cometadata/datacite-rtg-text-other-reclassification-records huggingface dataset:
Analysis of Prospective Flight Schemes to Venus Accompanied by an Asteroid Flyby
Creators: name: Zubko, Vladislav
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2023
Subjects: subject: Earth and Planetary Astrophysics (astro-ph.EP)
subject: Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics (astro-ph.IM)
subject: Numerical Analysis (math.NA)
subject: Space Physics (physics.space-ph)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences
subject: FOS: Mathematics

description: This paper deals with the problem of constructing a flight scheme to Venus, in which a spacecraft flying to the planet after a gravity assist maneuver and transition to a resonant orbit in order to re-encounter with Venus, makes a passage of a minor celestial body. The 117 candidate asteroids from the NASA JPL catalogue, whose diameter exceeds 1 km, were selected. The flight trajectories which meet the criteria of impulse-free both flyby Venus and asteroid, and the subsequent landing on the surface of Venus were found within the interval of launch dates from 2029 to 2050. The trajectory of the spacecraft flight from the Earth to Venus including flyby of Venus and asteroids with a subsequent landing on the surface of Venus was analyzed.
Nonlinear Schroedinger equation with two symmetric point interactions in one dimension
Creators: name: Kovarik, Hynek
name: Sacchetti, Andrea
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2010
Subjects: subject: Mathematical Physics (math-ph)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences
subject: 35Q55, 35B40, 81Q05

description: We consider a time-dependent one-dimensional nonlinear Schroedinger equation with a symmetric potential double well represented by two delta interactions. Among our results we give an explicit formula for the integral kernel of the unitary semigroup associated with the linear part of the Hamiltonian. Then we establish the corresponding Strichartz-type estimate and we prove local existence and uniqueness of the solution to the original nonlinear problem.
External Review Process Options for Self-Funded Health Insurance Plans
Creators: name: Goldin, David
Publisher: name: Columbia Business Law Review
Year: 2012

description: Many provisions of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (the “PPACA” or “the Act”), signed into law on March 23, 2010, are highly controversial. Particularly contentious are issues pertaining to the rationing of health care, as illustrated by the recent, highly visible discourse about “death panels.” The issue became so heated that President Obama urged five governors with whom he met to avoid using the word “rationing” in discussing health care reform “for fear of evoking the hostile response that sank the Clintons’ attempt to achieve reform.” Although none of the legislative proposals contained any provisions that would lead to the creation of death panels or any similar body, the Act does have sections that affect decisions about who will receive health care and who will not. One of these sections is the provision of the PPACA governing external review of denial-of-care decisions by insurance companies. This section generally mandates either that insurers comply with external review processes found in state law, or, if they are not subject to state regulation, that they establish an external review process. Insurers in the latter category must implement “effective external review process[es]” that meet “minimum standards established by the Secretary [of Health and Human Services]” and that are “similar” to state-regulated processes. While the framework provided in the Act offers some guidance as to what these processes should look like, it does not dictate a specific review process.
description: Columbia Business Law Review, Vol. 2011 No. 2
Tug-of-war in motility assay experiments
Creators: name: Hexner, Daniel
name: Kafri, Yariv
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2009
Subjects: subject: Subcellular Processes (q-bio.SC)
subject: Soft Condensed Matter (cond-mat.soft)
subject: Biological Physics (physics.bio-ph)
subject: FOS: Biological sciences
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: The dynamics of two groups of molecular motors pulling in opposite directions on a rigid filament is studied theoretically. To this end we first consider the behavior of one set of motors pulling in a single direction against an external force using a new mean-field approach. Based on these results we analyze a similar setup with two sets of motors pulling in opposite directions in a tug-of-war in the presence of an external force. In both cases we find that the interplay of fluid friction and protein friction leads to a complex phase diagram where the force-velocity relations can exhibit regions of bistability and spontaneous symmetry breaking. Finally, motivated by recent work, we turn to the case of motility assay experiments where motors bound to a surface push on a bundle of filaments. We find that, depending on the absence or the presence of a bistability in the force-velocity curve at zero force, the bundle exhibits anomalous or biased diffusion on long-time and large-length scales.
Lightweight privacy-preserving truth discovery for vehicular air quality monitoring
Creators: name: Liu, Rui
name: Pan, Jianping
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2023
Subjects: subject: Networking and Internet Architecture (cs.NI)
subject: Cryptography and Security (cs.CR)
subject: FOS: Computer and information sciences

