cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
“Dirty Dark Loud and Hysteric”: The London and Paris Surrealist Exhibitions of the 1930s and the Exhibition Practices of the Art and Liberty Group in Cairo

IntroductionSeveral studies on the international proliferations and appropriations of surrealism have taken notice of the short-lived yet significant Art and Liberty Group (Jama’at al-Fann Wal-Hurriyyah)1 (1939-1947). Established on January 19, 1939, in Cairo, it comprised a core group of intellectuals and artists who aligned themselves primarily with surrealism. While many of the artists who were affiliated with the Art and Liberty Group did not work in a surrealist style—at least not in what is conventionally defined as surrealist based on the movement’s aesthetic and political considerations within its originating European context—they seem to have been attracted to, or at least sympathetic towards, its leftist revolutionary project. Through the manifestos, bulletins, and journals that they published between 1938 and 1955,2 the formal and informal conferences and meetings they organized mainly between 1939 and 1947 in their headquarters, and the five main group exhibitions they staged from 1940 to 1945, the Group provided a generation of disillusioned Cairo-based Egyptian and non-Egyptian artists and writers with a platform of cultural and political reform. These artists implemented a number of creative and political projects that rejected what they perceived as an imported and stale salon-like artistic academicism endorsed by an oppressive colonial/monarchic regime and a conservative middle-class morality that fostered bourgeois art.Much of what has been written so far ab [...]
META-ANALYSIS OF AIRPORT NOISE AND HEDONIC PROPERTY VALUES : PROBLEMS AND PROSPECTS

Meta-analysis is applied to the negative relationship between airport noise exposure and residential property values. The effect size in the analysis is the percent depreciation per decibel increase in airport noise, or the noise discount. Twenty hedonic property value studies are analyzed, covering 33 estimates of the noise discount for 23 airports in Canada and the United States. About one-third of the estimates have not been previously reported in the literature or were not included in previous meta-analyses. The weighted-mean noise discount is 0.58% per decibel. A meta-regression analysis examines the variability in the noise discounts that might be due to country, year, sample size, model specification, mean property value, data aggregation, or accessibility to airport employment and travel opportunities. The analysis indicates that country and model specification have some effect on the measured noise discount, but the other variables have little systematic effect. The cumulative noise discount in the U.S. is about 0.5% to 0.6% per decibel at noise exposure levels of 75 dB or less, while in Canada the discount is 0.8 % to 0.9% per decibel.
Order-Revealing Encryption and the Hardness of Private Learning

An order-revealing encryption scheme gives a public procedure by which two ciphertexts can be compared to reveal the ordering of their underlying plaintexts. We show how to use order-revealing encryption to separate computationally efficient PAC learning from efficient $$\varepsilon , \delta $$-differentially private PAC learning. That is, we construct a concept class that is efficiently PAC learnable, but for which every efficient learner fails to be differentially private. This answers a question of Kasiviswanathan et al. FOCS '08, SIAM J. Comput. '11. To prove our result, we give a generic transformation from an order-revealing encryption scheme into one with strongly correct comparison, which enables the consistent comparison of ciphertexts that are not obtained as the valid encryption of any message. We believe this construction may be of independent interest.
The New Method of Regulating Lawyers: Public and Private Interest Sanctions During Civil Litigation for Attorney Misconduct

The topic of regulating attorney conduct most immediately raises thoughts of disciplinary panels established by court rule or legislative enactment. Such enforcement mechanisms typically are employed to hear alleged violations of the American Bar Association's Model Code of Professional Responsibility or its Model Rules of Professional Conduct. The code and rules now govern the professional conduct of American lawyers, whether they work on civil or criminal matters and whether they work in or out of court. Further reflection on the subject might also prompt consideration of the conduct of attorneys being questioned by their former clients, either in a civil malpractice suit or in a setting in which the legal representation during an earlier criminal case is being challenged. However, the topic would prompt few to reflect upon the regulation of lawyers during litigation for conduct which occurs during that litigation and in which the lawyers are not named as parties, their licenses are not in jeopardy, and their effective legal assistance under the Sixth Amendment is not examined. This relatively new method of regulating lawyers during the litigation of claims belonging to others merits greater attention. The following paragraphs are intended to prompt such attention and will concern only the regulation of attorney conduct during civil litigation in traditional (and not administrative or other) courts.
Mere Renovation is Too Little Too Late: We Need to Rethink our Undergraduate Curriculum from the Ground Up

