Book Review: Tamil Folk Music as Dalit Liberation Theology

Book review of Tamil Folk Music as Dalit Liberation Theology. By Zoe Sherinian. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2014, xxix + 344 pages

Diel vertical migration strategies of zooplankton in oligotrophic Russell Pond, New Hampshire

Russell Pond is an ultra-oligotrophic lake with low chlorophyll a (1.9 mg L-1), total phosphorus (3.4 mg L-1), high Secchi Disk (10.4 m) and high light transmission (water coefficient of water, kw=0.33). Vertical migration of Chaoborus, Bosmina, Daphnia, and copepods were examined using net collections of zooplankton discrete depth counts and sonar. Three contrasting patterns of vertical migration were observed in Russell Pond. Chaoborus punctipennis larvae vertical migration began at 7 pm and migrated through the entire lake water column, a total of 23 m from the sediments to the surface water in less than 4 hours, Bosmina had an epilimnetic migration, moving 3 m upward toward the surface between 4 and 6 pm but did not migrate further at 8 pm. Daphnia migrated downward (reverse migration) nearly 4 m, and the copepods did not migrate vertically. In contrast to the other macrozooplankton, the calanoid copepods staved in the deep epilimnion, with no detectable vertical displacement. The variation in vertical migration patterns in Russell Pond illustrate how this adaptive diel behavior is tailored to the differing selective pressures on the different zooplankton species

Quantum dynamics of the Neel vector in the antiferromagnetic molecular wheel CsFe8

The inelastic neutron scattering (INS) spectrum is studied for the antiferromagnetic molecular wheel CsFe8, in the temperature range 2 - 60 K, and for transfer energies up 3.6 meV. A qualitative analysis shows that the observed peaks correspond to the transitions between the L-band states, from the ground state up to the S = 5 multiplet. For a quantitative analysis, the wheel is described by a microscopic spin Hamiltonian (SH), which includes the nearest-neighbor Heisenberg exchange interactions and uniaxial easy-axis single-ion anisotropy, characterized by the constants J and D, respectively. For a best-fit determination of J and D, the L band is modeled by an effective SH, and the effective SH concept extended such as to facilitate an accurate calculation of INS scattering intensities, overcoming difficulties with the dimension of the Hilbert space. The low-energy magnetism in CsFe8 is excellently described by the generic SH used. The two lowest states are characterized by a tunneling of the Neel vector, as found previously, while the higher-lying states are well described as rotational modes of the Neel vector.Comment: 12 pages, 10 figures, REVTEX4, to appear in PR

Magnetic relaxation studies on a single-molecule magnet by time-resolved inelastic neutron scattering

Time-resolved inelastic neutron scattering measurements on an array of single-crystals of the single-molecule magnet Mn12ac are presented. The data facilitate a spectroscopic investigation of the slow relaxation of the magnetization in this compound in the time domain.Comment: 3 pages, 4 figures, REVTEX4, to appear in Appl. Phys. Lett., for an animation see also http://www.dcb.unibe.ch/groups/guedel/members/ow2/trins.ht

VERIFICATION OF PROBABILISTIC HYPERPROPERTIES ON MARKOV MODELS

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Michigan State University. Computer Science - Doctor of Philosophy, 2024Formal verification encapsulates the process of ensuring the correctness of systems withrespect to user-specified requirements, expressed as formal properties. This dissertation explores the different aspects of the verification of systems involving uncertainty, specified at an abstract level as Markov models, against system-level specifications, expressed as hyperproperties.In this context, we refer to models as frameworks used to capture the behaviour of systemswhile abstracting away the exact details of its inner workings. Such system models are rarely deterministic e.g., we may choose to simplify or remove elements that are irrelevant to the verification, we might not be aware of exact details of certain components in the system, or we might not be able to observe every aspect of the system. To this end, we chose to represent systems as Markov models due to their flexibility in representing uncertainty (in terms of nondeterminism, randomization, and partial observability), and its simplicity in using the current state to determine the future evolution of the system.The current ubiquitous nature of software demands verification of not only its isolatedbehaviours, but also ones relating to security, privacy, robustness, and efficiency. These additional requirements are more challenging to verify as they require simultaneous rea- soning across multiple system behaviours. Such requirements can be formally specified as hyperproperties. Prominent examples include noninterference of secret inputs on publicly observable outputs, observational determinism of public outputs, optimal path planning in robotics, individual fairness in models, side-channel timing attacks, conformance of different system versions, etc.Given this combination of model and properties, we explore the following:\u2022 We explored the parameter synthesis problem and developed an SMT-based solutionfor synthesizing values for unknown or missing parameters of the system, under the assumption of satisfaction of a given specification.\u2022 We generalize the probabilistic hyperlogic HyperPCTL by extending it to formally specifyrequirements involving nondeterministic choices and rewards in models. We discuss the expressive power of this extended logic, and how it makes the model checking problem for this logic undecidable, in general.\u2022 To provide tractable solutions to the model checking problem, we focused on a decidablefragment of HyperPCTL with a single existential quantifier and proposed an SMT- encoding-based model checking algorithm.\u2022 We identify two different fragments of HyperPCTL based on their ability to express thereachability requirement in most of our applications. For these two different fragments, we provide a randomized convex addition of a scheduler and a distribution-based ap- proach respectively.\u2022 We have developed prototypical implementations for each of the proposed algorithms.Specifically, to model check the nondeterministic and reward property extensions, we have built a tool HyperProb, which implements our SMT-based algorithm to sym- bolically model check restricted fragments of HyperPCTL.\u2022 To tackle the challenges of scalability, we explored statistical model checking as a pos-sible solution to model check a fragment of HyperPLTL and extended the tool PLASMA to evaluate our theory.Description based on online resource. Title from PDF t.p. (Michigan State University Fedora Repository, viewed ).Includes bibliographical references

How the largest slum in India flattened the COVID curve? A Case Study

Mumbai-The economic capital of India, shrivelled with panic as its infamous slum ‘Dharavi’ recorded its first positive case of COVID-19 on 1st April 2020. Dharavi is the largest slum in India and one of the most densely populated areas in the world. Its narrow lanes, teeming with people and chock-a-block with settlements, make physical distancing practically impossible- posing as an excellent breeding ground for the deadly virus. However, with a policy of ‘chasing the virus’ based on strategy of ‘Tracing Tracking Testing and Treating’ Dharavi flattened its epidemic curve within a hundred days. This was achieved through the immediate public health response with strict containment measures, aggressive active and passive surveillance and integration of resources from government and private sectors to provide essential services. In this paper, we have summarized the ongoing measures for successful prevention and control of COVID-19 in Dharavi, which could provide useful learning for other similar settings worldwide