cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
The Adaptive Priority Queue with Elimination and Combining

Priority queues are fundamental abstract data structures, often used to manage limited resources in parallel programming. Several proposed parallel priority queue implementations are based on skiplists, harnessing the potential for parallelism of the add() operations. In addition, methods such as Flat Combining have been proposed to reduce contention, batching together multiple operations to be executed by a single thread. While this technique can decrease lock-switching overhead and the number of pointer changes required by the removeMin() operations in the priority queue, it can also create a sequential bottleneck and limit parallelism, especially for non-conflicting add() operations.
Lambda waves: incidence and relationship to photic driving.

The earliest studies on lambda waves in the 1950s postulated a relationship with the photic driving response. Intracranial depth electrode studies from the 1960s showed generators for lambda waves and the occipital driving response to be different but both originating from the posterior hemisphere. Use of computer averaging techniques in the 1980s found these two cerebral responses to be similarly affected by certain diseases. We examined the incidence of lambda over a wider range of ages than previously studied, and also evaluated for a statistical correlation between lambda and occipital driving. Three hundred sixty-seven conventional EEGs were prospectively collected and analyzed. Each record was interpreted for the presence of lambda waves, photic driving, and epileptiform discharges. The incidence of lambda waves, photic driving and epileptiform discharges was 76%, 85%, and 23%, respectively. The incidence of lambda and photic driving exhibited age-dependent characteristics. The amplitude and duration of lambda waves also exhibited age-dependent characteristics. A strong correlation existed between the presence of lambda waves and photic driving (p<0.001). No significant correlation existed between epileptiform discharges and either lambda waves or photic driving. The strong correlation between the presence of lambda waves and the occipital photic driving response suggests the possibility a common region in the brain needs to be functionally activated in order to express these waveforms.
Kinematics of Relativistic AGN Jets

Since 1994 we have been carrying out a long term campaign to study the milliarcsecond-scale relativistic jet structure and kinematics in a large sample of over two hundred active galactic nuclei (AGN) with the VLBA at 15 GHz (the VLBA 2cm Survey and MOJAVE: Monitoring Of Jets in Active galactic nuclei with VLBA Experiments). This represents one of the largest and most complete AGN jet studies to date, and comprises several thousand individual VLBA images spanning more than a decade of jet evolution. Our kinematic analysis of over 500 distinct features in the jets of 135 core-selected AGN has revealed that only ∼ 1/4 of the features are moving outward from the base of the jet at constant velocity in a purely radial direction. The majority of features are travelling outward on accelerating (non-ballistic) trajectories at apparent superluminal speeds ranging up to 50 c. The statistics from the MOJAVE survey are being used to study the variety of complex fluid instabilities that are likely present in these relativistic outflows.
Rights Rhetoric as an Instrument of Religious Oppression in Sri Lanka

Two laws proposed by the Sri Lankan government present a threat to Christians and other religious minorities in the country. Though purportedly designed to prevent “unethical or fraudulent conversions,” the laws are overly broad and ill-deaned, giving Sri Lankan ofacials the latitude to use them to suppress minority religious activities. Indeed, despite being couched in the rhetoric of religious liberty and human rights, the laws are likely to be used by the Buddhist majority as instru ments of oppression over unpopular religious groups.
High Energy Astronomy Observatory Program

Abstract This paper describes the series of three orbiting high energy astronomy observatories that comprise the High Energy Astronomy Observatory (HEAO) program of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). The basis and enthusiasm of the scientific community for this program is presented. The HEAO program is a leader in the low cost approach for unmanned scientific investigations and emphasis is given to engineering design and test philosophies being practiced in support of this approach. Several unique designs and the attitude control and determination system (ACDS) used for observatory scan rotation of the first and third missions and for precision pointing on the second mission are described. Finally, preliminary results from the first mission, launched on August 12, 1977, are reviewed.
Leukemia prediction from gene expression data—a rough set approach

We present our results on the prediction of leukemia from microarray data. Our methodology was based on data mining (rule induction) using rough set theory. We used a novel methodology based on rule generations and cumulative rule sets. The final rule set contained only eight rules, using some combinations of eight genes. All cases from the training data set and all but one cases from the testing data set were correctly classified. Moreover, six out of eight genes found by us are well known in the literature as relevant to leukemia.
Bismuth(III) bromide catalyzed synthesis of polyhydroquinoline derivatives via the Hantzsch reaction

Abstract Bismuth(III) bromide is an efficient catalyst for the one-pot multicomponent synthesis of polyhydroquinolines via the Hantzsch reaction. The mild reaction conditions, short reaction times, high yields, and the remarkably low toxicity of bismuth compounds make this method especially attractive.
Clustering Categorical Data via Ensembling Dissimilarity Matrices

