cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Leadership and motivation for public goods contributions

Results from a leaderâ€“follower public goods game are presented. An individual, when randomly selected to make a contribution knowing others will observe the selection, gives more than in the simultaneousâ€ move public goods game. Followers adopt a quasiâ€ matching strategy where they systematically donate less than the leader, but contribute more when the leader does and contribute less when the leader free rides. The net result is increased provision of a public good when contributions are sequential. The results highlight that psychological preferences, rather than solely social preferences, can explain behavior.
Antisense transcription as a tool to tune gene expression

A surprise that has emerged from transcriptomics is the prevalence of genomic antisense transcription, which occurs counter to gene orientation. While frequent, the roles of antisense transcription in regulation are poorly understood. We built a synthetic system in Escherichia coli to study how antisense transcription can change the expression of a gene and tune the response characteristics of a regulatory circuit. We developed a new genetic part that consists of a unidirectional terminator followed by a constitutive antisense promoter and demonstrate that this part represses gene expression proportionally to the antisense promoter strength. Chip-based oligo synthesis was applied to build a large library of 5,668 terminator–promoter combinations that was used to control the expression of three repressors (PhlF, SrpR, and TarA) in a simple genetic circuit (NOT gate). Using the library, we demonstrate that antisense promoters can be used to tune the threshold of a regulatory circuit without impacting other properties of its response function. Finally, we determined the relative contributions of antisense RNA and transcriptional interference to repressing gene expression and introduce a biophysical model to capture the impact of RNA polymerase collisions on gene repression. This work quantifies the role of antisense transcription in regulatory networks and introduces a new mode to control gene expression that has been previously overlooked in genetic engineering.
Is Bitcoin the “Paris Hilton” of the Currency World? Or Are the Early Investors onto Something That Will Make Them Rich?

The Bitcoin phenomenon—and the technological innovation that made it possible—is interesting, but for investors large and small, the more pertinent question is whether they should buy the digital currency or avoid it. Using both in-sample and out-of-sample settings, we analyze a Bitcoin investment from the standpoint of an investor with a diversified portfolio. Within the in-sample setting, Bitcoin does not yield added value to investors, with a utility function consistent with the mean-variance setting. On the other hand, Bitcoin does offer diversification benefits to investors with negative exponential and power utility functions. However, these benefits are not preserved in the out-of-sample framework. In most cases, the optimal portfolios that include only the traditional asset classes appear to have superior performance.
Mazrui and Barkan: a tribute

2014 was a very bad year for African and Africana Studies. The large communities of scholars that study and explore the worlds of Africa and the African Diaspora lost two intellectual giants. The f...
Ordered Packed-Bed Fuel Elements

A unique method produces perfectly ordered packed beds of spheres that are dropped randomly into rigid rectangular columns. This method is applicable to loading fuel elements for many types of reac...
The New Phase [Tl4Sb6Se10][Sn5Sb2Se14]: A Naturally Formed Semiconducting Heterostructure with Two-Dimensional Conductance

We report on a new layered semiconductor Tl8Sn10Sb16Se48 with an indirect band gap of 0.45 eV. The novel structure is made of alternating layers of SnSe2-type [Sn5Sb2Se14] and SnSe-type [Tl4Sb6Se10]. The material exhibits two-dimensional (2D) electron variable range hopping at low temperatures, indicating an absence of interlayer coherency of the electronic state. Theoretical calculations unveil a 2D confinement for electrons in the [Sn5Sb2Se14] sheet and confirm the heterostructure nature. This unique electronic structure is attributed to the weak interlayer coupling and structure distortion in the electron-poor [Tl4Sb6Se10] layer that energetically impedes electron propagation.
DNA-CNT nanowire networks for DNA detection.

The ability to detect biological analytes in a rapid, sensitive, operationally simple, and cost-effective manner will impact human health and safety. Hybrid biocatalyzed-carbon nanotube (CNT) nanowire-based detection methods offer a highly sensitive and specific platform for the fabrication of simple and effective conductometric devices. Here, we report a conductivity-based DNA detection method utilizing carbon nanotube−DNA nanowire devices and oligonucleotide-functionalized enzyme probes. Key to our sensor design is a DNA-linked-CNT wire motif, which forms a network of interrupted carbon nanotube wires connecting two electrodes. Sensing occurs at the DNA junctions linking CNTs, followed by amplification using enzymatic metalization leading to a conductimetric response. The DNA analyte detection limit is 10 fM with the ability to discriminate single, double, and triple base pair mismatches. DNA−CNT nanowires and device sensing gaps were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and confocal Rama...
Attitudes toward unauthorized immigrants, authorized immigrants, and refugees