description: Air pollution has become a global concern for many years. Vehicular crowdsensing systems make it possible to monitor air quality at a fine granularity. To better utilize the sensory data with varying credibility, truth discovery frameworks are introduced. However, in urban cities, there is a significant difference in traffic volumes of streets or blocks, which leads to a data sparsity problem for truth discovery. Protecting the privacy of participant vehicles is also a crucial task. We first present a data masking-based privacy-preserving truth discovery framework, which incorporates spatial and temporal correlations to solve the sparsity problem. To further improve the truth discovery performance of the presented framework, an enhanced version is proposed with anonymous communication and data perturbation. Both frameworks are more lightweight than the existing cryptography-based methods. We also evaluate the work with simulations and fully discuss the performance and possible extensions.
Elega, J. O., Jacob, S. M., Samuel, Segun, Tuedogheye, J.G, Yusuf A.U. and Adamu A.D. (2018). Youth employment in the cassava and trice value chains in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria. Proceedings of the 5th National conference of sustainable livelihoods and development network for Africa (SLIDEN AFRICA). Held at the Elkan Terrace, Port Harcourt, Nigeria, 9th to 12th,2018. Edited by Osuntade, O. B., Adetoye, A. M. and Adebayo, K. Pp 118- 122
Creators: name: J. O., Elega
name: S. M., Jacob
name: Segun, Samuel
name: Ibrahim, M. O.
name: J. G., Tuedogheye
name: A. U., Yusuf
name: A. D., Adamu
Publisher: name: figshare
Year: 2021
Subjects: subject: 70106 Farm Management, Rural Management and Agribusiness
subject: FOS: Other agricultural sciences

description: High rate of unemployment in the Niger Delta Region has manifested in numerous social vices, continue to limit development within the region The aim of this study was to examine the margins and returns from cassava and rice agri-business value chain within the Niger- Delta region with a view to identify priority enterprises which can provide enough incentive for the youths and move them away from such vices towards gainful employment. A Multi stage sampling design, complemented with stratification was employed to select 4 States (Abia, Cross River, Edo and Rivers) out of the 9 Niger Delta States, based on regional stratification and performance criteria under the recently-closed IF AD supported Community-based Natural Resource Management Programme to have a total of 200 respondents. Descriptive statistics and profitability analyses were used to analyse the data collected in line with the objectives. On the basis of the margin and returns on investment analyses, the study concluded that enterprise nodes within the two enterprises provided enough returns on investment to justify the need for value chain development in the region. The study therefore recommended that the enterprises were profitable enough to attract the necessary investment opportunity for development in the agricultural sector. •
title: Growth of Boron-Rich Nanowires by Chemical Vapor Deposition (CVD)
Creators: name: Guo, L.
name: Singh, R. N.
name: Kleebe, Hans‐Joachim
Publisher: name: Hindawi Publishing Corporation
Year: 2022

description: B-rich nanowires are grown on Ni coated oxidized Si(111) substrate using diborane as the gas precursor in a CVD process at 20 torr and 900°C. These nanowires have diameters around 20–100 nanometers and lengths up to microns. Icosahedron B12 is shown to be the basic building unit forming the amorphous B-rich nanowires as characterized by EDAX, XRD, XPS, and Raman spectroscopies. The gas chemistry at low [B₂H₆]/ [N₂] ratio is monitored by the in situ mass spectroscopy, which identified N₂ as an inert carrier gas leading to formation of the B-rich compounds. A nucleation controlled growth mechanism is proposed to explain the rugged nanowire growth of boron. The role of the Ni catalyst in the synthesis of the B-rich nanostructures is also discussed.
Reassessing Tying Arrangements at the End of AT&T’s iPhone Exclusivity
Creators: name: Jarosch, Jeffrey Paul
Publisher: name: Columbia Business Law Review
Year: 2012

description: Tying arrangements are common in the wireless telecommunications industry. Wireless networks compete for exclusive contracts to offer popular mobile devices. In January 2011, one of the most notorious exclusivity contracts ended when Apple announced that the iPhone would be available on the Verizon network, ending four years of iPhone exclusivity on AT&T. This long-anticipated move has been hailed as progress for consumer choice and competition in the industry. Such enthusiasm is rooted in the Supreme Court’s enduring stance against tying arrangements–a position that is based on unreasonable goals and illusory harms. This Article examines the Supreme Court’s tying jurisprudence in order to understand the harms that the Court seeks to combat. It then applies that understanding to a context-specific analysis of tying arrangements in the wireless telecommunications industry. In finding that AT&T’s iPhone exclusivity has had significant pro-competitive effects and has fostered innovation in the industry, the Article exposes the misguided basis of the Court’s tying doctrine and argues that it is time to reform the Court’s stance against tying.
description: Columbia Business Law Review, Vol. 2011 No. 2
Optimal Extraction of Fibre Optic Spectroscopy
Creators: name: Sharp, R.
name: Birchall, M. N.
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2009
Subjects: subject: Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics (astro-ph.IM)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: We report an optimal extraction methodology, for the reduction of multi-object fibre spectroscopy data, operating in the regime of tightly packed (and hence significantly overlapping) fibre profiles. The routine minimises crosstalk between adjacent fibres and statistically weights the extraction to reduce noise. As an example of the process we use simulations of the numerous modes of operation of the AAOmega fibre spectrograph and observational data from the SPIRAL Integral Field Unit at the Anglo-Australian Telescope.
description: Accepted for publication in PASA
Communicating democratic subversions to citizens
Creators: name: Gessler, Theresa
name: Kaftan, Lea
Publisher: name: Taylor & Francis
Year: 2023
Subjects: subject: Neuroscience
subject: Sociology
subject: FOS: Sociology
subject: Cancer
subject: Science Policy
subject: Mental Health
subject: Virology

