cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Optimal Positioning for Advanced Raim

We present a method to improve the integrity error bound in Advanced RAIM by optimizing the position solution and the integrity allocation simultaneously. Since the reduction in the error bound is achieved by degrading the position accuracy under nominal conditions, the method takes into account the accuracy constraint in the optimization. Advanced RAIM may have to consider a larger number of satellites and increased probabilities of fault, so this method is designed to accept a wide variety of threat models (in particular multiple faults). The search of the optimal coefficients is cast as a convex optimization problem with constraints. The solution is obtained iteratively, and the convexity of the problem guarantees a very fast convergence. The algorithm is evaluated by comparing its performance with algorithms where the position solution is not optimized, and showing how it could help achieve worldwide coverage of vertical guidance (LPV-200). Copyright © 2013 Institute of Navigation
Nonperturbative Solution of Yukawa Theory and Gauge Theories

Recent progress in the nonperturbative solution of (3 + 1)-dimensional Yukawa theory and quantum electrodynamics and (1 + 1)-dimensional super Yang-Mills theory is summarized.
Internal and External Ethnic Assessments in Eastern Europe

This paper examines how internal processes of ethnic identification influence external processes of ethnic classification. To do so, it uses survey data from Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania, and Russia, which contain information for ethnic majorities and selected ethnic minorities (Roma (Gypsies) in Bulgaria, Hungary, and Romania; Hungarians in Romania; and Ukrainians in Russia). Respondents’ self-identification of ethnicity exemplifies internal identification, while interviewers’ assessments of ethnicity are used as examples of external classification. Logistic regressions, with interviewers’ classifications of ethnicity as the dependent variable, show how these classifiers use respondents’ self-identification of ethnicity, as well as other social markers (parents’ ethnicity, language, geographical concentration, economic status, household size, and education), to assess ethnicity. The results show that although interviewers are strongly influenced by respondents’ self-identification, they also override it. Interviewers use negative social characteristics (e.g. poverty, low education) to classify respondents as Roma who did not self-identify as such. For the ethnic majority groups in each country, as well as Hungarians in Romania, and Ukrainians in Russia, these variables had the opposite effect or had little influence, though ancestry and language had a strong effect for all groups. Interviewers more often classified respondents as ethnic majorities when the latter claimed to be non-Roma ethnic minorities. The results illustrate how ethnic classification processes differ fundamentally for a racialized group, the Roma, for whom classifications are external and exclusionary, as opposed to other ethnic groups, for whom social classifications are optional and generally inclusive.
A CENTURY OF POLAR FACULAE VARIATIONS

The numbers of faculae at the poles of the Sun have been estimated from white-light images obtained at the Mount Wilson Observatory during 1985-2006 and combined with prior estimates extending back to 1906, when the observations began. The combined data show an 11 yr cyclic variation with faculae maxima occurring during sunspot minima in each of the past 10 sunspot cycles. Also, these numbers of polar faculae are well correlated with the line-of-sight component of the polar magnetic field measured at the Wilcox Solar Observatory since 1976. The numbers of polar faculae show a secular decrease since 1986, suggesting that the polar fields are now weaker than they have been during any cycle in the past century.
The impact of gasoline price changes on traffic safety: a time geography explanation

The impact of gasoline price changes on traffic safety has received increasing attention in empirical studies. In this study, we use time geography to provide a theoretical framework for examining the effects of time-varying fluctuations in gasoline prices and their relationship to traffic safety in a case study of Mississippi from April 2004 to December 2010. Application of time geography theory suggests that gasoline prices act as one type of capability constraint of the space–time path. As gasoline prices increase (that is, as the capability constraint becomes stronger), we hypothesize traffic crash rates decrease, and they decrease more for groups for whom the constraint is stronger. The results corroborate the hypotheses and suggest that gasoline prices have stronger effects on reducing less severe crashes and negligible effects on reducing fatal crashes. Gasoline price effects on reducing crashes start at a 9-month lag, peak at a 12-month lag, and diminish after an 18-month lag.
Atom-economic and stereoselective syntheses of the ring a and B subunits of the bryostatins.

This article describes chemoselective and atom-economical methods for the stereoselective assembly of the A- and B-ring subunits of the bryostatins. A Ru-catalyzed tandem alkene-alkyne coupling/Michael addition was developed and applied to the synthesis of the bryostatin B-ring. We explored an acetylide-mediated epoxide-opening/6-exo-dig cyclization route to access the bryostatin A-ring; and the A-ring was eventually furnished via an acid-catalyzed tandem transketalization/ketalization sequence. In addition, a dinuclear zinc-catalyzed methyl vinyl ketone (MVK) aldol strategy was evaluated for the construction of the polyacetate moiety. Utilization of these methods ultimately led to the rapid assembly of a northern bryostatin fragment containing both the A- and B-ring subunits.
Crystal Chemistry and Microwave Dielectric Properties of Ba3MNb2-xSbxO9 (M = Mg, Ni, Zn)