The last half-dozen years have seen The American Statistician publish well-argued and provocative calls to change our thinking about statistics and how we teach it, among them Brown and Kass, Nolan and Temple-Lang, and Legler et al. Within this past year, the ASA has issued a new and comprehensive set of guidelines for undergraduate programs (ASA, Curriculum Guidelines for Undergraduate Programs in Statistical Science). Accepting (and applauding) all this as background, the current article argues the need to rethink our curriculum from the ground up, and offers five principles and two caveats intended to help us along the path toward a new synthesis. These principles and caveats rest on my sense of three parallel evolutions: the convergence of trends in the roles of mathematics, computation, and context within statistics education. These ongoing changes, together with the articles cited above and the seminal provocation by Leo Breiman call for a deep rethinking of what we teach to undergraduates. In parti...
Job Satisfaction and Regime Change: Evidence from a Natural Experiment

ABSTRACTLittle is known about the effects of regime change on government workers’ job satisfaction. Conventional theories of work satisfaction have identified various individual or organizational antecedents of public employees’ well-being in many different contexts. In this study, we add an additional level of analysis to the study of job satisfaction. The German reunification in 1990 constitutes a natural experiment where public employees’ institutional work environment changed dramatically. Using data from the German Socio-Economic Panel, we show that, after the reunification, East German public employees who stayed in their jobs experienced a “satisfaction shock” by substantially decreasing their levels of job satisfaction. This finding is in line with what has been labelled as “survivor syndrome” in the general management literature. We also find that, after three years’ time, differences in satisfaction levels between East and West Germans reverted to pre-reunion levels. These findings are robust to...
Model checking of systems employing commutative functions

The paper presents methods for model checking a class of possibly infinite state concurrent programs using various types of bi-simulation reductions. The proposed methods work for the class of programs in which the functions that update the variables are mutually commutative. A number of bi-simulation relations are presented for such systems. Explicit state model checking methods that employ on-the-fly reductions with respect to these bi-simulations are given. Some of these methods have been implemented and have been used to verify some well known protocols that employ integer variables.
Testing functions of one and two arguments

Software to evaluate functions of one or two arguments is too often tested or certified, or the accuracy assessed, by ad hoc methods. Systematic methods to test, certify or assess the accuracy of single- or double-precision functions of one or two arguments, and supporting software, are described here.
Enzymatic conversion of squalene to cholesterol by an acetone powder of rat liver microsomes.

Abstract The successful preparation of an acetone powder, prepared from rat liver microsomes and supplemented with the 105,000 x g supernatant of rat liver, capable of converting squalene to cholesterol has been demonstrated. This preparation requires the addition of pyridine nucleotides (NAD and NADPH). Under maximal conditions, cholesterol accounted for 62% of the recovered radioactivity, and the distribution of products was nearly identical with that observed for a 20,000 x g supernatant of rat liver. Our data support the conclusion that in terms of the over-all percentage conversion of squalene to cholesterol, the lipid removed by acetone and ether extraction is not required for enzymatic activity in these reactions.
Glycan Synthesis: Key Strategies

The biologic significance of glycans (i.e., carbohydrates and saccharides) and the need to obtain structurally defined material for study have resulted in a proliferation of strategies for the synthesis of this extraordinary class of biomolecules. Each strategy carries with it both advantages and disadvantages. The two major approaches, chemical and enzymatic synthesis, will be discussed with an emphasis on the former.
Stimulus-responsive colloidal sensors with fast holographic readout

Colloidal spheres synthesized from polymer gels swell by absorbing molecules from solution. The resulting change in size can be monitored with nanometer precision using holographic video microscopy. When the absorbate is chemically similar to the polymer matrix, swelling is driven primarily by the entropy of mixing, and is limited by the surface tension of the swelling sphere and by the elastic energy of the polymer matrix. We demonstrate through a combination of optical micromanipulation and holographic particle characterization that the degree of swelling of a single polymer bead can be used to measure the monomer concentration in situ with spatial resolution comparable to the size of the sphere.
Fracture testing of large-scale thin-sheet aluminum alloy

Abstract : A series of fracture tests on large-scale, precracked, aluminum alloy panels were carried out to examine and characterize the process by which cracks propagate and link up in this material. Extended grips and test fixtures were specially designed to tension load the panel specimens in a l780-kN capacity universal testing machine. Single sheets of bare 2024-T3 aluminum alloy, approximately 4 m high, 2.3 m wide, and 1 mm thick were fabricated with simulated through cracks oriented horizontally at midheight. Using existing information, a test matrix was set up to explore regions of failure controlled by fracture mechanics, with additional tests near the boundary between plastic collapse and fracture. In addition, a variety of multiple site damage (MSD) configurations were included to distinguish between various proposed linkage mechanisms. All tests but one used antibuckling guides. Three specimens were fabricated with a single central crack, six others had multiple cracks on each side of the central crack, and one had a single crack but no antibuckling guides. The results of each fracture event were recorded on various media: film, video, computer, magnetic tape, and occasionally optical microscope. The video showed the crack tip with a load meter in the field of view, using motion picture film for one tip and super VHS video tape for the other. The computer recorded the output of the testing machine load cell, the stroke, and the twelve strain gages at 1.5-second intervals. A wideband FM magnetic tape recorder was used to record data from the same sources. The data were analyzed by two different procedures: (1) the plastic zone model based on the residual strength diagram and (2) the R-curve.
Practical Considerations in Using Bioeconomic Modelling for Rebuilding Fisheries