description: In many countries, leaders have violated democratic norms without being punished. Citizens have often acquiesced to such subversions of democracy, despite widespread condemnation of policies by the media, opposing politicians and international organisations. A focal question following from this is whether attempts at persuading citizens to tolerate or oppose subversions of democracy are effective. Building on literature about the role of partisanship in acquiescence to democratic backsliding and subversions of democracy, we ask how communication surrounding democratic subversion shapes this behaviour. Specifically, we question whether the reasons governments and opponents provide for and against policy proposals that subvert democratic norms affect the likelihood that citizens oppose democratic subversions by governments they favour. We conduct a vignette experiment with 1,300 respondents from Germany and Poland, and show that political communication, especially how governments motivate their proposals, has substantial effects on the likelihood that citizens acquiesce to democratic subversions. Our results highlight the importance of the rhetoric surrounding attempts at democratic backsliding, which has so far been neglected by research on citizen responses to democratic backsliding.
The semigroup structure of Gaussian channels
Creators: name: Heinosaari, Teiko
name: Holevo, Alexander S.
name: Wolf, Michael M.
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2009
Subjects: subject: Quantum Physics (quant-ph)
subject: Mathematical Physics (math-ph)
subject: Dynamical Systems (math.DS)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences
subject: FOS: Mathematics

description: We investigate the semigroup structure of bosonic Gaussian quantum channels. Particular focus lies on the sets of channels which are divisible, idempotent or Markovian (in the sense of either belonging to one-parameter semigroups or being infinitesimal divisible). We show that the non-compactness of the set of Gaussian channels allows for remarkable differences when comparing the semigroup structure with that of finite dimensional quantum channels. For instance, every irreversible Gaussian channel is shown to be divisible in spite of the existence of Gaussian channels which are not infinitesimal divisible. A simpler and known consequence of non-compactness is the lack of generators for certain reversible channels. Along the way we provide new representations for classes of Gaussian channels: as matrix semigroup, complex valued positive matrices or in terms of a simple form describing almost all one-parameter semigroups.
description: 20 pages
Cost of Representation: An Argument for Permitting Pro Se Representation of Small Corporations in Bankruptcy
Creators: name: Cormack, Matthew
Publisher: name: Columbia Business Law Review
Year: 2012

description: Bankruptcy filings have steadily increased as the economy struggles to recover from the mortgage and financial crisis. Total filings increased 27.4 percent from fiscal year 2009 to 2010. In fiscal year 2010, 61,148 businesses filed for bankruptcy, and 13,553 filings occurred under Chapter 11. The failures and subsequent bankruptcies of massive corporations such as Lehman Brothers and General Motors have grabbed headlines. However, large businesses account for only a fraction of total bankruptcy filings. Studies of bankruptcy filings have shown that the vast majority of bankruptcy petitions are filed by small businesses. Small business bankruptcies increased 44 percent from the third quarter of 2008 to the third quarter of 2009. If these small businesses are corporations, LLCs, partnerships or other artificial entities, they are required to appear in bankruptcy court through a licensed attorney. Even for those businesses that are able to afford such representation, the cost–relative to the firm’s assets–can be extremely high, reducing the total assets available to creditors during litigation. This Note argues that bankruptcy judges can and should be more willing to create exceptions to the rule requiring all corporations to attain representation. Part II traces the origins and justifications for the general rule requiring that a corporation in bankruptcy be represented by an attorney. It argues that the rule is judicially created and prudential, and thus subject to exceptions when its application would be imprudent. Part III questions the universal desirability of the rule. It begins by presenting new empirical evidence showing that the traditional rule predominates in practice. However, the justifications for the rule do not exist in all cases and are particularly absent in small business bankruptcies. In these same cases, representation can be very costly, denying many corporations access to bankruptcy, and also consuming a large portion of the assets of companies that do enter bankruptcy. Part IV builds a framework of potential exceptions to the general rule. There is no simple formula that can determine which cases are appropriate, but this Note concludes by identifying factors that can assist judges in evaluating when an exception might be appropriate.
description: Columbia Business Law Review, Vol. 2011 No. 1
Stellar and Molecular Gas Kinematics of NGC1097: Inflow Driven by a Nuclear Spiral
Creators: name: Davies, R.
name: Maciejewski, W.
name: Hicks, E.
name: Tacconi, L.
name: Genzel, R.
name: Engel, H.
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2009
Subjects: subject: Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics (astro-ph.CO)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: We present spatially resolved distributions and kinematics of the stars and molecular gas in the central 320pc of NGC1097. The stellar continuum confirms the previously reported 3-arm spiral pattern extending into the central 100pc. The stellar kinematics and the gas distribution imply this is a shadowing effect due to extinction by gas and dust in the molecular spiral arms. The molecular gas kinematics show a strong residual (i.e. non-circular) velocity, which is manifested as a 2-arm kinematic spiral. Linear models indicate that this is the line-of-sight velocity pattern expected for a density wave in gas that generates a 3-arm spiral morphology. We estimate the inflow rate along the arms. Using hydrodynamical models of nuclear spirals, we show that when deriving the accretion rate into the central region, outflow in the disk plane between the arms has to be taken into account. For NGC1097, despite the inflow rate along the arms being ~1.2Msun/yr, the net gas accretion rate to the central few tens of parsecs is much smaller. The numerical models indicate that the inflow rate could be as little as ~0.06Msun/yr. This is sufficient to generate recurring starbursts, similar in scale to that observed, every 20-150Myr. The nuclear spiral represents a mechanism that can feed gas into the central parsecs of the galaxy, with the gas flow sustainable for timescales of a Gigayear.
description: accepted by ApJ
Tax Lawyer’s Dilemma: Recent Developments Heighten Tax Lawyer Responsibilities and Liabilities
Creators: name: Rose, Charles A.
Publisher: name: Columbia Business Law Review
Year: 2012

