A Lower Bound for Sampling Disjoint Sets

Suppose Alice and Bob each start with private randomness and no other input, and they wish to engage in a protocol in which Alice ends up with a set x subseteq[n] and Bob ends up with a set y subseteq[n], such that (x,y) is uniformly distributed over all pairs of disjoint sets. We prove that for some constant beta0 of the uniform distribution over all pairs of disjoint sets of size sqrt{n}

The use of tricaine methanesulfonate, clove oil, metomidate, and 2-phenoxyethanol for anesthesia induction in alewives (Alosa pseudoharengus)

Anesthetics are widely used in routine aquaculture operations to immobilize animals for tagging, spawning, handling, and vaccination. A number of anesthetics are currently available for finfish, but their efficacy and optimal dosage is highly species-specific. The efficacy of the anesthetic agents (tricaine methanesulfonate (MS-222), clove oil, metomidate, and 2-phenoxyethanol (2-PE)) was studied in adult, juvenile (133.3 ± 1.5 mm, 27.5 ± 8.9 g), and larval Alewives (Alosa pseudoharengus Wilson). In an initial trial, wild-caught adults were anesthetized with doses of 87.5-112.5 mg/L MS-222, 25-40 mg/L clove oil 0.5-5.0 mg/L metomidate and 0.125-0.550 mg/L 2-PE. Optimal doses for anesthesia were similar for larvae and juveniles, and were identified as: 75-100 mg/L MS-222, 40 mg/L clove oil, 5-7 mg/L metomidate, and 500 mg/L 2-PE. All juvenile fish survived 48 hours post-exposure to each optimal dose. In a longer-term (24 hour) sedation experiment, juvenile alewives were netted and exposed to low clove oil (2.5 and 5.0 mg/L) and metomidate (0.25 and 0.50 mg/L) doses, and plasma cortisol was measured. Fish exposed to the clove oil treatments exhibited a cortisol stress response that was prolonged in the higher dose treatment. No cortisol stress response was observed in the metomidate treatments. Overall, optimal acute anesthesia doses for alewives were similar to those reported for other species, and metomidate may be useful for longer-term sedation

Education and World Peace (Commencement Address)

Commencement address delivered by Thomas J. Watson, President of Internation Business Machines (IBM), on August 10, 1945 in Providence, RI. On this day, Mr. Watson also received an honorary degree from Bryant - Degree of Doctor of Humane Letters (D.H.L.)

Query-to-Communication Lifting for BPP

For any $n$-bit boolean function $f$, we show that the randomized communication complexity of the composed function $f\circ g^n$, where $g$ is an index gadget, is characterized by the randomized decision tree complexity of $f$. In particular, this means that many query complexity separations involving randomized models (e.g., classical vs. quantum) automatically imply analogous separations in communication complexity.Comment: 21 page

Communication Complexity of Set-Disjointness for All Probabilities

We study set-disjointness in a generalized model of randomized two-party communication where the probability of acceptance must be at least alpha(n) on yes-inputs and at most beta(n) on no-inputs, for some functions alpha(n)>beta(n). Our main result is a complete characterization of the private-coin communication complexity of set-disjointness for all functions alpha and beta, and a near-complete characterization for public-coin protocols. In particular, we obtain a simple proof of a theorem of Braverman and Moitra (STOC 2013), who studied the case where alpha=1/2+epsilon(n) and beta=1/2-epsilon(n). The following contributions play a crucial role in our characterization and are interesting in their own right. (1) We introduce two communication analogues of the classical complexity class that captures small bounded-error computations: we define a "restricted" class SBP (which lies between MA and AM) and an "unrestricted" class USBP. The distinction between them is analogous to the distinction between the well-known communication classes PP and UPP. (2) We show that the SBP communication complexity is precisely captured by the classical corruption lower bound method. This sharpens a theorem of Klauck (CCC 2003). (3) We use information complexity arguments to prove a linear lower bound on the USBP complexity of set-disjointness

Annona muricata (graviola): toxic or therapeutic

This paper examines annona muricata (graviola): toxic or therapeutic

Does cognitive ability influence responses to the Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-Being Scale?

It has been suggested that how individuals respond to self-report items relies on cognitive processing. We hypothesized that an individual's level of cognitive ability may influence these processes such that, if there is a hierarchy of items within a particular questionnaire, as demonstrated by Mokken scaling, the strength of that hierarchy will vary according to cognitive ability. Using data on 8,643 men and women from the National Child Development Survey (1958 birth cohort; Power, & Elliott, 2006), we investigated, using Mokken scaling, whether the 14 items that make up the Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-Being Scale (Tennant et al., 2007)-completed when the participants were 50 years of age-form a hierarchy and whether that hierarchy varied according to cognitive ability at age 11 years. Among the sample as a whole, we found a moderately strong unidimensional hierarchy of items (Loevinger's coefficient [H] = 0.48). We split participants into 3 groups according to cognitive ability and analyzed the Mokken scaling properties of each group. Only the medium and high cognitive ability groups had acceptable (?0.3) invariant item ordering (assessed using the HT statistic). This pattern was also found when the 3 cognitive ability groups were assessed within men and women separately. Greater attention should be paid to the content validity of questionnaires to ensure they are applicable across the spectrum of mental ability