cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Direct Construction of Mesoporous Metal Sulfides via Reactive Spray Deposition Technology

A rapid one-step flame combustion deposition method was developed to fabricate the mesoporous metal sulfides directly on nickel foam without binder and template. The first-row transition metal sulfides, Co9S8, Ni3S4, NiCo2S4, and FeS, were successfully synthesized with three-dimensional architecture, large specific surface area (around 110 m2 g–1), and interconnected pore networks. The binary meso-NiCo2S4 exhibited a high specific capacitance (1350 F g–1 at 10 A g–1), excellent rate capability, and robust cycling stability in both three-electrode half-cells and asymmetric supercapacitor. This study demonstrated a new scalable strategy to obtain mesoporous metal sulfides with high electrochemical performance.
Effect of the SOX Act on IT Governance

Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) Act stipulates specific roles for the CEO, CFO, and the Auditor. However, the role of the Chief Information Officer (CIO), usually in charge of IT governance (ITG), is implicit. This is despite the fact that in many firms, accounting and financial information and reporting systems either incorporate or are embedded in sophisticated information systems. Through a discussion of the literature, this paper argues that CIOs contribute to the design, implementation, and governance of these information systems which are fundamental to the SOX Act Compliance success. Hypotheses are generated and tested using panel data on the hiring of CIOs between 1999-2005. The results reveal that, after the enactment of the SOX Act in 2002, many firms created new CIO positions and staffed them with internal hires. Many of these new hires reported to the CEOs and had a strong business background characterized by graduate degrees in business administration (MBAs).
Physical Activity and Its Association with Depression in the Diabetic Hispanic Population

Introduction Hispanics are the largest ethnic minority group in the United States. The prevalence of depression and co-morbid depression in the Hispanic population is well-recognized. The positive association between physical activity and psychological health improves mood, emotional well-being, and prognostic outcome. Objectives There are two aspects of our research paper. First, it critically reviews the available literature showing the correlation between physical exercise and depression. Second, it analyzes the association between exercise and depression in uncontrolled diabetic Hispanics using data collected from the local community intervention program. Method A chi-square analysis was conducted to examine whether levels of physical activity reported at the baseline were associated with the frequency of depressed mood and anhedonia self-reported for the previous two weeks. This study utilized the use of the PHQ-2 scale for the assessment of depressive symptoms. The PHQ-2 scale is a useful tool to screen for depression in the integrated care setting. Participants from a local community intervention program were stratified on the basis of their gender and preferred language. Data were collected and represented in tables according to demographic characteristics. Results Our study established a statistically significant association between the levels of physical activity and the frequency of depression symptoms among Spanish speaking participants from the local community intervention program. These results provide convincing evidence that biological, developmental, social, and psychological factors facilitate the association between physical activity and depression.
Steady-State Simulation for Combined Transmission and Distribution Systems

The future electric grid will consist of significant penetration of renewable and distributed generation that is likely to create a homogenous transmission and distribution (T&D) system, requiring tools that can model and robustly simulate the combined T&D networks. Existing tools use disparate models and formulations for simulation of transmission versus distribution grids and solving for the steady-state solution of the combined T&D networks often lacks convergence robustness and scalability to large systems. In this paper, we show that modeling both the T&D grid elements in terms of currents and voltages using an equivalent circuit framework enables simulation of combined positive sequence networks of the transmission grids with three-phase networks of the distribution grids without loss of generality. We further demonstrate that we can ensure robust convergence for these resulting large-scale complex T&D systems when the circuit simulation methods are applied to them. Our results illustrate robust convergence of combined T&D networks using a direct Newton-Raphson solver on a single machine for smaller sized systems and using a parallel Gauss-Seidel-Newton solver on multiple machines for larger sized systems with greater than million nodes.
THERMODYNAMICS OF ELECTROLYTES. IX. RARE EARTH CHLORIDES, NITRATES, AND PERCHLORATES

The extensive data for the osmotic coefficients, heats of dilution, and densities of aqueous solutions of rare earth chlorides, nitrates, and perchlorates are fitted to a single type of equation found satisfactory for many other solutes Good agreement is obtained. The various parameters do not show simple trends with cation radius. While there are some plausible explanations of these complexities, the total picture is far from clear.
Ab Initio Molecular Dynamics Simulation of Divalent Metal Cation Incorporation in Calcite: Implications for Interpreting X-ray Absorption Spectroscopy Data

