cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Research on the influence and test of core components on relay protection device

As the core equipment of power grid, relay protection device plays a key role in the safe and stable operation of power grid. It has become the development strategy of State Grid Corporation of China to research and develop high-performance and high reliability domestic chips and to carry out the localization of core components of relay protection. This paper analyzes the hardware structure of the relay protection device, studies the performance index parameters and performance of the core components of the relay protection device; combined with the operation environment of the relay protection device, analyzes the influencing factors such as temperature, humidity, electromagnetic interference, etc., puts forward a part of the test scheme of the general hardware of the relay protection device based on the domestic core, which is the centralized test of the relay protection device based on the "domestic core" Provide reference basis.
Structural phase transitions in RbBH4 under compression

Abstract In situ high pressure synchrotron powder X-ray diffraction and Raman techniques were used to study the structural stability of RbBH4 at room temperature up to 27 GPa. Two successive pressure induced structural transitions were observed in RbBH4 from the ambient cubic F m 3 ¯ m phase to an orthorhombic Pnma phase around 2.5 GPa, and then to a monoclinic P2/C phase above 8 GPa. The ambient cubic phase is found to be reversible. The experiments show that the structural polymorphs of RbBH4 observed at high pressures are different from the similar cubic hydrogen storage compounds NaBH4 and KBH4.
Prodrugs of Phosphonates and Phosphates: Crossing the Membrane Barrier

A substantial portion of metabolism involves transformation of phosphate esters, including pathways leading to nucleotides and oligonucleotides, carbohydrates, isoprenoids and steroids, and phosphorylated proteins. Because the natural substrates bear one or more negative charges, drugs that target these enzymes generally must be charged as well, but small charged molecules can have difficulty traversing the cell membrane by means other than endocytosis. The resulting dichotomy has stimulated a great deal of effort to develop effective prodrugs, compounds that carry little or no charge to enable them to transit biological membranes, but able to release the parent drug once inside the target cell. This chapter presents recent studies on advances in prodrug forms, along with representative examples of their application to marketed and developmental drugs.
Investigations of QCD at non-zero isospin density

We investigate the QCD phase diagram as a function of isospin chemical potential at a fixed temperature by directly putting large numbers of {pi}{sup +}s into the system. Correlation functions of N {pi}{sup +}s systems involves N!N! contractions, and become extremely expensive when N is large. In order to alleviate this problem, a recursion relation of correlation functions has been derived in Ref. [1] that substantially reduces the number of independent contractions needed and makes the study of many pions systems be possible. In this proceeding this method is investigated numerically. We have also constructed a new method that is even more efficient, enabling us to study systems of up to 72 {pi}{sup +}s.
The Seesaw Mechanism and the Structure of Spacetime above the Electroweak Scale

According to the seesaw mechanism, neutrino masses arise from the existence of heavy Majorana neutrinos postulated to emerge near the grand unification scale (GUT) of about 10 16 GeV. Despite its theoretical appeal, this scenario involves either physics at inaccessible scales or tuning the Yukawa couplings to un-naturally low values. Our work sidesteps the seesaw mechanism and shows that neutrino masses follow from placing the Standard Model on a spacetime support equipped with arbitrarily small deviations from four dimensions.
Normal saline resuscitation worsens lactic acidosis in experimental sepsis

Infusing large volumes of 0.9% sodium chloride (saline) causes hyperchloremic acidosis. The clinical relevance of this effect remains contentious and saline is still the most commonly used resuscitation fluid in the US. However, a recent trial showed that saline or albumin in saline increased mortality in children with malarial sepsis, compared to no fluid [1]. Infusion of these fluids may have perpetuated the underlying metabolic acidosis sepsis, causing cardiovascular collapse and death. In this study, we investigated the effect of saline versus a balanced crystalloid (plasmalyte) in a cecal ligation and puncture (CLP) model of sepsis. We hypothesized that saline resuscitation would increase acidosis and worsen hemodynamics, compared to resuscitation using a balanced crystalloid.
Acquisition and history of water on Mars

The purpose of this chapter is to summarize the geologic history of Mars and the role water has played in the evolution of the surface so that subsequent chapters on more specific topics can be viewed in a broader context. It focuses mainly on surficial processes such as erosion, sedimentation, and weathering, rather than on primary terrain-building processes such as impact, tectonism, and volcanism, since surficial processes provide more information on surface conditions under which lakes could have formed. With a mean annual temperature of 215 K and a mean surface pressure of 6.1 mbar, liquid water can exist at the surface only locally and temporarily under anomalous conditions. Yet, geologic evidence for the widespread presence of liquid water is compelling, particularly for early Mars, and claims have also been made of present-day water activity. Martian surface features have been divided into three age groups—Noachian, Hesperian, and Amazonian—on the basis of intersection relations and the numbers of superimposed impact craters. A major change occurred at the end of the Noachian. The rates of impact, valley formation, weathering, and erosion dropped precipitously. On the other hand, volcanism continued at a relatively high rate throughout the Hesperian, resulting in the resurfacing of at least 30% of the planet. Large floods formed episodically, possibly leaving behind large bodies of water. The rate of formation of the ice-related features and possibly the gullies probably varied as changes in obliquity affected the ice-stability relations.
On the efficiency of markets for managers

