cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Reentrant fiber Raman gyroscope

An experimental demonstration of an active reentrant fiber gyroscope is reported. Raman amplification is used to increase the number of signal recirculations in the rotation-sensing loop, which improves system sensitivity to rotation rate. A theoretical analysis of the wave mixing between counterpropagating pump and signal fields, interacting through Raman scattering in a polarization-preserving fiber, is presented. >
New Foundations of Cost-Benefit Analysis

This article responds to the criticisms of New Foundations of Cost–Benefit Analysis that appeared in a review by Amy Sinden, Douglas A. Kysar, and David M. Driesen. We argue that their criticisms are either based on misunderstandings of our approach or are too demanding, in the sense that no reasonable decision procedure would satisfy them. We illustrate this second argument by demonstrating that their preferred approach – feasibility analysis – has little to recommend it.
Demonstration of superconducting micromachined cavities

Superconducting enclosures will be key components of scalable quantum computing devices based on circuit quantum electrodynamics. Within a densely integrated device, they can protect qubits from noise and serve as quantum memory units. Whether constructed by machining bulk pieces of metal or microfabricating wafers, 3D enclosures are typically assembled from two or more parts. The resulting seams potentially dissipate crossing currents and limit performance. In this letter, we present measured quality factors of superconducting cavity resonators of several materials, dimensions, and seam locations. We observe that superconducting indium can be a low-loss RF conductor and form low-loss seams. Leveraging this, we create a superconducting micromachined resonator with indium that has a quality factor of two million, despite a greatly reduced mode volume. Inter-layer coupling to this type of resonator is achieved by an aperture located under a planar transmission line. The described techniques demonstrate a proof-of-principle for multilayer microwave integrated quantum circuits for scalable quantum computing.
Conceptual design of a hypervelocity asteroid intercept vehicle (HAIV) and its flight validation mission

An intercept mission with nuclear explosives is the most effective of the practical mitigation options against the impact threat of near-Earth objects (NEOs) with a short warning time (e.g., much less than 10 years). The existing penetrated subsurface nuclear explosion technology limits the intercept velocity to less than approximately 300 m/s. Consequently, an innovative concept of blending a hypervelocity kinetic impactor with a subsurface nuclear explosion has been developed for optimal penetration, fragmentation, and dispersion of the target NEO. A proposed hypervelocity asteroid intercept vehicle (HAIV) consists of a kinetic-impact leader spacecraft and a follower spacecraft carrying nuclear explosives. This paper describes the conceptual development and design of a baseline HAIV system and its flight validation mission architecture for three mission cost classifications (e.g., $500 M, $1 B, and $1.5 B).
The Unequal Geographic Burden of Federal Taxation

In the United States, workers in cities offering above‐average wages—cities with high productivity, low quality of life, or inefficient housing sectors—pay 27 percent more in federal taxes than otherwise identical workers in cities offering below‐average wages. According to simulation results, taxes lower long‐run employment levels in high‐wage areas by 13 percent and land and housing prices by 21 and 5 percent, causing locational inefficiencies costing 0.23 percent of income, or $28 billion in 2008. Employment is shifted from north to south and from urban to rural areas. Tax deductions index taxes partially to local cost of living, improving locational efficiency.
Evidence-based coverage policy

Many health plans apply evidence-based approaches to coverage decisions. The foundation of such approaches is the systematic review of information about the effectiveness of medical interventions. This paper discusses the principles underlying evidence-based coverage policy and how they are applied by two major programs: the Technology Evaluation Center of the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association and the Medicare Coverage Advisory Committee. Although such policies likely have limited effects on spending, they can help to direct medical resources toward effective care.
Variability sensitive Markov decision processes

Considered are time-average Markov Decision Processes MDPs with finite state and action spaces. Two definitions of variability are introduced, namely, the expected time-average variability and time-average expected variability. The two criteria are in general different, although they can both be employed to penalize for variance in the stream of rewards. For communicating MDPs, we construct a randomized stationary policy that is e-optimal for both criteria; the policy is optimal and pure for a specific variability function. For general multichain MDPs, a state space decomposition leads to a similar result for the expected time-average variability. We also consider the problem of the decision maker choosing the initial state along with the policy.
A Century of Investors

Today's investors are more rapidly informed than their predecessors a century ago, but they are neither better informed nor better behaved. In this article, a picture of individual investors during 1906–1918 drawn from investor questions to World's Work magazine is compared with a picture of investors of the 21st century as reflected in today's media. The investors of a century ago, like today's investors, wanted to be secure while they aspired to be rich, wanted to save while they were tempted to spend, wanted to feel the joy of pride and avoid the pain of regret.
Parallelized radix-4 scalable montgomery multipliers