Rates of human migration are steadily rising and have resulted in significant sociopolitical debates over how to best respond to increasing cultural diversity and changing migration patterns. Research on prejudicial attitudes toward immigrants has focused on the attitudes and beliefs that individuals in the receiving country hold about immigrants. The current study enhances this literature by examining how young adults view authorized and unauthorized immigrants and refugees. Using a between-groups design of 191 undergraduates, we found that participants consistently reported more prejudicial attitudes, greater perceived realistic threats, and greater intergroup anxiety when responding to questions about unauthorized compared with authorized immigrants. Additionally, there were differences in attitudes depending on participants’ generational status, with older-generation participants reporting greater perceived realistic and symbolic threat, prejudice, and anxiety than newer-generation students. In some instances, these effects were moderated by participant race/ethnicity and whether they were evaluating authorized or unauthorized immigrants. Lastly, perceived realistic threat, symbolic threat, and intergroup anxiety were significant predictors of prejudicial attitudes. Overall, participants reported positive attitudes toward refugees and resettlement programs in the United States. These findings have implications for future research and interventions focused on immigration and prejudice toward migrant groups.
Correlation of Unsteady Pressure and Inflow Velocity Fields of a Pitching Rotor Blade

Predictions from four different analytical methods are compared with measurements of unsteady inflow velocity and surface pressure distributions on a pitching rotor blade in hover. The test case is a stiff two-bladed teetering rotor constructed from full-scale tail rotor blades, subjected to w/rev simple harmonic pitch oscillations under incompressible flow conditions. The chordwise distributions of unsteady pressure at three radial locations on the blade are compared with Theodorsen's and Loewy's two-dimensional incompressible unsteady aerodynamic theories and with Kaladi's pulsating doublet distribution method. Inflow velocity is predicted successfully using Peters' modal theory for steady as well as dynamic pitch conditions. The effect of dynamic inflow on rotor unsteady surface pressure is studied. At inboard radial locations, Loewy's two-dimensional theory for even harmonics of forcing frequency and Theodorsen's two-dimensional theory for odd harmonics provide efficient and reliable predictions of unsteady blade surface pressure. At outboard radial locations, panel or modal methods have to be used to predict amplitude and phase of unsteady pressure. Tip effects, mean pitch angle effects, and effects of rotation have been demonstrated. Nomenclature b = number of blades C(k) — Theodorsen's lift deficiency function, F + IG C'(k) = modified lift deficiency function for the rotor, F' + iG' Cp = pressure coefficient, 2(p - p y)/pfl2r2
Dynamics of a Delay Limit Cycle Oscillator with Self-Feedback☆

Abstract This paper concerns the dynamics of the following nonlinear differential-delay equation: in which T is the delay and is a coefficient of self-feedback. Using numerical integration, continuation programs and bifurcation theory, we show that this system exhibits a wide range of dynamical phenomena, including Hopf and pitchfork bifurcations, limit cycle folds and relaxation oscillations. It is shown that this equation governs the in-phase and out-of-phase motions of a system of two coupled nonlinear differential-delay equations.
Occurrence of Serious Bacterial Infections Since Introduction of Antibacterial Agents

The introduction and widespread use of chemotherapeutic and antibiotic agents has resulted in profound changes in the number and character of infections that are being encountered. Emphasis has been placed most recently on the number and seriousness of staphylococcic infections, particularly those occurring within hospitals. This has been brought strikingly into our consciousness because of the large number of outbreaks in nurseries and maternity wards and by the high incidence of infections in originally clean surgical wounds and as complications of debilitating diseases, events which have resulted in considerable morbidity and appreciable mortality within hospitals. There is also some evidence of extension of these infections into the communities. The problem has been recognized as being world-wide and extending to all areas where antibiotics have been extensively used. It has also been the subject of many conferences and of a number of monographs. 1 Although the staphylococcus problem has received considerable
Conjunctival provocation testing: overview of recent clinical trials in ocular allergy.

Purpose of review The conjunctival provocation test is a human model of ocular allergy that has been used to study the ocular response to allergenic stimuli and to evaluate antiallergic therapy. The review will discuss recent studies using the conjunctival provocation test and other models of ocular allergy, and evaluate the relative merits of different models. Recent findings The conjunctival provocation test has allowed investigators to recruit large numbers of allergic individuals who, although asymptomatic, can be challenged with the conjunctival administration of allergen. Observations of the eye can be made before and after challenge, and cells and mediators may be sampled from the ocular surface. In addition, the effectiveness of antiallergic therapy can be evaluated, usually by pretreating the two eyes with different forms or doses of drug. Summary Considerable useful information has been gained about the ocular allergic response and drug efficacy using the conjunctival provocation test and naturally occurring seasonal allergic conjunctivitis.
Atomic-Scale Derivatives of Solid-State Materials

There has been an expanding library of materials in which the framework connectivity of prevalent solid-state crystal structure types is terminated with ligands along specific axes to produce robust, crystalline, single- and few-atom/polyhedral thick fragments. The abrupt termination of the ionic/covalent inorganic framework along a particular direction, gives these materials fundamentally different electronic, optical, thermal, and magnetic properties, which can be manipulated via the design of the organic component. These new materials often exhibit advantageous electronic and optoelectronic behavior, making them viable platforms for applications ranging from light emitting phosphors, to thin film field effect transistors, to photovoltaics. This Perspective highlights our current understanding and future opportunities in the synthesis, properties, and applications of these atomic-scale derivatives of solid-state materials.
The determination of blood sugar.

