cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
International Conflict and Military Expenditures AN EXTERNALITY APPROACH

This article analyzes the two-stage problem a country faces in first choosing the optimal amount of arms to acquire and then deciding whether it can improve upon the allocation that emerges after the first stage by engaging in a military conflict. A model is introduced based on the concept of economic externality to generate conflict situations in the first stage. Then comparative static results are derived by varying the parameters of this model, for example, the rate of technological progress in the military sector and the rate of economic growth, and examining whether the conflict situation improves or worsens as the social welfare of the nations change accordingly. Uncertainty is then introduced and the results are analyzed. Finally, the last part explores the conditions under which the conflict situations presented in the first stage actually lead to the outbreak of war.
Metabolic syndrome and endothelin-1 mediated vasoconstrictor tone in overweight/obese adults

Abstract Objective To determine whether endothelin (ET)-1 vasoconstrictor tone is greater in overweight and obese adults with the metabolic syndrome (MetS). Materials/Methods Forty overweight/obese middle-aged and older adults (age: 43–71 years; BMI: 25.1–36.9 kg/m2) were studied: 20 without MetS (13 M/7 F) and 20 with MetS (13 M/7 F). MetS was established according to NCEP ATP III guidelines. Forearm blood flow (FBF; plethysmography) responses to intra-arterial infusion of selective ETA receptor blockade (BQ-123; 100 nmol/min; for 60 min) and non-selective ETA/B receptor blockade (BQ-123 + BQ-788 [50 nmol/min for 60 min]) were determined. Results In response to the selective ETA antagonism, there was a significant increase in forearm blood flow from baseline in both groups. However, the increase in forearm blood flow was significantly higher (P = 0.03; ~ 45%) in the overweight/obese group with MetS than the group without MetS. In contrast, there were no significant group differences in FBF responses to non-selective ETA/B receptor blockade. Peak vasodilator responses to nonselective ETA/B blockade were ~ 50% higher than baseline blood flow in the overweight/obese groups without and with MetS. Conclusion MetS is associated with higher ET-1 vasoconstrictor tone in overweight/obese adults. The enhanced ET-1 vasoconstrictor activity with MetS is mediated by the ETA receptor subtype.
Nonparametric measures of scale economies and capacity utilization: An application to U.S. manufacturing

Abstract An economic measure of scale efficiency is the ratio of the minimum average cost to the average cost at the actual output level of a firm. It is easily measured by the ratio of the total cost of this output under the constant and variable returns to scale assumptions. This procedure does not identify the output level where the average cost reaches a minimum. This paper proposes a nonparametric method of measuring this output level using DEA. The relation between this efficient production scale, the short run physical capacity output, and the most productive scale size (MPSS) is also discussed. An empirical application using state level data from U.S. manufacturing is used to illustrate the procedure. The DEA findings are further analyzed using a smoothed bootstrap procedure.
Reducing Risk in Basin Scale Sequestration: A Bayesian Model Selection Framework for Improving Detection

Geological CO2 sequestration is a key technology for mitigating atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations while providing low carbon energy. Deployment of sequestration at scales necessary for a material contribution to greenhouse gas mitigation poses a number of challenges not encountered in current operations. At the basin scale, injection sites will not be as well characterized as current operations. Predictions of system response to this magnitude of injection are expected to have greater uncertainty and risk. Through an integrated, model based design and assimilation, monitoring provides a platform for mitigating the associated risks. Because footprints of basin scale injection projects are expected to be very large, the high resolution monitoring programs in existing projects are not economically feasible for monitoring at large scales. The acceptable levels of resolution and risk are dependent on the footprint of the network and the monitoring technique employed, which are in turn, constrained by cost of deployment and regulatory requirements. Network design must make an implicit assumption on the size of the leak that is able to be measured. Leak detection at the surface is complicated by the many natural and anthropogenic sources of CO2 that can mask a leak or result in the incorrect assessment of whether a leak has occurred. In this paper, we introduce a Bayesian framework for decision support in discriminating between CO2 detected from a leak and CO2 measured from background fluctuations. For small leakage concentrations, the signal cannot be distinguished from background fluctuations. When complementary observations are jointly considered, the ability to discriminate between a leakage and background concentrations improves, and the number of samples required for confident detection decreases. Incorporation of Bayesian decision support tools into monitoring programs will assist in reducing risk in geological sequestration in a cost effective manner by providing a framework for efficient integration of complementary observations and enhancing the information content of the network.
Budget deficits and government accounting