description: The efforts to curb the use of tax shelters have had a significant detrimental impact on the vast majority of tax professionals who seek to provide legitimate tax advice. Recent legislative and administrative efforts, based largely on heightened disclosure requirements and increased penalties, are not effective solutions for the tax shelter problem, largely because they are only prospective in nature and taxpayers often move on to new types of shelters. Furthermore, the recent court decisions are unlikely to provide sufficient guidance to tax professionals for them to determine what the proper standards should be. Although tax shelter litigation has been ongoing for nearly two decades, the recent wave of cases stands out due to both the astonishing financial recoveries and the prominent institutions targeted. For example, in United States v. Stein, dubbed the largest tax fraud case in history, the government filed a forty count indictment against seventeen former KPMG accountants, a former partner at Sidley Austin Brown & Wood LLP, and a former financial executive. These cases have contributed to a seismic shift in the nature of tax practice by deterring lawyers and law firms from providing opinions for legitimate tax planning purposes. The codification of the economic substance doctrine as part of President Obama’s Health Care Act inflicts further harm on the nation’s tax system by increasing uncertainty because it is overly broad and fails to specify when the doctrine applies. Furthermore, the Act threatens legitimate business transactions, which if tested for economic substance under the unreasonably broad provision, could fail the statutory test. This Note argues that the burdens of heightened liability and increasing uncertainty undermine the ability of tax lawyers to add value through viable tax advisory services, and that the rules and standards governing tax opinions should be revised to encourage lawyers to give legitimate tax advice, rather than driving lawyers away from the practice altogether.
description: Columbia Business Law Review, Vol. 2011 No. 1
Leveraged Buyout Bankruptcies, the Problem of Hindsight Bias, and the Credit Default Swap Solution
Creators: name: Simkovic, Michael
name: Kaminetzky, Benjamin S.
Publisher: name: Columbia Business Law Review
Year: 2012