Calcite (CaCO3) is a ubiquitous mineral with the ability to accommodate a wide range of impurities. Determination of the coordination environment and incorporation modes of impurities in calcite has historically relied primarily on the interpretation of extended X-ray absorption fine structure (EXAFS) spectroscopy. However, lack of standards combined with the large number of degrees of freedom involved in shell-by-shell fits have made the interpretation of EXAFS spectra challenging. In this work, ab initio molecular dynamics (AIMD) simulations were performed to investigate the incorporation of seven divalent metal cation impurities, namely, Ba2+, Pb2+, Sr2+, Cd2+, Mn2+, Co2+, and Zn2+, in calcite. These cations span a wide range of sizes: 30.7 to −22.8% change in ionic radius with respect to Ca2+. The atomic trajectories were then used to compute EXAFS spectra for direct comparison with published experimental spectra. The simulations confirmed that all seven metal cations incorporate in calcite via substi...
CONTRIBUTION OF MATAGORDA BAY MODEL TO DESIGN OF MATAGORDA BAY DEEP DRAFT NAVIGATION PROJECT

The area under discussion in this paper is located on the central Texas coast in the Matagorda Bay area (see Fig 1). Matagorda Bay is one of the larger coastal bays on the Texas coast and is separated from the Gulf of Mexico by a long, narrow barrier beach known as Matagorda Peninsula. The long northeast arm of the bay is divided into two separate bodies of water by the delta of the Colorado River. Natural depths of 11 to 12 feet are available over a large portion of Matagorda Bay. Lavaca and Tres Palacios Bays, arms of Matagorda Bay, have natural depths of 6 to 7 feet.
The Great War and Senegalese memory: the veterans’ legacy

ABSTRACTThe era of the Senegalese veteran was bookended by two public events: the elaborate celebrations in Paris and Dakar on July14, 1919 commemorating the soldiers’ contribution to Allied victor...
Development of potent inhibitors of the human microsomal epoxide hydrolase

Microsomal epoxide hydrolase (mEH) hydrolyzes a wide range of epoxide containing molecules. Although involved in the metabolism of xenobiotics, recent studies associate mEH with the onset and development of certain disease conditions. This phenomenon is partially attributed to the significant role mEH plays in hydrolyzing endogenous lipid mediators, suggesting more complex and extensive physiological functions. In order to obtain pharmacological tools to further study the biology and therapeutic potential of this enzyme target, we describe the development of highly potent 2-alkylthio acetamide inhibitors of the human mEH with IC50 values in the low nanomolar range. These are around 2 orders of magnitude more potent than previously obtained primary amine, amide and urea-based mEH inhibitors. Experimental assay results and rationalization of binding through docking calculations of inhibitors to a mEH homology model indicate that an amide connected to an alkyl side chain and a benzyl-thio function as key pharmacophore units.
Characteristics Of Biomedical Industry Payments To Teaching Hospitals.

The Physician Payments Sunshine Act requires biomedical companies to report payments made to physicians and teaching hospitals to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). Despite signi...
Projection-operator methods for classical transport in magnetized plasmas. Part 2. Nonlinear response and the Burnett equations

The time-independent projection-operator formalism of Brey et al. (Physica A, vol. 109, 1981, pp. 425–444) for the derivation of Burnett equations is extended and considered in the context of multispecies and magnetized plasmas. The procedure provides specific formulas for transport coefficients in terms of two-time correlation functions involving both two and three phase-space points. It is shown how to calculate those correlation functions in the limit of weak coupling. The results are used to demonstrate, with the aid of a particular non-trivial example, that the Chapman–Enskog methodology employed by Catto & Simakov (CS) (Phys. Plasmas, vol. 11, 2004, pp. 90–102) to calculate the contributions to the parallel viscosity driven by temperature gradients is consistent with formulas previously derived from the two-time formalism by Brey (J. Chem. Phys., vol. 79, 1983, pp. 4585–4598). The work serves to unify previous work on plasma kinetic theory with formalism usually applied to turbulence. Additional contributions include discussions of (i) Braginskii-order interspecies momentum exchange from the point of view of two-time correlations; and (ii) a simple stochastic model, unrelated to many-body theory, that exhibits Burnett effects. Insights from that model emphasize the role of non-Gaussian statistics in the evaluation of Burnett transport coefficients, including the effects calculated by CS that stem from the nonlinear collision operator. Together, Parts 1 and 2 of this series provide an introduction to projection-operator methods that should be broadly useful in theoretical plasma physics.
Worden’s tasks of mourning through a social work lens

Loss is a universal experience. In social services, social workers or allied professionals may be working with clients who have experienced some type of loss and are going through the grieving proc...
Basal Ganglia and Thalamic Contributions to Language Function: Insights from A Parallel Distributed Processing Perspective