Abstract The paper examines the measurement of government debts and budget deficits. The main theoretical finding is that accrual-based government accounts are well-defined and economically relevant, provided taxation is distortionary on the margin. The empirical section derives U.S. government balance sheets and income statements for 1947–1989. For 1989, U.S. government net debt is about $3380 billion; government net worth is about -$1680 billion. This includes unfunded government employee pensions but not the social-security system. I argue that social security creates a separate class of government obligations that are enforced by political rather than contractual, market-based mechanisms.
Light-Cone Quantization and Hadron Structure

Quantum chromodynamics provides a fundamental description of hadronic and nuclear structure and dynamics in terms of elementary quark and gluon degrees of freedom. In practice, the direct application of QCD to reactions involving the structure of hadrons is extremely complex because of the interplay of nonperturbative effects such as color confinement and multi-quark coherence.
Fast factorization architecture in soft-decision Reed-Solomon decoding

Reed-Solomon (RS) codes are among the most widely utilized block error-correcting codes in modern communication and computer systems. Compared to its hard-decision counterpart, soft-decision decoding offers considerably higher error-correcting capability. The recent development of soft-decision RS decoding algorithms makes their hardware implementations feasible. Among these algorithms, the Koetter-Vardy (KV) algorithm can achieve substantial coding gain for high-rate RS codes, while maintaining a polynomial complexity with respect to the code length. In the KV algorithm, the factorization step can consume a major part of the decoding latency. A novel architecture based on root-order prediction is proposed in this paper to speed up the factorization step. As a result, the time-consuming exhaustive-search-based root computation in each iteration level, except the first one, of the factorization step is circumvented with more than 99% probability. Using the proposed architecture, a speedup of 141% can be achieved over prior efforts for a (255, 239) RS code, while the area consumption is reduced to 31.4%.
The BaBar electromagnetic calorimeter: status and performance improvements

The electromagnetic calorimeter at the BaBar detector, part of the asymmetric B factory at SLAC, measures photons in the energy range from 20 MeV to 8 GeV with high resolution. The current status of the calorimeter, now in its seventh year of operation, is being presented, as well as details on improvements made to the analysis code during the last years.
Corruption and the Political Economy of Resource-Based Development: A Comparison of Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa

We model how the “supply and demand” for bribes affects resource use by an economy, and the reinvestment of resource rents in other assets. This requires adjusting the World Bank’s measure adjusted net savings for any rent dissipation due to corruption. The impacts of corruption on long-run changes and periodic growth in the adjusted net savings rate are estimated across African and Asian economies from 1970 to 2003. Corruption rather than resource dependency per se affects negatively the ability of African countries to reinvest resource rents in the short term, but for Asian countries, corruption is less important than point resources. Corruption influences long-run growth in adjusted net savings rates in all countries, and is also the “pathway” through which this growth is affected by patterns of resource use, trade and abundance.
Radiation measurements during cavities conditioning on APS RF test stand

In order to determine the shielding structure around the Advanced Photon Source (APS) synchrotron and storage ring RF stations, the X-ray radiation has been measured in the near field and far field regions of the RF cavities during the normal conditioning process. Two cavity types, a prototype 352-MHz single-cell cavity and a 352-MHz five-cell cavity, are used on the APS and are conditioned in the RF test stand. Vacuum measurements are also taken on a prototype 352-MHz single-cell cavity and a 352-MHz five-cell cavity. The data will be compared with data on the five-cell cavities from CERN. >
Effect of mild atherosclerosis on flow resistance in a coronary artery casting of man

An in-vitro flow study was conducted in a mildly atherosclerotic main coronary artery casting of man using sugar-water solutions simulating blood viscosity. Steady flow results indicated substantial increases in pressure drop, and thus flow resistance at the same Reynolds number, above those for Poiseuille flow by 30 to 100 percent in the physiological Reynolds number range from about 100 to 400. Time-averaged pulsatile flow data showed additional 5 percent increases in flow resistance above the steady flow results. Both pulsatile and steady flow data from the casting were found to be nearly equal to those from a straight, axisymmetric model of the casting up to a Reynolds number of about 200, above which the flow resistance of the casting became gradually larger than the corresponding values from the axisymmetric model.
Stereospecific Nickel‐Catalyzed Cross‐Coupling Reactions of Alkyl Grignard Reagents and Identification of Selective Anti‐Breast‐Cancer Agents

Alkyl Grignard reagents that contain β-hydrogen atoms were used in a stereospecific nickel-catalyzed cross-coupling reaction to form C(sp(3))-C(sp(3)) bonds. Aryl Grignard reagents were also utilized to synthesize 1,1-diarylalkanes. Several compounds synthesized by this method exhibited selective inhibition of proliferation of MCF-7 breast cancer cells.
Capacity per unit energy of fading channels with a peak constraint