A method for the determination of blood sugar has been developed which is based upon the use of a more specific copper solution than has hitherto been available. Where the new procedure is employed for normal human blood the results are from fifteen to thirty percent lower than those obtained where the method of Folin and Wu is employed. Details of the procedure will be published in a short time.
Ensemble timing in computer music

The precision of computers makes possible computer music ensemble interactions that are both arbitrarily complex and tightly constrained. Such control is useful in the simulation of expressive playing, where it is necessary to introduce slight deviations in the time trajectories of individual voices and insure that the ensemble cohesion is not disturbed. Furthermore, it opens up a realm of compositional timing arrangements that would be impossible or extremely difficult with human performers alone. Many such examples, although implemented on the player piano, can be found in the music of Conlon Nancarrow. Similarly, Henry Cowell wrote music with complex rhythms for an obscure instrument called the Rhythmicon, music that was later implemented on computer by Leland Smith (Smith 1973). Finally, the author's composition Silicon Valley Breakdown (1982) for computergenerated tape includes a variety of complex timing arrangements such as canons in which each of several voices has an independent, continually varying tempo and all voices finish their material simultaneously at a predesignated point in time. Despite the potential for interesting ensemble interactions, computer music programs have tended to neglect or deal in a clumsy manner with both interand intra-voice timing and phrasing, due to both the lack of generality of the programs and a lack of clarity concerning timing issues. This made the simulation of expressive playing in arrangements of traditional music tedious and timing arrangements on the order of complexity of Silicon Valley Breakdown next to impossible. The problem is that the composer is "protected" from direct access to scheduler behavior. Furthermore, no facility is provided for applying an arbitrary expression or function call to a parameter value. Some recent programs such as Pla (Schottstaedt 1983) and FORMES (Rodet, Potard, and Barriere 1984) have alleviated these problems. However, in order to gain the desired control over timing, the task of specifying tempo and ensemble behavior must be properly handled. The appropriate construct for describing ensemble timing interaction is the time map, which provides precise, yet flexible phrasing control. The time map allows the composer to specify, either graphically or by a functional definition, a distortion of a time trajectory such that complex tempo variations combined with precise coincidence control can be obtained. The time map approach is also a useful way to think about performance analysis. It must be stressed that the time map method is an approach rather than an implementation and can be adapted to a variety of environments. Therefore, although implementation issues and sample prog ams are discussed in this paper, no detailed description of a particular implementation is given.
Synapse: Synthetic Application Profiler and Emulator

We introduce Synapse motivated by the needs to emulate workload execution characteristics on high-performance and distributed heterogeneous resources. Synapse has a platform independent application profiler, and the ability to emulate profiled workloads on a variety of resources. Synapse is used as a proxy application (or "representative application") for real workloads, with the added advantage that it can be tuned in different ways and at arbitrary levels of granularity in ways that are simply not possible using real applications. Experiments show that automated profiling using Synapse represents application characteristics with high fidelity. Emulation using Synapse can reproduce the application behaviour in the original runtime environment, as well as reproducing properties when used in a different run-time environments.
Standard finite elements for the numerical resolution of the elliptic Monge–Ampère equation: Aleksandrov solutions

We prove a convergence result for a natural discretization of the Dirichlet problem of the elliptic Monge–Ampere equation using finite dimensional spaces of piecewise polynomial C 1 functions. Discretizations of the type considered in this paper have been previously analyzed in the case the equation has a smooth solution and numerous numerical evidence of convergence were given in the case of non smooth solutions. Our convergence result is valid for non smooth solutions, is given in the setting of Aleksandrov solutions, and consists in discretizing the equation in a subdomain with the boundary data used as an approximation of the solution in the remaining part of the domain. Our result gives a theoretical validation for the use of a non monotone finite element method for the Monge–Ampere equation.
The influence of Colorado River flows on the upper Gulf of California fisheries economy

Abstract This analysis explores the influence of Colorado River flows into the Upper Gulf of California on fisheries productivity. Working with available time series data for the region, a series of plausible relationships are modeled between river flows and fisheries catch, focusing on the top commercial species, shrimp and gulf corvina. A tradeoff analysis between fisheries and agriculture was used to assess the net impacts on economic output of various water tradeoff scenarios and an input-output model was developed to estimate the regional economic impacts of shifting water between instream river flows for fisheries productivity and agriculture. Different crop fallowing and crop-shifting scenarios were compared on their ability to create outcomes mutually beneficial to both the agricultural and fisheries sectors. The analysis found a positive correlation between river discharge and fisheries catch. Using the resulting models, the tradeoff analysis yielded crop shifting scenarios that could potentially generate net positive economic output for both agriculture and fisheries sectors.
Acetoxy-Substituted Cyclopropane Dicarbonyls as Stable Donor-Acceptor-Acceptor Cyclopropanes.