description: This article discusses recent legal and financial innovations that may aid bankruptcy courts in assessing fraudulent transfer claims in large business bankruptcies. These innovations have the potential to diminish the importance of experts, increase consistency and predictability in fraudulent transfer law, de-bias and simplify judicial decision-making, and ultimately help stabilize the economy by deterring imprudent business decisions. Part II of this article discusses the dramatic increase in financial leverage throughout the economy during the last decade of prosperity, the recession that began in 2008, and why fraudulent transfer law may determine who will bear billions of dollars in losses. Part III of this article describes the historical and intellectual development of fraudulent transfer law, the expert-centered paradigm that prevailed during the last twenty years, experimental and real-world evidence of the problem of hindsight bias, and two recent decisions that suggest the emergence of a new market-centered paradigm. Part IV of this article explains how this new market-centered paradigm–coupled with recent innovations in the financial markets and finance theory–can enable fraudulent transfer law to more effectively achieve its historical policy objectives. Part V of this article includes original empirical analysis of the relationship between equity and CDS prices as debtors approach bankruptcy. Part VI explains how judicial adoption of the methods we suggest would improve credit decisions at banks and prevent destabilizing transactions. Although this article focuses on fraudulent transfer law and CDS markets, its potential applications are much broader. Market-implied probabilities of default can assist courts in deciding any controversy that requires a judicial determination of corporate solvency, whether the controversy pertains to fraudulent transfer, preference, or corporate directors’ duties. Market-implied probabilities of default can be calculated from any debt instrument that is traded in a liquid and reasonably informed market and for which a yield to maturity can be calculated, whether the instrument is a credit default swap, a corporate bond, or a bank loan. The applications are diverse and the ramifications are potentially vast.
description: Columbia Business Law Review, Vol. 2011 No. 1
Correlation between linear resistivity and $T_c$ in the Bechgaard salts and the pnictide superconductor Ba(Fe$_{1-x}$Co$_x$)$_2$As$_2$
Creators: name: Doiron-Leyraud, Nicolas
name: Auban-Senzier, Pascale
name: de Cotret, Samuel René
name: Bourbonnais, Claude
name: Jérome, Denis
name: Bechgaard, Klaus
name: Taillefer, Louis
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2009
Subjects: subject: Superconductivity (cond-mat.supr-con)
subject: Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: The quasi-1D organic Bechgaard salt (TMTSF)$_2$PF$_6$ displays spin-density-wave (SDW) order and superconductivity in close proximity in the temperature-pressure phase diagram. We have measured its normal-state electrical resistivity $ρ_a(T)$ as a function of temperature and pressure, in the $T \to 0$ limit. At the critical pressure where SDW order disappears, $ρ_a(T) \propto T$ down to the lowest measured temperature (0.1 K). With increasing pressure, $ρ_a(T)$ acquires a curvature that is well described by $ρ_a(T) = ρ_0 + AT + BT^2$, where the strength of the linear term, measured by the $A$ coefficient, is found to scale with the superconducting transition temperature $T_c$. This correlation between $A$ and $T_c$ strongly suggests that scattering and pairing in (TMTSF)$_2$PF$_6$ have a common origin, most likely rooted in the antiferromagnetic spin fluctuations associated with SDW order. Analysis of published resistivity data on the iron-pnictide superconductor Ba(Fe$_{1-x}$Co$_x$)$_2$As$_2$ reveals a detailed similarity with (TMTSF)$_2$PF$_6$, suggesting that antiferromagnetic fluctuations play a similar role in the pnictides.
description: Accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. B. This paper focuses on a subset of the data presented in arXiv:0905.0964v1
The Perils of Clumpfind: The Mass Spectrum of Sub-structures in Molecular Clouds
Creators: name: Pineda, Jaime E.
name: Rosolowsky, Erik W.
name: Goodman, Alyssa A.
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2009
Subjects: subject: Astrophysics of Galaxies (astro-ph.GA)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: We study the mass spectrum of sub-structures in the Perseus Molecular Cloud Complex traced by 13CO (1-0), finding that $dN/dM\propto M^{-2.4}$ for the standard Clumpfind parameters. This result does not agree with the classical $dN/dM\propto M^{-1.6}$. To understand this discrepancy we study the robustness of the mass spectrum derived using the Clumpfind algorithm. Both 2D and 3D Clumpfind versions are tested, using 850 $μ$m dust emission and 13CO spectral-line observations of Perseus, respectively. The effect of varying threshold is not important, but varying stepsize produces a different effect for 2D and 3D cases. In the 2D case, where emission is relatively isolated (associated with only the densest peaks in the cloud), the mass spectrum variability is negligible compared to the mass function fit uncertainties. In the 3D case, however, where the 13CO emission traces the bulk of the molecular cloud, the number of clumps and the derived mass spectrum are highly correlated with the stepsize used. The distinction between "2D" and "3D" here is more importantly also a distinction between "sparse" and "crowded" emission. In any "crowded" case, Clumpfind should not be used blindly to derive mass functions. Clumpfind's output in the "crowded" case can still offer a statistical description of emission useful in inter-comparisons, but the clump-list should not be treated as a robust region decomposition suitable to generate a physically-meaningful mass function. We conclude that the 13CO mass spectrum depends on the observations resolution, due to the hierarchical structure of MC.
description: 5 pages, 3 figures. Accepted for publication in ApJ Letters
Big But Brittle: Economic Perspectives on the Future of the Law Firm in the New Economy
Creators: name: Burk, Bernard A.
name: McGowan, David
Publisher: name: Columbia Business Law Review
Year: 2012

