cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Oblivious Equilibrium for Concentrated Industries

This article explores the application of oblivious equilibrium (OE) to highly concentrated markets. We define a natural extended notion of OE, called partially oblivious equilibrium (POE), that allows for there to be a set of strategically important firms (the “dominant” firms), whose firm states are always monitored by every other firm in the market. We perform computational experiments that explore the characteristics of POE, OE, and Markov perfect equilibrium (MPE), and find that POE generally performs well in highly concentrated markets. We also derive error bounds for evaluating the performance of POE for cases where MPE cannot be computed
Origins of the H, He i and Ca ii line emission in classical T Tauri stars

We perform local excitation calculations to obtain line opacities and emissivity ratios, and compare them with observed properties of H, He I ,O I ,C aII and Na I lines to determine the requisite conditions of density, temperature and photon ionization rate. We find that ultraviolet photoionization is the most probable excitation mechanism for generating the He Iλ10830 opacities that produce all the associated absorption features. We also calculate the specific line flux at an observed velocity of vobs =± 150 km s −1 for both radial wind and infall models. All the model results, together with observed correlations between absorption and emission features and between narrow and broad emission components, are used to deduce the origins of the strong H, He I and Ca II broad line emission. We conclude that the first two arise primarily in a radial outflow that is highly clumpy. The bulk of the wind volume is filled by gas at a density ∼10 9 cm −3 and optically thick to He Iλ10830 and Hα, but optically thin to He Iλ5876, Paγ and the Ca II infrared triplet. The optically thick He Iλ5876 emission occurs mostly in regions of density ≥10 11 cm −3 and temperature ≥1.5 × 10 4 K, while the optically thick Hα and Paγ emission occurs mostly in regions of density around 10 11 cm −3 and temperature between 8750 and 1.25 × 10 4 K. In producing the observed line fluxes at a given vobs, the covering factor of these emission clumps is sufficiently small to not incur significant absorption of the stellar and veiling continua in either He I or H lines. The strong Ca II broad line emission likely arises in both the magnetospheric accretion flow and the disc boundary layer where the gases dissipate part of their rotational energies before infalling along magnetic field lines. The needed density and temperature are ∼10 12 cm −3 and ≤7500 K, respectively.
Public Finance for Poverty Reduction: Concepts and Case Studies from Africa and Latin America

The book, public finance for poverty reduction, includes a series of papers that were prepared in the context of a World Bank Institute (WBI) public finance The book, public finance for poverty reduction, includes a series of papers that were prepared in the context of a WBI public finance learning program intended to build capacity in developing countries, with a special focus on Latin America and Sub-Saharan Africa. The book places a particular emphasis on the fiscal issues encountered by countries that are in the process of implementing a poverty reduction strategy. It provides an innovative analysis of many difficult policy issues plaguing less-developed economies in growing their economies while achieving poverty reduction. It also is appropriately concerned with administrative practice, and it provides excellent case studies on some new approaches to improving fiscal, spending, and tax policies in less-developed economies. The first chapters in public finance are appropriately 'theoretical' in reviewing basic concepts, such as fiscal sustainability, revenue design, accountability measures, and tax and benefit analysis. Without focusing too much on the concepts alone, the chapters provide good discussions of practical solutions to some of the difficulties faced by governments in reaching their objectives. The chapters in part two evaluate approaches to policies to stabilize the economy, reduce poverty, or implement better spending programs in Paraguay, Mexico, Peru, and Uruguay. Part three focuses on the poorest continent Africa with case studies of Guinea, Rwanda, Senegal, Niger, and Cape Verde. The most useful aspect of these case studies is that they provide helpful ideas for implementing policies rather than just focusing on the problems. The best part of this book, therefore, is that it offers hope to governments that it is possible to successfully implement public policies focused on fiscal stabilization, economic growth, and poverty reduction.
Bank competition, concentration, and credit reporting

This paper explores the empirical relationship between bank competition, bank concentration, and the emergence of credit reporting institutions. The authors find that countries with lower entry barriers into the banking market (that is, a greater threat of competition) are less likely to have a credit bureau, presumably because banks are less willing to share proprietary information when the threat of market entry is high. In addition, a credit bureau is significantly less likely to emerge in economies characterized by a high degree of bank concentration. The authors argue that the reason for this finding is that large banks stand to lose more monopoly rents from sharing their extensive information with smaller players. In contrast, the data show no significant relationship between bank competition or concentration and the emergence of a public credit registry, where banks' participation is mandatory. The results highlight that policies designed to promote the voluntary creation of a credit bureau need to take into account banks' incentives to extract monopoly rents from proprietary credit information.
The Effect of Income on Subjective Well-Being: Evidence from the 2008 Economic Stimulus Tax Rebates