This paper describes a parallelized radix-4 scalable Montgomery multiplier implementation. The design does not require hardware multipliers, and uses parallelized multiplication to shorten the critical path. By left-shifting the sources rather than right-shifting the result, the latency between processing elements is shortened from two cycles to nearly one. The new design can perform 1024-bit modular exponentiation in 8.7 ms and 256-bit exponentiation in 0.36 ms using 5916 Virtex2 4-input lookup tables. This is comparable to radix-2 for long multiplies and nearly twice as fast for short ones.
Dark Matter and Particle Physics

Astrophysicists now know that 80% of the matter in the universe is “dark matter”, composed of neutral and weakly interacting elementary particles that are not part of the Standard Model of particle physics. I will summarize the evidence for dark matter. I will explain why I expect dark matter particles to be produced at the CERN LHC. We will then need to characterize the new weakly interacting particles and demonstrate that they the same particles that are found in the cosmos. I will describe how this might be done.
Projective Limits of Poletsky–Stessin Hardy Spaces

In this paper we show that on a strongly pseudoconvex domain D the projective limit of all Poletsky–Stessin Hardy spaces \(H^p_u(D)\), introduced by Poletsky and Stessin in 2008, is isomorphic to the space \(H^\infty (D)\) of bounded holomorphic functions on D endowed with a special topology. To prove this we show that Caratheodory balls lie in approach regions, establish a sharp inequality for the Monge–Ampere mass of the envelope of plurisubharmonic exhaustion functions and use these facts to demonstrate that the intersection of all Poletsky–Stessin Hardy spaces \(H^p_u(D)\) is \(H^\infty (D)\).
Pictet-Spengler reaction in trifluoroacetic acid. Large scale synthesis of pyridoindolobenzodiazepine as an atypical antipsychotic agent

Abstract Traditional syntheses of benzodiazepines involve a Bischler-Napieralski reaction which is a three step process and gives low overall yields. An attractive alternative is to construct the diazepine ring under Pictet-Spengler conditions. This paper reports the synthesis of a novel pyridoindolo-benzodiazepine as a potent atypical antipsychotic agent. The key step in the synthesis is the ring formation of the diazepine ring in neat trifluoroacetic acid.
FRACTALS IN MICROCAVITIES : GIANT COUPLED, MULTIPLICATIVE ENHANCEMENT OF OPTICAL RESPONSES

A novel class of optical materials, microcavities doped with nanostructured fractal aggregates, was studied. Fractal aggregate optical excitations may be concentrated in regions smaller than the diffraction limit of conventional optics, resulting in large local fields. Seeding the aggregates into microcavities further increases the local fields because of light trapping by microcavity resonance modes. These microcomposites possess unique optical properties, including very large probabilities of radiative processes. In our experiments, lasing at extremely low pump intensities, below 1 mW, and strongly enhanced Raman scattering was observed in fractal-microcavity-dye composites.
Tracking analysis of the sign algorithm in nonstationary environments

A tracking analysis of the adaptive filters equipped with the sign algorithm and operating in nonstationary environments is presented. Under the assumption that the nonstationary can be modeled using a random disturbance, it is shown that the long-term time average of the mean-absolute error is bounded, and that there exists an optimal choice of the convergence constant mu which minimizes this quality. Applying the commonly used independence assumption, and under the assumption that the nonstationarity is solely due to the time-varying behavior of the optimal coefficients, it is shown that the distributions of the successive coefficient misalignment vectors converge to a limiting distribution when the adaptive filter is used in the system identification mode. Finally, under the additional assumption that the signals involved are zero mean and Gaussian, a set of nonlinear difference equations is derived that characterizes the mean and mean-squared behavior of the filter coefficients and the mean-squared estimation error during adaptation and tracking. Results of several experiments that show very good correlation with the theoretical analyses are presented. >
Social network-embedded prediction markets: The effects of information acquisition and communication on predictions

Information aggregation mechanisms are designed explicitly for collecting and aggregating dispersed information. An excellent example of the use of this ''wisdom of crowds'' is a prediction market. The purpose of our social network-embedded prediction market is to suggest that carefully designed market mechanisms can elicit and gather dispersed information that can improve our predictions. Simulation results show that our network-embedded prediction market can produce better predictions as a result of the information exchange in social networks and can outperform other non-networked prediction markets. It is shown that forecasting errors decrease with the cost of acquiring information in a network-embedded prediction market. We also develop an information system that combines the power of prediction markets with the popularity of Twitter.
Size of the Military Sector and Economic Growth: A Panel Data Analysis of Africa and Latin America

We estimate the influence of defense spending and military labor use on economic growth in African and Latin American countries. Our model integrates disparate implications from the defense economics literature into a Barro-style model of economic growth that controls for political and economic institutional variation across countries. Our panel data analysis of 44 countries in Africa and Latin America from 1975 to 1989 also controls for crosscountry variation in lost human capital and public sector production inefficiencies. We find empirical evidence that the defense burden on economic growth is non-linear, with low levels of military spending increasing economic growth but higher levels of military spending decreasing growth. We also find evidence that the influence of military labor use on growth is non-linear, and exhibits a greater drag on economic growth in those countries with relatively higher levels of adult male education attainment.
The Gamma-Ray Blazar Content of the Northern Sky