Cerebral representations are encoded as patterns of activity involving billions of neurons. Parallel distributed processing (PDP) across these neuronal populations provides the basis for a number of emergent properties: 1) processing occurs and knowledge (long term memories) is stored (as synaptic connection strengths) in exactly the same networks; 2) networks have the capacity for setting into stable attractor states corresponding to concepts, symbols, implicit rules, or data transformations; 3) networks provide the scaffold for the acquisition of knowledge but knowledge is acquired through experience; 4) PDP networks are adept at incorporating the statistical regularities of experience as well as frequency and age of acquisition effects; 5) networks enable content-addressable memory; 6) because knowledge is distributed throughout networks, they exhibit the property of graceful degradation; 7) networks intrinsically provide the capacity for inference. This paper details the features of the basal ganglia and thalamic systems (recurrent and distributed connectivity) that support PDP. The PDP lens and an understanding of the attractor trench dynamics of the basal ganglia provide a natural explanation for the peculiar dysfunctions of Parkinson's disease and the mechanisms by which dopamine deficiency is causal. The PDP lens, coupled with the fact that the basal ganglia of humans bears strong homology to the basal ganglia of lampreys and the central complex of arthropods, reveals that the fundamental function of the basal ganglia is computational and involves the reduction of the vast dimensionality of a complex multi-dimensional array of sensorimotor input into the optimal choice from a small repertoire of behavioral options - the essence of reactive intention (automatic responses to sensory input). There is strong evidence that the sensorimotor basal ganglia make no contributions to cognitive or motor function in humans but can cause serious dysfunction when pathological. It appears that humans, through the course of evolution, have developed cortical capacities (working memory and volitional and reactive attention) for managing sensory input, however complex, that obviate the need for the basal ganglia. The functions of the dorsal tier thalamus, however, even viewed with an understanding of the properties of population encoded representations, remain somewhat more obscure. Possibilities include the enabling of attractor state constellations that optimize function by taking advantage of simultaneous input from multiple cortical areas; selective engagement of cortical representations; and support of the gamma frequency synchrony that enables binding of the multiple network representations that comprise a full concept representation.
Controlling Selectivity of Modular Microbial Biosynthesis of Butyryl-CoA-Derived Designer Esters

Short-chain esters have broad utility as flavors, fragrances, solvents, and biofuels. Controlling selectivity of ester microbial biosynthesis has been an outstanding metabolic engineering problem. Here, we present a generalizable framework to enable the de novo fermentative microbial biosynthesis of butyryl-CoA-derived designer esters (e.g., butyl acetate, ethyl butyrate, butyl butyrate) with controllable selectivity. Using the modular design principles, we generated the butyryl-CoA-derived ester pathways as exchangeable production modules compatible with an engineered chassis cell for anaerobic production of designer esters. We designed these modules derived from an acyl-CoA submodule (e.g., acetyl-CoA, butyryl-CoA), an alcohol submodule (e.g., ethanol, butanol), a cofactor regeneration submodule (e.g., NADH), and an alcohol acetyltransferase (AAT) submodule (e.g., ATF1, SAAT) for rapid module construction and optimization by manipulating replication (e.g., plasmid copy number), transcription (e.g., promoters), translation (e.g., codon optimization), pathway enzymes, and pathway induction conditions. To further enhance production of designer esters with high selectivity, we systematically screened various strategies of protein solubilization using protein fusion tags and chaperones to improve the soluble expression of multiple pathway enzymes. Finally, our engineered ester-producing strains could achieve 19-fold increase in butyl acetate production (0.64 g/L, 96% selectivity), 6-fold increase in ethyl butyrate production (0.41 g/L, 86% selectivity), and 13-fold increase in butyl butyrate production (0.45 g/L, 54% selectivity) as compared to the initial strains. Overall, this study presented a generalizable framework to engineer modular microbial platforms for anaerobic production of butyryl-CoA-derived designer esters from renewable feedstocks.
Transsylvian selective amygdalohippocampectomy for treatment of medial temporal lobe epilepsy: Surgical technique and operative nuances to avoid complications.

Background: A number of different surgical techniques are effective for treatment of drug-resistant medial temporal lobe epilepsy. Of these, transsylvian selective amygdalohippocampectomy (SA), which was originally developed to maximize temporal lobe preservation, is arguably the most technically demanding to perform. Recent studies have suggested that SA may result in better neuropsychological outcomes with similar postoperative seizure control as standard anterior temporal lobectomy, which involves removal of the lateral temporal neocortex.
End-to end arguments in system design

This paper presents a design principle that helps guide placement of functions among the modules of a distributed computer system. The principle, called the end-to-end argument, suggests that functions placed at low levels of a system may be redundant or of little value when compared with the cost of providing them at that low level. Examples discussed in the paper include bit error recovery, security using encryption, duplicate message suppression, recovery from system crashes, and delivery acknowledgement. Low level mechanisms to support these functions are justified only as performance enhancements.
Reconstructive Sparse Code Transfer for Contour Detection and Semantic Labeling