The effect of Sb5+ substitution on the crystal chemistry and dielectric properties of Ba3MNb2-xSbxO9 (M = Mg, Zn, Ni) was investigated using a combination of X-ray and neutron powder diffraction, and dielectric property measurements at microwave frequencies. Rietveld refinements were carried out to characterize the crystal structures of Ba3ZnSb2O9 and Ba3MgSb2O9, which have a 6H−BaTiO3-type structure. Analyses of X-ray diffraction data of intermediate compositions evolve from a 2:1 ordered perovskite solid solution, to a two-phase ordered perovskite and 6H region, and also a 6H solid-solution for increasing Sb-content. Analysis of the bond distances indicates that the significant strain present in the 2:1 ordered perovskites is relieved in the 6H structure. Differences in the bonding preferences between the Nb5+ (d0) and Sb5+ (d10), combined with small changes in the ionic radii, influence the observed crystal chemistry. The magnitude and temperature dependence of the dielectric constant were lowest for c...
CONVEYING IMPLICIT CONTENT IN NARRATIVE SUMMARIES

One of the key characteristics of any summary is that it must be concise. To achieve this the content of the summary (1) must be focused on the key events, and (2) should leave out any information that the audience can infer on their own. We have recently begun a project on summarizing simple narrative stories. In our approach, we assume that the focus of the story has already been determined and is explicity given in the story's long-term representation; we concentrate instead on how one can plan what inferences an audience will be able to make when they read a summary. Our conclusion is that one should think about inferences as following from the audience's recognition of the central concepts in the story's plot, and then plan the textual structure of the summary so as to reinforce that recognition.
A Latent Factor Model of Multivariate Conditional Heteroscedasticity

This papers examines the joint dynamics of a system of asset returns. I describe and implement a multivariate factor stochastic volatility (MVFSV) model. I follow closely the work of Doz and Renault (2006), with two important changes. First, I design a sequential testing procedure to determine the dimensions of the appropriate factor structure needed to accommodate the conditional heteroscedasticity among a system of returns. Second, I employ a form of Tikhonov Regularization in order to overcome a near singularity among the moment conditions used for estimation. Simulation studies suggest that the MVFSV model is able to recover accurately the latent factors that drive the conditional volatility of returns. Moreover, the model estimates can be used to construct conditionally homoscedastic portfolios as linear combinations of the conditionally heteroscedastic assets. An empirical application to portfolios representing the twelve sectors of the U.S. economy
Glycopeptide and glycoprotein synthesis involving unprotected carbohydrate building blocks

This review summarizes the chemical and chemoenzymatic synthesis of glycopeptides and glycoproteins using unprotected carbohydrates as key intermediates. The synthetic methods covered herein include the convergent synthesis of glycopeptides by chemoselective ligation of peptides and free glycans, solution- and solid-phase synthesis of glycopeptides by sequential peptide elongation with unprotected glycosyl amino acids or short glycopeptides as building blocks, and the synthesis of glycopeptides by enzymatic and/or chemical elongation of the free glycans. The use of unprotected carbohydrates in these syntheses can circumvent the final-stage carbohydrate deprotection, lead to highly convergent synthetic designs, and more significantly, take advantage of the commercially available free glycans isolated from nature, which could considerably facilitate the synthesis of complex glycopeptides and glycoproteins.
Framed bordism and Lagrangian embeddings of exotic spheres

In dimensions congruent to 1 modulo 4, we prove that the cotangent bundle of an exotic sphere which does not bound a parallelisable manifold is not symplectomorphic to the cotangent bundle of the standard sphere. More precisely, we prove that such an exotic sphere cannot embed as a Lagrangian in the cotangent bundle of the standard sphere. The main ingredients of the construction are (1) the fact that the graph of the Hopf bration embeds the standard sphere, and hence any Lagrangian which embeds in its cotangent bundle, as a displaceable Lagrangian in the product a symplectic vector space of the appropriate dimension with its complex projective space, and (2) a moduli space of solutions to a perturbed CauchyRiemann equation introduced by Gromov.
DYNAMICS AND CONTROL OF SHIP-MOUNTED CRANES

When deep water ports are not accessible, cargo is transferred from/to larger ships to/from smaller ships offshore. A typical arrangement is to place three ships side by side. In the middle is a ship with cranes. Along one side of the crane ship is the large container ship, and along the other side is the small ship or lighter, which shuttles back and forth between the ships and shore. The sea state is a very important factor in this operation. The sea-excited motion of the crane ship can excite large pendulations of the containers while they are suspended by the cables of the cranes. The large motions can be due to either large excitation amplitudes or small excitation amplitudes near resonant conditions. In this study, the cable-suspended load is modeled as an elastic spherical pendulum. The method of multiple scales is used to derive four nonlinear ordinary- differential equations that describe the amplitudes and phases of the excited modes. These equations are used to investigate instabilities and pro...
The role of special differential treatment for developing countries in GATT and the World Trade Organization