Many of the world.s fish stocks are considered to be in need of rebuilding. In response, global agreements, including UNCLOS, have sought to adopt some (optimal) level of fish biomass, usually the level associated with the maximum sustainable yield (MSY). While establishing a sustainable level of harvest is goal with intuitive appeal, the pursuit of MSY ignores many relevant economic and social factors that are critical to the sustainability of a fishery.
Composite Fermions and the Fractional Quantum Hall Effect

The mean field composite fermion picture successfully predicts low lying states of fractional quantum Hall systems. This success cannot be attributed to a cancellation between the Coulomb and Chern-Simons interactions beyond the mean field and solely depends on the short-range of the Coulomb pseudopotential in the lowest Landau level. The class of pseudopotentials for which the mean field composite fermion picture can be applied is defined. The success or failure of the mean field composite fermion picture in various systems (electrons in excited Landau levels, Laughlin quasiparticles, charged magnetoexcitons) is explained.
Measuring Emotional Contagion in Social Media

Social media are used as main discussion channels by millions of individuals every day. The content individuals produce in daily social-media-based micro-communications, and the emotions therein expressed, may impact the emotional states of others. A recent experiment performed on Facebook hypothesized that emotions spread online, even in absence of non-verbal cues typical of in-person interactions, and that individuals are more likely to adopt positive or negative emotions if these are over-expressed in their social network. Experiments of this type, however, raise ethical concerns, as they require massive-scale content manipulation with unknown consequences for the individuals therein involved. Here, we study the dynamics of emotional contagion using a random sample of Twitter users, whose activity (and the stimuli they were exposed to) was observed during a week of September 2014. Rather than manipulating content, we devise a null model that discounts some confounding factors (including the effect of emotional contagion). We measure the emotional valence of content the users are exposed to before posting their own tweets. We determine that on average a negative post follows an over-exposure to 4.34% more negative content than baseline, while positive posts occur after an average over-exposure to 4.50% more positive contents. We highlight the presence of a linear relationship between the average emotional valence of the stimuli users are exposed to, and that of the responses they produce. We also identify two different classes of individuals: highly and scarcely susceptible to emotional contagion. Highly susceptible users are significantly less inclined to adopt negative emotions than the scarcely susceptible ones, but equally likely to adopt positive emotions. In general, the likelihood of adopting positive emotions is much greater than that of negative emotions.
Bias in Cable News: Persuasion and Polarization

We measure the persuasive effects of slanted news and tastes for like-minded news, exploiting cable channel positions as exogenous shifters of cable news viewership. Channel positions do not correlate with demographics that predict viewership and voting, nor with local satellite viewership. We estimate that Fox News increases Republican vote shares by 0.3 points among viewers induced into watching 2.5 additional minutes per week by variation in position. We then estimate a model of voters who select into watching slanted news, and whose ideologies evolve as a result. We use the model to assess the growth over time of Fox News influence, to quantitatively assess media-driven polarization, and to simulate alternative ideological slanting of news channels.
A Java-Based Framework for Processing Distributed Objects

The Alexandria Digital Library Project at UC Santa Barbara has been building an information retrieval system for geographically referenced information and datasets. To meet these requirements, we have designed a distributed Data Store to store its holdings. The library's map, image and geographical data are viewed as a collection of objects with evolving roles. Developed in the Java programming language and the HORB distributed object system, the Data Store manages these objects for flexible and scalable processing. To implement the Data Store we provide a messaging layer that allows applications to distribute processing between the Data Store and the local host. We define a data model for Data Store repositories that provide Client access to Data Store objects. We finally provide support for specialized views of these Data Store items.
The Illusory Right to Abandon