We frame the task of predicting a semantic labeling as a sparse reconstruction procedure that applies a target-specific learned transfer function to a generic deep sparse code representation of an image. This strategy partitions training into two distinct stages. First, in an unsupervised manner, we learn a set of dictionaries optimized for sparse coding of image patches. These generic dictionaries minimize error with respect to representing image appearance and are independent of any particular target task. We train a multilayer representation via recursive sparse dictionary learning on pooled codes output by earlier layers. Second, we encode all training images with the generic dictionaries and learn a transfer function that optimizes reconstruction of patches extracted from annotated ground-truth given the sparse codes of their corresponding image patches. At test time, we encode a novel image using the generic dictionaries and then reconstruct using the transfer function. The output reconstruction is a semantic labeling of the test image.
To infinity and beyond: time-warped network emulation

The goal of this work is to subject unmodified applications running on commodity operating systems and stock hardware to network speeds orders of magnitude faster than available at any given point in time. This paper describes our approach to time dilation, a technique to uniformly and accurately slow the passage of time from the perspective of an operating system by a specified factor. As a side effect, physical devices--including the network--appear relatively faster to both applications and operating systems. Both qualitative and statistical evaluations indicate our prototype implementation is accurate across several orders of magnitude. We demonstrate time dilation's utility by conducting high-bandwidth head-to-head TCP stack comparisons and application evaluation.
Plasma Relaxation in Hall Magnetohydrodynamics

Parker’s formulation of isotopological plasma relaxation process in magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) is extended to Hall MHD. The torsion coefficient α in the Hall MHD Beltrami condition turns out now to be proportional to the potential vorticity. The Hall MHD Beltrami condition becomes equivalent to the potential vorticity conservation equation in two-dimensional (2D) hydrodynamics if the Hall MHD Lagrange multiplier β is taken to be proportional to the potential vorticity as well. The winding pattern of the magnetic field lines in Hall MHD then appears to evolve in the same way as potential vorticity lines in 2D hydrodynamics.
Means and Ends: A Theory Framework for Understanding Entrepreneurship in the US Arts and Culture Sector

This article provides a framework for the conceptualization of arts entrepreneurship in the US by first examining a range of perspectives on the boundaries of the “arts and culture sector” in the US and then exploring in some depth four theories of entrepreneurship and how such theories may be realized within the arts and culture sector. Theories of firm formation are considered both generally and as potentially applied to the arts and culture sector, with examples of firm formation drawn both from existing literature and the author's direct observation of entrepreneurial activity. Finally, the essay connects these theories in a means and ends framework to provide a context for understanding arts entrepreneurial activity, especially in the US arts and culture sector. The theory that emerges from the examples provided to illustrate the framework is a simple one: artists form firms or otherwise undertake entrepreneurial action toward the end of creating art sustainably and they do so by discovering or creat...
The Validity of the Levitical Food Laws of Clean and Unclean Animals: A Case Study of Biblical Hermeneutics

deeds, and teachings of Jesus Christ lie at the heart of our faith. The proper lifestyle springs from this faith in Him. A true religion of love leads to right choices in the matter of eating and drinking, because we were not only created to enjoy food (Gen 1:31) but also to reflect God’s glory in our habits of eating (1 Cor 10:31; see also 1 Cor 6:19–20). It is crucial to note that God’s first commandments to humans were related to eating (Gen 2:16–17; the Hebrew root tsawah “command” is used here for the first time), but unfortunately the fall into sin was connected with food too (Gen 3:6). One can observe how important food is by the 3
Modular symbols and the integrality of zeta elements

We consider modifications of Manin symbols in first homology groups of modular curves with $$\mathbb {Z}_p$$ -coefficients for an odd prime p. We show that these symbols generate homology in primitive eigenspaces for the action of diamond operators, with a certain condition on the eigenspace that can be removed on Eisenstein parts. We apply this to prove the integrality of maps taking compatible systems of Manin symbols to compatible systems of zeta elements. In the work of the first two authors on an Iwasawa-theoretic conjecture of the third author, these maps are constructed with certain bounded denominators. As a consequence, their main result on the conjecture was proven after inverting p, and the results of this paper allow one to remove this condition.
50 More Years of CLEO Scholars: The Past, the Present, and a Vision for the Future

This idea details the history of the Council on Legal Education (CLEO) and offers a vision for the future of CLEO grounded in educational research and the POSSE Program, an undergraduate diversity student success program.
A placement vulnerability study in multi-tenant public clouds