ABSTRACTWe present a technique for clustering categorical data by generating many dissimilarity matrices and combining them. We begin by demonstrating our technique on low-dimensional categorical data and comparing it to several other techniques that have been proposed. We show through simulations and examples that our method is both more accurate and more stable. Then we give conditions under which our method should yield good results in general. Our method extends to high-dimensional categorical data of equal lengths by ensembling over many choices of explanatory variables. In this context, we compare our method with two other methods. Finally, we extend our method to high-dimensional categorical data vectors of unequal length by using alignment techniques to equalize the lengths. We give an example to show that our method continues to provide useful results, in particular, providing a comparison with phylogenetic trees. Supplementary material for this article is available online.
Law and the Culture of Marriage

Culture is a human artifact, but not a tangible item like pottery or a hula hoop (even though such tangible items often reveal things-even important things-about human cultures). It is perfectly natural for people to create culture. But culture is not found in nature; it is not given to people by their environment; and it is not the inevitable manifestation of mental hard-wiring or biological drives. Culture is the value added by people acting on the basis of reflection and choice to nature.
Healthcare network centric operations: The confluence of e-health and e-government

Healthcare has yet to realize the true potential afforded by e-health. To date, technology-based healthcare operations are conducted chaotically, at a wide variety of non-integrated fronts, with little or no long-term strategy, and at a tremendous and ever increasing cost. This chapter proposes that in order for healthcare to ever reap the full benefits from e-health it is imperative for the development of a doctrine of healthcare network centric operations. Otherwise, millions if not billions of dollars will be spent on a futile chase of the definitions of how and when will the computer, healthcare provider, and healthcare administrator interact most efficiently and at the least expense. The concept of a doctrine - 'conceptual platform' that outlines the consequent, goal-oriented way forward, and integrates all constituent elements into a smoothly operating whole, is utilized to great effect in the military. Drawing upon the strategies and techniques employed by the military to develop a network centric doctrine, the chapter outlines the essential components necessary for the establishment of the doctrine for healthcare network centric operations (HNCO), and in so doing not only highlights the integral role played by information computer and communication technologies (IC2T) but also the pivotal role of policy makers and governments. In fact, HNCO underscores the important yet rarely acknowledged confluence of e-health and e-government
EBT-P gamma ray shielding analysis

First, a one-dimensional scoping study was performed for the gamma-ray shield of the ELMO Bumpy Torus proof-of-principle device to define appropriate shielding material and determine the required shielding thickness. The dose-equivalent results are analyzed as a function of the radiation-shield thickness for different shielding options. A sensitivity analysis for the pessimistic case is given. The recommended shielding option based on the performance and cost is discussed. Next, a three-dimensional scoping study for the coil shield was performed for four different shielding options to define the heat load for each component and check the compliance with the design criterion of 10 watts maximum heat load per coil from the gamma-ray sources. Also, a detailed biological-dose survey was performed which included: (a) the dose equivalent inside and outside the building, (b) the dose equivalent from the two mazes of the building, and (c) the skyshine contribution to the dose equivalent.
The FDA Food Safety and Modernization Act and the Exemption for Small Firms

The FDA Food Safety Modernization Act of 2010 is new legislation that mandates, among other things, new food safety standards. The act includes a clause that exempts small firms from new regulatory requirements. This paper investigates the effects of a small firm exemption from more stringent food safety standards. The model compares food safety, total output and the number of market participants for different food safety regulation with and without an exemption for small firms. The numerical examples show that a more stringent food safety regulation increases food safety, increases the price of food, decreases the total output and decreases the number of firms. A new food safety standard with an exemption for small firms increases the average food safety but not as much as with a new standard alone. An exemption for small firms causes the total number of firms to increase.
Identification of joint interventional distributions in recursive semi-Markovian causal models

This paper is concerned with estimating the effects of actions from causal assumptions, represented concisely as a directed graph, and statistical knowledge, given as a probability distribution. We provide a necessary and sufficient graphical condition for the cases when the causal effect of an arbitrary set of variables on another arbitrary set can be determined uniquely from the available information, as well as an algorithm which computes the effect whenever this condition holds. Furthermore, we use our results to prove completeness of do-calculus [Pearl, 1995], and a version of an identification algorithm in [Tian, 2002] for the same identification problem. Finally, we derive a complete characterization of semi-Markovian models in which all causal effects are identifiable.
Criterion‐Referenced Assessment

This entry provides an introduction to criterion-referenced testing and approaches for resolving several technical problems. Several of the important differences between norm-referenced testing and criterion-referenced testing will be introduced first. Next, the challenge of setting performance standards on criterion-referenced tests and several of the methods will be discussed. Finally, approaches for estimating decision consistency and decision accuracy from single and double test administrations are described. Keywords: criterion-referenced testing; criterion-referenced assessment; competency tests; performance standards; decision consistency; decision accuracy
Quark Flavor Physics Review