Using survey data, we have re-evaluated the correlation of flat spectrum radio sources with EGRET sources in the Northern sky. An analysis incorporating the radio and X-ray properties and the {gamma}-ray source localization is used to gauge the reliability of associations and to search for counterparts of previously unidentified EGRET sources. Above |b|=10{sup o}, where the classification is complete, we find that 70% of the Northern EGRET sources have counterparts similar to the bright EGRET blazars. For several of these we identify known blazar counterparts more likely than the earlier proposed 3EG association; for {approx}20 we have new identifications. Spectroscopic confirmation of these candidates is in progress and we have found flat spectrum radio quasars and BL Lac counterparts with redshifts as high as 4. We also find strong evidence for a set of 28 objects with no plausible counterpart like the known EGRET blazars. These thus represent either a new extragalactic population or a population of Galactic objects with a large scale height. The survey has been extended into the plane, where we find several new blazar candidates; the bulk of the sources are, however, Galactic. Looking ahead to the GLAST era, we predict that several of the presentmore » 3EG sources are composite and that higher resolution data will break these into multiple blazar IDs.« less
Theories of Strategic Nonmarket Participation: Majority‐Rule and Executive Institutions

This paper presents theories of strategic nonmarket participation in majority-rule and executive institutions and develops from those theories a set of principles for nonmarket strategy. The theories are based on models of vote recruitment in client and interest-group politics and on models of common agency. The basic strategies developed are majority building, vote recruitment, agenda setting, rent-chain mobilization, majority protection, and competitive agenda setting and vote recruitment.
THE GROMOV–WITTEN AND DONALDSON–THOMAS CORRESPONDENCE FOR TRIVIAL ELLIPTIC FIBRATIONS

We study the Gromov–Witten and Donaldson–Thomas correspondence conjectured in [16, 17] for trivial elliptic fibrations. In particular, we verify the Gromov–Witten and Donaldson–Thomas correspondence for primary fields when the threefold is E × S where E is a smooth elliptic curve and S is a smooth surface with numerically trivial canonical class.
From High‐Spin Organic Molecules to Organic Polymers with Magnetic Ordering

This concept paper outlines the design of the first pi-conjugated organic polymer with magnetic ordering. This rational, "bottom-up" macromolecular design is based on synthesis and study of polyarylmethyl polyradicals with increasing number of exchange-coupled unpaired electron spins. The prospects for attaining organic polymer magnets with stability at ambient temperature and/or higher magnetic ordering temperatures will be discussed.
Journey beyond Belief

"Journey Beyond Belief' is an autobiographical account of the experiences and understandings that emerged from a personal exploration of a variety of growth disciplines. The author traces his trajectory from a hard-nosed neuroscientist with no faith in things subjective or emotional through the repeated shattering of his belief systems to a recognition of the vast reaches and varieties of inner experience. Beginning with psychotherapy and progressing through a number of humanistic, group, and meditative disciplines, he began to appreciate the limited and limiting nature of many of his own and the culture's beliefs, experiences, and behaviors. He was repeatedly shocked by the extent to which he had underestimated the vastness and richness of the inner universe, by the extent to which the untrained mind is out of control and continuously creates encompassing and entrapping illusory realities, by the amount of unnecessary suffering which this causes, by the fact that it is possible to train the mind to degre...
Coherent Motion Segmentation in Moving Camera Videos Using Optical Flow Orientations

In moving camera videos, motion segmentation is commonly performed using the image plane motion of pixels, or optical flow. However, objects that are at different depths from the camera can exhibit different optical flows even if they share the same real-world motion. This can cause a depth-dependent segmentation of the scene. Our goal is to develop a segmentation algorithm that clusters pixels that have similar real-world motion irrespective of their depth in the scene. Our solution uses optical flow orientations instead of the complete vectors and exploits the well-known property that under camera translation, optical flow orientations are independent of object depth. We introduce a probabilistic model that automatically estimates the number of observed independent motions and results in a labeling that is consistent with real-world motion in the scene. The result of our system is that static objects are correctly identified as one segment, even if they are at different depths. Color features and information from previous frames in the video sequence are used to correct occasional errors due to the orientation-based segmentation. We present results on more than thirty videos from different benchmarks. The system is particularly robust on complex background scenes containing objects at significantly different depths.
Do elected public utility commissioners behave more politically than appointed ones

In the United States, public utility commissioners are either appointed or elected and the vast majority is either Republican or Democrat. While previous research has analyzed whether selection method and political affiliation have independent effects on the policy choices of these commissioners, this paper investigates whether these influences may be interrelated and how this question can be analyzed empirically. The context explored in this paper is telecommunications network lease prices and retail prices. While data limitations preclude causal interpretations, the political affiliation of elected commissioners may be correlated with the lease prices that they set. Further, retail prices may vary with the political affiliation of appointed regulators.
PIPER: An FFT‐based protein docking program with pairwise potentials

The Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) correlation approach to protein-protein docking can evaluate the energies of billions of docked conformations on a grid if the energy is described in the form of a correlation function. Here, this restriction is removed, and the approach is efficiently used with pairwise interaction potentials that substantially improve the docking results. The basic idea is approximating the interaction matrix by its eigenvectors corresponding to the few dominant eigenvalues, resulting in an energy expression written as the sum of a few correlation functions, and solving the problem by repeated FFT calculations. In addition to describing how the method is implemented, we present a novel class of structure-based pairwise intermolecular potentials. The DARS (Decoys As the Reference State) potentials are extracted from structures of protein-protein complexes and use large sets of docked conformations as decoys to derive atom pair distributions in the reference state. The current version of the DARS potential works well for enzyme-inhibitor complexes. With the new FFT-based program, DARS provides much better docking results than the earlier approaches, in many cases generating 50% more near-native docked conformations. Although the potential is far from optimal for antibody-antigen pairs, the results are still slightly better than those given by an earlier FFT method. The docking program PIPER is freely available for noncommercial applications.
Functional single-cell analysis of T-cell activation by supported lipid bilayer-tethered ligands on arrays of nanowells

Supported lipid bilayers are an important biomolecular tool for characterizing immunological synapses. Immobilized bilayers presenting tethered ligands on planar substrates have yielded both spatio-temporal and structural insights into how T cell receptors (TCRs) reorganize during the initial formation of synapses upon recognition of peptide antigens bound to major histocompatibility complex (MHC) molecules. The prototypical configuration of these assays, however, limits the extent to which the kinetics and structure of the supramolecular activation clusters of the synapse (that occur in seconds or minutes) can be related to subsequent complex cellular responses, such as cytokine secretion and proliferation, occurring over hours to days. Here we describe a new method that allows correlative measures of both attributes with single-cell resolution by using immobilized lipid bilayers and tethered ligands on the surface of dense arrays of subnanoliter wells. This modification allows each nanowell to function as an artificial antigen-presenting cell (APC), and the synapses formed upon contact can be imaged by fluorescence microscopy. We show that the lipid bilayers remain stable and mobile on the surface of the PDMS, and that modifying the ligands tethered to the bilayer alters the structure of the resulting synapses in expected ways. Finally, we demonstrate that this approach allows the subsequent characterization of secreted cytokines from the activated human T cell clones by microengraving in both antigen- and pan-specific manners. This new technique should allow detailed investigations on how biophysical and structural aspects of the synapse influence the activation of individual T cells and their complex functional responses.
A short synthesis of morachalcone A

Abstract Advanced C-prenylated intermediates for three aromatase inhibitors, including morachalcone A, can be synthesized through a Claisen–Schmidt condensation followed by Florisil®-catalyzed [1,3]-sigmatropic rearrangement of a prenyl phenyl ether.
The NASA Astrophysics Data System: Architecture

The powerful discovery capabilities available in the ADS bibliographic services are possible thanks to the design of a flexible search and retrieval system based on a relational database model. Bibliographic records are stored as a corpus of structured documents containing fielded data and metadata, while discipline-specific knowledge is segregated in a set of files independent of the bibliographic data itself. This ancillary information is used by the database management software to compile field-specific index files used by the ADS search engine to resolve user queries into lists of relevant documents. The creation and management of links to both internal and external resources associated with each bibliography in the database is made possible by representing them as a set of document properties and their attributes. The resolution of links available from different locations has been generalized to allow its control through a site- and user-specific preference database. To improve global access to the ADS data holdings, a number of mirror sites have been created by cloning the database contents and software on a variety of hardware and software platforms. The procedures used to create and manage the database and its mirrors have been written as a set of scripts that can be run in either an interactive or unsupervised fashion. The modular approach we followed in software development has allowed a high degree of freedom in prototyping and customization, making our system rich of features and yet simple enough to be easily modified on a day-to-day basis. We conclude discussing the impact that new datasets, technologies and collaborations is expected to have on the ADS and its possible role in an integrated environment of networked resources in astronomy. The ADS can be accessed at: http://adswww.harvard.edu
Synthesis of fluorinated glutamic acid derivatives via vinylalumination

Abstract A variety of structural types of fluorinated allylic acetates, prepared by vinylalumination of fluorinated aldehydes, were reacted with the benzophenone imine of glycine tert -butyl ester to provide 4-(fluorobenzylidenyl)- and 4-(fluoroalkylidenyl) glutamic acid derivatives in 61–96% yield. The 4-(4-fluorobenzylidenyl) glutamic acid derivative was hydrolyzed to give the 4-(4-fluorobenzylidenyl)pyroglutamate and then hydrogenated to the 4-(4-fluorobenzyl)pyroglutamate. The catalytic enantioselective conjugate addition-elimination of the benzophenone imine of glycine tert -butyl ester with the fluorinated allylic acetates prepared from fluoral, pentafluorobenzaldehyde, and 2,6-difluorobenzaldehyde provided the corresponding 4-(fluoroalkylidenyl)- and 4-(fluorobenzylidenyl) glutamic acid derivatives in 42, 45 and 80% ee, respectively.
The First Fulleropyrrolidine Derivative of Sc3N@C80: Pronounced Chemical Shift Differences of the Geminal Protons on the Pyrrolidine Ring