This paper uses tax rebate payments from the 2008 economic stimulus to estimate the effect of a one-time change in income on three measures of subjective well-being: life satisfaction, health satisfaction, and affect. The income effect is identified by exploiting the plausibly exogenous variation in the payment schedule of the rebates. Using both ordinary least squares and two-stage least squares estimators, I find that the rebates had a large and positive impact on affect, which is explained by a reduction in feelings of stress and worry. For life satisfaction and health satisfaction, there is weaker evidence of a positive impact.
Speed Performance Improvement of Vehicle Blob Tracking System

A speed performance improved vehicle tracking system on a given set of evaluation videos of a street surveillance system is presented. We implement multi-threading technique to meet the requirement of real-time performance which demanded in the practical surveillance systems. Through multi-threading technique, we can accomplish near real-time performance. An analysis of results is also presented.
Competitiveness and Growth in Brazilian Cities: Local Policies and Actions for Innovation

Given the Brazilian federal government's high priority on economic growth, competitiveness is at the top of the economic agenda. While economic policies at the national level are important to this agenda, more than 75 percent of people live in urban areas, which produce more than 90 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP). 'What can cities do to improve economic performance and create jobs?' Mayors, governors, and federal government officials have frequently asked this question. For cities, economic competition has become more intense with globalization. Many municipal officials have been striving to enhance municipal infrastructure and services, while others have also been working on reducing the cost of doing businesses to make their areas more attractive for private investment. On the other hand, promoting local economic growth without considering local context and market conditions does not always achieve expectations. The policies discussed in this report are essentially about promoting local economic development. However, the author believe that the term competitiveness, as a dynamic concept, is helpful for local policy makers as it implies two essential aspects of promoting local economic development in today's environment: (a) cities not only need to provide a good business environment, they need to strive to provide a better one than others, at least in certain aspects (or niches); and (b) cities need to continually upgrade and innovate to achieve sustained growth.
Network Cross-Validation for Determining the Number of Communities in Network Data

ABSTRACTThe stochastic block model (SBM) and its variants have been a popular tool for analyzing large network data with community structures. In this article, we develop an efficient network cross-validation (NCV) approach to determine the number of communities, as well as to choose between the regular stochastic block model and the degree corrected block model (DCBM). The proposed NCV method is based on a block-wise node-pair splitting technique, combined with an integrated step of community recovery using sub-blocks of the adjacency matrix. We prove that the probability of under-selection vanishes as the number of nodes increases, under mild conditions satisfied by a wide range of popular community recovery algorithms. The solid performance of our method is also demonstrated in extensive simulations and two data examples. Supplementary materials for this article are available online.
Bounds on large extra dimensions from the simulation of black hole events at the LHC

If large extra dimensions exist, the Planck scale may be as low as a TeV and microscopic black holes may be produced in high-energy particle collisions at this energy scale. We simulate microscopic black hole formation at the Large Hadron Collider and compare the simulation results with recent experimental data by the Compact Muon Solenoid collaboration. The absence of observed black hole events in the experimental data allows us to set lower bounds on the Planck scale and various parameters related to microscopic black hole formation for a number (3 − 6) of extra dimensions. Our analysis sets lower bounds on the fundamental Planck scale ranging from 0.6 TeV to 4.8 TeV for black holes fully decaying into Standard Model particles and 0.3 TeV to 2.8 TeV for black holes settling down to a remnant, depending on the minimum allowed black hole mass at formation. Formation of black holes with mass less than 5.2 TeV to 6.5 TeV (SM decay) and 2.2 TeV to 3.4 TeV (remnant) is excluded at 95% C.L. Our analysis shows consistency with and difference from the CMS results.
PlanIt: A crowdsourcing approach for learning to plan paths from large scale preference feedback

We consider the problem of learning user preferences over robot trajectories for environments rich in objects and humans. This is challenging because the criterion defining a good trajectory varies with users, tasks and interactions in the environment. We represent trajectory preferences using a cost function that the robot learns and uses it to generate good trajectories in new environments. We design a crowdsourcing system - PlanIt, where non-expert users label segments of the robot's trajectory. PlanIt allows us to collect a large amount of user feedback, and using the weak and noisy labels from PlanIt we learn the parameters of our model. We test our approach on 122 different environments for robotic navigation and manipulation tasks. Our extensive experiments show that the learned cost function generates preferred trajectories in human environments. Our crowdsourcing system is publicly available for the visualization of the learned costs and for providing preference feedback: http://planit.cs.cornell.edu
Compressible homogeneous shear: Simulation and modeling

Compressibility effects were studied on turbulence by direct numerical simulation of homogeneous shear flow. A primary observation is that the growth of the turbulent kinetic energy decreases with increasing turbulent Mach number. The sinks provided by compressible dissipation and the pressure dilatation, along with reduced Reynolds shear stress, are shown to contribute to the reduced growth of kinetic energy. Models are proposed for these dilatational terms and verified by direct comparison with the simulations. The differences between the incompressible and compressible fields are brought out by the examination of spectra, statistical moments, and structure of the rate of strain tensor.
Using National Statistics to Increase Transparency of Large Land Acquisition: Evidence from Ethiopia