I review the status of lattice-QCD calculations relevant to quark flavor physics. The recent availability of physical-mass ensembles with large physical volumes generated by a growing number of lattice collaborations is an exciting development and I discuss their impact on the landscape of lattice flavor physics calculations. The activities of the newly formed FLAG-2 collaboration which aims to provide averages of quantities calculated in lattice QCD that are relevant for quark flavor physics are also discussed. My talk covers (a subset of) the same quantities reviewed by FLAG-2, including results for K, D(s), and B(s) meson decay constants and semileptonic decay form factors, as well as for hadronic matrix elements of neutral (K, D, and B (s) ) meson mixing. I also briefly discuss recent progress towards understanding nonleptonic K decay and long-distance contributions to DmK.
Group Behaviors for Systems with Significant Dynamics

Birds, fish, and many other animals travel as a flock, school, or herd. Animals in these groups must remain in close proximity while avoiding collisions with neighbors and with obstacles. We would like to reproduce this behavior for groups of simulated creatures traveling fast enough that dynamics plays a significant role in determining their movement. In this paper, we describe an algorithm for controlling the movements of creatures that travel as a group and evaluate the performance of the algorithm with three simulated systems: legged robots, humanlike bicycle riders, and point-mass systems. Both the legged robots and the bicyclists are dynamic simulations that must control balance, facing direction, and forward speed as well as position within the group. The simpler point-mass systems are included because they help us to understand the effects of the dynamics on the performance of the algorithm.
Super-energy accelerators

The further development of high energy physics through the next decade will require new accelerators capable of energies of an order of magnitude greater than presently available. A brief review is given of the current status of plans for the "super-energy" accelerators. Basic parameters are presented for machines in the 200-1000 BeV energy range and the current study at the Lawrence Radiation Laboratory of a 200 BeV accelerator is described in some detail, as an example of the general class.
A note on uniformization of riemann surfaces by ricci flow

We clarify that the Ricci flow can be used to give an independent proof of the uniformization theorem of Riemann surfaces.
Singlet s-wave scattering lengths of 6Li and 7Li.

Photoassociation of ultracold lithium atoms into bound vibrational levels of the $A^{1}\ensuremath{\Sigma}_{u}^{+}$ excited state is used to probe the $X^{1}\ensuremath{\Sigma}_{g}^{+}$ ground-state interaction potential of $^{6}\mathrm{Li}_{2}$ and $^{7}\mathrm{Li}_{2}$. It had been predicted that the $s$-wave photoassociation signal strength would pass through a minimum as a function of vibrational level for positive $s$-wave scattering length. We report the observation of this novel effect, and use the location of the minimum to precisely determine the singlet $s$-wave scattering length for both isotopes. The sensitivity of this technique is demonstrated by distinguishing the minima for collisions involving $^{7}\mathrm{Li}$ atoms in different hyperfine states.
Success or Failure: Selectivity and Reasons of Return Migration in Sichuan and Anhui, China

In this paper we examine urban^rural return migration in China. We argue that the tradi- tional success^failure dichotomy approach used for analyzing return migration is inadequate and that it must be expanded to address better the institutional context of the transitional economy. Using an empirical study of Sichuan and Anhui provinces, we analyze the selectivity of return migrants and their reasons for return, focusing not only on how returnees compare with continuing migrants, but also on their decisionmaking. The analysis indicates that returnees are negatively selected among migrants and suggests that failure migrants are more prevalent than are typically portrayed in the literature. The results also highlight family demand as an important reason for return. These findings suggest that migrants' institutional and social inferiority in the city undermines their likelihood to succeed in the destination and reinforces their desire to return when family needs arise. Our analysis raises questions about the optimism of existing studies about the contribution of return migrants in China's countryside.
Dynamic Rail Overturning: Modelling and Application

An analytical model for examining the dynamic equilibrium is utilized to determine the lateral deflection and rotation of the rail subjected to time dependent lateral and vertical forces, and constant axial force. Galerkin’s method was applied to remove the partial dependents of the differential equations of motion. The method resulted in a system of coupled ordinary differential equations in the time domain. Normal mode method of dynamic analysis was utilized to decouple the system of differential equations and convert them to a set of second order differential equations with constant coefficients. This model together with other defined parameters of the rail and fasteners is utilized to investigate several case studies of dynamic behavior of the rail. Comparison between these dynamic cases and static tests has been done. It is recommended that multiple axial load should be considered in the future dynamic studies.
Molecular engineering with bridged polysilsesquioxanes