A discrete-time single-user scalar channel with temporally correlated Rayleigh fading is analyzed. There is no side information at the transmitter or the receiver. A simple expression is given for the capacity per unit energy, in the presence of a peak constraint. The simple formula of Verdu/spl acute/ for capacity per unit cost is adapted to a channel with memory, and is used in the proof. In addition to bounding the capacity of a channel with correlated fading, the result gives some insight into the relationship between the correlation in the fading process and the channel capacity. The results are extended to a channel with side information, showing that the capacity per unit energy is one nat per joule, independently of the peak power constraint. A continuous-time version of the model is also considered. The capacity per unit energy subject to a peak constraint (but no bandwidth constraint) is given by an expression similar to that for discrete time, and is evaluated for Gauss-Markov and Clarke fading channels.
Use of the Adult Attachment Interview to measure process and change in psychotherapy

The Adult Attachment Interview (AAI), developed and extensively tested in the domain of developmental psychology, has relevance to psychotherapy research. The authors compare and contrast the ways that social psychologists and developmental psychologists have operationalized the concept of attachment security and discuss corresponding implications for psychotherapy research. In addition, they provide an overview of the AAI and its development, reliability, and validation in developmental psychology and summarize recent work linking AAI responses with distinctive types of psychopathology. A summary of recent work showing the AAI to be a useful indicator of positive outcome in psychotherapy for adults with diverse problems, including depression, borderline personality disorder, and posttraumatic stress disorder, is provided.
Space profiling for parallel functional programs

We present a semantic space profiler for parallel functional programs. Building on previous work in sequential profiling, our tools help programmers to relate runtime resource use back to program source code. Unlike many profiling tools, our profiler is based on a cost semantics. This provides a means to reason about performance without requiring a detailed understanding of the compiler or runtime system. It also provides a specification for language implementers. This is critical in that it enables us to separate cleanly the performance of the application from that of the language implementation. Some aspects of the implementation can have significant effects on performance. Our cost semantics enables programmers to understand the impact of different scheduling policies while hiding many of the details of their implementations. We show applications where the choice of scheduling policy has asymptotic effects on space use. We explain these use patterns through a demonstration of our tools. We also validate our methodology by observing similar performance in our implementation of a parallel extension of Standard ML.
D-brane field theory on compact spaces

Abstract A low-energy field theory is constructed for Dirichlet p-branes in type II string theory on a space which has been toroidally compactified in d transverse dimensions. This field theory is found by taking a Zd quotient of a theory describing a countably infinite set of branes on the covering space. In accordance with T-duality, the resulting theory is equivalent to the gauge theory for the dual system of (d + p)-branes wrapped around the compact directions.
Degrees of freedom (DoF) of locally connected interference channels with coordinated multi-point (CoMP) transmission

The degrees of freedom (DoF) available for communication provides an analytically tractable way to characterize the information-theoretic capacity of interference channels. In this paper, the DoF of a K-user interference channel is studied under the assumption that the transmitters can cooperate via coordinated multi-point (CoMP) transmission. In [1], the authors considered the linear asymmetric model of Wyner, where each transmitter is connected to its own receiver and its successor, and is aware of its own message as well as M − 1 preceding messages. The per user DoF was shown to go to M/M+1 as the number of users increases to infinity. In this work, the same model of channel connectivity is considered, with a relaxed cooperation constraint that bounds the maximum number of transmitters at which each message can be available, by a cooperation order M. We show that the relaxation of the cooperation constraint, while maintaining the same load imposed on a backhaul link needed to distribute the messages, results in a gain in the DoF. In particular, the asymptotic limit of the per user DoF under the cooperation order constraint is 2M/2M+1. Moreover, the optimal transmit set selection satisfies a local cooperation constraint. i.e., each message needs only to be available at neighboring transmitters.
Periodic orbits for three particles with finite angular momentum

Abstract We present a novel numerical method to calculate periodic orbits for dynamical systems by an iterative process which is based directly on the action integral in classical mechanics. New solutions are obtained for the planar motion of three equal mass particles on a common periodic orbit with finite total angular momentum, under the action of attractive pairwise forces of the form 1/ r p +1 . It is shown that for −2 p ⩽0, Lagrange's 1772 circular solution is the limiting case of a complex symmetric orbit. The evolution of this orbit and another recently discovered one in the shape of a figure eight is investigated for a range of angular momenta. Extensions to n equal mass particles and to three particles of different masses are also discussed briefly.
Antioxidants in cardiovascular disease: randomized trials.