The author analyzes how changes in thinking about the role trade plays in economic development have been reflected in provisions affecting developing countries in the GATT and the WTO. He focuses on the provisions calling for the special and differential treatment of developing countries. The WTO's special, and differential treatment has been extended to include measures of technical assistance, and extended transition periods to enable countries to meet their commitments in new areas agreed on in the Uruguay round of negotiations. At the same time, many WTO provisions encourage industrial countries to give developing countries preferential treatment, through a variety of measures, none of them legally enforceable. The author concludes that weaknesses in the institutional capacity of many developing countries, provide a conceptual basis for continuing special, and differential treatment in the WTO, but that the benefits should be targeted only to low-income developing countries, and those that need help becoming integrated with the international trading system. In addition, an effective system of graduation, should be put in place for higher-income developing countries. Developing countries find it politically easier to argue, that all should be treated the same, except for least developed countries, although their capacities, and need for assistance differ vastly. Industrial countries are expected to provide special, and differential treatment, but in practice, their commitments on market access, preferential treatment, and technical assistance, are not enforceable. Leaving it up to the industrial countries to decide which developing countries get preferential treatment, invites extraneous considerations in determining who gets how much special treatment. Unless higher-income developing countries accept some type of graduated differentiation in their treatment (beyond that granted the least developed countries), there is little prospect of implementing meaningful, legally enforceable special, and differential treatment favoring all developing countries under the WTO.
Improvement of Noise Equivalent Count Rate Using Compton Kinematics in a Compton PET

The timing performance of a Compton PET device for very high resolution small animal imaging was investigated using Monte Carlo simulation data and timing simulations. The PET instrument was designed with an inner cylindrical silicon detector for scattering, surrounded by an outer cylindrical BGO scintillation detector for absorption. The time intervals between adjacent decay events of the annihilation photon source were extracted in accordance with the Poisson distribution for various source activities. Interaction time was estimated by adding the time of flight (TOF) obtained from Monte Carlo simulation data and timing uncertainty of the silicon and BGO detector to the decay time intervals. A Gaussian distribution (5 ns FWHM) and mono-exponential model (1.0 photoelectron/ns) were used for timing uncertainties of the silicon and BGO detectors, respectively. Maximizing the noise equivalent count rate (NECR) resulted in an energy window of of total energy sum and a timing window of 7 ns. Additional constraints imposed by the use of Compton kinematics information in this device proved valuable in rejecting random coincidences, object scatter and misclassified events. The improvement is most pronounced at high source activity.
Inventory Management of a Fast-Fashion Retail Network

Working in collaboration with Spain-based retailer Zara, we address the problem of distributing, over time, a limited amount of inventory across all the stores in a fast-fashion retail network. Challenges specific to that environment include very short product life cycles, and store policies whereby an article is removed from display whenever one of its key sizes stocks out. To solve this problem, we first formulate and analyze a stochastic model predicting the sales of an article in a single store during a replenishment period as a function of demand forecasts, the inventory of each size initially available, and the store inventory management policy just stated. We then formulate a mixed-integer program embedding a piecewise-linear approximation of the first model applied to every store in the network, allowing us to compute store shipment quantities maximizing overall predicted sales, subject to inventory availability and other constraints. We report the implementation of this optimization model by Zara to support its inventory distribution process, and the ensuing controlled pilot experiment performed to assess the model's impact relative to the prior procedure used to determine weekly shipment quantities. The results of that experiment suggest that the new allocation process increases sales by 3% to 4%, which is equivalent to $275 M in additional revenues for 2007, reduces transshipments, and increases the proportion of time that Zara's products spend on display within their life cycle. Zara is currently using this process for all of its products worldwide.
Enantioselective Nitrone Cycloadditions of α,β-Unsaturated 2-Acyl Imidazoles Catalyzed by Bis(oxazolinyl)pyridine−Cerium(IV) Triflate Complexes

[Structure: see text] Enantioselective nitrone cycloadditions with beta-substituted alpha,beta-unsaturated 2-acyl imidazoles catalyzed by bis(oxazolinyl)pyridine-cerium(IV) triflate complexes 1 have been reported. The isoxazolidine products were efficiently transformed into densely functionalized beta'-hydroxy-beta-amino acid derivatives.
IPED: inheritance path based pedigree reconstruction algorithm using genotype data

The problem of inference of family trees, or pedigree reconstruction, for a group of individuals is a fundamental problem in genetics. Various methods have been proposed to automate the process of pedigree reconstruction given the genotypes or haplotypes of a set of individuals. Current methods, unfortunately, are very time consuming and inaccurate for complicated pedigrees such as pedigrees with inbreeding. In this work, we propose an efficient algorithm which is able to reconstruct large pedigrees with reasonable accuracy. Our algorithm reconstructs the pedigrees generation by generation backwards in time from the extant generation. We predict the relationships between individuals in the same generation using an inheritance path based approach implemented using an efficient dynamic programming algorithm. Experiments show that our algorithm runs in linear time with respect to the number of reconstructed generations and therefore it can reconstruct pedigrees which have a large number of generations. Indeed it is the first practical method for reconstruction of large pedigrees from genotype data.
Synthesis of 8-arylsulfoxyl/sulfonyl adenines