The 2007/08 commodity price boom triggered a ‘rush’ for land in developing countries. Yet, many affected countries lacked the regulatory infrastructure to cope with such demand and reliable data on investors’ performance. This study uses the example of Ethiopia to show how simple improvements in administrative data collection can help to address this by (i) allowing assessment of the productivity of land use and taking measures to increase it; (ii) comparing productivity between large and small farms to identify spillovers and ways to improve these; and (iii) setting in motion a process of continuing improvement. Implications for global investment in this area are drawn out.
Tracing the filamentary structure of the galaxy distribution at z∼0.8

We study filamentary structure in the galaxy distribution at z ∼ 0.8 using data from the Deep Extragalactic Evolutionary Probe 2 (DEEP2) Redshift Survey and its evolution to z ∼ 0.1 using data from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). We trace individual filaments for both surveys using the Smoothed Hessian Major Axis Filament Finder, an algorithm which employs the Hessian matrix of the galaxy density field to trace the filamentary structures in the distribution of galaxies. We extract 33 subsamples from the SDSS data with a geometry similar to that of DEEP2. We find that the filament length distribution has not significantly changed since z ∼ 0.8, as predicted in a previous study using a Λ cold dark matter cosmological N-body simulation. However, the filament width distribution, which is sensitive to the non-linear growth of structure, broadens and shifts to smaller widths for smoothing length-scales of 5―10 h ―1 Mpc from z ∼ 0.8 to 0.1, in accord with N-body simulations.
Leveraging electronic tablets for general pediatric care: a pilot study.

Background: We have previously shown that a scan-able paper based interface linked to a computerized clinical decision support system (CDSS) can effectively screen patients in pediatric waiting rooms and support the physician using evidence based care guidelines at the time of clinical encounter. However, the use of scan-able paper based interface has many inherent limitations including lacking real time communication with the CDSS and being prone to human and system errors. An electronic tablet based user interface can not only overcome these limitations, but may also support advanced functionality for clinical and research use. However, use of such devices for pediatric care is not well studied in clinical settings. Objective: In this pilot study, we enhance our pediatric CDSS with an electronic tablet based user interface and evaluate it for usability as well as for changes in patient questionnaire completion rates. Methods: Child Health Improvement through Computers Leveraging Electronic Tablets or CHICLET is an electronic tablet based user interface. It is developed to augment the existing scan-able paper interface to our CDSS. For the purposes of this study, we deployed CHICLET in one outpatient pediatric clinic. Usability factors for CHICLET were evaluated via caregiver and staff surveys. Results: When compared to the scan-able paper based interface, we observed an 18% increase or 30% relative increase in question completion rates using CHICLET. This difference was statistically significant. Caregivers and staff survey results were positive for using CHICLET in clinical environment. Conclusions: Electronic tablets are a viable interface for capturing patient self-report in pediatric waiting rooms. We further hypothesize that the use of electronic tablet based interfaces will drive advances in computerized clinical decision support and create opportunities for patient engagement.
Identifying independencies in causal graphs with feedback

We show that the d-separation criterion constitutes a valid test for conditional independence relationships that are induced by feedback systems involving discrete variables.
MONETARY POLICY RULES AND MACROECONOMIC STABILIZATION IN SMALL OPEN ECONOMIES UNDER BEHAVIORAL FX TRADING: INSIGHTS FROM NUMERICAL SIMULATIONS*

In this paper the interaction between foreign exchange (FX) markets driven by trading based on behavioral forecasting rules and the macroeconomy of a small open economy is investigated. A special focus of the paper is set on the consequences of chartism or technical analysis for the stability at the macroeconomic level. Furthermore, the performance of alternative monetary policy rules concerning the overall stabilization of the economy is investigated through numerical analysis.
Subcapsular relocation for sacral neuromodulation pulse generator implant revision.

Objectives: We describe our technique and experience with subcapsular placement of the Interstim (Medtronic, Minneapolis, MN, USA) pulse generator in cases of revision for implant site pain. Methods: The pulse generator and electrode are carefully exteriorized and the floor of the capsule is incised. The system is placed beneath the floor of the original capsule, which then becomes the roof of the new pocket. A layered closure is performed. Results: Five patients have undergone the technique described with successful resolution of their pain. Conclusions Utilizing the capsule presumably improves defects in skin microcirculation, but also creates additional cushion superior to the pulse generator, helping to counteract the vertical mechanical forces of the pulse generator.
The Importance of Einstein Rings