The recent intervention trials with β-carotene have not confirmed the hypothesis that when given in large doses, this single antioxidant nutrient will protect against cancer and coronary artery disease. The following two brief critial reviews provide insight as to the unexpected outcomes of the intervention trials and provide direction as to the ensuing course of carotene research. Advances in diagnosis and treatment of cancer and cardiovascular disease as well as increased understanding of the mechanisms of the diseases have provided and will certainly continue to provide enormous benefit to affected individuals. At the same time, interventions that may prevent common cancers or atherosclerosis from developing in healthy people could, at least in theory, afford even greater benefits to society as a whole.
An assessment of privatization

Mounting empirical evidence of privatizations benefits coincides with increasing dissatisfaction and opposition among citizens and policymakers. This dissatisfaction reflects the growing questioning of the benefits of privatization, the general downturn of global markets in the past few years and the resulting swing of the pendulum back towards increased governmental supervision, the overselling of privatization as a panacea for all economic problems, and the concern that privatization does not produce macroeconomic and distributional gains equivalent to its microeconomic benefits. This article takes stock of the empirical evidence and shows that in competitive sectors privatization has been a resounding success in improving firm performance. In infrastructure sectors, privatization improves welfare, a broader and crucial objective, when it is accompanied by proper policy and regulatory frameworks. The article argues that despite the growing concerns privatization should be neither abandoned nor reversed. Rather, there should be a strengthening of efforts to privatize correctly: by better tailoring privatization to local conditions, deepening efforts to promote competition and regulatory frameworks, enforcing transparency in sales processes, and introducing mechanisms to ensure that the poor have access to affordable essential services.
Observations of Mg II Absorption near z ~ 1 Galaxies Selected from the DEEP2 Redshift Survey

We study the frequency of Mg II absorption in the outer haloes of galaxies at z = 0.6 1.4 (with median z = 0.87), using new spectra obtained of ten background quasars with galaxy impact parameters of b < 100 kpc. The quasar sightlines were selected from the SDSS DR6 QSO catalog based on proximity to galaxies in the DEEP2 redshift survey. In addition to the 10 small impact systems, we examine 40 additional galaxies at 100 < b < 500 kpc serendipitously located in the same fields. We detect Mg II absorbers with equivalent width Wr = 0.15 u - 1.0u though not all
TEACHING MACHINES AND AESTHETIC VALUES

Whatever may be said of the status of aesthetic values in everyday life in America, perhaps the most fascinating and most controversial cultural phenomenon in this country is the so-called New York School of painting, Abstract Expressionism. Springing partly from European roots, this uniquely American art style has proven of such vigor that it now has a widespread following among the avant-garde in Tokyo, London, Rome, and Munich. Even Paris itself, the "old" capital of modern art, has fallen under its spell. Evidence of this world-wide influence and prestige is readily available. One need only compare the production of younger artists at work in these cities with the work of such established New York painters as deKooning, Kline, Hofmann, Gottlieb, Motherwell, and Pollack. Or one may note the demand for their art by collectors and museums. Or compare price-tags. But no matter what one chooses to accept as evidence, it would be hard to deny what is now an obvious fact: Abstract Expressionism represents a range of aesthetic values of major cultural importance. It seems paradoxical, however, that Abstract Expressionist art flourishes as an aesthetic value in a society so thoroughly technological as ours. The paradox is apparent when it is noted that the ethical values these artists advance as necessary conditions for their creative production are in profound conflict with those of modern communal living. They appear to be defending highly individualistic, anti-intellectual, and even anti-social ethical values; yet these values run counter to those which are necessary conditions for modern society. I refer to the values of organization and mechanization which are now-or rapidly becoming-essential in our mass systems of communication, transportation, production and distribution, entertainment, and education. The strangeness is heightened by the fact that these societal values are responsible, in part, for the high esteem which Abstract Expressionism now enjoys. It has become a familiar part of our mass culture, mainly as a result of the distribution and saturation sales of reproductions and art books across the land. Since 1944, its official birth date, this art style has moved from the category of things judged to be grotesque, unwholesome, and outlandish to the status of a popular commodity. Sophisticated Americans buy reproductions of Abstract Expressionist work. Their more affluent friends buy the originals. But neither class of aesthetic consumer will accept along with this art the ethical commitments of the artists who produced it. Because of the publicity given their work, the stated and implied ethical positions of these artists have thereby been made to stand in sharp relief against the prevailing values of conformity in thought and action.
Whither Antitrust? The Uncertain Future Of Competition Law In Health Care