We report a method for the synthesis of 9-N-alkyl-8-arylsulfoxyl adenines and 9-N-alkyl-8-arylsulfonyl adenines. The approach starts with a tandem one-pot reaction that by using Mitsunobu conditions converts 8-arylsulfanyl adenines to the corresponding iminophosphorane protected 9-N-alkyl-8-arylsulfanyl adenines. These compounds were further subjected to selective OXONE®/alumina mediated oxidation followed by deprotection of the amine leading to the desired sulfoxides and sulfones.
1-Pentyl-3-phenylacetylindoles, a new class of cannabimimetic indoles.

A new class of cannabimimetic indoles, with 3-phenylacetyl or substituted 3-phenylacetyl substituents, has been prepared and their affinities for the cannabinoid CB1 and CB2 receptors have been determined. In general those compounds with a 2-substi- tuted phenylacetyl group have good affinity for both receptors. The 4-substituted analogs have little affinity for either receptor, while the 3-substituted compounds are intermediate in their affinities. Two of these compounds, 1-pentyl-3-(2-methylphenylacetyl)indole (JWH-251) and 1-pentyl-3-(3-methoxyphenylacetyl)indole (JWH-302), have 5-fold selectivity for the CB1 receptor with modest affin- ity for the CB2 receptor. GTPcS determinations indicate that both compounds are highly efficacious agonists at the CB1 receptor and partial agonists at the CB2 receptor. 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Hall-Littlewood Polynomials and Cohen-Lenstra Heuristics for Jacobians of Random Graphs

Cohen-Lenstra heuristics for Jacobians of random graphs give rise to random partitions. We connect these random partitions to the Hall-Littlewood polynomials of symmetric function theory, and use this connection to give combinatorial proofs of properties of these random partitions. In addition, we use Markov chains to give an algorithm for generating these partitions.
Mechanistic Aspects of the Phosphine-Catalyzed Isomerization of Allenic Sulfones to 2-Arylsulfonyl 1,3-Dienes

When an allenic sulfone is treated with a phosphine nucleophile and a proton shuttle, an isomerization to a 2-arylsulfonyl 1,3-diene occurs. Mechanistic aspects of the process were investigated leading to the formulation of a mechanism for the reaction. Some further optimization studies of this process are reported.
Factor Model Forecasts of Exchange Rates

We construct factors from a cross-section of exchange rates and use the idiosyncratic deviations from the factors to forecast. In a stylized data generating process, we show that such forecasts can be effective even if there is essentially no serial correlation in the univariate exchange rate processes. We apply the technique to a panel of bilateral U.S. dollar rates against 17 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development countries. We forecast using factors, and using factors combined with any of fundamentals suggested by Taylor rule, monetary and purchasing power parity models. For long horizon (8 and 12 quarter) forecasts, we tend to improve on the forecast of a “no change” benchmark in the late (1999–2007) but not early (1987–1998) parts of our sample.
Characterization of cyclo-polyphenacenes.

Cyclo-polyphenacenes belt-type compounds are considered here in terms of some simple chemico-graph-theoretic invariants. First the compounds of this group are neatly encoded in an unambiguous way. Then all the isomers in this system are categorized with respect to their “combinatorial curvature”, and for the case of the 52 cyclo-hexaphenacenes it is found to correlate with steric stresses. A systematic effort is made to correlate the reactivity (via additive oxidation) of the various isomers with their Kekule-structure counts.
Occlusion-Aware Object Localization, Segmentation and Pose Estimation

We present a learning approach for localization and segmentation of objects in an image in a manner that is robust to partial occlusion. Our algorithm produces a bounding box around the full extent of the object and labels pixels in the interior that belong to the object. Like existing segmentation aware detection approaches, we learn an appearance model of the object and consider regions that do not fit this model as potential occlusions. However, in addition to the established use of pairwise potentials for encouraging local consistency, we use higher order potentials which capture information at the level of im- age segments. We also propose an efficient loss function that targets both localization and segmentation performance. Our algorithm achieves 13.52% segmentation error and 0.81 area under the false-positive per image vs. recall curve on average over the challenging CMU Kitchen Occlusion Dataset. This is a 42.44% decrease in segmentation error and a 16.13% increase in localization performance compared to the state-of-the-art. Finally, we show that the visibility labelling produced by our algorithm can make full 3D pose estimation from a single image robust to occlusion.
Elasticity and Discipline in the Global Swap Network