The unilateral and unqualified nature of the right to abandon (at least as it is usually described) appears to make it a robust example of the law's concern to safeguard the individual autonomy interests that many contemporary commentators have identified as lying at the heart of the concept of private ownership. The doctrine suppos edly empowers owners of chattels freely and unilaterally to abandon them by manifesting the clear intent to do so, typically by renouncing possession of the object in a way that communicates the intent to forgo any future claim to it. A complication immediately arises, however, due to the common law's traditional prohibition of the abandonment of land. But the problem goes even deeper. Viewed through the lens of land, the (prospective) right to abandon virtu ally any form of tangible property, even chattels, is an illusion. This is because the legal prohibition of abandoning land dramatically qualifies the unilateral right to abandon chattels to the point of in significance. The common law's treatment of land is not an anomalous restriction within a legal regime that otherwise empow ers owners to freely abandon their property. Instead, the inability to abandon land forms the foundation of a system that, among other things, helps regulate and direct the disposition of unwanted chat tels by requiring those seeking to sever their bonds of ownership to do so in cooperation with others. Instead of asking why the com mon law treats land differently from chattels, the more appropriate question to ask is why the common law exhibits such suspicion of abandonment as a whole. Approaching the discussion of abandon ment from this perspective points towards connections between the common law of property and conceptions of ownership that view the latter as a social practice suffused with obligation and duty.
Approximate calculation of scattered field from three-dimensional narrow cracks

The calculation of electromagnetic scattering from electrically large targets without small features can be accomplished efficiently and accurately due to the development of asymptotic techniques and high-speed computers. Several software packages are now available to compute the radar cross section (RCS) almost in real time. However, the asymptotic techniques alone cannot simulate the effect of small features, such as cracks and bumps, often found on realistic targets. These small features can have significant contributions to RCS, which is particularly true for low observable targets. Such problems can be coped with using hybrid techniques. Although the hybrid techniques are quite accurate, they still require the numerical characterization of small features using a numerical method such as the finite element method (FEM) and the method of moments (MoM). In applications where a very high accuracy is unnecessary, one can develop an approximate method to greatly simplify the characterization of small features and reduce the computing time to a negligible amount. One successful example is the development of the incremental length diffraction coefficients (ILDC) for semi-cylindrical channel and bosses. We present an approximate and efficient formulation for calculating the scattered field from a 3-D narrow crack.
Motif-based Hessian matrix for ab initio geometry optimization of nanostructures

A simple method to estimate the atomic degree Hessian matrixof a nanosystem is presented. The estimated Hessian matrix, based on themotif decomposition of the nanosystem, can be used to accelerate abinitio atomic relaxations with speedups of 2 to 4 depending on the sizeof the system. In addition, the programing implementation for using thismethod in a standard ab initio package is trivial.
The worldwide governance indicators and tautology : causally related separable concepts, indicators of a common cause, or both ?

Aggregate indexes of the quality of governance, covering large samples of countries, are widely used in research and in aid policy. Few studies examine the validity of these indexes, however. This paper partially fills this gap by examining empirically the dimensionality of the Worldwide Governance Indicators. The six indexes purportedly measure distinct concepts of control of corruption, rule of law, government effectiveness, regulatory quality, political stability, and voice and accountability. Using standard statistical techniques for testing measurement validity, the analysis concludes that the six indexes do not discriminate usefully among different aspects of governance. Rather, each of the indexes merely reflects perceptions of the quality of governance more broadly. An implication of the findings is that the Worldwide Governance Indicator indexes are frequently misused in research and policy applications, where it is commonly assumed that the indexes provide distinct measures of different aspects of the quality of governance. A further implication is that Transparency International's even more widely-known aggregate index similarly reflects perceptions not only of corruption, as intended, but of the quality of governance more broadly.
Closed-form underwater acoustic direction-finding with arbitrarily spaced vector-hydrophones at unknown locations

This paper introduces a novel ESPRIT-based, closed-form source localization algorithm applicable to arbitrarily spaced three-dimensional arrays of vector-hydrophones, whose location need not be known. Each vector-hydrophone consists of two or three identical but orthogonally oriented velocity-hydrophones plus one pressure-hydrophone, all spatially co-located in a point-like geometry. A velocity-hydrophone measures one Cartesian component of the incident sonar wavefield's velocity-vector, whereas a pressure-hydrophone measures the acoustic wavefield's pressure. Velocity-hydrophone technology is well established in underwater acoustics and a great variety of commercial models have long been available. ESPRIT is realized herein by exploiting the non-spatial inter-relation among each vector-hydrophone's constituent components, such that ESPRTT's eigenvalues become independent of array geometry. Simulation results verify the efficacy and versatility of this innovative scheme. Aspects of this sonar algorithm is analogous to Jian Li's earlier work (1993) with diversely polarized antennas.
Online stochastic and robust optimization