The first pyrrolidine adduct on Sc3N@C80 was synthesized and fully characterized. Addition of the N-ethylazomethine ylide occurs regioselectively on a [5,6] double bond on the surface of the icosahedral symmetry Sc3N@C80, exactly in the same position as that described previously for a Diels−Alder adduct of the same compound.11a,b This addition pattern results in symmetric pyrrolidine carbons and unsymmetric geminal hydrogens on the pyrrolidine ring, as confirmed by 1H and 13C NMR spectroscopy, especially by HMQC. The shielding environment experienced by these geminal hydrogens differs by 1.26 ppm, indicative of pronounced ring current effects on the surface of this endohedral fullerene. This represents the first fully characterized pyrrolidine adduct on an endohedral metallofullerene.
Properties of a discrete-time enhanced linear-quadratic controller

Abstract This multi-input multi-output controller incorporates two features: optimal gains associated with known exogenous inputs; and penalties imposed both on squares of first backward differences in control actions and on control actions squared. Results are derived for both the time-varying finite-time problem and the time-invariant infinite-horizon problem. The optimal control is expressed in terms of feedback gains that weight the most recent control vector in addition to the current system state, and look-ahead gains that weight known exogenous inputs. For the infinite-horizon problem, results include: (1) conditions under which the optimal gains exist and stabilize the system; (2) time-invariant properties of the look-ahead gains and their characterization in terms of eigenvalues of the closed-loop system; (3) gains appropriate for constant exogenous inputs; (4) steady-state response conditions for constant exogenous inputs; and (5) conditions under which both linear combinations of states and of control variables are reduced to zero in the steady state.
Robust performance for both fixed and worst-case inputs

We consider the problem of robust performance analysis when some of the exogenous inputs acting on the system are assumed to be fixed and known, while others are unknown but bounded. In particular, we consider the case where performance is measured by the l∞ norm of the output signals, and the uncertainty on the nominal model is described by LTV perturbations of bounded l∞-induced norm. We first address the special case when all the exogenous inputs are fixed and known. We propose upper and lower bounds for the measure of robust performance. Two upper bounds are derived, which trade off accuracy versus computational expense. Both conditions are much less conservative than what one would obtain from assuming a worst-case exogenous input. We then generalize the conditions to the more general case, where both fixed and worst-case inputs act on the system. All these conditions are readily computable, and yield much less conservative results than one would obtain from applying standard worst-case analysis methods. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Synthesis of 3,4-Disubstituted 2H-Benzopyrans Through C-C Bond Formation via Electrophilic Cyclization

The electrophilic cyclization of substituted propargylic aryl ethers by I2, ICl, and PhSeBr produces 3,4-disubstituted 2H-benzopyrans in excellent yields. This methodology results in vinylic halides or selenides under mild reaction conditions and tolerates a variety of functional groups, including methoxy, alcohol, aldehyde, and nitro groups.
Nonlinear internal model controller design for wastegate control of a turbocharged gasoline engine

Abstract Internal Model Control (IMC) has a great appeal for automotive powertrain control in reducing the control design and calibration effort. Motivated by its success in several automotive applications, this work investigates the design of nonlinear IMC for wastegate control of a turbocharged gasoline engine. The IMC design for linear time-invariant (LTI) systems is extended to nonlinear systems. To leverage the available tools for LTI IMC design, the quasi-linear parameter-varying (quasi-LPV) models are explored. IMC design through transfer function inverse of the quasi-LPV model is ruled out due to parameter variability. A new approach for nonlinear inversion, referred to as the structured quasi-LPV model inverse, is developed and validated. A fourth-order nonlinear model which sufficiently describes the dynamic behavior of the turbocharged engine is used as the design model in the IMC structure. The controller based on structured quasi-LPV model inverse is designed to achieve boost-pressure tracking. Finally, simulations on a validated high-fidelity model are carried out to show the feasibility of the proposed IMC. Its closed-loop performances are compared with a well-tuned PI controller with extensive feedforward and anti-windup built in. Robustness of the nonlinear IMC design is analyzed using simulations.
The effect of quaternary alluvium on strong ground motion in the Coyote Lake, California, earthquake of 1979