This paper examines the efficiency of the outside labor market in inducing optimal managerial behavior in the presence of learning. It shows that the incentives provided by the market can be more efficient than the original analysis of Holmstrom [6] would suggest. Moreover, under a mild additional assumption, the existence of an \(\varepsilon \)-efficient equilibrium can be guaranteed if a manager is patient. This result supports Fama's [4] original idea that the outside labor market can be efficient in disciplining top managers. These results also suggest that the empirically documented low levels of explicit incentives for managers might be due to the presence of implicit incentives provided by the outside market.
COMPUTED PROTONATION PROPERTIES: UNIQUE CAPABILITIES FOR PROTEIN FUNCTIONAL SITE PREDICTION

Prediction of protein functional sites from 3D structure is an important problem, particularly as structural genomics projects produce hundreds of structures of unknown function, including novel folds and the structures of orphan sequences. The present paper shows how computed protonation properties provide unique and powerful capabilities for the prediction of catalytic sites from the 3D structure alone. These protonation properties of the ionizable residues in a protein may be computed from the 3D structure using the calculated electrical potential function. In particular, the shapes of the theoretical microscopic titration curves (THEMATICS) enable selection of the residues involved in catalysis or small molecule recognition with good sensitivity and precision. Results are shown for 169 annotated enzymes in the Catalytic Site Atlas (CSA). Performance, as measured by residue recall and precision, is clearly better than that of other 3D-structure-based methods. When compared with methods based on sequence alignments and structural comparisons, THEMATICS performance is competitive for well-characterized enzymes. However THEMATICS performance does not degrade in the absence of similarity, as do the alignment-based methods, even if there are few or no sequence homologues or few or no proteins of similar structure. It is further shown that the protonation properties perform well on open, unbound structures, even if there is substantial conformational change upon ligand binding.
Skew row-strict quasisymmetric Schur functions

Mason and Remmel introduced a basis for quasisymmetric functions known as the row-strict quasisymmetric Schur functions. This basis is generated combinatorially by fillings of composition diagrams that are analogous to the row-strict tableaux that generate Schur functions. We introduce a modification known as Young row-strict quasisymmetric Schur functions, which are generated by row-strict Young composition fillings. After discussing basic combinatorial properties of these functions, we define a skew Young row-strict quasisymmetric Schur function using the Hopf algebra of quasisymmetric functions and then prove this is equivalent to a combinatorial description. We also provide a decomposition of the skew Young row-strict quasisymmetric Schur functions into a sum of Gessel's fundamental quasisymmetric functions and prove a multiplication rule for the product of a Young row-strict quasisymmetric Schur function and a Schur function.
Infectious diseases, contamination rumors and ethnic violence: Regimental mutinies in the Bengal Native Army in 1857 India

Abstract The current paper connects anxiety about disease contamination to that about cultural contamination and the exclusionary behavior toward ethnic outgroups that it incites. We suggest that when individuals are exposed to disease fears, an epistemic groundwork is laid for construing outgroups as sources of contamination. We begin with a pilot experiment showing that contagious disease anxiety primes opposition to legalization of illegal aliens. We then analyze historical data about the diffusion of rumor-based ethnic violence, showing that Indian regiments of the East India Company were more likely to mutiny against their British officers if they had been exposed some months earlier to a cholera discourse. (These mutinies were proximally caused by acceptance of a rumor that the Company administration had violated a cultural taboo.) We discuss implications for studying the cognitive antecedents of the diffusion of beliefs and practices in organizations and in cultures.
School segregation and the identification of tipping behavior

We develop a method to empirically implement the Schelling model of segregation, and use it to study racial segregation in Los Angeles schools from 1995 to 2012. Our two-step method combines the estimation of parents' preferences for their children's peers with a counterfactual simulation analysis. We find substantial heterogeneity in the existence and locations of tipping points and stable equilibria. Schools are observed on equilibrium trajectories, but many remained out of equilibrium by 2012. We also introduce novel instrumental variables to identify preferences for endogenous peer groups that require no additional data and can be used in other educational settings.
Documenting the research life cycle: one data model, many products

Technical documentation for social science data is produced by a range of technologies in a variety of environments. While statistical agencies generally standardise the content and the look and feel of the documentation they produce, each agency approaches the task differently. Documentation produced by individual researchers shows even more variety. This heterogeneity in documentation comes at a cost – for data archivists who have had to adjust to new documentation styles with each data deposit in order to curate the collection, and for secondary data analysts attempting to understand datasets with which they were not familiar.
Catalyst-Controlled C–O versus C–N Allylic Functionalization of Terminal Olefins

