cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
A Covariance Regression Model

Classical regression analysis relates the expectation of a response vari- able to a linear combination of explanatory variables. In this article, we propose a covariance regression model that parameterizes the covariance matrix of a mul- tivariate response vector as a parsimonious quadratic function of explanatory vari- ables. The approach is analogous to the mean regression model, and is similar to a factor analysis model in which the factor loadings depend on the explanatory vari- ables. Using a random-effects representation, parameter estimation for the model is straightforward using either an EM-algorithm or an MCMC approximation via Gibbs sampling. The proposed methodology provides a simple but flexible repre- sentation of heteroscedasticity across the levels of an explanatory variable, improves estimation of the mean function and gives better calibrated prediction regions when compared to a homoscedastic model.
Control vector Lyapunov functions for large-scale impulsive dynamical systems

Vector Lyapunov theory has been developed to weaken the hypothesis of standard Lyapunov theory in order to enlarge the class of Lyapunov functions that can be used for analyzing system stability. In this paper, we provide generalizations to the recent extensions of vector Lyapunov theory for continuous-time systems to address stability and control design of impulsive dynamical systems via vector Lyapunov functions. Specifically, we provide a generalized comparison principle involving hybrid comparison dynamics that are dependent on the comparison system states as well as the nonlinear impulsive dynamical system states. Furthermore, we develop stability results for impulsive dynamical systems that involve vector Lyapunov functions and hybrid comparison inequalities. Based on these results, we show that partial stability for state-dependent impulsive dynamical systems can be addressed via vector Lyapunov functions. Furthermore, we extend the recently developed notion of control vector Lyapunov functions to impulsive dynamical systems. Using control vector Lyapunov functions, we construct a universal hybrid decentralized feedback stabilizer for a decentralized affine in the control nonlinear impulsive dynamical system that possesses guaranteed gain and sector margins in each decentralized input channel. These results are then used to develop hybrid decentralized controllers for large-scale impulsive dynamical systems with robustness guarantees against full modeling and input uncertainty.
Back-gated CMOS on SOIAS for dynamic threshold voltage control

The simultaneous reduction of power supply and threshold voltages for low-power design without suffering performance losses will eventually reach the limit of diminishing returns as static leakage power dissipation becomes a significant portion of the total power consumption. This is especially acute in systems that are idling most of the time. In order to meet the opposing requirements of high performance at reduced power supply voltage and low-static leakage power during idle periods, a dynamic threshold voltage control scheme is proposed. A novel Silicon-On-Insulator (SOI)-based technology called Silicon-On-Insulator-with-Active-Substrate (SOIAS) was developed whereby a back-gate is used to control the threshold voltage of the front-gate; this concept was demonstrated on a selectively scaled CMOS process implementing discrete devices and ring oscillators. For a 250 mV switch in threshold voltage, a reduction of 3-4 decades in subthreshold leakage current was measured.
Probabilistic constitutive relationships for cyclic material strength models

A methodology is developed that provides a probabilistic treatment for the lifetime of structural components of aerospace propulsion systems subjected to fatigue. Material strength degradation models include both a heuristic fatigue strength reduction model and a fatigue crack growth model. Probabilistic analysis is based on simulation, and both maximum entropy and maximum penalized likelihood methods are used for the generation of probability density functions. The resulting constitutive relationships are included in several computer programs. The programs determine the random time for a nickel-base superalloy engine component to reach a given fatigue strength or a given crack size. Results are presented in the form of probability density functions and cumulative distribution functions of the log of mechanical fatigue cycles.
On ``Time-Periodic'' Black-Hole Solutions to Certain Spherically Symmetric Einstein-Matter Systems

This paper explores black hole solutions of various Einstein-wave matter systems admitting a time-orientation preserving isometry of their domain of outer communications taking some point to its future. In the first two parts, it is shown that such solutions, assuming in addition that they are spherically symmetric and the matter has a certain structure, must be Schwarzschild or Reissner-Nordstrom. Non-trivial examples of matter for which the result applies are a wave map and a massive charged scalar field interacting with an electromagnetic field. The results thus generalize work of Bekenstein [1] and Heusler [13] from the static to the periodic case. In the third part, which is independent of the first two, it is shown that Dirac fields preserved by an isometry of a spherically symmetric domain of outer communications of the type described above must vanish. It can be applied in particular to the Einstein-Dirac-Maxwell equations or the Einstein-Dirac-Yang/Mills equations, generalizing work of Finster, Smoller and Yau [10, 8, 9 and also 7].
Multiscale-stabilized solutions to one-dimensional systems of conservation laws