Although instrumental in ushering in competition to the health care industry and later in safeguarding the competitive structure of markets, antitrust law has come under attack. A series of questionable judicial decisions has clouded the standards applicable to analyzing health care markets. Legislative efforts to immunize conduct from antitrust challenge also have gathered support in recent years. This study finds scant economic or policy basis for these developments and concludes that anti–managed care sentiments have diluted enthusiasm for applying competitive principles in health care. This phenomenon has resulted in outcome-driven judicial decisions and legislative activity geared to serving political expediency rather than sound policy tenets. The paper recommends heightened antitrust scrutiny of provider and insurer markets by federal and state enforcers and increased empirical research into the workings of imperfect health care markets and the effects of past antitrust decisions.
The Empirical Impact of Bovine Somatotropin on a Group of New York Dairy Farms

Data from a panel of New York Dairy farms were used to estimate rbST adoption functions, and to measure the impact of rbST on milk output and profitability per cow. Adoption results are consistent with previous rbST adoption studies. Farm size, productivity and education of the principal operator are the most important explanatory variables influencing adoption. The use of rbST was found to significantly increase milk output per cow net of other explanatory variables, correcting for self-selection with respect to rbST use. The impact on profits, was, however, not statistically different from zero at any conventional statistical significance level.
Design, synthesis, and biological evaluations of novel quinolones as HIV-1 non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors

A novel series of quinolones was discovered as HIV-1 non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NNRTIs) using a structure-based approach. The lead quinolones exhibited single digit nanomolar potency in the HIV-1 replication assays. The preliminary SAR of these quinolones was also established via systematic structural modifications. These novel and potent quinolones could serve as advanced leads for further optimization.
Aesthetic Incongruity Resolution

Abstract Four studies demonstrate how consumers resolve the aesthetic incongruity that arises between a newly acquired product and the existing consumption environment. The novel insight on which this research is based is that the aesthetic incongruity involving products high in design salience is more likely than aesthetic incongruity involving products low in design salience to be resolved by accommodating the product within the consumption environment, often through additional purchases. Furthermore, the relative presence of frustration versus regret is shown to mediate the relationship between design salience and the decision to buy more.
Waveform Inversion By One-way Wavefield Extrapolation

One-way Riemannian wavefield extrapolation (RWE) on computational meshes conforming to the direction of turning-wave propagation is presented as an alternative forward modeling procedure for waveform inversion. Forward modeling tests demonstrate that the RWE approach may be a sufficiently accurate approximation for calculating the wavefield phases important for early-arrival waveform inversion. Initial results indicate that RWE waveforms are well matched at wide offsets to finite-difference data, and can be used in a waveform inversion scheme to invert synthetic data for 1D velocity perturbations.
Theft of Information in the Take-Grant Protection Model

Questions of information flow are in many ways more important than questions of access control, because the goal of many security policies is to thwart the unauthorized release of information, not merely the illicit obtaining of access rights to that information. The Take-Grant Protection Model is an excellent theoretical tool for examining such issues because conditions necessary and sufficient for information to flow between two objects, and for rights to objects to be obtained or stolen, are known. In this paper we extend these results by examining the question of information flow from an object the owner of which is unwilling to release that information. Necessary and sufficient conditions for such “theft of information” to occur are derived. To emphasize the usefulness of these results, the security policies of complete isolation, transfer of rights with the cooperation of an owner, and transfer of information (but not rights) with the cooperation of the owner are presented; the last is used to model a subject guarding a resource.
Enhanced Cycling Stability of Hybrid Li–Air Batteries Enabled by Ordered Pd3Fe Intermetallic Electrocatalyst

We report an ordered Pd3Fe intermetallic catalyst that exhibits significantly enhanced activity and durability for the oxygen reduction reaction under alkaline conditions. Ordered Pd3Fe enables a hybrid Li–air battery to exhibit the best reported full-cell cycling performance (220 cycles, 880 h).
Nonglobal correlations in collider physics

Despite their importance for precision QCD calculations, correlations between in- and out-of-jet regions of phase space have never directly been observed. These so-called nonglobal effects are present generically whenever a collider physics measurement is not explicitly dependent on radiation throughout the entire phase space. In this paper, we introduce a novel procedure based on mutual information, which allows us to isolate these nonglobal correlations between measurements made in different regions of phase space. We study this procedure both analytically and in Monte Carlo simulations in the context of observables measured on hadronic final states produced in ${e}^{+}{e}^{\ensuremath{-}}$ collisions, though it is more widely applicable. The procedure exploits the sensitivity of soft radiation at large angles to nonglobal correlations, and we calculate these correlations through next-to-leading logarithmic accuracy. The bulk of these nonglobal correlations are found to be described in Monte Carlo simulation. They increase by the inclusion of nonperturbative effects, which we show can be incorporated in our calculation through the use of a model shape function. This procedure illuminates the source of nonglobal correlations and has connections more broadly to fundamental quantities in quantum field theory.
Palladium-Catalyzed Arylation of Alkyl Sulfenate Anions