The divergent synthesis of syn-1,2-aminoalcohol or syn-1,2-diamine precursors from a common terminal olefin has been accomplished using a combination of palladium(II) catalysis with Lewis acid cocatalysis. Palladium(II)/bis-sulfoxide catalysis with a silver triflate cocatalyst leads for the first time to anti-2-aminooxazolines (C–O) in good to excellent yields. Simple removal of the bis-sulfoxide ligand from this reaction results in a complete switch in reactivity to afford anti-imidazolidinone products (C–N) in good yields and excellent diastereoselectivities. Mechanistic studies suggest the divergent C–O versus C–N reactivity from a common ambident nucleophile arises due to a switch in mechanism from allylic C–H cleavage/functionalization to olefin isomerization/oxidative amination.
The Retail Service, The Market Power, and the Vertical Relationships in Breakfast Cereals Industry

This article extends the Berry, Levinsohn, Pakes (1995) model to include retail services by Boston supermarkets in an equilibrium model of breakfast cereals and then tests alternative vertical pricing games between manufacturers and supermarkets to ascertain who’s got the pricing power. Empirical results show that retail services play a significant role in market equilibrium. Consumers are willing to pay for additional retail services embedded in their cereal purchases, especially those with higher income and no kids. Markups and market shares increase with the level of retail services, although manufacturers dominate pricing decisions in the market channel for breakfast cereals. Significant downward biases in price elasticities and markup estimates result when services are ignored.
Bounds on Quantile Treatment Effects of Job Corps on Participants' Wages

This paper assesses the effect of the U.S. Job Corps (JC), the nation's largest and most comprehensive job training program targeting disadvantaged youths, on wages. We employ partial identification techniques and construct informative nonparametric bounds for the causal effect of interest under weaker assumptions than those conventionally used for point identification of treatment effects in the presence of sample selection. In addition, we propose and estimate bounds on quantile treatment effects of the program on participants' wages. In general, we find convincing evidence of positive impacts of JC on participants' wages. Importantly, we find that estimated impacts on lower quantiles of the distribution are higher, with the highest impact being in the 5th percentile where a positive effect on wages is bounded between 8.4 and 16.1 percent. These bounds suggest that JC results in wage compression within eligible participants.
Exercise increases utrophin protein expression in the mdx mouse model of Duchenne muscular dystrophy.

Introduction: Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) is a lethal genetic disease caused by mutations in the dystrophin gene resulting in chronic muscle damage, muscle wasting, and premature death. Utrophin is a dystrophin protein homologue that increases dystrophic muscle function and reduces pathology. Currently, no treatments that increase utrophin protein expression exist. However, exercise increases utrophin mRNA expression in healthy humans. Therefore, the purpose was to determine whether exercise increases utrophin protein expression in dystrophic muscle. Methods: Utrophin protein was measured in the quadriceps and soleus muscles of mdx mice after 12 weeks of voluntary wheel running exercise or sedentary controls. Muscle pathology was measured in the quadriceps. Results: Exercise increased utrophin protein expression 334 ± 63% in the quadriceps relative to sedentary controls. Exercise increased central nuclei 4 ± 1% but not other measures of pathology. Conclusions: Exercise may be an intervention that increases utrophin expression in patients with DMD. Muscle Nerve 49: 915–918, 2014
Coordinating to Eradicate Animal Disease, and the Role of Insurance Markets

Farmed animal production has traditionally been a dispersed sector. Biosecurity actions relevant to eradicating infectious diseases are generally non-contractible, and might involve inordinately high transactions costs if they were contractible. If an endemic disease is to be eradicated within a region, synchronized actions need to be taken to reduce incidence below a critical mass so that spread can be contained. Using a global game model of coordination under public and private information concerning the critical mass required, this paper characterizes the success probability in an eradication campaign. As is standard in global games, heterogeneity in private signals can support a unique equilibrium. Partly because of strategic interactions, concentrated production is found to facilitate eradication whenever unit participation costs are decreasing. Policies to manipulate the critical mass have both a direct effect and a strategic coordination effect. Policies to manipulate information can have subtle and non-intuitive consequences. A program to keep disease out can be modeled similarly. It is shown, too, that coordination problems may lead to multiple equilibria in animal disease insurance markets, so that these markets may complicate a disease eradication program by creating opportunities for multiple inefficient equilibria. The presence of private insurance markets may facilitate coordination and, for good or ill, can seal the fate of a program.
Managing Changes to Virtual Enterprises on the Semantic Web

