cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Classified boards, the cost of debt, and firm performance.

Abstract This paper documents that classified boards substantially reduce the cost of debt. The evidence is not consistent with the argument that bondholders benefit from board classification because they are concerned about hostile takeovers. Instead, the results suggest that the lessened concern for takeovers associated with a classified board structure reduces managerial risk-taking, and increases managerial incentive for financial disclosure, with both effects inuring to bondholders’ benefit. Consistent with prior literature, classified boards on average are associated with a lower firm performance. However, under the circumstances that the agency conflict between shareholders and bondholders is severe, the performance effect of classified boards appears benign.
Is Texas Tough on Crime But Soft on Criminal Procedure

Although Texas is well known for imposing tough punishments on convicted defendants, it is surprisingly generous in affording criminal procedure protections. In a variety of areas, including search and seizure rules, confession requirements, the availability of bail, discovery obligations on prosecutors, or jury trial guarantees, Texas affords protections vastly in excess of what is required by the United States Constitution. Even more shockingly, these criminal procedure guarantees come almost entirely from Texas statutes approved by the legislature, not activist rules imposed by judges. This article explores Texas's reputation as a tough-on-crime state, as well as the fact that the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure is extremely favorable to criminal defendants. The article explains the seeming inconsistency between Texas being tough on crime but soft on criminal procedure.
Trade, Production Networks and the Exchange Rate

Abstract This paper examines the effect of cross-border production sharing on trade and exchange-rate behavior. When a country's exports contain imported components, changes in exchange rates tend to have offsetting effects on imports and exports. Imports may fall, remain unchanged or even rise with depreciation, depending on the share of domestic value-added in exports. The effect of domestic and foreign GDP on imports and exports is also altered by production sharing. These behavior patterns are identified in trade in motor vehicles between the United States and Mexico with the aid of OLS and VEC techniques.
The Illegitimacy of Preventing NGO Participation

This article discusses whether non-governmental organizations (NGOs) may be excluded from the international governance system. The article describes three ideological viewpoints of NGOs: 1) state positivism, which views states as the ultimate decision-maker and finds that an international organization (IO) cannot grant any role to NGOs that is outside of the IO’s founding treaty, 2) functionalism, which finds the IO to be the decision-maker regarding the role played by an NGO, and 3) the community view, which views the IO as a compilation of decision-makers and places an individual, rather than a state, at the center. Although the majority view is that there is no obligation to permit NGO participation in IOs, I support the minority view that such a duty may exist. These categories provide innovative thoughts on how to incorporate NGOs in the international system in the future.
Employee treatment and firm innovation

We identify firm innovation as a new channel by which employee treatment affects firm value. Growth and innovation incentive theories support positive effects of “good” employee treatment on innovation. Alternatively, entrenchment theory suggests such treatment will lead to complacency and shirking, hence deterring innovation. These opposing views merit investigation since in the “new economy,” human capital is increasingly essential to firm value and the growth and success of a firm has become more reliant on corporate innovation. Using the KLD Research & Analytics, Inc. SOCRATES database and newly acquired patent/citation data, we find an overall significant positive relationship between positive employee treatment and innovation input (R&D), quantity (Patents), and quality (Citations). Furthermore, we find that favorable employee treatment improves innovation focus – innovation projects more related to firms’ core business. These findings, robust to an alternate data source and endogeneity concerns, are consistent with the theories of growth and innovation incentive and suggest corporate innovation represents a channel by which employee treatment enhances firm value.
The Social Context of Oncofertility

A field known as oncofertility provides female cancer patients with a variety of ways to preserve their fertility so that they may bear genetically related children after successful cancer treatment. Some women delay cancer therapy so doctors can collect their eggs, which are then cryopreserved in an unfertilized state or used to create embryos through in vitro fertilization for freezing. An experimental procedure for preserving the fertility of prepubertal girls, known as ovarian tissue cryopreservation, involves surgically removing their ovarian tissue and growing the immature eggs to a mature state so they can be frozen and stored until the girls are old enough to bear a child. Ethical questions raised by fertility preservation are not confined to the clinic and bedside; rather, these questions extend to the impact of fertility preservation on society and the way social forces influence women's decisions about their fertility. Gender, class, and race inequities help determine the reproductive options available to these women, including their access to assisted reproductive technologies, and the consequences that their childbearing decisions have for them, their families, and their communities. The uses and outcomes of novel technologies like oncofertility treatment are determined by their social context at the same time that these technologies have an impact on society. Considering the role social context plays in the ethics of fertility preservation reveals several paradoxical tensions that policy makers will have to resolve. There are compelling ethical reasons to restore to women cancer survivors the capacity to have a child so easily preserved for men and for the public to support wide access to this restoration. Yet an investigation of the underlying structural injustices that place women in conditions of infertility, poor health, and inadequate access to medical care raise questions about the just distribution of public resources used to pay for oncofertility and other health care services.
Charter Schools, Vouchers, and the Public Good