This paper considers online stochastic optimization problems where uncertainties are characterized by a distribution that can be sampled and where time constraints severely limit the number of offline optimizations which can be performed at decision time and/or in between decisions. It reviews our recent progress in this area, proposes some new algorithms, and reports some new experimental results on two problems of fundamentally different nature: packet scheduling and multiple vehicle routing (MVR). In particular, the paper generalizes our earlier generic online algorithm with precomputation, least-commitment, service guarantees, and multiple decisions, all which are present in the MVR applications. Robustness results are also presented for multiple vehicle routing.
Policy Responses to Exogenous Shocks in Developing Countries

This essay will report on the results of research on the policy responses of developing countries to exogenous (external) shocks in the 1973–8 and 1978–83 periods. It will further examine the economic performance of outward-oriented and inward-oriented developing countries in the light of the policies applied.
Bounding the Smarandache function

Let S(n), for n ∈ N+ denote the Smarandache function, then S(n) is defined as the smallest m ∈ N+, with n|m!. From the definition one can easily deduce that if n = p1 1 p α2 2 . . . p αk k is the canonical prime factorization of n, then S(n) = max{S(p αi i )}, where the maximum is taken over the i’s from 1 to k. This observation illustrates the importance of being able to calculate the Smarandache function for prime powers. This paper will be considering that process. We will give an upper and lower bound for S(pα) in Theorem 1.4. A recursive procedure of calculating S(pα) is then given in Proposition 1.8. Before preceeding we offer these trivial observations:
Michel Ghins on the Empirical Versus the Theoretical

Michel Ghins and I are both empiricists, and agree significantly in our critique of “traditional” empiricist epistemology. We differ however in some respects in our interpretation of the scientific enterprise. Ghins argues for a moderate scientific realism which includes the view that acceptance of a scientific theory will bring with it belief in the existence of all those entities, among the entities the theory postulates, that satisfy certain criteria. For Ghins these criteria derive from the criteria for legitimate affirmation of existence for any entities, the directly observable ones not being privileged in that respect. They are roughly that the putatively existing entity should according to the accepted theory manifest itself in our experience, and display a certain permanence and invariance. My disagreement on this topic derives from a larger difference concerning the relation between experience, existence, and theory.
What can we learn about cosmic structure from gravitational waves

Observations of low frequency gravitational waves by the space‐based LISA mission will open a new observational window on the early universe and the emergence of structure. LISA will observe the dynamical coalescence of massive black hole binaries at high redshifts, giving an unprecedented look at the merger history of galaxies and the reionization epoch. LISA will also observe gravitational waves from the collapse of supermassive stars to form black holes, and will map the spacetime in the central regions of galaxy cusps at high precision.
Expectancy Effect by Experimenters

Experimenter expectancy effect is the term referring to the unintended effect of experimenters' expectations or hypotheses on the results obtained from their research participants. Experimentally induced expectations have been shown to influence the behavior of psychological experimenters so as to increase the likelihood that their research participants will respond so as to confirm the experimenters' hypotheses or expectations. Experimental evidence for the operation of this phenomenon is described, and strategies for the control of experimenter expectancy effects are outlined. Keywords: computer-based data collection; double-blind design; expectancy effect; minimized contact; placebo effect; t Pygmalion effect; self-fulfilling prophecy
A probability-based unified 3d shape search

We present a probability-based unified search framework composed of semi-supervised semantic clustering and then a constraint-based shape matching. Given a query, we propose to use an ensemble of classifiers to estimate the likelihood of the query belonging to each category by exploring the strengths from individual classifiers. Three descriptors driven by Multilevel-Detail shape descriptions have been used to generate the classifier independently. A weighted linear combination rule, called MCE (Minimum Classification Error), is adapted to support high-quality downstream application of the unified search. Experiments are conducted to evaluate the proposed framework using the Engineering Shape Benchmark database. The results have shown that search effectiveness is significantly improved by enforcing the probability-based semantic constraints to shape-based similarity retrieval.
Perspectives on Global Concentration and Public Policy

This paper is an essay in political economy. It defines globalization and discusses its key role in economic development over the past two centuries as well as today. Globalization may have broadened markets, thereby affecting the nature of competition within those larger markets, or it may have simply introduced more trade or foreign direct investment to existing markets. One conclusion is that there is no global market for high value food, or for any particular high value food. To date the impacts of multinational firms in political forums at the state, regional or national as well as the global level have been in many instances as important as their impacts on economic markets. Issues and concerns discussed range from general observations on governance of the global economy to the impact of global concentration on specific problems in the agricultural and food markets of the United States. We conclude that the scope and extent of public policy is a direct function of the degree of development and globalization in an economy.
Formation of colloidal Ag precipitates in fused silica by MeV ion implantation