The Web has become the universal medium of interactions between distributed entities. It is changing the way virtual enterprises are being represented from the traditional single entity to a collaboration of Web accessible services called Web services. Web services are enabling virtual enterprises by integrating partners from across organizational boundaries. These enterprises will evolve over time by automatically managing changes in their environment. In this paper, we present a change management approach for virtual enterprises on the Semantic Web. We combine Web services, ontologies, and agents to cater for the management of changes.
The transactions costs of primary market issuance : the case of Brazil, Chile, and Mexico

The author documents the precise costs of debt and equity issuance, both domestically and internationally, for firms in Brazil, Chile, and Mexico. Costs include investment banking and legal fees, regulatory and exchange listing costs, rating agency fees, and expenditures for marketing and publishing. Her findings suggest that Brazilian firms face similar costs in issuing debt locally or abroad, whereas domestic equity issuance is nearly twice as expensive as debt. While the Chilean domestic corporate debt market is well developed by emerging market standards (size of the market and maturity of issues), Chilean firms can issue debt more cheaply internationally than at home. In addition, while equity financing is cheaper in Chile from a transaction cost perspective, over the past decade most firms have used bonds rather than shares to raise capital. This financing trend is true in all three countries. Finally, Mexican firms can issue debt at the lowest costs of the three, but face the highest equity issuing costs. In addition to documenting these features, the author sheds light on how the investor base in these countries plays a strong role in influencing the ability of firms to access domestic capital markets.
Profiles of Permutations

This paper develops an analogy between the cycle structure of, on the one hand, random permutations with cycle lengths restricted to lie in an infinite set $S$ with asymptotic density $\sigma$ and, on the other hand, permutations selected according to the Ewens distribution with parameter $\sigma$. In particular we show that the asymptotic expected number of cycles of random permutations of $[n]$ with all cycles even, with all cycles odd, and chosen from the Ewens distribution with parameter $1/2$ are all ${1 \over 2} \log n + O(1)$, and the variance is of the same order. Furthermore, we show that in permutations of $[n]$ chosen from the Ewens distribution with parameter $\sigma$, the probability of a random element being in a cycle longer than $\gamma n$ approaches $(1-\gamma)^\sigma$ for large $n$. The same limit law holds for permutations with cycles carrying multiplicative weights with average $\sigma$. We draw parallels between the Ewens distribution and the asymptotic-density case and explain why these parallels should exist using permutations drawn from weighted Boltzmann distributions.
Starburst Intensity Limit of Galaxies at z ≃ 5–6

The peak star formation intensity in starburst galaxies does not vary significantly from the local universe to redshift -->z ~ 6. We arrive at this conclusion through new surface brightness measurements of 47 starburst galaxies at -->z 5?6, doubling the redshift range for such observations. These galaxies are spectroscopically confirmed in the Hubble Ultra Deep Field (HUDF) through the GRism ACS program for Extragalactic Science (GRAPES) project. The starburst intensity limit for galaxies at -->z 5?6 agrees with those at -->z 3?4 and -->z 0 to within a factor of a few, after correcting for cosmological surface brightness dimming and for dust. The most natural interpretation of this constancy over cosmic time is that the same physical mechanisms limit starburst intensity at all redshifts up to -->z 6 (be they galactic winds, gravitational instability, or something else). We do see two trends with redshift: First, the UV spectral slope (?) of galaxies at -->z 5?6 is bluer than that of -->z 3 galaxies, suggesting an increase in dust content over time. Second, the galaxy sizes from -->z 3 to 6 scale approximately as the Hubble parameter -->H?1(z) . Thus, galaxies at -->z 6 are high-redshift starbursts, much like their local analogs except for slightly bluer colors, smaller physical sizes, and correspondingly lower overall luminosities. If we now assume a constant maximum star formation intensity, the differences in observed surface brightness between -->z 0 and 6 are consistent with standard expanding cosmology and strongly inconsistent with the tired light model.
Evaluating Telecommunications Surveillance in Germany: The Lessons of the Max Planck Institute's Study

The publication in 2003 of a long-awaited empirical study of telecommunications surveillance in Germany has opened a window into existing law and practices in that country. Under the sponsorship of the Federal Department of Justice, three researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Foreign and International Criminal Law in Freiburg ("MPI") carried out a detailed examination of relevant German and international developments. The MPI Study of German and international developments in telecommunications surveillance has both weaknesses and strengths. Its weaknesses concern the MPI researchers' reliance on spotty international statistics to reach conclusions about relative amounts of surveillance activity in different countries. More successfully, the MPI researchers trace the similarities and dissimilarities in the regulation of telecommunications surveillance in different countries. To a large extent, this survey indicates a convergence among a core of shared legal approaches: a requirement of judicial approval of surveillance orders; an emergency exception to this requirement; and a use of telecommunications surveillance only as a last resort when other means of law enforcement will not reveal necessary information. Regarding its analysis of Germany, the MPI Study reveals the heavy emphasis of law enforcement agencies on surveillance of mobile telephones. This emphasis is all the more striking due to a relative lack of German law enforcement activity concerning surveillance of e-mail or traditional telephones. The MPI Study proved unable to account for these differences; it also neglected to explore the roots and significance of the disparate rate of surveillance in different German states. Finally, the MPI researchers did explore perhaps the most complex question of all in this area: can one empirically measure the results of telecommunications surveillance?
Women’s Decision Making Power and Human Development : Evidence from Pakistan

