Optimization of loss-balanced multicast in all-optical WDM networks

In wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM) optical networks, multicast is implemented by constructing a light-forest, which is a set of light-trees with each light-tree rooted from the multicast source and terminated at a partition subset of the destination nodes. Multicast routing scenario has considerable impact on the quality of optical signal received at each destination. To guarantee the fairness of signal quality at different destinations in a multicast session, it is desirable to construct a loss-balanced light-forest to deliver the multicast traffic. A loss-balanced light-forest is composed of a set of light-trees bounded in size (number of destinations per multicast tree), in size variation (difference in the number of destinations among different multicast trees), and in dimension (maximum source-to-destination distance on each multicast tree). This paper investigates the multicast routing and wavelength assignment (MC-RWA) problem under the loss-balance constraint. The problem is formulated as an optimization model using integer linear programming (ILP). Numerical solutions to the optimization model can supply useful performance benchmarks for loss-balance-constrained optical multicast in WDM networks. This work was supported by the NSF under Grant OCI-0225642 and by the U.S. DoE under Grant DE-FG02–03ER25566.     

RUNAWAYS: JURISDICTION, DYNAMICS, AND TREATMENT

New research indicates more clearly than ever that running away from home is indeed a family affair. Understood as such, the implications for society's jurisdictional response and for effective treatment planning are deep and far-reaching. The "status offender" legal jurisdiction over runaways needs to be changed and new alternatives for dealing with runaways and their families developed. The planning and implementation of these alternatives need to be informed with the perspectives of a family therapeutic approach sensitive to the intergenerational forces of loyalty, legacy, and trust operating within families.     

Jewish* Self-interest in “Black Pluralism”

From time immemorial Jewish tribal exclusiveness among dominant societal groups has resulted in various forms of conflict determined by the social situation. The critical force involved has been the group's peculiar resistance to social assimilation. Different social systems react differently to the persistence of this trait. The caste system of India, for example, would hardly notice it. But capitalist culture, which originated in the European medieval city, has constantly resisted it; that culture is basically assimilationist. American Negroes, in their opposition to racism, have relied mainly on the ideology of assimilation. These two divergent tendencies have come into collision recently.     

Prejudice and Group-Related Behavior in Germany

This article analyses the relationship of ethnic prejudice and discriminatory behavioral intentions in Germany. We utilize two representative surveys conducted in 2002 and 2004 ( N = 2,722 and 1,383, respectively) as well as a longitudinal study with three annual measurement points (2002–2004; N = 825). Results show that prejudice is substantially correlated with the respondents' reports of their own discriminatory intentions ( R = .33 to .49). Controlling for additional psychological variables, the cross-lagged, longitudinal analyses support the causal hypothesis that prejudice leads to discriminatory intentions. Additional influences on discriminatory intentions—intergroup threat and intergroup contact—are substantially mediated by ethnic prejudice. Thus, a practical implication of these results is that the reduction of intergroup threat and increment of intergroup contact may well lead to both reduced intergroup prejudice and to less discriminatory behavior .     

Prospect theory for continuous distributions

We extend the original form of prospect theory by Kahneman and Tversky from finite lotteries to arbitrary probability distributions, using an approximation method based on weak-⋆ convergence. The resulting formula is computationally easier than the corresponding formula for cumulative prospect theory and makes it possible to use prospect theory in future applications in economics and finance. Moreover, we suggest a method how to incorporate a crucial step of the “editing phase” into prospect theory and to remove in this way the discontinuity of the original model.

Analysis of exacerbation rates in asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: example from the TRISTAN study

Recurrent events in clinical trials have typically been analysed using either a multiple time-to-event method or a direct approach based on the distribution of the number of events. An area of application for these methods is exacerbation data from respiratory clinical trials. The different approaches to the analysis and the issues involved are illustrated for a large trial (n = 1465) in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). For exacerbation rates, clinical interest centres on a direct comparison of rates for each treatment which favours the distribution-based analysis, rather than a time-to-event approach. Poisson regression has often been employed and has recently been recommended as the appropriate method of analysis for COPD exacerbations but the key assumptions often appear unreasonable for this analysis. By contrast use of a negative binomial model which corresponds to assuming a separate Poisson parameter for each subject offers a more appealing approach. Non-parametric methods avoid some of the assumptions required by these models, but do not provide appropriate estimates of treatment effects because of the discrete and bounded nature of the data.     

Analyzing Precautionary Regulation: Do Precaution,Science, and Innovation Go Together?

In this article we argue that the precautionary principle, as applied to the regulation of science and technology, cannot be considered in any general manner inconsistent with the norms and methods of scientific knowledge generation and justification. Moreover, it does not necessarily curtail scientific‐technological innovation. Our argument flows from a differentiated view of what precaution in regulation means. We first characterize several of the most relevant interpretations given to the precautionary principle in academic debate and regulatory practice. We then use examples of actual precaution‐based regulation to show that, even though science can have varying functions in different circumstances and frames, all of those interpretations recur to scientific method and knowledge, and tend to imply innovation in methods, products, and processes. In fact, the interplay of regulation and innovation in precautionary policy, at least in the case of the interpretations of precaution that our analysis takes into account, could be understood as a way of reconciling the two fundamental science and technology policy functions of promotion and control.