abstract The effect of alluvium on strong ground motion can be seen by comparing two strong-motion records of the Coyote Lake, California, earthquake of 6 August 1979 ( M L = 5.9). One record at a site on Franciscan bedrock had a peak horizontal acceleration of 0.13 g and a peak horizontal velocity of 10 cm/sec. The other, at a site 2 km distant on 180 meters of Quaternary alluvium overlying Franciscan, had values of 0.26 g and 32 cm/sec, amplifications by factors of 2 and 3. Horizontal motions computed at the alluvial site for a linear plane-layered model based on measured P and S velocities show reasonably good agreement in shape with the observed motions, but the observed peak amplitudes are greater by a factor of about 1.25 in acceleration and 1.8 in velocity. About 15 per cent of the discrepancy in acceleration and 20 per cent in velocity can be attributed to the difference in source distance; the remainder may represent focusing by refraction at a bedrock surface concave upward. There is no clear evidence of nonlinear soil response. Fourier spectral ratios between motions observed on bedrock and alluvium show good agreement with ratios predicted from the linear model. In particular, the observed frequency of the fundamental peak in the amplification spectrum agrees with the computed value, indicating that no significant nonlinearity occurs in the secant shear modulus. Computations show that nonlinear models are compatible with the data if values of the coefficient of dynamic shear strength in terms of vertical effective stress are in the range of 0.5 to 1.0 or greater. The data illustrate that site amplification may be less a matter of resonance involving reinforcing multiple reflections, and more the simple effect of the low near-surface velocity. Application of traditional seismological theory leads to the conclusion that the site amplification for peak horizontal velocity is approximately proportional to the reciprocal of the square root of the product of density and shear-wave velocity.
The strength of American federal democracy : lessons for global development

A review of the history of the United States from its colonial origins shows how America's successful development has always been guided by two basic principles: representative democracy, and a proper division of power between national and subnational governments. The United States of America was established as an independent nation by a congress of delegates from 13 provincial assemblies, each of which consisted of representatives elected by their communities. Since colonial times, local democratic rights have attracted immigrants to help build new towns in the growing nation. Responsible local governments in America have had the power and the incentive to make local public investments for developing prosperous communities. Democratic competition in America has been strengthened by the ability of successful local leaders to become competitive candidates for higher offices. But in spite of America's example, many nations since the French Revolution have instead been drawn to centralized democracy, as national elites may prefer to centralize power around themselves. America's successful growth ultimately depended on its citizens' basic understanding that their welfare and security were enhanced by a balanced federal division of power between their elected local governments and the higher sovereign government of their nation.
Bosonic interactions with a domain wall

We consider here the interaction of scalar bosons with a topological domain wall. Not only is there a continuum of scattering states, but there is also an interesting “quasi-discretuum” of positive energy bosonic bound states, describing bosons entrapped within the wall’s core. The full spectrum of the scattering and bound state energies and eigenstates is obtainable from a Schrodinger-type of equation with a Poschl–Teller potential. We also consider the presence of a boson gas within the wall and high energy boson emission.
U.S. Heavy-Ion Fusion Systems Assessment Project Overview

A multi-institutional study was conducted to evaluate the potential of heavy-ion induction Linacs as inertial confinement fusion (ICF) drivers. This Heavy-Ion Fusion Systems Assessment (HIFSA) study was a U.S. effort to evaluate a wide range of possible system configurations for electric power plants driven by induction Linacs, as opposed to the radio-frequency accelerators used in previous heavy-ion fusion (HIF) power plant conceptual designs. In contrast to these earlier studies, the HIFSA project specifically avoided concentrating on a point design. Rather, cost/performance models of the major systems in an HIF power plant were devised by the institutions with expertise in the applicable technologies (e.g., Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory for induction accelerators and beam transport/focus; McDonnell Douglas Astronautics Company for cost scaling and systems modeling/intergration). (Detailed descriptions of these systems and associated integration/trade-off studies appear in other papers in this special issue.) Some of the key results of the HIFSA study are summarized and their significance assessed. The cardinal conclusions of the study are twofold: (a) Conceptual HIF power plants have estimated cost-of-electricity (COE) values that, at 1 GW (electric), are roughly comparable to those from other ICF and magnetic fusion system studies; and (b) HIF technology is robust in that there existsmore » a large parameter space region in which the COE is close to the minimum; i.e., the minima in COE are broad.« less
The Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) Program for Farmers in the U.S.: Role of Incentives in Program Participation

The Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) program for farmers was established in 2002 to assist farmers adversely affected by import surges. Since its introduction, the program has been mostly underused by farmers, and the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) in 2009 eased the program rules to encourage more farmers to participate. Why has farmers’ participation in the program been so low? Have the relaxed criteria of the ARRA been effective in encouraging farmers’ participation? Based on a simple decision-making model and a uniquely constructed panel data set, we find that farmers’ incentive to make up for losses in other types of direct government payments as well as eligibility criteria explain farmers’ participation in the TAA program. Less time and efforts needed for participation, proxied by previously approved cases of the same or similar commodities, also seems to drive farmers’ participation. Results also confirm that the ARRA of 2009 was effective in increasing farmers’ participation.
One-loop corrections to the D3 brane action.