When deciding who should receive welfare benefits with the aim to increase household well-being, it is necessary to understand the effects of the distribution of power within the households at which the aid is directed. Two primary household models have been used to study intra-household bargaining and decision making: the unitary model and the collective model. The unitary model seems to fit Pakistan's context because the prevailing traditional culture positions the male head as the household decision maker. However, using a set of direct measures of decision-making power from the Pakistan Social and Living Standard Measurement Survey, this study finds that even in a country where men seem to have more power than women, the collective household bargaining model applies. This study also finds that, in Pakistan, when women have more decision-making power at home, households tend to spend more on women's preferred goods (such as clothing and education), family members eat more non-grain food items, and children, particularly girls, are more likely to be enrolled in school.
Observational Tests of Baryon Symmetric Cosmology

With the advent of grand unified theories (GUTs) has come the concept (among others) that baryons (protons, etc.) can decay by changing into leptons (“Diamonds are not forever.”) and vice versa, baryonic matter can be created from the thermal blackbody radiation in the early universe (provided, of course, that the hot big-bang model is basically correct). Using this concept, models have been suggested to generate a universal baryon asymmetry, with the consequence that no important amount of antimatter would be left in the universe at the present time (see, e.g. Langacker 1981 and references therein). These models have been motivated by observational constraints on antimatter, at least in our little corner of the universe (Steigman 1976). However, some of these constraints have been shown to be overrestrictive (Stecker 1978, Allen 1981) and an alternative model, also based on GUTs, has been suggested which maintains matter-antimatter (i.e., baryon) symmetry on a universal scale, but results in separate “fossil domains” of clusters of matter galaxies and clusters of antimatter galaxies.
Enabling semantic web inferencing with oracle technology: applications in life sciences

The Semantic Web has reached a level of maturity that allows RDF and OWL to be adopted by commercial software vendors. Products that incorporate these standards are being used to help provide solutions to the increasingly complex IT challenges that many industries face. Standardization efforts for the Semantic Web have progressed to the point where efforts are starting in the integration of ontologies and rules. This paper showcases the implementation of a Semantic Web rulebase in Oracle Database 10g, and provides examples of its use within drug discovery and development. A more detailed paper is currently being prepared with Dr. Said Tabet of the RuleML initiative where a more detailed design and specification is provided explaining the
When are Thrifts Closed? An Agency-Theoretic Model

This article examines the determinants of both book-value insolvency and regulatory closure in the thrift industry. Agency theory suggests that the determinants of insolvency and closure are a function of conflicts between shareholders and creditors, shareholders and managers, and regulators and taxpayers. Certain thrift attributes may have differing effects upon insolvency and closure because regulators' best interests may not be served by promptly closing insolvent institutions. In this study, both thrift insolvency and thrift closure are modeled as functions of two broad risk factors: operating risk and agency risk. Using a bivariate probit model to jointly examine determinants of insolvency and closure, the analysis reveals that measures of both operating risk and agency risk generally are statistically significant with the expected signs, providing evidence consistent with the existence both of moral hazard by thrift oweners and of expense-preferent behavior by thrift managers. The results also show that agency conflicts between regulators and taxpayers are important in explaining why some thrifts were closed while others were not.
Integrating in the Higgs Portal to Fermion Dark Matter

Fermion dark matter (DM) interacting with the standard model through a Higgs portal requires non-renormalizable operators, signaling the presence of new mediator states at the electroweak scale. Collider signatures that involve the mediators are a powerful tool to experimentally probe the Higgs portal interactions, providing complementary information to strong constraints set by direct DM detection searches. Indirect detection experiments are less sensitive to this scenario. We investigate the collider reach for the mediators using three minimal renormalizable models as examples, and requiring the fermion DM to be a thermal relic. The Large Hadron Collider in its high-energy, high-luminosity phase can probe most scenarios if DM is lighter than about 200 GeV. Beyond this scale, future high-energy experiments such as an electron-positron collider or a 100-TeV proton-proton collider, combined with future direct detection experiments, are indispensable to conclusively test these models.
Ciphertext-policy attribute-based encryption: an expressive, efficient, and provably secure realization