Bridged polysilsesquioxanes are a class of hybrid organic-inorganic materials that permit molecular engineering of bulk properties including porosity. Prepared by sol-gel polymerization of monomers with two or more trialkoxysilyl groups, the materials are highly cross-linked amorphous polymers that are readily obtained as gels. The bridging configuration of the hydrocarbon group insures that network polymers are readily formed and that the organic functionality is homogeneously distributed throughout the polymeric scaffolding at the molecular level. This permits the bulk properties, including surface area, pore size, and dielectric constant to be engineered through the selection of the bridging organic group. Numerous bridging groups have been incorporated. This presentation will focus on the effects that the length, flexibility, and substitution geometry of the hydrocarbon bridging groups have on the properties of the resulting bridged polysilsesquioxanes. Details of the preparation, characterization, and some structure property relationships of these bridged polysilsesquioxanes will be given.
Measuring Fractional Charge in Carbon Nanotubes

The Luttinger model of the one-dimensional Fermi gas is the cornerstone of modern understanding of interacting electrons in one dimension. In fact, the enormous class of systems whose universal behavior is adiabatically connected to it are now deemed Luttinger liquids. Recently, it has been shown that metallic single-walled carbon nanotubes are almost perfectly described by the Luttinger Hamiltonian. Indeed, strongly non-Fermi liquid behavior has been observed in a variety of DC transport experiments, in very good agreement with theoretical predictions. Here, we describe how fractional quasiparticle charge, a fundamental property of Luttinger liquids, can be observed in impurity-induced shot noise.
The Role of the United States Government in Recent Holocaust Claims Resolution

This is, I think, an interesting story?one that is hard for outsiders to know. I will talk about the U.S. government's role in three of the Holocaust settlements: the 1995 so called "Princz" agreement; the Swiss bank settlement, and the German foundation for payments to forced and slave laborers and other victims of the Nazi era. Let me start by pointing out that for two centuries the U.S. government has con cluded claims settlement agreements on behalf of its nationals. Under the customary international law of state responsibility and diplomatic protection, in certain circum stances a state has the right to "espouse" and settle the claims of its nationals. A state may espouse, and take over, the claim of one of its nationals against another state if the claim was owned by one of its nationals at the time it arose and continuously thereafter until it is espoused, if the claim involves a breach of an international obligation attribut able to the foreign government, and if the national has first exhausted local remedies in the foreign nation. If these requirements are met, there is discretion to espouse a claim; a government may choose not to espouse a claim for foreign policy reasons. The discretionary authority of the executive branch of the U.S. government?the president and the secretary of state?to exercise the espousal power has consistently been upheld by U.S. courts. The Princz agreement between Germany and the United States of September 1995 followed this traditional framework. It was a lump-sum settlement with Germany that provided compensation to certain U.S. citizens who were victims of Nazi persecution (essentially concentration camp survivors) in return for waiver of all claims against Germany in that category. Byway of background, Hugo Princz, a Holocaust concentration camp survivor, for many years sought compensation from Germany. Mr. Princz sued the German govern ment in U.S. federal court, but the suit was dismissed in view of Germany's sovereign immunity. Then Mr. Princz sued German companies. At the same time, Mr. Princz's con gressional supporters pressed U.S. legislation to remove sovereign immunity from the German government for Holocaust suits, and in 1994 such a bill passed in the House of Representatives. This situation warranted serious attention by the two governments, and the German chancellor and U.S. president agreed in March 1995 thata claimssettle ment agreement covering Mr. Princz and comparable claimants should be concluded. The German government wan ted to have a settlement that finally resolved any future potential claims. We in the State Department did not, however, believe that it would be just to settle all claims that were comparable to Mr. Princz's without a thorough program to locate claimants who might qualify, since all claims in the categories covered by the settlement would be cut off. To allow time for the United States to
Stabilizing Uncertain Systems: Recovering Full State Feedback Performance via an Observer

This paper is concerned with the stabilization of uncertain systems via output feedback. The principal result demonstrates that if an uncertain system can be stabilized via linear static state feedback, then one can stabilize uncertain systems via dynamic output feedback which are "arbitrarily close" to the original system. Most importantly, these results are achieved under relatively weak assumptions.
Political Economy of Mechanisms

We study the optimal Mirrlees taxation problem in a dynamic economy. In contrast to the standard approach where the taxation mechanism is operated by a benevolent planner with full commitment power, we focus on economies in which policy decisions are made by self-interested politicians, who cannot commit to policies. The society controls politicians using elections. We show that the provision of incentives to politicians can be partly separated from redistribution across agents and that political economy constraints can be modeled as introducing additional aggregate distortions in the dynamic Mirrlees problem. We provide conditions under which the political economy distortions persist or disappear in the long run. If the politicians are as patient as the agents, the “best sustainable mechanism” leads to an asymptotic allocation where the aggregate distortions arising from political economy disappear. In contrast, when politicians are less patient than the citizens, positive aggregate labor and capital taxes remain even asymptotically. We conclude by providing a brief comparison of centralized
Keeping it fresh: Strategic product redesigns and welfare