Abstract We present a variational multiscale formulation for the numerical solution of one-dimensional systems of conservation laws. The key idea of the proposed formulation, originally presented by Hughes [Comput. Methods Appl. Mech. Engrg., 127 (1995) 387–401], is a multiple-scale decomposition into resolved grid scales and unresolved subgrid scales. Incorporating the effect of the subgrid scales onto the coarse scale problem results in a finite element method with enhanced stability properties, capable of accurately representing the sharp features of the solution. In the formulation developed herein, the multiscale split is invoked prior to any linearization of the equations. Special attention is given to the choice of the matrix of stabilizing coefficients and the discontinuity-capturing diffusion. The methodology is applied to the one-dimensional simulation of three-phase flow in porous media, and the shallow water equations. These numerical simulations clearly show the potential and applicability of the formulation for solving highly nonlinear, nearly hyperbolic systems on very coarse grids. Application of the numerical formulation to multidimensional problems is presented in a forthcoming paper.
Capturing Polynomial Time on Interval Graphs

We prove a characterization of all polynomialtime computable queries on the class of interval graphs by sentences of fixed-point logic with counting. More precisely, it is shown that on the class of unordered interval graphs, any query is polynomial-time computable if and only if it is definable in fixed-point logic with counting. This result is one of the first establishing the capturing of polynomial time on a graph class which is defined by forbidden induced subgraphs. For this, we define a canonical form of interval graphs using a type of modular decomposition, which is different from the method of tree decomposition that is used in most known capturing results for other graph classes, specifically those defined by forbidden minors. The method might also be of independent interest for its conceptual simplicity. Furthermore, it is shown that fixed-point logic with counting is not expressive enough to capture polynomial time on the classes of chordal graphs or incomparability graphs.
Heterodox Microeconomics and the Foundation of Heterodox Macroeconomics

La resolucion de la controversia sobre las microfundamentos de macroeconomia es importante para la economia heterodoxa. En este ensayo se argumenta que la controversia se debe a una mala interpretacion. Es decir, la comprension convencional de la controversia consiste en que es un ejercicio reduccionista de la macroeconomia a la microeconomia establecida. Sin embargo, la microeconomia establecida es teoricamente incoherente y de ahi que no puede proporcionar los fundamentos para ninguna macroeconomia, corriente principal o heterodoxa. Ademas, una posicion comun en la economia heterodoxa es que la macroeconomia heterodoxa genera una subestructura en microeconomia. Pero esa no es la cuestion; mas bien esto genera un debate en la microeconomia heterodoxa. El ensayo concluye con el argumento de que en la Economia Heterodoxa la dicotomia micro-macro no existe y de ahi que la controversia deberia ser desechada
Catalytic Isonitrile Insertions and Condensations Initiated by RNC-X Complexation.

Isonitriles are delicately poised chemical entities capable of being coaxed to react as nucleophiles or electrophiles. Directing this tunable reactivity with metal and non-metal catalysts provides rapid access to a large array of complex nitrogenous structures ideally functionalized for medicinal applications. Isonitrile insertion into transition metal complexes has featured in numerous synthetic and mechanistic studies, leading to rapid deployment of isonitriles in numerous catalytic processes, including multicomponent reactions (MCR). Covering the literature from 1990–2014, the present review collates reaction types to highlight reactivity trends and allow catalyst comparison.
A Study of the Speedups and Competitiveness of FPGA Soft Processor Cores using Dynamic Hardware/Software Partitioning

Field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) provide designers with the ability to quickly create hardware circuits. Increases in FPGA configurable logic capacity and decreasing FPGA costs have enabled designers to more readily incorporate FPGAs in their designs. FPGA vendors have begun providing configurable soft processor cores that can be synthesized onto their FPGA products. While FPGAs with soft processor cores provide designers with increased flexibility, such processors typically have degraded performance and energy consumption compared to hard-core processors. Previously, we proposed warp processing, a technique capable of optimizing a software application by dynamically and transparently re-implementing critical software kernels as custom circuits in on-chip configurable logic. In this paper, we study the potential of a MicroBlaze soft-core based warp processing system to eliminate the performance and energy overhead of a soft-core processor compared to a hard-core processor. We demonstrate that the soft-core based warp processor achieves average speedups of 5.8 and energy reductions of 57% compared to the soft core alone. Our data shows that a soft-core based warp processor yields performance and energy consumption competitive with existing hard-core processors, thus expanding the usefulness of soft processor cores on FPGAs to a broader range of applications.
Evaluation of a published in silico model and construction of a novel Bayesian model for predicting phospholipidosis inducing potential.