A study of cyclopropanations of oxy-substituted ethenes with ethyl α-aroyl-α-diazoacetates is described. The reaction of ethyl α-aroyl-α-diazoacetates with trimethylsilyl vinyl ether or ethyl vinyl ether gave dihydrofuran products, but when vinyl acetate was used the products were stable cyclopropanes, ethyl 2-acetoxy-1-aroylcyclopropanecarboxylates, which were isolated in 16–87% yield depending on the nature and position of the aryl-ring substituent.
Physical Attestation in the Smart Grid for Distributed State Verification

A malicious process in a distributed system can fabricate its internal state in its communications with its peers. These state fabrications can cause other processes in the distributed system to make incorrect control decisions. Smart grid systems have a unique advantage in the detection of falsified state attacks because process control decisions have an observable effect on a shared physical infrastructure. The physical infrastructure acts as a high-integrity message channel that broadcasts changes in individual process states. This work proposes a new distributed security mechanism called physical attestation that combines physical feedback with methods from computer security to detect state fabrications in the smart grid. The theory of physical attestation is proven using an information flow security property called nondeducibility, and supported with experimental results from a simulation test bed.
Color constancy: a method for recovering surface spectral reflectance

Human and machine visual sensing is enhanced when surface properties of objects in scenes, including color, can be reliably estimated despite changes in the ambient lighting conditions. We describe a computational method for estimating surface spectral reflectance when the spectral power distribution of the ambient light is not known.
Nation Building Through Foreign Intervention: Evidence from Discontinuities in Military Strategies

This study uses discontinuities in U.S. strategies employed during the Vietnam War to estimate their causal impacts. It identifies the effects of bombing by exploiting rounding thresholds in an algorithm used to target air strikes. Bombing increased the military and political activities of the communist insurgency, weakened local governance, and reduced noncommunist civic engagement. The study also exploits a spatial discontinuity across neighboring military regions that pursued different counterinsurgency strategies. A strategy emphasizing overwhelming firepower plausibly increased insurgent attacks and worsened attitudes toward the U.S. and South Vietnamese government, relative to a more hearts-and-minds-oriented approach.
[CuO]+ and [CuOH]2+ Complexes: Intermediates in Oxidation Catalysis?

ConspectusCharacterization of monocopper intermediates in enzymes and other catalysts that attack strong C–H bonds is important for unraveling oxidation catalysis mechanisms and, ultimately, designing new, more efficient catalytic systems. Because initially formed 1:1 Cu/O2 adducts resulting from reactions of Cu(I) sites with O2 react relatively sluggishly with substrates with strong C–H bonds, it has been suggested that reductive O–O bond scission might occur instead to yield more reactive [CuO]+ or protonated [CuOH]2+ cores. Experimental and theoretical studies of [CuO]+ species in the gas phase have provided key insights into the possible reactivity of these species, but detailed information is lacking for discrete complexes with the [CuO]+ or [CuOH]2+ core in solution or the solid state. We describe herein our recent efforts to address this issue through several disparate approaches. In one strategy based on precedent from studies of enzymes and synthetic compounds with iron-α-ketocarboxylate motifs, ...
Polish Marxian Political Economy and US Monopoly Capital Theory: The Influence of Luxemburg, Kalecki and Lange on Baran and Sweezy and Monthly Review

From the viewpoint of orthodox economists, macroeconomics has no significant historical antecedents prior to the publication of Keynes’s General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money in 1936. Theories of aggregate demand before Keynes, such as those associated with Lauderdale, Malthus, and Hobson, were generally weak theoretically. A number of important mainstream economic thinkers raised what would be considered macroeconomic questions in the context of business cycle analysis.1 But it required Keynes to construct a monetary theory of production that broke decisively with Say’s Law (the notion that supply creates its own demand) before economic orthodoxy was able to address macroeconomic questions in a significant way.
Thermal-defocusing/scattering optical limiter

