A Combinatorial Formula for Orthogonal Idempotents in the 00-Hecke Algebra of the Symmetric Group

Building on the work of P.N. Norton, we give combinatorial formulae for two maximal decompositions of the identity into orthogonal idempotents in the $0$-Hecke algebra of the symmetric group, $\mathbb{C}H_0(S_N)$. This construction is compatible with the branching from $S_{N-1}$ to $S_{N}$.Comment: 25 pages, 2 figure

Reproduction in selected New Zealand native ferns and their suitability for revegetation : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Masters of Science in Plant Biology at Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand

The potential to use New Zealand native ferns for revegetation was assessed in laboratory , nursery and field experiments. Laboratory experiments indicated that the three native fern species. Blechnum novae-zelandiae. Cyathea medullaris and Dicksonia squarossa, had different maximum levels of spore germination. These differences also varied in response to seasonal changes in the environment. The effect of three soil conditioners on the germination of the same three species was minimal Gametophytes appeared to be tolerant of low levels of maceration, as they were able to continue to grow and develop normally. Additional laboratory experiments indicated that B. novae-zelandiae employs a mixed mating system, which utilizes an "antheridiogen" signal. The development of fern spores, laboratory propagated gametophytes and segmented rhizomes, was assessed in the nursery. Each experiment was applied with a hvdroseeding mix of paper fibre, tackifier. fertilizer and water Spore of B. novae-zelandiae. C. medullaris and D. squarossa failed to produce any long-lived gametophytes The survival of laboratory propagated gametophytes of B. novae-zelandiae. B. discolor and B. colensoi was low. However, a large proportion of surviving B. novae-zelandiae gametophytes produced sporophytes. B. novae-zelandiae rhizome segments produced healthy young ferns within 3 months of application. Field experiments were conducted on a sandstone/loess bank. 5 km east of Palmerston North. Aspects of the substrate were analysed including. pH. N, P and organic matter. The results indicated that the bank had a high soil pH, was deficient in several macronutrients and had no organic matter. Hydroseeding was applied using spore of the species B novae-zelandiae, C. medullaris and D. squarossa Hydroseeded spore failed to produce any visible gametophytes Rhizome experiments using B. novae-zelandiae and Microsorum pustulatum were also established. Low water availability resulted in poor rhizome establishment. The results suggest that there is great potential for utilizing native ferns in revegetation. Blechnum novae-zelandiae is the best species for revegetation in accordance to the results. Propagation via rhizome segmentation and gametophyte hydroseeding appear to be the most successful methods for establishing native ferns. This TIF project was carried out in conjunction with Rural Supply Technologies. Manaaki Whenua Landcare Research. Massey University and FoRST New Zealand

Senior Thesis ST 2008-01

In the 1970s and 1980s the state of Alaska invested millions of dollars to develop a large-scale agricultural industry. The Delta Barley Project and the Point MacKenzie Dairy Project were created to show that large-scale agriculture was possible in Alaska. This study looks at the major events and policy decisions that occurred and determines how the outcome of the demonstration projects was affected. An extensive literature review was conducted, focusing on state documents; key persons were also interviewed. The projects did not accomplish their original goals for a number of economic and politic reasons. The positive aspects of development are that Alaska now has more land in private ownership, more infrastructure to support the industry, and a thriving agricultural community at Delta Junction

Going local: why sub-national governments are the key to success in Asia

Engagement with sub-national governments in Asia, including by Australian sub-national governments, will be fundamental to enhancing Australia’s prosperity and wellbeing in the Asian Century. To understand why, we need to understand how sub-national jurisdictions work in Asia.•Extract: The reality is that the task of governing in Asian states usually falls to sub-national governments. China, for example, has a higher percentage of spending at sub-national jurisdictions than any other country.This means there are considerable levels of regional pride that are often seen as being more important than one’s national pride. It means that most sub-national jurisdictions have their own language, not to mention culture and identity. Often they will have a dominant ethnicity or religion.Finally, it means that central governments have a complicated relationship with sub-national governments. They clearly wish to control these governments and stop regional fiefdoms, cliques or separatist movements developing – but at the same time, they know that they need to delegate many of the tasks of governing to these jurisdictions.The method used by most central governments to deal with this dilemma is to encourage competition between different sub-national jurisdictions. This so-called “yardstick competition” is thought by some scholars to have been vital to the development of the Chinese economy, for example.Understanding this competition is vital for Australia. The story of how Japan-style centralisation in Asia came up against stubborn local institutions and traditions explains why we need to engage more with sub-national jurisdictions – because that engagement allows us to have more clout than we might have under “normal” conditions.JOHN DENTON is Partner and CEO of Corrs Chambers Westgarth, and a member of the Asialink Board. He helped to prepare the White Paper on Australia in the Asian Century and is on the Strategic Advisory Board that advises the federal government on policies and programs that will enable Australia to make the most of the Asian Century. This article is based on a presentation by Mr Denton to the Victorian Leadership Development Centre’s Senior Executive Leadership Program

Unsupervised Learning of Disentangled Representations from Video

We present a new model DrNET that learns disentangled image representations from video. Our approach leverages the temporal coherence of video and a novel adversarial loss to learn a representation that factorizes each frame into a stationary part and a temporally varying component. The disentangled representation can be used for a range of tasks. For example, applying a standard LSTM to the time-vary components enables prediction of future frames. We evaluate our approach on a range of synthetic and real videos, demonstrating the ability to coherently generate hundreds of steps into the future

On the Sensitivity of Aggregate Productivity Growth Rates to Noisy Measurement

Aggregate rates of productivity growth are among the most closely watched indicators of economic performance. They are also among the most difficult to measure accurately. This paper explores the sensitivity of such rates to random measurement error using a simple generic model. The model allows for errors in the input and output components of the productivity ratio, with different variances, and for serial and cross correlation of the errors. The effects of the errors are considered from the point of view of growth rates themselves, changes in growth rates, and comparisons between rates in different countries.productivity; growth rates; measurement error

Colloids, polymers, and needles: Demixing phase behavior

We consider a ternary mixture of hard colloidal spheres, ideal polymer spheres, and rigid vanishingly thin needles, which model stretched polymers or colloidal rods. For this model we develop a geometry-based density functional theory, apply it to bulk fluid phases, and predict demixing phase behavior. In the case of no polymer-needle interactions, two-phase coexistence between colloid-rich and -poor phases is found. For hard needle-polymer interactions we predict rich phase diagrams, exhibiting three-phase coexistence, and reentrant demixing behavior.Comment: 9 pages, 15 figure

Demixing of colloid-polymer mixtures in poor solvents

The influence of poor solvent quality on fluid demixing of a model mixture of colloids and nonadsorbing polymers is investigated using density functional theory. The colloidal particles are modelled as hard spheres and the polymer coils as effective interpenetrating spheres that have hard interactions with the colloids. The solvent is modelled as a two-component mixture of a primary solvent, regarded as a background theta-solvent for the polymer, and a cosolvent of point particles that are excluded from both colloids and polymers. Cosolvent exclusion favors overlap of polymers, mimicking the effect of a poor solvent by inducing an effective attraction between polymers. For this model, a geometry-based density functional theory is derived and applied to bulk fluid phase behavior. With increasing cosolvent concentration (worsening solvent quality), the predicted colloid-polymer binodal shifts to lower colloid concentrations, promoting demixing. For sufficiently poor solvent, a reentrant demixing transition is predicted at low colloid concentrations.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figure