Entropy, independent sets and antichains: A new approach to Dedekind's problem

For -regular, -vertex bipartite graphs with bipartition , a precise bound is given for the sum over independent sets of the quantity . (In other language, this is bounding the partition function for certain instances of the hard-core model.) This result is then extended to graded partially ordered sets, which in particular provides a simple proof of a well-known bound for Dedekind's Problem given by Kleitman and Markowsky in 1975.

     

Empirically supporting school STEM culture—The creation and validation of the STEM Culture Assessment Tool (STEM‐CAT)

School STEM Culture—an aspect of culture within a school community—is defined as the beliefs, values, practices, and resources in STEM fields as perceived by students, parents, teachers, and administrators and counselors within a school. This study validates the STEM Culture Assessment Tool (STEM‐CAT), an instrument intended to advance the use of the School STEM Culture construct within the research community. Internal consistency was determined through the use of Cronbach's alpha and factor analyses, and the instrument was found to be a reliable measure of School STEM Culture. The instrument can be used in future research to quantify School STEM Culture to determine if interventions change the culture of a school to further STEM education.     

A law of large numbers result for a bifurcating process with an infinite moving average representation

This paper derives a law of large numbers theorem for bifurcating processes defined on a perfect binary tree. This theorem can be viewed as a generalization of some results that have already appeared in the literature. For instance, all that is required of the bifurcating process is an infinite moving average representation with geometrically decaying coefficients and a finite moment assumption. In addition, the summands are assumed to belong to a flexible class of functions that satisfy a generalized Lipschitz type condition. These two criteria allow for an expansive range of applicability. Two examples are given as corollaries to the theorem.     

The threshold for combs in random graphs

For let denote the tree consisting of an ‐vertex path with disjoint ‐vertex paths beginning at each of its vertices. An old conjecture says that for any the threshold for the random graph to contain is at . Here we verify this for with any fixed . In a companion paper, using very different methods, we treat the complementary range, proving the conjecture for (with ). © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Random Struct. Alg., 48, 794–802, 2016     

On using compressibility to detect when slime mould completed computation

Slime mould Physarum polycephalum is a single cell visible by an unaided eye. The slime mould optimizes its network of protoplasmic tubes in gradients of attractants and repellents. This behavior is interpreted as computation. Several prototypes of the slime mould computers were designed to solve problems of computation geometry, graphs, transport networks, and to implement universal computing circuits. Being a living substrate, the slime mould does not halt its behavior when a task is solved but often continues foraging the space thus masking the solution found. We propose to use temporal changes in compressibility of the slime mould patterns as indicators of the halting of the computation. Compressibility of a pattern characterizes the pattern's morphological diversity, that is, a number of different local configurations. At the beginning of computation the slime explores the space, thus generating less compressible patterns. After gradients of attractants and repellents are detected the slime spans data sites with its protoplasmic network and retracts scouting branches, thus generating more compressible patterns. We analyze the feasibility of the approach on results of laboratory experiments and computer modelling. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Complexity 21: 162–175, 2016     

统计学者的工作及风范:灵感、抱负、雄心

1985年5月我第一次到中国来,距离这次我被邀请已经隔了25年.这次我该讲什么呢?我是这么想的,假如20年前的中国像个穷人,现在的中国就像个富人,或者快变成富人.那么对富人讲话应该跟对穷人不一样,所以今天我想讲的题目是怎么看待学术成就和学术风范.为什么呢?各位从历史上看,一个国家要变成大国,变成真正受人尊敬的大国,或者一个科学界,要衡量它的成熟以及它本身的品质,其中一个很重要的衡量标准是它怎么对待学术成就和学术风范.     

Differentiability of Lipschitz Maps from Metric Measure Spaces to Banach Spaces with the Radon–Nikodym Property

We prove the differentiability of Lipschitz maps X → V, where X denotes a PI space, i.e. a complete metric measure space satisfying a doubling condition and a Poincaré inequality, and V denotes a Banach space with the Radon–Nikodym Property (RNP). As a consequence, we obtain a bi-Lipschitz nonembedding theorem for RNP targets. The differentiation theorem depends on a new specification of the differentiable structure for PI spaces involving directional derivatives in the direction of velocity vectors to rectifiable curves. We give two different proofs of this, the second of which relies on a new characterization of the minimal upper gradient. There are strong implications for the infinitesimal structure of PI spaces which will be discussed elsewhere.     

Towards a new framework for evaluating systemic problem structuring methods

Operational researchers and social scientists often make significant claims for the value of systemic problem structuring and other participative methods. However, when they present evidence to support these claims, it is usually based on single case studies of intervention. There have been very few attempts at evaluating across methods and across interventions undertaken by different people. This is because, in any local intervention, contextual factors, the skills of the researcher and the purposes being pursued by stakeholders affect the perceived success or failure of a method. The use of standard criteria for comparing methods is therefore made problematic by the need to consider what is unique in each intervention. So, is it possible to develop a single evaluation approach that can support both locally meaningful evaluations and longer-term comparisons between methods? This paper outlines a methodological framework for the evaluation of systemic problem structuring methods that seeks to do just this.     

Volume comparison and the σk-Yamabe problem

In this paper we study the problem of finding a conformal metric with the property that the kth elementary symmetric polynomial of the eigenvalues of its Weyl-Schouten tensor is constant. A new conformal invariant involving maximal volumes is defined, and this invariant is then used in several cases to prove existence of a solution, and compactness of the space of solutions (provided the conformal class admits an admissible metric). In particular, the problem is completely solved in dimension four, and in dimension three if the manifold is not simply connected.     

Optimally Cutting a Surface into a Disk

We consider the problem of cutting a subset of the edges of a polyhedral manifold surface, possibly with boundary, to obtain a single topological disk, minimizing either the total number of cut edges or their total length. We show that this problem is NP-hard in general, even for manifolds without boundary and for punctured spheres. We also describe an algorithm with running time n ^O(g+k), where n is the combinatorial complexity, g is the genus, and k is the number of boundary components of the input surface. Finally, we describe a greedy algorithm that outputs a O(log² g)-approximation of the minimum cut graph in O(g ² n log n) time.