A decision maker with time consistent preferences may exhibit diminishing impatience, when uncertain lifetime is accounted for. Uncertain lifetime captures not only the risk of mortality, but also the possibility that a promise for a delayed reward might be breached, or a postponed consumption might not be realized. The restrictions that time consistency imposes on additive intertemporal prefer...

The learning objects paradigm actually drives the majority of researches and commercial developments in elearning field. Nevertheless, this paradigm has been harshly criticized due to the fact that it has not achieved the objectives proposed in its initial definition. This, together with some false assumptions surrounding the e-learning concept, have led costumers and organizations to the belie...

Neutrinoless double beta decay is a sensitive probe of new physics beyond the standard model. In this review, we begin by describing the various mechanisms for this process and the kind of new physics scenarios where these mechanisms can arise. The present experimental lower bound on the lifetime for ββ0ν is then used to set limits on the parameters of these new physics scenarios. We then consi...

The Object Constraint Language (OCL), which forms part of the UML set of modelling notations, is a precise, textual language for expressing constraints that cannot be shown diagrammatically in UML. This paper reflects on a number of aspects of the syntax and semantics of the OCL, and makes proposals for clarification or extension. Specifically, the paper suggests that: the concept of flattening...

Despite many years of effort, observational studies have not found a strong correlation between the presence of any proposed fueling mechanism and low-luminosity AGN. After a discussion of the mass requirements for fueling, I summarize this observational work and provide a number of hypotheses for why the nature of AGN fueling has remained unresolved. In particular, I stress the potential impor...

Article history: Received 26 November 2014 Received in revised form 19 December 2014 Accepted 9 January 2015 Available online 13 January 2015 Editor: M. Doser The difference in total widths between the B+c and B+ mesons is measured using a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 3.0 fb−1 collected by the LHCb experiment in 7 and 8 TeV centre-of-mass energy proton–proton collisi...

We present lifetime measurements of the 7D3/2 and 7D5/2 levels of Fr. We use a time-correlated singlephoton counting technique on a sample of Fr atoms confined and cooled in a magneto-optical trap. The upper state of the 7P3/2 trapping transition serves as the resonant intermediate level for two-photon excitation of the 7D states. A probe laser provides the second step of the excitation, and we...

This paper investigates whether AspectJ can be used for efficient profiling of Java programs. Profiling differs from other applications of AOP (e.g. tracing), since it necessitates efficient and often complex interactions with the target program. As such, it was uncertain whether AspectJ could achieve this goal. Therefore, we investigate four common profiling problems (heap usage, object lifeti...

The growth in technology, digital electronics and wireless communications has made sensor networks a reality. The low cost, low power but multifunctional sensor nodes communicate with other nodes and need to be energy efficient in order to save battery power. This paper deals with the problem of sensor network lifetime optimization. By setting up data flows among sensor nodes as optimization va...

A Monte Carlo simulation technique to predict the mean and scatter in fatigue lifetime of certain 2000 and 7000 series aluminum alloys is described. The method is based upon models of surface microcrack nucleation and early growth, which comprise the initiation phase of the fatigue failure process. The experimental basis for the models is discussed, and examples of predicted numbers and lengths...