Abstract:This article sketches the outlines of the new international monetary system that has emerged in the aftermath of the global financial crisis. At the center of the system, a network of central bank swaps between the six major central banks serves as an elastic backstop for private foreign exchange operations. Farther out on the periphery, an added network of central bank swaps operates to economize on scarce reserves of the major currencies. Meanwhile, in the private foreign exchange market, basis swaps are emerging as the central location where liquidity is explicitly priced, inside the bounds set by central bank swaps.
Multilingual Open Relation Extraction Using Cross-lingual Projection

Open domain relation extraction systems identify relation and argument phrases in a sentence without relying on any underlying schema. However, current state-of-the-art relation extraction systems are available only for English because of their heavy reliance on linguistic tools such as part-of-speech taggers and dependency parsers. We present a cross-lingual annotation projection method for language independent relation extraction. We evaluate our method on a manually annotated test set and present results on three typologically different languages. We release these manual annotations and extracted relations in ten languages from Wikipedia.
Hither hundreds of processors in a database machine

In a recent paper titled “Wither Hundreds of Processors in a Database Machine?”, Agrawal and DeWitt demonstrated that, in order to exploit large numbers of processors in a database machine, the I/O bandwidth of the underlying storage devices must significantly be increased. One way to accomplish this is to use multiple parallel disk units. The main problem with this approach, however, is the lack of a computational model capable of utilizing any significant number of such devices. In this paper we discuss the implementation of a data-driven model (presented at last year’s workshop) on a simulated architecture. It will be shown that this model is capable of exploiting the potential I/O bandwidth of a large number of disk units as well as the computational power of the associated processors.
Late Pliocene and Pleistocene History of the Donnelly Ranch Vertebrate Site, Southeastern Colorado

Two superposed faunas were discovered in southeastern Colorado at the Donnelly Ranch vertebrate site. Sediments containing a late Blancan assemblage are unconformably overlain by sediments containing a Rancho La Brean assemblage. The pre-Nebraskan Donnelly Ranch fauna is slightly older than the Sand Draw, Broadwater, and Blanco faunas. It is younger than the Curtis Ranch fauna. Faunal and paleomagnetic correlation indicate it is about 2.5 m.y. old. Tapirus, Geoche/one , and Sigmodon indicate the climate was mild and precipitation was much more effective than at present. Savanna, plains, and marsh communities are represented by the fauna. The Sangamon Mesa De Maya fauna correlates best with the early Sangamon Cragin Quarry fauna. Mammals, molluscs, and pollen indicate that temperatures were more equable than present and precipitation may have been slightly more effective during cooler summers. The fauna consists primarily of grassland inhabitants but a marsh comÂ— munity is represented in artesian spring sediments. The gross topographic and stratigraphic relations, sediment size analysis, fossil orientation, and sedimentary structures indicate stream, viscuous intermediate, and mudflow deposition on a low alluvial fan at the foot of Mesa De Maya. The sediment source was local consisting of basalt from Mesa De Maya, igneous, reworked metamorphic, and sedimentary rock from the Ogallala Formation, and sedimentary rock containing marine fossils from Cretaceous sediments. An artesian spring deposit consisting of predominantly silt size quartz particles was found overlying a gley soil. During the Sangamon, massive caliche formed in channel sands and nodular caliche formed in the mudflow deposits of the alluvial fan. Potassium argon dates, paleomagnetism, and topographic position and correlation indicate that Mesa De Maya is older than Fowlis Mesa and the average age for both of these basalt flows is about 3.3 million years. The Mesa De Maya flows issued from local vents and flowed nearly to the present extent of the mesa. Scarp recession has been minor since the lavas erupted. Flow direction interpreted from air photographs indicate the flows were largely conÂ— trolled by topography and did not form an extensive sheet of lava from Mesa De Maya to Fowlis Mesa. Erosion has carved deep canyons between the lobes of the flows and has caused a reversal of topography where hills of Ogallala once stood. More than 400 feet of Ogallala and Cretaceous sediments were removed prior to deposiÂ— tion of Pleistocene sediments. Erosion and deposition in the Donnelly Ranch area has been relatively minor since the Sangamon.
Understanding Advice Sharing among Physicians: Towards Trust-Based Clinical Alerts

Safe prescribing of medications relies on drug safety alerts, but up to 96% of such warnings are ignored by physicians. Prior research has proposed improvements to the design of alerts, but with limited increase in adherence. We propose a different perspective: before re-designing alerts, we focus on improving the trust between physicians and computerized advice by examining why physicians trust their medical colleagues. To understand trusted advice among physicians, we conducted three contextual inquiries in a hospital setting (22 participants), and corroborated our findings with a survey (37 participants). Drivers that guide physicians in trusting peer advice include: timeliness of the advice, collaborative language, empathy, level of specialization, and medical hierarchy. Based on these findings, we introduce seven design directions for trust-based alerts: endorsement, transparency, team sensing, collaborative, empathic, conflict mitigating, and agency laden. Our work contributes to novel alert design strategies to improve the effectiveness of drug safety advice.
XML data services