We present a new methodology for realizing Ciphertext-Policy Attribute Encryption (CP-ABE) under concrete and noninteractive cryptographic assumptions in the standard model. Our solutions allow any encryptor to specify access control in terms of any access formula over the attributes in the system. In our most efficient system, ciphertext size, encryption, and decryption time scales linearly with the complexity of the access formula. The only previous work to achieve these parameters was limited to a proof in the generic group model. We present three constructions within our framework. Our first system is proven selectively secure under a assumption that we call the decisional Parallel Bilinear Diffie-Hellman Exponent (PBDHE) assumption which can be viewed as a generalization of the BDHE assumption. Our next two constructions provide performance tradeoffs to achieve provable security respectively under the (weaker) decisional Bilinear-Diffie-Hellman Exponent and decisional Bilinear Diffie-Hellman assumptions.
Adaptive pinpoint and fuel efficient mars landing using reinforcement learning

Future unconstrained and science-driven missions to Mars will require advanced guidance algorithms that are able to adapt to more demanding mission requirements, e.g. landing on selected locales with pinpoint accuracy while autonomously flying fuel-efficient trajectories. In this paper, a novel guidance algorithm designed by applying the principles of reinforcement learning (RL) theory is presented. The goal is to devise an adaptive guidance algorithm that enables robust, fuel efficient, and accurate landing without the need for off line trajectory generation and real-time tracking. Results from a Monte Carlo simulation campaign show that the algorithm is capable of autonomously following trajectories that are close to the optimal minimum-fuel solutions with an accuracy that surpasses that of past and future Mars missions. The proposed RL-based guidance algorithm exhibits a high degree of flexibility and can easily accommodate autonomous retargeting while maintaining accuracy and fuel efficiency. Although reinforcement learning and other similar machine learning techniques have been previously applied to aerospace guidance and control problems (e.g., autonomous helicopter control), this appears, to the best of the authors knowledge, to be the first application of reinforcement learning to the problem of autonomous planetary landing.
Small-Scale Private Service Providers of Water Supply and Electricity : A Review of Incidence, Structure, Pricing and Operating Characteristics

This paper summarizes the key findings and conclusions of a literature review of small-scale private service providers (SPSPs) of water supply and electricity conducted over a six-month period in 2003. It draws on more than 400 documents-including journals, articles, reports, case studies and project reports-which have been disaggregated and referenced in a publicly available database. SPSPs appear most prevalent in countries with low coverage levels, ineffective public utilities that provide inadequate or partial services, and remote, difficult-to-access regions. SPSPs are especially prevalent in post-conflict countries and others with weak or failed states. Of the countries for which evidence of SPSPs was available, at least half fall into this category. SPSP provision of networked services appears to be significantly higher for electricity than for water supply. Most SPSPs identified through the literature are single-purpose entities established for the express purpose of delivering water supply or electricity. SPSPs take a variety of organizational forms, both for-profit and non-profit. As such, they are established for a variety of reasons, including: to meet consumer demand, respond to crises, or as part of larger business ventures. The technology used may extend upstream from distribution services to the means for producing or generating water supply or electricity, so capital needs vary accordingly. The majority of SPSPs have fewer than 50 employees and usually fewer than 10. A lack of affordable financing is a constraint for most SPSPs, which fund investments mainly through their own earnings and savings, loans from friends and family, and money borrowed from formal and informal lenders.
South-South regional integration and industrial growth : the case of the Andean Pact

Has the revival of the Andean Pact affected the industrial growth of Bolivia, Colombia, and Ecuador? Has this regional agreement had greater effects tha unilateral liberalization? The author explores two potential channels for industrial growth: scale effects and variety of imported intermediate inputs. She analyzes data from 2 countries (classified at the three-digit level of ISIC) across three countries. The results show that: 10 The variety of intermediate inputs originating from nonregional partners has a significant positive impact on growth in a handful of industries. 2) The effect of regional variety is at best mixed. This lends preliminary support to the argument that unilateral liberalization will have a positive impact on output growth through the channel of imported intermediate inputs. There is significant homogeneity in industry-level returns to scale. Moreover, in the three Andean countries studied, cross-country scale effects were small and negative. Therefore, the three countries should not expect large or across-the-board gains through scale effects from their regional arrangement.
Online packet admission and oblivious routing in sensor networks

The concept of Oblivious Routing for general undirected networks was introduced by Racke [12] when he showed that there exists an oblivious routing algorithm with polylogarithmic competitive ratio (w.r.t. edge congestion) for any undirected graph. In a following result, Racke and Rosen [13] presented admission control algorithms achieving a polylogarithmic fraction (in the size of the network) of the optimal number of accepted messages. Both these results assume that the network incurs a cost only after it is accepted and the message is routed. Admission control and routing algorithms for sensor networks under energy constraints, however, need to account for the energy spent in checking for feasible routes prior to the acceptance of a message and hence, it is unclear if these algorithms achieve polylogarithmic bounds under this condition. In this paper, we address this problem and prove that such algorithms do not exist when messages are generated by an adversary. Furthermore, we show that an oblivious routing algorithm cannot have a polylogarithmic competitive ratio without a packet-admission protocol. We present a deterministic O(ρlogn)-competitive algorithm for tree networks where the capacity of any node is in [k,ρk]. For grids, we present an O(logn)-competitive algorithm when nodes have capacities in Θ(logn) under the assumption that each message is drawn uniformly at random from all pairs of nodes in the grid.
Developing High Assurance Systems: On the Role of Software Tools

