cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Analysis and correction of noise on electronic circuits in an accelerator environment

The generation and propagation of noise in the electrical system in an accelerator system are examined. Some approaches to reducing or eliminating the effect of noise on the electronic circuits are discussed. Recommendations on design, wiring, and connections are made. The use of separate ground leads for digital and analog signals to eliminate the undesired coupling of signals via common ground leads is also covered. In mixed mode printed-circuit boards, the importance of physical separations between analog and digital circuits is emphasized. In general, for analog signal transmission, use of a differential mode to reduce common-mode noise and shielded twisted pairs to minimize noise pick-up is recommended. Optical coupling can be used to reduce noise transfer into electronic circuits. The ground conductor should be used only for grounding purposes. In three-phase systems care must be taken to reduce the amount of phase imbalance due to improper loading of different phases. A 6- or 12-pulse supply fed from a balanced three-phase system introduces less current harmonic back into the line than when it is fed from an imbalanced system. >
Streak biases in decision making: data and a memory model

Streaks of past outcomes, for example of gains or losses in the stock market, are one source of information for a decision maker trying to predict the next outcome in the series. We examine how prediction biases based on streaks change as a function of length of the current streak. Participants experienced a sequence of 150 flips of a simulated coin. On the first of a streak of heads, participants showed positive recency, meaning that they predicted heads for the next outcome with a greater-than-baseline probability. As streak length increased, positive recency first decreased but then increased again, producing a quadratic trend. We explain these results in terms of outcome-prediction processes that are sensitive to the historical frequency of streak lengths and that make heuristic assumptions about changes in bias of the outcome-generating process (here, the coin). An ACT-R simulation captures the quadratic trend in positive recency, as well as the baseline heads bias, in two experimental conditions with different coin biases. We discuss our memory-based model in relation to a model from the domain of economics that posits explicit representation of an ''urn'' from which events are sampled without replacement.
Progress And Trends In X-Ray Laser Research

Progress in the research devoted to developing x-ray lasers is reviewed as it pertains to one-electron hydrogenic ions created and pumped to inversion in high-density laser-produced plasmas. A simple analysis defines a useful parameter space. Measured gain coefficients for C5+ are in good agreement with modeling for electron-capture pumping. Photon pumping is identi-fied for possible circumvention of radiative-trapping limitations in larger volumes. Preliminary data on aluminum appear promising for shorter wave-length extrapolation. The advantage of efficient x-ray cavities is apparent. Extension of the illustrative analysis provides directions for future quantitative measurements leading to large scale gain experiments.
Development and comparison of the substrate scope of Pd-catalysts for the aerobic oxidation of alcohols.

Three catalysts for aerobic oxidation of alcohols are discussed and the effectiveness of each is evaluated for allylic, benzylic, aliphatic, and functionalized alcohols. Additionally, chiral nonracemic substrates as well as chemoselective and diastereoselective oxidations are investigated. In this study, the most convenient system for the Pd-catalyzed aerobic oxidation of alcohols is Pd(OAc)2 in combination with triethylamine. This system functions effectively for the majority of alcohols tested and uses mild conditions (3 to 5 mol % of catalyst, room temperature). Pd(IiPr)(OAc)2(H2O) (1) also successfully oxidizes the majority of alcohols evaluated. This system has the advantage of significantly lowering catalyst loadings but requires higher temperatures (0.1 to 1 mol % of catalyst, 60 °C). A new catalyst is also disclosed, Pd(IiPr)(OPiv)2 (2). This catalyst operates under very mild conditions (1 mol %, room temperature, and air as the O2 source) but with a more limited substrate scope.
Proposition 209: A New Civil Rights Revolution?

Supporters of Proposition 209 lauded the result as the beginning of the end of affirmative action across California,3 while opponents claimed that the Proposition, titled "The California Civil Rights Initiative," would set back gains made by women and minorities.4 Many claimed that the initiative did not represent the voice of the people but that it was actually carefully drafted to confuse the voters and fulfill the aspirations of a specific subgroup of the antiaffirmative action lobby. No one doubted, however, that the initiative would have a serious effect on civil rights in California. Couched in the language of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Proposition 209 declares that "[t]he State shall not discriminate against, or grant preferential treatment to, any individual or group on the basis of race, sex, color, ethnicity, or national origin in the operation of public employment, public education, or public contracting."5 A key difference between the initiative and the Civil Rights Act, however, is that Proposition 209 adds the phrase "preferential treatment" and prohibits discrimination against and preferences for groups rather than simply individuals. Since the initiative became law in 1996, only a handful of cases concerning Proposition 209 have come up before state and
Quantum Money with Classical Verification

We propose and construct a quantum money scheme that allows verification through classical communication with a bank. This is the first demonstration that a secure quantum money scheme exists that does not require quantum communication for coin verification. Our scheme is secure against adaptive adversaries -- this property is not directly related to the possibility of classical verification, nevertheless none of the earlier quantum money constructions is known to possess it.
Research for Survival