Abstract Product redesigns happen across virtually all types of products, yet there is little evidence on the market and welfare effects of redesigns. We develop a model of redesign decisions in a dynamic oligopoly model and use it to analyze redesign activity in the U.S. automobile market. We find automobile model redesigns are frequent despite an estimated average cost around $1 billion. Our estimates also suggest that redesigns lead to large increases in profits and welfare due to the strong preferences consumers have for redesigns. We show that welfare would be improved if redesign competition were reduced, allowing redesign activity to be more responsive to the planned obsolescence channel. The net effect of these changes would reduce total redesigns by roughly 10%, increasing total welfare by roughly 3%. The high valuation that consumers put on newly-designed models drives frequent redesigns and gives automobile manufacturers fairly substantial market power, with a 2-to-1 ratio of firm profits to consumer surplus.
The Broadband Provision Tensor

This paper introduces the Broadband Provision Tensor (BPT), a new fusion-based multivariate approach for exploring the spatial, economic, and quality of service dimensions of broadband telecommunication services. Specifically, the BPT allows for the development of a more complex and realistic typology of broadband provision between regions within a uniform geographic scale. Thus, regardless of the BPT being implemented for states, metropolitan areas, counties, municipalities, census tracts, or block groups, the units included in the chosen scale of analysis can be compared and benchmarked against their peers. Ultimately, the BPT allows analysts and policy makers to succinctly visualize the broadband provision status regions across multiple dimensions for comparative purposes. This paper highlights an application of the BPT for 439 municipalities in the U.S. using a combination of Ookla Net Metrics data and provision information from the National Broadband Map. Results suggest a highly varied spectrum of wireline broadband provision profiles in the U.S. Policy implications are discussed.
Tamarkin’s construction is equivariant with respect to the action of the Grothendieck–Teichmueller group

Recall that Tamarkin’s construction (Hinich, Forum Math 15(4):591–614, 2003, arXiv:math.QA/0003052; Tamarkin, 1998, arXiv:math/9803025) gives us a map from the set of Drinfeld associators to the set of homotopy classes of \(L_{\infty }\) quasi-isomorphisms for Hochschild cochains of a polynomial algebra. Due to results of Drinfeld (Algebra i Analiz 2(4):149–181, 1990) and Willwacher Invent Math 200(3):671–760, 2015 both the source and the target of this map are equipped with natural actions of the Grothendieck–Teichmueller group \({\mathsf {GRT}}_1\). In this paper, we use the result from Paljug (JHRS, 2015, arXiv:1305.4699) to prove that this map from the set of Drinfeld associators to the set of homotopy classes of \(L_{\infty }\) quasi-isomorphisms for Hochschild cochains is \({\mathsf {GRT}}_1\)-equivariant.
The Unsplittable Stable Marriage Problem

The Gale-Shapley “propose/reject” algorithm is a well-known procedure for solving the classical stable marriage problem. In this paper we study this algorithm in the context of the many-to-many stable marriage problem, also known as the stable allocation or ordinal transportation problem. We present an integral variant of the Gale-Shapley algorithm that provides a direct analog, in the context of “ordinal” assignment problems, of a well-known bicriteria approximation algorithm of Shmoys and Tardos for scheduling on unrelated parallel machines with costs. If we are assigning, say, jobs to machines, our algorithm finds an unsplit (non-preemptive) stable assignment where every job is assigned at least as well as it could be in any fractional stable assignment, and where each machine is congested by at most the processing time of the largest job.
Proceedings of the the 1st ACM workshop on Continuous archival and retrieval of personal experiences

Welcome to the First ACM Workshop on Continuous Archival and Retrieval of Personal Experiences -- CARPE'04. Personal storage of all one's media throughout a lifetime has been desired and discussed since at least 1945, when Vannevar Bush published As We May Think, positing the "Memex" device "in which an individual stores all his books, records, and communications, and which is mechanized so that it may be consulted with exceeding speed and flexibility." His vision was astonishingly broad for the time, including full-text search, annotations, hyperlinks, virtually unlimited storage and even stereo cameras mounted on eyeglasses. In 2004, storage, sensor, and computing technology have progressed to the point of making Memex feasible and even affordable. Indeed, we can now look beyond Memex at new possibilities. In particular, while media capture has typically been sparse throughout a lifetime, we can now consider continuous archival and retrieval of all media relating to personal experiences. The continuous archival paradigm fundamentally alters our relationship to biological memory, since analysis of such media powerfully augments human memory. This workshop brings together leading researchers from around the world to share their findings and insights into this burgeoning field. The call for papers attracted 25 submissions from Asia, Canada, Europe, and the United States. The submissions were reviewed by at least 3 program committee members, from which 8 full papers and 3 demos were accepted. We also have 3 industrial demonstrations, a panel discussion on the future of CARPE and invited talks from pioneering cyborg Steve Mann and industry legend Gordon Bell. Our program covers all aspects of CARPE including capture, retrieval, organization, search, privacy, and legal issues. Attendees will hear about capture ranging from sensing brain waves, body posture and heart rates to recording conversations and computer mouse clicks. We will consider how human memory works, how to represent personal knowledge on computers, and how new forms of artistic expression may emerge.
Sr‐ and Ni‐Doped LaCoO3 and LaFeO3 Perovskites New Cathode Materials for Solid‐Oxide Fuel Cells