The identification of phospholipidosis (PPL) during preclinical testing in animals is a recognized problem in the pharmaceutical industry. Depending on the intended indication and dosing regimen, PPL can delay or stop development of a compound in the drug discovery process. Therefore, for programs and projects where a PPL finding would have adverse impact on the success of the project, it would be desirable to be able to rapidly identify and screen out those compounds with the potential to induce PPL as early as possible. Currently, electron microscopy is the gold standard method for identifying phospholipidosis, but it is low-throughput and resource-demanding. Therefore, a low-cost, high-throughput screening strategy is required to overcome these limitations and be applicable in the drug discovery cycle. A recent publication by Ploemen et al. (Exp. Toxicol. Pathol. 2004, 55, 347−55) describes a method using the computed physicochemical properties pKa and ClogP as part of a simple calculation to determine...
Frontiers of reality in Schubert calculus

The theorem of Mukhin, Tarasov, and Varchenko (formerly the Shapiro conjecture for Grassmannians) asserts that all (a priori complex) solutions to certain geometric problems in the Schubert calculus are actually real. Their proof is quite remarkable, using ideas from integrable systems, Fuchsian differential equations, and representation theory. There is now a second proof of this result, and it has ramifica- tions in other areas of mathematics, from curves to control theory to combinatorics. Despite this work, the original Shapiro conjecture is not yet settled. While it is false as stated, it has several interesting and not quite understood modifications and gen- eralizations that are likely true, and the strongest and most subtle version of the Shapiro conjecture for Grassmannians remains open.
Variance Risk Premiums

We propose a direct and robust method for quantifying the variance risk premium on financial assets. We show that the risk-neutral expected value of return variance, also known as the variance swap rate, is well approximated by the value of a particular portfolio of options. We propose to use the difference between the realized variance and this synthetic variance swap rate to quantify the variance risk premium. Using a large options data set, we synthesize variance swap rates and investigate the historical behavior of variance risk premiums on five stock indexes and 35 individual stocks. (JEL G10, G12, G13) It has been well documented that return variance is stochastic. When investing in a security, an investor faces at least two sources of uncertainty, namely the uncertainty about the return as captured by the return variance, and the uncertainty about the return variance itself. It is important to know how investors deal with the uncertainty in return variance to effectively manage risk and allocate assets, to accurately price and hedge derivative securities, and to understand the behavior of financial asset prices in general. We develop a direct and robust method for quantifying the return variance risk premium on an asset using the market prices of options written on this asset. Our method uses the notion of a variance swap, which is an over-thecounter contract that pays the difference between a standard estimate of the realized variance and the fixed variance swap rate. Since variance swaps cost zero to enter, the variance swap rate represents the risk-neutral expected value of the realized variance. We show that the variance swap rate can be synthesized accurately by a particular linear combination of option prices. We propose to
Convergence Properties of a Computational Learning Model for Unknown Markov Chains

The increasing complexity of engineering systems has motivated continuing research on computational learning methods toward making autonomous intelligent systems that can learn how to improve their performance over time while interacting with their environment. These systems need not only to sense their environment, but also to integrate information from the environment into all decision-makings. The evolution of such systems is modeled as an unknown controlled Markov chain. In a previous research, the predictive optimal decision-making (POD) model was developed, aiming to learn in real time the unknown transition probabilities and associated costs over a varying finite time horizon. In this paper, the convergence of the POD to the stationary distribution of a Markov chain is proven, thus establishing the POD as a robust model for making autonomous intelligent systems. This paper provides the conditions that the POD can be valid, and be an interpretation of its underlying structure.
Quintessence, cosmology, and Fanaroff-Riley type IIb radio galaxies

Fanaroff-Riley type IIb (FR IIb) radio galaxies provide a modified standard yardstick that allows constraints to be placed on global cosmological parameters. This modified standard yardstick is analogous to the modified standard candle provided by Type Ia supernovae. The radio galaxy and supernova methods provide a measure of the coordinate distance to high-redshift sources, and the coordinate distance is a function of global cosmological parameters. A sample of 20 FR IIb radio galaxies with redshifts between 0 and 2 are compared with the parent population of 70 radio galaxies to determine the coordinate distance to each source. The coordinate-distance determinations are used to constrain the current mean mass-energy density of quintessence ΩQ, the equation of state of the quintessence w, and the current mean mass-energy density of nonrelativistic matter Ωm; zero space curvature is assumed. Radio galaxies alone indicate that the universe is currently accelerating in its expansion (with 84% confidence); most of the allowed parameter space falls within the accelerating universe region on the Ωm-w plane. This provides verification of the acceleration of the universe indicated by high-redshift supernovae and suggests that neither method is plagued by systematic errors. It is found that Ωm must be less than about 0.5 and the equation of state w of the quintessence must lie between -0.25 and -2.5 at about 90% confidence. Fits of the radio galaxy data constrain the model parameter β, which describes a relation between the beam power of the active galactic nucleus (AGN) and the total energy expelled through large-scale jets. It is shown that the empirically determined model parameter is consistent with models in which the outflow results from the electromagnetic extraction of rotational energy from the central compact object. A specific relation between the strength of the magnetic field near the AGN and the spin angular momentum per unit mass of the central compact object is predicted.
Sensemaking, Entrepreneurship and Agricultural Value- Added Businesses

Agricultural producers have been experiencing significant income pressures, leading to a search for alternative sources of income. One of such is value-added agricultural businesses that allow the farmers to stay on the farm and undertake entrepreneurial ventures to improve their finances. How do farmers make sense of their environment as they consider their options for value-added business ventures? This paper presents a sensemaking model and links it to entrepreneurship decisions, allowing us to explain how producers may make such decisions.
Iridium-Catalyzed Regio- and Enantioselective N-Allylation of Indoles†