We develop a theory of Einstein rings and demonstrate it using the infrared Einstein ring images of the quasar host galaxies observed in PG 1115+080, B1608+656, and B1938+666. The shape of an Einstein ring accurately and independently determines the shape of the lens potential and the shape of the lensed host galaxy. We find that the host galaxies of PG 1115+080, B1608+656, and B1938+666 have axis ratios of 0.58 ± 0.02, 0.69 ± 0.02, and 0.62 ± 0.14, respectively, including the uncertainties in the lens models. The Einstein rings break the degeneracies in the mass distributions or Hubble constants inferred from observations of gravitational lenses. In particular, the Einstein ring in PG 1115+080 rules out the centrally concentrated mass distributions that lead to a high Hubble constant (H0 > 60 km s-1 Mpc-1) given the measured time delays. Deep, detailed observations of Einstein rings will be revolutionary for constraining mass models and determining the Hubble constant from time-delay measurements.
Ruthenium Catalyzed Hydrohydroxyalkylation of Isoprene with Heteroaromatic Secondary Alcohols: Isolation and Reversible Formation of the Putative Metallacycle Intermediate

Heteroaromatic secondary alcohols react with isoprene to form products of hydrohydroxyalkylation in the presence of ruthenium(0) catalysts generated from Ru3(CO)12 and tricyclohexylphosphine, enabling direct conversion of secondary to tertiary alcohols in the absence of premetalated reagents or stoichiometric byproducts. The putative oxaruthenacycle intermediate has been isolated and characterized, and reversible metallacycle formation has been demonstrated.
Pressure Perturbation in EHD Contacts Due to an Ellipsoidal Asperity

The pressure fluctuations around an ellipsoidal asperity tip at the inlet region of an elastohydrodynamic contact is determined by solving a perturbed Reynolds equation assuming that the asperity shape is unaffected by the perturbed pressure. Results are presented as the amplitude of the perturbed pressure as a function of ellipticity ratio, maximum Hertzian pressure, nominal EHD film thickness, asperity size, asperity height, and pressure viscosity coefficient. For the case of simple sliding between a smooth surface and a stationary asperity, a comparison is also made between the results for large ellipticity ratios and the pressure fluctuations obtained by using a previous line contact EHD analysis [6] for a two-dimensional asperity ridge. The agreement is found to be close for moderate Hertzian pressure and relatively thick EHD film thickness.
An auditory illusion

I HERE report a novel and striking auditory illusion, which provides a paradox for theories of pitch perception and auditory localisation1,2; and which varies in correlation with the handedness of the listener. The stimulus configuration which produced the illusion consisted of a sequence of tones, alternating in pitch between 400 Hz and 800 Hz (Fig. 1a). Each tone lasted 250 ms, with no gap between tones. The sequence was presented at equal amplitude to both ears simultaneously; however, when one ear received 400 Hz the other received 800 Hz, and vice versa. Thus the same two-tone combination was presented constantly, but the ear of input for each component switched every 250 ms.
Spectral effects in quantum teleportation

We use a multimode description of polarization-encoded qubits to analyze the quantum teleportation protocol. Specifically, we investigate how the teleportation fidelity depends on the spectral correlations inherent to polarization-entangled photons generated by type-II spontaneous parametric down conversion. We find that the maximal obtainable fidelity depends on the spectral entanglement carried by the joint probability amplitude, a result which we quantify for the case of a joint spectrum approximated by a correlated Gaussian function. We contrast these results with a similar analysis of the visibility obtained in a polarization-correlation experiment.
Experiments with Oval: a radically tailorable tool for cooperative work

This article describes a series of tests of the generality of a “radically tailorable” tool for cooperative work. Users of this system can create applications by combining and modifying four kinds of building blocks: objects, views, agents, and links. We found that user-level tailoring of these primitives can provide most of the functionality found in well-known cooperative work systems such as gIBIS, Coordinator, Lotus Notes, and Information Lens. These primitives, therefore, appear to provide an elementary “tailoring language” out of which a wide variety of integrated information management and collaboration applications can be constructed by end users.
Design of Small-Molecule Peptidic and Nonpeptidic Smac Mimetics

Smac/DIABLO is a protein released from mitochondria into the cytosol in response to apoptotic stimuli. Smac promotes apoptosis at least in part through antagonizing inhibitor of apoptosis proteins (IAPs), including XIAP, cIAP-1, and cIAP-2. Smac interacts with these IAPs via its N-terminal AVPI binding motif. There has been an enormous interest in academic laboratories and pharmaceutical companies in the design of small-molecule Smac mimetics as potential anticancer agents. This task is particularly challenging because it involves targeting protein−protein interactions. Nevertheless, intense research has now generated potent, specific, cell-permeable small-molecule peptidomimetics and nonpeptidic mimetics. To date, two types of Smac mimetics have been reported, namely, monovalent and bivalent Smac mimetics. The monovalent compounds are designed to mimic the binding of a single AVPI binding motif to IAP proteins, whereas the bivalent compounds contain two AVPI binding motif mimetics tethered together throu...
Neural network detection of management fraud using published financial data

This paper uses a Artificial Neural Network (AutoNet) to develop a model for detecting management fraud. The study offers an in-depth examination of important publicly available predictors of fraudulent financial statements. We find a model with a high probability of detecting fraudulent financial statements on one sample. The study reinforces the validity and efficiency of AutoNet as a research tool and provides additional empirical evidence regarding the merits of suggested red flags for fraudulent financial statements. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
On the preparation of computer science professionals in academic institutions