The number of charter schools has exploded over the past two decades. The first charter school was opened in 1992, and, at the time, only two states in the country authorized their creation.1 Within five years, over half of the states authorized charter schools, and the number in operation grew exponentially.2 Today, all but ten states authorize charter schools, over five thousand charter schools are in operation,3 and nearly two million children attend them.4 Both state and federal programs have strongly encouraged this growth.5 Due to initial concerns over their constitutionality, vouchers have not yet experienced the same level of ascendency, but with legal uncertainties more recently resolved,6 calls to expand vouchers are becoming frequent.7
Tort Liabilities and Torts Law: The New Frontier of Chinese Legal Horizon

China did not have a single body of torts law until 2009. As a new piece of legislation in the country, the Torts Law of China, effective as of July 1, 2010, forms a comprehensive framework that regulates torts and provides a legal mechanism to govern liabilities and remedies. A product of the civil law tradition, common law practice and Chinese reality combined, adoption of the Torts Law is hailed in China as an important move toward a civil society that is ruled by law. The Torts Law premises torts on the fault liability with a few exceptions where the non-fault liability is imposed. Structurally, the Torts Law is distinctive in that it stresses principles and rules of general application, and in the meantime prescribes peculiar tortfeasors and special torts that need to be dealt with differently. In substance, the Torts Law is ambitious because it intends to embrace not only traditional torts but also the newly developed area of torts. In many aspects, the Torts Law is also keen to maintain the Chinese characteristics. Still, there is a substantial gap between the law on the paper and the law in action. Many ambiguities exist, which require both legislative and judicial interpretations. In addition, many unsolved issues may become obstacles to the application of Torts Law. More significantly, Torts Law enforcement remains a major challenge to the Chinese legal system in general and to the Chinese judiciary in particular. 1 Associate Professor of Law, Temple University Beasley School of Law
OPTIMALITY OF STATE‐DEPENDENT (s, S) POLICIES IN INVENTORY MODELS WITH MARKOV‐MODULATED DEMAND AND LOST SALES

Markov-modulated processes have been used in stochastic inventory models with setup costs for modeling demand under the influence of uncertain environmental factors, such as fluctuating economic and market conditions. The analyses of these models have been carried out in the literature only under the assumption that unsatisfied demand is fully backlogged. The lost sales situation occurs in many retail establishments such as department stores and supermarkets. We use the analysis of the Markovian demand model with backlogging to analyze the lost sales case; in particular, we establish the optimality of an (s , S) -type policy under fairly general conditions. (DYNAMIC INVENTORY MODEL; MARKOV CHAIN; (s, S) POLICY; LOST SALES)
The Cost of High-Powered Incentives: Employee Gaming in Enterprise Software Sales

This article investigates the pricing distortions that arise from the use of a common nonlinear incentive scheme at a leading enterprise software vendor. The empirical results demonstrate that salespeople are adept at gaming the timing of deal closure to take advantage of the vendor’s accelerating commission scheme. Specifically, salespeople agree to significantly lower pricing in quarters in which they have a financial incentive to close a deal, resulting in mispricing that costs the vendor 6%–8% of revenue. Robustness checks demonstrate that price discrimination by the vendor does not explain the identified effects.
Cultural districts and economic development in American cities

Abstract Arts policy at the local level in the United States has taken a turn toward emphasis on economic development. In particular, a lively cultural scene is held to be an attractor of mobile, skilled workers, entrepreneurs, and businesses, both in providing a location with interesting opportunities for consumption of culture, and as providing an ambiance that could lead to greater productivity in all industries that rely upon creativity and innovation. This paper assesses the hypothesis that public investments in the arts can spur local development, and the implication for the choices over which are the most effective public investments if the hypothesis is true. It critically examines changes in state and federal arts policy that have shifted focus toward creative places and cultural districts, rather than just artists or nonprofit arts organizations.
Hopwood v. Texas: Strict in Theory or Fatal in Fact

This article will examine the Hopwood decisions. Part II will review the factual and legal history behind the case. Part III will discuss the District, Circuit, and Supreme Court decisions. Finally, Part IV will critique these decisions and offer a view into the future for affirmative action admissions policies.
Wollschlaeger , a Patient’s Right to Privacy, and a Renewed Focus on Mental Health Treatment