Army’s $50 million research program includes providing better fire power by nuclear weapons and guided missiles, improving tube artillery and light infantry weapons, improving communication devices, various running gear configurations for better effects on supporting soil, new floating assault bridge ferry and multi-purpose tractor, submerged petroleum terminal and submarine pipe line system, and fixed wing aircraft incorporating helicopter performance.
Flexible Surfaces on Viscoelastic Subgrades

Analysis of stress and deformation of subgrade strengthened by flexible surface plate subjected to load distribution; application of linear viscoelastic theory; particular examples for constant loads suddenly applied and maintained; pertinence to design of column footings and airport pavements.
Unfolding Orthogonal Polyhedra with Quadratic Refinement: The Delta-Unfolding Algorithm

We show that every orthogonal polyhedron homeomorphic to a sphere can be unfolded without overlap while using only polynomially many (orthogonal) cuts. By contrast, the best previous such result used exponentially many cuts. More precisely, given an orthogonal polyhedron with n vertices, the algorithm cuts the polyhedron only where it is met by the grid of coordinate planes passing through the vertices, together with Θ(n2) additional coordinate planes between every two such grid planes.
Multi-scale analysis of bone

In this paper we review our multi-scale analysis of bone. First, we characterize the bone organ experimentally at several structural levels: the macroscale (whole bone), the mesoscale (trabecular bone represented as a porous network and cortical bone represented as collection of osteons in an interstitial bone), the microscale (single trabecula or single osteon), the sub-microscale (single lamella), and the nanoscale (apatite crystals and collagen fibrils), as shown in Fig. 1. More specifically, we study the hierarchical structure of bone using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), second harmonic generation (SHG) microscopy, computed tomography (CT) and micro-computed tomography (micro-CT), the composition using Fourier transform infrared micro-spectroscopy (FTIR-MS), and mechanical properties using compression and tension tests, and micro- and nanoindentation techniques. Then, we model bone theoretically at each structural level in a hierarchical way. The modeling techniques include analytical micromechanics theories and simulations involving a finite element method. We compare our theoretical results on elastic moduli and strengths at different scales with mechanical property measurements. Such experimentally-based multi-scale predictive computational model can be used to assess of bone quality, including the diagnosis of bone diseases such as osteoporosis. Secondly, it provides a more complete understanding of the complex phenomena taking place in bone during fracture.
Chirality conservation and soft pion production

A formally ${\ensuremath{\gamma}}_{5}$-invariant system consisting of a Dirac field and a massless pseudoscalar field allows chirality conservation in the sense that its expectation value is a constant of motion. This leads to the consequence that in any reaction a change in the fermion chirality (\ensuremath{\sim}helicity\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}velocity) is compensated for by the emission of a massless boson at zero energy, which can be expressed by a simple formula relating the radiative amplitude to the elastic amplitude. Assuming the pion-nucleon system to be ${\ensuremath{\gamma}}_{5}$-invariant when the pion mass can be neglected, the formula is applied to the processes $N+\ensuremath{\pi}\ensuremath{\rightarrow}N+\ensuremath{\pi} \mathrm{and} N+2\ensuremath{\pi}$. A reasonable agreement with experiment is obtained in a case dominated by the 3-3 resonance.
Equine Embryo Transfer

Current procedures for collection and transfer of equine embryos are presented. Factors affecting embryo recovery and pregnancy rates after transfer are discussed, and morphologic assessment and development of the embryo are described.
Evaluating influence diagrams with decision circuits

Although a number of related algorithms have been developed to evaluate influence diagrams, exploiting the conditional independence in the diagram, the exact solution has remained intractable for many important problems. In this paper we introduce decision circuits as a means to exploit the local structure usually found in decision problems and to improve the performance of influence diagram analysis. This work builds on the probabilistic inference algorithms using arithmetic circuits to represent Bayesian belief networks [Darwiche, 2003]. Once compiled, these arithmetic circuits efficiently evaluate probabilistic queries on the belief network, and methods have been developed to exploit both the global and local structure of the network. We show that decision circuits can be constructed in a similar fashion and promise similar benefits.
Influence of gut metabolism on nutrient supply in ruminants: introduction.

Much is known about gut metabolism and gut in volvement in nutrient absorption. Yet a more complete understanding of the mechanisms involved in nutrient transport, of the numerous factors regulating and/or influencing nutrient transport and of the extensive met abolic activity of gut tissues is needed. This symposium reviews three areas of gut nutrient transport and meta bolic activity that have been undergoing considerable research in recent years. lonophores are commonly used feed additives in the production of both ruminants and poultry. It is well established that ionophores influence rumen microbial metabolism, with the primary result being a relatively greater proportion of propionate and a relatively lesser proportion of acetate being formed in the rumen from carbohydrate fermentation. The anticoccidial proper ties of ionophores contribute to their wide use in poultry production. Becausevarious cations may be selectively bound by ionophores, because these cations may be important nutrients to be absorbed and because these cations may play critical roles in nutrient transport, we must consider the potential influence ionophores may have on nutrient absorption. The involvement of iono phores in nutrient digestion and absorption is discussed by Spears (1). In ruminants, much information is available describ ing the influence of dietary change on the production of end products of microbial fermentation, primarily in the reticulorumen but also in the large intestine. Even though absorption and metabolism of volatile fatty acids by tissues of the reticulorumen have been studied for many years, it is not completely understood how these tissues may influence the availability of nutrients to peripheral tissues. Also, factors that affect the devel opment and expression of nutrient uptake by the enterocytes are of interest. Information is emerging regarding the interaction of the microbial flora of the gut and nutrient absorption. Parker (2)presents a discussion of how the absorptive activity of the gut may be influ enced by dietary factors and by the control of microbial flora through the use of antibiotics and probiotics. Even small changes in the efficiency with which energy is used by animals can have profound effects on animal productivity. Recently, researchers have learned that visceral tissues, especially the gastrointestinal tract and liver, have a disproportionately high rate of energy use compared to most other tissues. Understanding the factors that influence energy use by these visceral tis sues may enable us to control these processes and thus control the efficiency of animal production. A discus sion of changes in liver and gastrointestinal tract energy demands in response to physiological workload is pre sented by Johnson et al. (3).
The Black-White Gap in Non Marital Fertility: Education and Mates in Segmented Marriage Markets

This study is the first to find that mate availability explains much of the race gap in non marital fertility in the United States. Both a general and an education-based metric have strong effects. The novel statistical power arises from difference-in-differences for blacks and whites, multiple cohorts, periods, and coefficient restrictions consistent with both the data and models in which differences in mate availability can induce blacks and whites to respond in opposite directions to changes in mate availability. Results are robust to several alternative specifications and tests and appear relevant where marriages are segmented along racial, religious, or other lines.
The influence of economic growth, population, and fossil fuel scarcity on energy investments.

This paper examines the dynamics of energy investments and clean energy Research and Development (R&D) using a scenario-based modeling approach. Starting from the global scenarios proposed in the RoSE model ensemble experiment, we analyze the dynamics of investments under different assumptions regarding economic and population growth as well as availability of fossil fuel resources, in the absence of a climate policy. Our analysis indicates that economic growth and the speed of income convergence across countries matters for improvements in energy efficiency, both via dedicated R&D investments but mostly through capital-energy substitution. In contrast, fossil fuel prices, by changing the relative competitiveness of energy sources, create an economic opportunity for radical innovation in the energy sector. Indeed, our results suggest that fossil fuel availability is the key driver of investments in low carbon energy innovation. However, this innovation, by itself, is not sufficient to induce emission reductions compatible with climate stabilization objectives.
Outsourcing and Financing Decisions in Industry Equilibrium

In a competitive product market, firms that buy their input have lower profit volatility than they would have if they were to make it. This effect on profit volatility is an important consideration in the firms’ capital structure choices and their make or buy decisions when it interacts with the risk-taking incentive of equityholders of levered firms. Even with a cost advantage enjoyed by a supplier and passed on to its customers, in an industry equilibrium of a priori identical firms, only those that use little or no debt outsource their input to the supplier; all significantly debt-financed firms produce their own input and take advantage of the greater profit volatility resulting from internal production.
Roll-Forward Checkpointing Schemes

In modular redundant systems, tasks are replicated to achieve fault-tolerance. Checkpointing schemes that exploit replication can achieve better performance than the ones that ignore how the fault detection mechanism is implemented [24]. This Chapter presents two such schemes named Dynamic Roll-Forward Checkpointing Scheme and the Static Roll-Forward Checkpointing Scheme.
Ricardian Productivity Differences and the Gains from Trade

Abstract This paper evaluates the role of sectoral heterogeneity in determining the gains from trade. We first show analytically that in the presence of sectoral Ricardian comparative advantage, a one-sector sufficient statistic formula that uses total trade volumes as a share of total absorption systematically understates the true gains from trade. Greater relative sectoral productivity differences lead to larger disparities between the gains implied by the one-sector formula and the true gains. Using data on overall and sectoral trade shares in a sample of 79 countries and 19 sectors we show that the multi-sector formula implies on average 30% higher gains from trade than the one-sector formula, and as much as 100% higher gains for some countries. We then set up and estimate a quantitative Ricardian–Heckscher–Ohlin model in which no version of the formula applies exactly, and compare a range of sufficient statistic formulas to the true gains in this model. Confirming the earlier results, formulas that do not take into account the sectoral heterogeneity understate the true gains from trade in the model by as much as two-thirds. The one-sector formulas understate the gains by more in countries with greater dispersion in sectoral productivities.
Being in the world

This essay addresses a question raised by Helmut Pape: “What logical, semiotical and mental structure does our consciousness have to have in order to establish the proper link between perception, thought and propositional content expressed by indicators?” The answer, it is proposed, is found in Peirce’s Existential Graphs (EG). First, EG is, itself, a model of cognition that provides the formal structure required for such a consciousness. Second, an appropriate semiotical interpretation will give us the requested structure. Third, interpreted as a psychological or perceptual model, EG will represent the links we seek.
On the physics of the minimal length: The question of gauge invariance

In this note we discuss the question of gauge invariance in the presence of a minimal length. This contribution is prepared for the celebration of the 60th anniversary of the Yang–Mills theory.
Employment-based health insurance and aggregate labor supply

Abstract We study the impact of the U.S. employment-based health insurance system on the employment rate, the shares of full-time/part-time workers, and aggregate hours worked in a general equilibrium life cycle model with incomplete markets and idiosyncratic risks in both income and medical expenses. In contrast to most Europeans, who get universal health insurance from the government, most working-age Americans get health insurance through their employers. We find that the employment-based health insurance system provides Americans with an extra incentive to work and work full-time. In a calibrated version of the model, we assess the extent to which the different health insurance systems account for the differences in employment rate and full-time/part-time shares of workers between the U.S. and European countries. Our quantitative results suggest that the different health insurance systems can account for a significant fraction of the differences in employment rate and full-time/part-time shares of workers between the two regions. In addition, we find that the employment-based health insurance system is one of the reasons why many Americans work more than Europeans.
Architecture and Function of Mechanosensitive Membrane Protein Lattices

Experiments have revealed that membrane proteins can form two-dimensional clusters with regular translational and orientational protein arrangements, which may allow cells to modulate protein function. However, the physical mechanisms yielding supramolecular organization and collective function of membrane proteins remain largely unknown. Here we show that bilayer-mediated elastic interactions between membrane proteins can yield regular and distinctive lattice architectures of protein clusters, and may provide a link between lattice architecture and lattice function. Using the mechanosensitive channel of large conductance (MscL) as a model system, we obtain relations between the shape of MscL and the supramolecular architecture of MscL lattices. We predict that the tetrameric and pentameric MscL symmetries observed in previous structural studies yield distinct lattice architectures of MscL clusters and that, in turn, these distinct MscL lattice architectures yield distinct lattice activation barriers. Our results suggest general physical mechanisms linking protein symmetry, the lattice architecture of membrane protein clusters, and the collective function of membrane protein lattices.
Risk Neglect in Equity Markets

The link between measures of risk and return within the equity market has been very weak over the past 47 years. In the United States, returns on high-risk stocks have cumulatively fallen short of returns on low-risk stocks during a period when the equity market as a whole experienced high returns relative to Treasury bills. The author takes seriously the idea that this evidence reflects a risk anomaly—a mispricing of risk for behavioral and institutional reasons—and revisits the associated implications for investing and corporate finance. The author examines asset allocation, high leverage in financial firms, and low leverage in industrial firms, as well as private equity, venture capital, and bank capital regulation along the way.
Photoredox α-Vinylation of α-Amino Acids and N-Aryl Amines

A new coupling protocol has been developed that allows the union of vinyl sulfones with photoredox-generated α-amino radicals to provide allylic amines of broad diversity. Direct C–H vinylations of N-aryl tertiary amines, as well as decarboxylative vinylations of N-Boc α-amino acids, proceed in high yield and with excellent olefin geometry control. The utility of this new allyl amine forming reaction has been demonstrated via the syntheses of several natural products and a number of established pharmacophores.
EMPLOYEE‐FRIENDLY ACQUIRERS AND ACQUISITION PERFORMANCE

In this article I investigate the relation between the employee-friendly practices of the acquiring firm and the acquisition performance. I find a positive relation between employee friendliness of the acquirer and acquisition performance. Employee friendliness of the acquirer is also positively linked to acquisition completion probabilities and completion speeds. The effect of employee-friendly policies on performance is stronger for human-capital-intensive firms. The positive relation between employee friendliness and acquisition performance is robust to an alternative measure of employee friendliness and endogeneity corrections. The results reflect the importance of human capital and employee-related policies for the long-term success of an acquisition.
Investors' Judgments, Asset Pricing Factors and Sentiment

This paper presents results based on new data showing that the relationships involving investors' judgments of risk and variables such as beta, size, and book-to-market equity (B/M) have the same directional effects as those involving realised returns. Moreover, the relationships involving risk are mediated by Baker–Wurgler sentiment, with directional effects similar to those that have already been documented for realised returns. In this regard, Baker-Wurgler sentiment mediates the time series of investors' judgments of expected return and the cross-section of their judgments about risk. The results are consistent with the position that investors' judgments of risk and return, both mediated by sentiment, influence market prices.
Mechanical Investigations of Elastomers in a Wide Range of Frequencies

Abstract Many experimental investigations have shown that plastics in general, as well as elastomers and their solutions, do not behave like Newtonian liquids. They both have viscosity and elasticity, the combination of which, according to the Maxwell postulate, causes their properties to be dependent on time, and leads us to call them viscoelastic bodies. This dependence does not exist, either for the Newtonian liquid whose mechanical properties are determined by its viscosity, or for the elastic body whose properties are determined by its elasticity. The time element introduces a peculiar difficulty in measuring the mechanical properties of these substances. Whereas the well-known Maxwell body describes this time dependence in simple mathematical expressions, it does not apply to the experimental results. The properties of viscoelastic bodies are not described by a Maxwellian body, but rather by a distribution of an infinite number of Maxwellian bodies, each having a so-called relaxation time. The exist...
Chern characters for twisted matrix factorizations and the vanishing of the higher Herbrand difference

We develop a theory of “ad hoc” Chern characters for twisted matrix factorizations associated to a scheme X, a line bundle $$\mathcal {L}$$ , and a regular global section $$W \in \Gamma (X, \mathcal {L})$$ . As an application, we establish the vanishing, in certain cases, of $$h_c^R(M,N)$$ , the higher Herbrand difference, and, $$\eta _c^R(M,N)$$ , the higher codimensional analogue of Hochster’s theta pairing, where R is a complete intersection of codimension c with isolated singularities and M and N are finitely generated R-modules. Specifically, we prove such vanishing if $$R = Q/(f_1, \dots , f_c)$$ has only isolated singularities, Q is a smooth k-algebra, k is a field of characteristic 0, the $$f_i$$ ’s form a regular sequence, and $$c \ge 2$$ . Such vanishing was previously established in the general characteristic, but graded, setting in Moore et al. (Math Z 273(3–4):907–920, 2013).
Glycolipids for natural killer T cells

Natural killer T cells (NKT cells) play a central role in regulating immune responses influencing conditions ranging from autoimmune to infectious diseases. NKT cell responses are induced by recognition of glycolipid antigens presented by CD1d, an antigen presentation protein. In the last 10 years great strides have been made in understanding the types of glycolipids recognized by NKT cells. These advances have included determination of the lipid and carbohydrate recognition requirements for stimulation and identification of "natural" antigens for these cells.
Geological Events in the Bible

The books of the bible contain numerous, frequently very exact, descriptions of geological events. Some of these are discussed here: earthquakes and their accompanying landslides (the crossing of the River Jordan), seiches and tsunamis (the flood), flooding (Sodom and Gomorrah), faulting, burning gas seepages (the Burning Bush) and volcanism (Mount Sinai). These geological events appear in the biblical text mainly for artistic reasons; they serve as a suitable background to dramatize the biblical account; they create a supernatural atmosphere for the main stories, but the time and place at which they occurred are of no importance to the narrator and might be shifted freely.
Mill Processing Behavior of Ethylene-Propylene-Hexadiene Terpolymers

The mill processing behavior of ethylene/propylene/hexadiene terpolymers, one type of EPDM, has been described. In agreement with the general observations of Tokita and White, the milling characteristics of the polymers change from an elastic band (region 2) to a crumbling bag (region 3) and then to a viscoelastic fluid (region 4) as the temperature is increased from 5°C to 175°C. The 2–3 transition can be treated as a failure process which is time and temperature dependent. Hence, a continuous curve relating the transition nip setting; and the temperature exists for each polymer sample. The transition nip setting at a given temperature (or the transition temperature at a given nip width) was found to be wider (or higher) for samples of broader molecular weight distribution.
Energy cascades, excited state dynamics, and photochemistry in cob(III)alamins and ferric porphyrins.

CONSPECTUSPorphyrins and the related chlorins and corrins contain a cyclic tetrapyrrole with the ability to coordinate an active metal center and to perform a variety of functions exploiting the oxidation state, reactivity, and axial ligation of the metal center. These compounds are used in optically activated applications ranging from light harvesting and energy conversion to medical therapeutics and photodynamic therapy to molecular electronics, spintronics, optoelectronic thin films, and optomagnetics. Cobalt containing corrin rings extend the range of applications through photolytic cleavage of a unique axial carbon–cobalt bond, permitting spatiotemporal control of drug delivery.The photochemistry and photophysics of cyclic tetrapyrroles are controlled by electronic relaxation dynamics including internal conversion and intersystem crossing. Typically the electronic excitation cascades through ring centered ππ* states, ligand to metal charge transfer (LMCT) states, metal to ligand charge transfer (MLCT...
All First Row Transition Metal Oxide Photoanode for Water Splitting Based on Cu3V2O8

Identification of viable photoanode candidates for use in a tandem photoelectrochemical water splitting system remains a significant challenge to the realization of efficient solar-driven hydrogen production. Herein, copper vanadate (Cu3V2O8) is introduced as a new, all first row transition metal oxide with a band gap of near 2 eV that makes it suitable as a photoanode candidate in such a solar water splitting system. In this work, many of the key physical and photoelectrochemical properties of Cu3V2O8 are established including band gap, doping type, ability to extrinsically dope, flat-band potential, band positions, electron diffusion length, chemical stability, and O2 evolution faradaic efficiency. This study provides a key initial step in identifying the features that can lead to a complete understanding of this new ternary metal oxide and motivate discovery of related photoanodes comprised of multicomponent oxides.
Line Staff Conflicts: Some Empirical Insights

Data reported in this paper indicate that staff-line conflicts may be less severe and essentially different in nature than had been previously assumed. Analysis indicates general agreement between ...
Compliance with the legal age limits for alcohol, tobacco and gambling – A comparative study on test purchasing in retail outlets

AbstractAim: To assess whether retail outlets comply with the minimum legal age of 18 for the purchase of alcohol and tobacco and for gambling on slot machines in Finland. Methods: A test-purchase research in 117 retail outlets selling alcohol, tobacco and supplying slot machines in two towns. Five-hundred fifty-seven purchase attempts were made for alcohol (n = 173), tobacco (n = 177) and gambling on slot machines (n = 170) in private outlets and 37 attempts in government alcohol retail monopoly outlets. The differences in denial rates and factors of potential significance for denials were tested using logistic regression. Findings: The denial rate for gambling on slot machines was 4%. The odds that an alcohol or a tobacco purchase was denied were 25- and 20-fold, respectively, compared to gambling. The odds of denial of an alcohol purchase were 12-fold in alcohol monopoly stores compared to private outlets. Conclusion: The low compliance with the age limit for gambling is a challenge in a gambling polic...
Computing the Center of Uncertain Points on Tree Networks

Uncertain data has been very common in many applications. In this paper, we consider the one-center problem for uncertain data on tree networks. In this problem, we are given a tree T and n (weighted) uncertain points each of which has m possible locations on T associated with probabilities. The goal is to find a point $$x^*$$xź on T such that the maximum (weighted) expected distance from $$x^*$$xź to all uncertain points is minimized. To the best of our knowledge, this problem has not been studied before. We propose a refined prune-and-search technique that solves the problem in linear time.
Evolution of shot noise in suspended lithographic gold break junctions with bias and temperature

Shot noise is a powerful tool to probe correlations and microscopic transport details that conductance measurements alone cannot reveal. Even in atomic-scale Au devices that are well described by Landauer-Buttiker physics, complications remain such as local heating and electron-phonon interactions. We report systematic rf measurements of shot noise in individual atomic-scale gold break junctions at multiple temperatures, with most bias voltages well above the energy of the Au optical phonon mode. Motivated by the previous experimental evidence that electron-phonon interactions can modify Fano factors and result in kinked features in bias dependence of shot noise, we find that the temperature dependence of shot noise from 4.2 to 100 K is minimal. Enhanced Fano factors near [Formula: see text] and features beyond simply linear bias dependence of shot noise near the [Formula: see text] plateau are observed. Both are believed to have non-interacting origins and the latter likely results from slightly bias-dependent transmittance of the dominant quantum channel.
ACCURACY OF MEASURING COMBINED ANTEVERSION IN TOTAL HIP ARTHROPLASTY USING EOS® IMAGING

Introduction Implant position plays a major role in the mechanical stability of a total hip replacement. The standard modality for assessing hip component position postoperatively is a 2D anteroposterior radiograph, due to low radiation dose and low cost. Recently, the EOS® X-Ray Imaging Acquisition System has been developed as a new low-dose radiation system for measuring hip component position. EOS imaging can calculate 3D patient information from simultaneous frontal and lateral 2D radiographs of a standing patient without stitching or vertical distortion, and has been shown to be more reliable than conventional radiographs for measuring hip angles[1]. The purpose of this prospective study was to compare EOS imaging to computer tomography (CT) scans, which are the gold standard, to assess the reproducibility of hip angles. Materials and Methods Twenty patients undergoing unilateral THA consented to this IRB-approved analysis of post-operative THA cup alignment. Standing EOS imaging and supine CT scans were taken of the same patients 6 weeks post-operatively. Postoperative cup alignment and femoral anteversion were measured from EOS radiographs using sterEOS® software. CT images of the pelvis and femur were segmented using MIMICS software (Materialise, Leuven, Belgium), and component position was measured using Geomagic Studio (Morrisville, NC, USA) and PTC Creo Parametric (Needham, MA). The Anterior Pelvic Plane (APP), which is defined by the two anterior superior iliac spines and the pubic symphysis, was used as an anatomic reference for acetabular inclination and anteversion. The most posterior part of the femoral condyles was used as an anatomic reference for femoral anteversion. Two blinded observers measured hip angles using sterEOS® software. Reproducibility was analysed by the Bland-Altman method, and interobserver reliability was calculated using the Cronbach9s alpha (∝) coefficient of reliability. Results The Bland-Altman analysis of test-retest reliability indicated that the 95% limits of agreement between the EOS and CT measurements ranged from −3° to 4° for acetabular inclination, from −5° to 5° for acetabular anteversion, and from −7° to 2° for femoral anteversion. The average difference between EOS measurements and CT measurements was 2° ± 2° for acetabular inclination, 3°± 2° degrees for acetabular anteversion and 4° ± 4° femoral anteversion. Interobserver agreement was good for acetabular inclination (Cronbach9s α = 0.55), acetabular anteversion (Cronbach9s α = 0.76) and femoral components (Cronbach9s α = 0.98) using EOS imaging. Conclusions EOS imaging can accurately and reliably measure hip component position, while exposing patients to a much lower dose of radiation than a CT scan.
Fast Ridge Regression with randomized principal component analysis and Gradient Descent

We propose a new two stage algorithm LING for large scale regression problems. LING has the same risk as the well known Ridge Regression under the fixed design setting and can be computed much faster. Our experiments have shown that LING performs well in terms of both prediction accuracy and computational efficiency compared with other large scale regression algorithms like Gradient Descent, Stochastic Gradient Descent and Principal Component Regression on both simulated and real datasets.
Innovation, Information, and the Poverty of Nations:

Sustained growth occurs in developing nations through improvements in markets and organizations. Entrepreneurial innovation resembles biological mutation that is unpredictable before it occurs and understandable afterwards. It is unpredictable because it begins with an innovator who acquires private information and earns extraordinary profits. It is understandable because its ends with the public figuring out the innovation and all investors earning ordinary profits. These characteristics of innovation have important consequences for law and policy to foster economic growth. Government officials who rely on public information cannot predict which firms or industries will experience rapid growth. Consequently, industrial policies that promote growth are unlikely to succeed. Proponents of industrial policy today make the same mistake as the mercantilists whose interventions Adam Smith attacked as a cause of national poverty. In contrast, secure property and contract rights, and effective business law (especially the laws regulating financial markets), create conditions under which competition naturally produces entrepreneurial innovation and nations become rich. The main obstacle to sustained economic growth in poor countries today is ineffective civil and business law.
Limitations to Survival for Infants with Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome before and after Transplant: The Loma Linda Experience

Untreated, hypoplastic left heart syndrome is a lethal cardiac defect. Heart transplant has become an accepted therapeutic option for this condition. However, significant limitations to survival remain for infants with this condition who are referred for heart transplantation. Attention to the prevention, early detection, and management of common problems occurring at each stage of the transplantation process is important for improving survival rates. This study retrospectively reviewed the cases of 195 infants with hypoplastic left heart syndrome registered for heart transplantation at Loma Linda University Medical Center between November 1985 and July 1996 to determine causes of death. During the waiting period, progressive cardiac failure and complications from interventional procedures were the leading causes. In the early postoperative period, technical issues and acute graft failure were most important, whereas late deaths (more than 30 days after transplant) were most often related to rejection and posttransplant coronary artery disease.
The Relationship between Aggressive Real Earnings Management and Current and Future Audit Fees

SUMMARY: We examine the relationship between aggressive income-increasing real earnings management (REM) and current and future audit fees. Managers pursue REM activities to influence reported earnings and, as a consequence, alter cash flows and sacrifice firm value. We posit that the implications of REM are considered in auditors' assessments of engagement risk related to the client's economic condition and result in higher audit fees. We find that, with the exception of abnormal reductions in SG&A, aggressive income-increasing REM is positively associated with both current and future audit fees. Additional analyses provide evidence consistent with increased effort combined with increased risk contributing to the current pricing effect, with increased business risk primarily driving the future pricing effect. We, therefore, provide evidence that aggressive income-increasing REM activities have a significant influence on auditor pricing behavior, consistent with the audit framework associating engagement ...
Nonlinear Instabilities in Fluidized Beds

Abstract The interpretation of linear instabilities of voidage disturbances in fluidized beds (ref. 12) is reviewed and the natural extension to nonlinear instabilities presented in the light of interpretation of observations (refs. 9, 10). The role of the constitutive relations in the analysis is also discussed.
Some Effects of Income and Population Growth on Fish Price and Welfare

An excess supply-demand model is used to determine the effects of income and population growth on the international price of fish and on welfare in net-exporting and importing regions. Stochastic s...
Toward Determining ATPase Mechanism in ABC Transporters: Development of the Reaction Path–Force Matching QM/MM Method

Adenosine triphosphate (ATP)-binding cassette (ABC) transporters are ubiquitous ATP-dependent membrane proteins involved in translocations of a wide variety of substrates across cellular membranes. To understand the chemomechanical coupling mechanism as well as functional asymmetry in these systems, a quantitative description of how ABC transporters hydrolyze ATP is needed. Complementary to experimental approaches, computer simulations based on combined quantum mechanical and molecular mechanical (QM/MM) potentials have provided new insights into the catalytic mechanism in ABC transporters. Quantitatively reliable determination of the free energy requirement for enzymatic ATP hydrolysis, however, requires substantial statistical sampling on QM/MM potential. A case study shows that brute force sampling of ab initio QM/MM (AI/MM) potential energy surfaces is computationally impractical for enzyme simulations of ABC transporters. On the other hand, existing semiempirical QM/MM (SE/MM) methods, although affordable for free energy sampling, are unreliable for studying ATP hydrolysis. To close this gap, a multiscale QM/MM approach named reaction path-force matching (RP-FM) has been developed. In RP-FM, specific reaction parameters for a selected SE method are optimized against AI reference data along reaction paths by employing the force matching technique. The feasibility of the method is demonstrated for a proton transfer reaction in the gas phase and in solution. The RP-FM method may offer a general tool for simulating complex enzyme systems such as ABC transporters.
Indications for Surgical Treatment in Small Cell Carcinoma of the Lung

Small cell carcinoma of the lung is notable for extreme malignancy in clinical behavior, with rapid growth, wide dissemination, and short survival after treatment. It is highly responsive to chemotherpay and radiation therapy, yet seldom cured. Prevalent therapeutic dogma rules out surgical resection as any part of treatment. We find, however, that patients with disease in stages I and II, treated with initial resection followed by the full course of chemotherapy, have a good prognosis for long disease-free survival.
Salt marsh vegetation promotes efficient tidal channel networks.

Tidal channel networks mediate the exchange of water, nutrients and sediment between an estuary and marshes. Biology feeds back into channel morphodynamics through the influence of vegetation on both flow and the cohesive strength of channel banks. Determining how vegetation affects channel networks is essential in understanding the biological functioning of intertidal ecosystems and their ecosystem services. However, the processes that control the formation of an efficient tidal channel network remain unclear. Here we compare the channel networks of vegetated salt marshes in Massachusetts and the Venice Lagoon to unvegetated systems in the arid environments of the Gulf of California and Yemen. We find that the unvegetated systems are dissected by less efficient channel networks than the vegetated salt marshes. These differences in network geometry reflect differences in the branching and meandering of the channels in the network, characteristics that are related to the density of vegetation on the marsh. Tidal channel networks mediate the exchange of water, nutrients, sediment and biota between an estuary and marshes. Here, the authors show that the presence of vegetation on the marsh platform contributes to the formation of an efficient channel network.
Reactions of Hydrosilanes with Transition Metal Complexes.

This third review in a series involving reactions of hydrosilanes and transition metal complexes and characterization of the products covers the period 2009 thru 2013. After a brief discussion of other synthetic methods used for the formation of Si-TM complexes, Section 3 provides an extended discussion of the types of ligands and metal complexes used as reactants with hydrosilanes. The increase in use of pincer ligands in forming stable, isolable complexes is featured. Three tables list the complexes reported for primary, secondary, and tertiary silanes. Many reactions leading to SiTM complexes are initiated by loss of a ligand prior to oxidative addition of the hydrosilane or by a metathesis reaction. Structural data are tabulated for the isolated complexes and provide the Si-TM bond ranges for the elements in the “d” block. A major section on nonclassical (σ or agostic) complexes includes two general groupings with Si–H···TM and M–H···Si interactions. A section on solution processes identified by NMR s...
“Why Should I Trust You?”: Explaining the Predictions of Any Classifier

Despite widespread adoption, machine learning models remain mostly black boxes. Understanding the reasons behind predictions is, however, quite important in assessing trust, which is fundamental if one plans to take action based on a prediction, or when choosing whether to deploy a new model. Such understanding also provides insights into the model, which can be used to transform an untrustworthy model or prediction into a trustworthy one. In this work, we propose LIME, a novel explanation technique that explains the predictions of any classifier in an interpretable and faithful manner, by learning an interpretable model locally varound the prediction. We also propose a method to explain models by presenting representative individual predictions and their explanations in a non-redundant way, framing the task as a submodular optimization problem. We demonstrate the flexibility of these methods by explaining different models for text (e.g. random forests) and image classification (e.g. neural networks). We show the utility of explanations via novel experiments, both simulated and with human subjects, on various scenarios that require trust: deciding if one should trust a prediction, choosing between models, improving an untrustworthy classifier, and identifying why a classifier should not be trusted.