The formation of Ag nanoclusters in fused silica by MeV ion implantation has been studied. The size and size distributions of nanoclusters depend on dose. These nanoclusters give rise to strong absorption at the surface plasmon wavelength. Implantation at elevated temperatures results in the segregation of implanted Ag into the very near-surface region. Volume fractions for Ag nanoclusters up to ~5% have been obtained by MeV implantation.
Building Blocks: Investment in Renewable and Non- Renewable Technologies

Although not obvious at first glance, these two trends, restructuring and environmental regulation, share many common ideological roots. In the United States, the growing stringency in air quality regulation was accompanied by an increased acceptance of market-based environmental regulations. These include cap-and-trade mechanisms, such as the program put in place to limit SO2 emissions under the 1990 amendments to the Clean Air Act (Ellerman et al. 2000). Regulators were also interested in experimenting with market-based incentives to promote alternative energy sources. Many trace the birth of the U.S. independent power industry to the passage of the Public Utilities Regulatory Policies Act (PURPA) in 1978.The PURPA legislation established mandates for the purchase of energy produced by qualifying small and renewable sources of generation (Joskow 1997; Kahn 1988). Although inspired largely by environmental and energy security goals, the largest impact of PURPA is arguably in the resulting demonstration of the viability of smaller-capacity generation technologies and the nonutility generator business model.
Reforming Fannie and Freddie: Privatization is the Way

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are unique and controversial participants in the housing finance system of the United States. Because of these enterprises' government charters, the financial markets believe that the federal government is unlikely to allow Fannie and Freddie to fail to honor their debt obligations, and they are thereby able to borrow more cheaply in credit markets; in turn, they lower interest rates for residential mortgages. If the financial markets are right, however, Freddie and Fannie also create a contingent liability for the government. Though there are positive externalities from their activities, those benefits are modest at best. Recent reforms are steps in the right direction; but privatization would be a superior policy choice.
Foreign Direct Investment and the Operations of Multinational Firms: Concepts, History, and Data

The concept and measurement of foreign direct investment have changed over time, and what is measured by balance of payments flows and stocks is quite different from what is implied by theories of direct investment. The industrial distribution of stocks of FDI, the most widely available measure, is only poorly related to the distribution of FDI production, and changes in stocks are poorly related to changes in production. FDI flows have grown in importance relative to other forms of international capital flows, and the resulting production has increased as a share of world output, but it was still only about 8 per cent at the end of the 20th Century. The United States began its role as a foreign direct investor in the late 19th Century, while it was still a net importer of capital. It became the dominant supplier of direct investment to the rest of the world, accounting for about half of the world's stock in 1960. Since then, other countries have become major direct investors. The U.S. share is now less than a quarter of the world total and the United States has become a major recipient of FDI from other countries.
A non-monetary protocol for peer-to-peer content distribution in wireless broadcast networks with network coding

This paper studies the problem of content distribution in wireless peer-to-peer networks with selfish nodes. In this problem a group of wireless nodes exchange data over a lossless broadcast channel. Each node aims to increase its own download rate and minimize its upload rate. We propose a distributed protocol that provides incentives for the nodes to participate in the content distribution. Our protocol does not require any exchange of money, reputation, etc., and hence can be easily implemented without additional infrastructure. Moreover, our protocol can be easily modified to employ network coding. Focusing on the important case in which the system contains two files that need to be distributed, we derive a closed-form expression of Nash Equilibria. We also derive the prices of anarchy, both from each node's perspective and the whole system's perspective. Furthermore, we propose a distributed mechanism where the strategy of each node is only based on the local information and show that the mechanism converges to a Nash Equilibrium. We also introduce an approach for calculating Nash Equilibria for systems that incorporate network coding when more than two files need to be distributed.
Some tree-level string amplitudes in the NSR formalism

We calculate tree level scattering amplitudes for open strings using the NSR formalism. We present a streamlined symmetry-based and pedagogical approach to the computations, which we first develop by checking two-, three-, and four-point functions involving bosons and fermions. We calculate the five-point amplitude for massless gluons and find agreement with an earlier result by Brandt, Machado and Medina. We then compute the five-point amplitudes involving two and four fermions respectively, the general form of which has not been previously obtained in the NSR formalism. The results nicely confirm expectations from the supersymmetric F 4 effective action. Finally we use the prescription of Kawai, Lewellen and Tye (KLT) to compute the amplitudes for the closed string sector.
Measuring Potential GSE Funding Advantages