In response to doctors pushing gun control agendas on patients, Florida enacted the Firearm Owners Privacy Act. The law, upheld by the Eleventh Circuit in Wollschlaeger v. Governor of Florida, protects patients from intrusive lines of inquiry unrelated to their treatment and from discrimination due to firearm ownership. While patients in Florida benefit greatly from the Firearm Owners Privacy Act, this note argues for more specific language in the law, which would parallel language in the Florida Mental Health Act (“Baker Act”). The proposed changes would limit inquiries into firearm ownership to instances where there is a substantial likelihood of serious bodily harm to the patient or others.First, this note will explore the evolution of healthcare regulation. Part II will begin with a brief discussion of a few major developments in regulation at the federal level. In particular, regulations pertaining to tobacco usage and Medicare will be used to show how healthcare regulations came about and gained acceptance, and the faculty the federal government has to impose such regulations. Along with the development of regulations, the advancement and changing nature of healthcare itself will be discussed. This note will focus on how mental health treatment, using preventive medicine as a backdrop, has advanced since the mid-1900s. After discussing healthcare at the macro-level, this note will narrow its focus to regulations in Florida, namely the Baker Act and regulations of patient medical records.Second, there will be a thorough analysis of the Firearm Owners Privacy Act. Part III will include both an analysis of the plain text of the law and its legislative history. Then, this note will examine the implications of the Eleventh Circuit’s interpretation of the Act in Wollschlaeger v. Governor of Florida.Third, this note will propose changes to the Firearm Owners Privacy Act based on its legislative history and the Baker Act. As enacted, the Firearm Owners Privacy Act fails to effectuate its intended purpose, which is to protect the rights of patients by prohibiting agenda-driven inquiries into firearm ownership. In particular, Section 790.338 should be amended so that the exception to the general prohibition of inquiry into firearm ownership requires a good faith belief that there is a substantial likelihood of harm, instead of only relevance to the patient’s medical care or safety.
SOCIAL SCIENCE RESEARCH METHODS IN INTERNET TIME

This article discusses three interrelated challenges related to conducting social science research in ‘Internet Time’. (1) The rate at which the Internet is both diffusing through society and developing new capacities is unprecedented. It creates some novel challenges for scholarly research. (2) Many of our most robust research methods are based upon ceteris paribus assumptions that do not hold in the online environment. The rate of change online narrows the range of questions that can be answered using traditional tools. Meanwhile, (3) new research methods are untested and often rely upon data sources that are incomplete and systematically flawed. The paper details these challenges, then proposes that scholars embrace the values of transparency and kludginess in order to answer important research questions in a rapidly-changing communications environment.
Born for Finance? Experimental Evidence of the Impact of Finance Education

What impact does a finance education have on the behaviors of individuals? Experiments of an investment game are conducted where a wealth-creating investment decision is made. After it grows, the recipient selects how much to return. The econometric method used allows for a disentangling of the selection effects from learning. We show that finance students are both born and made. Those who choose to study finance do not necessarily make trusting investments or volunteer to return the proceeds, but the effect of the education is to reverse these behaviors promoting pro-social, trusting, and reciprocating choices that generate wealth.
Significance of Forecast Precision: The Importance of Investors’ Expectations

I investigate whether alignment between individual investors’ expectations about forecast precision and actual forecast precision affects their estimates of firm value, and whether this relationship is mediated by individual investors’ perceptions of management credibility and future firm growth. Experimental results confirm that when expected and actual forecast precision align, individual investors estimate higher firm stock prices than when expected and actual forecast precision do not align. I also provide evidence of a mediation path through which the misalignment between expected and actual forecast precision affects individual investors’ perceptions of management credibility, future firm growth, and estimates of firm stock price. My findings help reconcile inconsistencies in prior earnings forecast literature and inform managers and researchers about strategies that lead to higher perceptions of management credibility and firm value. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.
The Changing Behavior of the Term Structure of Interest Rates

We reexamine the expectations theory of the term structure using data at the short end of the maturity spectrum. We find that prior to the founding of the Federal Reserve System in 1915, the spread between long rates and short rates has substantial predictive power for the path of interest rates; after 1915, however, the spread contains much less predictive power. We then show that the short rate is approximately a random walk after the founding of the Fed but not before. This latter fact, coupled with even slight variation in the term premium, can explain the observed change in 1915 in the performance of the expectations theory. We suggest that the random walk character of the short rate may be attributable to the Federal Reserve's commitment to stabilizing interest rates.
CEO Tenure, Board Composition, and Regulation

We examine the effect of deregulation in the 1970s and 1980s on the size of the board of directors, its composition, and on CEO tenure. Using panel data techniques, we consider those effects in the aggregate and for individual industries while controlling for firm size, CEO age, time and firm-specific effects. We conclude that deregulation significantly reduced the number of outsiders and the number of directors, but had little effect on the proportion of outsiders. We then examine the effect of deregulation on CEO tenure using hazard analysis. We find that deregulation increased the hazard rate, or reduced the tenure of CEOs.
Dredging up the past: Lifelogging, Memory, and Surveillance