description: This Article addresses three deceptively simple questions. First, why have law firms grown for over forty years, up to the onset of the recent recession, as quickly as they have? Second, why did law firms grow in the unusual configuration widely observed during that time? Third, should lawyers, clients, law students, and law schools expect these familiar trends in growth and configuration to reassert themselves as the economy improves, as they have after every recession since the 1970s? The various academic approaches to these questions to date are grounded in such notions as diversification, asset specificity, “tournament” theory, and reputational and agency-cost concerns at the level of the firm as a whole. The authors argue that these approaches do not explain or predict actual events very well, and thus offer little guidance for the future. The authors suggest two perspectives that appear more consistent with the available empirical evidence, and thus may better predict future trends. The first perspective shows that when lawyers with appropriately complementary reputations and connections (“relational capital”) join together in a firm, they can each better exploit the value of their own relational capital and thus jointly create value greater than the sum of their individual contributions. The positive feedback created by an internal referral network among firm members generates growth for the firm and provides a bond among its members, albeit a relatively weak one. This perspective is new to the literature on law firm economics, and helps explain why large firms have long continued to grow despite apparent diseconomies of scale. It also suggests why firms may grow to large sizes yet be brittle enough to shed partners regularly in the process–and in some cases suddenly splinter altogether. The second perspective analyzes large law firms using familiar economic principles concerning technological innovation and transaction costs, principles that have been largely overlooked in the literature on large firms. The authors argue that reductions in particular transaction costs and in the cost of certain key inputs are helpful in explaining a number of the trends in the staffing and pricing of legal services documented in recent years. The authors apply these perspectives to derive a range of predictions for law firms and law schools in the years to come. The authors conclude that, despite rumors of the “Death of Big Law,” the large firm is here to stay. But the authors also conclude that the evolving configuration of large law firms has profound implications for practicing and aspiring lawyers, as well as for the law schools that prepare students for the increasingly global and competitive market for their services.
description: Columbia Business Law Review, Vol. 2011 No. 1
pycefr: A Framework to Determine the Level of Python Competency through Code Analysis
Creators: name: Anonymous
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2021

description: Python is a versatile language: from beginner to pro. Although the Python community emphasizes that there is an obvious way to code, there are many different ways to program Python. We hypothesize that the different ways require different levels of Python proficiency by developers. In this paper, we present pycefr which is a prototype that measures the level of Python proficiency used by developers in their code. Our framework categorizes Python code according to six levels, following the design of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR).
Doppler Shift, Intensity, and Density Oscillations Observed with the EUV Imaging Spectrometer on Hinode
Creators: name: Mariska, John T.
name: Muglach, K.
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2010
Subjects: subject: Solar and Stellar Astrophysics (astro-ph.SR)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: Low-amplitude Doppler-shift oscillations have been observed in coronal emission lines in a number of active regions with the EUV Imaging Spectrometer (EIS) on the Hinode satellite. Both standing and propagating waves have been detected and many periods have been observed, but a clear picture of all the wave modes that might be associated with active regions has not yet emerged. In this study, we examine additional observations obtained with EIS in plage near an active region on 2007 August 22--23. We find Doppler-shift oscillations with amplitudes between 1 and 2 km/s in emission lines ranging from Fe XI 188.23 Angstroms, which is formed at log T = 6.07 to Fe XV 284.16 Angstroms, which is formed at log T = 6.32. Typical periods are near 10 minutes. We also observe intensity and density oscillations for some of the detected Doppler-shift oscillations. In the better-observed cases, the oscillations are consistent with upwardly propagating slow magnetoacoustic waves. Simultaneous observations of the Ca II H line with the Hinode Solar Optical Telescope Broadband Filter Imager show some evidence for 10-minute oscillations as well.
description: ApJ in press. Movie file available from first author
A Proposed Evidentiary Privilege for Medical Checklists
Creators: name: Brass, Carol
Publisher: name: Columbia Business Law Review
Year: 2011