Chiral indole architectures are present in a wide variety of natural products and have been identified as promising lead compounds in medicinal chemistry.[1] Therefore, extensive effort has been dedicated to synthesizing enantioenriched indole derivatives by catalytic, enantioselective reactions,[2] such as 1,2-additions to carbonyl compounds and imines,[3] additions to electron-deficient alkenes,[4] and allylation reactions.[5] However, the indole acts as a carbon nucleophile in each of these reactions; catalytic, enantioselective reactions at the nitrogen atom of an indole are rare, but would provide access to an array of enantioenriched, heterocyclic architectures.
Efficient activation functions for the back-propagation neural network

Summary form only given. A new family of activation functions for the back-propagation algorithm has been proposed, whose derivatives belong to the Sech/sup n/ (x) family for n=1,2, . . .. The maximum value of the derivatives varies from 0.637 to 1.875 for n=1-6, and thus a member of the activation function family can be selected to suit the problem. Results of using this family of activation functions show orders of magnitude savings in computation. A discrete version of these functions was also proposed for efficient implementation. For the parity 8 problem with 16 hidden units, the new activation function f/sub 3/ uses 300 epochs for learning as compared to 500000 epochs used by the standard activation function. >
A Tube Formula for the Koch Snowflake Curve, with Applications to Complex Dimensions

A formula for the interior e-neighbourhood of the classical von Koch snowflake curve is computed in detail. This function of e is shown to match quite closely with earlier predictions from [La-vF1] of what it should be, but is also much more precise. The resulting ‘tube formula’ is expressed in terms of the Fourier coefficients of a suitable nonlinear and periodic analogue of the standard Cantor staircase function and reflects the self-similarity of the Koch curve. As a consequence, the possible complex dimensions of the Koch snowflake are computed explicitly.
STAT4 deficiency reduces the development of atherosclerosis in mice

Atherosclerosis is a chronic inflammatory process that leads to plaque formation in large and medium sized vessels. T helper 1 (Th1) cells constitute the majority of plaque infiltrating pro-atherogenic T cells and are induced via IFNγ-dependent activation of T-box (Tbet) and/or IL-12-dependent activation of signal transducer and activator of transcription 4 (STAT4). We thus aimed to define a role for STAT4 in atherosclerosis. STAT4-deficiency resulted in a ∼71% reduction (p < 0.001) in plaque burden in Stat4(-/-)Apoe(-/-) vs Apoe(-/-) mice fed chow diet and significantly attenuated atherosclerosis (∼31%, p < 0.01) in western diet fed Stat4(-/-)Apoe(-/-) mice. Surprisingly, reduced atherogenesis in Stat4(-/-)Apoe(-/-) mice was not due to attenuated IFNγ production in vivo by Th1 cells, suggesting an at least partially IFNγ-independent pro-atherogenic role of STAT4. STAT4 is expressed in T cells, but also detected in macrophages (MΦs). Stat4(-/-)Apoe(-/-)in vitro differentiated M1 or M2 MΦs had reduced cytokine production compare to Apoe(-/-) M1 and M2 MΦs that was accompanied by reduced induction of CD69, I-A(b), and CD86 in response to LPS stimulation. Stat4(-/-)Apoe(-/-) MΦs expressed attenuated levels of CCR2 and demonstrated reduced migration toward CCL2 in a transwell assay. Importantly, the percentage of aortic CD11b(+)F4/80(+)Ly6C(hi) MΦs was reduced in Stat4(-/-)Apoe(-/-) vs Apoe(-/-) mice. Thus, this study identifies for the first time a pro-atherogenic role of STAT4 that is at least partially independent of Th1 cell-derived IFNγ, and primarily involving the modulation of MΦ responses.
Copper (II) Supported on Nafion® Perfluorinated Ion Exchange Polymer: An Efficient Catalyst For Cyclopropanation Reactions

Abstract The generation of reactive carbenoid intermediates by transition metal-catalyzed decomposition of α -diazo carbonyl compounds is a rapidly developing area of synthtic methodology. Addition of such species to olefins affords cyclopropane-carboxylate esters such as 1 which has been widely used in organic synthesis 1 and synthetic pyrethroid insecticides 2. Moreover, addition of such carbenoids to C-H and N-H bonds provides stereocontrolled access to products ranging from steroids3 to thienamycin derivatives 4.
Uprooting Identities: The Regulation of Olive Trees in the Occupied West Bank

Trees in general, and olive and pine trees in particular, perform a pivotal role in the Zionist and the Palestinian national narratives. This article reveals the complex historical and cultural processes that have led to the strong identification between the olive tree and the Palestinian people, arguing that this identification is not only a reflection of the olive's unique economic and cultural status in this region but also an act of resistance to Israel's occupation. The article also explains how Israel's tightening of surveillance, practiced in the name of olive protection, actually ends up forcing an alien set of spatial and temporal regimes on the everyday life of Palestinians in the occupied West Bank. In this sense, the project of resistance performed by Palestinians through the rooting of the olive into the land has become yet another means for Israeli domination.
PASSIVITY MOTIVATED CONTROLLER DESIGN FOR FLEXIBLE STRUCTURES