Today, we use the term “time capsule” to describe just about anything intended to preserve the past for the future. The original Westinghouse time capsule housed specific articles selected by a committee formed to design an optimal record of national life for retrieval in five millennia. The Westinghouse Committee stocked its time capsule with small commonly used articles, textiles and materials, and miscellany including books, money, seeds, and scientific and electrical devices. The Committee also elected to store documents on microfilm, a newsreel of current events, and messages from Albert Einstein and other “noted men of our time.” In case the world forgets, a time capsule affords a means to remember. In 1974, the artist Andy Warhol began what was described as a “time capsule” project of his own, 3 a query of his generation’s notions
Unintended Consequences of LOLR Facilities: The Case of Illiquid Leverage

Although the direct effect of lender-of-last-resort (LOLR) facilities is to forestall the default of financial firms that lose funding liquidity, an indirect effect is to allow these firms to minimize deleveraging sales of illiquid assets. This unintended consequence of LOLR facilities manifests itself as excess illiquid leverage in the financial sector, can make future liquidity shortfalls more likely, and can lead to an increase in default risks. Furthermore, this increase in default risk can occur despite the fact that the combination of LOLR facilities and reduced asset sales raises the prices of illiquid assets. The behavior of U.S. broker-dealers during the crisis of 2007–09 is consistent with this unintended consequence. In particular, given the Federal Reserve’s LOLR facilities, broker-dealers could afford to try to wait out the crisis. Although they did reduce traditional measures of leverage to varying degrees, they failed to reduce sufficiently their illiquid leverage, which contributed to their failures or near failures. Several mechanisms to address this unintended consequence of LOLR facilities are proposed.
Estimating Standard Errors in Finance Panel Data Sets: Comparing Approaches

In both corporate finance and asset pricing empirical work, researchers are often confronted with panel data. In these data sets, the residuals may be correlated across firms and across time, and OLS standard errors can be biased. Historically, the two literatures have used different solutions to this problem. Corporate finance has relied on clustered standard errors, while asset pricing has used the Fama-MacBeth procedure to estimate standard errors. This paper examines the different methods used in the literature and explains when the different methods yield the same (and correct) standard errors and when they diverge. The intent is to provide intuition as to why the different approaches sometimes give different answers and give researchers guidance for their use.
Facing a Crisis with Calmness? The Global Response to the Fukushima Nuclear Disaster

Literature expects that an attitude toward nuclear power is in direct proportion to the perceived risk of accidents at an operational nuclear power plant; that is, the oppositional attitude is based on the view that nuclear technology is risky and support for nuclear power is related to a perceived low risk and/or potential benefit. However, it is misleading to assume that individuals’ risk perception alone can linearly explain their position after such an accident. The association between risk perception and attitude toward nuclear power varies significantly according to country but, until now, has been largely unexamined. This article takes into consideration the effects of structural factors on that relationship by examining public attitudes toward nuclear energy after the Fukushima nuclear accident in March 2011 and reveals that the need for the efficient production of electricity (i.e., nuclear energy) outweighs concern for the potential danger of a nuclear incident. Although a country's dependence on nuclear power for the production of electricity engenders anti-nuclear attitudes, it is evident that a level of economic development largely alleviates any negativity relative to that energy source.
The State's Interest in Potential Life

Courts have resolved a range of controversies by casual appeal to the state's interest in "potential life" that Roe held capable of overriding even fundamental rights. My analysis of this potential-life interest reveals its use to mean not one but four species of concern. I call these prenatal welfare, postnatal welfare, social values, and social effects and demonstrate how they operate under different conditions and with varying levels of strength.
Shoes That Did Not Drop

It is not possible to capture the essence of Ed Cooper: his spirit and intelligence suffuse the rules process (and probably other processes as well). What that process produces, he improves. What that process receives, he evaluates. All who have been involved in that process have been enriched by Ed. I can therefore only write about a small piece of his pervasive influence. I take "Shoes That Did Not Drop" as my topic because I appreciate, by now, that what the Advisory Committee on Civil Rules does not do is, in some ways, as important as what it does. Similarly, the decision not to do something is equally important as, and may be more difficult than, the decision to do something. It may sometimes seem that amending the Rules is too easy. Greg Joseph once said that they are amended as often as the telephone book. Some even think that it was a mistake to create a Rules Committee. These reactions are overstated, however. Amendments do not and should not happen often. Amending the rules is not easy and should not be. But a general appreciation of those truths does not mean that it is obvious when to go forward and when not to do so. There are certainly times when the clamor for action is very loud, and the risk of seeming to be a "do-nothing" body is unnerving. Sometimes that clamor may come from representatives of Congress, which can make inaction seem a particularly dubious outcome. Moreover, compared to the rulemaking titans of the past, it may seem that we are pygmies in the present, unable to get much of anything of consequence off the ground. So I thought I would reflect on some things that we did not try to get off the ground, or that we allowed to fall to the ground, and pay tribute in this way to the enduring gentle guidance we have received from Ed.
Dynamic Liquidity and Mutual Fund Performance