Summary form only given. We address the question, "in the brave new world of Web services and service-oriented architectures (SOA), how does data fit in?" We bring data modeling concepts to bear on the world of services, yielding an approach in which enterprise data access is handled by a collection of interrelated data services. We show how the approach can be realized on a foundation of XML standards, namely XML Schema, Web services, and XQuery. We show that this approach provides a uniform and declarative framework for integrating enterprise data assets that are drawn from disparate underlying sources, including both queryable and non-queryable data sources as well as data that is encapsulated by Web services. We also show that the approach yields data services that are easily and efficiently reusable.
Cs2AgBiX6 (X = Br, Cl): New Visible Light Absorbing, Lead-Free Halide Perovskite Semiconductors

The double perovskites Cs2AgBiBr6 and Cs2AgBiCl6 have been synthesized from both solid state and solution routes. X-ray diffraction measurements show that both compounds adopt the cubic double perovskite structure, space group Fm3m, with lattice parameters of 11.2711(1) A (X = Br) and 10.7774(2) A (X = Cl). Diffuse reflectance measurements reveal band gaps of 2.19 eV (X = Br) and 2.77 eV (X = Cl) that are slightly smaller than the band gaps of the analogous lead halide perovskites, 2.26 eV for CH3NH3PbBr3 and 3.00 eV for CH3NH3PbCl3. Band structure calculations indicate that the interaction between the Ag 4d-orbitals and the 3p/4p-orbitals of the halide ion modifies the valence band leading to an indirect band gap. Both compounds are stable when exposed to air, but Cs2AgBiBr6 degrades over a period of weeks when exposed to both ambient air and light. These results show that halide double perovskite semiconductors are potentially an environmentally friendly alternative to the lead halide perovskite semico...
Probabilities of conditionals in context

The Ramseyan thesis that the probability of an indicative conditional is equal to the corresponding conditional probability of its consequent given its antecedent is both widely confirmed and subject to attested counterexamples (e.g., McGee, in Analysis 60(1):107–111, 2000; Kaufmann, in J Philos Logic 33:583–606, 2004). This raises several puzzling questions. For instance, why are there interpretations of conditionals that violate this Ramseyan thesis in certain contexts, and why are they otherwise very rare? In this paper, I raise some challenges to Stefan Kaufmann’s account of why the Ramseyan thesis sometimes fails, and motivate my own theory. On my theory, the proposition expressed by an indicative conditional is partially determined by a background partition, and hence its probability depends on the choice of such a partition. I hold that this background partition is contextually determined, and in certain conditions is set by a salient question under discussion in the context. I argue that the resulting theory offers compelling answers to the puzzling questions raised by failures of the Ramseyan thesis.
A model of sliding-scale regulation

Price caps, while widely touted, are less commonly implemented. Most incentive schemes involve profit sharing and are, thus, variants of sliding-scale regulation. I show that, relative to price caps, some degree of profit sharing always increases expected welfare. Numerical simulations show that welfare may be enhanced by large amounts of profit sharing and by granting the firm a greater share of gains than of losses. Simulations also suggest profit sharing is most beneficial when the firm's initial cost is high and cost-reducing innovations are difficult to achieve but offer the potential for substantial savings.
A novel principal component analysis for spatially misaligned multivariate air pollution data

Summary We propose novel methods for predictive (sparse) principal component analysis with spatially misaligned data. These methods identify principal component loading vectors that explain as much variability in the observed data as possible, while also ensuring that the corresponding principal component scores can be predicted accurately by means of spatial statistics at locations where air pollution measurements are not available. This will make it possible to identify important mixtures of air pollutants and to quantify their health effects in cohort studies, where currently available methods cannot be used. We demonstrate the utility of predictive (sparse) principal component analysis in simulated data and apply the approach to annual averages of particulate matter speciation data from national Environmental Protection Agency regulatory monitors.
You get what you pay for: Schooling incentives and child labor

Abstract Can schooling promotion deter child participation in hazardous forms of child labor? We examine two interventions intended to promote schooling and deter child labor for children associated with carpet factories in Kathmandu. The first intervention provides scholarships for school-related expenses. The second provides the scholarship and an in-kind stipend conditional on school attendance. Paying for schooling expenses promotes schooling but only at the beginning of the school year when most schooling expenses occur. The scholarship combined with the conditional stipend increases school attendance rates by 11%, decreases grade failure rates by 46%, and reduces carpet weaving by 48%. Financial support lasted one year. Effects on schooling and weaving do not persist past the year of support. “You get what you pay for” when schooling incentives are used to combat hazardous child labor.
Testing the effect of new neighboring open space on development