description: This Note discusses the recent studies that have concluded that medical checklists—checklists used by physicians to aid their treatment of patients—improve patients’ recovery time, the medical care providers ability to properly and quickly diagnose patients, and reduces costs dramatically. The Note extensively reviews the literature which clearly documents the pervasiveness of medical errors, and the efficacy (and error reductions) caused by checklists. The reason why such checklists are not used as often as they should be is due to fear that such documents could be introduced as evidence in a medical malpractice action, which is a weapon that physicians simply do not wish to provide for the plaintiff’s bar. One possible way to ensure that patient’s will receive the benefit of checklists is via state regulation mandating the use of such checklists, but this solution is unlikely, as States have historically stayed far away from regulating physicians in the form of rules mandated a required method of treatment. This would also impede the ability of trained medical professionals to determine which form of checklist should be used under which circumstance, which is not something that the States should be doing. The Note proposes a solution. The evidentiary rules found in the federal rules, as well as many State codes, often create privileges on the basis of some underlying policy consideration. For example, the rule barring the introduction of evidence of subsequent remedial measures in a civil trial, although clearly probative of liability, nonetheless is admissible, lest those who are sued will never make conditions more safe than they were at the time of the incident due to fears that such actions could be used against them in court. The author proposes that an evidentiary privilege be created to bar the admission of such checklists in a medical malpractice action. This, she argues, would eliminate the fears of the physicians that the lists would be used against them, and would almost inevitably lead to their widespread use in the medical community. Moreover, such a privilege, the Note explains, would not unfairly disadvantage plaintiffs, as the evidence that they have historically used will still be available, and because the information (or lack thereof) which would be probative of the malpractice in court would not impede their ability to prove causation or liability. Finally, the Note addresses various objections to the creation of an evidentiary privilege for checklists. It responds to these criticisms and argues that state legislative requirements mandating use of particular checklists would deter exploration of the full range of potential innovative uses for checklists. The author then concludes that establishing an evidentiary privilege for medical checklists is critical to reducing the frequency of preventable medical errors.
description: Columbia Business Law Review, Vol. 2010 No. 3
First Principles Analysis of Electron-Phonon Interaction in Graphene
Creators: name: Borysenko, K. M.
name: Mullen, J. T.
name: Barry, E. A.
name: Paul, S.
name: Semenov, Y. G.
name: Zavada, J. M.
name: Nardelli, M. Buongiorno
name: Kim, K. W.
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2009
Subjects: subject: Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: The electron-phonon interaction in monolayer graphene is investigated by using density functional perturbation theory. The results indicate that the electron-phonon interaction strength is of comparable magnitude for all four in-plane phonon branches and must be considered simultaneously. Moreover, the calculated scattering rates suggest an acoustic phonon contribution that is much weaker than previously thought, revealing the role of optical phonons even at low energies. Accordingly it is predicted, in good agreement with a recent measurement, that the intrinsic mobility of graphene may be more than an order of magnitude larger than the high values reported in suspended samples.
description: 12 pages, 4 figures
Rethinking Jedwab: A Revised Approach to Preferred Shareholder Rights
Creators: name: McEllin, Melissa M.
Publisher: name: Columbia Business Law Review
Year: 2011

description: Preferred stock plays an important, yet often overlooked, role in U.S. corporate law. The interests of preferred shareholders often come in direct conflict with the interests of common shareholders. This is because each group is trying to draw separately from the same pool of resources, thus creating a “horizontal conflict.” The highly influential Delaware Chancery decision in Jedwad v. MGM Grand Hotels, Inc. established an analytical framework for resolving such horizontal conflicts: when the “preferential” rights of preferred shareholders are invoked, the contractual terms of the preferred stock certificate strictly govern; when “equitable” rights (those shared equally with the common shareholders) are invoked, preferred shareholders are entitled to the same fiduciary duties as common shareholders. The Note argues that the Jedwab rule is unsatisfactory for two reasons. First, it provides opportunity to justify favoritism toward common shareholders when “equitable” rights are invoked. Second, recent case law developments suggest that when “preferential” rights are invoked, the rule leads to overly strict interpretation of contract terms and fails to address the current trend of favoring fiduciary duties owed to the common shareholders over contractual obligations owed to preferred shareholders. The Note argues that a potential remedy to this problem is to provide preferred shareholders with meaningful rights through contracting for fiduciary duties. Alternatively, relaxing the strict interpretation of contractual terms and reading an implied covenant of good faith into the terms of the stockholder contract could ameliorate the problem of vulnerable preferred shareholders. A final potential solution the Note explores is the creation of special committees to represent preferred shareholders during certain corporate transactions.
description: Columbia Business Law Review, Vol. 2010 No. 3
Residential exposure to noise and language development : effect modification by residential greenspace
Creators: name: Yu, Xing
Publisher: name: University of British Columbia
Year: 2024