This article introduces a new measure of liquidity for equity mutual funds. This measure, the dynamic liquidity score (DLS), is a combination of a fund’s money flow and its volatility around money flow. The authors show that a fund’s dynamic liquidity score is an improved indicator of fund liquidity and can be used as a signal of performance. For example, in a volatile market, a high DLS is associated with a higher fund return, whereas in a stable market, DLS is negatively associated with the fund return. Overall, the impact of dynamic liquidity on fund performance is short term and time varying.
The Constructive Role of Confusion in Trademark

This Article argues that consumer confusion plays a pervasive and important role in our trademark system. This argument directly challenges well-established orthodoxy. Numerous Supreme Court opinions and leading academics take the position that trademark law exists to reduce consumer confusion as much as possible. Indeed, courts generally justify aggressive creation and enforcement of trademark rights on the ground that these rights reduce consumer confusion or its economic equivalent, consumer search costs. Unfortunately, this construction of trademark law rests on a fundamental misunderstanding about how consumer confusion, the trademark system, and the operation of markets relate to one another. In particular, trademark orthodoxy considers consumer confusion always harmful. Aggressive elimination of even modest confusion therefore improves our trademark system and, by extension, the operation of markets because such modest confusion hinders the ability of consumers to find the goods they want. Two observations expose the inaccuracy of this orthodoxy. First, trademark law frequently accepts, creates, and even promotes the very sort of modest confusion that trademark orthodoxy despises. The ubiquitous presence of this confusion suggests that consumers should find their preferences seriously disrupted, but consumers generally find the goods they prefer without undue difficulty. Accordingly, it appears that modest confusion does not disrupt markets as badly as trademark orthodoxy states. Second,
Property and the Public Domain

Friends of the public domain are typically suspicious of property-talk. Property is perceived as the foe, epitomizing the threat of a shrinking public domain. I argue that this common view both misguided and unfortunate. It is misguided because the cleavage between property discourse and a thriving public domain is largely illusory: the form, the substance, and the history of property convey lessons that are rather helpful to the goal of revitalizing a rich and vibrant public domain. It is unfortunate because the concept of property has enormous rhetorical power in shaping people's expectations and therefore in the construction of what they deem normal, obvious, and thus clearly justified. For both reasons, friends of the public domain should embrace property, rather than fight it.
Real-Time Profitability of Published Anomalies: An Out-of-Sample Test

Empirical evidence on the out-of-sample performance of asset-pricing anomalies is mixed so far and arguably is often subject to data-snooping bias. This paper proposes a method that can significantly reduce this bias. Specifically, we consider a long-only strategy that involves only published anomalies and non-forward-looking filters and that each year recursively picks the best past-performer among such anomalies over a given training period. We find that this strategy can outperform the equity market even after transaction costs. Overall, our results suggest that published anomalies persist even after controlling for data-snooping bias.
Global Warming: An Econometric Analysis

﻿An econometric analysis is provided of the system of relationships involving global CO2 emissions, atmospheric concentration of anthropogenic CO2, and global surface temperature increase since the preindustrial era. Empirical methods used are feasible generalized least squares and generalized method of moments. It is found that global surface temperature increase is estimated to have a positive effect on the CO2 absorption capacity of the environment.
Discrete Hilbert space, the Born Rule, and quantum gravity

Quantum gravitational effects suggest a minimal length, or spacetime interval, of order of the Planck length. This in turn suggests that Hilbert space itself may be discrete rather than continuous....
Recovering American Administrative Law: Federalist Foundations, 1787-1801