We examine both the short- and long-term effects of newly preserved open space in an exurban landscape. The open space is secured via voluntary perpetual easements that sever the development right from the land. We find mixed results with significant impacts on developable neighboring parcels, both on their likelihood of subdividing and on their likelihood of entering a preservation easement. We show that subdivision and preservation activity disproportionately locates near past neighboring preservation easement activity. The first outcome is an unintended consequence in contrast to policy objectives while the latter is, in fact, a policy induced effect. The analysis relies on a unique spatially explicit parcel-level dataset documenting residential development and preservation activity for almost 30 years, the primary objective is to test for interaction effects among parcels which would be impossible with any other sort of data and the results are robust across models addressing endogeneity concerns.
Travel Patterns, Needs, and Barriers of Adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder: Report from a Survey

Although autism spectrum disorder (ASD) has received a substantial amount of attention in other fields, very little appears in the transportation literature about people with ASD. Because the National Household Travel Survey and metropolitan travel surveys do not classify people with ASD as a separate category of persons with disabilities, very little information is available about their travel patterns, needs, or barriers. To bridge the existing information gap, this paper provides results from a recent survey that focused exclusively on adults with ASD in New Jersey to learn about their travel patterns, the importance of the various types of trips they make, and the barriers they encounter regarding the use of different transportation modes. The survey, distributed through various organizations throughout the state, was completed by or for 703 adults. Because the objective of the paper is to provide as much information as possible from the survey, no attempt has been made to compare the travel patterns, needs, and barriers of the survey respondents with those of the general population. However, other researchers can easily compare the survey results provided in this paper with data from other sources. Although the survey generated other valuable information, the most revealing information pertained to barriers to walking, driving, taking public transit, and even taking rides from others. The information collected through this research is being shared through outreach efforts with agencies that provide or fund transportation to persons with disabilities in New Jersey.
Properties of boron/boron-nitride multilayers

Abstract Boron-Nitride films are of interest for their high hardness and wear resistant properties. Large intrinsic stresses and poor adhesion which often accompany high hardness materials can be moderated through the use of a layered structure. Alternate layers of boron (B) and boron-nitride (BN) are formed by modulating the composition of the sputter gas during deposition from a pure B target. The thin films are characterized with transmission electron microscopy to evaluate the microstructure and with nanoindentation to determine hardness. Layer pair spacing and continuity effects on hardness are evaluated for the B/BN films.
Food waste: The role of date labels, package size, and product category

Abstract The presence of food waste, and ways to reduce it, has generated significant debate among industry stakeholders, policy makers, and consumer groups around the world. Many have argued that the variety of date labels used by food manufacturers leads to confusion about food quality and food safety among consumers. Here, we develop a between-subject, laboratory experiment with different date labels (Best by, Fresh by, Sell by, and Use by) for products (ready-to-eat cereal, salad greens, and yogurt) of different sizes and dates to evaluate how date labels influence the value of premeditated food waste of subjects, or their willingness to waste (WTW). Subjects have different WTW over products, sizes, and dates; we expect that ambiguity avoidance may prompt differences in the WTW. The WTW is greatest in the “Use by” treatment, the date label which may be the least ambiguous and suggestive of food safety. The WTW is the lowest for the “Sell by” treatment, which may be the most ambiguous date label about safety or quality for the consumer. Results from the mixed-design, repeated measures ANOVA provide evidence that subjects have different WTW by date labels over products.
Repaired Pitch-Cambered Glulam Beams

Full-scale tests were conducted on two radially reinforced Douglas-fir beams. The two beams, each with a span of 30 ft., were tested only to initial failure prior to repairing. The two beams were repaired by radially reinforcing each by a different method. The radial reinforcing was similar to the field repair carried out on beams which fail in service. Each beam was instrumented for strain and deflection measurements and tested under working loads. In addition, load tests were conducted to beam failure, which occurred in radial tension for both beams. A factor of 1.6 was observed between the strength of the repaired beams and that of the unreinforced beams, clearly indicating that reinforcing a broken beam can restore the original load carrying capacity. The strength predictions for unreinforced and reinforced-unbroken test beams show that the American Institute for Timber Construction’s current 15 psi radial stress limit for unreinforced Douglas-fir is quite conservative and that the 55 psi limit for reinforced Douglas-fir may be high for some beam configurations.
Theoretically consistent welfare estimation under block pricing: the case of water demand

the water consumption and pricing data; Elizabeth Lovsted and Kristian Barrett of EMWD for help with interpreting and augmenting the dataset; Erik Duran and Diti Chatterjee for essential database management; and Kurt Schwabe, Richard Carson, Kerry Smith and Aaron Strong for helpful conversations. Any errors are the author’s responsibility. Theoretically consistent welfare estimation under block pricing: the case of water demand
The Mysteries of Security Games: Equilibrium Computation Becomes Combinatorial Algorithm Design