Public infrastructure-as-a-service clouds, such as Amazon EC2, Google Compute Engine (GCE) and Microsoft Azure allow clients to run virtual machines (VMs) on shared physical infrastructure. This practice of multi-tenancy brings economies of scale, but also introduces the risk of sharing a physical server with an arbitrary and potentially malicious VM. Past works have demonstrated how to place a VM alongside a target victim (co-location) in early-generation clouds and how to extract secret information via side-channels. Although there have been numerous works on side-channel attacks, there have been no studies on placement vulnerabilities in public clouds since the adoption of stronger isolation technologies such as Virtual Private Clouds (VPCs). We investigate this problem of placement vulnerabilities and quantitatively evaluate three popular public clouds for their susceptibility to co-location attacks. We find that adoption of new technologies (e.g., VPC) makes many prior attacks, such as cloud cartography, ineffective. We find new ways to reliably test for co-location across Amazon EC2, Google GCE, and Microsoft Azure. We also found ways to detect co-location with victim web servers in multitiered located behind a load balancer. We use our new co-residence tests and multiple customer accounts to launch VM instances under different strategies that seek to maximize the likelihood of co-residency. We find that it is much easier (10x higher success rate) and cheaper (up to $114 less) to achieve co-location in these three clouds when compared to a secure reference placement policy.
Protecting Ideas: Ethical and Legal Considerations When a Grant’s Principal Investigator Changes

Ethical issues related the responsible conduct of research involve questions concerning the rights and obligations of investigators to propose, design, implement, and publish research. When a principal investigator (PI) transfers institutions during a grant cycle, financial and recognition issues need to be addressed to preserve all parties' obligations and best interests in a mutually beneficial way. Although grants often transfer with the PI, sometimes they do not. Maintaining a grant at an institution after the PI leaves does not negate the grantee institution's obligation to recognize the PI's original ideas, contributions, and potential rights to some forms of expression and compensation. Issues include maintaining a role for the PI in determining how to take credit for, share and publish results that involve his or her original ideas. Ascribing proper credit can become a thorny issue. This paper provides a framework for addressing situations and disagreements that may occur when a new PI continues the work after the original PI transfers. Included are suggestions for proactively developing institutional mechanisms that address such issues. Considerations include how to develop solutions that comply with the responsible conduct of research, equitably resolve claims regarding reporting of results, and avoid the possibility of plagiarism.
Dendritic Impulse Collisions and Shifting Sites of Action Potential Initiation Contract and Extend the Receptive Field of an Amacrine Cell

We evaluated the contributions of somatic and dendritic impulses to the receptive field dimensions of amacrine cells in the amphibian retina. For this analysis, we used the NEURON simulation program with a multicompartmental, multichannel model of an On-Off amacrine cell with a three-dimensional structure obtained through computer tracing techniques. Simulated synaptic inputs were evenly spaced along the dendritic branches and organized into eight annuli of increasing radius. The first set of simulations activated each ring progressively to simulate an area summation experiment, while a second approach activated each annulus individually. Both sets of simulations were done with and without the presence of Na channels in the dendrites and soma. Unexpectedly, the receptive field dimensions observed in the area summation simulations was often smaller than that predicted from the summation of the annular simulations. Collisions of action potentials moving in opposite directions in the dendrites largely accounted for this contraction in receptive field size for the area summation studies. The presence of dendritic Na channels increased the size of the receptive field beyond that achieved in their absence and allowed the physiological size of the receptive field to approximate the physical dimensions of the dendritic tree. This receptive field augmentation was the result of impulse generating ability in the dendrites which enhanced the signal observed at the soma. These simulations provide a plausible mechanistic explanation for physiological recordings from amacrine cells that show similar phenomena.
Decision-theoretic foundations for causal reasoning

We present a definition of cause and effect in terms of decision-theoretic primitives and thereby provide a principled foundation for causal reasoning. Our definition departs from the traditional view of causation in that causal assertions may vary with the set of decisions available. We argue that this approach provides added clarity to the notion of cause. Also in this paper, we examine the encoding of causal relationships in directed acyclic graphs. We describe a special class of influence diagrams, those in canonical form, and show its relationship to Pearl's representation of cause and effect. Finally, we show how canonical form facilitates counterfactual reasoning.
Faster polynomial multiplication via multipoint Kronecker substitution

We present several new algorithms for dense polynomial multiplication in Z[x] based on the Kronecker substitution method. Instead of reducing to a single integer multiplication, we reduce to several smaller multiplications. We describe an implementation of multiplication in (Z/nZ)[x] for a word-sized modulus n based on these methods, and compare its performance to that of NTL and Magma.
Agricultural Productivity and Economic Growth

