It won’t happen to me: An assessment of optimism bias in music piracy

Piracy continues to be a threat to the global economy. Previous literature on factors influencing individual’s attitude towards piracy indicates that as perceived risk increases, individuals attitude of acceptance of piracy should decrease. In spite of the increased risks, some people pirate, there has been no explanation for this apparent paradox. We attempt to explain this paradox by using the concept of optimism bias. Results of structural equation modeling using a sample of 219 college students provide evidence that individuals having an optimism bias engage in piracy because they consider themselves to be at lower risk than average compared to a group. Implications for practice and future research avenues are discussed.     

On the variational equilibrium as a refinement of the generalized Nash equilibrium

We are concerned with a class of games in which the players’ strategy sets are coupled by a shared constraint. A widely employed solution concept for such generalized Nash games is the generalized Nash equilibrium (GNE). The variational equilibrium (VE) (Facchinei & Kanzow, 2007) is a specific kind of GNE characterized by the solution of the variational inequality formed from the common constraint and the mapping of the gradients of player objectives. Our contribution is a theory that provides sufficient conditions for ensuring that the existence of a GNE implies the existence of a VE; in such an instance, the VE is said to be a refinement of the GNE. For certain games, these conditions are shown to be necessary. This theory rests on a result showing the equality of the Brouwer degree of two suitably defined functions, whose zeros are the GNE and VE, respectively. This theory has a natural extension to the primal–dual space of strategies and Lagrange multipliers corresponding to the shared constraint. Our results unify some known results pertaining to such equilibria and provide mathematical substantiation for ideas that were known to be appealing to economic intuition.     

Improving the contrast ratio of OLED displays: An analysis of various techniques

Organic light emitting diode (OLED) based displays have matured into commercial products. However, while we consider OLED for a low-cost high-resolution and high-contrast displays with a long life span, still there are performance gaps. This review addresses various techniques used for increasing the ambient contrast ratio of OLED displays. There are techniques which are integral to the OLED device, such as black cathodes and absorbing transport layers. In contrast, anti-reflection (AR) coatings and circular polarizer are applied externally to the device. This review provides a brief overview of each technique along with a discussion on its merits and demerits. The choice of a particular contrast enhancement technique for a display depends on the ambient where the same is intended to be used. Accordingly, for indoor and outdoor applications, the best possible methods are suggested.     

Mie scattering computation of spherical particles with very large size parameters using an improved program with variable speed and accuracy

The electromagnetic radiation scattering patterns were computed using an improved C program to study variations in the patterns with changes in the size distribution, size parameters and refractive index of small particles in a volume element. The particle size distributions considered were gamma, normal and lognormal. The program is stable for computation of the theoretical values of the non-zero elements of the scattering matrix, efficiency factors, single scattering albedo, radiation pressure and asymmetry parameter for particles ranging from very small to very large size parameters. One of the significant features of the program is that it incorporates two methods for the determination of the optimal number of terms required for the computation of Mie series with the added benefit of having the option of either going for computational speed or accuracy. After a comparison of the C program with other reported benchmark results, it has been found that the program is very accurate and reliable for electromagnetic scattering computations.     

Freezing Transition Studies Through Constrained Cell Model Simulation

In the present work, a simulation method based on cell models is used to deduce the fluid–solid transition of a system of particles that interact via a pair potential, \(\phi \left( r\right) \) , which is of the form \(\phi \left( r\right) = 4\epsilon \left[ \left( \sigma /r\right) ^{2n}- \left( \sigma /r\right) ^{n}\right] \) with \(n=10\) . The simulations are implemented under constant-pressure conditions on a generalized version of the constrained cell model. The constrained cell model is constructed by dividing the volume into Wigner–Seitz cells and confining each particle in a single cell. This model is a special case of a more general cell model which is formed by introducing an additional field variable that controls the number of particles per cell and, thus, the relative stability of the solid against the fluid phase. High field values force configurations with one particle per cell and thus favor the solid phase. Fluid–solid coexistence on the isotherm that corresponds to a reduced temperature of 2 is determined from constant-pressure simulations of the generalized cell model using tempering and histogram reweighting techniques. The entire fluid–solid phase boundary is determined through a thermodynamic integration technique based on histogram reweighting, using the previous coexistence point as a reference point. The vapor–liquid phase diagram is obtained from constant-pressure simulations of the unconstrained system using tempering and histogram reweighting. The phase diagram of the system is found to contain a stable critical point and a triple point. The phase diagram of the corresponding constrained cell model is also found to contain both a stable critical point and a triple point.     