The security game is a basic model for resource allocation in adversarial environments. Here there are two players, a defender and an attacker. The defender wants to allocate her limited resources to defend critical targets and the attacker seeks his most favorable target to attack. In the past decade, there has been a surge of research interest in analyzing and solving security games that are motivated by applications from various domains. Remarkably, these models and their game-theoretic solutions have led to real-world deployments in use by major security agencies like the LAX airport, the US Coast Guard and Federal Air Marshal Service, as well as non-governmental organizations. Among all these research and applications, equilibrium computation serves as a foundation. This paper examines security games from a theoretical perspective and provides a unified view of various security game models. In particular, each security game can be characterized by a set system E which consists of the defender's pure strategies; The defender's best response problem can be viewed as a combinatorial optimization problem over E. Our framework captures most of the basic security game models in the literature, including all the deployed systems; The set system E arising from various domains encodes standard combinatorial problems like bipartite matching, maximum coverage, min-cost flow, packing problems, etc. Our main result shows that equilibrium computation in security games is essentially a combinatorial problem. In particular, we prove that, for any set system $E$, the following problems can be reduced to each other in polynomial time: (0) combinatorial optimization over E; (1) computing the minimax equilibrium for zero-sum security games over E; (2) computing the strong Stackelberg equilibrium for security games over E; (3) computing the best or worst (for the defender) Nash equilibrium for security games over E. Therefore, the hardness [polynomial solvability] of any of these problems implies the hardness [polynomial solvability] of all the others. Here, by "games over E" we mean the class of security games with arbitrary payoff structures, but a fixed set E of defender pure strategies. This shows that the complexity of a security game is essentially determined by the set system E. We view drawing these connections as an important conceptual contribution of this paper.
Drawdown Due to Pumping from an Unconfined Aquifer

First approximation treatments of drawdown pattern about pumped well in unconfined aquifer are based upon assumption that drawdown does not alter transmissibility of aquifer; second approximation is developed in this paper which accounts for reduction of transmissibility by drawdown.
The Diels–Alder reactivity of 2-vinylindenes: synthesis of functionalized tetrahydrofluorenes

Functionalized tetrahydrofluorenes were synthesized using a normal electron-demand Diels–Alder cycloaddition reaction between 2-vinylindenes and various dienophiles. Electron rich 2-vinylindenes bearing methoxy groups at the 4- and 7- positions were accessed through their corresponding 2-indenylpivalates obtained using a Pt-catalyzed cycloisomerization reaction. DFT calculations were used to rationalize the observed regioselectivity in the Diels–Alder reaction, and the cycloadditions were extended to a 2-allenylindene substrate.
Recognizing Weakly Simple Polygons

We present an $$O(n\log n)$$O(nlogn)-time algorithm that determines whether a given n-gon in the plane is weakly simple. This improves upon an $$O(n^2\log n)$$O(n2logn)-time algorithm by Chang et al. (Proceedings of the 26th ACM-SIAM symposium on discrete algorithm, SIAM, 2015). Weakly simple polygons are required as input for several geometric algorithms. As such, recognizing simple or weakly simple polygons is a fundamental problem.
Scattering and Imaging of Nonlinearly Loaded Antenna Structures in Half-Space Environments

The electromagnetic scattering responses of nonlinearly loaded antenna structures excited by single-tone or multi-tone incident fields are considered in the frequency domain by employing a combination of the method-of-moments and a harmonic balance technique. Subsequently, standoff detection and localization of the scatterers in the presence of a half space is demonstrated with a subspace imaging procedure by exploiting the harmonic scattering responses.
Component interactions and electron transfer in toluene/o-xylene monooxygenase.

The multicomponent protein toluene/o-xylene monooxygenase (ToMO) activates molecular oxygen to oxidize aromatic hydrocarbons. Prior to dioxygen activation, two electrons are injected into each of two diiron(III) units of the hydroxylase, a process that involves three redox active proteins: the ToMO hydroxylase (ToMOH), Rieske protein (ToMOC), and an NADH oxidoreductase (ToMOF). In addition to these three proteins, a small regulatory protein is essential for catalysis (ToMOD). Through steady state and pre-steady state kinetics studies, we show that ToMOD attenuates electron transfer from ToMOC to ToMOH in a concentration-dependent manner. At substoichiometric concentrations, ToMOD increases the rate of turnover, which we interpret to be a consequence of opening a pathway for oxygen transport to the catalytic diiron center in ToMOH. Excess ToMOD inhibits steady state catalysis in a manner that depends on ToMOC concentration. Through rapid kinetic assays, we demonstrate that ToMOD attenuates formation of the...
Iridium-Catalyzed, Intermolecular Hydroetherification of Unactivated Aliphatic Alkenes with Phenols

Metal-catalyzed addition of an O–H bond to an alkene is a desirable process because it allows for rapid access to ethers from abundant starting materials without the formation of waste, without rearrangements, and with the possibility to control the stereoselectivity. We report the intermolecular, metal-catalyzed addition of phenols to unactivated α-olefins. Mechanistic studies of this rare catalytic reaction revealed a dynamic mixture of resting states that undergo O–H bond oxidative addition and subsequent olefin insertion to form ether products.