By scholarly convention, federal administrative law begins in the United States in 1887 with the establishment of the Interstate Commerce Commission. Before that time the national government is perceived as a state of courts and parties in which federal administration was minimal and congressional statutes were either self-executing or so detailed as to preclude significant administrative discretion. Such administration as there was went on within executive departments under the exclusive control of the President, and judicial review of administrative action was virtually unknown. From this perspective the administrative state of the twenty-first century, with its independent commissions, combinations of legislative, executive, and judicial authority in administrative agencies, broad delegations of administrative discretion, limitations on presidential control of administration, and ubiquitous opportunities for judicial review of executive action, represents a radical transformation of original constitutional understandings. There is much truth in this conventional vision of nineteenth-century governance, but far from the whole truth. This Article begins a project of recovering the lost one hundred years of federal administrative law. For statutory sources, agency practice, and common law actions in the Federalist period reveal a quite different and more nuanced picture. From the very beginning some administrators were clothed with broad statutory authority, made general rules, adjudicated cases, were located outside of departments, and were tightly bound to congressional oversight and direction. And common law actions provided a judicial review that was often more intrusive and robust than we observe in contemporary practice. If there was an original understanding of the structure, function, and control of administration in early federal law, Federalist practices suggest that it was a much more complex and pragmatic understanding than our conventional account admits. author. Sterling Professor of Law & Management, Yale University. Special thanks to Michael Gadarian, Derek Kaufman, Laura Moranchek, Rebecca Smullin, Nick Stephanopoulos, and Andrew Woolf for research assistance, to colleagues at Yale and elsewhere for helpful advice, criticism, and encouragement, and to the Yale Law School for research support. MASHAW 4/10/2006 3:29:58 PM recovering american administrative law 1257 article contents
Globalization Implications for Human Resource Management Roles

Globalization influences organizations that compete for customers with high expectations for performance, quality, and cost. Globalization also exerts pressure on the Human Resource Management (HRM) function to adapt to changing organizational needs and add greater value. This paper first reviews global trends, HRM roles, and the implications of globalization and culture for HRM. Using Ulrich’s (Human resource champions: The new agenda for adding value and delivering results. Boston: Harvard Business School Press, 1997) HRM model and Hofstede’s (Culture’s consequences: Comparing values, behaviors, institutions and organizations across nations (2nd edition). Sage: Thousand Oaks, CA, 2001, Academy of Management Executive 7:81–94, 1993, Organizational Dynamics 9:42–63, 1980) model of national cultural differences, it is argued that knowledge of global business trends, cultural sensitivity, business knowledge, understanding local employment practices, technical skills, and innovation are increasingly important, especially in Multinational Corporations (MNC).
Efficient Computation of A Simplified Medial Axis

Applications of of the medial axis have been limited because of its instability and algebraic complexity. In this paper, we use a simplification of the medial axis, the θ-SMA, that is parameterized by a separation angle (θ) formed by the vectors connecting a point on the medial axis to the closest points on the boundary. We present a formal characterization of the degree of simplification of the θ-SMA as a function of θ, and we quantify the degree to which the simplified medial axis retains the features of the original polyhedron.We present a fast algorithm to compute an approximation of the θ-SMA. It is based on a spatial subdivision scheme, and uses fast computation of a distance field and its gradient using graphics hardware. The complexity of the algorithm varies based on the error threshold that is used, and is a linear function of the input size. We have applied this algorithm to approximate the SMA of models with tens or hundreds of thousands of triangles. Its running time varies from a few seconds, for a model consisting of hundreds of triangles, to minutes for highly complex models.
Lower-bounded and grading-restricted twisted modules for affine vertex (operator) algebras

Abstract We apply the construction of the universal lower-bounded generalized twisted modules by the author to construct universal lower-bounded and grading-restricted generalized twisted modules for affine vertex (operator) algebras. We prove that these universal twisted modules for affine vertex (operator) algebras are equivalent to suitable induced modules of the corresponding twisted affine Lie algebra or quotients of such induced modules by explicitly given submodules.
A Fast and Robust Place Recognition Approach for Stereo Visual Odometry Using LiDAR Descriptors

Place recognition is a core component of Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM) algorithms. Particularly in visual SLAM systems, previously-visited places are recognized by measuring the appearance similarity between images representing these locations. However, such approaches are sensitive to visual appearance change and also can be computationally expensive. In this paper, we propose an alternative approach adapting LiDAR descriptors for 3D points obtained from stereo-visual odometry for place recognition. 3D points are potentially more reliable than 2D visual cues (e.g., 2D features) against environmental changes (e.g., variable illumination) and this may benefit visual SLAM systems in long-term deployment scenarios. Stereo-visual odometry generates 3D points with an absolute scale, which enables us to use LiDAR descriptors for place recognition with high computational efficiency. Through extensive evaluations on standard benchmark datasets, we demonstrate the accuracy, efficiency, and robustness of using 3D points for place recognition over 2D methods.
Infusing Reachability-Based Safety into Planning and Control for Multi-agent Interactions