Abstract In most poor countries, large majorities of the population live in rural areas and earn their livelihoods primarily from agriculture. Many rural people in the developing world are poor, and conversely, most of the world's poor people inhabit rural areas. Agriculture also accounts for a significant fraction of the economic activity in the developing world, with some 25% of value added in poor countries coming from this sector. The sheer size of the agricultural sector implies that changes affecting agriculture have large aggregate effects. Thus, it seems reasonable that agricultural productivity growth should have significant effects on macro variables, including economic growth. But these effects can be complicated. The large size of the agricultural sector does not necessarily imply that it must be a leading sector for economic growth. In fact, agriculture in most developing countries has very low productivity relative to the rest of the economy. Expanding a low-productivity sector might not be unambiguously good for growth. Moreover, there are issues of reverse causation. Economies that experience growth in aggregate output could be the beneficiaries of good institutions or good fortune that also helps the agricultural sector. Thus, even after 50 years of research on agricultural development, there is abundant evidence for correlations between agricultural productivity increases and economic growth but little definitive evidence for a causal connection. This chapter reviews theoretical arguments and empirical evidence for the hypothesis that agricultural productivity improvements lead to economic growth in developing countries. For countries with large interior populations and limited access to international markets, agricultural development is essential for economic growth. For other countries, the importance of agriculture-led growth will depend on the relative feasibility and cost of importing food. JEL classifications: O11, O13, O41, O47, Q1
The Cyclicality of Productivity Dispersion

Using plant-level data, I show that the dispersion of total factor productivity in U.S. durable manufacturing is greater in recessions than in booms. This cyclical property of productivity dispersion is much less pronounced in non-durable manufacturing. In durables, this phenomenon primarily reflects a relatively higher share of unproductive firms in a recession. In order to interpret these findings, I construct a business cycle model where production in durables requires a fixed input. In a boom, when the market price of this fixed input is high, only more productive firms enter and only more productive incumbents survive, which results in a more compressed productivity distribution. The resulting higher average productivity in durables endogenously translates into a lower average relative price of durables. Additionally, my model is consistent with the following business cycle facts: procyclical entry, procyclical aggregate total factor productivity, more procyclicality in durable than non-durable output, procyclical employment and countercyclicality in the relative price of durables and the cross section of stock returns.
Black holes and balanced metrics

We consider a probe in a BPS black hole in type II strings compactified on Calabi-Yau manifolds, and conjecture that its moduli space metric is the balanced metric.
Global stabilization of nonlinear systems with a class of unmatched uncertainties

Global asymptotic stabilization of an uncertain dynamical system which violates the matching conditions is investigated. A class of unmatched uncertainties, called equivalently matched uncertainties, is defined. A robust controller is proposed to stabilize the uncertain system asymptotically in the large provided that the nominal system is uniformly asymptotically stable and that the unmatched uncertainties are equivalently matched. The required information about uncertain dynamics in the system is merely that the uncertainties are bounded in Euclidean norm by known functions of the system state. >
Understanding Real Interest Rates

This paper outlines an approach to measuring real interest rates and testing hypotheses on their behavior. It then describes what we know about real interest rates in the aggregate economy and provides estimates of real interest rates for the agricultural sector. The evidence presented in this paper indicates that real interest rates for the agricultural economy have been extremely high in the l98Ds and that their behavior seems to be linked to that found for real rates in the aggregate economy. What has been the source of these high real rates? The answer seems to be that it was a result of a concerted effort by the monetary authorities to disinflate the economy. However, the brunt of the Fed's disinflationary policy has fallen more heavily on the farm sector which has had to face far higher reel rates than the rest of the economy. Although breaking the back of inflation was certainly a worthy goal for the Fed, farmers have had to pay a heavy price. They have had to suffer for the sins of an economy that was excessively inflationary, which then had to be brought back into line with disinflationary policy.
Bandwidth enhancement of dielectric resonator antennas

An experimental investigation of bandwidth enhancement of dielectric resonator antennas (DRAs) using parasitic elements is reported. Substantial bandwidth enhancement for the HE/sub 11/spl delta// mode of the stacked geometry and for the HE/sub 13/spl delta// mode of the coplanar collinear geometry has been demonstrated. Excellent radiation patterns for the HE/sub 11/spl delta// mode were also recorded. Because of excellent return loss and radiation characteristics, the DRA should be excited in HE/sub 11/ mode when used as radiating elements in an array. >
Detection geometry and reconstruction error in magnetic source imaging

A recently developed reconstruction algorithm for magnetic source imaging exploits prior knowledge about source location, source power density, detector geometry, and detector noise power to obtain an explicit estimate of the reconstruction error. The authors demonstrate the application of the new algorithm to the optimal design of practical detector arrays to minimize the reconstruction error in specific applications. For a representative configuration for magnetocardiography, the optimal array width (for minimum reconstruction error) varies from 19 to 28 cm depending on the assumed source depth, number of detectors, source power, and noise power. The reconstruction accuracy ranges from 5% of the a priori standard deviation for the sources nearest the detector plane to 95% of the a priori deviation for the deepest sources. The reconstruction error was found to depend on accidental alignments between dipole sources and point detectors, indicating that a more sophisticated model is required for accurate estimates of reconstruction error. The error calculation is fast, taking about a second for this problem on a workstation-class computer. The availability of a method for rapidly computing the reconstruction error for any given source characteristics and detector geometry will facilitate the optimal design of magnetometer array size, element spacing, and orientation for specific applications in biomagnetic and geomagnetic source imaging. >
Strong profiling is not mathematically optimal for discovering rare malfeasors