One of the major problems facing the computing industry concerns the training of professionals. Many of the existing programs in computer science at academic institutions simply do not provide the preparation required for the practice of computer science in industry. This problem is due primarily, but not exclusively, to the failure of our academic institutions to consider the needs of industry in ordering their priorities and goals. Other causes are the specific failure of industry to make its needs known in an adequate manner to the academic institutions, and the general lack of communication between these communities. Regretfully, neither community is taking adequate steps to solve the problem. In this void of activity, we find the several professional societies trying to bridge the gap with programs for the certification of professionals.
Nuclear correlation functions in lattice QCD

We consider the problem of calculating the large number of Wick contractions necessary to compute states with the quantum numbers of many baryons in lattice QCD. We consider a constructive approach and a determinant-based approach and show that these methods allow the required contractions to be performed in a computationally manageable amount of time for certain choices of interpolating operators. Examples of correlation functions computed using these techniques are shown for the quantum numbers of the light nuclei, $^{4}\mathrm{He}$, $^{8}\mathrm{Be}$, $^{12}\mathrm{C}$, $^{16}\mathrm{O}$, and $^{28}\mathrm{Si}$.
Axions as dark matter particles

We overview the current status of axions as dark matter. The axion is the pseudo-Nambu–Goldstone boson which arises from the Peccei–Quinn solution to the strong CP problem. Additionally, cold axion populations that can contribute to the dark matter of the universe will be generated via this mechanism. After reviewing these topics, we focus on constraints from the laboratory, astrophysics and cosmology. We discuss the current status of experimental searches and the consequences of the distribution of dark matter axions in the galactic halo for these searches. The axion remains an excellent candidate for the dark matter and future experiments, particularly the Axion Dark Matter eXperiment (ADMX), will cover a large fraction of the axion parameter space.
Acute and nonobtuse triangulations of polyhedral surfaces

In this paper, we prove the existence of acute triangulations for general polyhedral surfaces. We also show how to obtain nonobtuse subtriangulations of triangulated polyhedral surfaces.
A systems approach to minicomputer I/O

You can tell a lot about a guy by the way he draws a block diagram of a computer system. If he draws the central processor and memory as small boxes off in a corner, then proceeds to fill the page with an elaborate portrait of the input/output system, he is usually referred to as (among other things) an "I/O type".
Simulation and analysis of V-22 tiltrotor aircraft forward-flight flowfield

The flowfield about a wing-fuselage-nacelle configuration of the V-22 tiltrotor aircraft at a freestream Mach number of 0.345 and angles of attack ranging from 7 to 16 deg is simulated by using a multizone, thin-layer NavierStokes method. The flow conditions yield a Reynolds number of 18.2 x 10 based on the wing chord for flight at an altitude of 10,000 ft. Major flow features including the three-dimensional flow separation from viscous-vortex interactions observed experimentally are captured by the simulation. The massive separation from the wing and the fore fuselage-sponson region for flows at high angles of attack creates free vortices that pass by the rear fuselage region, including the tail section of the aircraft.
Chorionic peptidase inactivates GnRH as a post-proline peptidase.

Recently, we have described a chorionic peptidase (C-ase-1) which inactivates gonadotropin releasing hormone (GnRH), oxytocin, angiotensin II and thyrotropin releasing hormone. Since all these hormones contain a proline residue, we proposed that C-ase-1 may act as a post-proline peptidase. Using HPLC and amino acid analyses, we have defined the products which resulted from enzymatic inactivation of GnRH by C-ase-1. The N-terminal nonapeptide of GnRH was isolated by HPLC and confirmed by amino acid composition analyses. Thus, it was demonstrated that C-ase-1 acts as a post-proline peptidase when inactivating GnRH, yielding the nonapeptide, i.e., des-Gly10-NH2-GnRH, and Gly-NH2. The levels of intrauterine GnRH, angiotensin II, oxytocin and thyrotropin releasing hormone may be affected and integrated by this enzyme. Thus, C-ase-1 may play an important role in the regulation of the paracrine and endocrine function during pregnancy.
Efficient steady-state solution techniques for variably saturated groundwater flow

Abstract We consider the simulation of steady-state variably saturated groundwater flow using Richards’ equation (RE). The difficulties associated with solving RE numerically are well known. Most discretization approaches for RE lead to nonlinear systems that are large and difficult to solve. The solution of nonlinear systems for steady-state problems can be particularly challenging, since a good initial guess for the steady-state solution is often hard to obtain, and the resulting linear systems may be poorly scaled. Common approaches like Picard iteration or variations of Newton’s method have their advantages but perform poorly with standard globalization techniques under certain conditions. Pseudo-transient continuation has been used in computational fluid dynamics for some time to obtain steady-state solutions for problems in which Newton’s method with standard line-search strategies fails. Here, we examine the use of pseudo-transient continuation as well as Newton’s method combined with standard globalization techniques for steady-state problems in heterogeneous domains. We investigate the methods’ performance with direct and preconditioned Krylov iterative linear solvers. We then make recommendations for robust and efficient approaches to obtain steady-state solutions for RE under a range of conditions.
Two-dimensional topographic responses in magnetotellurics modeled using finite elements