An improved cathode material for a solid-oxide fuel cell would be a mixed electronic and oxide-ion conductor with a good catalytic activity for oxygen reduction at an operating temperature T{sub op} {le} 700 C and a thermal expansion matched to that of the electrolyte and interconnect. The authors report on the properties of Sr- and Ni-doped LaCoO{sub 3} and LaFeO{sub 3} perovskites that meet these criteria. Single-phase regions were determined by X-ray diffraction, and thermogravimetric analysis measurements were used to obtain the temperatures above which oxygen loss, and hence oxide-ion conductivity, occurs. The conductivity and Seebeck measurements indicate the coexistence of both p-type and n-type polaronic charge carriers resulting from an overlap of the Ni{sup III}/Ni{sup 2+} redox couple with the low-spin/intermediate-spin Co{sup IV}/Co{sup III} and high-spin Fe{sup 4+}/Fe{sup 3+} redox couples. Motional enthalpies {Delta}H{sub m} = 0.03, 0.02, and 0.08 eV, respectively, were estimated for Ni{sup 2+}, Co{sup IV}, and Fe{sup 4+} polarons. Optimal compositions have percolation pathways between dopants. Comparisons with transport data for the conventional cathode materials La{sub 1{minus}x}Sr{sub x}CoO{sub 3{minus}{delta}} and La{sub 1{minus}x}Sr{sub x}MnO{sub 3} indicate superior cathode performance can be expected.
AutoDBT : a framework for automatic testing of web database applications

The complex functionalities and high demands of software quality make manual testing of a web application ineffective. Automatic software testing methods can help to determine if a web application is working correctly, but existing methods are unable to test whether such an application interacts correctly with a back-end database. This paper elaborates an approach, called the Automatic Database Tester (AutoDBT), that extends the functional or black-box testing of a web database application to include database updates. AutoDBT takes as input a model of the application and a set of test criteria. The model consists of a state transition diagram showing how a user navigates among pages in the application, and a data specification which captures how data flows in the application and how the database is updated. AutoDBT uses the model along with the test criteria to generate test cases for functional testing of the application.
Internal Diffusion-Limited Aggregation: Parallel Algorithms and Complexity

The computational complexity of internal diffusion-limited aggregation (DLA) is examined from both a theoretical and a practical point of view. We show that for two or more dimensions, the problem of predicting the cluster from a given set of paths is complete for the complexity class CC, the subset of P characterized by circuits composed of comparator gates. CC-completeness is believed to imply that, in the worst case, growing a cluster of size n requires polynomial time in n even on a parallel computer. A parallel relaxation algorithm is presented that uses the fact that clusters are nearly spherical to guess the cluster from a given set of paths, and then corrects defects in the guessed cluster through a nonlocal annihilation process. The parallel running time of the relaxation algorithm for two-dimensional internal DLA is studied by simulating it on a serial computer. The numerical results are compatible with a running time that is either polylogarithmic in n or a small power of n. Thus the computational resources needed to grow large clusters are significantly less on average than the worst-case analysis would suggest. For a parallel machine with k processors, we show that random clusters in d dimensions can be generated in $$\mathcal{O}$$ ((n/k+logk)n 2/d ) steps. This is a significant speedup over explicit sequential simulation, which takes $$\mathcal{O}$$ (n 1+2/d ) time on average. Finally, we show that in one dimension internal DLA can be predicted in $$\mathcal{O}$$ (logn) parallel time, and so is in the complexity class NC.
Building virtual actors who can really act

When we think of ”acting” in computer games, we tend to use a lower standard than the way we think of acting in live action films or theatre. Why is acting in computer games so bad? This is an important question because we will only be able to develop compute games into a more psychologically mature narrative medium when we can imbue them with actors that audiences can believe in. In this paper we present an approach to virtual actors in games that we believe will make it easier for audiences to willingly suspend their disbelief.
Computational Science and Engineering - Past, Present, and Future

Physics-based computational modeling has become more practical in the past few years due to the availability of high performance computers (HPC), highspeed communications, and more robust visualization and data mining tools. Applications range from understanding fundamental science to solving a diverse set of important practical, real-world problems. The old paradigm of designing, testing, building, and then modeling is being replaced in some cases with a new paradigm of investigating and modeling before designing and building. People are now realizing computational modeling and simulation is an essential ingredient in reducing acquisition time for large systems. Single discipline problems are giving way more and more to the solution of multi-disciplinary problems. HPC, coupled with multi-disciplinary applications, is the driving force behind the challenges we face today in research and engineering.
The effects of alcohol on the consumption of hard drugs: regression discontinuity evidence from the National Longitudinal Study of Youth, 1997.