A unique palladium-catalyzed arylation of alkyl sulfenate anions is introduced that affords aryl alkyl sulfoxides in high yields. Due to the base sensitivity of the starting sulfoxides, sulfenate anion intermediates, and alkyl aryl sulfoxide products, the use of a mild method to generate alkyl sulfenate anions was crucial to the success of this process. Thus, a fluoride triggered elimination strategy was employed with alkyl 2-(trimethylsilyl)ethyl sulfoxides to liberate the requisite alkyl sulfenate anion intermediates. In the presence of palladium catalysts with bulky monodentate phosphines (SPhos and Cy-CarPhos) and aryl bromides or chlorides, alkyl sulfenate anions were readily arylated. Moreover, the thermal fragmentation and the base promoted elimination of alkyl sulfoxides was overridden. The alkyl sulfenate anion arylation exhibited excellent chemoselectivity in the presence of functional groups, such as anilines and phenols, which are also known to undergo palladium catalyzed arylation reactions.
Amide α,β-Dehydrogenation Using Allyl-Palladium Catalysis and a Hindered Monodentate Anilide

A practical and direct method for the α,β-dehydrogenation of amides is reported using allyl-palladium catalysis. Critical to the success of this process was the synthesis and application of a novel lithium N-cyclohexyl anilide (LiCyan). The reaction conditions tolerate a wide variety of substrates, including those with acidic heteroatom nucleophiles.
Joint mixed logit models of stated and revealed preferences for alternative-fuel vehicles

Abstract We compare multinomial logit and mixed logit models for data on California households' revealed and stated preferences for automobiles. The stated preference (SP) data elicited households' preferences among gasoline, electric, methanol, and compressed natural gas vehicles with various attributes. The mixed logit models provide improved fits over logit that are highly significant, and show large heterogeneity in respondents' preferences for alternative-fuel vehicles. The effects of including this heterogeneity are demonstrated in forecasting exercises. The alternative-fuel vehicle models presented here also highlight the advantages of merging SP and revealed preference (RP) data. RP data appear to be critical for obtaining realistic body-type choice and scaling information, but they are plagued by multicollinearity and difficulties with measuring vehicle attributes. SP data are critical for obtaining information about attributes not available in the marketplace, but pure SP models with these data give implausible forecasts.
A Closer Look at Variance Implementations In Modern Database Systems

Variance is a popular and often necessary component of aggregation queries. It is typically used as a secondary measure to ascertain statistical properties of the result such as its error. Yet, it is more expensive to compute than primary measures such as SUM, MEAN, and COUNT.There exist numerous techniques to compute variance. While the definition of variance implies two passes overthe data, other mathematical formulations lead to a singlepass computation. Some single-pass formulations, however, can suffer from severe precision loss, especially for large datasets.In this paper, we study variance implementations in various real-world systems and find that major database systems such as PostgreSQL and most likely System X, a major commercial closed-source database, use a representation that is efficient, but suffers from floating point precision loss resulting from catastrophic cancellation. We review literature over the past five decades on variance calculation in both the statistics and database communities, and summarize recommendations on implementing variance functions in various settings, such as approximate query processing and large-scale distributed aggregation. Interestingly, we recommend using the mathematical formula for computing variance if two passes over the data are acceptable due to its precision, parallelizability, and surprisingly computation speed.
Tandem C–C Bond Cleavage of ­Cyclopropanols and Oxidative Aromatization by Manganese(IV) Oxide in a Direct C–H to C–C Functionalization of Heteroaromatics

We report a direct C–H to C–C bond functionalization of electron-deficient heteroaromatics enabled by mild C–C bond cleavage of cyclopropanols as a new route to β-aryl carbonyl-containing products. Additionally, as an alternative to using a “catalyst” that requires an excess amount of a sacrificial oxidant for regeneration and/or oxidative aromatization, this paper features manganese(IV) oxide as an inexpensive “dual role” reagent – effecting both C–C bond cleavage and ultimate rearomatization. Under the specified conditions, a variety of heterocycles proved competent for regioselective C–C bond formation, alongside a diverse array of cyclopropanols with broad functional-group tolerance. We highlight applications to complex-molecule synthesis and direct derivatization of biologically active alkaloids. Furthermore, kinetic isotope effect (KIE) experiments, radical scavengers, and some insight into the application of tri- and tetravalent manganese species are invoked to shape an initial mechanistic hypothesis.
SNAP: Stateful Network-Wide Abstractions for Packet Processing