The use of profiling by ethnicity or nationality to trigger secondary security screening is a controversial social and political issue. Overlooked is the question of whether such actuarial methods are in fact mathematically justified, even under the most idealized assumptions of completely accurate prior probabilities, and secondary screenings concentrated on the highest-probablity individuals. We show here that strong profiling (defined as screening at least in proportion to prior probability) is no more efficient than uniform random sampling of the entire population, because resources are wasted on the repeated screening of higher probability, but innocent, individuals. A mathematically optimal strategy would be “square-root biased sampling,” the geometric mean between strong profiling and uniform sampling, with secondary screenings distributed broadly, although not uniformly, over the population. Square-root biased sampling is a general idea that can be applied whenever a “bell-ringer” event must be found by sampling with replacement, but can be recognized (either with certainty, or with some probability) when seen.
Optimization of Transfection

When embarking upon any transfection procedure, a critical first step is to optimize conditions. Every mammalian cell type has a characteristic set of requirements for optimal introduction of foreign DNA; there is a tremendous degree of variability in the transfection conditions that work, even among cell types that are very similar to one another. Often, an experimenter must screen a wide variety of cell types for a desired regulatory trait, such as an appropriate response to a particular effector molecule. It is thus helpful to have a straightforward, systematic approach to optimizing transfection efficiency. This unit provides guidelines to optimizing transfection experiments.
Strong reductions and isomorphism of complete sets

We study the structure of the polynomial-time complete sets for NP and PSPACE under strong nondeterministic polynomial-time reductions (SNP-reductions). We show the following results. -- If NP contains a p-random language, then all polynomial-time complete sets for PSPACE are SNP-isomorphic. -- If NP ∩ co-NP contains a p-random language, then all polynomial-time complete sets for NP are SNP-isomorphic.
Face‐to‐Face Surveys

In a face-to-face survey, an interviewer is physically present to ask the survey questions and to assist the respondent in answering them. This survey delivery mode can offer many advantages over mail and telephone surveys in terms of the complexity and quality of the data collected. However, because these advantages come with significantly increased logistical costs as well as additional potential sources of response bias, face-to-face surveys are typically conducted only when there are compelling reasons to opt out of other survey delivery modes. Keywords: personal interview; interviewer bias; interviewer effects; data quality; response bias
On the completion of workflows

Workflow Management Systems (WFMS) coordinate execution of logically related multiple tasks in an organization. A workflow schema is defined using a set of tasks that are coordinated using dependencies. Workflows instantiated from the same schema may differ with respect to the tasks executed. An important issue that must be addressed while designing a workflow is to decide what tasks are needed for the workflow to complete – we refer to this set as the completion set. Since different tasks are executed in different workflow instances, a workflow schema may be associated with multiple completion sets. Incorrect specification of completion sets may prohibit some workflow from completing. Manually generating these sets for large workflow schemas can be an error-prone and tedious process. Our goal is to automate this process. We investigate the factors that affect the completion of a workflow. Specifically, we study the impact of control-flow dependencies on completion sets and show how this knowledge can be used for automatically generating these sets. Finally, we provide an algorithm that can be used by application developers to generate the completion sets associated with a workflow schema.
Forecasting exchange rates: The multi-state Markov-switching model with smoothing

Abstract This paper presents an exchange rate forecasting model which combines the multi-state Markov-switching model with smoothing techniques. The model outperforms a random walk at short horizons and its superior forecastability appears to be robust over different sample spans. Our finding hinges on the fact that exchange rates tend to follow highly persistent trends and accordingly, the key to beating the random walk is to identify these trends. An attempt to link the trends in exchange rates to the underlying macroeconomic determinants further reveals that fundamentals-based linear models generally fail to capture the persistence in exchange rates and thus are incapable of outforecasting the random walk.
Functional Encryption for Randomized Functionalities

In this work, we present the first definitions and constructions for functional encryption supporting randomized functionalities. The setting of randomized functionalities require us to revisit functional encryption definitions by, for the first time, explicitly adding security requirements for dishonest encryptors, to ensure that they cannot improperly tamper with the randomness that will be used for computing outputs. Our constructions are built using indistinguishability obfuscation.
Vascular collapse complicating septic abortion.