We calculate one-loop corrections to the effective Lagrangian for the D3-brane. We perform the gauge fixing of the {kappa}-symmetric Born-Infeld D3-brane action in the flat background using the Killing gauge. The linearized supersymmetry of the gauge-fixed action coincides with that of the N=4 Yang-Mills theory. We use the helicity amplitude and unitarity technique to calculate the one-loop amplitudes at order {alpha}{sup 4}. The counterterms and the finite 1-loop corrections are of the form ({partial_derivative}F){sup 4} and their supersymmetric generalization. This is to be contrasted with the Born-Infeld action which contains (F){sup 4} and other terms which do not depend on derivatives of the vector field strength.
Coarsening in one dimension: invariant and asymptotic states

We study a coarsening process of one-dimensional cell complexes. We show that if cell boundaries move with velocities proportional to the difference in size of neighboring cells, then the average cell size grows at a prescribed exponential rate and the Poisson distribution is precisely invariant for the distribution of the whole process, rescaled in space by its average growth rate. We present numerical evidence toward the following universality conjecture: starting from any finite mean stationary renewal process, the system when rescaled by e −2t converges to a Poisson point process. For a limited case, this makes precise what has been observed previously in experiments and simulations, and lays the foundation for a theory of universal asymptotic states of dynamical cell complexes.
Toward better global poverty measures

While much progress has been made over the last 25 years in measuring global poverty, there are a number of challenges ahead. The paper discusses three sets of problems: (i) how to allow for social effects on welfare, recognizing the identification issues involved; (ii) the need to monitor progress in raising the consumption floor above its biological level, in addition to counting the number of people living near the floor; and (iii) addressing the longstanding concerns about prevailing approaches to making inter-country comparisons of price levels facing poor people. Some suggestions are offered for operational solutions, building on past research.
Coordination and Redox Non-innocent Behavior of Hybrid Ligands Containing Tellurium

Despite the well-studied redox and Lewis acidic attributes of organotellurium compounds, such properties are underutilized in their coordination chemistry. This review aims to highlight recent deve...
A note on entanglement entropy for topological interfaces in RCFTs

In this paper we calculate the entanglement entropy for topological interfaces in rational conformal field theories for the case where the interface lies at the boundary of the entangling interval and for the case where it is located in the center of the entangling interval. We compare the results to each other and also to the recently calculated left/right entropy of a related BCFT. We also comment of the entanglement entropies for topological interfaces for a free compactified boson and Liouville theory.
Understanding Carsharing Risk and Insurance Claims in the United States

Carsharing offers consumers short-term access to vehicles, which facilitates better mobility and reduces the need for personal vehicle ownership. Carsharing does not require consumers to have automobile insurance. Instead, carsharing operators insure their members and are responsible for the risks and liabilities associated with vehicle use. Carsharing operators are burdened with obtaining cost-effective insurance under a use model that lacks massive actuarial data and analysis. This study analyzed 28 operator years of trips and claims data collected from six carsharing operators in the United States from 2008 to 2015. A total of 328,726 valid trips and 125 valid insurance claims occurred during this period. Crash risk, measured on a per mile and a per insured vehicle year basis, was estimated from these data. The average cost per insured vehicle year of carsharing insurance was estimated to be $789 for operators. A substantially heightened risk was observed for older drivers (drivers older than age 65 ye...
Finding Rumor Sources on Random Trees

We consider the problem of detecting the source of a rumor which has spread in a network using only observations about which set of nodes are infected with the rumor and with no information as to when these nodes became infected. In a recent work (Shah and Zaman 2010), this rumor source detection problem was introduced and studied. The authors proposed the graph score function rumor centrality as an estimator for detecting the source. They establish it to be the maximum likelihood estimator with respect to the popular Susceptible Infected (SI) model with exponential spreading times for regular trees. They showed that as the size of the infected graph increases, for a path graph (2-regular tree), the probability of source detection goes to 0 and for d-regular trees with d ≥ 3 the probability of detection, say αd, remains bounded away from 0 and is less than 1/2. However, their results stop short of providing insights for the performance of the rumor centrality estimator in more general settings such as irr...
Some Consensus has been Reached on the Labeling of Harmonics, Formants, and Resonances

A group of 22 voice professionals engaged in vigorous debate about symbolic notation and definitions in voice acoustics for a period of about 2 years. The group included singing teachers, speech-language pathologists, and voice scientists from the United States, Europe, and Australia. The first recommendation was regarding the symbol for fundamental frequency. The symbol fo was agreed upon, written with a lower case f and a subscript “o,” not “zero.” The reason given was that a “zero” frequency does not fit into the harmonic series of the sound source. The fundamental frequency is the first harmonic, not the zeroth harmonic. The subscript “o” was appealing because it could signify “oscillation.” The second recommendation was to write all harmonics as multiples of fo, namely fo, 2 fo, 3 fo. . . . n fo. This recommendation makes future use of the symbol h or H totally superfluous. Consensus was somewhat difficult to reach on this issue because a significant number of papers and textbooks have been written with h and H labels for harmonics. In conjunction with the above frequency symbols, the amplitudes of harmonics are written as A1, A2, A3. . . . .An. If they are converted to decibels, the relative decibel levels of the harmonics are written as L1, L2, L3. . . . .Ln. With regard to vocal tract resonance, much debate ensued about keeping a distinction between formants and resonances. Based
Hydroxymethylation beyond Carbonylation: Enantioselective Iridium-Catalyzed Reductive Coupling of Formaldehyde with Allylic Acetates via Enantiotopic π-Facial Discrimination.