We recently described1,2 a passive broadband optical limiter that exhibited exceptional limiting performance, yet relied only on a refractive thermal nonlinearity for its operation. That optical limiter employed f/5 defocusing optics and a broadband absorbing dye, nigrosin, dissolved in a solvent, carbon disulfide (CS2), having a large thermal figure of merit. Following the absorption of an intense light pulse by the nigrosin dye, rapid nonradiative relaxation results in strong, localized heating of the CS2 solution, leading to thermal defocusing and aberration of the beam. As a result, light is deflected outside of the light collection cone defined by the f/5 optics, thereby limiting the energy transmitted to the detector. The figure of merit3 of that limiter, defined as the product of the linear transmission and the ratio of the incident energy at damage to the transmitted energy at damage, was 25.
Highly integrated thermoelectric coolers

Thermoelectric coolers (TECs) are an effective technology for managing heat loads in high-performance electronic components. While most TECs are fabricated using bulk thermoelectric (TE) materials, thin-film thermoelectrics have been shown to be a viable alternative. Thin-film TE coolers (TFTECs) have several advantages in comparison with bulk devices, such as reduced form factor and improved heat pumping. However, the current TFTEC fabrication process does not take full advantage of the thin-film nature of the TE materials—the individual TE couples are fabricated as stand-alone subcomponents one die at a time. We report on a novel wafer-scale TFTEC fabrication process that is expected to improve the performance of TFTECs and enable their integration with other semiconductor devices. This highly integrated thermoelectric cooler (HITEC) approach is based on the same design methodology that is employed in silicon CMOS integrated circuits. By taking advantage of wafer-level processes, HITEC is scalable to larger device sizes and and higher manufacturing volumes. Furthermore, HITEC reduces the number of layers and interfaces in TFTECs, which minimizes thermal parasitic losses. Thus the HITEC approach enables improvements in TFTEC's scalability, cost, and performance.
Direct Capture of CO2 from Ambient Air

The increase in the global atmospheric CO2 concentration resulting from over a century of combustion of fossil fuels has been associated with significant global climate change. With the global population increase driving continued increases in fossil fuel use, humanity’s primary reliance on fossil energy for the next several decades is assured. Traditional modes of carbon capture such as precombustion and postcombustion CO2 capture from large point sources can help slow the rate of increase of the atmospheric CO2 concentration, but only the direct removal of CO2 from the air, or “direct air capture” (DAC), can actually reduce the global atmospheric CO2 concentration. The past decade has seen a steep rise in the use of chemical sorbents that are cycled through sorption and desorption cycles for CO2 removal from ultradilute gases such as air. This Review provides a historical overview of the field of DAC, along with an exhaustive description of the use of chemical sorbents targeted at this application. Solv...
Mandatory Minimum Policy Reform and the Sentencing of Crack Cocaine Defendants: An Analysis of the Fair Sentencing Act

The Fair Sentencing Act of 2010 (FSA) affected the U.S. federal mandatory minimum sentencing laws for crack cocaine offenders, and represented the first congressional reform of sentencing laws in over 20 years. A primary goal of this legislation was to lessen the harshness of sentences for crack cocaine offenders and decrease the sentencing gap between crack defendants and powder cocaine defendants. While the mean sentence length for crack offenders fell following the implementation of the FSA, these changes appear to primarily reflect the continuation of ongoing sentencing trends that were initiated by a variety of noncongressional reforms to federal sentencing policy that commenced around 2007. However, the FSA appears to have been helpful in allowing these trends to continue past 2010.
Solid-state neutron detectors based on thickness scalable hexagonal boron nitride

This paper reports on the device processing and characterization of hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) based solid-state thermal neutron detectors, where hBN thickness varied from 2.5 to 15 μm. These natural hBN epilayers (with 19.9% 10B) were grown by a low pressure chemical vapor deposition process. Complete dry processing was adopted for the fabrication of these metal-semiconductor-metal (MSM) configuration detectors. These detectors showed intrinsic thermal neutron detection efficiency values of 0.86%, 2.4%, 3.15%, and 4.71% for natural hBN thickness values of 2.5, 7.5, 10, and 15 μm, respectively. Measured efficiencies are very close (≥92%) to the theoretical maximum efficiencies for corresponding hBN thickness values for these detectors. This clearly shows the hBN thickness scalability of these detectors. A 15 μm thick hBN based MSM detector is expected to yield an efficiency of 21.4% if enriched hBN (with ∼100% 10B) is used instead of natural hBN. These results demonstrate that the fabrication of hBN th...
Swarm intelligence for cooperation of bio-nano robots using quorum sensing

Bio-nano robots are nano-scaled robots made from biological components like proteins and DNA structures. Their nano-scaled size, ready availability (in nature), and high efficiency make them perfect tools for diagnosis and therapeutic treatments in nano-medicine. Due to their nano-scaled size, the intelligence of each individual nano robot is small when compared to that of the collection of nano robots acting together to accomplish the given task. This group intelligence, called swarm intelligence, helps the nano robots do their task more effectively, more quickly, and with fewer other resources. The coordination to accomplish the given task can be achieved by these nano robots through quorum sensing. Quorum sensing is the ability of nano robots to communicate and coordinate behavior via signaling molecules. The whole scenario of communication and coordination can be done using these nano-scaled robots and the results are studied using simulation at a high level of abstraction
Dynamic matrix recovery from incomplete observations under an exact low-rank constraint