When actuators and sensors on a controlled mechanical structure form naturally passive pairs, which usually requires physical collocation, very robust stabilizing controllers can be constructed. If the number of such naturally passive pairs is small, the closed loop performance may not be satisfactory. This motivates the incorporation of additional sensors in the control design. However, the passivity property no longer holds for these sensors. Some thoughts are presented on extending the passivity based design to incorporate these non-collocated sensors by using some nominal model information to synthesize a fictitious strictly passive output. Simulation and experimental studies are presented to show the merits of this approach. >
Pyridinium Chlorochromate-Mediated Allylic and Benzylic Oxidation

Abstract Pyridinium chlorochromate, in refluxing methylene chloride, has been found to be an effective reagent for allylic and benzylic oxidations of activated methylene groups to yield the corresponding unsaturated ketones.
Early Childhood Intervention and Life-Cycle Skill Development: Evidence from Head Start

This paper provides new evidence on the long-term benefits of Head Start using the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth. I compare siblings who differ in their participation in the program, controlling for a variety of pre-treatment covariates. I estimate that Head Start participants gain 0.23 standard deviations on a summary index of young adult outcomes. This closes one-third of the gap between chil- dren with median and bottom quartile family income, and is about 80 percent as large as model programs such as Perry Preschool. The long-term impact for disadvantaged children is large despite "fade- out" of test score gains. (
“Guns” vs. “Butter”: Conceptual and Methodological Issues

Despite the vast number of studies of the guns-butter tradeoff, we still do not know whether guns come at the expense of butter. In this article we attempt to clarify some of the major conceptual, measurement and statistical problems associated with this line of research.
Corporate Disclosure Quality and Properties of Analysts' Information Environment:

This study examines how the quality of corporate disclosures impacts the precision of information that financial analysts incorporate into their forecasts of annual earnings. Our empirical measures...
Heavy octets and Tevatron signals with three or four b jets

Hypothetical color-octet particles of spin 0, pair-produced at hadron colliders through their QCD coupling, may lead to final states involving three or four b jets. The scalar octets may also be resonantly produced in pairs via a spin-1 octet, as we show within a renormalizable coloron model. We analyze kinematic distributions of the 3b final state that differentiate between these two production mechanisms, as well as between scalar octets and supersymmetric Higgs bosons. A scalar octet of mass in the 140–150 GeV range can explain the nonstandard shape of the b-jet transverse energy distributions reported by the CDF Collaboration, especially when the coloron mass is slightly above twice the scalar mass. The dominant decay mode of the scalar octet in that case is into a pair of gluons, so that the production of a pair of dijet resonances is large in this model, of about 40 pb at the Tevatron. Even when a W boson is radiated from the initial state, the inclusive cross section for producing a dijet resonance near the scalar octet mass remains sizable, around 0.15 pb.
Reliability in communications satellites

The reliability of complex communications satellites is discussed as well as the elements necessary to ensure the specified life. Some of these elements are novel to commercial communications satellites, and generally are found only in military satellites having very exacting reliability requirements. Also treated are some of the changes that have been implemented within the last decade to enhance reliability and increase the life of space communications satellites.
Automatic aggregation by joint modeling of aspects and values

We present a model for aggregation of product review snippets by joint aspect identification and sentiment analysis. Our model simultaneously identifies an underlying set of ratable aspects presented in the reviews of a product (e.g., sushi and miso for a Japanese restaurant) and determines the corresponding sentiment of each aspect. This approach directly enables discovery of highly-rated or inconsistent aspects of a product. Our generative model admits an efficient variational mean-field inference algorithm. It is also easily extensible, and we describe several modifications and their effects on model structure and inference. We test our model on two tasks, joint aspect identification and sentiment analysis on a set of Yelp reviews and aspect identification alone on a set of medical summaries. We evaluate the performance of the model on aspect identification, sentiment analysis, and per-word labeling accuracy. We demonstrate that our model outperforms applicable baselines by a considerable margin, yielding up to 32% relative error reduction on aspect identification and up to 20% relative error reduction on sentiment analysis.
Early Supersymmetric Cold Dark Matter Substructure