As the size of government sponsored enterprises (GSE) has grown, attention has focused on the relationship between the federal government and the GSEs, with particular attention focused on estimating the impact of this relationship on GSE debt costs. Quantifying the GSEs' cost advantage is a controversial exercise with several competing methodologies providing divergent values. Thus, this paper reviews the methods that have been utilized in previous studies and recommends an alternative approach that overcomes many of the criticisms of previous work. By using offering yields on GSE debt, we find that the three housing GSEs enjoyed an average advantage of between 25 and 29 basis points over “AA” banking sector bonds, between 43 and 47 basis points over “A” rated bonds, and between 76 and 80 basis points over “BBB” rated banking issues. We find that our results are robust to both the basic approach taken as well as to model specification.
Flexible decomposition algorithms for weakly coupled Markov decision problems

This paper presents two new approaches to decomposing and solving large Markov decision problems (MDPs), a partial decoupling method and a complete decoupling method. In these approaches, a large, stochastic decision problem is divided into smaller pieces. The first approach builds a cache of policies for each part of the problem independently, and then combines the pieces in a separate, light-weight step. A second approach also divides the problem into smaller pieces, but information is communicated between the different problem pieces, allowing intelligent decisions to be made about which piece requires the most attention. Both approaches can be used to find optimal policies or approximately optimal policies with provable bounds. These algorithms also provide a framework for the efficient transfer of knowledge across problems that share similar structure.
DualMiner: A Dual-Pruning Algorithm for Itemsets with Constraints

Recently, constraint-based mining of itemsets for questions like “find all frequent itemsets whose total price is at least d50” has attracted much attention. Two classes of constraints, monotone and antimonotone, have been very useful in this area. There exist algorithms that efficiently take advantage of either one of these two classes, but no previous algorithms can efficiently handle both types of constraints simultaneously. In this paper, we present DualMiner, the first algorithm that efficiently prunes its search space using both monotone and antimonotone constraints. We complement a theoretical analysis and proof of correctness of DualMiner with an experimental study that shows the efficacy of DualMiner compared to previous work.
The FP Domains of PI31 and Fbxo7 have the same Protein Fold but very Different Modes of Protein–Protein Interaction

Fbxo7 and PI31 contain a conserved FP domain that mediates the homo-/hetero-dimerization of the proteins. The PI31 FP domain may also interact with the F-box motif in Fbxo7. The FP domain-mediated protein–protein interactions are important for the functions of Fbxo7 and PI31. The crystal structures of the Fbxo7 and PI31 FP domains were determined previously, showing that a C-terminal helix in the Fbxo7 FP domain was not present in the PI31 FP domain. Here, we determine the crystal structure of the PI31 FP domain using a longer protein construct. The structure is comparable to the Fbxo7 FP domain (including the C-terminal helix), indicating that the two FP domains share the same global fold. However, the FP domains also harbor their own characteristic structural features, mainly in the longest loop (which has a largely fixed conformation due to extensive hydrogen bonding and hydrophobic interactions) and the C-terminal end regions. The crystal structures also reveal fundamental differences in the modes of ...
Taxation and investment : lessons from the microeconomic structure.

This paper addresses the role of taxes over the firm's investment decisions. We propose a framework that considers microeconomic decisions to evaluate aggregate effects of taxes over the economy's investment dynamics. We obtain strong results and policy recommendations. First, and contrary to other studies, we conclude that the tax system significatively affects the long run level of capital stock in the economy. Second, we indicate that the "first-best" policy is to tax retired profits rather than current profits. Third, when the "first-best" policy is not available, because it does not provide enough revenues, we should implement a tax system that minimize the distortion over the relative price of investment. This tax system is a mixture of zero investment subsidies (credit to investment and depreciation allowances) and positive, but small, corporate tax. We simulate the effects of those tax policies in an economy with heterogenous firms and, under a reasonable set of parameters, we find that the effect of a tax in current profits over the long run level of capital stock, may be as large as 43 per cent of capital stock, when we compare an economy with no distortions versus an economy with a 15 per cent corporate tax rate
Dimensionality Reduction of Massive Sparse Datasets Using Coresets

In this paper we present a practical solution with performance guarantees to the problem of dimensionality reduction for very large scale sparse matrices. We show applications of our approach to computing the Principle Component Analysis (PCA) of any $n\times d$ matrix, using one pass over the stream of its rows. Our solution uses coresets: a scaled subset of the $n$ rows that approximates their sum of squared distances to \emph{every} $k$-dimensional \emph{affine} subspace. An open theoretical problem has been to compute such a coreset that is independent of both $n$ and $d$. An open practical problem has been to compute a non-trivial approximation to the PCA of very large but sparse databases such as the Wikipedia document-term matrix in a reasonable time. We answer both of these questions affirmatively. Our main technical result is a new framework for deterministic coreset constructions based on a reduction to the problem of counting items in a stream.
Plasmon-plasmon interaction between gold nanoshells and gold surfaces