Low-rank matrix factorizations arise in a wide variety of applications - including recommendation systems, topic models, and source separation, to name just a few. In these and many other applications, it has been widely noted that by incorporating temporal information and allowing for the possibility of time-varying models, significant improvements are possible in practice. However, despite the reported superior empirical performance of these dynamic models over their static counterparts, there is limited theoretical justification for introducing these more complex models. In this paper we aim to address this gap by studying the problem of recovering a dynamically evolving low-rank matrix from incomplete observations. First, we propose the locally weighted matrix smoothing (LOWEMS) framework as one possible approach to dynamic matrix recovery. We then establish error bounds for LOWEMS in both the matrix sensing and matrix completion observation models. Our results quantify the potential benefits of exploiting dynamic constraints both in terms of recovery accuracy and sample complexity. To illustrate these benefits we provide both synthetic and real-world experimental results.
OSMnx: New methods for acquiring, constructing, analyzing, and visualizing complex street networks

Urban scholars have studied street networks in various ways, but there are data availability and consistency limitations to the current urban planning/street network analysis literature. To address these challenges, this article presents OSMnx, a new tool to make the collection of data and creation and analysis of street networks simple, consistent, automatable and sound from the perspectives of graph theory, transportation, and urban design. OSMnx contributes five significant capabilities for researchers and practitioners: first, the automated downloading of political boundaries and building footprints; second, the tailored and automated downloading and constructing of street network data from OpenStreetMap; third, the algorithmic correction of network topology; fourth, the ability to save street networks to disk as shapefiles, GraphML, or SVG files; and fifth, the ability to analyze street networks, including calculating routes, projecting and visualizing networks, and calculating metric and topological measures. These measures include those common in urban design and transportation studies, as well as advanced measures of the structure and topology of the network. Finally, this article presents a simple case study using OSMnx to construct and analyze street networks in Portland, Oregon.
Multilingual Knowledge Graph Embeddings for Cross-lingual Knowledge Alignment

Many recent works have demonstrated the benefits of knowledge graph embeddings in completing monolingual knowledge graphs. Inasmuch as related knowledge bases are built in several different languages, achieving cross-lingual knowledge alignment will help people in constructing a coherent knowledge base, and assist machines in dealing with different expressions of entity relationships across diverse human languages. Unfortunately, achieving this highly desirable crosslingual alignment by human labor is very costly and errorprone. Thus, we propose MTransE, a translation-based model for multilingual knowledge graph embeddings, to provide a simple and automated solution. By encoding entities and relations of each language in a separated embedding space, MTransE provides transitions for each embedding vector to its cross-lingual counterparts in other spaces, while preserving the functionalities of monolingual embeddings. We deploy three different techniques to represent cross-lingual transitions, namely axis calibration, translation vectors, and linear transformations, and derive five variants for MTransE using different loss functions. Our models can be trained on partially aligned graphs, where just a small portion of triples are aligned with their cross-lingual counterparts. The experiments on cross-lingual entity matching and triple-wise alignment verification show promising results, with some variants consistently outperforming others on different tasks. We also explore how MTransE preserves the key properties of its monolingual counterpart TransE.
Cost Structure and Payout Policy

I investigate the effects of firms’ proportion of fixed and variable costs on their payout policy and find that firms with higher fixed costs have significantly higher volatility in their future cash flows and more variable future operating incomes. These firms pay a lower fraction of their operating income in dividends and share repurchases. Finally, these firms return higher fractions of their payouts via share repurchases because this method offers greater flexibility. The results are robust to several alternate specifications and firm-level controls, and show that firms’ cost structures play a significant role in payout policy choices.
Approximate decoupling and asymptotic tracking for MIMO systems

This paper presents an algorithm for approximate input-output decoupling of nonlinear MIMO systems that are either numerically ill-posed or exhibit nearly singular behavior in the application of decoupling algorithms. Although the systems considered are regular, so that the exact decoupling algorithms are applicable in this case, they require inversion of an ill-conditioned matrix, and yield high gain feedback solutions that may result in actuator saturation and cancellation of high frequency zeros. The approximate algorithms of this paper are numerically robust, and provide solutions that do not cancel far off right-half plane zeros. This latter characteristic is especially valuable when some of the far off right-half plane zeros are unstable. The algorithms are inspired by and are generalizations of some examples in the flight control literature. >
Dynamics in risk taking with a low-probability hazard

