Some remarks on the continuity equation

We describe some relations between the properties of the Cauchy problem for an ODE and the properties of the Cauchy problem for the associated continuity equation in the class of measures

Web Conferencing Traffic - An Analysis using DimDim as Example

In this paper, we present an evaluation of the Ethernet traffic for host and attendees of the popular opensource web conferencing system DimDim. While traditional Internet-centric approaches such as the MBONE have been used over the past decades, current trends for web-based conference systems make exclusive use of application-layer multicast. To allow for network dimensioning and QoS provisioning, an understanding of the underlying traffic characteristics is required. We find in our exemplary evaluations that the host of a web conference session produces a large amount of Ethernet traffic, largely due to the required control of the conference session, that is heavily-tailed distributed and exhibits additionally long-range dependence. For different groups of activities within a web conference session, we find distinctive characteristics of the generated traffic

Internationalization of Higher Education in Turmoil

The goal of this piece is to provide an overview of the internationalization of the University of Missouri using historical artifacts from the institution’s archives. As a result of bringing together these artifacts, the author identifies three distinct internationalization stages that demonstrate where the institution is currently situated. The University of Missouri’s internationalization process has been slow and cumulative, like its peer institutions, until recently. However, the author argues that current events, including travel bans and uncertainty around immigration policies, have disrupted this pattern and created turmoil and uncertainty

Still another approach to the braid ordering

We develop a new approach to the linear ordering of the braid group $B\_n$, based on investigating its restriction to the set \Div(\Delta\_n^d) of all divisors of $\Delta\_n^d$ in the monoid $B\_\infty^+$, i.e., to positive $n$-braids whose normal form has length at most $d$. In the general case, we compute several numerical parameters attached with the finite orders (\Div(\Delta\_n^d), <). In the case of 3 strands, we moreover give a complete description of the increasing enumeration of (\Div(\Delta\_3^d), <). We deduce a new and specially direct construction of the ordering on $B\_3$, and a new proof of the result that its restriction to $B\_3^+$ is a well-ordering of ordinal type $\omega^\omega$

This Is Reform? Predicting the Impact of the New Campaign Financing Regulations

McCain-style campaign finance regulation is the new campaign reality. But what exactly will this reformist utopia look like? Assessing the "reformed" campaign of the future against the stated desires and expectations of the principal campaign finance regulators and their media supporters, this paper predicts the most important changes in political campaigning, changes that will be experienced for the first time during the 2003-04 electoral cycle. Those changes include the following: The ban on soft money fundraising by the national parties will make our elections significantly less competitive.The federal soft money ban will reduce voter turnout by approximately 2 percentAs a result of the soft money ban, both the parties and their candidates will lose influence over their own campaigns.The prescribed channeling of third-party advertising through political action committees (PACs), paid for only in hard money donations, will increase the number of PACs and the proliferation of PAC-run microcampaigns.The severe restrictions on independent advertising will inadvertently produce both longer and more negative campaigns. Overall, the allegedly reformed campaign of the future will be less competitive, less controlled by candidates and their parties, and more influenced by the mainstream media and will involve fewer voters than the typical campaign of today. Most Americans support real campaign finance reform, but clearly this is not the future promised to them by the self-described reformers

Aspects of the Electroweak Phase Transition

Presented at the 1992 Meeting of the DPF, Fermilab. The electroweak phase transition is reviewed in light of some recent developments. Emphasis is on the issue whether the transition is first or second order and its possible role in the generation of the baryon asymmetry of the universe.Comment: 5 page