Sources and reactivity of NMHCs and VOCs in the atmosphere: A review

Nonmethane hydrocarbons (NMHCs) and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are important species present in the environment, which results in alteration of the chemistry of atmosphere. On the global scale natural emissions of NMHCs and VOCs exceed anthropogenic emissions, although anthropogenic sources usually dominate within urban areas. Among the natural sources, vegetation is the dominant source. Oceanic and microbial production of these species is minimal as compared to other sources of input. Isoprene and terpenes are main species of NMHCs which are emitted from plants as a protective mechanism against temperature stress tolerance and protection from ravages of insects and pests. The major anthropogenic sources for NMHCs emissions are biomass burning and transportation. NMHCs play a significant role in ozone (O₃) production in the presence of adequate concentration of oxides of nitrogen in the atmosphere. The production of O₃ is based on Maximum Incremental Reactivity (MIR) of NMHCS and VOCs. The compound's MIR multiplied by molecular weight gives Relative Ozone Productivity (ROPi). To check the reliability of current methods of measuring the NMHCs the Nonmethane Hydrocarbon Inter-comparison Experiment (NMHICE) had been designed. The sample of known composition and unknown concentration of different hydrocarbons was supplied to different laboratories worldwide and less than 50% laboratories correctly separated the unknown mixture. Atmospheric scientists throughout the world are evaluating current analytical methods being employed and are trying to correct the problems to ensure quality control in hydrocarbon analysis.     

Quantification of annual glacier surface mass balance for the Chhota Shigri Glacier,Western Himalayas,India using an Equilibrium-Line Altitude (ELA) based approach

ABSTRACT

In line with the increasing scientific interest on the Himalayan glaciers, this study focuses on estimating a long-term annual surface mass balance time series of the Chhota Shigri glacier, a ‘benchmark’ glacier in the western Himalayas. The approach used here is based on the fact that the annual glacier-wide surface mass balance can be deduced from the equilibrium-line altitude (ELA). Depending on the distribution and availability of multiple cloud free remotely sensed images during ablation period, a multi-temporal approach has been used to estimate ELA. When compared with field-based ELA, the results indicate that the multi-temporal approach resulted in better estimates of ELA than the conventional single image approach. Likewise, the annual surface mass balances quantified from this study closely match with field estimates over the common period (2003–2014) and even better than some estimates from earlier studies based on other proxies (meteorological data or glacier surface albedo). A sensitivity analysis shows that the annual surface mass balance quantified from the ELA-based approach is not very sensitive to changes in the mass balance gradient and average mass balance. Hence, the approach has been further applied to reconstruct the long-term annual surface mass balance series of the Chhota Shigri Glacier over the period 1989–2017. Our results show a good agreement between the reconstructed surface mass balance and estimates of other long-term studies. Therefore, this study indicates the great potential for this approach for quantifying the annual surface mass balance for glaciers with no ground data lying in same climatic zone.     

Third order quadrature oscillator and its application using CDBA

Analog Integrated Circuits and Signal Processing - This research article comes with three novel topologies of Voltage Mode (VM) third order Quadrature Sinusoidal Oscillators (QSOs) using Current...     

Detecting anomalous energy consumption using contextual analysis of smart meter data

Wireless Networks - Energy consumption is dependent on temperature, humidity, occupancy, occupant type, building area etc. All these factors collectively define the context of an energy meter. Once...