Recently, researchers have developed a number of powerful, formally based software tools, such as model checkers and theorem provers. To date, these tools have largely been used to analyze hardware designs. In the future, they should have significant value for analyzing the requirements and designs of software systems, especially high assurance software systems, where compelling evidence is needed that the system satisfies critical properties, such as safety and security properties. This paper briefly describes the different roles that formally based software tools can play in debugging, verifying, and testing software systems and software system artifacts. It also describes one important activity in software development not involving tools that is often neglected and that merits greater care and attention.
Few-body physics

Few-body hadronic observables play an essential role in a wide number of processes relevant for both particle and nuclear physics. In order for Lattice QCD to offer insight into the interpretation of few-body states, a theoretical infrastructure must be developed to map Euclidean-time correlation functions to the desired Minkowski-time few-body observables. In this talk, I will first review the formal challenges associated with the studies of such systems via Lattice QCD, as first introduced by Maiani and Testa, and then review methodology to circumvent said limitations. The first main example of the latter is the formalism of Luscher to analyze elastic scattering and a second is the method of Lellouch & Luscher to analyze weak decays. I will then proceed to discus recent theoretical generalizations of these frameworks that allow for the determination of scattering amplitudes, resonances, transition and elastic form factors. Finally, I will outline outstanding problems, including those that are now beginning to be addressed.
Ultrasonic Processing of 6061-Based Nanocomposites for High Performance Applications

Previously studies show that microstructure and mechanical properties of a cast component can be considerably improved when ceramic nanoparticles are used as a reinforcement to form a metal-matrix-nano-composite material.
Chemotherapy from an Insider's Perspective

This paper is based on my experience of receiving chemotherapy from November, 1980, to July, 1981. I was well until Oct. 15, 1980, when I discovered a 3 cm mass in my left mid-neck. Apart from intermittent pruritus and an intertriginous fungus infection at the end of August, 1980, I had had no symptoms. I had not noticed any masses before Oct. 15, and I had not lost weight or experienced night sweats. A sonogram showed the mass to be cystic. With the preoperative diagnosis of cystic hygroma, I underwent a cervical exploration on Oct. 20, 1980, and was informed in the recovery room that the frozen section was malignant. Because of a normal bone-marrow aspiration, as well as a negative computerised tomographic scan of the abdomen and pelvis, I was designated stage IA, diffuse undifferentiated lymphoma. After sperm-banking had been completed I began, on Nov. 17, 1980, a 37-week course of chemotherapy (including bleomycin, adriamycin, cyclophosphamide, oncovin, dexamethasone, methotrexate, and citrovorum).
Macroeconomics without Equilibrium or Disequilibrium

This paper uses a simulation model2 to describe the role which banks have to play when decisions by households and firms are taken under conditions of uncertainty, and when production, distribution and investment all take time. The first objective of the study is to supplement the narrative method used perforce by Keynes and his followers before the computer age. But it also adumbrates an alternative way of looking at the world — alternative, that is, to the neoclassical paradigm which is used by ‘IS/LM’ Keynesians, new Keynesians, monetarists of both kinds, quantity rationers and almost all writers of modern textbooks. Its title emulates Kaldor (1985) and its contents derive largely from Hicks (1989) and from Tobin’s work read seriatim.
Organizational structure and the hold-up problem

In this note, I consider a setting in which an agent can exert costly unobservable effort towards two activities and is, a priori, uncertain about its ability to perform them. A (non-contractible) ability enhancing investment can be performed. The lack of commitment from a Principal concerned with (informational) rent extraction, and who is in control of both activities, induces the standard underinvestment outcome of Hold-Up problems. It is then shown that, if the two activities are assigned to two different Principals, ex-post incentives will be more powerful generating, from an ex-ante perspective, higher incentives for ability enhancing investment. The combination of higher ex-ante investments and expost incentives produces an outcome that is superior than a single Principal’s outcome in terms of efficiency. This suggests that organizational structure, through its influence on the design of incentives over contractible variables, can play a key role is solving Hold-Up problems.
Economic Impacts and Implications of Foreign-Born Labor Reductions in Agriculture - Emphasis on Dairy Farms