Abstract 1. 1. Six patients with vascular collapse complicating septic abortion are presented. 2. 2. The pathologic physiology and the physiologic basis for treatment are discussed. 3. 3. Survival of patients with this complication is dependent on early recognition and vigorous therapy. 4. 4. A plan of treatment is suggested.
Gross-Pitaevskii Theory of the Rotating Bose Gas ∗

We study the Gross-Pitaevskii functional for a rotating two-dimensional Bose gas in a trap. We prove that there is a breaking of the rotational symmetry in the ground state; more precisely, for any value of the angular velocity and for large enough values of the interaction strength, the ground state of the functional is not an eigenfunction of the angular momentum. This has interesting consequences on the Bose gas with spin; in particular, the ground state energy depends non-trivially on the number of spin components, and the different components do not have the same wave function. For the special case of a harmonic trap potential, we give explicit upper and lower bounds on the critical coupling constant for symmetry breaking.
Wealth Inequality in the United States since 1913: Evidence from Capitalized Income Tax Data

This paper combines income tax returns with Flow of Funds data to estimate the distribution of household wealth in the United States since 1913. We estimate wealth by capitalizing the incomes reported by individual taxpayers, accounting for assets that do not generate taxable income. We successfully test our capitalization method in three micro datasets where we can observe both income and wealth: the Survey of Consumer Finance, linked estate and income tax returns, and foundations’ tax records. Wealth concentration has followed a U-shaped evolution over the last 100 years: It was high in the beginning of the twentieth century, fell from 1929 to 1978, and has continuously increased since then. The rise of wealth inequality is almost entirely due to the rise of the top 0.1% wealth share, from 7% in 1979 to 22% in 2012|a level almost as high as in 1929. The bottom 90% wealth share rst increased up to the mid-1980s and then steadily declined. The increase in wealth concentration is due to the surge of top incomes combined with an increase in saving rate inequality. Top wealth-holders are younger today than in the 1960s and earn a higher fraction of total labor income in the economy. We explain how our ndings can be reconciled with Survey of Consumer Finances and estate tax data.
Knowledge management in organizational planning

Abstract:There is growing recognition that the ability to provide automated support for unstructured decision making within organizations will require the integration of knowledge-based expert system techniques and traditional decision support system architectures. Several knowledge representations are applicable in the specification, management, and communication of knowledge associated with organizational planning, a classic ill-structured problem facing organizations.This paper describes the requirements for knowledge management in organizational planning. A knowledge-based planning system that has been implemented by the authors is presented. The system integrates data management, model management, and process management systems within a group decision support system environment. Knowledge management tools for describing, classifying, and storing the output of the planning process are described. Use of the system in the Management Information Systems (mis) Planning and Decision Laboratory at the Unive...
Boundary functions for ideals in analytic limit algebras

-algebras byPower in [P1]. Larson and Solel extended the Erdos-Power theory to the context of nestsubalgebras of factor von Neumann algebras [LS]. Both theories apply to modules overthe nest algebra, not just to ideals in the nest algebra. Davidson, Donsig and Hudson in[DDH] study support functions for norm closed bimodules of nest algebras; their supportfunctions come in pairs which allow the determination of a maximal and sometimes aminimal bimodule for a given pairAmongst algebras which are direct limit of T
The geometry of shape space: application to influenza.

Abstract Shape space was proposed over 20 years ago as a conceptual formalism in which to represent antibody/antigen binding. It has since played a key role in computational immunology. Antigens and antibodies are considered to be points in an abstract “shape space”, where coordinates of points in this space represent generalized physico-chemical properties associated with various (unspecified) physical properties related to binding, such as geometric shape, hydrophobicity, charge, etc. Distances in shape space between points representing antibodies and (the shape complement) of antigens are assumed to be related to their affinity, with small distances corresponding to high affinity. In this paper, we provide algorithms, related to metric and ordinal multidimensional scaling algorithms first developed in the mathematical psychology literature, which construct explicit, quantitative coordinates for points in shape space given experimental data such as hemagglutination inhibition assays, or other general affinity assays. Previously, such coordinates had been conceptual constructs and totally implicit. The dimension of shape space deduced from hemagglutination inhibition assays for influenza is low, approximately five dimensional. The deduction of the explicit geometry of shape space given experimental affinity data provides new ways to quantify the similarity of antibodies to antibodies, antigens to antigens, and the affinity of antigens to antibodies. This has potential utility in, e.g. strain selection decisions for annual influenza vaccines, among other applications. The analysis techniques presented here are not restricted to the analysis of antibody–antigen interactions and are generally applicable to affinity data resulting from binding assays.
An improved algorithm for reconstructing a simple polygon from the visibility angles

We study the problem of reconstructing a simple polygon: Given a cyclically ordered vertex sequence of an unknown simple polygon P of n vertices and, for each vertex v of P, the sequence of angles defined by all the visible vertices of v in P, reconstruct the polygon P (up to similarity). An O(n3logn) time algorithm has been proposed for this problem. We present an improved algorithm with running time O(n2), based on new observations on the geometric structures of the problem. Since the input size (i.e., the total number of input visibility angles) is Θ(n2) in the worst case, our algorithm is worst-case optimal.