This paper estimates the effect of alcohol use on consumption of hard drugs using the exogenous decrease in the cost of accessing alcohol that occurs when individuals reach the minimum legal drinking age. By using a regression discontinuity design and the National Longitudinal Study of Youth 1997, I find that all measures of alcohol consumption, even alcohol initiation increase discontinuously at age 21 years. I also find evidence that consumption of hard drugs decreased by 1.5 to 2 percentage points and the probability of initiating the use of hard drugs decreased by 1 percentage point at the age of 21 years, while the intensity of use among users remained unchanged. These estimates are robust to a variety of specifications and also remain robust across different subsamples. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Language: en
Interacting biases, non-normal return distributions and the performance of tests for long-horizon event studies

Abstract We report simulations of one-, three-, and five-year abnormal buy-and-hold stock return tests. Using benchmark portfolios purged of new-listings and rebalancing biases, we find severe misspecification of most tests, due in part to skewness. Control-firm matching also results in misspecification, particularly in large samples. We document a negative relation between skewness bias and sample size, and an overlapping-horizons bias. Both biases become more severe as the holding period lengthens. The biases interact such that tests can be well-specified in one situation but not another. A two groups test using winsorized abnormal returns yields correct specification and considerable power in many situations.
The Impact of Innovation Activities on Employment in the Environmental Sector – Empirical Results for Germany at the Firm Level

The paper explores employment effects of environmental product innovations at the firm level. Whereas there are many studies analysing this relationship for general innovations, studies for the environmental sector are still rare.On the background of high political attention connected with hopeful employment perspectives, a separate analysis of this sector in comparison to other, non-environmental fields seems to be very important.
On the Possibility of a Phenomenology of Light

The phenomenological tradition has always had a peculiar preoccupation with light. This paper will attempt to determine how and why light appears as it does, and what this can tell us about the phenomenological understanding of light and its relevance. This will be carried out through a systematic analysis covering Husserl's study of light as "circumstance of apperception," Heidegger's interpretation of Plato's use of light as "symbol for the unsayable," and Levinas' interest in light as "rival to the 'there is'." This survey will allow us to see how light has been treated by phenomenology as a concept of central importance in the realms of perception, epistemology, and ontology. It is this multiform use that has allowed for the distinction between the concepts of "light" and "lighting" to become blurred, and has thus problematized any attempt at something like a phenomenology of light.
Design of RISC Processor Using VHDL and Cadence

The project deals about development of a basic RISC processor. The processor is designed with basic architecture consisting of internal modules like clock generator, memory, program counter, instruction register, accumulator, arithmetic and logic unit and decoder. This processor is mainly used for simple general purpose like arithmetic operations and which can be further developed for general purpose processor by increasing the size of the instruction register. The processor is designed in VHDL by using Xilinx 8.1i version. The present project also serves as an application of the knowledge gained from past studies of the PSPICE program. The study will show how PSPICE can be used to simplify massive complex circuits designed in VHDL Synthesis. The purpose of the project is to explore the designed RISC model piece by piece, examine and understand the Input/ Output pins, and to show how the VHDL synthesis code can be converted to a simplified PSPICE model. The project will also serve as a collection of various research materials about the pieces of the circuit.
In the Shadow of the Crowd: A comment on "Valve’s Way"

There are many ways to exercise authority. Perrow (1986), in his review of March and Simon’s Organizations (1958), offers a threefold classification of the ways authority can be exercised in organizations: (1) direct, “fully obtrusive” controls such as giving orders and direct monitoring; (2) bureaucratic controls such as defined specializations, roles, and hierarchy; and (3) “control of the cognitive premises underlying action.” Valve ostentatiously makes little use of direct authority. It downplays bureaucracy, although in fact many bureaucratic controls are in place. Instead, the legal authority vested in the owners of the company (especially the majority shareholder, Gabe Newell) is used quite extensively to set the premises of action and thus unobtrusively channel employees’ efforts and communication patterns into a highly productive configuration. The sustained high profits of the company, and its ability to attract and retain talented software developers, are testimony to the success of this organizational model. At the same time, contextual variables – in particular Valve’s identity as a video game creator and the fact of a single majority shareholder – are also critical factors contributing to its success. As a result, even within the software industry, the range of companies for which this organizational model is appropriate is quite limited.
Cosmic Discovery: The Search, Scope and Heritage of Astronomy