Earth-mass "microhalos" may be the first objects to virialize in the early universe. Their ability to survive the hierarchical clustering process as substructure in the larger halos that form subsequently has implications for dark matter detection experiments. We present a large N-body simulation of early substructure in a supersymmetric cold dark matter (SUSY-CDM) scenario characterized by an exponential cutoff in the power spectrum at Mc = 10-6 M☉. The simulation resolves a 0.014 M☉ parent SUSY halo at z = 75 with 14 million particles. On these scales, the effective index of the power spectrum approaches -3, and a range of mass scales collapses almost simultaneously. Compared to a z = 0 galaxy cluster, substructure within our SUSY host is less evident both in phase-space and in physical space, and it is less resistant against tidal disruption. As the universe expands by a factor of 1.3, we find that between 20% and 40% of well-resolved SUSY substructure is destroyed, compared to only ~1% in the low-redshift cluster. Nevertheless, SUSY substructure is just as abundant as in z = 0 galaxy clusters; i.e., the normalized mass and circular velocity functions are very similar. The DM self-annihilation γ-ray luminosity from bound subhalos and other deviations from a smooth spherical configuration is at least comparable to the spherically averaged signal in the SUSY host, and at least 3 times larger than the spherically averaged signal in the cluster host. Such components must be taken into account when estimating the total cosmological extragalactic γ-ray annihilation background. The relative contribution of bound substructure alone to the total annihilation luminosity is about 4 times smaller in the SUSY host than in the z = 0 cluster because of the smaller density contrast of micro-subhalos.
A Cooling Climate for Change? Party Polarization and the Politics of Global Warming

Analysis of three cross-sectional polls administered by the Gallup Organization at 10-year intervals—in 1990, 2000, and 2010—demonstrates that partisan identification has become an increasingly important determinant of environmental concern within the American mass public. Polarization on global warming is especially clear, even when compared to a variety of other social, economic, and political problems, but party sorting seems to occur only as citizens acquire information and become familiar with elite cues. The implications of this for the U.S. environmental movement and the strategies it employs are discussed.
Discovery of rubidium, strontium, molybdenum, and rhodium isotopes

Currently, 31 rubidium, 35 strontium, 35 molybdenum, and 38 rhodium isotopes have been observed and the discovery of these isotopes is described here. For each isotope a brief synopsis of the first refereed publication, including the production and identification method, is presented.
Ensuring Head and Neck Oncology Patients Receive Recommended Pretreatment Dental Evaluations

Purpose: Head and neck (H&N) cancer therapy can have a detrimental effect on oral health by increasing the risk of dry mouth, dental caries, dental infection, and osteonecrosis of the jaw. Pretreatment dental evaluations are recommended for patients with H&N cancer before radiation therapy to minimize the risk of acute and long-term adverse effects. In an earlier effort to educate patients and community dentists about the importance of pretreatment dental evaluations, we created a dental instructional guide (DIG) that outlines the necessary components of the preradiation dental evaluation. Yet our program did not have a system for documenting which patients received the DIG. The aim of this project was to create a reliable system to ensure that patients are given the DIG before radiation therapy and that such patients are readily identifiable, allowing us to confirm that their dental evaluations are complete before starting treatment. Methods: We implemented a tracking template within the H&N oncology program at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute that documents the date, patient, and clinician who gave the DIG. We used the Model for Improvement methodology and performed plan-do-study-act (PDSA) cycles to test and monitor the results of the template implementation. Results: We showed a significant improvement in the rate of DIG documentation from a baseline of 0% (range, 0% to 0%) to a mean of 53% (range, 0% to 100%) over 3 months (P .01). Conclusion: This intervention was the first step in creating a sustainable system for ensuring timely preradiation dental evaluation, thereby decreasing the risk of dental complications from H&N cancer therapy.
Flip-chip packaging interconnect technology and reliability

Flip-chip packaging interconnect ensures higher density chip-on-hoard for higher performance and improved interconnect reliability. For highly integrated functionality of the microelectronic system, Flip-chip interconnect and wafer level packaging are the key modular technologies for the system-on-package (SOP) and the system in chip (SIC) paradigm of microelectronics packaging, which is critical for the development of optical components and micro-electromechanical system (MEMS) with higher performance semiconductors, i.e. nano wafers. The advancement of highly integrated opto device, MEMS and integrated opt0 MEMS is directly associated with sensors, actuators and biochip development, an area that represents emerging technology and intensive research for nanotechnology and biomedical applications in the near future. It is to meet the demand for advanced packaging with Flip-chip technology, including nano wafer level packaging, a course is to he constructed for both education and research purposes to address the principles and processes of Flip-chip interconnect, and introduce the challenges for its advancement. This would not only provide education and training to students, the future workforce, but also bridge the gap between current and future technology development. The multi-media cnurse will impart the knowledge to both students on-campus and researchers and engineers in distance. The cross-disciplinary nature of the course material and its emphasis on integrated multi-disciplinary research and development methodology will broaden students’ horizon and enhance their research ability. It will also, potentially, open up opportunities for collaboration between researchers in relevant
Improved matrix algorithms via the Subsampled Randomized Hadamard Transform