description: Background: Noise pollution has been linked to impaired development in a variety of language comprehension activities, including speaking, reading, and memory. The underlying processes, however, are not fully understood. Residential greenness, on the other hand, has been found to reduce noise, but this modifying effect of greenness on noise has not been adequately investigated in the environmental health literature. Objectives: To characterize the association between residential exposure to noise and language development and the potential modifying effects of greenspace in Metro Vancouver, British Columbia. Methods: The study was conducted within the framework of the Born to be Wise project and used linked data to conduct descriptive statistical analyses to summarize community-level exposures, as well as individual-level health and community-level socio-demographic information. Multilevel multivariable models were built to characterize the association between residential exposure to noise and children’s language development. Stratified analyses were conducted to assess whether differences exist in effect estimates of biological sex and age. The propensity score matching method was employed as a secondary analysis to replicate the associations. Results: The study included 30,048 children for which there was data on noise exposure. The mean noise level was 63.5 dB(A), and the mean percentage of vegetation within a 250 m buffer was 31.4%. This study found the increase in residential exposure to noise independently decreased the language developmental outcomes in basic literacy (Unadjusted: -0.14, CI: -0.11~ -0.16; Adjusted: -0.09, CI: -0.06 ~ -0.11), advanced literacy (Unadjusted: -0.22, CI: -0.17 ~ -0.27, adjusted: -0.14, CI: -0.09~-0.18), and communication and general knowledge (Unadjusted: -0.36, CI: -0.32 ~0.40, adjusted: -0.08, CI: -0.11~-0.15). The greenspace found to have minimal moderation effects on the adverse effects of noise on language development. Conclusions: This study found association between higher residential exposure to noise and impaired language development, and that greenspace had minimal effect modification. Future studies can be conducted using longitudinal data to improve the evidence level. This research also demonstrates that greenspace is not remediation solution to noise pollution, the health policy can be pursued by acoustic design to attenuate noise for better children’s language development outcomes.
Critical point of the two-dimensional Bose gas: an S-matrix approach
Creators: name: How, Pye-Ton
name: LeClair, Andre'
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2009
Subjects: subject: Mathematical Physics (math-ph)
subject: Quantum Gases (cond-mat.quant-gas)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: A new treatment of the critical point of the two-dimensional interacting Bose gas is presented. In the lowest order approximation we obtain the critical temperature T_c ~ 2 πn/[ m \log (2π/mg)], where n is the density, m the mass, and g the coupling. This result is based on a new formulation of interacting gases at finite density and temperature which is reminiscent of the thermodynamic Bethe ansatz in one dimension. In this formalism, the basic thermodynamic quantities are expressed in terms of a pseudo-energy. Consistent resummation of 2-body scattering leads to an integral equation for the pseudo-energy with a kernel based on the logarithm of the exact 2-body S-matrix.
description: 32 pages
A Systematic Mapping Study and Practitioner Insights on the Use of Software Engineering Practices to Develop MVPs
Creators: name: Alonso, Silvio
name: Kalinowski, Marcos
name: Ferreira, Bruna
name: Barbosa, Simone D. J.
name: Lopes, Helio
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2023
Subjects: subject: Software Engineering (cs.SE)
subject: FOS: Computer and information sciences

description: [Background] The MVP concept has influenced the way in which development teams apply Software Engineering practices. However, the overall understanding of this influence of MVPs on SE practices is still poor. [Objective] Our goal is to characterize the publication landscape on practices that have been used in the context of software MVPs and to gather practitioner insights on the identified practices. [Method] We conducted a systematic mapping study and discussed its results in two focus groups sessions involving twelve industry practitioners that extensively use MVPs in their projects to capture their perceptions on the findings of the mapping study. [Results] We identified 33 papers published between 2013 and 2020 and observed some trends related to MVP ideation and evaluation practices. For instance, regarding ideation, we found six different approaches and mainly informal end-user involvement practices. Regarding evaluation, there is an emphasis on end-user validations based on practices such as usability tests, A/B testing, and usage data analysis. However, there is still limited research related to MVP technical feasibility assessment and effort estimation. Practitioners of the focus group sessions reinforced the confidence in our results regarding ideation and evaluation practices, being aware of most of the identified practices. They also reported how they deal with the technical feasibility assessments and effort estimation in practice. [Conclusion] Our analysis suggests that there are opportunities for solution proposals and evaluation studies to address literature gaps concerning technical feasibility assessment and effort estimation. Overall, more effort needs to be invested into empirically evaluating the existing MVP-related practices.
The composite absolute penalties family for grouped and hierarchical variable selection
Creators: name: Zhao, Peng
name: Rocha, Guilherme
name: Yu, Bin
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2009
Subjects: subject: Statistics Theory (math.ST)
subject: FOS: Mathematics
subject: 62J07 (Primary)

description: Extracting useful information from high-dimensional data is an important focus of today's statistical research and practice. Penalized loss function minimization has been shown to be effective for this task both theoretically and empirically. With the virtues of both regularization and sparsity, the $L_1$-penalized squared error minimization method Lasso has been popular in regression models and beyond. In this paper, we combine different norms including $L_1$ to form an intelligent penalty in order to add side information to the fitting of a regression or classification model to obtain reasonable estimates. Specifically, we introduce the Composite Absolute Penalties (CAP) family, which allows given grouping and hierarchical relationships between the predictors to be expressed. CAP penalties are built by defining groups and combining the properties of norm penalties at the across-group and within-group levels. Grouped selection occurs for nonoverlapping groups. Hierarchical variable selection is reached by defining groups with particular overlapping patterns. We propose using the BLASSO and cross-validation to compute CAP estimates in general. For a subfamily of CAP estimates involving only the $L_1$ and $L_{\infty}$ norms, we introduce the iCAP algorithm to trace the entire regularization path for the grouped selection problem. Within this subfamily, unbiased estimates of the degrees of freedom (df) are derived so that the regularization parameter is selected without cross-validation. CAP is shown to improve on the predictive performance of the LASSO in a series of simulated experiments, including cases with $p\gg n$ and possibly mis-specified groupings. When the complexity of a model is properly calculated, iCAP is seen to be parsimonious in the experiments.
description: Published in at http://dx.doi.org/10.1214/07-AOS584 the Annals of Statistics (http://www.imstat.org/aos/) by the Institute of Mathematical Statistics (http://www.imstat.org)