We simulate the magnetotelluric response to two‐dimensional earth topography using finite elements. Linear interpolation of the secondary field parallel to strike over triangular elements allows accurate modeling of inclined resistivity boundaries, including topographic surfaces. To avoid discontinuities in field derivatives or resistivity, care must be taken that the nodal values of the field parallal to strike used to obtain the auxiliary secondary fields are kept within uniform earth media. The nodal locations may be shifted, but the derivatives still are evaluated at the field points of interest. Correct values may be returned at gentle breaks in slope as well as along straight surfaces. The finite‐element program is verified by comparison with the analytic transverse magnetic response of a hemicylindrical depression and with Rayleigh scattering and transmission surface results for transverse electric and transverse magnetic polarization. Agreement with the other methods generally is excellent, with t...
Effect of oxidation and other treatments on hydrogasification rate of coal char

Hydrogasification of coal and other chars is a much slower process than steam or carbon dioxide gasification; moreover, the rate of gasification in pure hydrogen decreases sharply with conversion for most carbons. To better understand and overcome this rate behaviour, the effects of oxidation (partial burnoff in air at 375 °C), demineralization, heat treatment at 1000 °C, and K2CO3 addition on hydrogasification rate of Illinois No. 6 coal char and Saran char are investigated. Oxidation of partially hydrogasified or heat-treated chars results in up to a threefold increase in subsequent hydrogasification rate; the enhancement propagates for 5–10% conversion following oxidation. Partial burnoff prior to hydrogasification enhances the rate by only about 30% for 1–2% additional conversion. Addition of potassium carbonate catalyst eliminates the decay in rate for mineral-free chars. Oxidation and addition of catalyst enhance the rate of hydrogasification either by removing strongly chemisorbed hydrogen or by generating surface structure active in hydrogasification.
Whittaker Categories for the Virasoro Algebra

This article builds on work from [16], where the authors described Whittaker modules for the Virasoro algebra. Using the framework outlined in [3], the current article investigates a category of Virasoro-algebra modules that includes Whittaker modules. Results in this article include a classification of the simple modules in the category and a description of certain induced modules that are a natural generalization of simple Whittaker modules.
Flatness of the linked Grassmannian

We show that the linked Grassmannian scheme, which arises in a functorial compactification of spaces of limit linear series, and in local models of certain Shimura varieties, is Cohen-Macaulay, reduced, and flat. We give an application to spaces of limit linear series.
How to emulate shared memory

Abstract We present a simple algorithm for emulating an N -processor CROW PRAM on an N -ode butterfly. Each step of the PRAM is emulated in time O (log N ) with high probability, using FIFO queues of size O (1) at each node. The only use of randomization is in selecting a hash function to distribute the shared address space of the PRAM onto the nodes of the butterfly. The routing itself is both deterministic and oblivious, and messages are combined without the use of associative memories or explicit sorting. As a corollary we improve the result of Pippenger by routing permutations with bounded queues in logarithmic time, without the possibility of deadlock. Besides being optimal, our algorithm has the advantage of extreme simplicity and is readily suited for use in practice.
Finding Topology in a Factory: Configuration Spaces

(2002). Finding Topology in a Factory: Configuration Spaces. The American Mathematical Monthly: Vol. 109, No. 2, pp. 140-150.
A separable model for dynamic networks

Models of dynamic networks - networks that evolve over time - have manifold applications. We develop a discrete-time generative model for social network evolution that inherits the richness and flexibility of the class of exponential-family random graph models. The model - a Separable Temporal ERGM (STERGM) - facilitates separable modeling of the tie duration distributions and the structural dynamics of tie formation. We develop likelihood-based inference for the model, and provide computational algorithms for maximum likelihood estimation. We illustrate the interpretability of the model in analyzing a longitudinal network of friendship ties within a school.
An Empirical Analysis of Residential Property Flipping

Beginning with a time-dependent definition of a house flip, the analysis examines flipping activity in Las Vegas from 1994 through mid-2007. We find that flip homes tend to be older and smaller than non-flip homes. Moreover, as the residential property market in Las Vegas begins to take off, flip homes become a more significant percentage of total sales. At the height of the housing boom in 2004, a typical flip produces an annual rate of return exceeding 60%. Even after adjusting for opportunity costs, this translates to economic profits of nearly 20%. However, shortly thereafter, the frenetic pace of the market begins to subside, and by 2007, economic returns to a flip fall to 0.
D2-branes in B fields