Chiral iridium complexes modified by SEGPHOS catalyze the 2-propanol-mediated reductive coupling of branched allylic acetates 1a–1o with formaldehyde to form primary homoallylic alcohols 2a–2o with excellent control of regio- and enantioselectivity. These processes, which rely on enantiotopic π-facial discrimination of σ-allyliridium intermediates, represent the first examples of enantioselective formaldehyde C–C coupling beyond aldol addition.
2-Chloro-4-tetrafluorophenoxypyrimidine: a versatile reagent for C-2 prior to C-4 functionalizations

Abstract A novel synthetic route to 2,4-functionalized pyrimidines is reported. The approach uses 2-chloro-4-tetrafluorophenoxypyrimidine, that enables sequential palladium catalyzed functionalization at the pyrimidine C-2 position, followed by S N Ar displacement with diverse amines at C-4 . The broad utility of this ‘ C-2 then C-4 ’ functionalization sequence has been demonstrated with a range of cross-coupling partners and amines.
Installation of Drain Tile for Subsurface Drainage

Soil Conservation Service provided technical assistance on installation of 24,059 mi of tile drains during 1959 fiscal year; tile used in surface drainage and current procedures in making drainage investigations; recent changes in ASTM specifications for clay and concrete drain tile are discussed; use of concrete tile under acid and alkali conditions; recommendations for gravel filter requirements.
Superlinear Lower Bounds for Multipass Graph Processing

We prove $$n^{1+\varOmega (1/p)}/p^{O(1)}$$n1+Ω(1/p)/pO(1) lower bounds for the space complexity of p-pass streaming algorithms solving the following problems on n-vertex graphs: (1) testing if an undirected graph has a perfect matching (this implies lower bounds for computing a maximum matching or even just the maximum matching size), (2) testing if two specific vertices are at distance at most $$2(p+1)$$2(p+1) in an undirected graph, (3) testing if there is a directed path from s to t for two specific vertices s and t in a directed graph. The lower bounds hold for $$p = O(\log n / \log \log n)$$p=O(logn/loglogn). Prior to our result, it was known that these problems require $$\varOmega (n^2)$$Ω(n2) space in one pass, but no $$n^{1+\varOmega (1)}$$n1+Ω(1) lower bound was known for any $$p\ge 2$$pź2. These streaming results follow from a communication complexity lower bound for a communication game in which the players hold two graphs on the same set of vertices. The task of the players is to find out whether the sets of vertices at distance exactly $$p+1$$p+1 from a specific vertex intersect. The game requires a significant amount of communication only if the players are forced to speak in a specific difficult order. This is reminiscent of lower bounds for communication problems such as indexing and pointer chasing. Among other things, our line of attack requires proving an information cost lower bound for a decision version of the classic pointer chasing problem and a direct sum type theorem for the disjunction of several instances of this problem.
CORRELATION OF SCAR LOCALIZATION BETWEEN CARDIAC MAGNETIC RESONANCE IMAGING AND ELECTRO-ANATOMIC MAPPING AT ELECTROPHYSIOLOGY STUDY IN PATIENTS WITH CARDIAC RHYTHM MANAGEMENT DEVICES

Background Cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (CMR) can accurately delineate myocardial scar for substrate guided ventricular tachycardia (VT) ablation. Susceptibility artifact from cardiac rhythm management device (CRMD) generator and leads can significantly affect image quality limiting the evaluation of myocardial scar and foci of VT. We conducted a retrospective study to correlate scars from CMR to the voltage mapping obtained at electrophysiology study (EPS).
A Regularization of Burgers Equation using a Filtered Convective Velocity

This paper examines the properties of a regularization of Burgers equation in one and multiple dimensions using a filtered convective velocity, which we have dubbed as convectively filtered Burgers (CFB) equation. A physical motivation behind the filtering technique is presented. An existence and uniqueness theorem for multiple dimensions and a general class of filters is proven. Multiple invariants of motion are found for the CFB equation and are compared with those found in viscous and inviscid Burgers equation. Traveling wave solutions are found for a general class of filters and are shown to converge to weak solutions of inviscid Burgers equation with the correct wave speed. Accurate numerical simulations are conducted in 1D and 2D cases where the shock behavior, shock thickness, and kinetic energy decay are examined. Energy spectrum are also examined and are shown to be related to the smoothness of the solutions.