Several recent randomized linear algebra algorithms rely upon fast dimension reduction methods. A popular choice is the subsampled randomized Hadamard transform (SRHT). In this article, we address the efficacy, in the Frobenius and spectral norms, of an SRHT-based low-rank matrix approximation technique introduced by Woolfe, Liberty, Rohklin, and Tygert. We establish a slightly better Frobenius norm error bound than is currently available, and a much sharper spectral norm error bound (in the presence of reasonable decay of the singular values). Along the way, we produce several results on matrix operations with SRHTs (such as approximate matrix multiplication) that may be of independent interest. Our approach builds upon Tropp's in “Improved Analysis of the Subsampled Randomized Hadamard Transform” [Adv. Adaptive Data Anal., 3 (2011), pp. 115--126].
Removability of sets for quasiconformal mappings and sobolev spaces

Let E and F be two Cantor sets on R 1. If log-capacity (l\F) < log-capacity (I) for some interval I, then E × F is nonremovable for quasiconformal mappings, i.e. there exists a homeomorphism of , quasiconformal off E × F that is not quasiconformal on . Also given are some workable and sharp conditions for porous sets S in that are removable for the Sobolev spaces W 1p for p ≥ 1, i.e. every functions in is the restriction of a functions in .
Synthesis, Isolation, and Characterization of 2‘-Paclitaxel Glycinate: An Application of the Bsmoc Protecting Group

The relevance of the Bsmoc protecting group in the synthesis of moisture- and base-sensitive compounds has been demonstrated by the preparation of 2'-paclitaxel glycinate with use of the solid anhydrous base, 4-piperidinopiperidine in DCM solvent.
On the Capacity of Wireless 1-Hop Intersession Network Coding—A Broadcast Packet Erasure Channel Approach

Motivated by practical wireless network protocols, this paper focuses on wireless intersession network coding (INC) over a 1-hop neighborhood, of which the exact capacity region remains an open problem. Towards better understanding of the capacity, this work first models the wireless overhearing events by broadcast packet erasure channels that are memoryless and stationary. Since most INC gain is resulted from destinations overhearing packets transmitted by other sources, this work then focuses exclusively on the 2-staged INC schemes, which fully capture the throughput benefits of overheard message side information (MSI) through the use of one-time feedback but refrain from exploiting the broadcast spatial diversity gain of channel output feedback. Under this setting, a capacity outer bound is provided for any number of M coexisting unicast sessions. For the special cases of M ≤ 3, it is shown that the outer bound can be achieved and is indeed the capacity. To quantify the tightness of the outer bound for M ≥ 4, a capacity inner bound for general M is provided. Both the outer and inner bounds can be evaluated by any linear programming solver. Numeric results show that for 4 ≤ M ≤ 5 with randomly chosen channel parameters, the difference between the outer and inner bounds is within 1% for 96.7% of the times. Focusing exclusively on the benefits of MSI, the results in this paper can also be viewed as the generalization of index-coding capacity from wireline broadcast with binary alphabets to wireless broadcast with high-order alphabets.
Synthesis and biological evaluation of a spongistatin AB-spiroketal analogue

The synthesis of a simplified analogue of the potent, cytotoxic tubulin-depolymerizing agent spongistatin 1, based on the AB spiroketal framework, is presented. The new structural analogue is an extension of a recently described spongistatin congener reported to disrupt microtubules in breast cancer cells in vitro and to alter the microtubule assembly reaction. Cytotoxicity data on the new structural analogue, as well as the parent congener, are reported. We found no significant cytotoxic or antitubulin activity with either compound.
Knowing versus Telling Private Information about a Rival

ABSTRACT: Competitors have information about their rival's business that, if known to the rival, would be useful in its decision-making. We identify a proprietary benefit to disclosing such information: firms that have information about their rivals that may be private, tell. This result is very robust and does not depend on whether the firms are Cournot or Bertrand competitors, the amount of information the disclosing firm has, or the degree of product heterogeneity. Our results contrast with the results in the literature in which the firm has information about its own customers or costs. In that case, the chosen disclosure policy depends on the type of private information and whether the competing firms' strategies are substitutes or complements. JEL Classifications: G1; G14; M41.
George Steiner and the War against the Jews: A Study in Misrepresentation

Le critique litteraire George Steiner est certainement l’une des plus grandes figures des etudes culturelles de ces cinquante dernieres annees. Auteur eloquent de recits sur l’Holocauste, il a marque son temps, en particulier dans sa maitrise de l’art de la manipulation linguistique et de son pouvoir sur l’etre humain. Son œuvre repose sur le langage, son sens et ses implications tant morales que religieuses. Cette œuvre magistrale peut cependant etre trompeuse, notamment dans la these qui s’appuie sur le fait que ce sont les Juifs eux-memes qui ont provoque leur destruction. En effet, selon lui, les Juifs ont invente la pratique du genocide mais aussi l’idee du « peuple elu ». Moise, Jesus ou encore Marx ont fait peser sur les etres humains un poids intolerable au point de mener a une revolte contre la tyrannie de la conscience et de la perfection. Tout ceci s’explique en partie par son etude non nuancee de la psychologie freudienne et de son credit pour des ouvrages litteraires qui ne peuvent se substituer aux realites historiques. Cet article propose un eclairage nouveau sur l’interpretation de Steiner sur l’Holocauste, de ses antecedents, de ses causes et de ses consequences.
Making Drones to Kill Civilians: Is it Ethical?