Within a robot autonomy stack, the planner and controller are typically designed separately, and serve different purposes. As such, there is often a diffusion of responsibilities when it comes to ensuring safety for the robot. We propose that a planner and controller should share the same interpretation of safety but apply this knowledge in a different yet complementary way. To achieve this, we use Hamilton-Jacobi (HJ) reachability theory at the planning level to provide the robot planner with the foresight to avoid entering regions with possible inevitable collision. However, this alone does not guarantee safety. In conjunction with this HJ reachability-infused planner, we propose a minimally-interventional multi-agent safety-preserving controller also derived via HJ-reachability theory. The safety controller maintains safety for the robot without unduly impacting planner performance. We demonstrate the benefits of our proposed approach in a multi-agent highway scenario where a robot car is rewarded to navigate through traffic as fast as possible, and we show that our approach provides strong safety assurances yet achieves the highest performance compared to other safety controllers.
An $l^2$ decoupling interpretation of efficient congruencing: the parabola

We give a new proof of l2 decoupling for the parabola inspired from efficient congruencing. Making quantitative this proof matches a bound obtained by Bourgain for the discrete restriction problem for the parabola. We illustrate similarities and differences between this new proof and efficient congruencing and the proof of decoupling by Bourgain and Demeter. We also show where tools from decoupling such as l2L2 decoupling, Bernstein’s inequality, and ball inflation come into play.
The management of talent: Optimal contracting for selection and incentives

Optimally reallocating human capital to tasks is key for an organization to successfully navigate a transition. We study how to design employment contracts to allocate employees to different valuable projects within an organization given two simultaneous challenges: The employees have private information about their own cost of effort, and they exert unobservable effort. The organization has two types of valuable projects, high and low impact, only the former of which requires effort. It would like to assign only an employee with low effort cost to the high-impact project. We characterize the optimal contract and show how it separates the employee types. The optimal contract menu pairs a higher probability of assignment to the high-impact project with a lower bonus in case of success. A fixed salary may also be used for the employees with high cost of effort, but only in limited cases. We link our results to job design features encountered in practice.
Water on Hot Rocky Exoplanets

Data suggest that most rocky exoplanets with orbital period $p$ $ $10. These atmospheres form during the planets' evolution from sub-Neptunes into rocky exoplanets. H$_2$O that is made by reduction of iron oxides in the silicate magma is highly soluble in the magma, forming a dissolved reservoir that is protected from loss so long as the H$_2$-dominated atmosphere persists. The large size of the dissolved reservoir buffers the H$_2$O atmosphere against loss after the H$_2$ has dispersed. Within our model, a long-lived, water-dominated atmosphere is a common outcome for efficient interaction between a nebula-derived atmosphere (peak atmosphere mass fraction 0.1-0.6 wt%) and oxidized magma ($>$5 wt% FeO), followed by atmospheric loss. This idea predicts that most rocky planets that have orbital periods of 10-100 days and that have radii within 0.1-0.2 $R_{Earth}$ of the lower edge of the radius valley still retain H$_2$O atmospheres. This prediction is imminently testable with JWST and has implications for the interpretation of data for transiting super-Earths.
Functional limit theorems for the euler characteristic process in the critical regime

This study presents functional limit theorems for the Euler characteristic of Vietoris–Rips complexes. The points are drawn from a nonhomogeneous Poisson process on , and the connectivity radius governing the formation of simplices is taken as a function of the time parameter t, which allows us to treat the Euler characteristic as a stochastic process. The setting in which this takes place is that of the critical regime, in which the simplicial complexes are highly connected and have nontrivial topology. We establish two ‘functional-level’ limit theorems, a strong law of large numbers and a central limit theorem, for the appropriately normalized Euler characteristic process.
Global financial integration and monetary policy spillovers

Abstract Using de facto financial market integration estimated based on an international CAPM, this paper finds that while emerging markets can keep monetary autonomy under the trilemma constraint, advanced economies have limited autonomy due to tight financial integration in recent decades.
How Does Batch Normalization Help Optimization? (No, It Is Not About Internal Covariate Shift)

Batch Normalization (BatchNorm) is a widely adopted technique that enables faster and more stable training of deep neural networks (DNNs). Despite its pervasiveness, the exact reasons for BatchNorm's effectiveness are still poorly understood. The popular belief is that this effectiveness stems from controlling the change of the layers' input distributions during training to reduce the so-called "internal covariate shift". In this work, we demonstrate that such distributional stability of layer inputs has little to do with the success of BatchNorm. Instead, we uncover a more fundamental impact of BatchNorm on the training process: it makes the optimization landscape significantly smoother. This smoothness induces a more predictive and stable behavior of the gradients, allowing for faster training. These findings bring us closer to a true understanding of our DNN training toolkit.
Do sports and politics mix?: cross-analysis of fan bases of major league sports and presidential candidates

