Lawful by Design

In recent years, the procedural rules of global governance institutions have come under scrutiny from scholars worldwide and have been conceptualized as akin to domestic administrative law. However, one question has so far not been addressed: who shapes this procedure and why? In the present work, Isabel Lischewski develops a simple matrix connecting procedure and state interest. When this matrix is applied to a sample of forty diverse institutions, fascinating patterns emerge, which are further explored through in-depth case studies. It is shown that states prefer to balance sovereignty preservation through procedure with the costs it entails. Thus, normative considerations are not the predominant basis on which this procedure is designed. The research provides original insights into the landscape of global governance procedure and cautions against a notion of “apolitical” administration law.

Contracting for Work in Tourism and Catering in Greece: Beyond a State/Market Dichotomy

Drawing on a case study of contemporary employment relations in tourism and catering in Greece, this paper seeks to contribute to our empirical understanding of employment law. Which factors determine the ways in which the law is perceived by employers and workers and complied with, breached or avoided? The main argument of the paper is that not only market forces are relevant here; several other factors need to be taken into consideration, which when combined with market forces can re-regulate as well as deregulate the field of employment. These tend to be informal, locally embedded and influenced by wider social relations. By constructing a simple matrix of employment settings based on locale and seasonality on one axis, and size of enterprise and scope of services provided on the other, the paper demonstrates how organisational and spatial parameters and the social environment interact with market forces and legal forces to shape prevailing norms and to influence the behaviour of parties to the contract for work. It further demonstrates that the structuring of the sectoral labour market is a process determined by broader social power dynamics. Beyond serving as part of the context within which contracting for work takes place, legal rules are a resource to be mobilised by both employers and workers.

Locality and evolution to equilibrium

Quantum statistics and non-locality are deeply rooted in quantum mechanics and go beyond our intuition reflected in classical physics. Quantum statistics can be derived using statistical methods for indistinguishable particles - particles of quantum mechanics. Violation of strong locality - colloquially called the ghostly action at a distance - is one of the most amazing properties of nature derived from quantum mechanics. An intriguing question is whether the non-local evolution of indistinguishable particles is needed to reach the equilibrium state given by quantum statistics. Motivated by the above and similar questions, we developed a simple framework that allows us to follow space-time evolution of assembly of particles. It is based on a discrete-time Markov chain on countable space for indistinguishable particles. We summarise well-known and introduced new constraints on the transition matrix that grant space-time symmetries, locality of particle-transport, strong locality, and equilibrium state. Then, within the framework, several important cases are considered. First, we show that the simplest transition matrix leads to equilibrium but violates particle transport and strong localities. Furthermore, we construct a simple matrix that leads to equilibrium obeying particle-transport locality and violating strong locality. This resembles the properties of quantum mechanics. Finally, we demonstrate that it is also possible to reach equilibrium by obeying both particle-transport and strong localities. Thus, within this framework, the violation of a strong locality is not needed to reach the equilibrium of indistinguishable particles. However, to obey strong locality, a complex structure of the transition matrix is needed. In addition, we comment on distinguishable particles and, in particular, show that their evolution seen by an observer blind to particle differences may look like the evolution of indistinguishable particles with the properties of quantum mechanics. We hope that this work may help to study the relation between symmetries, localities and the evolution to equilibrium for indistinguishable and distinguishable particles.

Full Wave Modeling of Electromagnetic Scattering by an Object buried between two Rough Surfaces: Application to GPR

<pre>In this paper, we present an efficient numerical method to calculate the frequency and time responses of the field scattered by an object buried between two random rough surfaces. This method is called Generalized PILE (GPILE) method because it extends the PILE method which considers only two surfaces or an object buried under a surface. The GPILE method solves rigourously the Maxwell equations by using a simple matrix formulation. The obtained results have a straightforward physical interpretation and allow us to investigate the influence of the object buried between the two rough surfaces. We distinguish the primary echo of the upper surface, the multiple echoes coming from the lower surface and those arising from the object. The GPILE method is applied to simulate the Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) signal at nadir. The resulting time response helps the user to detect the presence of the object buried between the two random rough surfaces.</pre>

Full Wave Modeling of Electromagnetic Scattering by an Object buried between two Rough Surfaces: Application to GPR

<pre>In this paper, we present an efficient numerical method to calculate the frequency and time responses of the field scattered by an object buried between two random rough surfaces. This method is called Generalized PILE (GPILE) method because it extends the PILE method which considers only two surfaces or an object buried under a surface. The GPILE method solves rigourously the Maxwell equations by using a simple matrix formulation. The obtained results have a straightforward physical interpretation and allow us to investigate the influence of the object buried between the two rough surfaces. We distinguish the primary echo of the upper surface, the multiple echoes coming from the lower surface and those arising from the object. The GPILE method is applied to simulate the Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) signal at nadir. The resulting time response helps the user to detect the presence of the object buried between the two random rough surfaces.</pre>

Public Participation in Biodiversity Impact Assessment in the State of West Bengal, India: Present Status and Finding Ways for Improvement