This note focuses on the coupling of a type-IIA D2-brane to a background B field. It is shown that the D0-brane charge arising from the integral over the D2-brane of the pullback of the B field is cancelled by bulk contributions, for a compact D2-brane wrapping a homotopically trivial cycle in space-time. In M-theory this cancellation is a straightforward consequence of momentum conservation. This result resolves a puzzle recently posed by Bachas, Douglas and Schweigert related to the quantization of R-R charges on stable spherical D2-branes on the group manifold SU(2).
Thermally Stimulated Currents and Alkali-Ion Motion in Silicate Glasses

The thermally stimulated polarizatioddepolarization (TSPC/TSDC) current technique is used to investigate alkali-ion motion in silicate glasses. lbo TSDC peaks are observed in all these glasses along with the dc conduction current at high temperatures. The low-temperature TSDC peak magnitude is essentially constant, but the second TSDC peak magnitude varies with the type of alkali ion present in these glasses. Based on a proposed model, the two TSDC peaks are interpreted in terms of the localized alkali-ion motion around the nonbridging oxygen ion and through the limited conduction pathways, respectively.
Effective depth of spectral line formation in planetary atmospheres

The effective level of line formation for spectroscopic absorption lines has long been regarded as a useful parameter for determining average atmospheric values of the quantities involved in line formation. The identity of this parameter was recently disputed. The dependence of this parameter on the average depth where photons are absorbed in a semi-infinite atmosphere is established. It is shown that the mean depths derived by others are similar in nature and behavior.
In Search of Excellent Management

Despite important advances in recent years, no general agreement exists concerning what constitutes management excellence. Specific knowledge of how managerial behavior is perceived and evaluated by others will help to resolve unsettled questions about what is meant by management excellence and improve the actual decisions of managers. This article examines the determinants of managerial excellence as perceived by corporate CEOs, directors, and financial analysts in Fortune magazine's annual survey of the best-managed American firms in 33 industries. While the firms perceived to be best managed are more profitable, less risky, grow faster and reward their stockholders more than less well-managed firms, these variables explain only about 30 per cent of the variance in management ratings. The firms perceived to be best managed have more involvement in international markets and research and development, while large firm size and firm diversification reflect negatively upon perceived managerial quality. The relative inability of conventional financial measures of firm performance to explain perceptions of managerial excellence underlines the complex nature both of these perceptions and strategic behavior. The results support the argument that excellent management depends upon a diverse set of competencies and values, as well as the contention that the most important characteristic of firm performance is management's ability to transform the firm and adapt to a rapidly changing environment. By contrast, little support is found for the maximization of stockholder wealth criterion.
Higher derivative corrections to Lifshitz backgrounds

We explore the effect of curvature-square corrections on Lifshitz solutions to the Einstein-Maxwell-dilaton system. After exhibiting the renormalized Lifshitz scaling solution to the system with parameterized R 2 corrections, we turn to a toy model with coupling $ g\left( \phi \right)C_{{\mu \nu \rho \sigma}}^2 $ and demonstrate that such a term can both stabilize the dilaton and resolve the Lifshitz horizon to AdS2 × $ {{\mathbb{R}}^2} $ . As an example, we construct numerical flows from AdS4 in the UV to an intermediate Lifshitz region and then to AdS2 × $ {{\mathbb{R}}^2} $ in the deep IR.
Trends for intensities of vibrational overtones in methane

Abstract The concept of local vibrational modes is examined quantitatively for spherical-top molecules. New theoretical formulations of transition electric dipole moments are developed for diatomics and local-mode spherical tops. Transition moments inferred from high-resolution spectra of ν 3 , 2ν 3 and 3ν 3 in 12 CH 4 and 13 CH 4 constitute the data base from which comparisons between theory and experiment, and predictions, are made.
Phase changes in the niobium-hydrogen system—II. low temperature hydride phase transitions

Abstract Phase transitions which result from hydrogen ordering in non-stoichiometric niobium-hydrogen alloys were studied using transmission electron microscopy and electron diffraction techniques. The composition range studied was H/Nb from 0.75 to 1.07 and the temperature range was 77–373 K. Both microstructural and crystal structure information was obtained for the various phases and during the phase transitions. The transitions studied were the α′ → β, ϵ → β, λ → β, and the mixed ϵ and λ phase field in the composition range 0.75 2 structure at H/Nb > 1.0. It was shown that the crystal structures can be accounted for on the basis of the ordering of H vacancies in the off-stoichimetric compositions. This ordering generally gives rise to a significant increase in the size of the unit cell. The λ phases are characterized by a series of long period superlattices the periodicities of which depend on the composition. These structures can be described by static hydrogen density waves. Some of the phase transitions, such as the ϵ → β can be described with the use of dynamic hydrogen density waves as a partial second order transition.
Can World Real Interest Rates Explain Business Cycles in a Small Open Economy

Abstract While the world real interest rate is potentially an important mechanism for transmitting international shocks to small open economies, much of the recent quantitative research that studies this mechanism concludes that it has little effect on output, investment, and net exports. We re-examine the importance of world real interest rate shocks using an approach that reverses the standard real business cycle methodology. We begin with a small open economy business cycle model. But, rather than specifying the stochastic processes for the shocks and then solving and simulating the model to evaluate how well these shocks explain business cycles, we use the model to back out the shocks that are consistent with the model's observable endogenous variables. Then we use variance decompositions to examine the importance of each shock. We apply this methodology to Canada and find that world real interest rate shocks can play an important role in explaining the cyclical variation in a small open economy. In particular, they can explain up to one-third of the fluctuations in output and more than half of the fluctuations in net exports and net foreign assets.
Taking a New Look at State-Directed Industrialization

State-Directed Development: Political Power and Industrialization in the Global Periphery. By Atul Kohli. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004. 478 pp., $85.00 (ISBN: 0-521-83670-0), $27.99 paper (ISBN: 0-521-54525-0). The questions of “why some countries are rich and some others are poor” (North and Thomas 1973; Rosenberg and Birdzell 1986; Diamond 1999; Landes 1999) or “what it would take for less developed countries to break their vicious circle and join the club of the rich” (Corbo, Krueger, and Ossa 1985; De Soto 2000; Easterly 2001) have long occupied the minds of the students of development studies. However, a new generation of scholars, who are focusing on the comparative performance of less developed countries in order to explain why some developing countries have been more successful than others, has radically altered the terrain of development economics (see, for example, Bates 1981; Frieden 1991; Evans 1995; Waldner 1999). Atul Kohli's State-Directed Development: Political Power and Industrialization in the Global Periphery represents a stellar example of this new generation of scholarship. Although the book is entitled State-Directed Development , Kohli is mainly concerned with “industrialization” rather than “development.” Broadly speaking, Kohli takes the concept of “development” in its narrowest sense. He deliberately leaves out such issues as human development, the distribution of wealth, as well as the environmental and social concerns that usually accompany today's postmodern discussions of development (Sen 1999). Nonetheless, State-Directed Development explores a key puzzle in the study of late–late development, namely, why some developing nations have been more successful at facilitating industrialization than others. In search of an answer to this highly challenging question, Kohli openly allies himself …
Recent developments in the chemistry of early transition metal porphyrin compounds

Abstract A review with 243 references on early metal porphyrins involving transition metals in groups 3–6 with special emphasis on out-of-plane metal porphyrins with cis-coordination is presented. The preparation and reactivity of metal porphyrins as well as the structural parameters of crystallographically characterized out-of-plane derivatives are discussed.
A numerical renormalization group study of laser-induced freezing

We study the phenomenon of laser-induced freezing, within a numerical renormalization scheme which allows explicit comparison with a recent defect-mediated melting theory. Precise values for the "bare" dislocation fugacities and elastic moduli of the 2d hard-disk system are obtained from a constrained Monte Carlo simulation sampling only configurations without dislocations. These are used as inputs to appropriate renormalization flow equations to obtain the equilibrium phase diagram. We show that the flow equations need to be correct at least up to third order in defect fugacity to reproduce meaningful results.
Intuition, Reason and Faith in Science

FROM the earliest times scientific ideas, even when crudely conceived, have been of immeasurable importance, not only for man's material advancement and control over Nature, but also in modifying and expanding hisphilosophic and religious outlook. In the effort to obtain a better understanding of his place in the cosmos, he is compelled to proceed largelyby considerations of analogy based upon supposed or actual fact. So he turns more and more toward the ever-widening vistas suggested by science in its continual discoveries of new truth.
Zinc, human diseases and aging

Zinc is one of the most important trace elements in the body for many biological functions; it is required as a catalytic component for more than 200 enzymes, and as a structural constituent of many proteins, hormones, neuropeptides, hormone receptors, and probably polynucleotides. Due to its role in cell division and differentiation, programmed cell death, gene transcription, biomembrane functioning and obviously many enzymatic activities, zinc is considered a major element in assuring the correct functioning of an organism, from the very first embryonic stages to the last periods of life. This biological role together with the many factors that modulate zinc turnover explains on one hand, the variety of clinical and laboratory signs resulting from its reduced bioavailability, and on the other, the high number of human pathologies characterized by alterations in the zinc pool. As zinc supplementation is efficacious in most of these conditions, it is regarded more as an oriented therapeutical support, than a simple dietary integrator. Furthermore, the relevance of zinc status to many age-associated diseases and, according to experimental studies, the aging itself of the major homeostatic mechanisms of the body, i.e., the nervous, neuroendocrine and immune systems, places zinc in a pivotal position in the economy of the aging organism.
The UCLA Electronic Statistics Textbook

Abstract UCLA Electronic Statistics Textbook is an evolving bare-bones version of an electronic textbook. It brings together existing material that is appropriate to be displayed on the WWW , and tries to integrate this material into an integrated product. The emphasis is on hypertext, graphics, and interactive demos.