Considering the fact that sports and politics interact in a very complex way, this interdisciplinary area remains largely untouched in data science research. Given the fact that huge fan bases exist for the major sports leagues such as NBA and NFL, it would be important for us to understand the hidden relationship between sports fans and their political preferences, and how do these preferences affect their behaviors in supporting different candidates during the presidential election. Taking advantage of the rich user data from Twitter, we propose a new metric, Congressional Devotedness Score, to model candidate preferences more accurately. Using the proposed metric, a fine-grained analysis is conducted at sport-level, state-level, and team-level for fans with strong political affiliation. While some of the findings conform to previous studies and reports, we also offer newer insights and quantitative evidences for all the findings.
Quasi-Round MOTSs and Stability of the Schwarzschild Null Penrose Inequality

In Roesch (Proof of a null penrose conjecture using a new quasi-local mass, arXiv:1609.02875 [gr-qc], 2016), the notion of Double Convexity for a foliation of a conical null hypersurface was introduced to give a proof, if satisfied, of the Null Penrose Inequality. Double Convexity constrains the geometry of a Marginally Outer Trapped Surface (MOTS), called a quasi-round MOTS. In the first part of this paper, for a class of strictly stable Weakly Isolated Horizons, we show the existence of a unique foliation by quasi-round MOTS. In the second part, we show that any subsequent space-time perturbation continues to admit a quasi-round MOTS. Finally, for perturbations of the quasi-round MOTS in Schwarzschild, we identify sufficient conditions on the asymptotics of any past-pointing null hypersurface that yields the Null Penrose Inequality.
Time capsules: An abstraction for access to continuous-media data

Data in continuous-media systems, such as digital audio and video, has time parameters associated with it that determine its processing and display. We present the time capsule abstraction to describe formally how timed data shall be stored, exchanged, and accessed in a real-time system. When data is written into a time capsule, a time stamp and a duration are associated with the data item. When it is read, a time stamp is used to select the data item. The time capsule abstraction includes the notion of clocks that ensure periodic data access that is typical for continuous-media applications. By modifying the parameters of a clock, effects such as time lapses or slow motion can be achieved.
Spontaneous modulations of high-frequency cortical activity.

Abstract Objective We clarified the clinical and mechanistic significance of physiological modulations of high-frequency broadband cortical activity associated with spontaneous saccadic eye movements during a resting state. Methods We studied 30 patients who underwent epilepsy surgery following extraoperative electrocorticography and electrooculography recordings. We determined whether high-gamma activity at 70–110 Hz preceding saccade onset would predict upcoming ocular behaviors. We assessed how accurately the model incorporating saccade-related high-gamma modulations would localize the primary visual cortex defined by electrical stimulation. Results The dynamic atlas demonstrated transient high-gamma suppression in the striatal cortex before saccade onset and high-gamma augmentation subsequently involving the widespread posterior brain regions. More intense striatal high-gamma suppression predicted the upcoming saccade directed to the ipsilateral side and lasting longer in duration. The bagged-tree-ensemble model demonstrated that intense saccade-related high-gamma modulations localized the visual cortex with an accuracy of 95%. Conclusions We successfully animated the neural dynamics supporting saccadic suppression, a principal mechanism minimizing the perception of blurred vision during rapid eye movements. The primary visual cortex per se may prepare actively in advance for massive image motion expected during upcoming prolonged saccades. Significance Measuring saccade-related electrocorticographic signals may help localize the visual cortex and avoid misperceiving physiological high-frequency activity as epileptogenic.
Excitation spectral microscopy for highly multiplexed fluorescence imaging and quantitative biosensing.

The multiplexing capability of fluorescence microscopy is severely limited by the broad fluorescence spectral width. Spectral imaging offers potential solutions, yet typical approaches to disperse the local emission spectra notably impede the attainable throughput. Here we show that using a single, fixed fluorescence emission detection band, through frame-synchronized fast scanning of the excitation wavelength from a white lamp via an acousto-optic tunable filter, up to six subcellular targets, labeled by common fluorophores of substantial spectral overlap, can be simultaneously imaged in live cells with low (~1%) crosstalks and high temporal resolutions (down to ~10 ms). The demonstrated capability to quantify the abundances of different fluorophores in the same sample through unmixing the excitation spectra next enables us to devise novel, quantitative imaging schemes for both bi-state and Forster resonance energy transfer fluorescent biosensors in live cells. We thus achieve high sensitivities and spatiotemporal resolutions in quantifying the mitochondrial matrix pH and intracellular macromolecular crowding, and further demonstrate, for the first time, the multiplexing of absolute pH imaging with three additional target organelles/proteins to elucidate the complex, Parkin-mediated mitophagy pathway. Together, excitation spectral microscopy provides exceptional opportunities for highly multiplexed fluorescence imaging. The prospect of acquiring fast spectral images without the need for fluorescence dispersion or care for the spectral response of the detector offers tremendous potential.