Giving consideration to the bills and laws being discussed in Congress during the last few years regarding immigration reform, the need has arisen to study the effects of immigrant labor on the dairy industry. The objective of this study is to consider the economic impacts of reducing the availability of immigrant workers in the United States. This analysis utilizes the IMPLAN model, developed and maintained by the Minnesota IMPLAN Group, for analyzing the effects of 20 percent, 50 percent and 100 percent reductions in immigrant labor within the dairy industry. IMPLAN maps the economy using an input/output structure that “describes commodity flows from producers to intermediate and final consumers”. The employment and production data used as inputs into the model were gathered using a national survey of 5,005 dairy farms with respondents from 47 states and a response rate of 41.4 percent. Approximately 50 percent of the 5,005 dairy farms surveyed use immigrant labor. Results of the analysis estimate baseline nationwide economic activity, employment, and total value added impacts attributable to dairy farming to be $48.1 billion, 301,300 jobs, and $19.6 billion, respectively. With a 20 percent reduction in immigrant labor, the values fall to $43.6 billion, 274,800 jobs, and $17.8 billion. Under a 50 percent reduction in immigrant labor the values are $36.9 billion, 235,000 jobs, and $15.1 billion. Under a 100 percent reduction in immigrant labor scenario, the values fall to an estimated $25.7 billion, 168,700 jobs, and $10.5 billion. These reported figures include the impacts directly linked to the dairy industry as well as those to the rest of the economy. This analysis reports both intra- and inter-industry impacts but gives special attention to the inter-industry impacts within the economy.
Natural language processing

Natural language processing (NLP) refers to computer systems that analyze, attempt to understand, or produce one or more human languages, such as English, Japanese, Italian, or Russian. The input might be text, spoken language, or keyboard input. The task might be to translate to another language, to comprehend and represent the content of text, to build a database or generate summaries, or to maintain a dialogue with a user as part of an interface for database/information retrieval (q.v.). This article addresses issues in natural language comprehension and generation from text or keyboard input. Similar techniques can be used for spoken language by adding a system for speech recognition (see SPEECH RECOGNITION AND SYNTHESIS).
Secure Signatures and Chosen Ciphertext Security in a Quantum Computing World

We initiate the study of quantum-secure digital signatures and quantum chosen ciphertext security. In the case of signatures, we enhance the standard chosen message query model by allowing the adversary to issue quantum chosen message queries: given a superposition of messages, the adversary receives a superposition of signatures on those messages. Similarly, for encryption, we allow the adversary to issue quantum chosen ciphertext queries: given a superposition of ciphertexts, the adversary receives a superposition of their decryptions. These adversaries model a natural ubiquitous quantum computing environment where end-users sign messages and decrypt ciphertexts on a personal quantum computer.
Hereditary unigraphs and Erdős–Gallai equalities

Abstract We give characterizations of the structure and degree sequence of hereditary unigraphs, those graphs for which every induced subgraph is the unique realization of its degree sequence. The class of hereditary unigraphs properly contains the threshold and matrogenic graphs, and the characterizations presented here naturally generalize those known for these other classes of graphs. The degree sequence characterization of hereditary unigraphs makes use of the list of values k for which the k th Erdős–Gallai inequality holds with equality for a graphic sequence. Using the canonical decomposition of Tyshkevich, we show how this list describes structure common among all realizations of an arbitrary graphic sequence.
STOPPING THE DRAIN: THIRD-PARTY RESISTANCE TO WATER MARKETING IN CALIFORNIA

Growth of the water market since the early 1990s has generated controversy in California's source regions over two types of transfers - those drawing on native groundwater reserves and those resulting from crop idling. Given incomplete state-level protections for third parties who may suffer adverse effects of water sales, local authorities have responded with their own measures. In particular, many rural counties have adopted ordinances restricting groundwater exports. Some communities have restricted farmers' right to fallow land for the market. Original data on water market flows and local ordinances are used to analyze the impact of county trade restrictions on water sales and water exports. County ordinances have reduced water exports by nearly20 percent and water sales by nearly 15 percent since the mid 1990s and have shifted some exports to local buyers. Several policy options are available for mitigating third-party effects in less trade-restrictive ways. For groundwater protection, a more efficient solution lies in the establishment of local groundwater management systems. Recent test cases will provide useful guidance on the practical difficulties of implementing a transfer tax to compensate communities for the impacts of fallowing.
Protocol and Technique of Dialysis Ultrasound Surveillance

Surgery for access for hemodialysis (HD) is the most commonly performed vascular surgical operation in the United States, predominantly due to a steady rise in the incidence and prevalence of end-stage renal disease (ESRD). Despite a concomitant increase in the mean age of these patients and more coexisting morbidities, advances in the management of renal failure and dialysis have resulted in longer survival among patients on HD. However, the “Achilles heel” for these patients remains access, with poor patency rates resulting in multiple interventions for thrombosis and maintenance, and, in many patients, the eventual need for life-long catheter placement. Access failure is the second leading cause of hospitalization among patients with ESRD, and the annual cost of access maintenance is estimated to be $1 billion in the United States.1