed examples show that the model can be used also to test different mitigation strategies, including one based on state-level travel restrictions, another on county level triggered social distancing, as well as a combination of the two.


SLEEP ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 44 (Supplement_2) ◽  
pp. A111-A112
Author(s):  
Austin Vandegriffe ◽  
V A Samaranayake ◽  
Matthew Thimgan

Abstract Introduction Technological innovations have broadened the type and amount of activity data that can be captured in the home and under normal living conditions. Yet, converting naturalistic activity patterns into sleep and wakefulness states has remained a challenge. Despite the successes of current algorithms, they do not fill all actigraphy needs. We have developed a novel statistical approach to determine sleep and wakefulness times, called the Wasserstein Algorithm for Classifying Sleep and Wakefulness (WACSAW), and validated the algorithm in a small cohort of healthy participants. Methods WACSAW functional routines: 1) Conversion of the triaxial movement data into a univariate time series; 2) Construction of a Wasserstein weighted sum (WSS) time series by measuring the Wasserstein distance between equidistant distributions of movement data before and after the time-point of interest; 3) Segmenting the time series by identifying changepoints based on the behavior of the WSS series; 4) Merging segments deemed similar by the Levene test; 5) Comparing segments by optimal transport methodology to determine the difference from a flat, invariant distribution at zero. The resulting histogram can be used to determine sleep and wakefulness parameters around a threshold determined for each individual based on histogram properties. To validate the algorithm, participants wore the GENEActiv and a commercial grade actigraphy watch for 48 hours. The accuracy of WACSAW was compared to a detailed activity log and benchmarked against the results of the output from commercial wrist actigraph. Results WACSAW performed with an average accuracy, sensitivity, and specificity of >95% compared to detailed activity logs in 10 healthy-sleeping individuals of mixed sexes and ages. We then compared WACSAW’s performance against a common wrist-worn, commercial sleep monitor. WACSAW outperformed the commercial grade system in each participant compared to activity logs and the variability between subjects was cut substantially. Conclusion The performance of WACSAW demonstrates good results in a small test cohort. In addition, WACSAW is 1) open-source, 2) individually adaptive, 3) indicates individual reliability, 4) based on the activity data stream, and 5) requires little human intervention. WACSAW is worthy of validating against polysomnography and in patients with sleep disorders to determine its overall effectiveness. Support (if any):


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