Notes, summaries, assignments, exams, and problems for Other courses

The U.S. Opioid Crisis: Corporate Negligence and Accountability

This case study examines the origins and escalation of the opioid crisis in the United States, driven by the unethical practices of pharmaceutical companies, consulting firms, and pharmacy chains. By prioritizing profits over public health, these entities fueled a national epidemic characterized by widespread addiction, increased crime, and hundreds of thousands of preventable deaths. This analysis highlights how corporate misconduct can trigger massive public health disasters and explores the mechanisms for holding these organizations accountable.

The Key Players and Their Roles

• Purdue Pharma & the Sackler Family: Developed OxyContin and aggressively incentivized doctors to overprescribe

International Financial Institutions

International Monetary Fund (IMF)

• Lender of Last Resort: Provides financial assistance to countries facing balance of payments problems.
• Public Goods: Contributes to global financial stability.
• Conditional Loans: Loans are often tied to economic policy reforms.
• Quotas: Determine a member country's financial contribution and voting power.

World Bank

• Physical Public Goods: Focuses on financing development projects and infrastructure in developing countries.

International Trade Theories

Interindustry Trade

• Trade of different goods between different countries.
• Ricardian Theory: Explains trade based on comparative advantage, where countries specialize in goods with lower opportunity costs.

Intraindustry Trade

• Trade of similar

1. Why Study Programming Language Concepts?

• Expressiveness: Leverage diverse language features

• Selection: Match language to task (e.g., LISP for AI, PHP for web)

• Learning: Foundations ease uptake of new languages

• Efficiency: Choose constructs (recursion vs. iteration) for performance

• Maintenance: Better code reuse and understanding

2. Programming Domains and Typical Languages

3. Language Categories

• Imperative: Variables + assignment + iteration (C, Java, Python, Perl)

• Functional: Computation

Operating System Memory Management Fundamentals

The Operating System (OS) is responsible for crucial memory decisions: determining which programs reside in memory, where they are placed, how memory is protected, and what actions to take when memory resources are exhausted.

Parkinson's Law Applied to Computing

Parkinson’s Law states that programs expand to fill the memory available to hold them.

Models for Organizing Memory

Three primary models exist for structuring memory:

• Model A (User on Top, RAM on Bottom):
  • Pros: Fast execution.
  • Cons: No protection (e.g., used in MS-DOS).
• Model B (ROM on Top, User on Bottom):
  • Pros: OS protected.
  • Cons: Slow and not flexible.
• Model C (Drivers at Top, User in Middle, RAM at Bottom):
  • Pros: Fast and secure.
  • Cons: Complex

Objectives of PFD and PID

PFD (Process Flow Diagram): Illustrates major equipment and the flow of process fluids.

PID (Piping and Instrumentation Diagram): Details piping, instruments, and valves required for operation and control.

SIF and Its Significance

The Stress Intensification Factor (SIF) accounts for increased stress at fittings such as bends and tees. It is essential for flexibility and stress analysis (e.g., CAESAR II) to ensure piping integrity under cyclic loading.

Miter Bend Spacing Analysis

Given:

• O.D. = 8.0662 in
• Mitre spacing = 6.0438 in

Check:

For widely spaced: Spacing > 2 × pipe diameter

2 × 8.0662 = 16.1324 in

6.0438 < 16.1324 → Not widely spaced

Pipeline Designation Standards

Designations include pipe size, schedule, material,... Continue reading "Piping Engineering: PFD, PID, SIF, and ASME B31 Standards" »

Memory Models in Operating Systems

• Model A (MS-DOS):
  • Structure: Large user space at the top, small RAM at the bottom.
  • Performance: Fast execution, long boot time.
  • Protection: No protection.
• Model B:
  • Structure: Small ROM at the top, small user space at the bottom.
  • Performance: Protected OS but slow (the entire OS must be read).
  • Flexibility: Not flexible.
• Model C (Windows 11):
  • Structure: Select drivers at the top, large user space in the middle, RAM at the bottom.
  • Performance: Fast and secure (key drivers stored in ROM).

Memory Protection and Management

Core Memory Management Issues

• Relocation Problem: Without memory abstraction, loading multiple programs causes incorrect memory addresses.
• Base and Limit Registers:
  • Base: Value added to addresses to find

Dafny Concepts and Preconditions

Preconditions are required; postconditions are ensured.

Methods do not change given parameters unless a modifies clause is present.

Old(E) has the value of E at the start of the method.

Fresh(E) as a postcondition shows that E was created by M.

With if statements, Dafny works normally. With if-case statements, you introduce nondeterminism (hard; you need to prove all options).

Classes have instance variables and methods, which need clear contracts.

A trait is an abstract class, from which classes inherit (like a template in Java). Example: trait A; class B extends A

Class invariants must hold before and after any method. Use ghost predicate Valid().

Behavioral Subtyping: When a class A inherits from another class/trait,... Continue reading "Dafny Verification and Formal Methods Exam Review" »

IoT Protocols

Link Layer Protocols

• 802.3 Ethernet Standards

  A collection of wired Ethernet standards that provide data rates from 10 Mb/s to 40 gigabits per second. The shared medium in Ethernet can be a coaxial cable, twisted-pair wire, or optical fiber. This shared medium carries communication for all devices on the network.

• 802.11 Wi-Fi Standards

  A collection of wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) communication standards.

Network/Internet Layer

• Responsible for sending IP datagrams from the source network to the destination network.
• Handles host addressing and packet routing based on IPv4 or IPv6.
• Datagrams contain a source and destination address, which are used to route them from the source to the destination across multiple networks.
• IPv4 uses 32-

What is a Web Service?

A Web Service allows two applications or systems to communicate with each other over the internet. It’s like one program calling another program to request data or instruct it to perform an action.

Even if these applications are developed with different programming languages or run on different computers, they can still work together using Web Services.

Key Things to Know

• Works Anywhere: Web Services use common standards (like HTTP, XML, JSON), ensuring compatibility across various systems and platforms.
• Communicates Over Internet: Most Web Services transmit and receive data using HTTP or HTTPS — the same protocols websites use.
• Shares Data in Common Formats:
  • XML: Often used in older or more structured systems (e.g., SOAP)

Probability Distributions for Discrete Events

The following table matches common scenarios to their appropriate probability distributions: