cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Stressing is better than relaxing for negative cost cycle detection in networks

This paper is concerned with the problem of checking whether a network with positive and negative costs on its arcs contains a negative cost cycle. We introduce a fundamentally new approach for negative cost cycle detection; our approach, which we term as the Stressing Algorithm, is based on exploiting the connections between the Negative Cost Cyle Detection (NCCD) problem and the problem of checking whether a system of difference constraints is feasible. The Stressing Algorithm is an incremental, comparison-based procedure which is asymptotically optimal, modulo the fastest comparison-based algorithm for this problem. In particular, on a network with n vertices and m edges, the Stressing Algorithm takes O(mn) time to detect the presence of a negative cost cycle or to report that none exist. A very important feature of the Stressing Algorithm is that it uses zero extra space; this is in marked contrast to all known algorithms that require Ω(n) extra space.
Disparities in labor market performance in the Philippines

The Philippine economy has been growing rapidly, at an annual growth rate of 5 percent over the past five years. Such decent growth in gross domestic product, however, did not translate into an increase in household income. Wage income declined in real terms. The poverty headcount increased slightly. The fruits of economic growth were not shared equally across the country. Challenges remain to create more jobs to keep pace with the rapidly growing active population. Using the Philippines Labor Force Survey data (2003-2007), this paper reviews the disparities in labor market performance and examines the contribution of regional and individual characteristics. The results show that real wages declined and disparities widened between the National Capital Region and other islands. The youth, less educated, and women face more challenges in finding employment with a decent salary, other things being equal. Disparities in labor market performance are largely associated with the difference in regional structure and human capital endowment. Individual characteristics account for roughly one-third of the difference in wages between the National Capital Region and other regions; regional structures and other unobservable factors account for two-thirds of the difference.
The role of technological change in green growth

By reducing the costs of environmental protection, technological change is important for promoting green growth. This entails both the creation of new technologies and more widespread deployment of existing green technologies. This paper reviews the literature on environmentally friendly technological change, with a focus on lessons relevant to developing countries. It begins with a discussion of the data available for measuring the various steps of technological change. It continues with a discussion of sources of environmental innovation. Given that most innovation is concentrated in a few rich countries, this leads to a discussion of the remaining role for lower-income countries, followed by a discussion of technology transfer. Because of the importance of market failures, the paper discusses the role of both technology policy and environmental policy for promoting environmentally friendly technological change. The review concludes with a discussion of what environmental economists can learn from other fields.
The role of private equity investments in public firms : international evidence

This paper compares the raising of external equity capital from private equity investors via private investments in public equity (PIPEs) and seasoned equity offerings (SEOs) using a sample of 456 PIPEs and 1,910 SEOs drawn from nine Asian countries. Consistent with the idea that insiders attempt to time the markets, firms issuing SEOs are preceded by a significantly higher run-up in stock price compared with those issuing PIPEs. This result is consistent with the undervaluation hypothesis that states that firms are more likely to issue PIPEs when they perceive their stock to be undervalued. In contrast to the United States where this undervaluation appears to be driven by financial distress and asymmetric information, the results show PIPE and SEO issuers to be statistically undistinguishable from each other. The announcement of a PIPE offering is on average associated with a significantly higher stock market reaction compared with an issue of a SEO, suggesting that private equity investors may play a certification or monitoring role. However, a comparison of PIPE issuers' operating performance and stock market returns in the pre-issue and the post-issue periods does not detect any significant improvements.
Depths and temperatures of <10.5 Ma mantle melting and the lithosphere-asthenosphere boundary below southern Oregon and northern California

[1] Plagioclase and spinel lherzolite thermometry and barometry are applied to an extensive geochemical dataset of young (<10.5 Ma) primitive basaltic lavas from across Oregon's High Lava Plains, California's Modoc Plateau, and the central-southern Cascades volcanic arc to calculate the depths and temperatures of mantle melting. This study focuses on basalts with low pre-eruptive H2O contents that are little fractionated near-primary melts of mantle peridotite (i.e., basalts thought to be products of anhydrous decompression mantle melting). Calculated minimum depths of nominally anhydrous melt extraction are 40–58 km below Oregon's High Lava Plains, 41–51 km below the Modoc Plateau, and 37–60 km below the central and southern Cascades arc. The calculated depths are very close to Moho depths as determined from a number of regional geophysical studies and suggest that the geophysical Moho and lithosphere-asthenosphere boundary in this region are located in very close proximity to one another (within 5–10 km). The basalts originated at 1185–1383°C and point to a generally warm mantle beneath this area but not one hot enough to obviously require a plume contribution. Our results, combined with a range of other geologic, geophysical, and geochemical constraints, are consistent with a regional model whereby anhydrous mantle melting over the last 10.5 Ma in a modern convergent margin and back arc was driven by subduction-induced corner flow in the mantle wedge, and to a lesser extent, toroidal flow around the southern edge of the subducting Juan de Fuca and Gorda plates, and crustal extension-related upwelling of the shallow mantle.
Control Rights, Governance, and the Costs of Ownership in Agricultural Cooperatives

Agricultural cooperatives have changed considerably in recent decades. In witnessing these structural changes, scholars have proffered analyses of nontraditional ownership models focusing on residual claim rights. However, crucial information on the allocation of control rights in cooperatives is missing. This study sheds light on alternative ownership-control models adopted by agricultural cooperatives in different regions across the world. In each of these models, we describe the allocation of formal control rights with a focus on decision management and decision control rights. We thus provide empirical evidence on the “separation of ownership and control” in agricultural cooperatives. We also analyze each of the governance models in terms of the associated ownership costs, including risk-bearing costs, the costs of controlling managers, and collective decision-making costs. In doing so, we are able to better understand the forces influencing the organizational efficiency of each cooperative model.
Value, Social Capabilities, Alienation : The Right to Revolt

The labor theory of value in classical political economy, particularly as developed in Marx's Capital, has been the source of a number of interpretations and controversies. The purpose of this paper is to make an analytical distinction between two types of labor theories of value that can illuminate the role of the less well known of the two different theories in understanding the dynamics of capital accumulation and of systemic changes. This qualitative theory of value can be used to explore the significance of value form in both capitalism and the concept and practices of socialism. It can also offer a new way of defending the right to revolt on the part of those who are exploited under both capitalism and socialism.
Decision procedures customized for formal verification

The uclid verifier models a hardware or software system as an abstract state machine, where the state variables can be Boolean or integer values, or functions mapping integers to integers or Booleans. The core of the verifier consists of a decision procedure that checks the validity of formulas over the combined theories of uninterpreted functions with equality and linear integer arithmetic. It operates by transforming a formula into an equisatisfiable Boolean formula and then invoking a SAT solver. This approach has worked well for the class of logic and the types of formulas encountered in verification.
A decision-based view of causality

Most traditional models of uncertainty have focused on the associational relationship among variables as captured by conditional dependence. In order to successfully manage intelligent systems for decision making, however, we must be able to predict the effects of actions. In this paper, we attempt to unite two branches of research that address such predictions: causal modeling and decision analysis. First, we provide a definition of causal dependence in decision-analytic terms, which we derive from consequences of causal dependence cited in the literature. Using this definition, we show how causal dependence can be represented within an influence diagram. In particular, we identify two inadequacies of an ordinary influence diagram as a representation for cause. We introduce a special class of influence diagrams, called causal influence diagrams, which corrects one of these problems, and identify situations where the other inadequacy can be eliminated. In addition, we describe the relationships between Howard Canonical Form and existing graphical representations of cause.
Experimental Synthesis and Properties of Metastable CuNbN2 and Theoretical Extension to Other Ternary Copper Nitrides

Copper nitrides are defect-tolerant semiconductors with properties that are promising for solar energy conversion applications. Currently, there are few known ternary copper nitride materials. Here, we synthesized a previously unreported CuNbN2 using an ion-exchange reaction and subsequently determined its properties. CuNbN2 has a layered delafossite-type structure with NbN6 octahedra arranged in layers separated by linear N–Cu–N bonds. Experimental measurements and theoretical calculations agree that CuNbN2 has a 1.3–1.4 eV optical absorption threshold; theory also indicates that the lowest energy indirect band gap is 0.9 eV. The calculated CuNbN2 electron and hole effective masses are quite isotropic (mout /min = 1.3–2.1) and low (m = 0.3–0.7 me), as for the layered crystal structure. On the basis of these results, we propose a new lattice-matched delafossite tandem solar cell approach with Cu(Nb,Ta)N2 absorbers, p-type CuAlO2 contacts, and n-type ZnO contacts. Interestingly, first-principles calculatio...
The effect of autonomy on team creativity and the moderating variables

Autonomy, the freedom to choose how to accomplish tasks, is shown to have positive impact on individual creativity. The literature suggests that this positive effect is mediated by intrinsic motivation. It seems reasonable to assume that autonomy would benefit team creativity as well. However, the literature does not provide consistent support for this latter notion. In this conceptual paper, individual autonomy and team autonomy are differentiated. Task interdependence and team level creative self-efficacy are proposed to be moderating variables.
Primary decomposition: Compatibility, independence and linear growth

For finitely generated modules N ⊆ M over a Noetherian ring R, we study the following properties about primary decomposition: (1) The Compatibility property, which says that if Ass(M/N) = {P 1 , P 2 ,.., P s } and Q i is a P i -primary component of N ⊆ M for each i = 1, 2,..., s, then N = Q 1 ∩ Q 2 ∩ ∩Q s ; (2) For a given subset X = {P 1 , P 2 ,.., P r } ⊆ Ass(M/N), X is an open subset of Ass(M/N) if and only if the intersections Q 1 ∩ Q 2 ∩ ...∩Q r =Q' 1 ∩Q' 2 ∩∩Q' r for all possible P i -primary components Q i and Q' i of N ⊆ M; (3) A new proof of the 'Linear Growth' property, which says that for any fixed ideals I 1 , I 2 ,.., I t of R there exists a k ∈ N such that for any n 1 , n 2 ,..., n t ∈ N there exists a primary decomposition of I n1 1 I n2 2 I nt t M ⊂ M such that every P-primary component Q of that primary decomposition contains P k(n1+n2++nt) M.
A NEW SYNTHESIS OF ASPARTIC ACID

In previous syntheses of aspartic acid the following reactions have been used: The decomposition of acid ammonium malate by heat,1 the racemization of active aspartic acid2 and active asparagine,3 the reaction of maleic or fumaric acid with ammonia,4 the reduction of oxalacetic ester oxime,5 the reaction of silver fumarate or potassium acid fumarate with hydroxylamine hydrochloride,6 the reduction of nitrosuccinic ester,7 the catalytic reduction and ammonation of oxalacetic acid,8 and the hydrolysis of the addition compound formed from sodium malonic ester and chloroacetic ester.9The present synthesis is believed to be more satisfactory than those previously reported for aspartic acid.Phthalimido malonic ester, prepared from potassium phthalimide and bromodiethylmalonate, was converted to sodium phthalimido malonic ester by allowing it to react with molten metallic sodium suspended in toluene. A stable addition product was then formed as a dark colored oil by the reaction of chloroacetic ester with sodium...
Interacting Bose Gas in an Optical Lattice

A grand canonical system of hard-core bosons in an optical lattice is considered. The bosons can occupy randomly N equivalent states at each lattice site. The limit N→∞ is solved exactly in terms of a saddle-point integration, representing a weakly-interacting Bose gas. In the limit N→∞ there is only a condensate if the fugacity of the Bose gas is larger than 1. Corrections in 1/N increase the total density of bosons but suppress the condensate. This indicates a depletion of the condensate due to increasing interaction at finite values of N.
The investment climate in post-conflict situations

This paper is a policy review of the role of investment climate in post-conflict situations. It summarizes the broad range of ways in which conflict negatively affects the investment climate, from macroeconomic instability to a degraded regulatory framework. It stresses that attention needs to be paid to the broader 'enabling environment', including institutions, governance, capacity, and social capital. It suggests that a vibrant private sector underpinned by a good investment climate is particularly important in the post-conflict recovery phase for three reasons: it generates employment, provides public services where the state has retrenched, and builds social capital. By addressing these important 'greed and grievance' factors, the private sector helps reduce the likelihood of a return to conflict. The paper concludes by distilling key lessons relating to the management of the post-conflict reform process. Despite the importance of a good investment climate, greater effort is needed to ensure that private sector development reforms are included in the first round of post-conflict policymaking. Local ownership of reforms and enhanced local capacity to implement them is key to sustainable improvements in the investment climate. Development partners have an important role to play in facilitating dialogue and promoting partnerships between public and private sector stakeholders. At the same time, development partners need to ensure that their presence in fragile post-conflict economies does not damage the very sector they are trying to support.
Recovering articulated non-rigid shapes, motions and kinematic chains from video

We propose an approach to analyze and recover articulated motion with non-rigid parts, e.g. the human body motion with non-rigid facial motion, under affine projection from feature trajectories. We model the motion using a set of intersecting subspaces. Based on this model, we can analyze and recover the articulated motion using subspace methods. Our framework consists of motion segmentation, kinematic chain building, and shape recovery. We test our approach through experiments and demonstrate its potential to recover articulated structure with non-rigid parts via a single-view camera without prior knowledge of its kinematic structure
Food Expenditures in Latvia: Analysis from the First Year of Reform

The 1991 Latvia household budget survey provided data for establishing basic information about food consumption levels and patterns in Latvia during the first year of major economic reforms. This study uses the 1991 data to examine the importance of income and household composition on food expenditures. Food expenditures represented a major share of household expenditures. Estimated income elasticities for various food commodities suggest the magnitude of changes in real household income that have occurred in Latvia. With relatively low income elasticities (estimated from the 1991 data), declines in household income would not be met by significant reductions in food expenditures, suggesting greater reductions in expenditures on other goods.
Assessing Policy Design and Interpretation: An Institutions-Based Analysis in the Context of Aquaculture in Florida and Virginia, United States

Recently in the field of policy studies, there has been a renewed interest in research that connects policy design with broader governance outcomes. As opposed to past studies of policy design that have characterized policies along broad categories of variables, however, recent studies have sought to systematically assess the language of public policies and resultant outcomes. This paper contributes to the existing and emerging literature on policy design by coupling a content analysis of polices governing the aquaculture industry in two U.S. states and interviews with aquaculture community members to understand policy design and perceptions of policy legitimacy, coerciveness, and enforcement.
The DOGMA approach to parallel and distributed computing

Heterogeneous distributed computing has traditionally been a problematic undertaking which increases in complexity as heterogeneity increases. This paper presents results obtained using DOGMA-a Java based system which simplifies parallel computing on heterogeneous computers. The performance of Java just-in-time compilers currently approaches C++ for many applications, making Java a serious contender for parallel application development. DOGMA provides support for dedicated clusters as well as idle workstations through the use of a web based browse-in feature or the DOGMA screen saver. DOGMA supports parallel programming in both a traditional message passing form and a novel object-oriented approach. This research provides a unified environment for developing high performance parallel applications on heterogeneous systems.
Microfinance tradeoffs : regulation, competition, and financing

This paper describes important trade-offs that microfinance practitioners, donors, and regulators navigate. Drawing evidence from large, global surveys of microfinance institutions, the authors find a basic tension between meeting social goals and maximizing financial performance. For example, non-profit microfinance institutions make far smaller loans on average and serve more women as a fraction of customers than do commercialized microfinance banks, but their costs per dollar lent are also much higher. Potential trade-offs therefore arise when selecting contracting mechanisms, level of commercialization, rigor of regulation, and the extent of competition. Meaningful interventions in microfinance will require making deliberate choices - and thus embracing and weighing tradeoffs carefully.
Models of consensus for multiple agent systems

Models of consensus are used to manage multiple agent systems in order to choose between different recommendations provided by the system. It is assumed that there is a central agent that solicits recommendations or plans from other agents. That agent then determines the consensus of the other agents, and chooses the resultant consensus recommendation or plan. Voting schemes such as this have been used in a variety of domains, including air traffic control. This paper uses an analytic model to study the use of consensus in multiple agent systems. The binomial model is used to study the probability that the consensus judgment is correct or incorrect. That basic model is extended to account for both different levels of agent competence and unequal prior odds. The analysis of that model is critical in the investigation of multiple agent systems, since the model leads us to conclude that in some cases consensus judgement is not appropriate. In addition, the results allow us to determine how many agents should be used to develop consensus decisions, which agents should be used to develop consensus decisions and under which conditions the consensus model should be used.
Efficient one-sided linearization of spline geometry

This paper surveys a new, computationally efficient technique for linearizing curved spline geometry, bounding such geometry from one side and constructing curved spline geometry that stays to one side of a barrier or inside a given channel. Combined with a narrow error bound, these reapproximations tightly couple linear and nonlinear representations and allow them to be substituted when reasoning about the other. For example, a subdividable linear efficient variety enclosure (sleve, pronounced like Steve) of a composite spline surface is a pair of matched triangulations that sandwich a surface and may be used for interference checks. The average of the sleve components, the mid-structure, is a good max-norm linearization and, similar to a control polytope, has a well-defined, associated curved geometry representation. Finally, the ability to fit paths through given channels or keep surfaces near but outside forbidden regions, allows extending many techniques of linear computational geometry to the curved, nonlinear realm.
Rents, Votes, and Protection: Explaining the Structure of Trade Barriers Across Industries

This paper develops a model of the structure of protection across industries. We model five types of agents: policy makers, producers, importers, workers, and consumers. The model implies that protection increases with workforce size and decreases with lobbying costs. The effects of both output and imports are ambiguous. We test the model with US data, including new measures of protection, and confirm most of its implications. We do not find evidence that protection increases with output. The empirical results also suggest that policy makers weight campaign contributions about 12 per cent more heavily than national income.
Reified valuations and adic spectra

We revisit Huber’s theory of continuous valuations, which give rise to the adic spectra used in his theory of adic spaces. We instead consider valuations which have been reified, i.e., whose value groups have been forced to contain the real numbers. This yields reified adic spectra which provide a framework for an analogue of Huber’s theory compatible with Berkovich’s construction of nonarchimedean analytic spaces. As an example, we extend the theory of perfectoid spaces to this setting.
Standardization of Nanoscale Interfacial Experiments Using MEMS

A novel experimental method for the interfacial mechanics of nanofibers and nanotubes was developed. The debond force was determined by MEMS devices whose motion was precisely measured from optical images by digital image correlation. Essential elements of this method are the submicron control of nanofiber/nanotube embedded length in a thermoplastic or thermosetting polymer and the application of well controlled pull-out force until terminal debonding. The cross-head displacement resolution is at least 20 nm and the force resolution of the order of nanonewtons. A traceable force calibration technique was integrated to calibrate the MEMS force sensors. The method allows for nanofiber pull-out experiments at time scales varying from microseconds to hours and at hot/cold temperatures. Experiments have been conducted for the first time with o150-350 nm carbon nanofibers embedded in EPON epoxy to quantify the role of nanofiber surface functionalization in the interfacial shear strength. It was clearly shown than surface functionalization drastically increases interfacial adhesion by a factor of three. The present experiments are the first of their kind both in terms of experimental fidelity and data coherence compared to prior experimental attempts, pointing out the robustness of this new experimental method.
The Flexible-Salary Match: A Proposal to Increase the Salary Flexibility of the National Resident Matching Program

Abstract Most graduating medical students in the United States obtain hospital residencies through the National Resident Matching Program (“NRMP”). The NRMP, or “Match” as it is called, is a centralized procedure that begins each year with hospitals defining residency positions, including a fixed specification of the associated salaries. The Match has been criticized on the grounds that this salary inflexibility biases salaries downward and possibly interferes with efficient allocation of students to positions. This paper proposes a centralized procedure, called the “Flexible-Salary Match,” which makes salaries fully flexible and may help to overcome those problems.
Global asymptotic stabilization of the spinning top

Considers the problem of controlling a top in sleeping motion using two different actuation schemes. For a fixed-base top two actuators are assumed to provide forces at the center of mass in inertially fixed directions, while for a cart-mounted top two actuators are assumed to apply forces to the cart in inertially fixed directions. The controller for the cart-mounted top is obtained from the controller designed for the fixed-base top using D'Alembert's principle. Both controllers are proved to be globally asymptotically stabilizing. For the uncontrolled fixed base top, necessary and sufficient conditions for Lyapunov stability of the sleeping motion are derived.
Legal briefing: advance care planning.

Since 2009, Professor Pope has authored a quarterly “Legal Briefing” column for the Journal of Clinical Ethics. Each briefing comprehensively reviews legal developments concerning a particular issue in clinical bioethics. The Journal of Clinical Ethics owns the exclusive copyright to distribute the full-text content. The “Legal Briefing” column in this issue of The Journal of Clinical Ethics covers legal developments pertaining to advance care planning (ACP). Not only has this topic been the subject of recent articles in this journal, but it also been the subject of numerous public and professional discussions over the past several months. The national debate over healthcare reform has focused significant attention on how people can and should make decisions about medical care at the end of life. Consequently, ACP has recently had an unusually high profile in legislative and regulatory halls across the United States. Legal developments concerning ACP can be usefully grouped into six categories: (1) general healthcare decisions statutes, (2) statutes mandating compliance with advance directives in long-term care facilities, (3) “right-to-know” informed consent laws, (4) advance directive registries, (5) POLST (Physician’s Order on Life Sustaining Treatment) laws, and (6) laws mandating insurance coverage for ACP.
MONEY SUPPLY IMPLICATIONS OF COMMERCIAL BANKS' FINANCING OF GOVERNMENT DEBT IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES

Publisher Summary This chapter describes money supply implications of commercial banks' financing of government debt in developing countries. The money supply impact of a deficit depends critically on whether it is financed by the central bank or by commercial banks. Central bank credit to government causes money to expand directly by increasing the monetary base. However, if financed by commercial banks, the monetary effects depend upon the behavior of the money multiplier. If excess reserves are nil or a constant proportion of bank deposits, commercial banks can lend to the government only at the cost of their credit to the private sector, and hence there will not be any change in the money supply. The desired, that is, profit-maximizing, level of excess reserves is formulated so as to allow commercial bank holdings of government debt to have an effect. This general formulation is empirically fitted to the data from fifteen widely diverse countries to ascertain the actual significance of any such effect.
On the absence of uniform denominators in Hilbert's 17th problem

Hilbert showed that for most (n, m) there exist positive semidefinite forms p(x 1 ,...,x n ) of degree m which cannot be written as a sum of squares of forms. His 17th problem asked whether, in this case, there exists a form h so that h 2 p is a sum of squares of forms; that. is, p is a sum of squares of rational functions with denominator h. We show that, for every such (n,m) there does not exist a single form h which serves in this way as a denominator for every positive semidefinite p(x 1 ,...,x n ) of degree m.
Moduli of generalized line bundles on a ribbon

A ribbon is a first-order thickening of a non-singular curve. We show that a compactification of the moduli space of generalized line bundles on a ribbon is given by the Simpson moduli space of semi-stable sheaves. We then describe the geometry of this space, determining the irreducible components, connectedness, and the smooth locus.
THE LUNG AS A GENERATOR OF PROSTACYCLIN

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses the role of the lung as a generator of prostacyclin. Prostanoids are not only metabolized by the lungs but also also generated in this organ. The lungs contain an entire set of enzymes for oxidation and cyclization of arachidonic acid to a variety of its metabolites. The isolated perfused guinea-pig lungs when stimulated mechanically, chemically, or immunologically were reported to release PGE2, PGF2α, PGD2, prostacyclin (PGI2), and thromboxane A2 (TXA) along with a number of their metabolites. Classical PGs and TXA2 are local hormones, which modulate inflammatory and anaphylactic responses in the lung tissue as they do in other tissues. As far as prostanoids are concerned, the only hormonal function of the lung is to release prostacyclin. The only metabolic function of the lung is to destroy any circulating prostanoid except for prostacyclin. Hypoxia and hypercapnia, mechanical stimulation of respiratory movements, and chemical respiratory stimulants such as lobeline or almitrine increase the pulmonary production of prostacyclin.
A synthesis of logical and probabilistic reasoning for program understanding and debugging

We describe the integration of logical and uncertain reasoning methods to identify the likely source and location of software problems. To date, software engineers have had few tools for identifying the sources of error in complex software packages. We describe a method for diagnosing software problems through combining logical and uncertain-reasoning analyses. Our preliminary results suggest that such methods can be of value in directing the attention of software engineers to paths of an algorithm that have the highest likelihood of harboring a programming error.
Electrical research on solar cells and photovoltaic materials

The flat-plate solar cell array program which increases the service lifetime of the photovoltaic modules used for terrestrial energy applications is discussed. The current-voltage response characteristics of the solar cells encapsulated in the modules degrade with service time and this degradation places a limitation on the useful lifetime of the modules. The most desirable flat-plate array system involves solar cells consisting of highly polarizable materials with similar electrochemical potentials where the cells are encapsulated in polymers in which ionic concentrations and mobilities are negligibly small. Another possible mechanism limiting the service lifetime of the photovoltaic modules is the gradual loss of the electrical insulation characteristics of the polymer pottant due to water absorption or due to polymer degradation from light or heat effects. The mechanical properties of various polymer pottant materials and of electrochemical corrosion mechanisms in solar cell material are as follows: (1) electrical and ionic resistivity; (2) water absorption kinetics and water solubility limits; and (3) corrosion characterization of various metallization systems used in solar cell construction.
Test results of a ten cell bipolar nickel-hydrogen battery

A ten cell bipolar nickel hydrogen 6.5 ampere-hour battery demonstrated over 2000 low Earth orbit cycles at an 80 percent depth-of-discharge. Charge/discharge cyclic ampere-hour and watt-hour efficiencies of 88 and 76 percent, respectively, observed. Peak power capability was determined at 1.1 kW. A 10C discharge rate yields 83 percent of the nominal stark capacity to the 1.0 volt cut off in just under 6 minutes.
Aperture Fields in an Anisotropic Medium

An integral equation for the tangential electric field excited in a slit by an H-polarized plane wave in a gyrotropic medium, such as a magnetized plasma, is solved for a wide slit by a modification of the Wiener-Hopf technique. The slit edges are parallel to the gyrotropic axis and normal to the otherwise arbitrary direction of incidence. Calculations for normal incidence on a slit with ka = 4 and 8, where k is the propagation constant in the medium and 2a is the slit width, show that the field becomes less uniform in both amplitude and phase with increasing anisotropy, demonstrating that the uniform field assumption used by some workers is invalid with appreciable anisotropy. The asymptotic form of this solution agrees with that obtained by geometrical diffraction theory, verifying earlier work based on this approach and providing a simple expression for the aperture field in slits of more than about two wavelengths in the medium.
Relations Between the Ranks and Cranks of Partitions

New identities and congruences involving the ranks and cranks of partitions are proved. The proof depends on a new partial differential equation connecting their generating functions.
Modeling the local bubble

Modeling the Local Bubble is one of those activities fraught with danger. It is very easy to be too naive, to fail to consider the dependence of the model on assumptions about the nearby ambient state, or the likelihood of such a structure. It is similarly easy to become so caught up in the details of the vicinity that it is unclear where to begin a necessarily idealized modeling effort. And finally, it is important to remember that the data we have may in some cases be lying to us, and that we have not yet learned to read their facial expressions quite carefully enough.
ROSAT Temperatures and Abundances for a Complete Sample of Elliptical Galaxies

We determine X-ray temperatures and abundances for elliptical galaxies drawn from a complete, optically selected sample. The optical magnitude-limited sample consists of 43 galaxies, complete to a (corrected) B magnitude of m -->0B = 11.36. Of these, 30 have enough X-ray spectral counts to allow temperature determinations. We find that the temperatures of the X-ray-emitting gas in these elliptical galaxies are correlated with the central stellar velocity dispersions: T σ1.45; this is a shallower trend than the simple thermal relation T σ2. The diffuse gas is substantially hotter than the kinetic temperature of the luminous stars, since kT > μmpσ2 for all galaxies with measurable temperatures. This strongly indicates that dark matter halos are characterized by velocity dispersions that exceed those of the luminous stars. We see no evidence of emission from X-ray binaries becoming progressively more dominant in lower luminosity elliptical galaxies. We find that so-called supersoft sources adhere to the observed kT-σ relation, so they are no softer than expected for their velocity dispersions. We also find that interstellar medium temperatures and abundances are correlated, with the gas in hotter systems being more enriched than in cooler galaxies. However, no correlation is found between gaseous abundances and stellar abundances, as inferred from Mg2 indices.
Improved inapproximability for submodular maximization

We show that it is Unique Games-hard to approximate the maximum of a submodular function to within a factor 0.695, and that it is Unique Games-hard to approximate the maximum of a symmetric submodular function to within a factor 0.739. These results slightly improve previous results by Feige, Mirrokni and Vondrak (FOCS 2007) who showed that these problems are NP-hard to approximate to within 3/4 + e ≅ 0.750 and 5/6 + e ≅ 0.833, respectively.
Implementation and evaluation of prefetching in the Intel Paragon parallel file system

The significant difference between the speeds of the I/O system (e.g. disks) and compute processors in parallel systems creates a bottleneck that lowers the performance of an application that does a considerable amount of disk accesses. A major portion of the compute processors' time is wasted on waiting for I/O to complete. This problem can be addressed to a certain extent, if the necessary data can be fetched from the disk before the I/O call to the disk is issued. Fetching data ahead of time, known as prefetching in a multiprocessor environment depends a great deal on the application's access pattern. The subject of this paper is implementation and performance evaluation of a prefetching prototype in a production parallel file system on the Intel Paragon. Specifically, this paper presents: the design and implementation of a prefetching strategy in the parallel file system; and performance measurements and evaluation of the file system with and without prefetching. The prototype is designed at the operating system level for the PFS. It is implemented in the PFS subsystem of the Intel Paragon Operating System. It is observed that in many cases prefetching provides considerable performance improvements. In some other cases no improvements or some performance degradation is observed due to the overheads incurred in prefetching.
Probabilistic models for joint clustering and time-warping of multidimensional curves

In this paper we present a family of models and learning algorithms that can simultaneously align and cluster sets of multidimensional curves measured on a discrete time grid. Our approach is based on a generative mixture model that allows both local nonlinear time warping and global linear shifts of the observed curves in both time and measurement spaces relative to the mean curves within the clusters. The resulting model can be viewed as a form of Bayesian network with a special temporal structure. The Expectation-Maximization (EM) algorithm is used to simultaneously recover both the curve models for each cluster, and the most likely alignments and cluster membership for each curve. We evaluate the methodology on two real-world data sets, and show that the Bayesian network models provide systematic improvements in predictive power over more conventional clustering approaches.
Obtaining Statistics of Turbulent Velocity from Astrophysical Spectral Line Data

Turbulence is a crucial component of dynamics of astrophysical fluids dynamics, including those of ISM, clusters of galaxies and circumstellar regions. Doppler shifted spectral lines provide a unique source of information on turbulent velocities. We discuss Velocity-Channel Analysis (VCA) and its offspring Velocity Coordinate Spectrum (VCS) that are based on the analytical description of the spectral line statistics. Those techniques are well suited for studies of supersonic turbulence. We stress that a great advantage of VCS is that it does not necessary require good spatial resolution. Addressing the studies of mildly supersonic and subsonic turbulence we discuss the criterion that allows to determine whether a traditional tool for such a research, namely, Velocity Centroids are dominated by density or velocity. We briefly discuss the use of higher order correlations as the means to study intermittency of turbulence. We discuss observational data available and prospects of the field.
User-Based Approach to Teaching and Learning Product Design