The experiment reported in this paper identifies the effects of experience on revealed attitudes toward risk. Subjects in the experiment encountered an uncertain risk of experiencing a negative income shock over multiple periods and were able to purchase insurance at the start of each period. Subjects engaged in greater risk taking, insuring less frequently, when faced with the same risk over multiple periods. Subjects weighted experienced outcomes proportionately, in a manner consistent with rational Bayesian inference and contrary to the theory that individuals exhibit recency bias. On the other hand, subjects assigned a greater weight to outcomes that directly impacted their earnings compared to observed outcomes that had no effect on income. Unexplained autocorrelation across subjects’ choices suggests that inertia also plays an important role in repeated risk settings. I explore the relevance of these findings to public policy aimed at influencing market outcomes in the presence of infrequent environmental hazards.
Comparing computing machines

Reconfigurable computing devices are emerging as a viable alternative to fixed-function components and programmable processors. To expand our knowledge of the role and optimization of these devices, it is increasingly imperative for us to compare implementations of tasks and subroutines across this wide spectrum of implementation options. The fact that most processors, FPGAs, ASICs, and memories are fabricated in a uniform technology medium, CMOS VLSI, where area scaling is moderately well understood eases our comparison task. Nonetheless, the rapid pace of technology, limited device size selection, and economic artifacts complicate the picture. In this paper, we look at the task of comparing computing machines, reviewing normalization techniques and many important issues which arise during comparisons. This paper includes examples intended to underscore the methodology and comparison issues, but does not attempt to make definitive conclusions about the merits of the technology alternatives from the small sample set. The immediate intent of this work is to help designers faced with tradeoffs between technological alternatives. The longer term intent is to help the community collect and analyze the broad-based data needed to better understand the range of available computing options.© (1998) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.
Accelerated primal---dual proximal block coordinate updating methods for constrained convex optimization

Block coordinate update (BCU) methods enjoy low per-update computational complexity because every time only one or a few block variables would need to be updated among possibly a large number of blocks. They are also easily parallelized and thus have been particularly popular for solving problems involving large-scale dataset and/or variables. In this paper, we propose a primal---dual BCU method for solving linearly constrained convex program with multi-block variables. The method is an accelerated version of a primal---dual algorithm proposed by the authors, which applies randomization in selecting block variables to update and establishes an O(1 / t) convergence rate under convexity assumption. We show that the rate can be accelerated to $$O(1/t^2)$$O(1/t2) if the objective is strongly convex. In addition, if one block variable is independent of the others in the objective, we then show that the algorithm can be modified to achieve a linear rate of convergence. The numerical experiments show that the accelerated method performs stably with a single set of parameters while the original method needs to tune the parameters for different datasets in order to achieve a comparable level of performance.
A high-order accurate accelerated direct solver for acoustic scattering from surfaces

We describe an accelerated direct solver for the integral equations which model low-frequency acoustic scattering from curved surfaces. Surfaces are specified via a collection of smooth parameterizations given on triangles, a setting which generalizes the typical one of triangulated surfaces, and the integral equations are discretized via a high-order Nystrom method. This allows for rapid convergence in cases in which high-order surface information is available. The high-order discretization technique is coupled with a direct solver based on the recursive construction of scattering matrices. The result is a solver which often attains $$O(N^{1.5})$$ complexity in the number of discretization nodes $$N$$ and which is resistant to many of the pathologies which stymie iterative solvers in the numerical simulation of scattering. The performance of the algorithm is illustrated with numerical experiments which involve the simulation of scattering from a variety of domains, including one consisting of a collection of 1,000 ellipsoids with randomly chosen semiaxes arranged in a grid, and a domain whose boundary has 12 curved edges and 8 corner points.
Free Diffusions and Matrix Models with Strictly Convex Interaction

We study solutions to the free stochastic differential equation \(dX_{t} = dS_{t} - \frac{1}{2}DV(X_{t})dt\), where V is a locally convex polynomial potential in m non-commuting variables and S an m-dimensional free Brownian motion. We prove that such free processes have a unique stationary distribution μV. When the potential V is self-adjoint, we show that the law μV is the limit law of a random matrix model, in which an m-tuple of self-adjoint matrices are chosen according to the law exp\((-NTr(V(A_{1},\ldots,A_{m})))dA_{1} \cdots dA_{m}/ZN(V)\).
Slower snowmelt in a warmer world

There is general consensus that projected warming will cause earlier snowmelt, but how snowmelt rates will respond to climate change is poorly known. We present snowpack observations from western North America illustrating that shallower snowpack melts earlier, and at lower rates, than deeper, later-lying snow-cover. The observations provide the context for a hypothesis of slower snowmelt in a warmer world. We test this hypothesis using climate model simulations for both a control time period and re-run with a future climate scenario, and find that the fraction of meltwater volume produced at high snowmelt rates is greatly reduced in a warmer climate. The reduction is caused by a contraction of the snowmelt season to a time of lower available energy, reducing by as much as 64% the snow-covered area exposed to energy sufficient to drive high snowmelt rates. These results have unresolved implications on soil moisture deficits, vegetation stress, and streamflow declines. Observations from western North America and model simulations are used to understand how climate change will affect snowmelt. Snowmelt is found to be slower under climate change as earlier melt means there is less energy for high melt rates.
Birational rigidity of Fano varieties and field extensions