A drone industry has emerged in the US, initially funded almost exclusively for military applications. There are now also other uses both governmental and commercial (in the US and abroad). Many military drones are still being made, however, especially for surveillance and targeted killings. Regarding the latter, this essay calls into question their legality and morality. It recognizes that the issues are complex and controversial, but less so as to the killing of non-combatant civilians. The government using drones for targeted killings maintains secrecy and appeals to non-traditional justifications. Most scholars who assess these killer drone practices support citizen immunity, either by favoring a modified just war theory that prioritizes civilians’ right to life or by challenging official deviations from applicable laws. They accordingly declare such killing immoral if not a war crime. The manufacturers of these killer drones are not themselves the killers, but they are abetters, i.e., sine qua non facilitators. So, I argue that any company concerned about its corporate social responsibility should cease manufacturing them.
A class of network models recoverable by spectral clustering

Finding communities in networks is a problem that remains difficult, in spite of the amount of attention it has recently received. The Stochastic Block-Model (SBM) is a generative model for graphs with "communities" for which, because of its simplicity, the theoretical understanding has advanced fast in recent years. In particular, there have been various results showing that simple versions of spectral clustering using the Normalized Laplacian of the graph can recover the communities almost perfectly with high probability. Here we show that essentially the same algorithm used for the SBM and for its extension called Degree-Corrected SBM, works on a wider class of Block-Models, which we call Preference Frame Models, with essentially the same guarantees. Moreover, the parametrization we introduce clearly exhibits the free parameters needed to specify this class of models, and results in bounds that expose with more clarity the parameters that control the recovery error in this model class.
Combining Fundamental Measures for Stock Selection

Securities selection is the attempt to distinguish prospective winners from losers – conditional on beliefs and available information. This article surveys some relevant academic research on the subject, including work about the combining of forecasts (Operational Research Quarterly 20, 451–468, 1969), the Black-Litterman model (Journal of Fixed Income 1(2), 7–18, 1991; Financial Analysts Journal (September/October) 28–43, 1992), the combining of Bayesian priors and regression estimates (Journal of Finance 55(1), 179–223, 2000), model uncertainty and Bayesian model averaging (Statistical Science 14(4), 382–417, 1999; Review of Financial Studies 15(4), 1223–1249, 2002), the theory of competitive storage (Review of Economic Studies 59, 1–23, 1992), and the combination of valuation estimates (Review of Accounting Studies 12(2–3), 227–256, 2007). Despite its wide-ranging applicability, the Bayesian approach is not a license for data snooping. The second half of this article describes common pitfalls in fundamental analysis and comments on the role of theoretical guidance in mitigating these pitfalls.
Behavioral Responses to Taxation: Cigarette Taxes and Food Stamp Take-Up

This paper investigates a previously unexplored behavioral response to taxation: whether smokers compensate for higher cigarette taxes by enrolling in food stamps. First, we show theoretically that increases in cigarette taxes can induce food stamp take-up of non-enrolled, eligible smoking households. Then, we study the theoretical predictions empirically by exploiting between and within-household variation in food stamp enrollment from the Current Population Survey, as well as data from the Consumer Expenditure Survey. The empirical evidence strongly supports the model predictions. Higher cigarette taxes increase the probability that low-income smoking households take-up food stamps.
The Logic of Collective Action and beyond

This article provides an overview of Mancur Olson’s Logic of Collective Action and its impact on Olson’s subsequent work. It also suggests that the implications of his simple, elegant, theory have not yet been fully worked out. To illustrate this point, the second half of the essay demonstrates that the number of privileged and latent groups and their costs in a given society are not entirely determined by economic factors or group size alone. Politics, technology, and culture also matter.
Price Discrimination in the Context of Vertical Differentiation: An Application to Canadian Wheat Exports

This study examines the ability of the Canadian Wheat Board (CWB) to price discriminate in bread wheat exports. This study models wheat as a vertically differentiated intermediate good and modifies the model of vertical differentiation by Mussa and Rosen to the realities of wheat import demand. The conceptual model isolates the bases of price discrimination and demonstrates that the CWB’s ability to exploit cost differences in pricing depends on the extent of the differentiation between Canadian and U.S. wheat. This model is implemented using monthly confidential price data provided by the CWB for exports to Japan, the United Kingdom, and two markets aggregating remaining exports through Canada’s west and east coasts, for 1982-1994. The data indicate that the CWB charges different prices to different countries for wheat of the same grade and protein content. Results from the model indicate that the price difference between any two markets is not completely explained by elements of perfect competition. However, the evidence is mixed regarding the ability of the CWB to utilize all the instruments available to price discriminate. Thus, the CWB’s pricing strategy may be more complex and dynamic than the prescription for static producer surplus maximization derived in this study.