In the remarkable opening section of this book, a well-known Cornell astronomer gives precise thumbnail histories of the 43 basic cosmic discoveries--stars, planets, novae, pulsars, comets, gamma-ray bursts, and the like--that form the core of our knowledge of the universe. Many of them, he points out, were made accidentally and outside the mainstream of astronomical research and funding. This observation leads him to speculate on how many more major phenomena there might be and how they might be most effectively sought out in afield now dominated by large instruments and complex investigative modes and observational conditions.The book also examines discovery in terms of its political, financial, and sociological context--the role of new technologies and of industry and the military in revealing new knowledge; and methods of funding, of peer review, and of allotting time on our largest telescopes. It concludes with specific recommendations for organizing astronomy in ways that will best lead to the discovery of the many--at least sixty--phenomena that Harwit estimates are still waiting to be found.
A Saddle Point Algorithm for Networked Online Convex Optimization

An algorithm to learn optimal actions in convex distributed online problems is developed. Learning is online because cost functions are revealed sequentially and distributed because they are revealed to agents of a network that can exchange information with neighboring nodes only. Learning is measured in terms of the global network regret, which is defined here as the accumulated loss of causal prediction with respect to a centralized clairvoyant agent to which the information of all times and agents is revealed at the initial time. A variant of the Arrow–Hurwicz saddle point algorithm is proposed to control the growth of global network regret. This algorithm uses Lagrange multipliers to penalize the discrepancies between agents and leads to an implementation that relies on local operations and exchange of variables between neighbors. We show that decisions made with this saddle point algorithm lead to regret whose order is not larger than $O(\sqrt{T})$ , where $T$ is the total operating time. Numerical behavior is illustrated for the particular case of distributed recursive least squares. An application to computer network security in which service providers cooperate to detect the signature of malicious users is developed to illustrate the practical value of the proposed algorithm.
SPINning Parallel Systems Software

We describe our experiences in using SPIN to verify parts of the Multi-Purpose Daemon (MPD) parallel process management system. MPD is a distributed collection of processes connected by Unix network sockets. Its dynamic nature is easily expressible in the SPIN/Promela framework but poses performance and scalability challenges. We present here the results of expressing some of the parallel algorithms of MPD and executing verification runs with SPIN.
Applications of the Restricted Many-body Problem to Binary Asteroids

This paper presents a general approach to the problem of stability of binary configurations in solar system dynamics. As a special application of the analytical approach the possible existence of binary asteroids is investigated by numerical approaches. The analytical results are based on the hierarchical model of the restricted four-body problem, in which the primaries are the Sun and Jupiter and the “small masses” are the asteroid and its satellite. The numerical results offer a parametric study considering the effects of the initial orbital parameters of the binary on its stability.
Numerical Renormalization Group Analysis of Interacting Quantum Dots

Wilson’s Numerical Renormalization Group (NRG) is so far the only nonperturbative technique that can reliably access low-energy properties of quantum impurity systems. We present a recent extension of the method, the DM-NRG, which yields highly accurate results for dynamical quantities at arbitrary frequencies and temperatures. As an application, we determine the spectrum of a quantum dot in an external magnetic field. Furthermore, we discuss magnetic impurities with orbital degeneracy, which have been inferred in recent experiments on quantum dots in an Aharonov-Bohm geometry. It is demonstrated that for spinless electrons, interference between neighbouring levels sets the low-energy scale of the system. Switching on an external field leads to a remarkable crossover into a regime dominated by orbital Kondo screening. We predict that the broadening-induced level splitting should be clearly visible in measurements of the optical absorption power. A more general model including the electron spin is studied within an extended two-band NRG procedure. We observe competition between interference and Kondo screening, similar to the situation in two-impurity models (RKKY).
The short and longer term potential welfare impact of global commodity inflation in Tanzania

This paper uses a computable general equilibrium model to assess the welfare impact of commodity price inflation in Tanzania and possible tax policy responses in the short, medium, and long term. The results suggest that global commodity inflation since 2006 may have had a significantly negative impact on all Tanzanian households. Most of the negative impact comes from the rise in the price of oil. In contrast, food price spikes are potentially welfare improving for all Tanzanian households in the medium to long run. In comparison with nonpoor households, poor households in Tanzania may be relatively shielded from global commodity inflation because they derive a larger share of their incomes from agricultural activity and consume less oil-intensive products. Finally, the results suggest that tax policies encouraging greater agricultural production and consumption may help to reduce poverty. In contrast, policies discouraging agricultural production (such as export bans) bear the risk of increasing poverty in the long run. However, such policies would only effect at the margin (in one direction or the other) the likely impact of global commodity inflation on poverty.