This note studies the behavior of birational rigidity and universal birational rigidity in extensions of algebraically closed fields.
Understanding sensor data with uncertainty using a visual representation

Sensor technologies have been broadly adapted to measure the physical aspects of different environmental phenomena. A major difficulty arising from the adoption of sensor technologies is that sensors generate enormous amounts of data on a daily basis, often surpassing what conventional systems can accommodate. Therefore, there is an escalating need for scientists to effectively manage the increasing volume of data and accurately analyze and understand the phenomena. In this paper, we propose a new visual approach to representing the sensor data with emphasizing the uncertainty of information in the dataset.
Tuning the Effective Anisotropy in a Voltage-Susceptible Exchange-Bias Heterosystem

Voltage control of magnetism is a promising route to energy-efficient memory and logic devices. Cr${}_{2}$O${}_{3}$ is a magnetoelectric antiferromagnet that allows for voltage control of magnetic states, and when it is included in layered structures, exchange bias can abruptly disappear. Experiments reveal that this is due to competition between interfacial coupling and the tendency of spins in chromia to align along the crystallographic $c$-axis. This insight allows the tuning of exchange bias at conditions favorable for spintronic applications.
Leading Hadron Production in d +Au and 3 He+Au collisions in the PHENIX experiment

Neutral pions have been measured in 3 He+Au collisions at s N N = 200 GeV up to 20 GeV/ c in the RHIC Year-2014 run. The nuclear modification factor R AA was measured and compared with that from d +Au collisions. The integrated R AA as a function of N part was calculated for d +Au, 3 He+Au and Au+Au collisions at s N N = 200 GeV , and found to converge for N part >12 N part > 12 , while a clear system ordering R dAu >R HeAu >R AuAu R dAu > R HeAu > R AuAu was observed for N part >12 N part > 12 . The fractional momentum loss for the most central 3 He+Au collisions was also estimated.
Applying cognitive psychology to computer systems: a graduate seminar in psychology

This paper describes a graduate seminar given by the authors at Stanford University in the Department of Psychology in the Spring of 1980. Although the seminar was also listed as a Computer Science course and was attended by students and faculty from Computer Science and other departments, the course was addressed to Ph.D. students in cognitive psychology. The seminar assumed that the students were familiar with modern cognitive psychology, but did not assume that they necessarily had much experience with interactive computing.
The State Secrets Privilege and the War on Terror: An Annotated Bibliography

ABSTRACTThis selective annotated bibliography is a guide to scholarly articles about use of the State Secrets Privilege during the War on Terror. Use of the privilege became controversial during the presidential administration of George W. Bush, resulting in a scholarly debate over the privilege and the propriety of its use in litigation concerning measures taken by the United States government in the years following the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001. This bibliography is intended to provide an overview of the scholarly literature to lawyers, scholars, and students.
Preference Reversals in Willingness to Pay and Choice

A fundamental contribution of consumer behavior research is to help marketing scholars develop an understanding of how people think about and express their preferences. In this article we find that two commonly used preference elicitation procedures, willingness to pay (WTP) and choice, are consistently associated with different expressed preferences. Specifically, choices are associated with a relatively greater preference for hedonic goods, while WTP is associated with a relatively greater preference for utilitarian goods. We find that this is caused, in part, by the greater reliance on deliberation in determining WTP values, while preferences in choices are determined by an affect heuristic. Unlike other choice and WTP preference reversals, we find that this effect is not caused by mechanical determinants such as scale compatibility, as the effect persists with continuous scale measures that rely on affect and with choice-based scale measures that rely on determining valuation.
Predicting clinical outcomes from large scale cancer genomic profiles with deep survival models

Translating the vast data generated by genomic platforms into accurate predictions of clinical outcomes is a fundamental challenge in genomic medicine. Many prediction methods face limitations in learning from the high-dimensional profiles generated by these platforms, and rely on experts to hand-select a small number of features for training prediction models. In this paper, we demonstrate how deep learning and Bayesian optimization methods that have been remarkably successful in general high-dimensional prediction tasks can be adapted to the problem of predicting cancer outcomes. We perform an extensive comparison of Bayesian optimized deep survival models and other state of the art machine learning methods for survival analysis, and describe a framework for interpreting deep survival models using a risk backpropagation technique. Finally, we illustrate that deep survival models can successfully transfer information across diseases to improve prognostic accuracy. We provide an open-source software implementation of this framework called SurvivalNet that enables automatic training, evaluation and interpretation of deep survival models.