The present status of public participation in EIA particularly concerning biodiversity in West Bengal, India was studied. The issues raised in 50 public hearings were analyzed and chapters on biodiversity in 20 EIA reports were studied. Areas needing improvement were identified. Scientific literature was studied to gather best practices/concepts. It was observed that, despite all enabling legal provisions, public participation in EIA has not grown to its full potential. The discussion was mostly on jobs and benefits (and little on biodiversity impact). EIA reports did not provide any spatial information on biodiversity-rich/sensitive areas or impact on bio-resources that are used by people. We identified four pillars of effective public participation in EIA as: (i) institutional opportunity and conducive environment for participation; (ii) interest of local people to participate; (iii) capacity building of local people; and, (iv) support of clearance process. Specific recommendations under each are provided. A simple matrix for Biodiversity Impact Assessment and a list of components for the improvement of biodiversity, for use of local people, have been developed.

AUTOMAT[R]IX: learning simple matrix pipelines

Matrices are a very common way of representing and working with data in data science and artificial intelligence. Writing a small snippet of code to make a simple matrix transformation is frequently frustrating, especially for those people without an extensive programming expertise. We present AUTOMATIX, a system that is able to induce R program snippets from a single (and possibly partial) matrix transformation example provided by the user. Our learning algorithm is able to induce the correct matrix pipeline snippet by composing primitives from a library. Because of the intractable search space—exponential on the size of the library and the number of primitives to be combined in the snippet, we speed up the process with (1) a typed system that excludes all combinations of primitives with inconsistent mapping between input and output matrix dimensions, and (2) a probabilistic model to estimate the probability of each sequence of primitives from their frequency of use and a text hint provided by the user. We validate AUTOMATIX with a set of real programming queries involving matrices from Stack Overflow, showing that we can learn the transformations efficiently, from just one partial example.

A simple and fast ASD-POCS algorithm for image reconstruction

PURPOSE: The adaptive steepest descent projection onto convex set (ASD-POCS) algorithm is a promising algorithm for constrained total variation (TV) type norm minimization models in computed tomography (CT) image reconstruction using sparse and/or noisy data. However, in ASD-POCS algorithm, the existing gradient expression of the TV-type norm appears too complicated in the implementation code and reduces image reconstruction speed. To address this issue, this work aims to develop and test a simple and fast ASD-POCS algorithm. METHODS: Since the original algorithm is not derived thoroughly, we first obtain a simple matrix-form expression by thorough derivation via matrix representations. Next, we derive the simple matrix expressions of the gradients of TV, adaptive weighted TV (awTV), total p-variation (TpV), high order TV (HOTV) norms by term combinations and matrix representations. The deep analysis is then performed to identify the hidden relations of these terms. RESULTS: The TV reconstruction experiments by use of sparse-view projections via the Shepp-Logan, FORBILD and a real CT image phantoms show that the simplified ASD-POCS (S-ASD-POCS) using the simple matrix-form expression of TV gradient achieve the same reconstruction accuracy relative to ASD-POCS, whereas it enables to speed up the whole ASD process 1.8–2.7 time fast. CONCLUSIONS: The derived simple matrix expressions of the gradients of these TV-type norms may simplify the implementation of the ASD-POCS algorithm and speed up the ASD process. Additionally, a general gradient expression suitable to all the sparse transform-based optimization models is demonstrated so that the ASD-POCS algorithm may be tailored to extended image reconstruction fields with accelerated computational speed.

Modeling, simulation and control of a twin-inverted pendulum on a moving cart

In this paper, a mathematical model of a twin-inverted pendulum on a moving cart has been derived. This is done using the Lagrange–Euler method and, hence, a highly nonlinear mathematical model is resulted from this derivation. These nonlinear and unstable dynamics are written in a simple matrix form. For this challenging system, we use two types of efficient control approaches to treat the control problem of the twin inverted pendulum, namely, linear quadratic regulator (LQR) and nonlinear model predictive control (NMPC). Simulations with several scenarios are also presented to demonstrate the control performances and the model validity.

Sensitivitas dan Kelayakan Indeks Biotik Menggunakan Makroavertebrata untuk Menentukan Status Kesehatan Sungai

Water-quality monitoring using macroinvertebrates has been developed by several countries to determine their water qualities. Meanwhile in Indonesia, water quality monitoring has not been developed to adapt to Indonesia’s natural conditions. Some researchers use the existing biotic indices such as FBI, LQI, SIGNAL, and others. Therefore, this study aims to determine the status of water quality using several biotic indices and to compare the sensitivity and feasibility of indices on monitoring activities using simple matrix and Pearson correlation test. The interpretation results of FBI, LQI, and Singscore to determine water quality on each station in Brantas, Opak, Progo, and Cileungsi Rivers were different. The Pearson’s correlations test showed that the sensitivities are different between rivers. Those results are affected by the river conditions and also the activities around the rivers which release the pollution into the river. The FBI index showed the greatest score number of sensitivities among the other indexes. Keywords: macroinvertebrate, monitoring, river, sensitivity