Early programming languages for software-defined networking (SDN) were built on top of the simple match-action paradigm offered by OpenFlow 1.0. However, emerging hardware and software switches offer much more sophisticated support for persistent state in the data plane, without involving a central controller. Nevertheless, managing stateful, distributed systems efficiently and correctly is known to be one of the most challenging programming problems. To simplify this new SDN problem, we introduce SNAP. SNAP offers a simpler "centralized" stateful programming model, by allowing programmers to develop programs on top of one big switch rather than many. These programs may contain reads and writes to global, persistent arrays, and as a result, programmers can implement a broad range of applications, from stateful firewalls to fine-grained traffic monitoring. The SNAP compiler relieves programmers of having to worry about how to distribute, place, and optimize access to these stateful arrays by doing it all for them. More specifically, the compiler discovers read/write dependencies between arrays and translates one-big-switch programs into an efficient internal representation based on a novel variant of binary decision diagrams. This internal representation is used to construct a mixed-integer linear program, which jointly optimizes the placement of state and the routing of traffic across the underlying physical topology. We have implemented a prototype compiler and applied it to about 20 SNAP programs over various topologies to demonstrate our techniques' scalability.
GLENOID COMPONENT FAILURE: STILL A RECURRING PROBLEM

Total shoulder arthroplasty (TSA) is an excellent surgical solution for patients with shoulder arthritis, providing good to excellent results in the vast majority of patients. Complications are rare, however, when they occur, can be devastating for both the patient and surgeon. An increasingly recognised complication of TSA is glenoid component failure. In a recent review of nearly 4000 shoulder arthroplasties, symptomatic glenoid component loosening occurs at a rate of 1.2% per year, while asymptomatic radiolucent lines occur at a rate of 7.3% per year. In addition, keeled glenoid components have been found to have an increased incidence of radiolucent lines compared to pegged glenoid components at both short and longer-term follow-up. Further, pegged glenoid components are associated with a lower risk of revision arthroplasty compared to keeled glenoid components. In a separate study of approximately 4600 shoulder arthroplasties, metal-backed glenoid components were found to have significantly lower rates of radiolucent lines, radiographic loosening, and component failure compared to all-polyethylene glenoid components. Despite these findings, however, metal-backed components are significantly more likely to require revision surgery (3:1) compared to all-polyethylene components. For the failed TSA due to glenoid component failure, revision with glenoid reimplantation may be considered, but is associated with a high rate of recurrent glenoid loosening. Alternatively, revision to a reverse shoulder arthroplasty, is feasible, but is technically demanding with high complication and reoperation rates. This paper will discuss the etiology, work-up, and treatment of patients with glenoid component failure following TSA.
An interface for visualization and exploration of spatial distributions

This work details methods for visualizing and browsing a set of distributions of locational data derived from multi-modal analysis of a large video and audio dataset.
Effect of Climate Change on Supply Response of Florida Citrus Crops 1980-2010

A supply response model for the highest valued citrus commodities in Florida is specified to analyze the impact of climate change on acreage and yield responses. Preliminary results suggest that temperature has an impact on the acreage and yield responses whereas precipitation did not have any impact.
Conditional Deep Learning for energy-efficient and enhanced pattern recognition

Deep learning neural networks have emerged as one of the most powerful classification tools for vision related applications. However, the computational and energy requirements associated with such deep nets can be quite high, and hence their energy-efficient implementation is of great interest. Although traditionally the entire network is utilized for the recognition of all inputs, we observe that the classification difficulty varies widely across inputs in real-world datasets; only a small fraction of inputs require the full computational effort of a network, while a large majority can be classified correctly with very low effort. In this paper, we propose Conditional Deep Learning (CDL) where the convolutional layer features are used to identify the variability in the difficulty of input instances and conditionally activate the deeper layers of the network. We achieve this by cascading a linear network of output neurons for each convolutional layer and monitoring the output of the linear network to decide whether classification can be terminated at the current stage or not. The proposed methodology thus enables the network to dynamically adjust the computational effort depending upon the difficulty of the input data while maintaining competitive classification accuracy. We evaluate our approach on the MNIST dataset. Our experiments demonstrate that our proposed CDL yields 1.91× reduction in average number of operations per input, which translates to 1.84× improvement in energy. In addition, our results show an improvement in classification accuracy from 97.5% to 98.9% as compared to the original network.
Characterization of Migrated Seismic Volumes using Texture Attributes: A Comparative Study

In this paper, we examine several typical texture attributes developed in the image processing community in recent years with respect to their capability of characterizing a migrated seismic volume. These attributes are generated in either frequency or space domain, including steerable pyramid, curvelet, local binary pattern, and local radius index. The comparative study is performed within an image retrieval framework. We evaluate these attributes in terms of retrieval accuracy. It is our hope that this comparative study will help acquaint the seismic interpretation community with the many available powerful image texture analysis techniques, providing more alternative attributes for their seismic exploration.
Five-photon double ionization of helium

A time-dependent close-coupling method is used to calculate the five-photon double ionization of He. It is found that the generalized cross section used in the past for two-photon double ionization of He cannot be extended to five-photon double ionization of He. Therefore only five-photon double ionization probabilities that depend on specific radiation field pulses can be calculated.
On Basing Private Information Retrieval on NP-Hardness

The possibility of basing the security of cryptographic objects on the minimal assumption that $$ \mathbf{NP } \nsubseteq \mathbf{BPP } $$ is at the very heart of complexity-theoretic cryptography. Most known results along these lines are negative, showing that assuming widely believed complexity-theoretic conjectures, there are no reductions from an $$ \mathbf{NP } $$ -hard problem to the task of breaking certain cryptographic schemes. We make progress along this line of inquiry by showing that the security of single-server single-round private information retrieval schemes cannot be based on $$ \mathbf{NP } $$ -hardness, unless the polynomial hierarchy collapses. Our main technical contribution is in showing how to break the security of a PIR protocol given an $$ \mathbf{SZK } $$ oracle. Our result is tight in terms of both the correctness and the privacy parameter of the PIR scheme.
Self-Explanation and Reading Strategy Training (SERT) Improves Low-Knowledge Students’ Science Course Performance

ABSTRACTThis study demonstrates the generalization of previous laboratory results showing the benefits of Self-Explanation Reading Training (SERT) to college students’ course exam performance. The participants were 265 students enrolled in an Introductory Biology course, 59 of whom were provided with SERT. The results showed that SERT benefited students who began the course with less knowledge about science but did not benefit students with greater prior science knowledge. Moreover, across the three exams in the course, low-knowledge students who received SERT performed as well as high-knowledge students, whereas low-knowledge students without SERT performed more poorly than high-knowledge students. Hence, instruction on how to self-explain and use comprehension strategies allowed low-knowledge students to overcome their knowledge deficits. These results provide further evidence that self-explanation in combination with instruction and practice using comprehension strategies helps students to more effecti...
A combined computational and experimental investigation of the oxidative ring-opening of cyclic ethers by oxoammonium cations

The propensity of oxoammonium cations to facilitate the oxidative ring-opening of cyclic ethers to their corresponding distal hydroxy ketones is investigated. The reaction has been evaluated using experimental and computational methods to gain deeper insight into trends in reactivity.
Deep eutectic solvents: sustainable media for nanoscale and functional materials.

ConspectusDeep eutectic solvents (DESs) represent an alternative class of ionic fluids closely resembling room-temperature ionic liquids (RTILs), although, strictly speaking, they are distinguished by the fact that they also contain an organic molecular component (typically, a hydrogen bond donor like a urea, amide, acid, or polyol), frequently as the predominant constituent. Practically speaking, DESs are attractive alternatives to RTILs, sharing most of their remarkable qualities (e.g., tolerance to humidity, negligible vapor pressure, thermostability, wide electrochemical potential windows, tunability) while overcoming several limitations associated with their RTIL cousins. Particularly, DESs are typically, less expensive, more synthetically accessible (typically, from bulk commodity chemicals using solvent/waste-free processes), nontoxic, and biodegradable.In this Account, we provide an overview of DESs as designer solvents to create well-defined nanomaterials including shape-controlled nanoparticles,...
Inhibition of multiplication of influenza virus by tannic acid.

SummaryTannic acid inhibits both hemagglutination and multiplication of influenza A virus. In vitro, the virus is inactivated by tannic acid.
Madness as disability.

How does society imagine mental illness? Does this shift radically over time and with different social attitudes as well as scientific discoveries about the origins and meanings of mental illness? ...
Religion in Public Education: Principles and Issues

The present time is particularly propitious for giving serious consideration to the principles and issues concerning religion in public education. If one looks back over the last forty years, one can see a number of different centers of interest in public education which can be characterized somewhat as follows: In the 1930s the schools were taken up with the problems of de pression and social responsibility—with the kind of emphasis that appears in George Counts' celebrated pamphlet Dare the Schools Build a New Social Order?1 In the 1940s the schools
The importance of flow history in mixed shear and extensional flows

Fonds quebecois de la recherche sur la nature et les technologies (Bourse B-1 Maitrise Award)