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The intrinsic volumes are measures of the content of a convex body. This paper uses probabilistic and information-theoretic methods to study the sequence of intrinsic volumes of a convex body. The main result states that the intrinsic volume sequence concentrates sharply around a specific index, called the central intrinsic volume. Furthermore, among all convex bodies whose central intrinsic volume is fixed, an appropriately scaled cube has the intrinsic volume sequence with maximum entropy., Comment: 18 pages. v4 with minor revisions

Predicted Hyla cinerea tadpole survivorship after a six-day exposure to one of five salinity concentrations, along with slope and intercept estimates, each with 95% Bayesian credible intervals (L.C.I = Lower Credible Interval, U.C.I = Upper Credible Interval) (Fig. 6). (DOC 34 kb)

Predicted Hyla cinerea tadpole survivorship after a six-day exposure to one of five salinity concentrations, along with slope and intercept estimates, each with 95% Bayesian credible intervals (L.C.I = Lower Credible Interval, U.C.I = Upper Credible Interval) (Fig. 6). (DOC 34 kb)

Source separation or demixing is the process of extracting multiple components entangled within a signal. Contemporary signal processing presents a host of difficult source separation problems from interference cancellation to background subtraction blind deconvolution and even dictionary learning. Despite the recent progress in each of these applications advances in high throughput sensor technology place demixing algorithms under pressure to accommodate extremely high dimensional signals separate an ever larger number of sources and cope with more sophisticated signal and mixing models. These difficulties are exacerbated by the need for real time action in automated decision making systems.

This study investigates the consumption of electricity and natural gas for building operations for several categories of residential and non-residential buildings. The study updates the Production Exchange Consumption Allocation System (PECAS) land use modeling framework to include energy components. An energy database was assembled to study energy consumption in buildings. The authors conducted statistical analysis of utility data and estimated linear regression models to predict energy consumption in buildings. Results are validated using data from independent sources, including the California Residential Appliance Saturation Study (RASS) and the Commercial End-Use Survey (CEUS). Results are used to update PECAS and form part of the baseline study to estimate energy and greenhouse gas balances in an urban metabolism framework for the analysis of the environmental impacts of complex urban regions. The results also allow the total energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions for residential and commercial building operations to be estimated through the application to the total residential and commercial building inventory in the region. These results are then useful for the evaluation of possible energy savings in buildings.

Demixing is the problem of identifying multiple structured signals from a superimposed, undersampled, and noisy observation. This work analyzes a general framework, based on convex optimization, for solving demixing problems. When the constituent signals follow a generic incoherence model, this analysis leads to precise recovery guarantees. These results admit an attractive interpretation: each signal possesses an intrinsic degrees-of-freedom parameter, and demixing can succeed if and only if the dimension of the observation exceeds the total degrees of freedom present in the observation.

Emerging technologies are bringing significant changes to the character of warfare. One such emerging technology, autonomous weapon systems (AWS), is proving increasingly crucial for the United States to maintain its technological superiority over its adversaries. However, AWS brings increasingly complex challenges that demand legal, ethical, and operational considerations. The thesis asks a question related directly to current DOD policy on AWS: how can a human operator apply appropriate judgment during future AWS employment? Using authority, responsibility, and accountability as an analytical framework, the thesis builds upon U.S. policy and strategy with respect to autonomy in weapon systems, international law considerations, and the application of AWS in an operational environment. It uses case studies of the 1988 U.S.S. Vincennes incident and 2003 Operation Iraqi Freedom Patriot fratricides to examine how human judgment was executed alongside autonomous functions within weapon systems, providing lessons learned for AWS research, development, and implementation. The thesis uncovers critical ideas for keeping a human operator from losing control by remaining involved with specific oversight measures—allowing appropriate judgment to be applied during the employment process. Lieutenant Colonel, United States Air Force Approved for public release. Distribution is unlimited.

The purpose of this thesis is to explore and define the framework for a type of military development strategy that links technological decisions to strategic effects—technology strategy. This study is novel, as most approaches to technology strategy focus on producing technology as an end in itself instead of focusing on technology development and acquisition as the principal means for achieving strategic effects. By placing technology as the means and strategic effects as the ends, this study deduces an original, perhaps seminal, description of technology strategy and a framework for its formulation. Arms-racing case studies and an exploration of offense-defense theory structure this exploration and enable the observation of technology strategy’s core characteristics, which are its relationships to doctrinal innovation and organizational design, forms or templates, approaches to acquisition, and potential pitfalls. The structural components of the technology strategy concept illuminated are then arranged in a proposed taxonomy that fits within the U.S. military’s joint concept development process. Beyond the descriptive and structural components, this study also identifies notable best practices in the application of technology strategy, particularly those that an effective technology strategy should encompass—both the decisions surrounding which weapons, transportation, and information systems to invest in, and their implications, in practice, for organization and doctrine. Outstanding Thesis Major, United States Air Force Approved for public release. Distribution is unlimited.