Summary form only given. Gold nanoshells are colloidal particles with a dielectric core covered by a gold shell. The plasmon resonance of the nanoshells can be tuned by varying the ratio of the core/shell radii. An enhancement in the electromagnetic energy can be found, at resonance, in the region close to the nanoshell known as the near field. It has been shown theoretically and experimentally that if the evanescent near fields of a surface plasmon polariton and a particle plasmon overlap, an efficient exchange of energy from the freely propagating electromagnetic waves into surface plasmons can be achieved. Previous experiments used particles that lacked the extraordinary tunability of nanoshells. We give our sample geometry. After evaporating a layer of gold onto a glass slide, we deposit self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) of a polymer (PDDA) and Hectorite (a synthetic clay), to control the spacing between the gold surface and the nanoshells.
A General Synthesis of Sphinganines through Multicomponent Catalytic Asymmetric Aziridination

A catalytic asymmetric synthesis of all four stereoisomers of sphinganine is described starting from hexadecanal. Utilizing either the (R) or (S) enantiomer of a BOROX catalyst, a multicomponent reaction of this aldehyde with an amine and ethyl diazoacetate gives rise to enantiomeric aziridine-2-carboxylates. Access to all diastereomers of sphinganine is realized upon ring opening of the enantiopure aziridine-2-carboxylate at the C-3 position by direct SN2 attack of an oxygen nucleophile, which occurs with inversion of configuration and by ring expansion of an N-acyl aziridine to an oxazolidinone and then hydrolysis. Overall, this process results in the formal ring opening of the aziridine with an oxygen nucleophile with retention of configuration.
Coherent cooperation among communicating problem solvers

When two or more computing agents work on interacting tasks, their activities should be coordinated so that they cooperate coherently. Coherence is particularly problematic in domains where each agent has only a limited view of the overall task, where communication between agents is limited, and where there is no ``controller'' to coordinate the agents. Our approach to coherent cooperation in such domains is developed in the context of a distributed problem-solving network where agents cooperate to solve a single problem. The approach stresses the importance of sophisticated local control by which each problem-solving node integrates knowledge of the problem domain with (meta-level) knowledge about network coordination. This allows nodes to make rapid, intelligent local decisions based on changing problem characteristics with only a limited amount of intercommunication to coordinate these decisions. We describe three mechanisms that improve network coherence: 1) an organizational structure that provides a long-term framework for network coordination to guide each node's local control decisions; 2) a planner at each node that develops sequences of problem-solving activities based on the current situation; and 3) meta-level communication about the current state of local problem solving that enables nodes to dynamically refine the organization. We present a variety of problem-solving situations to show the benefits and limitations of these mechanisms, and we provide simulation results showing the mechanisms to be particularly cost effective in more complex problem-solving situations. We also discuss how these mechanisms might be of more general use in other distributed computing applications.
Web-based question answering: a decision-making perspective

We investigate the use of probabilistic models and cost-benefit analyses to guide the operation of a Web-based question-answering system. We first provide an overview of research on questionanswering systems. Then, we present details about AskMSR, a prototype question-answering system that synthesizes answers from the results of queries to a Web search engine. We describe Bayesian analyses of the quality of answers generated by the system and show how we can endow the system with the ability to make decisions about the nature and number of queries that should be issued, by considering the expected value and cost of submitting the queries. Finally, we review the results of a set of experiments.
Dust in the galactic environment

Dust in the Galaxy: Our view from within. Abundances and depletions. Extinction and scattering. Polarization and grain alignment. Infrared absorption features. Continuum and line emission. Dust in stellar ejecta. Evolution of dust in the interstellar medium. The early phases of stellar evolution. Towards a unified model for interstellar dust. Appendices. References. Index.
A Review of "Exploring Digital Libraries: Foundations, Practice, Prospects"

Exploring Digital Libraries: Foundations, Practice, Prospects by Karen Calhoun is a survey and framing of digital libraries since their emergence in the 1990s, and it explores how they have been cr...
Pulsed surface flashover across solid insulators in vacuum

Solid insulators are an inevitable link in high voltage vacuum devices to support and separate the high voltage electrodes. When the high voltage electrodes in vacuum are separated by solid insulators, the breakdown occurs, in general, through the surface of the insulators and subsequently lowers the breakdown strength of the system. This type of surface breakdown, known as surface flashover, has been a limiting factor in high voltage insulator design. The phenomenon of surface flashover has been investigated by many researchers [1-6]. However, the basic mechanism leading to this type of breakdown has not been well understood to date.