Abstract This paper reports on a senior-level multidisciplinary course titled Innovative Product Design at Florida Atlantic University aimed at teaching and learning one aspect of innovative thinking: Design of products or services from the user viewpoint, i.e., focusing on benefits and ease of use, rather than on product features. Specific objectives of the course are: • To study well-known principles in design interaction, i.e., basic rules that allow design from the user point of view. • To enhance innovative problem solving skills. • To explore creative and innovative processes in product design. • To practice methodologies for design of products and services. • To engage student teams in the design of assistive technologies. This course introduces students from engineering, computer science and business majors to methodologies in design of products and services. Lectures, discussions, and problem solving exercises are used to explore the creative/innovative process in product design. Student teams design assistive technology products based on their knowledge and enhanced innovative skills. For a project to be approved, each team had to interview at least five potential users. The paper focuses mainly on engaging activities, some of which are new. It describes hands-on interactive class exercises, teaming activities, homework assignments, presentations, and projects, most of which relate to the user's point of view. The paper shares some available formal and informal preliminary feedback/evaluation of class topics, material and activities. In order to engage students in more real-life experiences, design experts and specialists in assistive technologies visited the class to teach and mentor students. Among the visitors were the chief product designer of Motorola, and the director of Stand Among Friends, a non-profit organization that helps people with disabilities. The paper shares students’ feedback. They liked the fact that the course teaches design from a totally different perspective, i.e., the user – an unfamiliar aspect to most of them. For some, the concept of design with the user in mind was an “eye opening” experience. They enjoyed prototyping activities (and asked for more) and hands-on experiences that led to prototyping. Open environment and openness to new, simple and absurd ideas were highly appreciated. They have asked for smaller scale projects and for more class time to work on them.
A NORMAL FORM FOR ADMISSIBLE CHARACTERS IN THE SENSE OF LYNCH

Parabolic subalgebras p of semisimple Lie algebras define a Z-grading of the Lie algebra. If there exists a nilpotent element in the first graded part of g on which the adjoint group of p acts with a dense orbit, the parabolic subalgebra is said to be nice. The corresponding nilpotent element is also called admissible. Nice parabolic subalgebras of simple Lie algebras have been classified. In the case of Borel subalgebras a Richardson element of g1 is exactly one that involves all simple root spaces. It is however difficult to write down such nilpotent elements for general parabolic subalgebras. In this paper we give an explicit construction of admissible elements in g1 that uses as few root spaces as possible.
Functional semiconductor nanowires and their optical properties

In this paper, we describe the vapour-liquid-solid crystal growth mechanism for the genenral synthesis of nanowires of different compositions, sizes, orientation and doping profiles.
A framework for evaluating the appropriateness of clinical decision support alerts and responses

Objective Alerting systems, a type of clinical decision support, are increasingly prevalent in healthcare, yet few studies have concurrently measured the appropriateness of alerts with provider responses to alerts. Recent reports of suboptimal alert system design and implementation highlight the need for better evaluation to inform future designs. The authors present a comprehensive framework for evaluating the clinical appropriateness of synchronous, interruptive medication safety alerts. Methods Through literature review and iterative testing, metrics were developed that describe successes, justifiable overrides, provider non-adherence, and unintended adverse consequences of clinical decision support alerts. The framework was validated by applying it to a medication alerting system for patients with acute kidney injury (AKI). Results Through expert review, the framework assesses each alert episode for appropriateness of the alert display and the necessity and urgency of a clinical response. Primary outcomes of the framework include the false positive alert rate, alert override rate, provider non-adherence rate, and rate of provider response appropriateness. Application of the framework to evaluate an existing AKI medication alerting system provided a more complete understanding of the process outcomes measured in the AKI medication alerting system. The authors confirmed that previous alerts and provider responses were most often appropriate. Conclusion The new evaluation model offers a potentially effective method for assessing the clinical appropriateness of synchronous interruptive medication alerts prior to evaluating patient outcomes in a comparative trial. More work can determine the generalizability of the framework for use in other settings and other alert types.
Designing to safe power limits in hybrid circuits

Experiments were performed at two heat-transfer conditions, simulating minimum and maximum heat transfer. Since hybrid-circuit heat dissipation is dependent on factors such as heat sinking, package design, substrate material, environment and other considerations, it was decided to bracket the extremes of power dissipation for these circuits. Tests performed at these two heat-transfer conditions yielded data which were used to formulate relationships among the hybrid variables of temperature, size, and power. To establish these relationships, the various sizes of resistors and hybrid substrates were accommodated by using the ratio of resistor to substrate size to relate the power density and temperature. Both resistor and substrate temperature were predictable within the desired temperature limits of 0 to 300 degrees C using the relationships developed. The power-temperature relationships developed make possible the predictions of both resistor and substrate temperatures during circuit design, which is both necessary and advantageous for the design of hybrid circuits having increased power and circuit density. >